3-021-294 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Presentation of the Loyal Irish Address to Mr. Gathorne Hardy, at the Home Office, [in London], 1868. 'Mr. Gathorne Hardy, the Secretary of State for the Home Department, received a deputation of loyal Irishmen, headed by Mr. Digby Seymour, Q.C...expressing their detestation of the Fenian conspiracy...The address had appended to it 22,608 signatures. The deputation consisted of about seventy or eighty persons, and amongst them...[was] the Rev. R. Maguire, Incumbent of the parish where the Clerkenwell House of Detention is situated. Mr. Digby Seymour...delivered a speech, in which he dwelt on the character of this representation of the Irish feeling of the metropolis, and said it was heartily supported by...many Roman Catholic priests of London. He expressed a hope that the Government would introduce remedial measures for Ireland, as there was in that country very little disloyalty, but very great dissatisfaction. He denounced the interference by Americans or other foreigners in Irish politics. At the conclusion of the speech there was much cheering...Mr. Hardy briefly replied, thanking Mr. Digby Seymour and all the loyal Irishmen, and promising that the address should be presented to her Majesty [Queen Victoria] as early as possible'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.