On the above principles there will be doubtful cases.  For instance, was Mr. Lloyd George justified the other day in saying, If you cut down expenditure to the lowest possible limit, the war debt would still be so enormous that ... the expenditure for this country is bound to be infinitely greater than before the war?—­The Times, Oct. 23.

THE AMERICAN INVITATION

The English reply to the American Invitation was despatched last October.  The text of it is as follows: 

’To Professor Fred Newton Scott.

DEAR SIR,

We thank you heartily for the letter addressed to us by Professors
James Wilson Bright, Albert Stanburrough Cook, Charles Hall Grandgent,
Robert Underwood Johnson, John Livingston Lowes, John Matthews Manly,
Charles Grosvenor Osgood, and yourself.

We regret that so long a time should have passed before our joint reply could be despatched:  but our intentions have in the meanwhile been privately made known to you.  We now write to give you formal assurance of the interest and sympathy with which your proposal has been received, and to thank you for your generous suggestion that we in the mother country of our language should take the lead in furthering the project.

Since then we, both Americans and British, are in complete agreement as to our aims, we have only to decide on the best means and devise the best machinery that we can to attain them.

We feel that this practical question needs very careful consideration and consultation:  and we have therefore appointed a small committee of five persons on our side to confer and draw up a table of suggestions which can be submitted to you.  We would invite you on your side to take a similar step:  we could then compare our respective proposals and agree upon a basis on which to work.  There are two dangers which we feel it especially desirable to avoid:  one is the establishment of an authoritative academy, tending inevitably to divorce the literary from the spoken language; the other is the creation of a body so large as to be unmanageable.  We have also to cope with the difficulty of co-ordinating the activities of members representing many branches in widely scattered territories.  Our committee for consultation on these matters consists of Henry Bradley, Robert Bridges, A.T.Q.  Couch, Henry Newbolt, and J. Dover Wilson:  and we shall be glad if you can tell us that you approve of our preliminary step and will be willing to consider our suggestions when they are ready.

(Signed) BALFOUR. 
ROBERT BRIDGES. 
HENRY NEWBOLT.’

A first meeting of the consulting committee mentioned in the above reply was held in Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on Nov. 1st ult.

Present:  Henry Bradley, Robert Bridges, Sir Henry Newbolt, and J. Dover Wilson.

Discussion was confined to practical questions of organization, and Sir Henry Newbolt undertook to draft a letter in which the sense of