me it has another interest. In re-reading it, I note that, right or
wrong, it takes exactly the view of the English democracy which I have
always taken and which I hold today as strongly as I did forty years
ago.

The article had an instant reaction. It delighted Mr. Townsend, who,
though he did not _know_ it was by me, guessed that it was mine,
and wrote at once to ask me whether, when Mr. Hutton went on his
holiday, I could remain at work as his assistant. Very soon after, he
suggested, with a swift generosity that still warms my heart, that if I
liked to give up the Bar, for which I was still supposing myself to be
reading, I could have a permanent place at _The Spectator_, and
even, if I remember rightly, hinted that I might look forward to
succeeding the first of the two partners who died or retired, and so to
becoming joint editor or joint proprietor. That prospect I do admit took
away my breath. With the solemn caution of youth, or at any rate with
youth's delight in irony in action, I almost felt that I should have to
go and make representations to my chief about his juvenile impetuosity
and want of care and prudence. Surely he must see that he had not had
enough experience of me yet to make so large a proposition, that it was
absurd, and so forth. _O sancta simplicitas!_




CHAPTER II

HOW I CAME TO "THE SPECTATOR" (_Continued_)