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 EARL OF ROSEBERY

—for I understand if any of the other sex are present they are only here as interlopers—[laughter]:— I confess that though you, my Lord Provost, say that I accepted your invitation with alacrity, that was not my sensation in writing. [Laughter.] I felt some alarm, not having spoken for a long time to a large audience in a large hall, at the idea of going to Glasgow; but the sight of this meeting has removed all my fears, because this meeting does not want a speech. The meeting is a speech itself. [Cheers.] I have many fond recollections of this hall—of many splendid meetings, especially when Mr. Gladstone was here on his first visit—[cheers]—but I never remember a meeting greater, or perhaps even to equal this. Well, that is a great consideration, and I trust you will bear with me for a very short time that I may deliver the message which has brought me to Glasgow. I have been invited by men of respectability and even of eminence to dilate upon football, and upon temperance, but I shall not follow these lengthy and devious paths, which might take hours for discussion without leading to any very harmonious result. I avoid thorny paths. But before coming to the main purport of what I may call my message I will make three practical remarks with regard to this question of recruiting. The first is to echo very earnestly the words you my Lord Provost have said about the necessity of filling up the gaps in the existing Territorial battalions before proceeding to start any new ones. In Edinburgh recently Sir George McCrae has achieved a great success—[cheers]—on which we all heartily congratulate him, in having formed a new battalion of the Royal Scots. But the Reserve battalions of the Royal Scots are, with one exception, not nearly up to strength. One may say indeed of the raising 121