AN IRISH LORD MAYOR OF LONDON.

Dunstan Times, Issue 982, 11 February 1881, Page 3

AN IRISH LORD MAYOR OF LONDON.

It is a little remarkable, considering bow completely the Irish situation ovesshadowed everything else at the Ouild Hall Banquet that no reference seems to have been made,'to the fact that the Lord Mayor is an Irishman. It has been said, we know not with what truth, he is the first Irisnua that has ever attained this position—a statement so astonishing that we must needs receive it with some incredulity. Scotchmen have again and again been Lord Mayors, and there is probably no county in England that has not furnished its contingent to the roll of chief magistrates of London. Irishmen have attained eminence in every every other 'ine. if not in this, and their comparative or absolute failure iu the sober career of civic distinction is, perhaps, instructive. Even the pro rent Lord Mayor comes from Londonderry, and is, as the ’ ame shows, of the Scotch extraction of many of the inhabitants of Ulster. The nationality of birth would, however. have been too strong for him had he felt that the situation of his native country was being misjudged. The Lord Mayor was not merely born in Ireland, he attained manhood Were, and even reached the rank of Alderman of Derry before be migrated to a larger field. We cannot hut suppose that he is a competent judge of the condition of the disturbed parts of ■his native Island, and that he tools satisfied that in “ priority ” to and “ anterior ” to the dLoussion of remedial legislation must come the practical assertion of supremacy of law. This was tire prime declaration of the Ministry atthebanquet; this was thesertiment of the Assembly; and flu's appears to be the opinion of lire Irish Lord Mayor.