NEWS OF THE WEEK.
ON Tuesday, the Times published a letter by Mr. Forster to Mr. Adam, the Liberal "Whip," in which he withdrew his name from the place claimed for it by a very great number of independent Liberals, as that of the best future leader of the Liberal party in the House of Commons. After expressing, what everybody knew, his "anxious desire" throughout "hot to be made a cause of disunion in the party," Mr. Forster writes, "It now, however, appears to me clear that I should not receive that general support without which I ought not to attempt to fulfil the duties of this most difficult, though honourable post ; and therefore, though I must not be supposed to anticipate that the choice of the majority of the meeting would fall on me, I feel it my duty to state that, even should it chance to do so, I could not undertake the task." We are quite sure that this deci- sion of Mr. Forster's was dictated by the highest and most 'honourable principle, and that it was the decision of a very sagacious as well as resolute man ; but we are not at all sure that it was not unduly diffident. The majority was, we believe, certainly for Mr. Forster. The irreconcilables of the Left Wing were certainly not numerous, and hardly included any name of importance but Mr. Richard's, who is not exactly a host in himself. The irreconcilables of the Right Wing would rather have strengthened his position than otherwise. To have had Mr. Lowe and Sir William Harcourt attacking their leader from below the gangway, and from a Conservative point of view, would rather have increased than decreased Mr. Forster's power over the bulk of the party. We cannot but regret, too, that circurn- Vonces should have seemed to give a victory to the small and narrow political section which, vowed vengeance against Mr. Forster for his Education policy, and which will now carry away the very erroneous belief that it can at pleasure override the wishes of the majority of the party, and make any leader impos- sible whom it chooses to denounce.' Sectional conspiracies of this kind should be crushed as soon as they are discovered.
