The reply of the Belfast Chamber of Commerce to Mr.
Gladstone's remarks addressed to the deputation which waited upon him on March 28th, was published in the Times of this day week, and is a very masterly document. The reply proved that under the constitution proposed in the Rill, commerce, as distinguished from agriculture, would have no adequate representation at all in the Dublin Parliament; that the Irish Catholics have shown in past times as keen a jealousy of the Protestants as the Protestants have shown of the Catholics ; that Grattan's Parliament reduced Ireland very near to bankruptcy ; that Belfast has increased much more steadily and rapidly under the Union than it ever did even under Grattan's Parliament ; that the comparison of Ireland with Canada is wholly misleading ; that in the province of Quebec the Protestants have struggled against the injustice of the Catholic majority with very slight success ; that one- sixth of the revenue of that province is devoted to eccle- siastical institutions; that the Exchequer is empty; and that in order to make both ends meet, the commercial olasses, especially those of Montreal, are subject to special taxation ; and it refuted Mr. Gladstone's assertion that Ireland is governed relatively at a much greater cost per bead than England. On Monday, a deputation from the Irish Presby- terians was received by Mr. Balfour and Mr. Chamberlain, which sustained the allegations of all the other Protestant bodies.
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