MR. GLADSTONE'S RESIGNATION'.
[To THE EDITOR or THE 'SPECTATOR") SIR,—Is it so certain, as some suppose, that the retirement of Mr. Gladstone has seriously darkened the prospects of the Liberal Party at the next General Election ? There seems certainly something to be said for a contrary opinion. Surely the old " G-ladstonianism," pure and simple, if presented afresh to the constituencies, would have had to straggle at the polls with very wide-spread feelings of disappointment and weariness. Even the amiable old ladies in Scotland would hardly have been so keen a second time for "giving th' auld man another chance" to renew his unprofitable Home- rule crusade. But where the name of Gladstone would suggest weariness and disappointment to tens of thousands, will not the name of Rosebery suggest new hope to hundreds of thousands ? His very youth, his successes in the London County Council and in the coal-strike arbitration, the belief that he has in reserve a practical measure of reform for the Upper House, and—last, but not least, with intelligent elec- tors—the generally admitted soundness of his foreign policy, all seem to suggest a possible enthusiasm on his behalf, such as the now defunct " Gladstonianism " could hardly have again commanded.
Moral—Let not Unionists count on an easy victory.—I am,
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