18 DECEMBER 2004, Page 37

History lesson

From Dr John Radford

Sir: In the first volume of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Gibbon describes how Augustus deliberately and effectively replaced the institutions of the Republic with his own autocratic rule. He says: ‘The principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost when the legislative power is usurped by the executive.’ This seems to match almost exactly Lord Butler’s view of what is happening now (‘How not to run a country’, 11 December).

John Radford London E1