"GRACEFUL CONCESSIONS."
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Can any of your readers inform me what is the origin -of the phrase "graceful concessions," as applied to Lord Salis- bury's foreign policy P For some years past I have made a study of the origin and growth of political catchwords, but this particular one has quite baffled me. I have heard it attributed to Lord Salisbury himself, but I cannot find it anywhere in his speeches except in inverted commas, and the same is true of the speeches of all the other statesmen to which I have referred (Mr. Asquith, Sir Edward Grey, the Duke of Devonshire, and Sir Michael Hicks-Beach). The phrase is now in everybody's mouth, and the sting which it .contains has undoubtedly been of very potent effect in the .Pashoda controversy. With the settlement of that controversy
its vogue will probably be ended, and before that occurs it seems to me that it would be well for the sake of future
historians that its origin should be specifically indicated...-.I am, Sir, &c., ACADEMICUS.
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