New-York tribune., 1873-09-05
BRITISH TOPICS.
NOTES FROM LONDON.

tFRoN THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUSE.l
LONDON, Aug. 2l.-Mr. Bright is not to be heard
from expected. In acknowledging
the Birmingham resolutions he explains that GER
tain formalites that must be gone through win
may postpone the election for a few weeks AS 10
visiting Birmingham and making speech ne says
81 am anxious TO cOme-much more anxious 10 come
than any one in Birmingham can be to receive me"
That is saving a good deal. for the anxiety of Mr..
Brigbt's constituents to hear him is twofod. Ills
illness has kept him silent more than two years.
That is one reason. The other is their desire TO
know what his joining the Government signifies
respecting its educational policy whether 1t signi-
6es nothing.
The belief that Mr.. Bright's act meant the sur
render of Mr.. Gladstone to the NonconformlSts, OF
TO the Birmin CHAM League, has been shaken by
Mr. Gladstone himself. No such belief, indeed was
general OF confident. 1t was hope rather than
belief Mr. Gladstone might have strengthened it
by keeping silence, and he was supposed to be so
overworked and fatigued and i'll and glad to get
away from political worry, that nobody looked for
n speech from him for at least week-a very
long time for him to be silent He went off to
Hawarden however. and the very day of his arrival
attended meeting called to consider the very ques
tion at issue between those who support and those
who attack the existing Education Law BY that
law Government aid is granted to voluntary denom-
1ndUOnal SCHOOLS IN WDlcn bpeClnC religious anu
dogmatic instruction is given. The Birmingham
League would have no grant of public money to
any schools but those organized by School
Boards, and they would have school boards
elected everywhere, and the existing denOmi-
national schools supplanted by Others founded at
public expense and emancipated from clerical con-
troll Hitherto the Government has stood by the de-
nomnatiOnal schools, and if Mr.. GladstOnes
Hawarden speech may be taken as public declars
ton, it means that Mr.. Brights return to the Cab
met viii make no difference i'll its policy. man
might hold either view, said Mr.. Gladstone without
contravening the Act, but be. Mr.. Gladstone
thought voluntary education the best, and where
four-ffths of the education already provided
he did not sec why they should go to the expense of
u school board TO supply the one-ffth.
This is treated by The Times clear and distinct
pronunciation of the principles of the Education
act and as dissipatng entirely the unwarrantable
deusiOn that Mr.. Bright had entered into con-
cordat with the Ministry. On the other hand
The DAILY NeCs, which is the leading opponent
among Liberal journals of the existing Act, SCOTS
at the Interpretation put upon the speech 1t treats
the speech as purely local. and the publication of it
as an indiscretion, and declines to look for
position of national policy in doubtful and frag
mentary report of a parochial meeting in
F1intshire. The Telegraph, which, if it spoke
at all, would speak with all the authority
due to an organ is silent dare say you think this
needlessly long exposition. but it touches ques-
tion which is vital TO the immediate future OF the
Liberal party viz the relations between the Minis
terial leaders of that party and the NonconOrmist
members of it. Short of some concessions to the
latter do not how their detection is to be pre-
vented If Mr. Bright has as they would say, aban-
doned them, they will be only the more exasperated
and the more resolved on breaking up a party from
which, as they conceive, they will have nothing
more to hope
Before the discussion on the Hawarden speech is
ended Mr. Gladstone has made another. This time
IL is the Welsh whom he addresses. They caught
him on the wing He was 10 leave Hawarden
Tuesday for BalmOral where be has TO spend fort
night as Cabinet Minister in attendance on the
Queen. The Weshmen, however had their National
Ersteddfod at Mold on the same day, and their de-
sire for a speech from the Prime Minister was too
pressing to be resisted. He gratifed them by talk
ing couple of columns about Wales, and the Tela-
tions between Wales and England. OF the union
between the two countries he spoke not legisla-
tiye-nothing about il in the statute book but
its sacred terms are written in the hearts of the
people and you might well try to tear England
from England as to tear Wales from England" He
accounted for the tenacity with which the
Welsh cling to their language by their
spirit of resistance to the effort of the En-
of it-an effort now itself abandoned and not to be
renewed But he advised them TO learn English
nevertheless and so compete with the English on
more even terms in the great struggle of life. There
were no politics in the speech. nothing about educa
tion. happily and the delight Of the Weshmen in
their distinguished guest was unmixed, and their
enthusiasm beyond what any other people can ex
press Mr. Gladstone has since arrived safely in
Balmoral and do not see how it is possible for him
10 deliver another public address during his visit
there or 10 get it reported if he does. Balmora is
reclusion itself Perhaps the household servants
might serve as audience and shorthand writer be
smugged in in livery.
That distress of the lower middle classes about
prices 70 which lately referred, has found vent In
another loud cry. meeting was held last night at
the east end of London to protest against the high
price of meat. Mr.. j. ID. Cox-I suppose the Radical
Derbyshire magistrate-presided. Mr.. Cox wishes
il 10 be understood that he blames neither the
farmer nor the butcher for getting as much as they
can The man whom Mr.. Cox blames is the capital
5st So far as l can make out from the brief report
of his speech, Mr. Cox means by capitalist the mid
deman and his complaint is that four OF five profits
come between the producer and his supply. To get
nd OF the middleman. be proposes the cooperative
system, and the meeting appointed committee to
form society for dealing in that way. All such ex
perinents are interesting, and this which is not
btious NAV succeed But it is exactly at this point
that the cooperative system at the West End has
broken down We have cooperative butchers, and
,bev have a scale Of prices considerably lower than
the prices Of the regular dealer But what happens
practically is that either you don't get good meat
q 1.