Commissioners say:--'We do not know of any pretext or argument for
continuing this municipal supremacy of the Irish Society. A control
of this kind maintained at the present day by the municipality of
one town in England over another town in Ireland, appears to us
so indefensible in principle, that our opinion would not have been
changed, even if it were found that hitherto it has been conducted
with discretion and forbearance.'

The Irish commissioners affirmed 'that the Irish Society in their
original institution were created for the purpose of forwarding the
interests and objects of the Plantation, and not for mere private
gain; and that of the large income which they receive from their
possessions in Londonderry, a very inadequate and disproportionate
share is applied for the public purposes, or other objects connected
with the local interests of the districts from which the revenues of
the society are drawn.'

The corporation of Derry cannot put a bye-law in force till it
receives the approval of the Irish Society. And what is this tribunal
whose fiat must stamp the decision of the Derry corporation before it
can operate in the smallest matter within the municipal boundary?
The members are London traders, totally ignorant of Ireland. They
are elected for two years, so that they must go out by the time they
acquire any information about their trust, to make way for another
batch equally ignorant. Having everything to learn during their term
of office, if they have time or capacity to learn anything about
the matter, they must submit to the guidance of the governor, who is
elected virtually, though not formally, for life; and the members of
the Derry corporation believe him to be the autocrat of the society.
Mr. James P. Hamilton, now the assistant-barrister for Sligo, at the