TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. " ] have read the letter
of " Senex " in your issue of September 21st with interest and sympathy, but not with complete agreement. Is not " social " a good name ? " Christian Socialism " is due to F. D. Maurice, and the name is recognised abroad as well as at home. Man is a social animal. He asks : " How caul do my duty to my neighbour ? How can I best be my brother's keeper ?" Socialists attempt to give us the answer. There is indeed a monstrous doctrine —the abolition of the family—sometimes called Socialism. I would call it anti-Socialism. I hope it is as impossible as it is abominable. But what has this to do with civic duty, with the municipalisation of the water-supply, and similar questions of the day ? In my view, it has little connexion with a possible abolition or alteration of the House of Lords. Mr. Denison, who set the example of a rich and highly educated man residing among the very poor, denounced the Socialistic taint —i.e., anti-Socialistic, anti-thrift taint—in the English Poor Law. All old-age pension schemes except those founded, like
the German, on compulsory insurance seem to partake of
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