On Friday week Mr. John Morley made an important speech
at Manchester to the annual gathering of the Council of the National Liberal Federation. He began by pointing out the unsatisfactory nature of the present conflict, where the real issue was being obscured by all manner of lesser questions. "He could not imagine the cause of the extra- ordinary delay in the discussion of Free-trade and Protection, except that the Prime Minister dared not say what his policy was." Politics had become a game of manceuvring,, scarcely a worthy position for a Government to have brought themselves to. He deplored the so-called settlement of the education question as "a monstrous unsettlement," for which he saw no solution save secular education. In dealing with the Licensing Bill, be said he would not allow the question of compensation to stand in the way of a solution, but he demanded "equity for the public" as well as for the publican. After dealing briefly with Chinese labour, Tibet, and the increase of national expenditure, he concluded by declaring that the Irish question could not be solved by reducing the number of Irish Members. The only settlement possible was a full settlement, and the Liberal party could not unsay all the things it had been saying with such vehemence for so many years. He appealed to Liberals to accept all the help they could get in the coming contest, and to welcome the assistance of Free-trade Unionists. "Every- thing depended upon defeating the men who had betrayed and were betraying the best interests of the country."
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