Conservative, on the 28th of May, 1866.  There had been a discussion on the subject in the House of Commons, in which Lord Claud Hamilton, then member for the borough, distinguished himself.  Mr. Maguire brought the Society before Parliament in an able speech.  The legislature, as well as the public, were then preoccupied with the Church question.  But, doubtless, the maiden city will make her voice heard next session, and insist on being released from a guardian who always acted the part of a stepmother.

The Irish Society has been before three parliamentary tribunals, the Commissioners of Municipal Corporations for England and Wales, the Royal Commission of Enquiry into the state of the Corporation of London, and the Irish Municipal Commissioners.  The English Commissioners say:—­’We do not know of any pretext or argument for continuing this municipal supremacy of the Irish Society.  A control of this kind maintained at the present day by the municipality of one town in England over another town in Ireland, appears to us so indefensible in principle, that our opinion would not have been changed, even if it were found that hitherto it has been conducted with discretion and forbearance.’

The Irish commissioners affirmed ’that the Irish Society in their original institution were created for the purpose of forwarding the interests and objects of the Plantation, and not for mere private gain; and that of the large income which they receive from their possessions in Londonderry, a very inadequate and disproportionate share is applied for the public purposes, or other objects connected with the local interests of the districts from which the revenues of the society are drawn.’

The corporation of Derry cannot put a bye-law in force till it receives the approval of the Irish Society.  And what is this tribunal whose fiat must stamp the decision of the Derry corporation before it can operate in the smallest matter within the municipal boundary?  The members are London traders, totally ignorant of Ireland.  They are elected for two years, so that they must go out by the time they acquire any information about their trust, to make way for another batch equally ignorant.  Having everything to learn during their term of office, if they have time or capacity to learn anything about the matter, they must submit to the guidance of the governor, who is elected virtually, though not formally, for life; and the members of the Derry corporation believe him to be the autocrat of the society.  Mr. James P. Hamilton, now the assistant-barrister for Sligo, at the great meeting of the citizens of Derry already mentioned, pronounced the governors to be ’the most ignorant, the most incompetent, and the most careless governors that ever were inflicted on a people.’  Mr. Hamilton quoted from the answer of the corporation of London in 1624 to the Privy Council, which required them to convey 4,000 acres to the citizens of Derry.  The corporation replied that they had allotted 1,500