Sir William Harcourt on Monday made a speech on the
Eastern question, which we have described and dis- cussed elsewhere. At Rhymney on Tuesday he made a second speech to his constituents. The first division of the speech was a boisterous attack on the Education Bill. Here he vanquished his foes once again and thrice slew the slain in his best manner. Lord Salisbury might mock at the Celtic fringe, but he would tell him, in the words of that gallant Welshman, Captain Llewellyn, " If he can mock a leek he can eat a leek." We do not, however, care to follow him here or in his well- worn denunciations of the Agricultural Rating Bill as a Bill which gave most relief where it was least wanted. What was more interesting was Sir William Harcourt's quotation from the report of one of our Consuls in France as to the condition of farming across the Channel. The Consul refutes the con- tention that there is no agricultural distress in France. On the contrary, he finds the French farmers complaining quite as bitterly as the English, and with quite as good reason. Yet the French farmer is protected by high duties at every turn. The duty on wheat is practically one of 50 per cent. We hope this interesting fact will be taken to heart by the misguided people who wish to force us back into the slough of Protection. Sir William Harcourt ended his speech as he began, by kicking the corpse of the Education Bill and by flouting the Rating Bill as class legislation.
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