THE ESTABLISHMENT
SIR,---Brian Inglis suspects that the term 'Establish- ment' is 'of considerably longer standing' than the five years ascribed to it by Hugh Thomas. You may be interested to know that in 1936 Hesketh Pearson spent several pages or biography of Henry Labouchere discussing the Establishment (by name) in its various manifestations in the nineteenth century. He mentions religion, science, painting, medicine, economics, poli- tics, letters, law, the army and the navy; he also sug- gests that it was the Establishment that checked the success of Sydney Smith, Samuel Butler and Labouchere himself. It would be interesting to know if Hesketh Pearson worked it all out for himself, or borrowed the idea from someone else; but at least we may be sure it is more than twenty years old.— Yours faithfully, 83 Be/size Park Gardens, NW6
NICOLAS WALTER
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