The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, FEBRUARY 11, 1902. LORD ROSEBERY’S SPEECH.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 337, 11 February 1902, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, FEBRUARY 11, 1902. LORD ROSEBERY’S SPEECH.

Full reports of Lord Rosebery’s great speech came to hand by last mail, and from a journalistic friend wo havo also received some “impressions ” of the deliverance. A witty writer some time ago strung together the various characters with whom Lord Rosebery had been compared. His face, he found, had been occasionally declared to resemble that of Julius Ciesar, and more frequently that of the First Napoleon. His character had been accounted much the same as that of Alcibiades and Bolingbroko ; his code of 3 political ethics was described as PalmerBeaconsfieldian cynicism and Bismarckian designs. As if all these did not afford variety enough, ho has had the further distinction of being likened to Noro, who > fiddled while Rome was burning. The latest allusion was to Lord Rosebery’s exquisite fooling at the London County Council almost on the eve of his having \ to pose at Chesterfield as the Saviour of his Party. But did they not err who thought he was going on that errand ? Those who hoard his recent speech might go away honestly holding many 1 impressions. But that could not be one of them. He showed no anxiety to save the Liberal Party as it now presents itself to the country. . A leading Liberal declared that tho Salisbury Government was “stale”; it was “played out.” That is precisely what Lord Rosebery says of the Liberal Party. At two successive elections it has been repudiated by the country, “In some way or another” it has to regain that confidence. Well, what is his Lordship's way ? “It is six years now since you were in ollice; it is sixteen years since you have been, in anything like power; and it does seem to me that,under these circumstances, the primary duty of the Liberal Party is to wipe its slate clean and consider very carefully what you are going to write upon it in future.” That is Lord Rosebery’s adyice, It does not point to the salvation of the Liberal Party. If it points anywhere, it points to a new Party, with the Primrose Earl as its head. He sees a Toryism in presentday Liberalism “ as great and as deep, though unconscious, as in tho Carlton Club.” The men of the New Party must be right up-to-date. The new policy to be written on the slate must be of 1901 or 1902, and there must be no looking back to 1892 or 1886. And they must not promise more than they can perform. Neither must they move faster than the majority of the people were prepared to move. If they moved farther at a time than they ought to move, then they would run the risk of being isolated, as our troops were in South Africa, and fall a orey to the enemy. Then they ought to earn from adversity. He read to them a piece of advice he had noted: —“ We hope to keep going on by steps, not by bounds. We must keep our eyes ou the stars, but must also remember our feet are on the ground.” I may add (said tho speaker), ' “We must also take care to keep them ‘ there.” Those wore the - words riot of a “fossil” or “an ancient Whig”; they were ..the words of Theodore Roosevelt, 1 head of the greatest democratic com- f munity in tho world. They might not i please honest fanatics, but, remarked Lord 1 Rosebery with scorn, “ Let them blow r their trumpets till they crack their cheeks, c tho walls of Jericho will not fall.” i

As for South Africa, Lord Rosebery is as emphatic as Mr Chamberlain in his “ never again ” declaration. Annexation is irrevocable, “ absolute independence ’’ is impossible. But bo thinks peace maybe obtained. As to how it is to be obtained, ho is not so clear. The idea seems to have got into his Lordship’s head that the Government is not anxious for peace. What appears to have put it there is what he regards as an unfortunate remark by Lord

Milner at Durban. That remark he interprets as meaning that the Boers were to bo hunted down until there were no more left to be hunted—with no final signing of peace at all. He thinks the Government should not bo above receiving I overtures of peace, oven if they came from I Mr Kruger's “ executive in exile,” or that other executive which is always on the I run, and cannot be got at. Lord Rosebery would not re-state the terms of peace—such as were offered by Lord Kitchener to General Botha. He would not send an ambassador to Kruger, or receive one from him. What, then, are the Government to do? Kruger will not come to us, we must not go to Kruger. We must not even state the terms on which the Boers can haye peace. They will state nothing to us except—“ absolute independence ’ —

which none would refuse more stoutly j : than Lord Rosebery. Yet he has a way. It is by a “neutral inn.” Arrangements may not be msde formally, but they J might be done informally. Some unofficial . party on the other side, the way paved to j preliminary pour-parlers, and—presto ! . the Angel of Peace would presently ap- 1

pear, at some “ neutral inn ! ” The picture is pretty, but is it practical ? “ I have heard Rosebery many a time, i but I never knew him nervous nor excited before ! ” The remark fell from a very old hand in journalistic work. His Lordship certainly appeared nervous at the start, and he was now and then in scornful and most passionate mood —notably scornful in dealing with the Lord Chancellor’s admittedly unfortunate reference to the war at the last Cutler’s Feast, and passionate to a fault when he ridiculed the idea that to the existing Government there was no alternative. Clearly, however, his alternative was not a Liberal Administration as it would be composed were its present leaders returned to power. To wait, then, does it all come ? He let us see a little in his closing words. He believed not in the Salisbury Government before its rearrangement. He believes in it less now that it has obtained the new blood “ which was not new blood, but old blood, blue blood.” He believes not in the Liberal Party which kept itself out of office for six years and out of power for sixteen. What, then, does he believe in ? He does not actually say “ There is only one man who can save the country, and I am that man.” But he does say, in effect, “ That is nty policy, and for that policy I am prepared to fight.” He is eloquent on the wealth of men in the Home Land and throughout the Empire. Does he point to an Imperial Government framed on lines which have been the dream of Imperial Federationists ? That may bo—many hope will be—realised. But is the season yet ripe ? Would Lord Rosebery wait for it ? His party have cried out with au exceeding bitter cry, “ Como over into Macedonia and help us,” and ho comes not. Can they read in his speech a bold bid for the Leadership '? If they do, and ho is ready to accept, they must be ready to wipe that slate very clean, to blot out marks, and to learn a new philosophy which is not their own philosophy nor that of their fathers.