Mr. Stansfeld made an Education speech at Halifax on Thurs-
day, in which he made a statement for which we were hardly prepared by Mr. Forster's recent speech at Liverpool. "He had much satisfaction in believing that in the next Session of Parlia- ment it was probable that the two branches of the subject which would come up for consideration,—that is to say, the nature of the education afforded, and the method of securing the advantages of it to the children of this country,--and what was called the religious difficulty, in connection with the 25th Clause of the Education Act, would be separately put before the public." If that refers to an official measure, we suppose Mr. Forster has quite recently seen his way to some possible altera- tion of the 25th Clause ; and also that he thinks the two conditions on which he offered the extension of compulsion to the rural districts,—the concession that the parents shall choose the schools freely for the children, and that new schools shall not be built where they are not really needed, merely from sectarian motives,— appear likely to be accepted by the Birmingham party. If so, that is very good news. But perhaps Mr. Stansfeld was not referring to official proposals.
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