Sir H. Fowler on Wednesday delivered a most solid speech
to his constituents. We cannot agree, as we have said else- where, with his praise of Lord Rosebery's speech at Glasgow, except as a splendid literary effort ; or wish, as he does, that the speaker should be the accepted leader of Opposition ; but everything else he says is sensible and acute. He accepts the South African War as justifiable and inevitable, but condemns its management as cumbrous, costly, and ineffi- cient, and as showing that the lavish expenditure authorised by Parliament for the improvement of the Army had been foolishly employed. He advised the Liberal party, which had rid itself in this election of many faddists, to make the Empire strong not only by remedying these evils, but by devoting itself to the improvement of the condition of the people. They had never as a party accepted the political views of the Manchester School, and though they were doubtless divided now, he believed that they were tired of divisions which im- plied political suicide, and ready to reunite. It was a most encouraging speech to the Liberal side, though it lacked the programme which, next to a leader, is the necessity for any party which, not being led by a personality so great that the leader is the programme, still aspires to rule.
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