Lord Rosebery spoke on Monday at Glasgow to an audience
of five thousand, who, however, were only one-sixth of those who applied for seats. He was enthusiastically received, but the speech is disappointing, and marked by some singular withdrawals from his recent position. He reaffirmed em- phatically his approval of the war in South Africa, but repudiated rivalry with Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, declaring that be "had no designs on the leadership of the Liberal party," that he could not supplant him as leader in the Commons, and that he had no wish to be Liberal leader in the Lords. His object, and that of the new Liberal League, was to "permeate and influence" the party in the only direction which they believe to be sound. He gave figures to show how completely the advocacy of Home-rule had destroyed the Liberal party, the change in Scotland alone having been from fifty-one Liberal Members against nine Conservatives in 1880, to thirty-eight Conservatives and thirty-four Liberals in 1902; and believed that the recent language of the Irish, though due perhaps to Celtic effervescence, would increase the dislike of the " predominant partner" to that measure. He would vote for nothing that would ever lead up to an independent Parliament in Dublin, but would create such local govern- ment in Ireland "as would be guided by Irish ideas so far as is consistent with the unity of our people."
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