The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-17
Talked EIoquently, but Said Little
That Would Light the Pathway
of His Divided Party.
PLEA FOR UNITED ACTION
BUT NO ADVICE AS TO HOW HAIR
MONY Is TO BE SECURED.
"Get Together" the Meat of His Speech
-QuOtatiOn from President
ROOSEVELT Message.

CHESTERFIELD, Eng, Dec. 16.-Lord
Rosebery, the former Liberal premier, was
accorded a great reception when he APP
peared on the crowded platform here this
evening. He said he had come by invita-
ton and did not wish to indulge in phrase
ology, but to speak his mind and offer
the Liberals some dispassionate advice.
The Liberal party, he continued, had
passed through a long and trying illness,
but was now approaching convalescence,
one of the signs of which was that it had
got rid of the Irish alliance. The Lib
eral party must now regain unity, though
he would not advise just how this should
be done.
Though Lord Rosebery's long expected
and much-heralded speech was received
with marked enthusiasm by an immense
crowd, it can hardly be said to have
thrown much light along the pathway of
the Liberal party. That the speech was
a finished oratorical effort was amply tes-
titled by the frequent applause with which
the speaker was interrupted. But 1t is
doubtful, when he finished, If his most
admiring listener could have given any
justification for his enthusiasm, save that
1t was Lord Rosebery.
Solved into it's elements, the speech mere
ly said: Get together" The speaker him.
self confessed that he did not pretend TO
say how this cohesion should be accom-
plished. In urging his fellow Liberals to
r~eorganize Lord Rosebery quoted the fol-
lowing words from the message of Pres
ident Roosevelt: I'VE hope to keep going
by slow steps, not by bounds. We must
keep our eyes on the stars, but We must
also remember that our feet are on the
ground"
The following was the tenor of the former
premier's speech: The ministry was wrong
h,Yf Tho IiharoIc ohAVII ha xrary 10 roftrI
how they tried to set it right. Turning
from the immediate outbreak of the war,
Lord Rosebery touched upon education, in
which, he said, Great Britain was wOefully
development was also sadly atrophied and
the time would soon come when Britain
would be forced to fight for trade SUI
premac She would then be as helpless
as though armed with bows and arrows.
Lord Rosebery maintained a discreet
vagueness on the question of his personal
inclinations concerning the leadership of
the Liberal party. He said that he could
not imagine himself in the position of a
minister. But in the next breath he told
how he would reorganize the war office
If it fell to his lot. He said this reor-
ganization, however, should be postponed
until after the war. The speakers recipe
for the proposed reorganization of this Of
flee was a Enthusiastically American one,
namely, the appointment of a commission.
Concerning the governments conduct of
the war Lord Rosebery was severe and
SCOIHlul. IH0 complaint Oh the government
that the Beers had not made war according
to the recognized rules reminded him that
the same thing had been said by the old
Austrian generals of the young Napoleon
when the latter was beating them. He was
particularly sarcastic at the expense of
the explanation of Earl Halsbury, the lord
chancellor, that "only a sort of warfare"
was now going on, and he strongly con-
demned what he termed the ~scandalous
misrepresentation by which the govern
ment had precipitated the last general
election.
Lord Rosebery blamed the government
for it's tactlessness, which. he declared,
had produced unparalleled i'll will towards
Great Britain in every European popula-
ton, and which he attributed largely to
what he called the provocative oratory of
Mr.. Chamberlain, the colonial secretary.
While he was emphatic on the necessity of
vigorously prosecuting the war and ex-
pressing the fullest confidence in Lord
Kitchener, Lord Rosebery said that he
thought the government should be pre-
pared to listen to peace overtures, and he
commended there was nothing degrading or
abasing in recognizing the exiled Boer gov
eminent for the purpose of making peace.
The three greatest civilians who mad waged
war in the past century, the speaker said,
Pitt, Bismarck and Lincoln, had not dis
dained such efforts TO secure peace.