Mr. W. E. Forster on Monday, and Mr. Hughes on
Thursday, both madnahle and instructive speeches on Reform, but the member for Lambeth did not strengthen--the-hands, though- he-meant to• strengthen the hands, of the member for- Bradford. Mr. Forster wished to reduce the difference between the working class and the middle class to a minimum ; Mr: Hughes wished to elevate it to a• maximum. The former policy-was meant to allay the fear, the- latter to prove the need; ofrepresentation. There was much truth in what both said as to the division of working men into parties, but that does not really affect-. the question of re- presentation. If landowners on both sides of the House vote together on the cattle plague, and capitalists on both sides vote together on the taxation of property or income, and if, further, as Mr. Hughes says very truly, the working class have a totally new genus. of moral, social, and economical ideas of their own, then we may expect working men on, both sides of the House to vote together on questions of labour. Mr. Forster-says there is no fear, Mr. Hughes says there is pressing need, for working-class repre- sentation. We believe both, but believe also that the only safety and the only permanent advantage depend upon our securing per- manently to the representatives of the working class the fall co-operation of the representatives of the various middle classes now in possession of the House of Commons-,
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