BR TO GILBERT MURRAY, 3 JUNE 1955
BRACERS 52443. TLS. Murray papers, Bodleian
Edited by W. Bruneau. Proofread by A.G. Bone

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Drummond Arms Hotel
St. Fillans
Perthshire
3 June, 1955

Dear Gilbert,

I have not seen Corliss Lamont’s address which you write about. Bishop Manning was the Anglican Bishop of New York and in the attack on me he acted as stooge for the Roman Catholics. The case was scandalous from every point of view. I was not allowed to be a party to the litigation and the City of New York, which was supposed to be concerned in defending me, wished me to be defeated in order not to lose the Catholic vote. I do not quite agree that excessive democracy is the trouble. Things are worse in Russia and were worse in Nazi Germany in spite of the complete absence of democracy. I think the trouble is more general and has to do with the intrusion of Government in matters with which it should not concern itself. This sort of intrusion was universal until the eighteenth century. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were abnormal, the twentieth has reverted to the norm. You ask about a possible author for a book on the crisis of democracy. Why not yourself?

Yours ever,
BR