31 JULY 1886, Page 2

Lord Granville made an interesting speech at the City Club

on Tuesday, which he delivered sitting, a posture in which he had, he said, been invited to speak in another "illustrious but somewhat gouty assembly." Lord Granville deprecated adding in any way to Lord Salisbury's difficulties, and said that up to a recent period be had himself been disposed to favour the plan of Lord John Russell for self-government in each of the four Provinces of Ireland. But as this plan would have had no adequate support either in Ireland or in Great Britain, he had given up the idea. He spoke very highly and very generously of Lord Rosebery's administration of the Foreign Office; dwelt with satisfaction on the recent intervention of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in settling the Constitutional issue in Queensland, as described in last week's Spectator; and then gave some account of the progress made in fortifying our various coaling-stations. At Hong Kong, Singapore, Trin- comalee, and Sierra Leone, the works are "well advanced, and will be completed as soon as the armament is provided." "In Mauritius, Jamaica, and at Esquimault, the works will be com- menced at once, and the defence of Table Bay and St. Lucia will shortly be undertaken." At Simon's Bay and Aden, works are in progress, but apparently not yet in an advanced con- dition. The Dominion of Canada has undertaken to construct the defences of Esquimault ; the Australian Colonies will bear the expense of fortifying King George's Sound and the Torres Straits ; while Hong Kong, the Straits Settlement, and Mauritius have also undertaken to provide the works if the Imperial Government send the armament,—the same arrangement as that on which the Dominion Government and the United King- dom are to divide the expense of fortifying Esquimault. On the whole, Lord Granville's statement was highly satisfactory, and shows that his recent Colonial administration, though short, has been very active.