3 APRIL 1915, Page 12

DR. LYTTELTON.

[To vox Roma or vas "serorevea."1 Sin,—The logical defect in Dr. Lyttelton's reasoning and of those who think with him seems to be that they confuse cause and effect. One is reminded of the child in Punch who, when her mastiff was eyeing a small dog, dubiously said to her brother: " Wag Chimborazo's tail, darling, to put him in a good temper." Now the present proposed tail-wagging (giving up Gibraltar, Sic.) must mean one of two things : it is intended either to induce a certain frame of mind in the British people, or to make the many believe that such a frame of mind exists. In either ease it is an inversion of reality. A well-known novelist, commenting on what may be called the turning-the-other-cheek principle, has remarked that "unless it be turned from that rare sense of spiritual brother. hood it would be unmanly to turn it." If this be true of individuals of whom only one here and there rises to the level of Christ's standard, it is to fortiori true of States, to whom it is fairly debateable whether the highest Christian ethics— the triumph of personal unselfishness—can from the nature of the came apply. Such action as that proposed could be safe and fruitful only if it were the outcome of the beet collective consciousness of the nation, not of a few doctrinaires who have no claim to represent the nation.—I am, Sir, &a,

C. M. HUDSON.

[Brigham Young, when he was asked whether he would really turn his other cheek to the smiler, said he would. Pressed as to what he would do if that were also struck by the smiler, be replied: "Give him hell I" That seems. to us a much batter answer than "Give him Gib." As we have explained elsewhere, however, it is preposterous to hound down Dr. Lyttelton merely because he has blundered. He is no more a pro-German than the writer of these words. His mistake was a generous and chivalrous one, even though it MIS a mistake.—En. Spectator.]