he
heart of a true Irishman, indignantly asks, 'Why is this national
grievance and insult continued for the profit of no one? Their very
name is an insult and a mockery--_The Governor and Assistants, London,
of the New Plantation in Ulster_! What do they govern? They don't
govern us in any sense of the word. They merely hold our property in
a dead grip, without any profit to themselves, and to our great
disadvantage.'

The city is overwhelmed with debt--debt for the new quays, debt for
the new bridge, debt for the public works of the corporation, which
has struggled to improve the city under the incubus of this alien
power, contending with debt, want of tenure, and other difficulties,
which would all have been avoided if the city had the lands which
these Londoners hold in their possession and use as their own pleasure
dictates, half the revenues being spent in the management.

Mr. William Hazlett, a magistrate of Derry, one of its ablest and
most respected citizens, stated that from 1818 to 1847 the expenses
of management were 60 per cent. The royal commissioners set it down
thus--Total expenditure, 219,898 l.; management, 133,912 l. The
law expenses were, during the same period, 40,000 l. 'This item
of itself,' says Mr. Hazlett, 'must be considered an intolerable
grievance, for it was laid out for the oppression of the people who
should have benefited by the funds so squandered in opposing the
very parties who supplied the money, with which they were themselves
harassed. If a tenant applies for a lease, and the society consents
to grant one, it is so hampered with obstructive clauses that his
solicitor objects to his signing it, and says that from its nature it
could not be made a negotiable instrument on which to raise money. The
tenant remonstrates, but the reply of the city is--"That is our form
of lease; you must comply with it or want!" If you go to law with
them, they may take you into Chancery, and fight you with your own
money.'

Mr. Hazlett gave a remarkable illustration of this, which shows
the spirit in which this body thinks proper to fulfil its duties as
steward of this property. The Devon Land Commission recommended that
leases of lives renewable for ever should be converted into fee-farm
grants, which would be a valuable boon to the tenant without any loss
to the owner. A bill founded on the recommendation was introduced to
parliament. Did the enlightened and liberal Irish Society hail
with satisfa