On This Day

July 17, 1901

Lord Rosebery speaks to the City Liberal Club

Having announced his retirement from party politics gives the speech that will define his career. ‘…what would be most extraordinary is this; that anybody who considered the state of the Liberal Party then and now should expect me voluntarily to return to the Liberal Party. I left the Liberal Party because I found it impossible to lead it…and it would indeed be an extraordinary evolution of mind if…I were to announce my intention of voluntarily returning to it in its present condition. No…for the present at any rate I must proceed alone. I must plough my furrow alone. That is my fate, agreeable or the reverse; but before I get to the end of that furrow, it is possible that I may find myself not alone.’