26 MARCH 1892, Page 2

Lord Rosebery, who succeeds Lord Granville as President of the

City Liberal Club, delivered a striking and original speech there on Wednesday, partly in praise of Lord Granville, partly by way of review of the vast changes in the character of the British Foreign policy during the last fifty years. The City Liberal Club is not united on the subject of Irish policy, so that Lord Rosebery expressed his intention, on his visits to the Club, always to leave the Irish Question "with his umbrella in the halt" He dwelt on Lord Granville's sagacity, which, he said, is of more importance in the deliberations of a Council of leaders, than it is in the oratorical work of converting the outer world to your own political view, and he regarded Lord Gran- ville's sagacity as extraordinary. Moreover, his magnanimity and generosity to younger men were equally remarkable. If he had ever formed a Government of his own, he would have sig- nalised it by the effort to infuse fresh blood into the ranks of the Administration. Further, he was the most courageous of statesmen, "the pluokiest man," said Lord Rosebery, "I have ever known." As leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Lords,—an assembly which, according to Lord Rose- bery, never smiles and rarely cheers,—Lord Granville needed

and exhibited the utmost pluck. He had to deal with Lord Lyndhurst, the most formidable of debaters ; with two Lord Derbys, "the Rupert of Debate," and the present Lord Derby, whom Lord Rosebery denominated the David Leslie of debate, "a cautions General, who never got into disaster except when overborne by the superior unwisdom of his friends ;" and he had to deal with Lord Salisbury, one of the keenest and most powerful debaters of his time,—and yet he was equal to these great efforts. He seemed to be merely playing with his foils, when "all of a sudden you saw the keen blade flash out, and you knew that a mortal blow had been inflicted." That is a very happy description, but the word " mortal " is rather extravagant. Lord Granville often drew blood, but not often the life-blood of his opponent.