Speaking at Peterborough on Wednesday Sir Edward Grey made a
very wise and statemminlike speech, and one in strong contrast to Lord Rosebery's " wrecking " letter. The Reform Club meeting had, he said, done good, and helped clear the air. Free speech might be uncomfortable, but it was health. ful, and free speech had been the result of the meeting. Lord Rosebery, in his letter, took the view that the differences in the Liberal party were irreconcilable. Events would show, but he (Sir Edward Grey) believed that the party was at the beginning of new life and new effort. Their business was not to support the present Government, but to provide an alternative. How was it to be produced ? Lord Rosebery says the Liberal party must come to one mind on the matter of the war. "I would suggest that if he desires the Liberal party to be brought to one mind on the matter he should go a good deal beyond his letter to-day. He should step in from outside, and use his personal influence to promote that one mind." Lord Rosebery declared that he would never voluntarily re-enter the arena of party politits. Bat, says Sir Edward Grey, there is no such thing as a political conscript. "If a man's influence is to be used power- fully for good, it must be by a voluntary effort on his own part to come in. He must not wait for outside influences to be brought to bear upon him." That is as sound as it manly, and considering Sir Edward Grey's known and opealf expressed devotion to Lord Rosebery, it must have been a very difficult thing to say. Sir Edward Grey. .went on to
speak of the Liberal party and its duties, but though he insisted on the necessity of it being an Imperial party in the true sense, he at any rate made no attempt to assert that the non-Imperialists had no right to call themselves Liberals.
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