eldest daughter was telling her nurse that she could not sleep, and the nurse advised her not to think so much. 'But I can't help thinking,' she replied, for, you see, I cannot make my mind sit down.' I hope," added his lordship, "that we shall take to heart my daughter's saying, and in the great cause of progress not allow our minds to sit down." A few weeks later one of the tenants on the Dalmeny estate called to arrange some business with the landlord. It was quite a usual thing in these days for the statesman to be discovered lying on the nursery floor, with three or four children on the top of him. Their gleeful shouting could be heard as soon as the visitor entered. On this occasion Lord Rosebery was writing in the library, and Lady Sybil was "helping" him. "Is this the little girl who thinks so much?" asked the farmer. "Yes," said Lord Rosebery, "she is a great thinker; she has written two sonnets and a leading article."

Until the marriage of Lady Peggy, it was the Earl's custom to have his four children photographed every year at The Durdans, standing in a row outside the windows, in order that he might preserve a record of their growth and relative heights. It is said that this annual event afforded less pleasure to the children than to their father. Lady Sybil Primrose amuses herself, like the Princess of Wales, with amateur photography.

At the Jubilee of 1887 many Colonial visitors were entertained at Dalmeny The daughter of a well-known Australasian official, who was at the time rather older than Lady Sybil, has a vivid

As

recollection of the kindness she received from the Earl and Countess. Lady Rosebery, whose hospitality made every one feel at home, herself picked out a particularly tempting ice for her youngest guest. "Lord Rosebery took some of the people to see a ruin in a corner of the grounds, and carried one of the little boys on his shoulder. I walked behind, hand in hand with the little girls." his children have grown older, he has made them his constant companions. His sons have accompanied him on several Continental visits, although they have not yet seen the southern parts of Europe, as he had at their age. They were present with him at the coronation of Queen Wilhelmina of Holland, and not long ago spent a delightful week in North Germany, visiting the royal palace of Herrenhausen and oldworld Hildesheim, with its memories of Charlemagne and its rose tree that has lived a thousand years. Lord Rosebery has often looked on while his eldest son, Lord Dalmeny, was distinguishing himself on the cricket or football field, and neighbours have thought, as they watched him, that no political triumphs of his own ever brought such a light of happiness to his face. At his own earnest wish, Lord Dalmeny is to go into the Army, and it is understood. that he will join the Scots Greys.

The children were trained from their earliest years to be courteous and considerate to every one, and especially to the village people around their homes. Lord Rosebery as a young man started a cricket club for the stable lads at Epsom, and used himself frequently to join in the game. Before her marriage, Lady Crewe was the leading spirit in a

girls' cricket club near Mentmore. On On summer Saturdays or Sundays the grounds of Mentmore have often been thrown open to the public, and the family at the "House" give the prizes at the cottagers' annual flower-show.

Many stories are told which prove that Lord Rosebery takes a kindly interest in other children as well as his own. When he was leaving Edinburgh by the Sunday night train, after his first visit as Premier, he talked at the Waverley station to a little lad in the employment of the North British Railway. He asked the boy if he went to church on Sundays, and what were his working hours. The station-master explained that the boy was a Roman Catholic. The Premier replied that he thought the Church of Scotland ought to hold late services, so that working-men, who so rarely feel fresh enough to attend church in the morning, might be present with their families in the evening.

He

At Cardiff station in January, 1895, Lord Rosebery, who had entered his train to return to London, saw a little girl crying bitterly on the platform. got out and asked her what was the matter. She replied that she had lost her ticket, and had still a long way to travel. The Premier comforted her with cheery words, and himself put her in charge of a leading official, to whom he gave a sum of money sufficient to see the little traveller safely to her journey's end.

His interest in the sports and amusements of the people is shown when he attends one of the international football matches. He has begun to go almost regularly to the final contest of the football year at the Crystal Palace. On

several occasions he has presented the cup to the winning team. His sons accompany him, and he is quite as eager as they are in applauding the players. At the last great football match in the Celtic Park, Glasgow, it is recorded that his lordship "waved his hat at every Scottish success, with all the abandon of an Aberdeen tripper in the shilling enclosure." Almost before the game was over, the crowd dashed across the field to the pavilion where he was seated in company with Lord Kinnaird, and called to him vociferously for a speech. The Scottish team had played in his lordship's racing colours (primrose and pink), and he said this was the greatest compliment he had ever received.

From the beginning of his public life Lord Rosebery has taken a warm interest in what is now perhaps the most pressing of all social reforms—the better housing of the people. Many years ago, when presiding over the annual meeting of the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, held in the Queen Street Hall, Edinburgh, he expressed the opinion that the commercial prosperity of our time had done little or nothing to improve the lot of the lowest class of all. "The tendency of the age is ruthless and severe. It props and protects and strengthens the strong, but, like the Spartan mother, it is apt to destroy its weakly offspring. The railways have opened out in this century an almost inexhaustible source of wealth, yet wherever the railways go they sweep away the dwellings of the working-classes." From a recent census paper he had learned that no fewer than forty-six Edinburgh families lived

in windowless houses, and that 33 per cent. of the entire population of the city lived in houses of one apartment, and possessing only one window.

In Glasgow not more than 5 per cent. of the population lived in houses of four rooms and upwards; while in Edinburgh the number who occupied houses of this class was 22 per cent. of the population. "I believe," said the speaker, “that the supplying of a better class of dwelling-houses for the poor is the most direct means of increasing their self-respect and giving them the desire to improve their condition." When visiting Philadelphia as a young man, he was taken to see a workingmen's city, which formed a separate quarter of the town. At the Co-operative Congress in 1890 he recalled this experience. "Externally it was as ugly as any town could be. It was bare, hard, red, uncompromisingly brick, and under the summer and autumn sun it looked a perfect furnace. But to the inward eye it had a beauty of its own, as representing the surest foundation on which the State can rest, which is an intelligent community in its own home.'

In a speech at Shoreditch in November, 1899, he dealt with the present aspect of the re-housing question as it affects London, and urged that a great portion of the working population could be more healthily and economically housed in the country, the outlying districts being legislatively affixed to the county of London. His interest in the work which the London County Council is doing to brighten the lives of the poor was conspicuously shown in his St. James's Hall speech in support of the Progressives in March, 1898. Mr.

Chamberlain addressed a meeting at Camberwell on behalf of the Moderates. on the same night. The speeches were printed side by side in the next morning's papers, and London responded by returning the Progressives in a satisfactory majority. It was a well-deserved triumph for Lord Rosebery, whose appeal reminded his audience of the speeches he delivered during his leadership of the first Council. Never has he displayed a more hearty sympathy with the cause of London progress; never a closer and firmer grasp of the great city's innumerable concerns. Lord Salisbury had described the Council as "Socialist at heart." Its former Chairman said he had no fear of Socialism. "If you want to deal with Socialism, you must anticipate Socialism, and deal with the evils which create the soil that breeds the plant." "I believe that the London County Council is not more Socialistic than other cities of the country. Is direct employment of labour in a limited degree-necessary at any rate for the prevention of the rule of contractors-is such direct employment of labour Socialism, because you find it in almost every great municipality of the country? Is the equalisation of rates Socialism? Lord Salisbury is in favour of the equalisation of rates, and I should be sorry to see him mixed up with the Socialists of the London County Council. Is betterment Socialism? It has been unanimously recommended by a committee of the House of Lords. Is the possession of gas and water and tramways Socialism? Almost all the great cities of the Empire own their gas, water, and tramways, or at any rate a very large proportion of

them.

These things are not Socialism at all. They are vital necessities of a great municipality; and if it be Socialistic to do all these things, you must stone Manchester, stone Birmingham, stone Liverpool, and stone Glasgow before you attempt to cast a single pebble at London." While urging the duties of public bodies towards the less fortunate members of the community, Lord Rosebery is careful to perform his own. Many a happy day has been provided by his kindness

for

us. There was one man who ran on after all the others had fallen behind. He must have run two miles. He was anxious to say something, and it was, "I wish to thank you, sir, for the speech you made to the work

house

people."

Lord Rosebery,

like Mr. Gladstone,

has always some word of comfort and uplifting for those whose lot in life represents failure, exhaustion, and destitution.

Since his retirement from party politics Lord Rosebery has earned a new title. It is the fashion on both sides to call him "the Orator of the Empire," for, as the Scotsman lately observed, in his great Imperial speeches the nation hears itself speaking through him. One of the most amusing tributes ever paid to his eloquence occurred in the correspondence in a breach of promise case some