Widnes Examiner. — 1904-09-17 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

BALFOUR. and Mr. CHAMBERLAIN reproach the Unionist Free Traders with " disloyalty," and the Unionist Free Traders not unreasonably retort by asking whether loyalty means devotion to men or to principles. In Monday's " Times " Mr. HENRY BELL, of Bradford, introduces a new complication by proclaiming his loyalty ',to Conservative principles as typified by the policy of Lord BEACONSFIELD, Of glorious memory. "He it was who, by his manly straightforwardness, made me  Mr. R. Pierpoint has no desire to be divorce,i from Parliament. As he remarked on Saturday he has "been so long in the House of Commons that he has become accustomed and almost wedded to the place." But we hardly agree with him further that it is "his natural place to go to." It seems to us most unnatural that he should remain there seeing that so far as Warrington is concerned he might as well represent Timbuctoo. The only  thing of any note that we can recollect him doing while in the House of Commons wall, to record a vote against Mr. Shackleton s Bill and that achievement we do not suppose the electors will forget in a hurry. No) the House of Commons is not Mr. Pierpoint's "natural place." Can he be forgetting the claims of Cyprus? We had thought a grateful Government mould have realized ere this that Mr. Pier point was created by Providen:m to minister to the wants of Cypriotes, and have relieved him of the 'drudgery' of representing Warrington. What the Government has failed to do in the latter direction the electors must take the first opportunity of performing. It would be cruel kindness to send Mr. Pierpoint back to Parliament.  The intention of the local education authority to cope with the pressing need for additional school accommodation can no longer be doubted. Ie another column, the necessary legal notices are given of their intention to build two new schools. One is to be erected in Orford Avenue in close proximity to the Barracks and another is to be built near Lower Wash-lane for the benefit of children in the Latchford ward. Ratepayers who have just been struggling to pay their rates of 7s, 10d. in the 2 will receive the information with mixed feelings. The building and equipment Of two new schools will involve an expenditure of something like £20,000 and there are more building operations toifollow. That they are required,no one who is acquainted with the educational needs of the Borough: will deny. Warrington managed to get along without a School Board, but it is now clearly established that the voluntary system Of the past was but a very poor substitute. The expenditure of public money was not saved, but merely postponed to a later date. We have new arrived at that period when the accommodation difficulty must be r 3solutely faced, and the deficiencies of past years made good. New schools are required in every part of the town, with the possible exception of the central portion, and the expenditure involved will be heavy. The only hope of the ratepayers for any relief is that the industrial undertakings of the Corporation may show han.d", some prcfits and provide something substantial towards the rapidly increasing expenditure.  Ratepayers in the country districts who hay? had little cause to complain of the amount of their rates are already beginning to feel the additional burden cast upon them by the Education Act. M Penketh Parish Council meeting on Monday even" ing,Dr.Murray informed the astonished councillors that there would be a further increase in the rates. of 4d. or sd. in the 2 for the current half•year.Tliiii is necessitated by the County rate call which 19 the heaviest on record. In Penketh alone the amount required is £lOO in excess of last half year. The Education Ac,'; is mainly responsible for the increase, but County expenditure generally has been steadily going up year by year Mid there is reason to believe that it will continue to rise. The days of low rates are over. It is therefore all the more incumbent upon the representatives of the rate" payers to see that a commensurate return is tained for the increased expenditure. The admin.' istration of country districts has considerably improved since the advent of County and Parish Councils but there is still a real need for that effieiency and economy, of which we hear so muck' at election times.  The regrettable frequency of suicides in South' West Lancashire has drawn from Mr. Coroner Brighouse a somewhat strong comment on the regularity with which juries return the familiar, verdict of "Suicide whilst of unsound mind. Opinion on the subject is divided, but it appears to us that the Coroner's remarks will not have been in vain if they cause jurymen to consider more carefully an aspect of such cases which in many instances, no doubt, has been passed over in a perfunctory way. The law, says Mr. Brighouse, holds a man to be of sound mind until the COT trary is proved. Tender regard for the fee:" ings of bereaved relatives often inspires trl " insanity " verdict, and all that need be 9,8,1 a is that it is incumbent upon jurors to fully real'4 the responsibility which rests upon them. Whether the number of suicides is materially affinted 139 the findings of Coroner's Courts is an open que9". tion. Persons taking their own lives in a rash moment worild hardly, we think, reflect upon the probable verdict. Mr. Brighouse was, however, justified in calling attention to a matter which deserves more serious thought than is given to it by the majority of jurors.  The estimates of losses at Liao-yang, including the hand-to-hand fighting near An-ping, make the battle one of the bloodiest on record. With the accession of William and Mary commenced the real history of the British Army, whose experiene,_e has been a varied one. During the eighteenth century it was a common saying among Continental officers that England possessed "fl ar133,,Y of lions led by asses." The clumsy Duke of in 1799, lost 10,000 men in five engagements le Hollaud. Dettingen, too, cost 10,000 wee' Blenheim put a period to France's invincibLe reputation when she lost 12,000 killed and 14,(Uu captured; and in an hour and a half at Ramillee she lost 15,000 men. Malplaquet was called " terrible slaughter,' and accounted for 36,000 n3en' In 1783 Walpole said: "There are 50,000 wee slain this year in Europe, and not ete.„e Englishman." In Braddock's disaster in taw American campaign of 1755—an eighteenth tory Isandhlwana —10,500 men were lost. On ti e ottler hand, against the East we have not fared s,ie badly. Clive, at Plassey, n-uted 50,000 foot an' 14,000 horse. Civilized Europe however, Iles, Guessed the most anpaling sacrifices. The terrible tile of Moscow may be told in a sentence by saYieti tit of the 400,000 who formed Napoleon's Grsh Army only a few thousands re-crossed the Nielhe,i° December; while at Waterloo, "the first an-1:-pit of fields, king-making victory," Napoleon lost 4,),000.  „