12 OCTOBER 1907, Page 13

THE ADVANCE OF SOCIALISM.

[To THE EDITOR or TVs "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—It is impossible for me to enter on a controversy with " A Sort of Socialist" (Spectator, October 5th), even if you would allow it. He asks me various questions, half ironical, half indignant. For answer, I refer him to four or five excellent letters which appeared in the same issue of your paper as his own, notably those of my old tutor at University College, Professor Goldwin Smith, and of Lord Balfour. In my turn I would like to ask him one question. Suppose a dear friend lying seriously ill. If I demur to the use in his case of a remedy which has never been uted successfully in the past, and which may possibly kill the patient, must I, therefore, necessarily be supposed to approve of doing nothing and of letting the disease run its course ? Sometimes, as in this case, violent remedies upset the "Constitution" and are worse than