The absence of any serious effort by the Government to bring about a higher standard in the army is a final proof to me that, as long as regulation of any kind can be resorted to as a remedy, it will always be regarded as the one and only panacea. My view was that it would be instituted as an odious but possibly effective auxiliary to moral efforts. I find it will always be accepted as a convenient substitute. I take the liberty of addressing this explicit withdrawal of an endorsement in whatever form of the principle of regulation; because it was in a letter to your lordship that I originally incurred the responsibility. I trust, therefore, to your lordship's indulgence to forgive me for troubling you further in the matter.--I remain, my lord, yours very truly, (Signed) ISABEL SOMERSET. * * * * * The following comments on the above letter appeared in _The Christian_ (London), February 17, 1898: REGULATION NO REMEDY. In our last issue we inserted in full the letter of Lady Henry Somerset, in which she withdrew from her unfortunate position in relation to the State regulation of vice in India. We refrained, for the time being, from comment, that her retractation might speak for itself. We feel, therefore, the more free to remark upon it now. We rejoice, in the first place, that it has come at all, for it justifies the principles for which we and other repealers have contended all these years. Lady Henry is convinced of "the inadvisability and extreme danger" of her former proposals, and recognises now that "as long as regulation of any kind can be resorted to as a remedy, it will be regarded as the one and only panacea ... [and] will always be accepted as a convenient substitute [for moral reform]." It is therefore with thankfulness that we note her ladyship's "explicit withdrawal of an endorsement in whatever form of the principle of regulation." This is all good so far as it goes, but it does not go far enough; and, alas! it comes too late, for it can never undo the fearful harm her action last year was the means of doing. A public retractation is a hard and painful process, and we sympathize with Lady Henry in the mental strain which it must have cost her. But she has not been the only sufferer. It were no small thing to cause division and discord in so gigantic an organization as that over which she presided, so that at the present time the movement is crippled and its machinery out of gear. This might well have elicited an expression of regret, which we hope may yet be forthcoming in some communication to the Association she has so grievously wronged.