The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-10 00:00:00

PRINCE ARTHUR AT IIIAYNOOTII,

The following is the address of the students presented
to Prince Arthur at Maynooth. "We the President,
Vice-President, Masters, Professors, and Students of the
Royal College of St. Patrick, Maynooth, beg to thank
your Royal Highness most respectfully and cordially for
honouring our college with a visit, and we feel especially
grateful because you have conferred this high distinction
on it so soon after your arrival in Ireland. We prize
this honour the more because we venture to regard two
royal visits to our college within the space of twelve
months—your own and that of his Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales—as an indication of the special favour of
our sovereign lady the Queen, your •mother. Any mark
of esteem of our sovereign must ever be gratifying to us;
but it is far more precious when the public virtues of the
sovereign give lustre to her exalted station, while her
private virtues adorn her own domestic circle, and render
her a model and a shining example to her subjects. We
also hail in you a Prince whom our beloved Queen in a
manner dedicated to Ireland from his birth by conferring
on him the name of our national Apostle. The name of
Patrick is clear to everylrishman, but it has a holier and
more cherished interest for us who dwell within a college
consecrated to the name and placed under the patronage
of St. Patrick. It is, therefore, with peculiar pleasure
that we see in your generous youth the sure foreshadowing
of the virtue and patriotism of riper years. We confi-
dently anticipate from your Royal Highness's name, and
from the high promise of your youth, that in you Ireland
will ever find a zealous and powerful friend, and we
fervently pray that Almighty God may vouchsafe to yor
a long, a glorious, and a happy career."
His Royal Highness seemed touched by the loyal
warmth and earnestness of the address, and returned
the following reply :—" Mr. President, Vice-President,
Masters, Professors, and Students of the Royal College
of St. Patrick, Maynooth,—lt is with real pleasure that I
pay a visit to your college so soon after my arrival in
Dublin. lam desirous of seem; something of the chief
educational institutions of Ireland. Upon their effici-
ency and usefulness the welfare of the influential classes
in this country, and ultimately the welfare of the whole
community, must largely depend. I thank you in par-
ticular for your allusion to my name, and can well believe
that Irishmen will accord a national welcome to one who
unites in himself the name of their patron saint and that
of the most illustrious of their countrymen. It will be
my duty and my pleasure to make known to the Queen,
my dear mother, your sentiments and loyal affection
towards her Majesty, and of goodwill towards myself and
the members of her family."

THE PRINCE AND THE PRINCESS OF

WALES.

The Daily News contains some further accounts of the
visit of the Prince and the Princess of Wales to the Suez
Canal. They were much struck on the Seraphim, near
the Bitter Lakes, with the progress that had been made.

PARLIAM_ENTARY AND MUNICIPAL

ELECTIONS.

The select committee of the House of Commons, °f
which the Marquis of Hartington is the chairman:
appointed to inquire into the general question of
parliamentary and municipal elections reassemble('
on Friday, and proceeded to hear further evidence'
Mr. Darvill, the town clerk of Windsor, informed
the committee that in the Royal Borough it $O5
a common practice to pay voters for their loss of time
in polling at municipal elections. No attempt had ever
yet been made to put a stop to the practice. In the
opinion of the witness, at the late municipal election solue
sixty persons were bribed, and at the last parliamentary
election 100. Were the municipal constituency enlarged,
he believed there would be less bribery at such elections.
Much as he regretted it, he was compelled to come to the
conclusion that bribery at elections would never be clone
away with until the Ballot was in force. The
present provisions of the law for the punishment of
bribery were utterley inadequate. To Mr. Ward Hunt
the witness stated that Windsor used to be one °f
the purest constituencies in England. This purity
was disturbed by a parliamentary candidate intro.
(hieing the plan of distributing yearly donations of
groceries and other things of that kind. At present
these gifts were discontinued, but a great deal
in the way of influencing an election was done by the
purchase of cottage property which was offered for sale,
and bought for the express purpose of enabling the owners
to control the votes of the persons occupying them. in
Windsor a man did not lose caste because it was known
that he had bribed at an election. The witness WO
severely pressed upon the question of the Ballot,
and was confident that though it might not bring about
absolute purity at elections, it would do very much in
that direction. Other evidence of a similar kind WO
taken by the committee, which was attended by Air.
Bright, the President of the Board of Trade.