The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-01-13 00:00:00

A WoRD TO SCHOOL BOARDS.

Just one word more on this subject. tam afraid that
some of our School Boards are too ambitious, and are aiming
hw much Jame than can usefully be taught in the great ma-
jority of casts. They are not likely to take ally hint of mine,
lout I think they hardly make allowance tor the shortmaa of
time, for the stupidity of the average human intellect, and
for the wonderful power which boys and men [RAW SS of f.w-
gettiag quickly and completely what they have only half
learnt. (Hear, bear.) That mid settle itself ; and on the
general question of education, all I have to say tomes to
this : you have got a eystent which promisee to work fairly
well ; that. under all the difficultiesof the ease, is much to have
accomplislual. Don't IN in a Mary to alter it ; but, at any
rate, let it work for some years, and then if there is a real
grievance anywhere—which I don't admit there is—we shall
see more clearly where the shoe pinches. (Hear, hear)
TUE LICF.NEING QUESTION.

There Is another matter of great social interest, with
which Parliameet will probably have to deal next Seesion.
I mean the Licensing question. (Heat, hear.) It is snot a
very easy or simple one, and, an usually happens, those who
see its dillieulthe least are surest that they have found the
way to settle it. (Laughter and applause.). There is a general
feeling, and Lam afraid one cannot leny that it is well
founded, that as a nation we are a little too fond of good
liquor. (" Hear," and laughter.) I think there is
great exaggeration in what is commonly said about
drunken habits, because we must remember that a per-
fectly sober, temperate man of the middle or upper
classes who coasinues his three or four glasses of wine
daily and never Is the worse for them gets through a great
deal more drink In the worm) of the year than most of the
poor fellows who go in for too much beer on Saturday night,
and get into trouble in consequence. (.. Hear, hear' and
renewed laueliter., Still, making allowances of that kind,
there is no doubt that a good deal of crime and dieease is
due to intemperance. (Applause.) We all want to check
that if we only knew how, and every year various plans
are put forward fir that purpose. One of those plans is
that preposterous-seheme framed by a body of men calling
themselves the United Kingdom Alliance. Their theory is
that if by any means you can persuade two-thirds of the
ratepayers of a district that I ieer is objectionable they shall
have the right to lialkatle that rule of diet on the remain•
ing third. NoW, that is sheer tyranny and intolermice of
the worst sort. It would be just as reasonable to lay it
down that where two-thirds of the population of any district
were Protestants no Catholic should be allowed to °pea
a place of worship, or that where two-thirds were Liberide,
Conservative should be allowed to set up a news-
paper. Laughter.) But I won't waste your time on that
theory. We have our national faults, but a sour and
morose fanaticism Is not one of them. ;Cheers.) If those
Puritans of the 111th century were to carry their point,
they would find, like the Puritane of the 17th century,
that they only produced during a few years an apparent
conformity, which would be followed by a reaction of excess
which everybody would regret. "hear, hear," and cheers.)
Well the other proposals are in various ways to cut down
the number of licensed houses by retailing fresh licences
and gradingly cancelling the old ones. That I. the direc-
tion which-the last attempt at legislation took. Put there
is one very awkward feature attending it, that the more you
follow the policy of limiting numbers, the more you are put-
ting into a few hands is close and profitable tuonopoli, with
the inevitable result that a worse article is supplied at a
higher price. I own I am not sanguine of much good being
done in that way, though any scheme of that sort a hick
gives just minsideration to existing interests deserves at least
a fair bearieg. (Hear, hear.) Another course. again, is to
leave the trade open to all competitors, but to en( one stricter
regulations as to hour, and mahagement. That is a policy
which just Inose is out of fashion, though it is easier to abuse
it than to show that it is wrong. Ou the whole I do mit
think that we Bhall pass any large measure which will
what is called settle the queetion ; " but something
will he tried, and I think it will be the duty of Con-
senatives to help as far as they can. (Hear, hear.) For
myself I have no grant faith in this kind of legislation ex-
cept as a temporary expedient. Time and teaching and the
force of opinion will du more than any Act of Parliament,
and it is on them we must rely. (Applause.) The 'erasion
for drink is a disease as well as a vice—a disease
generated sometimes by bad air, somethnes by excessive
labour, often by peer and ill.chosen diet, and often, again,
by inherited morbid tendencies. To believe that you iambi
cure it throughout the country in a year, or even in a few
years, is to go against all the teachings of experience. That
there will be luiprovement I do not doubt. but I believe it
will be a wore of tine-, and that In the poorer classes as In
the richer classes a reform of social habits will come about
gradually and Wilma imperceptibly. (Cheers.)

_ .
Ellis lordship then referred to the Mines Regulation
Rill, the Scotch Education Bill, and the expected Studtary
Improvements promised in the coming session.]

THE BALLOT OVER AGAIN.

Well, we sire to have the Ballot over again, probably as
soon as Parliament meets lied on that subject I would
merely repeat the opinion which I have expressed noire than
once in former years—that there is no question hi the whole
range of politics the practical importance of which appears
1,, me to have been more exaggerated. ("Hear, bear,' and
applanse.) The cry for the ballot AAA raised 40 or 50
years ago, when there were many exceedingly small con-
stituencies in which half a dozen votes might turn the
scale, and where the owners of those votes were mostly
In a very dependent condition. I don't believe that, even
then, it would have made the change which was supposed,
Inc tuition you must remendier this, that no system of met
voting can ever be more than a hat( protection. (" Mar,
hear,' awl cheers.) Those who eau bribe, or those who
can intimidate, cannot indeed, where votes are secret, Insure
a vote being given in their favour, but they can alwajs
insure the absence from the poll of a voter horn
they know to be disposed to go against them. " Irear,
hear," laughter and cheers.) Nor have I any great faith in
bribery being checked by that method. Payment by results
may be applied to elections as well as to schools, and
out as it may sewn, I believe there are very many men so
constituted that their consciences or their sense of duty
will not prevent them from taking a bribe, but who et
will hove ITAnour eneti;ll left (If honour you can rah it
give their vote at, paid fir, either in seuet vr openly, I r
the reinitiate to whom they have promised it. (" Hear,
hear." and applause. However. I don't think this Is the
time or place to go into this arg 1111 l ent. I believe that If
secret voting is carried, you will still know how OP men out
of 100 have voted. . . . What seems to me to be the prac-
tical part of the question is how to prevent personation
and it is to that point. I think, that our tumbler:Won
ought now to be mainly directed. We want an t ffectind
cheek against Imo voting, as the phrase goes, " early and
often," and we have fair erommll for objecting to any mea-
sure that does not give us security on that point. (Hear,
hear.)

REFORM OF JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATION.

There Is an Infinitely larger subiect to which I should
like to see the attention of Parliament directed ; lout
whether it will be so or toot, I have no means-of judging-1
mean the reform of judicial administration. (Applause ) Our
Bench and Bar are, for learning, for aloility, and for high
professional honour, not to be equalled in the world. In that
respect there isno improvement to ask for. (" Hear, hear,"
and cheers.) But I don't think we can deny that, not-
withstanding all that has been done of late years—and it
is much—justice is still sometimes very slow, and often
very costly. (.. Hear, hear.") I speak under reserve, as
a layman, but I I lon' t think It ought to be difficult to esta-
blish a single and supreme Court of Appeal, which the
stop-gap measure of lust year does not give us. (" floor,')
and cheem. I don't see why the highest Equity Judge of
the land should be placed in the wholly anomalous and in-
consistent position of being also a member of the Cabinet,
and, therefore, a political partisan. or can 1 understand
why, when there is no want of competent men to relieve
one another, so large a part of our judicial machinery
should stand still for four months out of the twelve.
There is much useful work to be done in this line, am)
I don't see why Conservative, should not help to do it.
(Cheers)

THE REDUCTION OF THE NATIONAL DEBT.

In finance all we need ask of our mien is not to play
tricks. (Cheers nod. laughter). We are doing well now,
and if we continue at peace we shall do still better. (Hear,
hear,. But it is possible to he too ingenious (laugnter) : and
a great many people will be relieved from anxiety if the
Chancellor of the Exchequer next April condescends to give
us a commonplace budget. (Applause and renewed laughter).
lii were to throw out a suggestion on that subject, it would
be that we might turn our thoughts more than we do to the
reduction of the debt. (Hear, hear.) Our Isesent pros-
perity may not last for ever. I speak advisedly when I teU
you that we are not any of as, rich or poor, paying, In
proportion to our Income, one-half the burden which was
borne by our grandfathers in the time of the great war.
Probably one-third would lie nearer the mark but I
don't think it is altogether satisfactory to anticipate that
our descendants 200 years hence may still be paying the
bill for Waterloo and Trafalgar. If we could be sure of
perpetual peace we might allow the cost of former wars to
remain a perpetual charge. But that is not the case and
we may reason ablylut ilise a time—it may be only an interval
—of safety and prosperity to clear Ourselves inca this idd
inherited burden. If we don't do that, if every war is to
add to the debt, and every interval of peace is to leave it un-
diminished, or very nearly so, there is only one ending, and I,
for one, am not reconciled to the thought of hankruptcy or
repudiation merely by the consideration that it will not come
In my time. (Loud cheers.)

OUR MATERIAL RESOURCES AND PROSEECTs.
In regent to material resources and prospects, we have
nothing just now to complain of. Trade is flourishing, the
people are employed, and pauperism has perceptibly
diminished. (Hear, hear.) Very much more remains to be
dose in that respect; but I ant expressing to you one of the
deepest and strongest convictions of my miol when I say that
for those social i num° vementa which we all desire. alai Whia are
in everybody's mouth, we most look to the community acting
for itself in the first instance, and to Governments and legislio
tors only In rare RIO exceptional cases. (Hear, hear," and ap-
plause I know that is with niauy people an unpalatable
doctrine, but bear with me for a moment while I state
it. What ore the characteristic national achievement*
of which Englishmen in the present day are most apt to
boast! I think airy one would name—next to our free Go-
vernment our unparalleled commerce, our unlimited com-
mand of capital, the manufactures in Wiliell we excel
and with which we supply the whole world, our railway
s) stein the (11st-established and the most complete which
any colintry possesses, and our newspaper press, to which I
will not pay a compliment, because compliments of that
kind from public men are always suspicious, but which you
may fudge for yourselves. Well, lig not every one of these
things the work, the unassisted work, of individual enter-
prise, as distinguished from State agency / (" Hear, hear,"
and cheers