We have dealt at length with Lord Rosebery's personal position
elsewhere. Practically his letter demands that the Liberal party should become, frankly, Imperialists, and should separate themselves politically from the Pro-Boers and Little Englanders. But he does not seem to see that, if they do this, the Imperial Liberals will really have little or nothing
to separate them from the Unionists, for the Imperial Liberals 'are only nominal Home-rulers. The Little England Liberals, however, who will continue to exist, will have a sharp dividing line. But though it is quite true, as Lord Rosebery argues, that a party cannot flourish unless its members are agreed on fundamentals, it is also true that a party cannot flourish unless its members differ on fundamentals from their political Oppo- nents. If you have an Imperial Liberal party side by side with an Imperial Unionist party and opposed to a Little England Liberal party, the two Imperial parties will tend to join forces. As long as the essential issue is Imperialism they cannot avoid it No doubt they may remain as separate groups, but they will be groups with a common object ; and they will be faced with another party composed of two groups, the Little England Liberals and the Irish Home-rulers. But that is a condition of things profoundly undesirable in the national interests. Therefore, we greatly regret that the split in the Liberal party should be forced to an issue, as Lord Rosebery tries to force it by his letter, and we hope and trust that Mr. Asquith, while maintaining his attitude on the war, will not follow him. It is all very well for Lord Rosebery to speak like an oracle, but he has not the responsibility of action. His letter well illustrates what we said last week as to the ruin caused by his Stuart. like attitude of neither resigning nor reigning. He says he has resigned—and he may have done so in name—but he has not in fact when he writes letters like that to the City Liberals. Truly the Liberal Party might say to Lord Rose- bery, "You have poured oil into my wounds, but it is oil of vitriol."
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