at the election had been more a test question, so far as the
supporters of the Government are concerned, than the question of the
amendment of the education system of the country. A Bill dealing with
education is brought forward as the principal measure of the first
session of the new Parliament. Weeks are occupied in its discussion.
It represents the fulfilment of the election pledges of every Member
who supported it. The Bill is passed by perhaps the largest majority
that ever sent a Bill from this House to another place.

Nor was it a revolutionary Bill, to turn the world upside down and
inside out; on the contrary, it was a Bill which, if vitiated in any
respect, was vitiated by the element of compromise. Immense
concessions were made in it, and rightly, I think, to conscientious
and agitated minorities. It was a Bill which so moderate and
consistent a statesman as the Duke of Devonshire, of whose ill-health
the House learns with grave concern, urged the House of Lords to pass
into law.

Sir, the Leader of the Opposition told us the other day that it was
the habit of his Majesty's Government to introduce Bills which they did
not mean to pass. No one--not even the right hon. gentleman
himself--can say that the Government have not earnestly desired to pass
the Education Bill. Every concession that could be conceived was made,
but to what purpose? After the House of Commons had humbled itself
before the House of Lords, after we had gone to the extreme limit of
concession which self-respect, which a proper sense of the dignity of
this House, and a due observance of the pledges of the Liberal Party
permitted, the House of Lords curtly, bluntly, uncharitably, and
harshly flung the Bill out in our faces mutilated and destroyed. I do
not wish to import an element of heat into this discussion, but I
respectfully submit to the Conservative Party that that act on the part
of the House of Lords places them in a new position--a new position in
the sense that never before had their old position been taken up so
nakedly, so brazenly, and so uncompromisingly.

It is true that we have an excuse put before us with much suavity of
language in these debates--we are told that the House of Lords seeks
to interpret the will of the people, and it is explained that by "the
will of the people," what is meant is the persistent, sub-conscious
will, as opposed to any articulate expression of it. The right hon.
gentleman who leads the Opposit