Lord Rosebery spoke on the same day at Plymouth, of
course in an opposite sense. He claimed for the Liberal Party that its motto was Vestigia nulls retrorsum, not a very happy omen, as the Liberal Unionist justly observes, seeing that the words are taken from the acute remark of the fox that somehow those who enter the sick lion's den are never known to find their way back to their friends. Lord Rosebery was also a little unforeAttate in one of his jokes. He remarked of the Irish policy of the Government that it reminded him of the farmer who complained "to a friend of his" that though the claret was all very well, it brought them "no forrader ;" so that Lord Rosebery,— or his friend,—must have communicated that very effective joke to Punch some ten years ago. But surely the joke was very inapplicable to his subject, if, as it seems, he agrees with his political friends that the Crimes Bill is much too strong, not too weak, much more like bad British spirits than good French claret. Lord Rosebery laughed at the Liberal Unionists for their very close connection with the Tories. It reminded him, he said, of gentlemen who after a good dinner tried to say " Good-night!" to each other, but went on shaking hands with inane cordiality, from sheer fear of losing their balance if they once left hold. The picture is lively ; but is it appropriate P Is there anything especially maudlin about either Loki Hartington or Lord Salisbury, Sir Henry James or Mr. W. H. Smith P Soberer and less effusive handshaking we can hardly conceive.
