other members of long experience to be chosen by them with the assent of the Speaker, and that failing such allotment within a week the resolution should be operative. He urged that the decline of the House in popular estimation would go further if it were only to register Cabinet decrees. Mr. Dillon, however, declared that the responsibility for the conduct of business must remain with the leader of the House, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer endorsed this view, and said that Parliament would be lowered in the popular estimation by the idea that it could not get through its work. Mr. Balfour also condemned the amendment, which was by leave withdrawn, and an amendment proposed by Mr. Stuart-Wortley (Hallam, Sheffield) giving two days to the first two subsections of clause 1 was rejected by 311 to 99. The debate was then closured, and the resolution was carried by 306 to 102.

The increasing stringency of the guillotine indicated the overcrowding of the Ministerial programme, which had become more marked owing to the delays incident to the change of Ministry; but there was no faltering visible at the annual meeting of the National Liberal Federation at Birmingham, its birthplace (June 18 and 19). The attendance of delegates was the largest on record; the new President, Sir William Angus of Newcastle-on-Tyne, declared that "Liberalism was never in a more progressive mood"; and great enthusiasm was shown. throughout, notably for the Licensing Bill and one of its leading advocates, Sir Thomas Whittaker, M.P. The resolutions passed recommended the taxation of land values and the remission of the tea and sugar duties, as reforms which, being financial, the Lords could not touch; endorsed the Liberal programme, advocated a lasting settlement of the education question, and heartily approved the Licensing Bill.

On the previous day the report of a conference held at Manchester, between the Bishop of the diocese and representatives of the Roman Catholics and of Nonconformist bodies, had been published. It was not unanimous; but the majorities of all parties had made great concessions, which, however, mainly benefited the denominationalists. On this account it was not well received at the Federation meeting. The proceedings of the Federation were closed by a speech from the Prime Minister to a crowded audience in Bingley Hall. Special precautions had been taken to exclude women suffragists, but there were occasional interruptions. Mr. Asquith, after paying tributes to his predecessor and his colleagues, and acknowledging the loyalty and goodwill of his party, reviewed the work of the Government. Tory critics charged the Liberals with sacrificing social reform to constitutional change; yet the only political reform measure of this Ministry had been the Plural Voting Bill of 1906. On the other hand, they had established workmen's compensation, small holdings, criminal appeal, and old age pensions, about all of which the Tories had

been "gesticulating and perorating" for years. Their financial measures had enabled the country to meet the calls-which would be many-for social reform. In South Africa, they had falsified all predictions. The Chinese would soon be gone, the mines were prosperous, and under the Ministries in the new Colonies, composed of our former foes, racial divisions were being rapidly obliterated. Tariff Reform was not talked about much in the House, but the ceaseless propaganda in the country made it necessary to present the Free-Trade case afresh. The decrease in trade returns was reviving the hopes of the Tariff Reformers, but their two great alarms-the expansion of the imports of foreign manufactures, and the inelasticity of the exports of British manufactures-had been wholly falsified; and while our foreign trade in 1902 was to our Colonial trade as 61 to 38, the proportion in 1907 was as 68 to 32. He thought Free Trade would stand the test of declining as of increasing prosperity. Of the three chief measures of social reform this year, the Education Bill would not be abandoned; popular control would accompany public expenditure and there would be no denominational test; but they could afford to be reasonable in details. For the Licensing Bill he was primarily responsible. He had staked his own and his party's fortunes on it, and he believed he never acted more wisely. After a defence of the Old Age Pensions Bill, and references to the Housing and Children Bills, he closed with a glowing peroration advocating the Liberal programme as the only way to create and sustain a community of free men in a free State.

The Tariff Reform appeal was "cutting deeply," according to the Prime Minister and Dr. Macnamara at Birmingham, and the truth of their words was emphasised by the Pudsey bye-election (June 20), in which a Liberal majority of 3,502 at the general election was now converted into a Unionist majority of 113 (Chronicle, p. 17). The change was partly due to the opposition of the liquor interests and partly to the intervention of a Labour candidate, while an appeal to the ownership voters, of whom the constituency contained more than any other in England, to demonstrate against their disfranchisement as proposed by the Plural Voting Bill, was not without its effect. But the main issue was alleged to have been Tariff Reform; and though the Unionists had fought at the general election under special disadvantages, and the Labour and Liberal votes added together gave a substantial Free-Trade majority, still the defeat produced a considerable impression. It may be added, however, that in a letter published on June 10, Lord Avebury had recommended Free-Trade Unionists to support Mr. Balfour, as he thought Tariff Reform less urgently menacing than Home Rule and Ministerial Socialism.

At Pudsey, of course, the militant suffragists had been active; and they advertised their claim still better on Sunday, June 21, by one of the largest and best managed demonstra

tions ever held in Hyde Park. Seven processions from different parts of London marched to the Park with bands and banners; the colours of the movement-purple, white, and green-were in evidence in the favours and dresses of the processionists; thirty special trains brought up working women from the provinces-for whose benefit, indeed, a Sunday was selected; there were twenty platforms and over 3,000 standard bearers; and the attendance was estimated at certainly 250,000 and probably more than 500,000. A contingent of French supporters of the movement was present, and though there was some disturbance, there was no serious opposition.

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Meanwhile London had seen the most remarkable assemblage in the history of the Anglican Church. The Pan-Anglican Congress, to which attention had been called in the New Year's Letter of the Primate (p. 1), had been formally opened on Monday, June 16, with a solemn Service of Intercession and penitence in Westminster Abbey, which was thronged by the members. Seldom, if ever," said The Times, "has there been so great and representative a gathering of clergy within the Abbey walls." Archbishops and Bishops (the account went on) were there, a number of mission fields were represented, and clergy were present from all parts of the United Kingdom, the British Empire, and the United States. The Archbishops and Bishops, unrobed, sat in the choir; other clergy were with the lay members in the transept or the nave. The Primate entered, attended by three chaplains and preceded by the archiepiscopal cross, and was conducted by the Dean to a seat in the sacrarium. Soon afterwards the choir and clergy of the Abbey entered in procession, with the Abbey cross used at the Coronation. The choir, as it passed, sang the "Miserere"; the first portion of the Litany was chanted, with a special petition for Divine inspiration for the Congress; prayers followed, then a short anthem, and a special Bidding Prayer read by the Dean. Then the great congregation repeated the Lord's Prayer, and, after a hymn, the service was closed by the Primate with an ancient Benediction, and the procession, which he now joined, passed out.

This service was followed by various social gatherings intended to bring the members together, among them a garden party at Knebworth given by Lord and Lady Strathcona, receptions by Lady Salisbury and Lady Brassey, and dinners at the Lyceum Club and the Savoy Hotel, the latter given by the Anglo-American Pilgrims' Club. Here Lord Curzon of Kedleston, in proposing the customary toast of "Great Britain and the United States," said that during the past seven years no two men had exercised a greater influence over the destinies of those States or appealed more forcibly to the higher instincts of mankind than King Edward VII. and President Roosevelt ; and Mr. Asquith, in proposing "Our Guests," laid stress on the opportunity offered for promoting unity, peace, and concord

among the nations. Other forces, he said, were contributing to that end, but the work should make an irresistible appeal to the Congress. The Church had always been at once an emancipating and a unifying power; she might still take her share in expelling the scourge of war, the greatest scourge which still threatened the unity and progress of mankind.

In the evening, at a crowded meeting at the Albert Hall, the Primate gave an inaugural address incidentally laying stress on the need of due preparation for Churchmen for their work in human society; other addresses were given, and, at the Church House, the Primate subsequently contrasted the Congress with past ecclesiastical gatherings, and described it as "banded together for a nobler crusade which was to make the work of Christ tell more fruitfully."

The real work began next day with the meetings in various parts of London of the six sections of the Congress. These, which had multiplied and expanded since the issue of the original programme, dealt respectively with (a) the Church and Human Society, Albert Hall; (b) Christian Truth and other Intellectual Forces, Kensington Town Hall; (c) the Ministry of the Church, Holborn Town Hall or King's Hall, Holborn; (d) Missions in non-Christian lands, Caxton Hall; (e) Missions in Christendom, Church House, Westminster; (f) Church Organisation, Church House; (g) The Duty of the Church to the Young, Sion College. For six successive week-days papers were read and speeches made in each section; but, as the full report (published by the S.P.C.K.) was to fill seven large volumes, it is absolutely impossible to describe the debates here, or even to enumerate their subjects. They ranged from the Church's attitude towards divorce and polygamy to municipal trading and sweated industries; from the problems of a native episcopate to the ethics of journalism; from agnosticism and Buddhism to children's work and play. But it may be noted that acute interest was shown in social and economic problems, the details of which until recent years had usually been outside the clerical horizon; that much sympathy was exhibited with the aims, and even the creed, of Socialism, as well as much strong condemnation of both; and that in dealing with the relations of the Church to non-Christian faiths and philosophic systems, and to the lower moral standards and institutions of backward races, and with Biblical Criticism, the Congress displayed a breadth of view which also contrasted sharply with the usual attitude of Churchmen a generation or two before. The burning questions of Ritual and Disestablishment were not touched on, and there was no parallel to the excited episodes of some Church Congresses. Secular education was generally condemned by colonial and some American speakers, though approved of in one paper sent from New York. Special mention must be made of the women's meetings in connection with the Congress, and of

the number and activity of the women speakers at the proceedings of the sections. Among the many discussions of problems at once economic and ethical, that on capital and labour produced some remarkable speeches. Mr. Masterman, M.P. (West Ham, N.), Secretary to the Local Government Board, suggestively reviewed some of the main features of the modern financial system, under which investors cannot well control or even know of the precise employment of their capital, and which lies outside ordinary ethics; and the same difficulty was further expanded by Professor R. M. Burrows and Canon Scott Holland. Some Labour members were among the speakers at the Congress, and altogether the proceedings showed a much closer relation than formerly between economic problems and the best thought of the Church. Cordial greetings were sent to the Congress by various Free Church organisations.

On each evening there were two or three meetings, and on Sunday, June 21, there was a men's meeting, and also a children's gathering, at the Albert Hall. On Monday evening, June 22, Mr. Balfour spoke in that building on religion and science, arguing that the view that the two were necessarily opposed was already antiquated; that the growth of science had made it easier to believe in a rational and benevolent Creator, and that the range of reason showed that it was something more than what naturalism took it to be, an expedient for enabling a relatively small number of organisms to adapt themselves the better to their surroundings. Tuesday, the 23rd, was a "devotional day," and on Wednesday, the 24th, the proceedings came to an impressive close. A thanksgiving service was held in St. Paul's Cathedral at noon, at which some 250 Bishops were present, and the thankoffering collected in the various dioceses, amounting altogether to just over 333,208., was laid on the altar by the respective diocesans. The scene was profoundly impressive. The Episcopal procession, whose members were mostly in scarlet Convocation robes, came up from the crypt by one of the north doors, and went round to the west door, where it was met by the cathedral choir, which preceded it up the church chanting the Litany. Each of the twelve groups of Bishops was accompanied by a clergyman with a mace, and the procession was closed by the Primate. Prayers and a hymn followed the Litany, then an address of hearty thanksgiving was delivered by the Primate, and, after an interval of silent prayer, the Lord's Prayer was said, followed by two special collects, the Apostles' Creed, and an ascription of praise for blessings received. Then the offering, or rather parchment slips stating the amounts, was laid in almsdishes on the altar by the Bishops, beginning with the Primate; the hymn "Now thank we all our God" was sung; and, after the Primate had blessed the people in the words of Solomon, the "Te Deum" was chanted, and the procession retired as it had come. A final service, at which between sixty and