ravagant programme, and it
abounded in glittering phrases."

Henceforward Lord Rosebery was regarded as a coming man, and his
definite adhesion to Gladstone on the Eastern Question of 1876-1879
secured him the goodwill of the Liberal party. The year 1878, important
in politics, was not less important in Lord Rosebery's career. Early
in the year he made a marriage which turned him into a rich man,
and riches, useful everywhere, are specially useful in politics.
Towards the close of it he persuaded the Liberal Association of
Midlothian to adopt Gladstone as their candidate. There is no need
to enlarge on the importance of a decision which secured the Liberal
triumph of 1880, and made Gladstone Prime Minister for the second
time.

When Gladstone formed his second Government he offered a place
in it to Lord Rosebery, who, with sound judgment, declined what
might have looked like a reward for services just rendered. In
1881 he consented to take the Under-Secretaryship of the Home
Department, with Sir William Harcourt as his chief; but the combination
did not promise well, and ended rather abruptly in 1883. When the
Liberal Government was in the throes of dissolution, Lord Rosebery
returned to it, entering the Cabinet as Lord Privy Seal in 1885.
It was just at this moment that Matthew Arnold, encountering him
in a country-house, thus described him: "Lord Rosebery is very
gay and 'smart,' and I like him very much."

The schism over Home Rule was now approaching, and, when it came,
Lord Rosebery threw in his lot with Gladstone, becoming Foreign
Secretary in February, 1886, and falling with his chief in the
following summer. In 1889 he was chosen Chairman of the first London
County Council, and there did the best work of his life, shaping that
powerful but amorphous body into order and efficiency. Meanwhile,
he was, by judicious speech and still more judicious silence,
consolidating his political position; and before he joined Gladstone's
last Government in August, 1892, he had been generally recognized as
the exponent of a moderate and reasonable Home Rule and an advocate
of Social Reform. My own belief is that the Liberal party as a
whole, and the Liberal Government in particular, rejoiced in the
decision which, on Gladstone's final retirement, made Rosebery
Prime Minister.

But it was a difficult and disappointing Premiership. Harcourt, not
best pleased by the Queen's choice, was Chancellor of the Exchequer and
Leader