Lord Rosebery took the chair at a dinner of the
Liberal League on Monday, and reviewed the achievements of that association in a short but somewhat injudicious speech. It had been started, he said, in "a prepared atmosphere of suspicion and perhaps of jealousy" barely two years ago, but had grown into one of the most powerful political bodies in the country. He recalled the circumstances of his having offered last autumn, "in reply to a speech which I have forgotten, an olive branch of amity and co-operation in return for what might have appeared in the nature of a proscription." The proof of the fulfilment of that promise was that they had fought side by side with the whole of the Liberal party in the fiscal campaign. For himself, he saw no reason why this cco,. operation should not be permanent ; but the need for maintain- ing the League still remained. "Where you want to see the appli- cation of Liberal League principles is when the Liberal party is in office." Then, if they saw those principles being carried into practice, and if "in the personnel of the Government we have a certainty of their being followed, why then, gentlemen, it will be time enough to talk of the dissolution of the Liberal League." He himself believed that a General Election could not be long delayed ; the Government was crumbling by its own weakness. "When that moment comes, we shall see in the official programme of the Liberal party whether Liberal League principles prevail or not."
Previous page
