Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/85

 1899.] Railway Regulation Bill Withdrawn. [77

stifle the scruples of powerful classes and interests in the country. But good opportunism was nothing more than a recognition of the fact that they might do harm if they rushed at a thing which was momentarily impossible, and that they ought to watch for the proper time and the proper method, lest they should do more harm than good to the cause which they sought to serve. It was the kind of opportunism by which most of the good had been done in the world.

The Government only a few days later afforded a painful object lesson in opportunism. In face of the opposition raised by the railway interest in Parliament, Mr. Bitchie announced the intention of the Government to withdraw the Railways Regulation Bill which had been introduced with the object of protecting the lives of railway servants, especially shunters. The bill aimed at making the adoption of automatic couplings compulsory within five years from the passing of the bill. That there was urgent need of some such protection as proposed was borne out by the ghastly return of men killed or injured annually on our railways. Unfortunately railway direc- tors could rely on the support of railway shareholders, if an expenditure likely to reduce dividends was suggested; and although every statement of this kind was traversed by those more interested in the lives of railway men than in the interests of shareholders, the Government decided to bend before the storm, and to withdraw the bill without venturing a challenge of strength upon the second reading.

CHAPTER m.

The Socialists at Leeds — Mr. Courtney in Cornwall — Harrow Election — The Budget — Small Houses Acquisition Bill — Decoration of St. Paul's — Board of Education Bill — The London Government Bill in Committee — The Finance Bill — The Primrose League at the Albert Hall and the Salvation Army at the Mansion House — The Education Estimates — The Vice-President's Protest — The Church Discipline Bill — Technical Education Bill for Ireland — China and the Transvaal — The Licensing Commission — Lord Bosebery and the State of the Liberal Party — The Queen's Eightieth Birthday.

The Easter recess, although marked by several stirring events abroad, in which Great Britain was more or less closely interested, was singularly devoid even of political speeches. The disputes between the representatives of the three Powers concerned in the administration of the Samoan Islands, each jealously asserting the claims of their respective Governments, had culminated in the appointment of three commissioners with nearly absolute powers to revise the Constitution. In the recent disturbances the co- operation of the British and American representatives against the German officials had been the most marked feature.

A Socialist gathering at Leeds (March 31) was noteworthy as being one of the first public conferences of a body which for some time had been steadily increasing in numbers, although