MR. B.A.LFOUR AND THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sut,—Perhaps you will permit a lone.-time American reader to call attention to an apparent slip by Mr. Balfour during the debate on the South African Constitution. In discussing the political status of the natives Mr. Balfour (as reported in the Times of August 17th) stated that "the American Con- stitution started with a very crude a priori statement of the equality of mankind." A little later Mr. Balfour described the American Constitution as one "which laid 'town in true eighteenth-century language that all men were
equaL" Of course Mr. Balfour had in mind, not the Con- stitution, but the Declaration of Independence, documents separated by a period of years and a war in time of com- position, and very different in character. The Declaration was rhetorical, perhaps "spread-eagle," as we should say. Not so the Constitution. It is certainly worth while for English statesmen to keep in mind such a distinction when basing an argument in an important debate on the doctrine perhaps suggested in a Constitution, but not explicitly laid down therein.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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