17 NOVEMBER 1894, Page 22

LORD ROSEBERY'S WEAKNESS. ORD ROSEBERY'S speech at Glasgow will deepen

j the impression that most careful observers have formed of his fundamental weakness. We have no quarrel with the earlier part of his speech in which he explained why he must give Welsh Disestablishment the preference over Scotch Disestablishment, and expounded his meaning in insisting on the Tory character of the manses attached to the Scotch Established Church as showing that the Estab- lished Church was not truly national since it seemed to belong to one party only. We are quite ready to admit that his position was not unreasonable on either point. We even give him credit for his not very recondite historical inference from the very widely spread habit of attaching a Second Chamber to the various representative Assemblies of European and American States, that that practice must have some reasonable ground in constitu- tional experience ; and we do not complain that he was seriously annoyed when he found Lord Salisbury accusing him of insincerity in his proclamation of war against the existing House of Lords, and intimating that he had his tongue in his cheek, and was not seriously proposing the great constitutional revolution on which he intends, before many months have passed, to consult the constituencies. But we must say that when he comes to the real drift of his speech, and tries to justify all this melodrama about the intolerable sins of the House of Lords, he strikes so unspeakably weak a note that we cannot well imagine the country taking his appeal seriously, however seriously he may mean it. What strong reason has be for al his sudden vehemence against the House of Lordsi.e 0.the rejection of the Irish Home-rule Bill and thd Irish Evicted Tenants Bill. But no one can forget that Lord Rosebery himself said what really justifies the House of Lords in rejecting both measures,—namely, that he could not expect to carry Home-rule for Ireland without con- vincing the "predominant partner" in the United Kingdom that Irish Home-rule would not endanger the future of the nation. It is true that he endeavoured almost immediately,—as weak men do,—to explain away that very shrewd and common-sense judgment, and declared that he only meant, by convincing the "predominant partner," bringing over a certain number of English constituencies from the Unionist to the Irish party's side. But that attempt to whittle away what he had previously said, carried conviction to no one. It was quite too obvious that Lord Rosebery himself did not in the least condemn the House of Lords, or indeed any Second Chamber, for rejecting any revolutionary measure on which it was quite obvious that the "predominant partner" had not yet made up his mind. Yet now his wrath is kindled, or at all events endeavours to think itself kindled, to a white heat at the obstinacy of the House of Lords for cutting short a revolution of which he had himself spoken as pre- mature. How is it possible to go to the country with an indignant demand that it shall at once terminate the • existence of a legislative machine only for delaying a crisis which the Prime Minister who asks for that sentence of death had, with unfortunate candour, himself set the example of characterising as not yet ripe ? How can the nation be expected to denounce a crime for which lips so impartial as Lord Rosebery's own, bad already absolved the criminals ? What would one expect a great Minister to plead in extenuation of such a hurried and suddenly precipitated catastrophe ? Perhaps that if there were no unwonted haste, Ireland would be in flames ? But Ireland is not only not in flames, but Lord Rosebery has himself told us that the perfect apathy of England and the perfect patience of Ireland,—whose tenantry appear to be much more interested in purchasing their own farms than in denouncing the delay in Home-rule,—provide the very best opportunity for doing calmly and deliberately what it might be dangerous to do in frenzied haste. So that the very Minister who has both described the crisis as prema- ture, and congratulated us on the considerateness of the mood in which we find ourselves, now goes to the people with a peremptory demand that we shall do with revolu- tionary promptitude that of which he had not hesitated first justify ustify the procrastination, and then to glorify the de- liberate and even dilatory execution. Nearly a year ago he was finding excuses for hesitation ; only a week or to two ago he was congratulating us on the judicial temper in which the people of the United Kingdom found themselves ; and yet now he asks the people to make a rush against the tardy and retarding Second Chamber, of which he had himself explained the natural reluctance to move before the "pre- dominant partner" had made up his mind. There is not even an excuse for haste of any kind. The people most interested in action are full of other matters. The Irish farmer is looking after his farm. The Irish trader is looking after his merchandise. The English people are ostentatiously irresolute. Only the Gladstonian party is in a fume and fret, and that for party reasons, and party reasons alone. And Lord Rosebery himself is the last man to find, fault with a tardiness which he has explained, and a coolness of reflection on which he looks with satis- faction.

The truth is, that Lord Rosebery, much as he dislikes the Assembly in which he is condemned to sit, has much more sympathy with its present state of mind, than it is at all convenient for him to acknowledge. He has often found much more to blame in the House of Lords than he finds now. He wants to pour out curses, and in spite of himself he drops pleas of exculpation and. almost of justification for its present attitude. He him- self has not even decided in his own mind what kind. of revolution he wants. He shrinks from a Single Chamber as a fatal breach with the traditions of the West. Re shrinks from a strong and representative Second Chamber as likely to set up still more dangerous jealousy in the Commons. He babbles of a Consultative Chamber, or a Chamber with more indirect than direct influence, as if he would gladly seem to secure guarantees for good counsel which he does not really. secure ; and yet, with all this hesitation in his own mind, he implores the constituencies to come to a decision of which he can give us no " antici- pation sketch estimate" even, much less any clear notion. He tel: ifas, with redundant emphasis, how difficult it is to make up his mind as to the particular form of revolu- tion that he wants, and yet he asks us all to be in the greatest possible hurry to sign in blank a cheque which he only hopes to fill up after mature consideration and long delay. Surely there never was weakness such as this. He goads us all on to resolve something vague, and justifies it by telling us all his own doubts and reasons for not being more explicit. The House of Lords repre- sents his own state of mind far better than the House of Commons, in spite of his quarrel with the former and his nominal agreement with the latter. His speeches on the last Home-rule Bill were not more inexplicit as to what he himself wished for, than are his speeches about the trans- formation he desires in the House of Lords, and the kind of change he advocates. He rails at the House of Lords for not doing something—he does not know what. But the moment you ask him what he advises, he is silent, for the very good reason that he is divided against himself. Mr. Strachey has told us of the "Seven Lord Roseberys." To our minds, he is not so much seven different men as a perfectly indeterminate figure who has never crystal- lised into a definite conviction at all. He can criticise sharply whatever his own party dislikes, but can never make up his own mind what policy to counsel that party to adopt. He is as full of indecisions as Mr. Gladstone was full of decisions, and is always trying to throw up straws to show him which way the wind blows. Naturally enough, in a democracy so little educated, the wind blows in all sorts of little eddies, and poor Lord Rosebery turns, like a child's windmill, now to one point of the compass, now to another. Whoever may be fit to guide our raw democracy, Lord Rosebery at least is not the man.