10 MARCH 1933, Page 6

It was suggested by the Public Orator that the confer-

ment of the honorary degree of D.Litt on Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Hammond, at thcford on TueSday, created a pre- cedent. Very likely it does, though I should have thought a more or less similar fate must have befallen Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb at some time or other. At any rate no one will question the justice of the distinction—certainly no one familiar with " longa librorum series ab ambobus una editorum," conspicuous among them those well-known social studies " The Town Labourer " and " The Village Labourer." Mr. Hammond is, of course, a frequent contributor to The Spectator, and I understand his name appears over the principal review in this issue. At present he is working on a biography of C. P. Scott, of the Manchester Guardian.

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