THE LIMEHOUSE SPEECH.
[To TUB EDITOR Or VIE "8PECTATOR:1 Sut,—One small point seems to be overlooked both by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Mr. Charles Mallet (Spectator, August 14th). The valuation of the Duke of Northumber- land's land was made, not by or for him, but in the ordinary way by skilled valuers. Valuation for rateable value is child's- play compared with valuation for "site value," and if, accord- ing to their hypothesis, there is so much room for error in the one, how much greater will it be in the other ? Mr. Mallet thinks it a matter of small consequence whether the Chancellor of the Eichequer said the Duke "demanded" 2900, or con- sented to accept that sum. I venture to differ from him. There can be no doubt that the word "demand" was used, and every paragraph in the Lituehouse speech shows that it was intended,—that the speech was a deliberate attack on the "classes," not on the system by which some of them are assumed to derive undue benefit. Mr. Mallet, on the other hand, rests his complaint on the "system," which, of course, he is fully entitled to do; but this means that he and the Chancellor of the Exchequer regard the question from totally different points of view. The old-fashioned Liberal or Radical wishes to amend laws or customs which he regards as inequitable. The Socialist wishes to revenge himself on the "classes" which, for one cause or another, have aroused his enmity, and the pity of it is that many Radicals are uncon- sciously playing the game of the Socialist.—I am, Sir,
50 Albemarle Street, W.
JOHN MURRAY.
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