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Earl Fortescue, having resigned the Lord-Lieutenancy and Vice- Admiralship of Devonshire, on account of his advanced age, Lord Ebrington has been appointed his successor in both offices.
At a meeting in Exeter, on Monday last, attended by noblemen and gentlemen of the Conservative as well as Whig party, a complimentary address adopted at a previous meeting on the 17th October was pre- sented to Lord Ebrington by the Mayor of Exeter. The address was ti (inched in these terms—.
" TO IIIS EXCELLENCY TIM LORD-LIEUTENANT OF IRELAND.
May it liken your Lordship—We, the Mayor, citizens and inhabitants of the city of Exeter, in Common Hall assembled, unanimously embrace the op- portuntty afforded to us by your Excellency's temporary visit to Devonshire, of conveying to your Excellency this public expression of our deepsfelt respect and attachment. Your Excellency is no stranger to the inhabitants of this city, and the sentiments which they now give utterance to are of no recent growth : they are founded upon con tinned observation of a life devoted to pub- lic services, and adorned by -private virtues. " In undertaking the arduous and responsible duties of the government of Ireland, your Excellency has given proof of disinterested patriotism ; whilst your intimate knowledge of the people whom her Majesty has called you to govern, steel:imp-tide j
d by sound udgment, an inflexible love of justice, and firmness of purpose, has inspired all classes in that part of the empire with confidence that the blessings of a mild, protecting, and energetic government, are at once the aim and diameter of your Excellency's Viceroyalty-. Thus it has been your Excellency's rare and happy privilege, to disarm the bitterness of party animosity, to unite all voices iu approbation of your government, mid to carry peace and tranquillity to that interesting but distracted portion of the British empire. " We would pray your Excellency to believe, that these sentiments are not prompted by feelings of undue partiality towards one deservedly endeared to US by ties of country, and by a long-established interchange of mutual confi- dence and good neighbourhood: they are in unison with the public vuice, and they do but add one more flower to that wreath of houour which a grateful country will place on the brow of the patriot and statesman.
• " It is our earnest wish and prayer that your Excellency's life may be long spared and your health preserved, mid that the enlightened principles by which Reland is ut preseet governed may establish and confirm the pacification which has been so auspiciouely begun.'
Lord Ebrington spoke his thanks. Alluding to his duties as Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland, he said.— " In the discharge of my. present duties, I have anxiously endeavoured to carry into effect the beneficial desires of my gracious Sovereign for the welfare of her Irish subjects; to improve thegood which I found begun ; to allay the bitterness of party-spirit ; en d, by a just administration of the laws, to unite, to the utmost of my power, all hearts and voices in one common sentiment of loyalty to the Throne and of attachment to the British Constitution. Great has been the aid afforded nie in the performance of this task by the cordial cooperation of friends, by the indulgent forbearance of' political opponents, and by the generaigoocl sonduct of the noble and warm-hearted people committed to my charge.', The High Sheriff moved a vote of thanks to the Mayor; and the Earl of Devon, in seconding it, said that he had never met his old con. stituents in Exeter with more sincere pleasure and pride than on the present occasion— Of course it could not be supposed that be and many others whom he saw around him should agree in all their political opinions with his noble friend tthe relative, whom they were here assembled to congratulate; but this he could say, that there was no one sentiment contained in the address to his noble friend, or which had been dropped in the course of this day's proceedings, is which he did not most fully and heartily concur.
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