Mr. Forster made a striking speech to his Bradford constituents
on Monday, on some leading portions of which we have com- mented elsewhere. He spoke strongly of "the ability, the courage, and conscientious industry" with which Lord Harting- ton had fulfilled the difficult duties of the Liberal leadership; and, as regards the Government, he did full justice to the Liberalism of Mr. Cross in is successful effort to amend the labour laws, and to the wisdom -find generous Imperial policy of Lord Carnarvon. He commented but briefly on the Conservative blunders, remark- ing somewhat epigramnatically on the Admiralty's ' Vanguard' Minute that it was natural enough for the leaders of a party who advised " a leap in the dark," to approve of a commander who determined to keep up steam in a dense fog ; but he more than compensated for these sarcasms by pointing out to the present Government its great advantages for dealing successfully with the question of local government and local taxation. He thought we wanted not only county boards, but village municipalities, as well as municipalities for towns. There is not a village in Ontario (Canada) or in the United States which has not a municipality of its own ; and if such municipalities had but existed in England when the Edu- cation question came up, they would have offered the greatest facili- ties for dealing adequately with it. In regard to our Education policy, a very critical moment had arrived. if we did not go forward, we must go back. And Mr. Forster earnestly deprecated retracing our steps, either in relation to compulsion, or in relation to the limi- tation of the grants allowed to voluntary schools depending primarily. on private subscriptions, or finally, in relation to the veto on sectarian teaching in Board Schools.
