Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's speech at Dundee on Thursday partook largely
of the nature of a rejoinder to the Imperialist Liberals. After adhering to his condemnation of their action in forming a separate organisation, he challenged Lord Brassey's statement that the Liberal party contained men who were disloyal, and who wished success to the enemies of their country. " Who are these men ? " exclaimed Sir Henry; "who is disloyal? I confess I know none of them." The most important part of his speech, however, was the explicit statement that "the door has always been open for Lord Rosebery's return." None of them, declared Sir Henry, ever rightly understood why he went out of public life ; the desire of the Liberal party then was that he should remain ; their desire ever since had been that he should return. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman con- cluded with an appeal for unity, but its force is somewhat discounted by his vigorous onslaught on the Imperialist Liberals, whom he declared to be practically indistinguishable from Liberal Unionists, and though " honest and simple- minded men," to have been led into extravagance by the "heavy fumes of a fermented and half-digested doctrine." His attitude is defined with much point by the .Daily News when it says that "after condemning others for seeking (or being supposed to seek) to drum out the ' Little Englanders' he proceeds on his own part to drum out the Liberal Imperialists.'"
Previous page
