During the week Parliament has practically done nothing but debate
the Education Bill. Though the fact that the Irish Members have gone home has made the proceedings of Parliament generally more reasonable and more decorous, progress has not been by any means rapid, and there has been a good deal of Opposition talk which has been purely dilatory in result, and also probably in intention. At the same time, it is becoming admitted on all hands that Mr. Balfour has shown immense Parliamentary capacity, and plenty of strength as well as tact, in his handling of the measure. He has invited and protected reasonable discussion on all vital points, but as soon as a clause has been adequately discussed and the intention of the House has become clear he has used the Closure without hesitation. In this he has unquestionably carried out the will of his fellow-countrymen, and they are proportionately grateful. In genuine debate and discussion the country takes a real pride, but not in the display of second-class rhetoric or in the petti- fogging dialectic of the irrelevant-amendment-monger.
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