At a meeting at the Queen's Hall in the evening,
Lord Rosebery gave a quite admirable appreciation of Cromwell and his work, and showed once again how great is his sym- pathy of comprehension in matters historical. After quoting the interesting panegyric passed upon the Protector by the great Conde, Lord Rosebery declared very truly that the secret of Cromwelrs strength rested in his religious faith, and then went on to combat the accusation that Cromwell was a hypocrite,—a somewhat unnecessary work, one would have thought, unless one was addressing oneself to the order of the White Rose. Lord Rosebery ended a speech which is so packed with good things that it cannot be adequately compressed, but must be read in detail, with a striking passage on the urgent need of a Cromwell. "The Cromwell of the nineteenth or the Cromwell of the twentieth century would not be the Cromwell of the seventeenth century, for great men are coloured by the age in which they live. He would, at any rate, not be Cromwell in his externals. He would not decapi-
tate ; he would not rise in rebellion; he would not speak the Puritan language. Bat he would retain his essential qualities as a general, as a ruler, as a statesman. He would be strenuous, he would be sincere. He would not compromise with prin- ciples. His faith would be in God and in freedom, and in the influence of Great Britain as promoting, as asserting, both."
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