On Friday week Mr. Balfour was entertained at dinner by
the members of the 1900 Club, and made a speech on the political outlook. He found in the recent municipal elections the evidences of a great reaction. Passing to a survey of the Government's measures, he declared that the Education Bill " pleased nobody, and least of all its own supporters " ; the Merchant Shipping Bill was good in its way, but wholly in- consistent with Free-trade ; while the Plural Voting Bill was simply a device to disfranchise opponents. The Trade Disputes Bill was defended by people who admitted that they did not approve of it; while the Scottish Small Holders Bill introduced the worst features of the old Irish land system into Scotland,—a system which the Government were spending large sums to put an end to. The Government had declared that they were committed to social reform ; but this was not social reform, it was class legislation. The Bills were ill-thought-out, ill-conceived, and impracticable, an unlovely mixture of ambition and incompetence. The Cabinet con- tained many men of high ability, but there was no real co- operation or sense of corporate responsibility, and if they did not learn this lesson in time, the reaction against them would spread. "A Government which governs so little, but which is yet so powerful, is a real public danger."
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