In the session of 1869 they struck fire more than once. The Bill for removing Religious Tests at the Universities did not satisfy Fawcett, and he also much disapproved of the financial arrangements in the Bill for disestablishing the Irish Church. The Education Bill pleased him as little. The phrase ‘We must educate our masters’ represented the feeling of many in regard to the newly enfranchised labour. To them education was a desperate safeguard against a necessary evil. To Fawcett it was the beautiful and logical outcome of a simple act of justice. The Education Bill of 1870 was hampered by conflicting religious difficulties, and the resultant law was a compromise little to Fawcett’s liking. Fawcett’s position in Parliament had now become strong and unique. A contemporary writes of him as ‘the most thorough Radical now in the House.’ He was regarded as a leader of the extreme party. [Sidenote: A Radical of the Radicals.] As a critic of the Government he was ruthless and reckless, like a mighty woodman hacking mercilessly at ill-grown timber. There was ample reason for his dissatisfaction, as he emphatically proved to a crowded meeting at Brighton. He began by telling a story to which he often referred. Some old-fashioned Liberal had told him that after two hours’ reflection he and his friends had been unable to answer the question, what there was for the Liberal party to do. Fawcett said that he had enlightened his friend in the course of a short stroll, and he now proceeded to enlighten his constituents. He began by insisting upon the shortcomings of the previous sessions. The Irish Church had been disestablished, but at the cost of a bribe of £7,000,000. The praise bestowed upon the Education Act was, as often happened, one more proof that it was ‘a feeble and timorous compromise.’ Time had been wasted in ’squabbling over a paltry religious difficulty,’ which had been handed over to the local authorities instead of finally settled by Parliament. The University Tests had been only half settled. The Ballot Bill was a good measure, yet it left the most serious difficulty of election expenses inadequately treated. ‘We had therefore still to make up leeway; but above all we had to introduce new ideas.’ In this last sentence he emphasised the paralysis of progress which had so long crippled the advance of England. New cures, new methods, new energy, were what this young politician had craved from the first of his co-workers. [Sidenote: New Ideas.]