Lord Herschell made a refreshingly moderate speech at Bedford on
Tuesday. He did not seem to like the tendency for each party in politics to overbid the other in democratic offers, and professed to fear that the Conservative offer of "assisted education" might be followed by a profession of willingness to" disenthrall" the Church from the State, and to "emancipate" it from its endowments, which he suggested as the probable euphemisms for Disestablishment and Disendow- 'neut. He held that a Seoond Chamber with adequate time
and ability to correct the slips of the House of Commons, was becoming more and more necessary, since the House of Com- mons had made such an advance towards stilling discussion by the use of the Closure ; but Lord Herschell did not think that the House of Lords as it is could escape reform. On the Home-rule question Lord Herschell was equally moderate, but he resisted the demand made on Mr. Gladstone that he should explain his new scheme ;—from which we infer that he probably belongs to what may be called the Spencer and Morley section of the Opposition, that is, to the group who do not wish for Mr. Asquith's full-blown Federation.
