At a meeting with Beatrice Webb Haldane told her he was disconsolate at the condition of the Liberal Party: "Rot has set in there is no hope now but to be beaten and then reconstruct a new party". The leaders of the party were exasperated and believed Rosebery to lack planning and direction. "Although Asquith, Grey and I", wrote Haldane, "stuck by him... we never knew when he would retire and leave us in the lurch". When Rosebery offered the Speakership, he refused it that March. However, on 11 October 1896, he wrote to Rosebery that he "was the leader of a revolution in our party".