Liberal League (United Kingdom)

[4] By 1908 the League was almost moribund, but on 12 March of that year Rosebery tried to revive it by delivering a speech in which he urged the League to rally to a programme of anti-socialism, anti-Home Rule, imperialism, free trade and reform of the House of Lords.

[5] One member present said it was "the most dismal gathering he had ever attended; Lord Rosebery's audience was obviously ill at ease"; Rosebery himself wrote in his diary that his speech was "even worse than usual, partly from a clammy afternoon audience, partly from my being out of touch with politics".

[6] The Liberal government's revolutionary People's Budget of 1909 caused a storm of controversy.

The next day, he delivered a greatly anticipated speech in Glasgow in which he condemned the Budget as the "negation of faith, of family, of property, of monarchy, of Empire".

[8] Asquith wrote to him the day after the speech, declaring that it was impossible to serve under his presidency, not realising Rosebery had already resigned it.