For some time Belfast has anticipated, with no small commotion,
a visit from the Lord-Lieutenant. The great event came off this week. Lord Carlisle arrived at Belfast on Wednesday, and on Thursday he was pre- sent at a public banquet given in his honour in the Music-Hall; the Mayor presiding, and many of the nobility and gentry of that region sitting around. Lord Carlisle delivered a discursive speech, touching lightly on the "marvellous progress of Belfast," but refraining from the " impertinence " of treating its inhabitants to a " copious dose of their own statistics" ; praising the city prison; uttering intense longings for peace, but also trusting, that till a peace at once safe and honourable is attained, we shall be cheerful and resolute and prodigal of sacrifice ; remarking on the improved condition of Ireland, the better feeding and clothing, "the infinitely greater proportion of shoes and stockings" now than aforetime ; and saying something anent the talked-of filibustering expedition from the West.
"I have heard, indeed, lately, something of new arrivals being expected in this country from America. Well then, gentlemen, will they be all Irish- men, returning home to till their fields again, to work their looms again, to kiss their wives and families again ? If so, we will heartily bid them wel- come, provided they at least come in some moderation. Can it be that they could come, that any could come here with any hostile intention? I feel sure that the good sense as well as the good feeling of all true-hearted Iriah- men or Americans would repudiate the monstrous supposition. If, contrary to all expectation and all reason, they would so come, I ought not to say that they would be as welcome as the others; but of this I feel content-.-- that the Antrim Rifles, whom I left in Dublin, and the North Down Rifles, whom I find in Belfast, will be able to give a very good account of them." Among other speakers, were Lord It. Montague, Lord Maasarene, Mr. Whiteside, and Lord Londonderry ; and joviality was sustained until midnight.
The Magistrates of Cavan met on Tuesday, expressed the "utmost abhorrence" of the sanguinary outrage on Miss Hinds; resolved to use their best endeavours "to bring the perpetrators to justice" ; recom- mended that " an additional police-station should be formed in the im- mediate vicinity of the late outrage " ; and entered into a subscription to carry out their purposes.
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