6 JULY 1956, Page 19

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY SIR, —May I say that when I described

Profes- sor Oakeshott's inaugural lecture as 'a wily defence of the shabby against the new' I meant by `shabby' time-worn' and not, as one reader supposed, 'underhand'?—Yours faithfully,

J. N. W. WATKINS

I Holly Mount, Hampstead, London, NW3