In the House of Lords on Tuesday Lord Rosebery introduced
a Motion approving of the Committee of National Defence, and expressing the hope that its first efforts would be towards adjusting the expense of our armaments to our fiscal condi- tions. The first part of the speech was extremely witty, extremely paradoxical, and most unconvincing,—in fact it was as useless for all practical purposes as it was brilliant. The second part of the speech, though unadorned with the flowers of humour or rhetoric, was full of sound sense, and contained some of the most weighty and useful things ever said by Lord Rosebery. We shall not dwell in detail on the first part of the speech, but must point out that Lord Rosebery seemed bent upon insisting that the Committee of Defence ought to destroy the present system of Cabinet government, and must note also that his plan for making Lord Kitchener Secretary of State for War turned up again. Lord Kitchener as Secretary for War is, indeed, to Lord Rosebery what King Charles's head was to Mr. Dick. He never seems able to keep the idea out of his speeches ; yet, as Lord Goschen most shrewdly observed, Lord Kitchener in the present Cabinet—or apparently in all Cabinets, for it has come to that now with Lord Rosebery- "with limited liability," would revolutionise our whole system. We have alluded to the witty things in Lord Rosebery's speech. Perhaps the funniest was his forecast of economic Liberal Governments succeeding the lavish Administrations of their rivals, and of the nation pining for " the spacious days of Arthur and of Joseph," when we revelled in expendi- ture and voted millions, amid the cheers of the House of Commons. as though they were nothing.
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