NEWS OF THE WEEK.
>Q OMR three weeks ago we drew attention to the tacit, but none the less real, deposition of Lord Rosebery from the leadership of the Liberal party. Our statement was looked on as fanciful, but Lord Rosebery has now sub- stantiated it by his formal resignation. On Thursday a letter addressed by him to Mr. T. E. Ellis, the Home-rule Whip, was published in the newspapers, in which Lord Rosebery says that he finds himself " in apparent difference with a con- siderable mass of the Liberal party on the Eastern question, and in some conflict with Mr. Gladstone, who must neces- sarily always exercise a matchless authority in the party, while scarcely from any quarter do I receive explicit support." This situation, except as regards Mr. Gladstone, is, says Lord Rosebery, not altogether new; but in saying this he complains of no one. Though loath to appear to divide the party, he must speak his mind, and speak it without reference to party. Therefore it is best for him and the party to speak not as leader but as a free man. "I consequently beg to notify to you that the leadership of the party, so far as I am concerned, is vacant, and that I resume my liberty of action." We have dealt with this crisis in the affairs of the Home-rule party elsewhere, and will only say here that it seems certain that the force of circumstances will confer the leadership on Sir William Harcourt. In all probability, however, no definite step will be taken—unless it be to choose a new leader in the Lords—and Sir William Harcourt as leader in the Commons will gradually come to be looked on as leader of the party as a whole.
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