Lord Rosebery on Friday week had a great opportunity which
he rather missed. He opened a new Liberal club at Scarborough, in the presence of an enthusiastic gathering of his party, and was expected in a rousing speech to give them fresh spirits and a cue. He gave a sort of cue, hinting that they would be able to rise as one man against the proposals of the Government on denominational education ; but the speech, on which we have dwelt elsewhere, was not an in- spiriting one. He reiterated the statement that Liberalism is not dead, which is of course true, and offered several theories to account for its defeat. Perhaps the electors were gullible ; perhaps the programme was too long and violent—as if, he said, one had banged all the notes of a piano at once, and so produced discord—perhaps the party "had lost its hold on the masses of the com- munity;" or again, perhaps Englishmen were tired of Welsh and Irish questions, or perhaps it was all through the retirement of Mr. Gladstone. Then employers still influence the employed, and money was never more powerful. Or, lastly, it might be that the days of destruction being ended, construction was more difficult and dividing work. Clearly, admitted Lord Rosebery, the gullible electors being the most sensible of men, Liberal leaders must unconsciously have been guilty of some fault. The party must not move down to attack like the Scotch at Dunbar, but must sit still and criticise till the psychological moment arrived. Altogether, though Lord Rosebery was sure "the moral force of mankind" was with Liberalism, it was rather a depressing speech. "Where," asks the Daily Chronicle, "is the clear bugle-call ? "
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