Mr. Goschen made an admirable speech at St. James's Hall
yesterday week, in defending himself from the charge of political inconsistency for now supporting Free Education, which in 1885 he had condemned. In the first place, he said. that Cabinet government would be impossible if no member of a Cabinet is to give up his judgment to that of the majority of his colleagues; and next, he said, that he had the less difficulty in doing so as regards Free Education, because he regards the proposed measure much more in the light of a protection of the Voluntary schools against the threats of the Gladstonians, than he does in the light of a relief to parents from any special responsibility 'for their children's education. He still thinks it very unfortu- nate that parents should not feel the extra burden which the education of their children imposes, but he thinks it still more important that if they are to bp relieved of that burden, as they must be whenever the Radicals return to power, that relief should not be accompanied by a dis- organisation of the Boards of Management of Voluntary schools such as the Gladstonians propose to• couple with it. He thinks it a genuinely Conservative policy to protect the religious management of the Voluntary schools against the plans for undermining and overruling it, and therefore he is willing to concur in the policy which the Government have prepared with that view. In relation to finance, be pointed out that he had been able in the years he had been in office, to remit four millions of taxes and four millions of rates, and to reduce the Tobacco-duty, the Tea-duty, and the House-duty. There is hardly another financier, either in England or in Europe, who could make a similar boast.
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