Table talk
Sir: My father, the late Henry Montagu Butler, always attributed the remark 'We are none of us infallible . .' to W. H. Thompson, his former tutor and his predecessor in the mastership.
The circumstances in which it was made, at a college meeting on 30 March 1878, are described by Henry Jackson, who was present on the occasion, in the privately printed Fasciculus loahni Willis Clark dicatus (cur 1909) on page 275. Dr Jackson says that the remark 'was not a sharp rejoinder or a sarcastic rebuke. Rather, it was a humorous reflection: and it was recognised as such by a shout of uncontrollable laughter.'
I owe the reference to my colleague, Mr A. S. F. Gow.
It is generally believed that the young Fellow referred to by Sir Denis Brogan (10 January), whose name Dr Jackson does not reveal, was Gerald William Balfour, afterwards second Earl of Balfour.
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