The times., 1901-04-28
LONDON NEWS AND. GOSSIP.
Reported Dissension- in'the Cabinet
nAar the. Esuafl-s.a.


LONDON. ApriI 27.AThis has been a
week of political alarrns If one-half of
the gossip in the clubs is true. the Cahi-
net chamber was the scene Of a pitched
battle before Sir Miehael Hicks Beach
had his viii in declining to throw the en-
tire cost of the war upon posterity, In the
way Of loans, and in further declining to
commit a breach of free trade by exempt
ing impure sugars from the new tax.
Punch this week echoes the general
feeling of Ministerial unrest by picturing
John Bulls refusal to allow Ministers to
dismount from their iibbing and kick
ing mule. They must ride il through
Whatever grain of truth there may be in
these rumors. it is quite certain that Sir
Michael Hicks-Beach is now getting his
way all round. though in so doing he in
creases the spirit of revolt among the
Ministerial rank and file with protection
ist and other hereticaI ieanirgs, and
though the coal tax must certainly lose
a MiniSteralist seat at Monmouth Burghs,
where bye-election is pending. Yet mil
liant Liberalism is very slow to take its
chance. Being leaderess, the party IS
lifeless.
This may not long be so, for many in
1uential Liberals are being brought to
realize that never since Mr.. Gladstone S
Midlothian campaign has Liberalism had
a better chance. The Westminster Ca
zette." now the most powerful of the Lib
eraI journals, leads the new movement.
1t declares the Liberals must use all
means to evict the Government and must
be willing to take Office even in the pres
ent Tory House of Commons for sufii-
cient period to enable them to introduce
n pf financial reform
and an effective scheme of army reform
Then whatever happened to Liberal
ism in the House. ii would stand before
the country as a reorganiZed and united
party with definite policy that would
cure dissensions and inspire men to fght
for it, To have such a party is, all Lib
erals agree, one of the first national
needs. and it would probably get large
measure of support, even in the present
House of Commons. If the idea seems
chimerical it is not because the Govern
ment is strong or because its supporters
are satisfied, but because Lord RoSebery
and Sir William Harcourt still haunt Lib
eraiism with their personal feud.
English dissent may date an important
historical development from TINS week
The Joint spring assembly of the Baptist
and Congregational Unions has been III
session in London, and a reception Oh eX-
traordnary enthusiasm has been given
to DR.. Joseph Parker's proposals, as
Chairman of the Congregational mon OF
England and Wales, for union of the
Congrega tional, Baptist, and Presbyterian
bodies of England on lines similar to
those adopted in the recent union of the
Free Churches of Scotland
The united body would under these pro-
,fe.s,., tal fq
fund. would preserve the individuality of
each Church would not insist upon uni
form or infexible way Of receiving or
recognizing it's ministers. would replace
eight existing theological colleges by three
high grade colleges at oxford. Cambridge,
and Durham, and deal with the questions
of property, endowments. colleges, funds,
etc. These are the lines upon which Free
Churchmen are being urged 10 consider
consolidation.
This also has been a momentous week
in English educational affairs. The High
Court recently decided that the school
boards in whose hands the primary state
education is placed, have no legal right
TO eXpend public money on anything be
yond the three RS. reading, writing, and
arithmetic. and this week the London
School Board decided 10 submit 20 the de-
cision, and not carry tire appeal to the
higher courts. This means in London
alone thaat 1893 of the London School
Board higher education and evening
scholars can no longer be educated out
of the rates. The same rule applies TO
every provincial town, affecting hundreds
and thousands of scholars. The old princi-
pie of Toryism, that the working classes
have no need for more than the rudest
elements of education, is thus justified
by law.
The question now agitating educational
circles is whether the Salisbury Ministry
is Tory enough 10 maintain this princi-
pie, or whether political pressure from
the new Toryism of provincial England
will compel them to remove the deadlock
by passing a short enabling act.
Scotland's loyal heart is much oppressed
just now. The King has not alone decided
not to follow his mother s example IN
making BalmoraI a place OF regular royal
but it is now announced that
the report of the intention Of the King
and Queen to reside at the historic Holy
rood castle, in Edinburgh, is a ridiculous
invention. Ireland, however may have
royal residence, and some authorities go
so far as to declare that Lord CadOgan
will be the last Viceroy of Ireland, King
in residence making his viceroydlty un-
The musical world has been set agog
this week by well-accredited reports of a
new and important opera movement for
the coming season, under the encourage
ment of the King. dukes. and millonaires.
a new opera house on the new Holborn-
Strand Avenue is the object of this new
Meanwhile, structural i'm
proVements at Covent Garden will give
opera high place there, while two or
three opera companies are projected on
the lines of the Carl Rosa and other sim
liar organizations. As though to disprove
the indictment so often brought against
English musical taste, Il seven weeks
opera season of sorts has just been car
ried out at pOverty-stricken Shoreditch
while Tristan and Isolde which Covent
Garden could not produce last year, has