Lord Rosebery made a very genial and pleasant speech at
the first house dinner of the Scottish Liberal Club, in their new club-house in Princes Street, Edinburgh, on Wednesday. He congratulated the Club on its new and stately quarters, but said that his satisfaction in them was slightly diminished
by the close proximity to the Conservative Club,—firstly, because he feared that it might lead "the arm-chair poli- ticians" amongst them to lose their way, not altogether unintentionally, into the opposition building, and ultimately to take up with their opponents; and next, because, under circumstances of public excitement, it might happen that a, discontented mob might mistake the windows of the Liberal Club for the windows of their opponents. Lord Rosebery was very cordial to the Liberal Unionists, and was glad that Liberals of all shades should meet together to discuss their differences in the same building. Indeed, he was sanguine enough to anticipate an early re-union of the party, after the next General Election. He predicted that the decision of the electorate at the next General Election, whichever way it went, would be practically final, and that after it had been given, the old party affinities would resume their customary influence. There, surely, Lord Rosebery underrates the depth of the cleavage. If David had put himself at the head of the Philistines, would he ever have succeeded to the throne of Saul and the judgment-seat of Samuel ?
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