Mtogether it has been an interesting week in Parliament. The Government have got their little Education Bill unchanged through Committee. Many Conservatives dislike it. A strong appeal was made to the Government to modify it by a former Conservative Education Minister, Sir William Hart Dyke; and it is possible that a modification of its principle would have been assented to but for the shout of triumph which would have arisen from the Liberals. As Mr. Balfour frankly admitted, the Government have allowed the Opposition to compel the withdrawal of three Education Bills, and their prestige would have suffered seriously if they had allowed the Liberals to score a fourth triumph on this subject. For the rest the Session will be almost barren of legislative work. There is nothing very remarkable in this. Legislation generally is at a standstill dur-inga war. But the " massacre of the innocents"—the Leader's announcement of measures abandoned—gave rise to another amusing if scurrilous attack on his party leaders from Mr. Gibson Bowles. "This Government," he said, "has lasted so long that it believes itself eternal." And he arned them of " coming time when they might regret the way in which they had deprived the House of its liberties. He pictured the time when there might be "a cynical Minister who, having asked the country for a large majority to protect national interests, uses that majority for the aggrandisement of his own family, or for the distribution of the public funds among his own supporters." This attack on Lord Salisbury was of course listened to with great delight by the Opposition.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.