The Lord Mayor's meeting on Tuesday, to raise a fund
for the protection of property in Ireland, was hardly a success. It -was not a City meeting at all, though the Lord Mayor and one or two City men attended it, but a West-end meeting adjourned to the Mansion House. The important subscribers were Dukes and Marquises,—some Liberal and some Conservative,—and Mr. Hubbard even objected that the object of the meeting was to take in some degree from the Government of the day the proper responsibility of the Irish Executive. Some large subscriptions were announced, and it was asserted, in answer to Mr. Hubbard, that there was no party object in the design. But, on the whole, London did not support the Lord Mayor, and felt, what is the truth, that he had interfered in a matter in which it is but too likely that interference will do more harm than good. The Committee is strong in great peers, but Sir John Lubbock's name is one of the few which would give us much confidence in its prudence.
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