14 SEPTEMBER 1867, Page 3

Mr. W. E. Forster has been speaking to his constituents

at Bradford, on occasion of laying the first stone of the Tradesmen's Benevolent Association there. Of course it was not an oppor- tunity for a party speech, and Mr. Forster used it chiefly to con- gratulate Europe on the rise of a strong Germany, to compliment Lord Stanley on his foreign policy, and to justify Parliament for not having altered the law of limited liability, in consequence of the many frauds to the advantage of whiok it had been turned. The chief cause of the suffering was, he said very justly, that -" people without a knowledge of business had tried to get the profits of business," and, of course, had been cheated. "It was impossible for Parliament to supply the want of prudence." He concluded with a sentiment rather more favourable to laissez- faire than is usual with Mr. Forster,—" Parliament could do but little ; they could carry free trade ; they could punish crime ; they might do something perhaps for the education of the whole .country,"—but the rest must be all done by individual effort, without organization. That is a great under-statement of the