19 FEBRUARY 1977, Page 17

'Tr eat 'em mean

iss 'Wo quotations in your 5 February

ue are 'enerai reassuringly complementary.

oe Monck: 'The poorer and meaner h..°13`e have no interest in the common weal the use of breath'; Richard Boston on m.e 'gutter' press, approvingly quoted by dIas Walter: 'about as necessary to "110cracy as an outbreak of typhoid.'

Typhoid is, of course, an essential constituent of democracy. It keeps the meaner people quiet while the select readers of the TLS and Spectator get on with deciding what's good for them. True, it tends to raise the cost of labour, but we literati should have no difficulty in coming to terms with that.

P. M. G. Shiel Pasture House, Juniper, Hexham, Northumberland