He had by this time added a band of music to his train, and to the mournful music which they made on their reed instruments the King and his chiefs marched in front of the Council House, and in the presence of the soldiers whom the Resident had ordered to assemble, publicly tendered his submission to the Queen of England.

This act was accomplished by bowing very low before the Resident, and then kneeling on the ground and rubbing his forehead three times in the dust.

The ten chiefs repeated the ceremony after their King; and thus having signified their regret for their evil deeds, and their intention to be faithful and obedient in future, the King and his followers were allowed to take their way back to the palace in Benin.

* * * * *

England seems to have taken to heart the conduct of the Irish people during the recent jubilee, and to be endeavoring to make peace with the denizens of the Emerald Isle.

There have been many complaints that the royal family never visited Ireland, and that the money and trade that a royal pageant always brings with it have been purposely withheld from the land of St. Patrick.

There is a good deal of justice in this complaint.  The Queen, who goes so often to Scotland, has not set foot in Ireland since 1861, nor has the Prince of Wales since 1871.  At the same time Ireland has been in such an unsettled state that it has not seemed a very safe country in which to trust the precious life of a sovereign.

Now, however, the Queen has sent the Duke and Duchess of York to Dublin to open the exhibition of Irish industries in that city.

The Duke of York is the Queen’s grandson, the eldest living son of the Prince of Wales.  He is the heir to the throne, and will be the King of Great Britain and Ireland if he survives his grandmother and father.

The Queen has therefore entrusted one of the most precious members of her family to the keeping of the Irish, and the importance of this act may go a long way toward making peace with Ireland.

The wife of the Duke of York is the daughter of one of the most popular of the English princesses, and is said to have inherited all her mother’s amiability and charm of manner.

Entertainments and fetes have been given the young couple, and it is rumored that the Queen is about to purchase for them the beautiful “Muckross” estate near Killarney.

If this is done, her Majesty will probably require the young people to spend a good deal of their time in Ireland.

The Irish themselves have not been very friendly to the young Prince.  They have indeed rather resented this attempt to gain their friendship.

The entertainments that have been given have been by the government officials, the Irish themselves carefully abstaining from any signs of satisfaction at the visit.

It has been conveyed to the Prince, however, that the Irish as a nation are quite willing to be friendly with him after he has proved himself worthy of their friendship.