One would hardly look to Sir Charles Adderley for opinions
of the most extreme democratic type, such as prevail in Red Com- mittee-rooms, but are rarely heard of in public assemblies, even ha Republics. In the course of a speech at Longton, however, de- livered on Monday, Sir C. Adderley, speaking of Education Acts, said, "There was this safety-valve in England, that if Parliament passed an Act which the country did not like the people soon began to take no notice of it, and business was carried on as if it had not been passed at all." That is true enough, unfortunately, but it is not a kind of truth we should have expected a Tory Minister to approve. Most Tories have rather been tempted to admire the great Ormonde, when in Charles ll.'s Cabinet he said that "in his judgment an Act of Parliament was no light thing." The game on Sir Charles Adderley's estate is protected solely by Act of Parliament. When village poachers disregard those Acts, they will in future be able to plead the Minister's opinion that the neglect of an Act of Parliament is not an offence, but "a safety-valve." Would Sir Charles hold it right to refuse to pay an unpopular tax when imposed by statute ?
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