definitely placed in the commanding position which the Leeds conference asked for it," welcoming the announcement that a Welsh Disestablishment Bill was to be the first Government measure of the ensuing session, favouring local option and the unification of London, and expressive generally of the recognised Ministerialist opinions. The great event of the meeting was the address delivered by the Premier, who spoke in a building specially erected for the occasion, which gave accommodation to upwards of 10,000 people. Lord Rosebery began by returning thanks for the vote of confidence, giving the honours of the past session to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The aims of the National Liberal Federation, he proceeded to remark, were to thresh out the various issues which lay before them. The more delicate and difficult operation of winnowing had to be done by the Cabinet. "We have inherited," he said, "a vast programme of measures of first-rate importance, not merely from various meetings of the federation and the declarations of leaders, but also by the inherent necessities of the case, and it has been our task to adapt to existing circumstances the new state of things created by the Reform Bill of 1884, to pour the new wine of the Reform Bill, and that new spirit, into the old bottle of the Constitution, and I venture to say that is very arduous and heavy work." One thing was clear, the programme as it stood, without any additions, would require many revisions, and a strong Liberal Government, supported by a united party, to carry it into effect. Meanwhile, ministers were anxious that the programme of 1895 should be business-like, and therefore they proposed to include in the Queen's Speech only those measures which they saw a reasonable prospect of passing. That limitation would not affect Wales, because Welsh Disestablishment stood first on the list. As to Scotch Disestablishment, the Government would prefer to introduce a bill of their own; but if, as he feared, they were unable to do so, they would adopt Sir Charles Cameron's bill, reserving right and freedom as to detail whenever it should be possible to proceed seriously with the measure. Touching on the general question of Disestablishment, the Premier declared himself in agreement with those who held it to be a question of national option. The Church and an Establishment were to him two perfectly distinct affairs. The Church was too high for him to discuss that night, not so an Establishment, which could only rest on the deliberate will of the people. Referring to the precedent of Irish Disestablishment, Lord Rosebery asked whether Ireland had ceased to be Christian since the act of 1869. Why, the disestablished Church herself had never been so vigorous. As to the question whether the Church in Wales was or was not an alien Church, the opinion of the Welsh members in the House of Commons was enough for him. Evidently a Welsh national council would do away with the Establishment in a week. Both as to this and other matters he was daily more

and more convinced that in a large measure of devolution, subject always to imperial control, lay the secret of the future working of our empire. With regard to the Upper Chamber, which blocked the way to all the reforms they had at heart, he might be asked why, if the question was of such supreme importance, ministers did not at once submit their resolution to the judgment of Parliament. He would give them one sufficient reason: "It is because, if it is submitted to the judgment of Parliament, it must at once be submitted to the people, and its submission to Parliament entails an instant dissolution. I want to get something more for the people. Your Welsh, my Scotch questions, and even Irish questions only interest comparatively small sections of the community : but there are other and further measures which interest every section of the community, and which I for one should see with regret the Liberal party seeking re-election without at least attempting to deal with." The most urgently needed of these measures would deal with the control of the liquor traffic, with the payment of members, and with the principle of "one man one vote," without which their democratic suffrage was little better than a sham. Speaking next day at a breakfast given by Mr. Thomas Ellis, M.P., the Liberal Whip, the Prime Minister besought his hearers to work hard for the Liberal cause. He did not disguise from them his impression that if Liberalism were to receive a severe blow at the next election it might be a blow from which it might be more difficult to recover than from former defeats, were it only for the absence of that stimulating enthusiasm of genius which so preeminently characterised Mr. Gladstone. He added that he saw no immediate probability of a general election. Their majority in the House of Commons was small, but it was a working majority, and they could only lose it by their own friends turning against them. Now he thought even discontented friends would be too wise, if only for their own sakes, to help in putting out a Liberal Government they had been returned to support. "If," he continued, "it receives the support of its friends in the country, and of its friends in the House of Commons, I believe it has a long spell of good work before it."

The most noteworthy feature of the Premier's address was the change of tone it displayed as to the intention of the Government to dissolve on the question of the House of Lords, and on the development of the idea of Home Rule for Ireland into that of "Home Rule all round," and the recognition of Wales as a separate kingdom. It seemed moreover that Lord Rosebery, either willingly or reluctantly, had come to adopt the policy of that section of the Cabinet which was in favour of "filling up the cup" of the Lords' iniquities; and in this respect it must be admitted the principal Liberal organ in the press not only endorsed the decision of the Cabinet, but

strongly urged this course of action. It might possibly have been a successful policy had the Ministry been supported by a large and single-purposed majority, or had behind them the strongly expressed wish of the country. But with a following in the House of Commons composed of groups bound together by the sole bond of reciprocal interests, and when united, outnumbering their opponents by less than forty votes, the plan of campaign was a hazardous one, and liable at any moment to be checked by a watchful commander, ready to take advantage of the almost inexhaustible opportunities of delay afforded by the rules of procedure and the customs of debate.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir William Harcourt), speaking a few days later at Derby (Jan. 23), although his speech was in a great measure an indictment of the House of Lords, confirmed the general impression that the Government would not place in the forefront of their programme for the session any direct censure of that body. The reports of the delegates to the Liberal Federated Association had abundantly shown that the suggestion had awakened no enthusiasm among the rank and file of the Liberal party; and there was moreover an obvious difficulty in obtaining from the members of the Cabinet themselves a unanimous approval to any specific form of words. Sir William Harcourt, therefore, after assuring his constituents that the Government intended to adhere to the policy of Home Rule until it had passed into law without the assent of the House of Lords, denied the right of that body to force a dissolution. The Government, he declared, had no intention of dissolving except at the bidding of the House of Commons, and meanwhile they had much work to do. After the Welsh Disestablishment Bill they meant bringing in an Irish land bill; but for himself the subject of temperance lay nearest his heart and engaged all his attention. The Gothenburg system Government was not prepared to recommend. It had been strongly pressed on them that the local veto should not be for prohibition only, but for reduction also. He saw no objection in that, and in the bill he was going to propose in order to secure the largest possible support of the temperance cause and the principle of local veto, he should add to the option of prohibition the option also of reduction.

Throughout his speech Sir William Harcourt maintained a cheerful and confident attitude, although on the previous day the result of the election for the Evesham division of Worcester went far to show that even the agricultural voters showed little enthusiasm for the authors of the Parish Councils Bill. The Conservative candidate, Colonel Long, on this occasion nearly doubled his predecessor's majority on a new register, and on an extremely heavy poll, carried on under the most disadvantageous conditions of weather. So far as the analysis of the voting could show, it seemed as if the electors were ready to act upon the hint thrown out by Sir Henry James at

Bow (Jan. 18), "to break down the thin wall of partition which separated the Liberal Unionists from their Conservative allies."

Between the speeches of the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Home Secretary (Mr. Asquith) had the opportunity of giving expression at Hull (Jan. 22) to the views, as was believed, of the more advanced Radicals within the Cabinet. A great portion of his speech was devoted to the pretensions of the Independent Labour party, which its leaders were pressing with scarcely veiled threats of secession in the event of their demands not being satisfied. During its tenure of office the Liberal party had given evidence of its readiness to go a long way with the Labour party, and had legislated openly in their interests. But the leaders of the "New Unionism," setting aside the maxims and examples of the older Trade Unionism and largely influenced by Socialistic views, were eager to obtain the aid of the State in carrying out the economic theories they advocated. To adopt many of these theories, and still more to attempt to enforce them by legislation, would have alienated from the Liberal party whatever elements of stability it retained, and would have driven over to the Opposition all those employers of labour who had hitherto remained faithful to Liberal principles. At the same time it was believed that the Independent Labour voters would in many constituencies hold the balance between the two political parties, and that either by starting independent candidates or by supporting those of the Opposition they would exercise considerable influence in the approaching elections. Mr. Asquith's task therefore was at once a delicate and a difficult one. After referring to the charge made against his Government of having alienated from the ranks of its supporters both capital and labour by Sir William Harcourt's death duties and by its advances towards Socialism, he addressed himself at once to the working men in his audience. He appealed to them before taking away their support and allegiance from the Liberal party, before founding a separate organisation of their own, to consider certain points. "In the first place," he urged, "I would beg you to remember that in English public life and in English history we have hitherto always had parties which did not represent, or which at any rate did not purport to represent, particular classes, but which looked to the interests of the community from the point of view of the community as a whole. In my judgment it would be a bad day and a sad day in the political history of England if either the rich or the poor, either employers or employed, one class or another class of the community, was to band itself together into a separate political organisation and to subordinate the interests of the whole to the interests of a part.

"If people enter into political warfare and band themselves into political combinations, it is for the purpose of obtaining by combination definite ends. What reasonable and practical

chance have you, if you withdraw yourselves from one of the great parties in the State, and if you form yourselves into what must necessarily be for a long time to come a small, a comparatively weak, and an isolated organisation-what chance have you of bringing into effect the objects which you have in view? Far better, believe me, try to influence a party like the Liberal party, which is in sympathy with your aims, which breathes your spirit, which has no selfish or class interest to serve-far better to try and persuade that party of the wisdom, of the justice, of the ends you wish to accomplish."

The remainder of Mr. Asquith's speech was devoted to reassuring his audience that the Navy would be placed upon a footing which would safeguard our widespread empire, and that in pressing forward the cause of Welsh Disestablishment he and his colleagues were "engaged in a high and sacred task in redeeming the cause of religion and the Church itself from obstacles and embarrassments which impeded and discredited it."

A week later (Jan. 30), at Newcastle-on-Tyne, the Home Secretary and the Irish Secretary appeared on the same platform, and after mutually complimenting one another on their respective achievements, discussed at length the Government programme for the coming session. The mainspring of their action was to be "the Newcastle programme," to which Mr. Gladstone had given the weight of his authority three years previously. The Government, Mr. Asquith said, intended to go on prosecuting the task committed to their hands, and it would not be their fault, nor the fault of the House of Commons, if many of these momentous reforms were not carried effectively into law. He allowed that some of those who had endorsed the Newcastle programme thought that in face of recent events. they should "at once try conclusions with the House of Lords." On this point, however, whilst carefully guarding against the suggestion that there was unanimity in the Cabinet itself, he added, "he and many of his colleagues did not take this view." Such a course might, and probably would, precipitate a dissolution; and in their judgment they were not justified in dissolving Parliament until they had done everything in their power to discharge the work the country had entrusted to them. They did not think that the House of Commons would have done what might be reasonably demanded of it until they had at least striven to give to the people of Wales that religious equality for which, in the proportion of something like 15 to 1, their representatives were prepared to vote. They did not think that they ought to lay aside their armour and appeal once more to the electorate till they had at least tried to strike an effective blow at the great curse of intemperance. They should not let the session pass without attempting to purify their representative system, and making the House of Commons, in fact, the authentic organ of the voice of the people.