nce that time the smell of the Fourth Public has grown steadily stronger to the at where the nation is in danger of becom- literally ungovernable. France showed t this could...

Mr Enoch Powell's views on Rhodesia are unlikely to have come as a shock to readers of the SPECTATOR, since they differ little from our own. Nor is Mr Powell's espousal of them...

Two separate and partially conflicting strands have become interwoven in Ulster's crisis: the native desire for civic reform, and the London Labour party's desire to be rid of...

The case for a coalition was again advanced by The Times and the Daily Mirror. Nobody in the world of politics seemed much interested, except Mr Duncan Sandys. Rumours swept...

POLITICAL COMMENTARY AUBERON WAUGH It is usually a safe principle of English public life that there is no smoke without fire, and that if a rumour is worth denying it must be...

AMERICA MURRAY KEMPTON Washington—It cannot be said how long before its approaching occupation the Washington of the Democrats really fell, since there is no way of locating...

LSE ORATION HUGH TREVOR-ROPER A historian, like other men, lives in the present: but his study is of the past; and coming as do from Oxford, where some vestiges of past habits...

This is an abridged version of Professor Trevor- Roper's Oration Day address at the London School of Economics, given on 6 December. The full text will in due course be...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS Some years ago it required some pluck To print a word that rhymes with luck, And then no one would care a jigger For another word that rhymes with figure....

J. W. M. THOMPSON One of Rousseau's more absurd remarks was that the 'best' state was that in which the citi- zens spent as much time as possible thinking about public matters...

PERSONAL COLUMN TIBOR SZAMUELY Few people may have realised it, but last Tuesday, 10 December 1968, marked a most important event: it was not only Human Rights Day—this festive...

TELEVISION STUART HOOD What effect do political broadcasts have on the viewer? The answer as far as this country is concerned was first formulated in an authorita- tive way by...

MEDICINE JOHN ROWAN WILSON Until relatively recently, the principal threat to health came from outside; the story of medicine was the story of man's battle against infective...

THE PRESS BILL GRUNDY You've heard the one about the New Yorkers, of course—about how they all had babies, nine months after the Great Electricity Black-out? Of course you...

TABLE TALK DENIS BROGAN Having commented last week on the irritation I felt at being unable to cash a sterling travel- ler's cheque and having to suffer for the sins of the...

MICHEAL MAC LIAMMOIR The first of these two luscious and incredible books, The Best of Eliza Acton (selected and edited by Elizabeth Ray with an introduction by Elizabeth...

ROBERT BLAKE When reviewing a book one should, as in other public activities, where necessary 'declare an interest.' As a member of the committee direct- ing the publication of...

PETER FLEMING The Last Englishman Lieut-Colonel Wintle, Mc, edited by Alistair Revie (Michael Joseph 50s) I have forgotten the details of the plan, but not the alacrity with...

Christopher Sykes (Collins Early death ROBERT BIRLEY 45s) . The Past is Myself Christabel Bielenberg (Chatto and Windus 36s) Before considering the biography of Adam von...

GEOFFREY BARRACLOUGH The Holy Roman Empire Friedrich Heer (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 75s) It was, we all know, neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. After 1648, perhaps...

LORD EGREMONT The Landowners Douglas Sutherland (Anthony Blond 50s) This is a generic book about landowning m Britain. I am not crazy about generic books. ere are landowners...

LORD BUTLER Promise of Greatness : The 1919-18 War George A. Panichas (Cassell 63s) This book really constitutes an embarras de richesse; it is quite impossible in a short...

GEORGE ROWELL The Lost Theatres of London Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson (Rupert Hart- Davis 126s) Enter Foot and Horse : A History of Hippo- drama in England and France A....

JOEL HURSTFIELD The Field is Won-E. E. Reynolds (Burns and Oates 5Qs) R. W. Chambers, author of the classic biography of Thomas More which appeared in the 'thirties, once...

HELEN VLACHOS Coup d'Etat: A Practical Handbook Edward Luttwak (Allen Lane the Penguin Press 30s) In bold rusty-red capital letters the title Coup d'Etat spreads over the...

E. R. NORMAN John Dillon : a Biography F. S. L. Lyons (Routledge and Kegan Paul 75s) Dillon was strictly a politician, and Professor Lyons has written a biography in which the...

BARRY COLE Canseand stayed the night. 'How have things been?' I asked, shuffling pillows, turning coats To coverlets, altering the shape Of the room to fit the part she'd...

OLIVER WARNER The Price of Admiralty : an Indictment of the Royal Navy, 1805-1966 Stanley Bonnett (Robert Bale 42s) It So happens that, almost simultaneously, two indictments...

HENRY TUBE Of the many novels and plays which have attempted to capture our new sub-culture, the world of the 'communicators," none has, to my knowledge, come near succeeding....

JEAN FRANCO The Other Side of the Mirror Enrique Ander- son Imbert translated by Isabel Reade (Mac- donald 30s) Fantasy literature reflects our nightmares or our wildest...

From the 'Spectator', 12 December I868—The new Government would be a perfectly satisfactory one, were it not for a certain dimly perceptible want of tone. Though not a Ministry...

these inflatable chairs,' are all part of the 'gear, useful but ex- pendable. In short, for '5.11 the little technological god that sits at the centre of their world, these are...

J. B. DONNE African A rt Michel Leiris and Jacqueline Delange (Thames and Hudson flO 10s) That African sculpture had at the beginning of this century a decisive influence on...

MARTIN SEYMOUR-SMITH Cdipt editions, perhaps the most remarkable.: publishing series launched since the war, has now reached its twenty-sixth volume. There can already be no...

MICHAEL NYMAN John Cage he say: 'And what precisely does this, this beautiful, profound object, this master- piece, have to do with life: that it is separate from it. Now we...

Padded cell HILARY SPURLING They Don't Grow on Trees (Prince of Wales) The Lunatic, the Secret Sportsman and the Woman Next Door (Open Space) The Czech group Quidam, from the...

ART BRYAN ROBERTSON The most engrossing and authoritative show in London at the moment by a contem- porary English artist is the group of recent paintings by Margot Perryman at...

Beyond reason PENELOPE HOUSTON Great Catherine (Warner, '1.1') Dance of the Vampires (Ritz, 'A') Twisted Nerve (Carlton, 'X') There are weeks in the cinema which leave one...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT If the real economic threat to Britain is now more clearly seen as the breakdown of con- fidence in the value of money, Mr Richard Crossman should not be...

CUSTOS On Tuesday gilt-edged securities staged their first recovery since 27 November. The cause was the belief that after all Thursday's trade figures would be somewhat better...

PORTFOLIO JOHN BULL Star turn of my first portfolio is the textile engineering company, Ernest Scragg. Since I bought the shares slightly less than a year ago they have...

proven fact is tiresome, but Mr R. R. Milner-Gulland's strictures upon my accuracy (Letters, 6 December) leave me no choice. Mr Milner-Gulland alleges that not only did...

Mr Szamuely (Letters, 6 December), he questions the picture of Yevtushenko as a 'denouncer.' Perhaps he can elucidate what he means by the word by clear- ing up a matter which...

Sir: As your readers will have observed it is not I but Mr Szamuely who is in a rage (Letters, 6 December). I have always believed that those who dish it out should be able to...

LETTERS From T. C. Skeffington-Lodge, Patrick Hut- her, L. E. Weidberg, Tibor Szamuely, J. E. Martin, Lord Morpeth, Dr Enid Starkie, Katherine M. R. Kenyon, Adamu M. Fika, E....

that 'only old Nigerian hands' are entitled to comment •on the Nigerian war (Letters, 29 November), but in fact many of the so-called old hands are incapable of comment- ing...

much in that he is really adept at using the technique of the half-truth. All his four refutations are blatant falsehoods inspired by his personal hatred and grievances. I...

Sir: What a delightful and enlivening experi- ence to read Sir lain Moncreiffe's 'Thoughts on the hereditary principle.' I have cut it out so as to turn to it for refreshment...

Sir: General Alexander and Mr W. H. Irvine (Letters, 22 November) are of course absolutely right, in spite of your illusions and the irrelev- ance of Godfrey C. Okeke (Letters,...

Sir: It is true that Ranter Cobb, an hind, bath been deposed, and that in his place bath been introduced a teutonick knight, Hartmutt Johann Otto Pogge von Strandmann, a...

Sir: Does Professor Trevor-Roper never ac- knowledge his errors, nor apologise for them when they affect other people? In your issue of 15 November he published a completely...

Sir: You say (6 December) that the Falklanders are opposed to the transfer of sovereignty to the Argentine to a man. This may well be so, though 1 have myself not seen any...

I should have thought you might have been a mite more charitable to a correspondent who must surely be given credit for being as sincere as you, sir. It seems that anyone who...

letter (15 November) substituted crude anti-Ibo sentiments for logic and truthfulness. Such unprovoked coarseness is probably an overt manifestation of a long-standing private...

AFTERTHOUGHT JOHN WELLS Ich weiss nicht what must be the meaning, that I should feel so depressed, EM Legend von Thousands of Years ago that will not get off my Chest: The...

Sir: Mr Terraine is disconcerted to find him- self in disagreement with the argument of my book Why France Collapsed. 1 am equally dis- concerted to have a long book, one sixth...

Sir: I have a number of apologies and explana- tions to make to the readers who have been pointing out errors in my last two Table Talks. I had never the innocent belief that...

Trevor Grove reports: Competitors were in- vited to compose an octet, using the given rhyme words, on one of the following subjects: the financial crisis, a verse recipe for...

COMPETITION Competitors are invited to use the ten following words taken from the opening passages of a well-known work of literature, in the order given, to construct part of...

PHILIDOR Black White 8 men F. Janet (Hon. Men., Good Companions. 1916; White to play and mate in two moves; solutioa next week. Solution to no. 416 (Hicks): Kt — R 71, no...

Across 1 Long-suffering? (10) 6 A breezy bit of song (4) 10 Dates can make one so satisfied (5) 11 Effect gained in simple mention (9) 12 Withdrew under pressure (8) 13...