The letter to the Times signed " Vidi," commented on
in our last issue, is reluctantly endorsed by Mr. Samuel Smith, M.P., in last Saturday's issue of that journal. Mr. Smith regrets the waning of the generous enthusiasm of the early Vic torian period, and deplores the dominion of vulgar materialism, frivolity, and opportunism. We entirely agree with him when he declares that no Empire can last which does not rest on a moral basis, and that what made Britain strong in the past was the " God-fearing spirit of Puritanism which in some form or another has evoked the finest fruits of British character in the last four centuries." But we think he goes much too far when he condemns the general tone of London society, and dreads that the dry-rot of London luxury will undermine the great fabric which more strenuous lives have built up. These disintegrating elements have always been present ; it is the greater publicity that attaches to the doings of the idle rich of to-day which induces thoughtful observers like Mr. Samuel Smith to exaggerate their significance and influence. Take the matter of betting. In the mid-Fictorian age, now looked on as specially virtuous, smart society betted to an extent to which no parallel can now be found.
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