THE BATTERSEA BILLIARD-TABLES.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE °SPECTATOR:] SIR,—I am surprised that the letter of Dr. McManus on the above subject (Spectator, March 16th) should purport to be a reply to mine. For two-thirds of it is devoted to defending the establishment of public baths, &e., which I never attacked, bat, on the contrary, am fully prepared to believe mdy be very necessary ; while the remaining third is an attempt to show that the billiard-tables pay, which is quite irrelevant to the issue. The question is one of principle. If it is right that the ratepayers should be called upon to surrender a part of their incomes for investment in billiard-tables, then it is right that they should be called upon to surrender more of their incomes for investment in a thousand-and-one other public undertakings at least equally praiseworthy. In fact, there is no logical halting-place up to the point when a large portion of each man's income is appropriated by a beneficent and far- seeing Borough Council for the purpose of providing him with amusements which may keep him from drink and crime. This principle—that what a man earns is to be spent for him by others—is the principle tacitly accepted in the purchase of the billiard-tables ; and it is this, and not any fear of a financial failure, which has induced such strong opposition on the part of those who think that Socialism would sap the foundations of the nation.TI am, Sir, 81c.,
&mile Club, 107 Piccadilly, W.
HUME S. 11. ELLIOT.
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