We are tired of the speeches, but must notice one
by Lord Rosebery in reply to an address from the Scottish Liberal Club, presented to him on Friday week. He expressed strongly his belief that, disappointed as many Scotch Liberationists might be with Mr. Gladstone's postponement of their question, the Scottish Liberals, when the struggle began, would vote unani- mously with their great leader. The Liberationists were the men with whom he had always stood, and he felt for their disappointment ; but they would remember that their leader came to Scotland not to lead a Liberal section, but to unite the Liberal Party. Besides, if the decision had been otherwise, which question should they have postponed,—the enfranchisement of the land—for which all Scotchmen were eager—or the question of local govern- ment, or the question of procedure, which involved the whole Irish Question He was not sure that the latter would not swallow up all others ; but he was sure how it must be settled, —namely, by conceding any Irish demand which was " clear and constitutional, and would not conflict with the Union between the two countries." The speech was received with great approval, the audience entirely agreeing that the questions before the country, more especially that of County Govern- ment, could not be postponed. Lord Rosebery, in the course of his speech, made one humorous hit. Naturalists declare, he said, that it takes forty years to turn a wild duck into a tame one ; and it was foolish, "therefore," to expect that Lord Randolph Churchill would become a serious man at once.
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