On Thursday Lord Rosebery made a very striking and, on
the whole, extremely satisfactory speech at the first dinner of the Liberal League. It was most natural that he should throw up his hat over the North Leeds election, even though he deprecated in theory the making too much of a single bye- election. In the matter of Liberal unity Lord Rosebery left matters much as they were, but he allowed no possible doubt for the future in regard to his attitude on Home-rule. Speaking for the great volume of moderate opinion in the country on this point, he declared :—" If I may voice what I believe to be the expression of this body of opinion, they are determined, after what they have seen, and, still more, after what they have heard, that there shall be no independent Parliament in Dublin." Here, of course, Lord Rosebery meant to express his own views and those of his immediate followers. We congratulate him on having spoken out so plainly, and we believe that it will not lose him or his friends any votes worth speaking about. The speech must mark an epoch in the Unionist controversy. If it is acquiesced in by the rest of the Liberal party, Home-rule disappears from the arena of party conflict. If it is not acquiesced in, the speech must break the Liberal party in two.
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