30 SEPTEMBER 1922, Page 2

The Times of Tuesday printed a letter from Mr. J.

G. Swift MacNeill about the recent Government manifesto, which we have read with much sympathy. Mr. Swift MacNeill has a deserved reputation as a Constitutionalist, and he says that the issue of the manifesto was, so far as he knows, an incident without parallel in the history of Cabinet Government. He thinks the explanation of the publication is to be found in the existence of the Cabinet Secretariat—" an institution unknown to the Constitution and the sole creation of the present Prime Minister." Mr. Swift MacNeill then reminds us by certain quotations how often the Prime Minister's words come home to roost. There is a fatality about all his words and acts which never seems to be averted even by the frequent rightness of his intentions.