before whose Whigs the Duke was obliged to resign on the question of Parliamentary Reform. After the success of the measure the fourth Earl of Rosebery presided at a great banquet commemorative of Reform. And Lord Dalmeny manifested signs of what we may call practical radicalism by bringing out in 1848 a hearty and stimulating brochure, entitled "An Address to the Middle Classes upon the Subject of Gymnastic Exercises." During the thirty years since this was published, perhaps few wholesome pursuits have more widely developed themselves than the varied forms of athletic exercise.

Archibald Philip Primrose, fifth Earl of Rosebery, was born in London, May 7th, 1847, and is the eldest son of Archibald, Lord Dalmeny, who died in 1851, not having succeeded to the earldom. His mother was Lady Catherine Lucy Wilhelmina Stanhope, only daughter of the fourth lord, and a lady remembered as one of the fairest bridesmaids at the wedding of Her Majesty. Whilst Lady Dalmeny, she illustrated a magnificent edition, in the largest folio, of the old ballad of "The Spanish Ladye's Love." Upon her husband's early death she married the fourth and present Duke of Cleveland. The present titles of the subject of our sketch are Baron Rosebery of the United Kingdom, dating from 1828, Viscount Rosebery, 1700, Viscount Inverkeithing, 1703, Lord Primrose and Dalmeny, 1700. The baronetcy dates from 1651. It was suggested a few years ago that the magician who is now Lord Beaconsfield should add to these a dukedom, by way of endeavour to stop the mouth of the Earl, who had been treating with profane levity that august institution, the House of Lords. But perhaps the requisite agreement as to future silence could not be come to between the parties.

Lord Rosebery was educated at Bayford, and afterwards at Eton. Thence he passed to Christ Church, Oxford. He was reading for honours and coquetting with the Turf when his grandfather, the fourth Earl, died. This was in 1868; and three months before coming of age he quitted Oxford without taking a degree, a precipitate step that it is more than probable he now regrets, as one does regret one's first wild leap into fancied independence. He soon afterwards accompanied his fellow student of Christ Church, the Marquis of Bute, in a lengthy tour abroad; on his return from which he began a racing career by buying at a dashing price a horse destined for the Derby, which proved a disappointment. A young nobleman who joins the Turf for truly sporting reasons must experience an unpleasant revulsion of feeling when he finds that a large number of persons are connected with it solely to make money

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out of those less clever than themselves. One of Lord Rosebery's horses ran in an eccentric manner, and disgusted him; determining to get rid of the animal, he entered her for what is called a Selling Race," which he thought she could win, but only backed her for a comparatively moderate sum. The sequel we draw from Baily's Magazine:-"The next day she did not improve, for she ran last in much worse company; and was ultimately sold for seventeen guineas, by public auction. A disappointed growler then, who dropped a fiver over the race, addressed a hostile letter to the newspapers, commenting upon the suspicious nature of the transaction, and insinuating that Lord Rosebery must have had some knowledge of it. The answer he got was an announcement that his lordship's horses would be immediately put up for sale. For he imagined-and rightly, we think -that if he could not lose a paltry Selling Race without rendering himself liable to a suspicion of connivance in it, racing was not worth following as a pastime." The newspaper observations were retracted, but the injured nobleman remained firm in his determination to abandon the Turf, and indicated a resolution never to return to it. But as one of his present places of residence is The Durdans, Epsom, it will easily be understood that he has since reconsidered the question, subsequent years probably having dulled the sting that arises out of the first contact with a sphere used to a low standard of morality and endowed with a corresponding suspicion of others. When he returned to his old pursuit, it was no longer as juvenile plunger but as the steady, temperate sportsman.

In 1871 Lord Rosebery made his first appearance as a public man, by seconding the address in the House of Lords. It is rarely that a maiden speech wins so large, hearty, and spontaneous a suffrage. In the House itself it earned at once the most pronounced epithets of favour, and at every subsequent occasion on which Lord Rosebery has risen to speak, he has been greeted with marked attention and respect. It has been the fashion of late for educated men to half disbelieve in themselves and everybody else, in whatever is done or said. This kind of Pyrrhonism would affect that a speech in the House of Lords is a thing of trifling moment. A blasé or overworked man may scan the morning journals with superficial glance, but when we reflect what multitudes of persons form their opinions upon what comes currently before them from quarters of authority, and that opinions lead practice, the cynical view of a speech in the House of Lords is seen to be sufficiently absurd. One thing may be allowed which will in part

account for the disheartening consciousness to which we have adverted. The spread of education, the multiplicity of matter brought before every individual living in civilisation, and the prevalence of criticism, have tended to diminish the prestige of merely brilliant speeches wherever made. An address in one of the Houses that would have made a reputation a century ago, now finds rivals in a comprehensive article in a monthly review, if its aim be solid and serious, while if it strive for point and wit, it will scarce attain a longer memory than will a sparkling essay in one of the weekly journals. The men who gain any lasting reputation at the present day have to base it on solid and practical qualities, rather than on the flights of rhetoric and impossibilities of eloquence that won honour of old. If anyone should be found indulging in too recherché a style, too elegant a manner, or too artistic a phraseology, in treating a weighty subject, he would be denounced by the practical men of Manchester and Birmingham as one idly wasting time; there is now so much to do in Megalopolis that time is felt to be short, and art too long.

Matters being so serious, every man of real political action is more or less a Radical, with a difference only in nomenclature according as he is a Radical against his will and by compulsion, or a Radical on principle. On his coming of age, Lord Rosebery declared himself a Liberal, and has borne rather the name of Radical. The Liberal, as we understand the word, is apt to be restless, unquiet, impulsive, sweeping away institutions with giant hand, endowed with a mind insufficiently historical. The Tory is for antiquity, prestige, and something more both of pride and of personal affection, but with a kindly, port-wine flavour even about his nepotism or class legislation. The Radical, where he is not fanatical, confines himself to what is practical and real, sees that old fashioned amendments at the root are large benefits to the tree, is patient and painstaking, with a fellow feeling for the man and brother who lives in a world of small things.

What kind of politician is Lord Rosebery we may judge by a glance at his public work during his seven years' apprenticeship now concluded. In 1871, in the garb of an Archer of the Scottish Guard, he began to be the serious expounder of national policy in the House of Lords. He shewed his leanings by sympathising with the Senior Wrangler of the year, whom, being a Dissenter, the University tests debarred from proceeding from intellectual distinction to emolument and honour. He expressed his belief in the kinship of the civilisation of England and America. He rejoiced in the heroism of Paris, who had awakened from her sleep

of luxury and defended her walls on a diet of husks and rodents. A month or two later he protested against the insincerity resulting from the system of clerical Fellowships at Oxford; and bore without flinching Lord Salisbury's most scathing ire. In 1871 he, or somebody very like him, wrote to the Spectator à propos of a paper published in that journal on "The Reform of the House of Lords," that there were such rare aves in existence as young peers who felt it hard "that on coming of age they should at once be relegated to a chamber whose dulness is only equalled by its unpopularity." The implied suggestion was that they should be allowed to enlist in the Commons if they chose. "It is a hardship," it was said, "that men should be involuntarily and irredeemably peers

It is always believed that peers delight in their position, consider themselves chosen instruments, and beyond the influence, as above the emotions, of the nation." "On the other hand," continued the letter, which, by the way, was signed " A Doorkeeper in the House of Lords," "young peers have assured even me (as wall-flowers at a ball have been heard to confide in the waiters) that their position is unendurable, that with the truest sympathy for Radical objects there is a dead weight of votes in the House that laughs at leverage, and that to address fifteen phlegmatic or somnolent peers is a task that deadens all energy. They long to breathe, they say; there is no air in the House of Lords." The same young peer a few weeks ago made another attempt to beat against his bars. He complained in the House of the scant time for discussion that fell to the lot of the junior members, and suggested by way of innovation that there should be a third member nominated to discharge the duty of additional Deputy Speaker. That the Lord Chancellor's time is already overfilled was the objection usually raised to extension of the period allotted for discussion.

In November, 1871, Lord Rosebery delivered the Inaugural Address at the opening of the Lecture Session of the Philosophical Institution at Edinburgh, on which occasion his text was the union of England and Scotland, but his words reached out toward a larger union, as will be seen from what we quote:

"We have in our generation, if we would remain a generation at all, to effect that union of classes without which power is a phantom, and freedom a farce. In these days the rich man and the poor gaze at each other across no impassable gulf; for neither is there in this world an Abraham's bosom of calm beatitude. A powerless monarchy, an isolated aristocracy, an intelligent and inspiring people, do not together form

the conditions of constitutional stability. We have to restore a common pulse, a healthy beat, to the heart of the commonwealth. It is a great work, the work of individuals as much as of statesmen, alien from none of us, rather pertinent to us all; each in his place can further it. Each one of us-merchant and clerk, master and servant, capitalist and artisan, minister and parishioner-we are all privileged to have a hand in this, the most sublime work of all; to restore or create harmony betwixt man and man; to look, not for the differences which chance or necessity has placed between class and class, but for the common sympathies which underlie and connect all humanity."

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In June, 1872, Earl Rosebery spoke on the Alabama Claims, being, as was reported at the time, one of the few speakers that seemed impressed with the magnitude of the issues of the debate." A saying in the course of his speech, in reference to Earl Russell, received the compliment of being omitted by the reporters, to wit, that "he preferred his own humble position in the House, with his inexperience, to the mischievous eminence of the noble Earl." This was neat. Lord Cairns, who opposed the speech, began his observations with a compliment. Lord Granville was evidently pleased with the vigour of his subaltern, and is said to have expressed his confident expectation that the young statesman is destined to leave his page in history.

In July of the same year he spoke in favour of the extension to Scotland of the Act providing that no creed or distinctive formulary shall be taught in any school assisted by public money. It is the fashion to denominate the kind of teaching that must ensue as purely secular education, but this is only because certain sections of the community are still so wedded to a particular dogmatic scheme as to think that there is no religion, or what may be called divinised secularism, outside of that scheme. It is killing the philosophically slain to attack the Scotch Catechisms, but if St. George cannot bury the dragon he has slain, he must expect its corporeal mase and its long lingering memory to continue to exercise a terrible spell. There were Scotch peers of the highest position who boiled over with horror when Lord Rosebery gently quoted the question of the "Shorter Catechism" (designed for the use of those of "weaker capacity ") :-" What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?" This question being set for children between three and fifteen, and for persons of comparatively weak capacity, Lord Rosebery ironically confessed that "he felt moved to take the greatest pride in the stronger intellects of his native country."