The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-16 00:00:00

THE COLONIAL SOCIETY.

THE QUEEN AND THE IRISH QUESVION.

,41.

The Lord Mayor of Dublin is on a visit to London,
and his mission is to call upon the Queen, to do justice
to Ireland. At the last Drawing Room he was there
with a petition for the release of all the Fenian prisoners,
and on Thursday afternoon he, and the officers of the
corporation of which he is the head, waited on the Queen,
at Windsor Castle, to ask her to do what was in her
power to disestablish the Irish Church.

The deputation was entertained at a sumptuous luncheon
in the White Dining-room, the Duke of Argyll, Mr.
Bruce, the Home Secretary, Lord Lucan, the Hon. Mr.
Ponsonby, and other high officials joining the company.
The Lord Mayor and Corporation then entered the Green
Drawing-room, and afterwards were ushered into the pre-
sence of her Majesty the Queen, who with her Royal
Highness Princess Louise, surrounded by the officers of
state, received the deputation.
The Right Hon. H. A. Bruce having introduced the
Lord Mayor and deputation to the Queen, Sir William
Carroll said : " May it please your Majesty, I have the
high honour of presenting to your Majesty the humble ad-
dress of your loyal corporation of Dublin, praying your
Majesty to extend perfect religious equality to all your
subjects in Ireland." The Lord Mayor then handed
the address, which was beautifully engrossed, to her
Majesty.

The memorial was to the following effect :—" We, the
ancient and loyal corporation of the city of Dublin, humbly
approach your Majesty to lay before you a renewal
of our devoted loyalty to your person, throne, and
dynasty, and to pray your Majesty graciously to consider
the present circumstances and condition of Ireland, with a
view to the giving effect to such measures as will
secure the peace and prosperity of that portion of your
empire, by establishing perfect religious equality for your
Irish subjects. Your Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects
hereby beg to inform you that the efforts made to establish
and maintain the supremacy of the English Church, and
to crush out the religious faith of the Irish people, were
the chief cause of the disturbances that deluged the
country in blood during the sixteenth and seventeenth cen-
turies, and of the poverty and discontent which over-
spread the fairest portions of this island during the
eighteenth, and still in part continues to deface them during
this the nineteenth century ; that the members of that
Church constitute only about 12 per cent. of the whole
population of Ireland ; that the continuanceof the religious
and political ascendancy of that minority of the population
by the maintenance of that establishment and endowment
is an intolerable grievance ; is still, and so long as it may
be continued, will be a fruitful source of internal feud,
hostility, and strife, and of danger to the Throne and Con-
stitution, which this corporation is anxious loyally to
support and maintain. Your memorialists, therefore,
pray your Majesty graciously to take such steps
within the constitution as may foster the extension
of perfect religious equality to all your subjects
in Ireland, by the disestablishment and disendowment by
Act of Parliament of the Church now established by
law in this kingdom."

The Lord Mayor then had the honour of kissing hands.
Her Majesty's reply was as follows :—" I receive with
pleasure your loyal address. The condition of Ireland has
ever been to me a subject of deep and anxious interest.
It is my earnest desire to promote, by just and wise legis-
lation, that spirit of contentment and peace on which
the welfare of the people of Ireland mainly depends."

GOVERNMENT CONTRACTORS' RIGHT TO
SIT IN P.ARLIEMENT.

The Select Committee of the House of Commons
appointed to inquire into the qualification of members
of Parliament having undertaken Government contracts
to a seat in the House, commenced its sittings yester-
day, Mr. Thomas Chambers in the chair. This com-
mittee was appointed in the first instance to inquire
"as to the alleged parliamentary disqualification of Sir
Sydney Hedley Waterlow, under the statute of 22nd
Geo 111., chap. 45." The petitioner's case is that at the
last election for the county of Dumfries Sir S. H.
Waterlow was declared duly elected by a majority
of forty-four votes over Major Walker (Conservative) ;
and that at the time of the election it was notorious
that the firm of Waterloo and Sons held a con-
tract with her Majesty's Stationery Office. The facts
as to the contract with the Stationery Office are these :
It consisted of a tender, subjoined to a schedule of rates
for payment, for executing vellum and account-book
binding, ruling, &c., signed by the firm. That offer was
accepted by Mr. W. R. Greg, the Comptroller. In
the London Gazette of the 2nd December, 1868,
there appeared a dissolution of the film, notifying that
Sir Sydney bad retired on the 15th of October, 1868,
and that all the responsibilities would be continued
by the remaining partners. The Comptroller answered
that he could see no objection to the firm being carried
on as originally constituted. The petitioners contend
that the very earliest period on which it can be said
that Sir Sydney ceased to bold the contract was on the
3rd of December, and supposing it to be true that he
had retired on the 15th of October, no notice was given
in the London Gazette till the 27th of November, and it
was only when the other c ntracting party allowed Sir
Sydn, y to retire, viz., on the third of December, that his
contract with Government can be said to have ceased.
Mr. O'Malley, Q.C., and Mr. J. Clerk, Q.C., appeared
for the petitioner, and Mr. M`Leod Fullerton for the
sitting member.

Mr. Fullerton, at the sitting of the committee, applied
for an adjournment, in consequence of the unavoidable
absence of his leader, Mr.Rodwell, Q.C.
The Chairman : The committee think that it would be
better for you, Mr. Fullerton, to state succinctly the facts
of the case on behalf of Sir S. Waterlow.
Mr. Fullerton then proceeded to contend that the acts
of the sitting member were bona fide both before and after
the election, and that the verbal arrangement
respecting the dissolution of partnership on the 16th of
October was binding though the deed of settlement was
not executed till subsequently, and that the dissolution of
partnership was binding as from the 29th of September,
that being the time agreed upon for arranging the business
matters of the firm.

The committee unanimously agreed that Sir Sydney
Waterloo had no right to sit in Parliament, and that
therefore his return was null and void.

The announcement of the Queen's intended visit
to Claremont is incorrect. No arrangements have yet been
made for the purpoEe.

Mr. Cooper, the traveller, who penetrated from
Shanghai to Yunan, but was driven back by the Manda-
rins, has arrived in Calcutta with the object of approaching
Yunan from the side of India.

Prince Arthur is expected to arrive at Ely Lodge.
county Fermanagh, next Thursday, and extensive prepara-
tions aro being made to give him a fitting reception. His
Royal Highness, it is stated, will remain the guest of the
Marchioness of Ely for a few months.

ADULTERATION OF SEEDS.—NOW that the great
houses in the trade are willing to be male virtuous by Act
of Parliament, and are anxious to stop effectually the
scandalous dealing in killed seed, and thus, among other
benefits, to uphold the high character of our English-grown
turnip seed:; that are famed both in Europe and America,
tl ere can 1 e :lo doubt as to the successful passing of the
bill. And great credit is due to those who have been
all along the real originators and promoters of the bill.
Ths penalty of " fifty pounds" will be a sharp remedy ;
but if a man's conscience will not prevent him selling to
the public as all turnip seed nobody knows what propor-
tion of killed German rubsen, or prevent his colouring up
any amount of bad clover seed, why, his pocket must be
made to do duty for his hardened and inoperative moral
sense. The merchants will be able to clear out their
stocks of sham seed, or seed highly attenuated with
what looks like seed, but is ingeniously doctored not to
grow, and as worthless as wooden nutmegict:agaber of
, ,
.4ariczaturcZotinic%

The Colonial Society, patronised by the Prime Ministei
and several members of his Cabinet, by members of the late
Cabinet, and several lords and persons of high rank, seems
now to be fairly started on its way. Viscount Bury
delivered what is called the inaugural address on Monday
last. He explained the objects of the new association. •It
was intended to diffuse accurate information at home upon
colonial subjects, an end which the noble president thought
it was all the more desirable to attain, seeing that there
was growing up in our midst a school of politicians who
thought and taught that our colonial possessions were
encumbrances and sources of weakness rather than
material strength to us. These doctrines, he said, had
ever been enunciated from the professional chair of one of
our oldest universities, by Mr. Goldwin Smith, whose
consummate ability no one could deny, but who was dan-
gerous in proportion as he was brilliant. It was with this
school of sophists, seeking the dismemberment of the
empire, that the society would have to cope. The society
would also be socially important to colonists coming here
from outer Britain, and would be a centre to which they
would all gravitate. At present there are about 200
Fellows, the funds are healthy, and the prospects of this
institution, even before it was fully constituted, were most
encouraging. His lordship then went on to sketch in
detail our colonial possessions, beginning with Sierra
Leone, and travelling onwards until, to use his own
expression, he had run an imaginary girdle round the
globe. A vote of thanks to the president, on the propo-
sition of Mr. Chichester Fortescue, .M.P., seconded by
the Marquis of Normanby, was unanimously passed.