Review of Reviewg, 20J3/06. 



Topics of the Month. 



2bi 



kindling the tire of enthusiasm among the county 

 voters, cheering the heart of the passive resister, 

 nerving the electors for the fight. I saw h.m when 

 the last county polls were being declared, and found 

 him, as might be expected, full of joy and grati- 

 tud'e. 



" It has been a fight," said Dr. Clifford, " calcu- 

 lated to strengthen one's faith in the moral stamina 

 of our people. I have come back more than ever 

 proud of our countrymen. They have been staunch 

 and true, and have shown themselves haters of war 

 and lovers of righteousness." 



" To what is our victory chiefly due?" 



" First, and above all things else, to the passion- 

 ate, liery indignation of the country against a Gov- 

 ernment which has so long worn out its patience, 

 wasted its resources, and dishonoured the fame of 

 England. That stands first of all ; after that, the 

 Education Act." 



" Before Protection ?" I asked. 



" That certainly," said Dr. Clifford, " played a 

 part, but by no means the leading part, in the elec- 

 tions as far as I have seen them. People were de- 

 termined to get rid of Mr. Balfour's Government ; 

 and they hated the war, and everywhere denuncia- 

 tions of the war vvere received with immense enthusi- 

 asm ; but it was not until the Education Act roused 

 the X on con for mists that the tide l^egan to turn. 

 -\orth Teeds election in 1902 was the first sign of a 

 revived Liberalism. From that time the fate of the 

 Government was sealed. The passive resistance 

 movement has done wonders in driving conviction 

 home to the minds of multitudes of quiet. God-fear- 

 ing, non-political people, and wherever you found 

 that passive resistance was strong there you found 

 the Liberal majorities went up." 



" Then I supjjose there were precious few passive 

 resisters in the City ?" 



" I think there was only one. Of course the ques- 

 tion of Protection was always to the front. It had 

 the greatest weight with the old men. It was quite 

 extraordinary to see the fury which the question of 

 an imposition of a food tax excited in the minds of 

 those of the old men who remembered the days of 

 the Corn Laws and the days of ' the hungry Forties.' " 



" Yes," I remarked, " young Mr. Xewnes, who won 

 Bas.setlaw, told me that Mr. Chamberlain's scheme 

 would have had much more chance if he had waited 

 ten or twenty years, when all the men of the Forties 

 would have been dead."' 



" But they are not dead yet," said Dr. Clifford ; 

 " they turned up at every meeting, and their pre- 

 sence counted for very much. Another thing which 

 had a great effect was the Taff Vale decision, 

 which deprived the working classes of security for 

 their property, which they believed had been legally 



guaranteed to them. Chinese labour played a con- 

 siderable part ; but the election would have gone all 

 the same if Chinese labour had never been mention- 

 ed. Then, finally, I think there has been a very 

 great awakening of the working classes to a sense of 

 their civic responsibilities, their duties, and their 

 rights." 



" Now the victory has been won, what are we to 

 do with it, Dr. Clifford? Are you going to use it to 

 establish and endow in all the public schools of the 

 country a new State religion under the name of 

 Undenomi nationalism ?" 



" Not if J can help it," said Dr. Clifford. " The 

 State has nothing to do with the teaching of theo- 

 logical dogma." 



" But you are not in favour of secular education, 

 pure and simple?" 



" I never use the word secular when speaking 

 about this question," said Dr. Clifford. " The great 

 ethical ideals common to mankind, such as mercy, 

 love, justice, compassion, honesty, truthfulness, are 

 all religious, and yet they can all find their place 

 under the head of seculax instruction." 



" But what about Bible reading ?" 



" I hold," said Dr. Clifford, " that the State as 

 State has no capacity to form an opinion as to 

 whether the Bible is inspired or not inspired ; that is 

 a question for theologians in the strict sense, not for 

 politicians ; but the Bible is one of the greatest 

 monuments of English literature; it is our finest 

 repository of ethics ; its history is the history of 

 man ; its language is the best English we have, and 

 it also contains many of the most beautifully touch- 

 ing passages ever penned by man. These passages 

 should be read in schools. It would be wicked to 

 deprive our children of the greatest treasures of 

 b^nglish literature merely because they are found in 

 i^onnection with the religious books of Israel, or 

 the sacred books of the Christian Church. These 

 passages should be read in State schools, not as 

 authorised inspired revelations of the will of God, 

 but side by side with all the noblest passages from 

 the literature and sacred books of other nations. I 

 proposed some time ago to the Free Church Council 

 that we shoulfl take in hand the compilation of some 

 such non-credal, non -theological reader, but the idea 

 was never carried out." 



"It seems to me what you want," said I, "is a 

 •' Review of Reviews " edition of the Bible for use in 

 schools, eliminating all that could Ije objected to by 

 Jew, Turk, Christian, or Infidel, leaving the irre- 

 ilucible min-mum. and I would call it 'The Ethical 

 Common Denominator.' " 



" T sincerely wish you would try your hand at 

 producing such a book ; it would be most interesting 

 and useful," said Dr. Clifford. 



