actable bearing in defence of it, had brought
important sections of the party:--

_Mr. Bright to Mr. Gladstone._

_Aug. 12, 1873._--So far as I can hear, there is no intention to
get up an opposition at Birmingham, which is a comfort, as I am
not in force to fight a contested election. I am anxious not to go
to the election, fearing that I shall not have nerve to speak to
the 5000 men who will or may crowd the town hall. Before I go, if
I go, I shall want to consult you on the difficult matter--how to
deal frankly and wisely with the education question. I cannot
break with my "noncon." friends, the political friends of all my
life; and unless my joining you can do something to lessen the
mischief now existing and _still growing_, I had better remain as
I have been since my illness, a spectator rather than an actor on
the political field.... I hope you are better, and that your
troubles, for a time, are diminished. I wish much you could have
announced a change in the education department; it would have
improved the tone of feeling in many constituencies.

Mr. Gladstone himself had touched "the watchful jealousy" of Bright's
nonconformist friends by a speech made at the time at Hawarden. This
speech he explained in writing to Bright from Balmoral (Aug. 21):--

The upshot, I think, is this. My speech could not properly have
been made by a man who thinks that boards and public rates ought
to be used for the purpose of putting down as quickly as may be
the voluntary schools. But the recommendation which I made might
have been consistently and properly supported by any one whose
opinions fell short of this, and did not in the least turn upon
any preference for voluntary over compulsory means.(194)

As he said afterwards to Lord Granville, "I personally have no fear of the
secular system; but I cannot join in measures of repression against
voluntary schools."

"There is not a word said by you at Hawarden," Bright replied (Aug. 25),
"that would fetter you in the least in considering the education question;
but at present the general feeling is against the idea of any concession
on your part.... What is wanted is some definite willingness or resolution
to recover the goodwill and confidence of the nonconformist leaders in the
boroughs; for without this, reconstruction is of no value.... Finance is
of great moment, and people