THE TRAFFIC IN TRADITION
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] you please allow me space for a comment on your paragraph in your issue of February 6th (page 167) on the sale of Lord Lothian's library in New York ? I do not desire to defend the Death Duties or to express anything but sympathy for Lord Lothian in his having to divest himself of hooks which lie would much rather, doubtless, have retained. But the transference of his treasures to the United States has another and more consoling aspeet which is often forgotten.
There is in the United States a widely diffused sentiment for England and for ways and thing's English. The treasures from this country that are so eagerly sought after by Americans are not necessarily, or mostly, sought from mean motives. These English treasures serve to affiliate many Americans to England and to make them sharers in the English tradition.
May I disagree with the suggestion of your remark that at any rate the comforting sum of £103,000 was realized by the sale ? • The money, in my view, is the least important item in the transaction. The gain in sentiment is infinitely more to the purpose.
It is only good sense and sympathy, and good politics as well, to recognize that the Blickling treasures will now help, in their measure, to draw together the two greatest branches of the English-speaking world. The more such things we send across the Atlantic the better.— I am, Sir, &c.,
Previous page
