Lord Derby, who is not likely to lend his sanction
to socialistic principles, has written a letter approving the resolve of the Government to find the funds for Free Educa- tion. And Sir E. Birkbeck (Conservative M.P. for East Norfolk) wrote to the Times on Thursday asserting that "if Mr. Goschen had not made the announcement relative to Free Education, both he and his colleagues would very soon have had a chorus of protests from a large majority of their best sup- porters." "I am confident," he adds, "that many a candidate who has been working hard for the party, would have retired incase of the Government's failing to fulfil the most important of all the subjects [sic] referred to in the Queen's Speech." How you "fulfil" a "subject," Sir E. Birkbeck does not explain ; but doubtless that is a slipshodness of which the honourable Member might not have been guilty if Free Education had been granted earlier, and had produced its natural effect on the English style in general, and especially the style of our representatives.
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