NEWS OF THE WEEK.
F political parties could live on thunderbolts, how prosperous would be the condition of the Liberals P On Wednesday I the newspapers published a letter dated December 8th from Sir William Harqourt to Mr. Morley, and a reply by r. Morley dated December 10th. The gist of the letters is bat Sir William Harcourt resigns his leadership in the mmons, and that Mr. Morley endorses and supports this momentous step. Sir William Harcourt's letter, which is ignified and uncharacteristically devoid of any note of ituperative rhetoric, states that "my resolution is fixed to
dertake no responsibility and to occupy no position the nties of which it is made impossible for me to fulfil." Alter an account of his stewardship, Sir William Harcourt deals the following heavy blow at Lord Rosebery :—" It has been whispered by men who neither know nor care to know the truth that I have allowed personal considerations to infinence public action. No man knows better than yourself the falsehood of these unworthy insinuations. If personal proscriptions have been insisted upon, as a ground for refusal of common action in the general cause, they have not pro- ceeded from me. In my opinion such pretensions are intoler- able, and, in common with my colleagues, I have always refused to recognise them." Lord Rosebery after 1895 wrote a letter declaring that he could never again act with Sir William Har- court. That is, of course, "the personal proscription "complained of. Sir William ends by declaring that he will be "no candidate for any contested position." It would be a degradation. "If I have arrived at the conclusion that I can best discharge that duty in an independent position in the House of Com- mons, you will, I feel sure, agree that a. disputed leadership beset by distracted sections and conflicting interests is an impossible situation." As our readers know, we have said Plenty of hard things of Sir William Harcourt, and meant them, but it would be impossible not to be touched by the manly and straightforward character of this letter, which is in every way worthy of the best traditions of our public life.
