16 JANUARY 1886, Page 2

Mr. Chamberlain, in speaking at the Westminster Palace Hotel on

the allotments question on Monday, referred to the crisis, of which he spoke as one which some Liberals thought too grave for humble details like the allotment question. But he was for fulfilling the pledges made to the electors at once, and for getting a good Bill, if that were possible, out of the Tories. He insisted especially on the necessity of giving power to Local Government Boards to expropriate landlords whose land was needed for allotments, and to expropriate it at a fair price, the price not to include a bonus for their unwillingness to sell. The time had come "when at all events this form of ransom " should cease. Further, Mr. Chamberlain referred to the questions of Free Education, and of reclaiming enclosures of public land illegally made, as questions which press for early treatment.