KNOCKING THE PALACE
SIR,—Mr. Christopher Sykes may not be a candid friend, but he is an exceptionally candid nephew. Those who have read his Four Studies in Loyalty Will recall the sadistic glee with which he exposes the degradation of his great-uncle, who (we are told with mock-pity) 'had an overriding weakness for which regret that there is no inoffensive word in existence. He was an unredeemed snob; 'a snob, I fear, even by the standards of those intolerably snobbish days.'
One is tempted to assume, from his attitude to-
wards anyone who ventures to criticise Royalty-- even with the best of intentions and in a constructive spirit—that Mr. Sykes is a chip off the old block. And so he may be, so long as the Royalty in question are alive. But it is clear from the same essay that he has no respect whatever for a royal personage who is dead, or for the feelings of those whose sense of family piety may be more strongly developed than his own. The Queen may conceivably be gratified by his implied tenderness towards herself, but she could hardly be expected to relish his decription of her great-grandfather, which is cruel by any standards.
All in all, Mr. Sykes's quotation of Canning's lines
on the candid friend is about as felicitous as Sir Robert Peel's in 1845, when he gave Disraeli an open- ing for the most devastating counter-attack. But one must give credit where it is due. Mr. Sykes has quoted Canning correctly; Peel misquoted him.—Yours faith- fully,
The National and English Review, 2 Breams Buildings, EC4 ALTRINCHAM
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