28 OCTOBER 1938, Page 21

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sta,—The following observations by

Morley in the Life of Gladstone, dealing with the position created for the Liberal Parry by the Parnell divorce, seem to me to be very relevant both to the recent crisis and to much else : " It is one of the commonest of all secrets of cheap misjudgment in human affairs, to start by assuming that there is always some good way out of a bad case. Alas for us all, this is not so. Situations arise alike for individuals, for parties, and for states, from which no good way out exists, but only choice between bad way and worse. Here was on of those situations. The mischiefs that followed the course actually taken, we sec ; then, as is the wont of human kind, we ignore the mischiefs that as surely awaited any other."