Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and Mr. Asquith delivered speeches on Saturday
last at a great meeting held in the Alexandra Palace against the Education Bill. Neither had much that was new to say. Mr. Asquith, indeed, though in an exaggerated way, pressed a solid grievance, the difficulty which Nonconformist teachers may under any denominational system find in obtaining employment ; but his leader indulged himself mainly in strong words. Sectarianism, he said, is "quartered on the rates." The School Boards are "hounded" out of existence. He read out some statistics from the Eastern Counties which show that on the School Boards there Anglicans are as seven to five Nonconformists, and asked how such bodies could work in the interests of Nonconformists. That is a good argument; but then there is another question to be asked. The Anglicans having a large majority, why, as is alleged, are the Anglican clergy so anxious to abolish them? He threatened that Liberals, once in power, would again alter the educational scheme, and ended with a peroration the truth of which nobody can deny, —viz., that the way to become prosperous is "to follow with- out fear and timidity the lines of freedom, justice, and equality." That is admirably true, though the difference between fear and timidity is perhaps a little fine drawn; but, then, is it not also, for a statesman, somewhat vague P When you ask a boy the way, and he tells you to go by the right road, you are apt, it may be unjustly, to suspect him of not knowing.
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