Mr. Asquith on Tuesday addressed a large gathering of the
local Liberal Association of Leicester in the Leicester Temperance Hall. He thought that though the level of average comfort had risen very sensibly in the last twenty years, the Liberal p trty had been too inclined to indulge in "an optimism of averages," and to forget how many perfectly remediable intervals of distress these averages include. The late Liberal Government had done all it could, so far as administration goes, to improve the condition of the labouring classes, especially of the factory operatives. He would not deny,—" it would be folly and Pharisaism to deny,—to their Tory opponents" a fair "share of the spirit of humanity and of honest desire to improve the condition of their fellow- men ; " but nevertheless their opponents are too much hampered by the traditional views of those to whom they owe their majority. Of course he twitted the Conserva- tives with their flirtation with fair-trade, and then turned to that one great blessing left to console the Gladstonians in their adversity, the Education difficulties, and insisted that if the denominational schools are to have more grants, they should also have more local control. Why ? It is not the local control, even under School Boards, that secures effi3ient teaching, but the inspectors of the Central Department.
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