A.—9

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have such an affectionate and devoted love. I think that, with regard to the question of applying to Parliament, that should be avoided. lam not a member of the Government, as you know, and therefore Ido not know whether the Government would wish to aid it. Perhaps the Chancellor of the Exchequer would be hardly prepared so soon to give an opinion on that important point, and I am quite sure that neither he nor I could give any very decided opinion as to whether Parliament would be ready or would not be ready annually to make such a vote; but what I say is, we particularly do not want the occasion to arise. We wish this to be a spontaneous and voluntary offering from the people to Her Majesty the Queen. I have only one more word to say, and that is that I entirely agree with the concluding words of the committee's report, that is, if it is carried out, it will be a striking emblem of the unity of the whole Empire which has grown so enormously during the fifty years of Her Majesty's reign, which we are now celebrating. I believe that object will add most forcibly to the strength and to the elasticity of those silken cords, which, year by year, I might almost say day by day, are uniting the whole Empire into one compact body. The Eight Hon. David Plunket, M.P. :My Lord Mayor, my Lords, and gentlemen —I assure you that I feel it is a great honour as well as a great pleasure to be permitted in this great centre of the wealth and commerce of this country to take part for a very few moments only in the proceedings of to-day. I perhaps might not have had to do so were it not for the fact which we all most deeply regret, that my noble friend Lord Iddosleigh has been prevented from coming here. Nothing, I am sure, would have prevented him from being present here but circumstances which he could not control, and I am sure we should have been all most glad to have had this meeting addressed by one who has for so long a period of the fifty years of the present reign of Her Majesty shared in the counsels of our Sovereign with so much honour to himself and so much advantage to the country. I am very glad, indeed, to take part in these proceedings, and to stand amongst so many distinguished men who represent the different institutions and different interests of this country, and, I may say, of very varying views on political questions, as I dare say some of us will have good reason to know in another place before many days are past. But, my Lords and gentlemen, we are assembled for a common purpose. We are assembled here to-day to lay the foundations of and to take the means for erecting a memorial and a monument which shall not only be, as this resolution declares, a record of the prosperity and of the happiness which we have enjoyed during the reign of the present Sovereign, but which shall also be a bond of union in the future for all the various races and all the various interests which go to make up our great Empire. My Lords and gentlemen, it would be impertinence on my part to attempt in the few minutes that I am happy to have at my disposal for the purpose of addressing you, any description of the great public and private virtues which we have seen in the person of our beloved Queen. Early in her reign they were summed up by the great English poet of the present day, when he wrote— Her court was pure, her life serene, God gave her rest, her land repose ; A thousand claims to reverence close In her as Mother, Wife, and Queen. Thirty-seven years have passed away since those words were written by Lord Tennyson, but every day of all those years has brought fresh proof of the truth of the lines, and those claims—those thousand claims to reverence —have been allowed again and again, and are enshrined in the deepening devotion of her subjects. My Lords and gentlemen, these are feelings which we are are proud to entertain within the limits of these islands, but in this Jubilee year we cannot but know that these feelings are shared by millions of our kinsmen, and of our fellow-subjects who are not our kinsmen, throughout the wide dominions of this Empire. I say that it was a great and a noble thought that inspired His Eoyal Highness, when he proposed to take advantage of this Jubilee occasion, to draw into one common centre all those feelings of devotion and affection for the Queen, and to weave them into a common bond of strength and of unity for the Empire in the future. This resolution, my Lords and gentlemen, proposes that the memorial should be erected by means of voluntary contributions of the Queen's subjects throughout all her dominions. I feel confident that our fellow-subjects beyond the seas will not bo slow in responding to this appeal. They have given over and over again proofs that, though they have changed the skies under which they have lived, they have not changed their hearts and minds as Englishmen. In their new homes beyond the ocean they call their children and their places by English names. They have ever turned back their minds to the old country, and they have endeavoured to frame for themselves in the new lands institutions as like to those which they have left behind them here as the circumstances in which they lived would admit of; aye, and not long ago, they have proved their willingness to share the dangers and the risks of war in the hour of difficulty and of anxiety with the Mother-country. My Lords and gentlemen, this trophy which we now propose to raise is not one so much to communicate the glories in war of this country hi which the colonies were so willing to share, as to commemorate the peaceful triumphs of commerce and of civilization, and I am well assured that our fellow-countrymeii abroad will readily join with us to make closer the bond and to seal the record "with such a symbol as is now proposed, by their willingness to tread along with us the paths of peace and prosperity in the future as one nation. But after all, my Lords and gentlemen, this institution has been started in the old country, and it is in the old country that it ought to be (even if there .were ample resources coming from abroad) mainly supported; and, therefore, lam glad indeed to be permitted to take a humble part in the proceedings of to-day, and to appeal to the citizens of London, that at the very outset of this undertaking they should give earnest and practical proof of their enthusiasm for the cause which this memorial is in future to represent. I say the beginning ought to be made to-day vigorously and handsomely. The wisdom and energy with which His Eoyal Highness the Prince of Wales and the committee over whom he presides have already conducted this business to its present point, afford, I think, to all of you, guarantees that it will be well and ably managed in its future course. Therefore, my Lords and gentlemen, as I do not wish to trespass upon your time, I will conclude by calling