Mr. Chamberlain, speaking yesterday week at the Ellen Street Board
School, Birmingham, assured the Daily News that to attack and undermine denominational schools had now become a, sheer impossibility, since it would cost the nation fifty millions to build schools in place of them. Another speaker, Lord George Hamilton, said on Wednesday at Acton that it would cost the country thirty millions to replace the Volun- tary schools ; and even if this more frugal estimate were accepted, we may be perfectly sure that no party would become more unpopular than one which succeeded in forcing such an expense as this on the shoulders of the ratepayers. Radical fanatics should remember how often it has been proved that all the expenses of elections ought to be thrown upon the rates, and how very unpopular that proposal has always been, in spite of the very strong reasons for taking such a course. English householders are not proud, but thrifty, and do not like to deny philanthropists of any kind the privilege of making them a handsome present.
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