The Duke of Northumberland, by a letter to the Morning
Post of Monday, has distinctly added to the information which he had already given to the country about the sale of honours. In the debate of July 10th in the House of Lords he said that he had letters in his possession which proved that honours had been hawked about. But he did not read the letters or say who had written them ; he preferred to believe, till he was otherwise instructed, that the touts had received no authority from -the Government but were acting on their own initiative. He regarded it as " unthinkable " that the Government should have directly or deliberately employed such agents. The new evidence before us inclines us to think that the Duke may possibly have been too generous in believing that no official connected with the Government could have any responsibility for the more scandalous sort of sales.
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