A|4 ADDRESS ddivered in the TONTINE HOTEL, GREENOCK,
on 29th Janudary, 1883.
PRovOST WILsb?O in th? Chair.
Sir ALEXANDER GALT, aft?r some introductory : remarks,
said :-Provost Wilson and gentlemen,-I am not going to repeat
th? speech I made in Edinburgh; but when I spoke there it
was in the knowledge that I should have an opportunity of
saying a few words on this occasion, and therefore one or two
points that I might have elaborated more fully in speaking upon
the great question of the United Kingdom and our colonies I
shall now be able to speak upon in a more detailed way than I
then did. You will recollect that it is only a few days since
representatives of the self-governing colonies had the honour of a
formal reception for the first time by the Secretary of State for
the Colonies, Lord Derby, who received us in our character as
representing the colonies that were to a certain extent not
dependent upon the Colonial Office, but dependent upon the will
of the people they represented. There was one expression that fell
from Lord Derby that certainly imprinted itself upon my mind.
Speaking of the future of the empire, he said that he believed
that its greatness would be found in the development of its
cobonial possessions, rather than in the interest it might feel in
European affairs. Now, we all know that Lord Derby has a
very high reputation as a statesman; but I think he is perhaps
more than almost any other man in Parliament a repre-
sentative of the sound common sense of this country. And
in that character I do think that he spoke the feelings of
the great bulk of the people of this country when he said