WHO HORACE WASN'T
SIR,—Janus has rather badly mixed up Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745) and his fourth son Horace Walpole (never " Sir ") (1717-1797). Sir Robert Walpole was a great statesman and finance minister. He was continuously in office as Prime Minister in deed though not in name from 1721 to 1742. It was when war was declared against Spain in 1739 that he said, " They now ring the bells ; they will soon wring their hands." ,Perhaps, as Janus says, it was a facile epigram but it happened to be true.
Horace Walpole was in Parliament from 1741 to 1767 as Member for Callington, but he never took a prominent part in debate. " So far as he had any political feeling at all, he was inclined to a speculative republi- canism." Dictionary of English History, Low and Pulling, new edition,
1928.—Yours faithfully, H. P. HART. The Rectory, Burrough Green, Newmarket.
[Janus writes: Janus is a bad mixer, and he didn't mix anything in this case. It was the Evening Standard, from which he was quoting, which
did the mixing. His own comment, which was slightly satirical, has dearly met the fate which satire often does meet. This explanation is offered- with due respect to numerous other correspondents.]
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