with the last weekend approaching, the ierican election campaign has at last shown s of coming to life. For too long it has mbled a lap of honour by Mr Richard on, with obligato...

A cynic might be forgiven for remarking that all that changes in thf Qtieen's speech at each year's opening of Parliament is the price Her Majesty's Stationery Office charges...

The Queen's speech at the opening of Parlia- ment promised legislation to reduce the voting age and the age of majority to eighteen, to re- form the Hotise of Lords, to...

POLITICAL COMMENTARY AUBERON WAUGH While Labour awaits the result from Basset- law with some trepidation, the left is once again in revolt over Rhodesia. It is hard to accept...

AMERICA JOHN GRAHAM Washington—The Romans had a word for it. They called it auctoritas. But they did not mean by that what we usually mean by authority. They did not mean any...

DEFENCE LAURENCE MARTIN Laurence Martin is Professor of War Studies in the University of London and defence correspondent of the SPECTATOR. NATO IS made to serve many purposes...

VIETNAM JOSEPH CHAP31AN A few months ago I wrote in these columns that the war in Vietnam had entered its final act. The reason was President Johnson's decision no longer to go...

DEMO HUGH REAY ;le of the few spontaneous moments in the Attie of South Audley Street came when the sung marxists suddenly challenged the on- oakers to join them in their...

STUDENTS IAN MacGREGOR This is the last of three articles by a senior unirersity teacher: His two previous articles appeared on 18 and 25 October. Most governments in the...

J. W. M. THOMPSON The well-earned praise for the London police after Sunday's demonstration reminds me of one of the Duke of Wellington's numerous sensible remarks about war....

I ion, the 'Spectator. 31 October /868—A map. or rather a set of three maps, said to have been prepared by the Emperor, has been published in Paris. They show the frontiers of...

PERSONAL COLUMN ALBERT LODGE Chucking up your job when you're forty years o ld with no specialist line is like a woman of that ace dismissing a lover. It looks heroic but you...

TELEVISION STUART HOOD It was an interesting experience actually to be in Grosvenor Square at about 5 p.m. last Sunday and then to come home to hear the radio reports and see...

CONSUMING INTEREST LESLIE ADRIAN The chairmanship of the IEC Wine Socie:y recently complained of the residual feeling in Britain that wine is slightly sinful. 'A drop 01 whisky...

THE PRESS BILL GRUNDY For two days last week the journalistic staff of the Daily Mirror in Manchester went on strike. For two days we in the north were deprived of Garth, Andy...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS What a piece of work is man, Tailor-made for self-derision. Catch and shoot him if you can, Put him on the television. But, they say, the show may bring...

TABLE TALK DENIS BROGAN 'She lov'd me for the dangers I had pass'd, And . I lov'd her that she did pity them.' Othello, Act 1. H. L. Mencken said, rather blasphemously, of...

ROBERT BLAKE it 'The fairy godmother had perhaps denied him o ne necessary gift but she had given him all, or almost all, the others. Many have risen to the highest place with...

J. ENOCH POWELL, MP Angels in Marble Robert McKenzie and Allan Silver (Heinemann 50s) This book presents the results of four surveys. One, in the summer of 1958, was of a...

MICHAEL BORRIE The Medieval Papacy Geoffrey Barraclough (Thames and Hudson 35s) It is, as one would expect, a stimulating ex- perience to see Professor Barraclough wearing his...

D. D. ALDRIDGE Charles XII of Sweden R. M. Hatton (Weiden feld and Nicolson 84s) At a time when the history-reading public is indc! creasingly exposed to 'trend' or...

OLIVER WARNER The British Army of 1914 Major R. Money Barnes (Seeley, Service 50s) How quickly myth and misconception grow. The writer of a book about airships which appears...

DAVID WILLIAMS Surgeon in the Crimea George Lawson. Edited, enlarged and explained by Victor Bonham Carter assisted by Monica Lawson (Constable 35s) 'We don't want to fight,...

The Beginning of the End Angelo Quattrocchi and Tom Nairn (Panther 6s). Revolution 1968 Patrick Seale and Maureen McConville (Pen- guin 6s). The Student Revolt: The Activists...

STEPHEN MEDCALF The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns edited by James Kinsley (our three volumes £9 10s) `I have been trying all my life to like Scotch- men,' Lamb, although he...

Pot-shots PENELOPE HOUSTON Mayerling (Warner, 'A') Challenge in she Snow (Berkeley, 'U') Shakos, flunkeys, opera glasses, fur muffs, deafening jinglings of harness; 'Is that...

STEPHEN GARDINER So we are to have at last—touch wood—a building by Mies van der Rohe in the City. On show at the Royal Exchange the other day, 20,000 people saw his design...

ART BRYAN ROBERTSON Van Gogh was the first artist to achieve a world-wide popularity that has never declined. He was also the first to establish an amnesty, as it were, for a...

MUSIC MICHAEL NYMAN A young English composer, asked to contribute a chapter on Schoenberg for a history of music, is said to have replied that he would rather continue to write...

Across 1' And served with a doily? (1, 2. 5) 5 One was issued at Nantes (6) 9 How was Ruth husbanding? (8) 10 Cornerman? That's a bit fishy! (6) 12 There's not much to be said...

THEATRE Striptease HILARY SPURLING Spitting Image (Duke of York's) La Fastidiosa (urc at the Mercury) The burden of Jules Feiffer's new play is the pained, familiar message...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT These takeover fights have the morbid fascina- ion of all-in wrestling on the television box. The sight of an eminent merchant banker de- ivering a foul blow...

PORTFOLIO JOHN BULL Although J. Lyons' recent talks with a property company, Rodwell Group, petered out without agreement, they were, I think, highly significant. They indicate...

CUSTOS A feature of equity markets at the moment is the poor reception being given to new issues. Two have recently failed to attract a full sub- scription from the...

Sir: We were interested to read of the pictur- esque methods described by Oxford's Regius Professor of Modern History of succeeding in University elections; and of his views...

)'" LETTERS From: G. Singh, J. H. Huizinga, Graham Hallett, John Biggs-Davison, MP, Lord Morpeth, Peter Stein, Peter Jay, Robert Non, Robin Bou.sfield, Teor Davis, Denis Mark...

Sir: Having some knowledge of Portuguese Guinea, Angola and Mozambique, I enjoyed Mr Brian Crozier's excellent article, 'Portugal fights on' (11 October). Given more space he...

honour by calling them fascists (25 October). Hitler and Mussolini had a coherent system of thought which one looks for in vain in the utterances of the Cohn Bendit's, Tariq...

Sir : Congratulations on the articles by Ian MacGregor (a nom de plume? *) in your issues of 18 and 25 October; the views of university lecturers have recently been remarkably...

Sir: To any friend of America, as to any observer of American affairs, the present situa- tion in the United States is quite astonishing. Wallace almost as popular as Humphrey :...

Sir: I am sorry to read, in your issue of 18 October, that so informed a person, and so delightful a writer, as Strix should support the use of the word 'writing-paper' to...

Sir : I am sorry the wine merchants of Marsala were not satisfied by the flattering references to them in my book Modern Sicily, I am also sorry they think my facts wrong...

Sir : I apologise to Miss von Versen (Letters, 25 October) if I appeared rude. One point I must make; she seems to imply that Some People is fiction. She may be right but the...

Sir: I remain unmoved by Mr Robert Skidel- sky's and Mr Vernon Bogdanor's attempts (Letters, 18 and 25 October) to get the argument about import controls back on to the...

Sir: Perhaps Mr Hennessy (Letters, 18 Octo- ber) has forgotten Mr Powell's suggestion at Birmingham of 'encouraging' immigrants to return to their native lands. Taken in context...

AFTERTHOUGHT JOHN WELLS MY LORDS AND MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, My wife and I —some of you may be pondering in your minds on the unaccustomed absence of Her Gracious...

vited to compose an octet, using the given rhyme words, on one of the following subjects: a letter to the Postmaster-General, an Olympic affair, a communication from Apollo ......

COMPETITION Set by E. 0. Parrott: With the Olympics now officially at an end, it is perhaps time to reflect that while most of our national sports have received their due...

PHILIDOR Black 8 men II men Specially contributed by H. Davison (Bradford). White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week. Solution to no. 410 (Sammelius): Q - B 3,...