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LIBERAL MEETING AT. MONTGOMERY.

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LIBERAL MEETING AT MONTGOMERY. Alderman Fairies-Humphreys, J.P., presided over a meeting held in the Montgomery Town HaH on Monday evening', under the auapioea of the Liberal Association. The chairman was supported by Mr A. C. Humphreys-Owen M. P., Mr J. D. Rees, Candidate for the Boroughs, Mr Alfred Billson, Mr Hugh Lewis and Alderman B. B. James, J.P. There was a very spare audience at the commencement of the meeting, numbering about twenty voters al) told, hub the meeting waH augmented by a- contingent of Conservatives later on and attained respectable proportions before the close. The Chairman in a brief introductory speech, said there were three or four questions of great importance before the country which needed great knowledge and experience to understand. The nscal policy was a question which bad been brought forward all in a hurry, and he himself did not feot disposed to take for granted all that a certain person said, because that gOBDemandid not at the present time believe in many of the things which he hicn- self had said. Mr. J. D. Roes said that Mr. Jesso CoIHngs bad made two speeches in the district, but the second was merely invective. He said the issue of the next election was really the fiscal question, but in Wales they would not forget a few other issues— the Education Act, and the waste, extravagance, and loss of precious lives in the war. A nahmonger in one of the boroughs said he welcomed protection, because it would make the poor people live on her- ring's. Mr. CoUings said their manufaoturea bad been built up under protection, but Mr. Chamber. lain years ago said that the lack of employment and destitution were nothing to what they were when the Corn Laws were in force. Mr. Collings rsferred to th% prosperity of France, Germany and Russia.. In France people worked longer hours and got !esa wages thamn England, and a Frenchman would live on what was the refuse of an English house. The Times Berlin correspondent said the nuances of that country were in a state of the greatest possible disorder, and that three millions of electors had voted with the party of discontent with protection. He had lived in Russia and had had to pay .67 impoit duty on a suit of c)othes from London. Two Emperors had tried to raise up industrial Russia on the strength of duties, but the money had all been lost in Southern Russia, the minister turned cut in disgrace, all their industries were im coUapse, and the country on the borders of revolution. Thosa were the countries whose system Mr Collings said we must foHow. They forget that in this 20th century the whole world was a great market, and they must buy where things were cheap and sell where they were dear. Instead of this protection, the result of which gentlemen present could remember, let them renect upon what the Liberal party wished to do. They wou!d prefer that the products of our industries should go to feed and clothe our own peop!e, and net have their eyes nxod always upon the foreign imports and exports. The Liberals wished to im. prove the dwellings of the people and to reduce taxation and rates. He had frequently been twitted with being a moderate candidate for the London Ceunty Council. He stood against the Council's expenditure, he stood against, the Govern- ment for the same reason, and would stand against the Liberals with equal pleasure if he thought their expenditure was equally pronigate. Pauperism in this country was less than in any of the protected countries, but taxes and rates were mounting up in a way that filled him with mia- givingt. He urged them to work all together. Un- less they did so they would nat have success at the pol)s. There was one form of Protection which they must have, that was Protection against Mr Chamberlain (applause.) Mr Humphreys-Owen, dealing with the subject of religious equality in the public elementary schools, said he had at ways recognised that religion muat form an integral part of education and that the Church of England bad done much in past years for the education of the people. He attacked the present system, not from any disloyalty, but because the Chursh had been misled by unsafe guides. In 1870 it became obvious that the help given by the tStata was not sumoient. A com- promise was arrived at and for the past 30 years the Board schools were growing up side by side. While the contributions of the people out of the rates were being steadily drawn on out of the rates, the Voluntary schools were being steadily relieved of their cost, first by the abolition of fees, the 8s grant and other amaH items. The pecuniary posi- tion of the Voluntary schools became more and more independent upon public money. This was viewed by the Liberats with increasing uneasiness, and it was recognised that the time was ripe for a great educational advance. How was that oppor- tunity seized ? Not by giving an education fair to all but by giving a stronger position to the schools eata.bUshed and parity maintained by the Church of England. The wbo)e cost of the schools, except the landlord's repairs of the fabrics, is to be borne by the State at largp. The management of the schools is vested if the managers and it is provided that there shall atways bw a majority of church people on the managemeut of the schools. In the trust deeds of nearly half thes3 schools was a provision that the masters must be members of the Church of Eng- land. That position was fortified and compfetefy strengthened by giving this majority. That was the essential vice of the Act and as long as it con- tinued the Act would be a failure and an oppression. The imposition of a religious test upon public wants bad been abandoned in every other watk ef public life. A man might be anything from a Lord Chancellor to an exciseman without any enquiry into his religious creed. He might be a teacher in any of their great Universites without enquiry into his religious teaching, but he might not be the master of the Church school at Llanfair .pwil-gwyNgyH. People said this was an insult to Nonconformity he said it was an insult to justice (applause). In that county several of the Tory party were willing to come to an arrangement which, though it would not have been all that Nonconformists wished for, would have been a peaceable manner of living together. It had been rejected and he believed wholly by the voice of the Clergy. Could they wonder that the County Council, representing the laity of the county should, on receiving such a rebuS, take the only measure of showing its reprehension of tint step and declining to levy a rate for these schools. They heard appeals by the Church party to their feelings of pity and compassion for the children, who it was altered, would be suffering from the effects of that refuse), but those appeals were addressed to the wrong qua,rte)-, they should have been addressed to the National Society, which was at the root of the mischief. For his rarb be repudiated responsibility for anything that might happen in the schools. He wished even now at the eleventh hour to appeal to the wisdom and good sense of the opposite party, whom they could give everything except religious ascendancy- Christian education approved of by the Church of Engtand, such education as was given by the London School Board. Not only would they guar. antee that but they would give facilities for giving their own dogmatic instruction. He appealed t< Nonconformists to concede what was not a matter of principle but of sentiment. He believed the leaders of Nonconformity were willing to deal in that spirit with the schoofs if they would place themselves under the control of the County Coun- cil. Dealing with the fiscal question, Mr Hum- phreys-Owen said that each interest clamoured for protection and was not very scrupulous aa to the accuracy of its statements. When they heard traders in a country which was steadily advancing in prosperity making representations of that kincf, they could see how it sapped the commercial morality of the country, but it was still worse if the purity of the Legislation was endangered. If they taxed a man for their own advantage and not for the public good tiey robbed and made a slave of him. Free Trade meant freedom, and if they parted with it they were undone. Mr Chamberlain advanced a number of very digerent ideals. One wa< union with our Coloniea. Had not they got that? They were united in race, in religion and in all common tra- ditions, and why should they attempt to make that union c!eser by their trumpery taring. If bread were made dearer in order to benefit Canada against the United States it would not make us greater friends with Canada. What would the Canadian timber setters say ? Mr Cha-mherlsun said: If you are hit, hit back," but they were not sure that the principles of the sermon on the Mount were not best for this world as well as for the next..Landlords were all Protectionists. They saw their way to get better rents if the farmers got higher prices, but Protection would not be a good thing for the farmers, although it might give a abort peried of prosperity to some. Did tivy suppose that the 2h millions of towns people would allow their food to be increased in price for the benefit of the 7 millions in the country. He ap- pealed to the patriotism of the farmers. His income depended upon land, but he would be grieved to think that it was increased to cause suffering to millions of his fe)lsw countrymen. It was a great portend that the Duke of Devonshire bad explioitty declared that no Liberal Unionist eheu!d vote in favour of anyone who favoured Mr. Chamberlain's proposals. He looked forward to the time when there would be a close union between the free tr&de Unionists and the Liberal party in battHng with the plans of a statesman, whose vigour they admired, while they detested his principles (applause). Mr. Alfred Billaon said they in Montgomeryshire had a great de&I to be thankful for in having had Mr. Humphreys-Owen as their member for many years, and to have Mr. Rees as their candidate for the Boroughs. They were not likely to say much about the carrying on of the Transvaal war. They used to say that the war was inevitable. Mr. Humphreys-Owen, on the contrary, keph Hrm and staunch to the principle that we have not been properly represented in our d)p!omaoy, and that it might have been avoided. Njw Mr. Chamber;a!n had been to South Africa, he also admitted that the war was the result of a misunderstanding. After reviewing the report of the War Commi:;sioi1, Mr. Billston said that since the Government ca,me into omoe in 1895, its expenditure had increased by 45 miltions a year. That meant jEl per head of popu- lation, or ;CI,200 a year taken out of Montgomery. In Shropshire it meant zC260,000 a year more than when the Liberats were in omce. The time would come when from one end of the country to the other there would go up a cry against the Govern. ment for the way they had managed that war and wasted its resources. They were not going to be led away by this ta)k about Empire. They sought for educational faculties and for the socia! improve. ment of the people, not to attack any foreign country but to manage their own affairs. What they sought to do was to mould a race generous just and true, slow to attack but nrm to resist' whose strength was not in greed and conqaeat, but al! the more iikely to be faithful guardians of this England that we love (app]ausa). Ald. E. R. James, J.P., moved a vote of thanks to the Chairman and other speakers, which was seconded by the Rev H. RoDaston and supported by Mr Hugh Lewis, Newtown. The Chairman bneny replied.

LLANFAIR.

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