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WALES AND LIBERAL PROGRESS.…

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WALES AND LIBERAL PROGRESS. SPEECH BY MR T. ELLIS, M.P. EQUALITY IN RELIGIOUS TEACHING. PROGRESS OF EDUCATION IN THE PRINCIPALITY. REVOLUTIONISING AGRICUL- TURAL METHODS. GREAT GROWTH OF GOVERN- MENT GRANTS. FIGHTING THE ANGLICAN ESTABLISHMENT. SNEERS AND INDIFFERENCE OF THE CLERGY. DEANVAUGHAN: A NOTABLE EXCEPTION. THE COWARDICE OF THE BISHOPS. CoLWTN BAT, Friday. Mr T. E. Ellis," the chief Ministerial Whip, IV" the principal speaker to-night at a political meeting held under the auspices of the Colwyn Bay Liberal Association, when the chair was taken by Mr David Lewis, and among others present was Mr Herbert Roberts, M.P. The OSAlliMAN having briefly opened the pro- ceedings, a resolution was adopted regretting the retirement of Mr Gladstone from the leadership !)f the Liberal party. Mr ELLIS, who was received with cheers, after referring to the advantages which it was hoped be conferred by the passing of the Parish Councils Act, and which he thought would, accong other things, result in a general adoption of the Libraries Acts and a more perfect maintenance ot public footpaths rights, said that the more the Local Government Act was examined the clearer it beoame, and it embodied a large part of what the Welsh people had been straggling for in their national movement for Disestablishment. The popular energy and sacrifices on behalf of Disestablishment meant much more than the provisions of the actual Disestablishment Bill, and it really included the stretKNKis fight for civil, social, and re- ligiotts equality. (Cheers.) The attainment of that equality had been but slowly accomplished by the establishment of a national and demo- cratic system of national education from the village school to the University, by means of which everyone, whether establishmentarian or Nonconformist, was given an equal opportunity by the establishment of this system of local government, which, based on a franchise of one man one vote, placed every man on civil equality. Let them examine the progress which in the course of 25 years Wales had made in the matter of bestow- ing upon everyone in Wales an equality of oppor- tunity in the matter of education. It might be gaaged by the amount of grants from the Imperial Exchequer for schools in Wales. Take 5retof all primary schools. In 1869 there was paid in grants to primary schools in Wales and Monmouthshire £41,148. Last year a sum of £335,463 was paid in grants to the Welsh primary schools. (Cheers.) In 1869 the sum devoted to the maintenance of science schools and classes in Wales was £254. Last year £3,926 was so devoted. In 1869 for art schools and classes JB539 was granted, whereas last year :87.881 were gained by art schools and classes. (Cheers.) The change was still greater in the spheres of secondary and technical educa- tion. In 1869 the State was content with merely recognising existing endowments for secondary education. Those endowments ill Wales were abown to be inadequate, and whereas the State spent not a penny in 1869, it would during next year pay £50,000 upon secondary and technical klacation in Wales. (Cheers.) The change was quite as striking in the matter of higher education in Wales. Over and above the £12,000 paid to the three national University Colleges of Aber. ystwyth, Cardiff, and Bangor, £1,500 a year was now paid for the development of agricultural education :n W, and although so far the effect of this education upon Welsh agriculture was comparatively small, yet lie ventured to think that within ten years it would have gone far to MVOLUTIONlSK AGRICULTURAL METHODS throughout Wales, and give to Welsh agriculture an impetus as strong as was given to Danish agriculture by the State system of education there. (Cheers.) One development of special interest to the future or Welsh education was that the Government now made a grant of £7,500 a year for the training of primary teachers in the three University Colleges. It seemed to him a matter of special importance that the future primary teachers of Wales, who could so largely ahape and mould the social life of the Welsh villages and towns, were being educated at the national centres of culture side by side with the future secondary teachers, University teachers, and professional and public men of the Princi- pality. (Cheers.) Over and above all this, there was now an annual grant of £3,000 towards the main- tenance of the new University of Wales, and as the new University Colleges got mto full work- ing order and their work expanded he had no doubt but that grant would be increased during the present year. Sir Win* Harcourt bad made a grant ot £10,000, which would enable Aberystwyth to finish its splendid pile of buildings—the very finest in the Princi- pality. (Cheers.) Comparing 1869 with to-day, he found that 25 years ago less than £42,000 was panted by the State for all forms of public education in Wales, whereas now the sum annually devoted to the various institutions for be public benefit amounted to over £430,000. (Cheers.) That measure of progress was attribut- able to the genuine and persisent enthusiasm of be people for education. (Cheers.) At every ttage they bad to fight the powers of the Anglican Establishment in Wales. It was in the ieeth of the most fierce OPPOSITION ON THE PART OF THE CLERGY that ahe Welsh people had been able to secure for the schools public control. It was only in the face of the sneers and indifference of the past majority of the bishops and clergy of the Establishment that the univerity Colleges were established and developed. There were notable ssoeptions, such as Deau Vaughan, of Llandaff, Archdeacon Griffiths, and the late Dean Edwards, of Bangor; but, taken all an all, these schools were prospering in spike of the iudifferenue and veiled opposition of the Establishment in Wales. (Hear, hear.) That opposition had been carried to the extent of opposing the establishment of secondary education ia Wales during the last two years. The Stshops of St. Asapb and Bangor had used their positions in tbe House of Lords and endeavoured to defeat tbe schemes or parts of schemes which bad beenpassed by the Welsh county councils, and the Charity Commissioners andtheEducation Department. (Cries of Oh and shame.") In JDaDyeases the bitter opposition to these schemes bad not even been approved of by the House of Lotdautaelf. (Hear, hear. The Bishop of Bangor fead moved the rejection of the Carnarvonshire scheme, and he and his brother of St. Asaph ,t<tve notioe of motions for the rejection of other teheoaes, such as those of Flint and Anglesey. B«t the opinion even of the House of Lords was tot 80 Tory, reactionary, and anti-national as ihat Of the two bishops. (Laughter.) As it was bad mangled the Cardiganshire scheme by takmg from it some of the most valuable pro- J visions for the establishment of scholarships, exhibitions, and bursaries. They had taken from other schemes, such as those of Merioneth, Denbigh, and Flint, the provisions which joade it impossible for any sectanan ascendancy .IJo be eetablished in any of the secondary schools ft Waiee. In the oaae of the Denbighshire scheme the Welsh bishops allowed the House of Lords to take A MOST COWARDLY COURSE. Under the Endowed Schools Act of 1868, with tthich the We!sh Intermediate Education Act was incorporated, a provision was made for enabling a judicial body to decide questions of legality raised with regard to any scheme passed by the Charity Commissioners and the Education Department, and provision was made by which Parliament was enabled to supervise questions of policy raised by the schemes. No doubt the question at issue iu the Ruthin School was pre- eminently a question of legality. The bishop and his friends thought that the school was a Church I foundation, and it was illegal to convert a Church foundation to an open and undenominational foundation. The Endowed School Act contem- plated that snoh a question of legality should be referred for decision to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, a legal point to be decided by the highest legal tribunal. This course was open to the bishop and bis friends, but though it was a legal question the bishop and Wis friends had not tbe manliness to refer It to tbe proper legal tribunal, but instead of that hs used his power as a bishop in the Anglican Ohnrch, with a seat in the Hor.se of Lords, to It to tbe proper legal tribunal, but instead of that he used hM power as a bishop in the Anglican Church, with a seat in the House of Lords, to HANOLB A SCHEME whioh had received not alone the complete tanotion of the county council of Merioneth, but the unquestioned sanction of the Charity Com- missioners and the Education Department. Why did tbe Bishop of St. Asaph fear and shirk the Ordeal of the Privy Council, and resort to the Tory and Church prejudices of the House of Lords t It was because they had before them the deliberate opinion of Sir Edward Clarke, doiicitor-Qener&l to the Conservative Administra- )ion, and the scheme of 1881, in which the Ruthin Mhool had been reorganised, had the force of an I I Act of Parliament, (Cheers.) In theJace of the complete concurrence of both the local and central bodies formulating this scheme and Sir Edward Clarke's opinion, he (Mr Ellis) repeated that it was cowardly on the part of the bishops to skirk, on the plea of expense, the ordeal of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Counoil, and use their power as bishops of the Establishment to manglethejDenbighsbirescheme. (Cheers.) Desper- ate attempts were made from timetotimetodispose of the allegation that the Anglican Establish- ment in Wales was alien and anti-national in spirit. The whole course of 25 years during which Wales had been occupying itself with the state of public national education for its boys and girls was further and conclusive evidence of the antagonism between the hierarchy of the Establishment and the masses of the Welsh people. It was not a matter for any surprise that the Welsh people should grow impatient at the delay In securing an Act which would end the &3taoli8hroent in Wales and devote the tithe charge upon the land and the labour of Wales to public and social purposes, and clear from the House of Lords the bishops of the Establish- ment in Wales, who used their position to defeat the deliberate wishes and carefully-elabo- rated plans of the Welsh people. (Cheers.) Now they were entering on the Parliamentary stage of this controversy they should enter on it with spirit and determination, and whatever differ- ences there might be in Wales, either in religion or polities, they at any rate should be united, determined and steadfast to issue to a triumphant and victorious end. They knew very well that the Disestablishment Bill would be rejected by the House of Lords. (A voice, "Reject them. ) Yes, the question of the House of Lords was getting fat!, and he was glad to think that as soon as the Government could pass through the House of Commons those details of the Newcastle programme, it would APPEAL WITH CONFIDENCE TO THE DEMOCRACY of this country not alone on the work it had done, but upon the great issue whether the democracy of this country was to be governsd by its own representatives, or whether it was to be governed and have its wishes thwarted by a hereditary and irresponsible House which had always set itself steadfastly against the current of reform. And when the struggle against the House of Lords was once entered upon, the battle would be carried on to the bitter end, until the power of veto was irrevocably taken away from the House of Lords. And in the future Wales would obtain triumphs still more marked, still more signal, and still more potent for the contentment and progress of its people. (Loud cheers.) Mr HERBERT ROBERTS, M.P., also addreeeed the meeting. The CHAIRMAN announced that in reply to an address presented to Mr Gladstone on behalf of the Liberals of Colwyn Bay, the following reply from the Rev. Stephen Gladstone had been received :—"Gentlemen, your address was received by Mr Gladstone yesterday evening, and he desires me to express his thanks to you, and to others whom you represent, for your ex- pressions towards himself aud also to Mrs Glad- stone. He asked me to add that the Liberals of Wales have always been good to him, not beyond his wish, but beyond his deserts. You will be g ad to know also that his visit to Colwyn Bay has been greatly enjoyed, and had beon beneficial to him and to Mrs Gladstone." (Cheers.) A vote of confidence in the Government having been adopted, the proceedings terminated.

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I THE MAESTEG INTIMIDATION…