[Footnote 263:  The following statements of the members of colleges and of the three denominations for 1879, 1874, and 1869 appear in the last Queen’s University Calendar: 

1879. 1874. 1869. 
Church of Ireland ....... 201   189   211
Roman Catholics   ....... 223   188   161
Presbyterians  .......... 388   249   227
Other denominations......  88    87    83
—–­   —–­   —–­
900   713   682]

[Footnote 264:  In the course of the session, in order to tranquillize the public mind on the subject, secret committees were appointed by both Houses of Parliament to investigate the subject, from whose inquiries it appeared that, since the days when the government was endangered by the plots of the Jacobites, the power had been very sparingly used.  The most conspicuous instance of its employment had been in the case of Bishop Atterbury, several of whose letters had been opened, and were produced in Parliament to justify the bill of “pains and penalties” which was passed against him.  The power had been confined to Great Britain till the latter part of the last century, when it was judged desirable to extend it also to the Lord-lieutenant of Ireland.  But, since the Peace of Amiens, the number of letters opened in a year had not, on an average, exceeded eight; nor was there the least ground for suspecting that a single one had been opened except on such information as fully warranted suspicion.

The practice, however, was not confined to our own government.  In the second volume of the “Life of Bishop Wilberforce” a page is given of his diary, dated July 18, 1854, which records a conversation in which the Duke of Newcastle and Lord John Russell took part, and in which it is mentioned that the French government, under the administration of M. Guizot, opened letters, and that the practice was not confined to monarchical or absolute governments, for “the American government opens most freely all letters.”  And, with reference to this particular case, the Duke of Newcastle said that “Sir James Graham really opened Mazzini’s letters on information which led to a belief that a great act of violence and bloodshed might be prevented by it.”—­Life of Bishop Wilberforce, ii., 247.]

[Footnote 265:  A subsequent act, passed since the date at which the present history closes, has repealed even this exception.  By the 33d Victoria, c. 14 ("Law Reports,” p. 169), it is enacted that “an alien, to whom a certificate of naturalization is granted, shall in the United Kingdom be entitled to all political and other rights, powers, and privileges, and be subject to all obligations to which a natural born British subject is entitled as subject in the United Kingdom,” etc.; and at the general election of 1880 the Baron de Ferrieres, a Belgian nobleman, who had been naturalized in 1867, was elected M.P. for Cheltenham.]

[Footnote 266:  In one instance—­on the question whether twelve should be the number of hours, as proposed by the Government—­the majority against that number was 186 to 183.  But immediately afterward a majority of 188 to 184 decided against Lord Ashley’s alternative proposal of ten hours.]