The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-11-24

sisted that the trial must be either inter
national or Belgian. The latter alterna-
tive has been reluctantly accepted at
Brussels, but the Belgians are furious at
this, and declare that England has no au-
thority to hold them responsible Tor the
administration of Congo, which they, as
a nation, have nothing to do with, ana
there are ominous signs of national pro-
test which the King cannot ignore.
Although it is now apparent that there
will be no fighting or pretext for hghting
in Ashantee, the expedition is being hur-
ried off all the same, and transports sailed
to-day in the wake of others that weighed
anchor during the week, and still others
will be off within the next few days Mr..
Cham berlain is getting great credlt on all
sides for having taken a polite course
and arranged the difficulty with King
Prempeh, while side by side with these
laudatory comments appear accounts
from day to day of new forces and NUM-
tons of war being dispatched to the region
which he is praised for having paclhed.
This paradox is comprehended well
enough, but nobody in England says any
thing about it. The truth is that the
British foresee a number of contingencies
in which it will be convenient to have
picked and capable column of troops, with
an exceptional commissariat, medical
train and fine transport service ready for
emergencies on the Guinea coast. Military
men say that there are some healthy
points where such body could be tenn
porarily disembarked, if necessary, but
they lean to the suspicion that there will
be some active work for the expedi-
ton on the upper Niger or even in the
Congo-way before it sees England again.
1 have spoken before of the remarkable
amount of personal advertisement that
Chamberlain is getting, and not the least
interesting phase of this is the fact that
the radical papers which, a few months
ago held him in perfect loathing, are be-
ginning to say quite kindly things about
him. This is not by any means mere
spontaneous recognition of his merits as
an administrator. 1t has its origin rather
in a report which is being quietly circu-
lated to the effect that Chamber
lain has resolved to resist his Tory col
leagues on the education question which
now appears likely to force itself to the
front as a National issue. Americans
would find it peculiarly difficult to under
stand what that question involves here.
The Germans, Frenchmen and Dutchmen,
Danes, Swedes-every people, in fact,
north of the Alps-regard English concep-
tons of popular education worthy only of
barbarians. The British School Board,
which Is the nearest approach to the free
school known here, is indeed an jncred-
IDLY limited and benighted affair, yet even
~. -. IL L.
waste of public money. Unless it be an
agricultural depression there is nothing
that the Tory squires and parsons feel so
keenly about as this, to them, monstrous
notions of educating the peasantry
beyond their station. And immedi-
ately after the Tories had won their
great parliamentary majority the pressure
inside the party on this subject became
tremendous. Under its stress both the
bishops and principal Tory leaders let it
be seen that they sympathized with this
demand for the revision of the educational
settlement of 1876 Nothing definite was
promised, but hints that to the Catholic
hierarchy in Ireland were TO be conceded
their educational claims have increased
the fears of nonconformists that the
clerics in England are to have their own
way, too. Sir John Gorst, who is at the
head of the Educational Department in
the Ministry, is an enthusiastic reformer,
and makes speeches favoring still further
educational advance, but Salisbury and
other Tory chiefs take precisely the other
line.
So long as only Gorst raised the flag of
mutiny the thing was not serious, because
ho ha ID b,,+ 81,
story that Chamberlain is backing him
lifts the affair at once to prominence. 1
understand that it is upon this ground.
too, that John Morley has consented to re-
turn to Parliament through the back door
of safe Scotch seat. He had made no Sc
cret of his aversion to the idea, and rather
CURLY declined the proffered Wells seat
last August, saying that with Harcourt in
Wales and Asquith, Trevelyan, Brice and
Campbell Zimmerman in Scotland. really
some front-bench Liberal ought to
try to keep alive the idea that Liberal
ism was not exclusively confined to the
Celtic fringe. He said then that he would
sit for Newcastle or nowhere. He was sim
cere, too, in the desire to finish his book
on Chatham and clear up other literary
engagements, yet now he accepts an offer
of Montrose, and apparently is even will
ing to swallow the formula of Scotch home
rule, which he hates. The explanation is
that the school question has suddenly
been lifted to place of vital Importance,
and on that Morley is more obviously the
man to lead the Liberals than any other.
He has always maintained personal rela-
tons with Chamberlain. too, and there is
fair ground for suspicion that in taking
this step he has acted on information as to
the Birmingham boss attitude in the COM
ing education fight.
Guarded references to the Queens fail
ing health are at last beginning to find
their way INTO the English newspapers.
And hear it second hand from great
London physician tonight that Sir Henry
F. Ponsonby's death has heavily added to
the depression that she was laboring I'M
der. This is only natural, for he had been
her confidential shadow for many years.
Scarcely any of her old friends remain
now, and she broods on though is of the
tomb in melancholy loneliness. She
has ordered the big marble bust
of her late young Highland attend
ant to be put up in the hall at