NEWS OF THE WEEK
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mR. GLADSTONE formally resigned his offices of First Lord of the Treasury and Privy Seal on Saturday last, March 3rd, and his resignation was "graciously accepted" by her Majesty on Monday, March 5th, which will probably prove an era in English history, though whether an era marking a .change for the better or for the worse, it is not as yet at nil easy to f3resee. For very nearly thirty years Mr. Gladstone has now been the genius of the Liberal Party, and quite the most dominant figure in our modern politics. Even when he was out of office, the nation at large re- garded his individual character and convictions with more interest, and often more reverence, than it felt for the Iclaracter and convictions of any of his rivals, whether Lord Derby or Lord Beaconsfield or Lord Salisbury. Of these, indeed, two have been at least as much the organs of a party as distinct political individualities, while the third, Lord -Beaconsfield, though he was always himself, and nothing but himself, was a political sphinx, and not the kind of man to be well understanded of the people. Whether Lord Rosebery, in his turn, may not prove to have something of the political sphinx in him, we have not as yet the data to determine. He is to address a meeting of the Liberal Party on Monday next, and from that day his history as a Minister and political 'leader will really begin.
