The Sun.
London, England, 1865-03-27 00:00:00

The Belfast Riots.

The report of the Belfast Inquiry Commission to
the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with voluminous
minutes of evidence and appendix, has been pub-
lished. The report is dated March 8, 1865, and the
commissioners, besides remarking on the evidence
and various matters connected with their proceed-
ings, make the following recommendations. They
suggest that the Orange anniversaries should not be
celebrated on account of the liability to periodic
disturbance thereby produced. They say :

Can neither the discouragement of the powerful and in-
fluential, nor the adverse opinion of the wise and good, in-
duce those who indulge in such vain and mischievous dis-
plays to remember the claims of citizenship, of charity, or
of civilisation ? Till they shall, we greatly fear that Belfast
will continue subject, in some degree, to a recurrence of
such evils as have heretofore afflicted it, and that the police
of such a town will, at intervals more or less remote than
each other, be insufficient to entirely suppress internal
disorder.
The commissioners add :

Earnestly hoping that a better spirit may soon prevail in
this flourishing town, it now remains for us to lay briefly
before your excellency the recommendations which we have
to offer. They are as follows :-
1. That Belfast be placed in the same category, and dealt
with on the same principle as regards the number of con-
stabulary allocated to it by the Government as the cities►
and towns specified in 11 and 12 Vic., c. 72, schedule A.
This will certainly give Belfast the 100 men suggested by
some witnesses, and; area and population considered, per-
haps 130 men.
2. That an additional force of constabulary be main-
tained, sufficient to raise the entire force in the boiough to
450 men, and that the expense of the extra force be de-
frayed (save as to any special remuneration) one-half by the
Government, and one-half by the borough, on the scale and
in the manner provided for suoh cases by 11 and 12 Vic., c.
72, s. 4.

3. That the rules and regulations of the constabulary
should (if necessary) be modified so as to enable and per-
mit the members of the force stationed in Belfast to per-
form all the duties, as well by night as by day, now dis-
charged by the existing local force which is to be abolished.
4. That the constabulary force of Belfast shouldbe placed
under the management and control of a commissioner who
should have magisterial power, but should not preside at
sessions or discharge any of the ordinary judicial duties of
a magistrate.
5. That the expense consequent on giving the men extra
pay for night duty, the salary of the commissioner, and
any other extra cost necessarily incurred by the adapta-
tion of the constabulary to the special service, as also any
retiring allowance to officers or men of the existing local
force, should be borne by the borough.
6. That two resident magistrates should be stationed in
Belfast, and should act jointly in the performance of the
judicial duties there.
Power should be reserved to the Lord Lieutenant for the
time being, upon the recommendation of the commissioner
or the town council, to reduce the additional force of con-
stabulary by 50 men, in case his Excellency should be sa-
tisfied that by reason of an improved state of feeling be-
tween the antagonistic parties and other circumstances
such a reduction would be expedient.
We may remark that many of the local police would,
doubtless, be found eligible for the constabulary, and
should, if they desire it, be allowed to enter that force."

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card forms quite a literary curiosity, and is one of the best
specimens of minute typography ever published.
THE CHARITY Comussiox.—The report of tha
Charity Commissioners for England states that the
applications for their intervention with respect to various
endowments were as many as 1,369 in the year 1864. In
the course of that year the Commissioners made 291
orders appointing and removing trustees and establishing
schemes; 257 authorising sales of charity estates ; 130
authorising building, mining, or other special leases ; 44
authorising improvements of charity estates and the
raising or appropriation of the necessary funds ; 20
authorising the compromise of disputed claims ; and 671
authorising transfers of stock or money to the official
trustees of charitable funds, who at the close of the year
held stook amounting to X 2,085,281 upon 3,586 accounts
for charities. The compilation of tho general digest of
endowed charities is now complete (to the full extent of
the information which the Commissioners have been able
to procure) for 15 counties, • and as to the parochial cha-
rities of the cities of London and Westminster, and con-
siderable progress has been made in relation to other
counties. The information collected is described as of
general utility and interest. It is for Parliament to deter-
mine whether it shall be printed.