Mr. Chamberlain then proceeded to press upon the Unionists present
the advisability of moving forward, as had been done last Session with the Local Government measure ; not that he would force his views upon other Unionists as a condition sine qud non of co-operation. "Whether my views are accepted or not, I will sink or swim with the Union." Never- theless, he thought that a progressive policy would secure the Government its best chance of success, and what he meant by a progressive policy is chiefly as follows :—(1), Free education, —the deficit caused by the remission of the school-pence being made up by a Government grant of the same amount to every school, voluntary or rate-supported, which could show that under the present system it would have earned a given sum by school-pence ; (2), an extension of the Ashbourne Act to England, £5,000,000 being provided to try the experiment of the purchase of the freehold by tenants with their landlords' consent, just as it had been first tried in Ireland with a five millions advance from the State; and (3), a new Crofters' Bill to help the crofters of Scotland by enlargement of their holdings, emigration, and perhaps partly by migration, to something like the same extent as the Irish tenants had been helped. Such measures as these Mr. Chamberlain thought that the present Government might quite properly accept, without incurring any risk of being accused of betraying the interests of their party.
