On the 9th February a meeting, on this subject, was held at the Royal Exchange, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and most prominent citizens being present--and the result is thus stated in the _Times_, 10th February:--"As soon as the meeting was dissolved, four separate books were opened on the Hustings; and at the close of the day, the exact sum subscribed _in cash_, was _Forty-six Thousand, Five Hundred, and Thirty-four Pounds, Three Shillings and sixpence_, which, if calculated for the time the books were opened, is at the rate of £400 a minute. The number of subscribers was 218, and the subscriptions from one guinea to £3000, which last sum was the donation of Boyd, Benfield, & Co., with the promise of continuing it annually during the war." _14th February._--"The City of London yesterday subscribed £10,000 towards the contributions to the Bank. Yesterday the sum of £18,900 was subscribed by the merchants on the Royal Exchange." It would be wearisome to detail all the subscriptions, but yet two or three more may be recorded. The Bank of England gave £200,000, and the King and Queen £20,000, and £5000 respectively, out of their private purses; and on 20th September the amount of the voluntary contributions then subscribed, was £1,514,993, 12s. 9d. Ireland, this year, was more than disaffected: it was in open rebellion, and, on 30th March, a proclamation was issued by the Lord-Lieutenant, for suppressing such rebellion. That it was a most serious one, is evidenced by a paper in Lord Edward Fitzgerald's handwriting, that, at a meeting held 26th February 1798, a return was made that there were in Ulster, Leinster, and Munster, 269,896 armed men, and that their treasurer had £1485, 4s. 9d. in hand. That this was not altogether an exaggeration, is shewn by the fact that, in the year 1797, there were seized by the Government, in the provinces of Leinster, and Ulster, alone, 49,109 guns, 1756 bayonets, 4463 pistols, 4183 swords, 248 blunder-busses, 119 musket-barrels, 106 sword-blades, 22 pieces of ordnance, and 70,630 pikes, besides other weapons voluntarily surrendered. In the same year, 14,973 pikes were surrendered in the county of Kildare alone, and in Dublin, on 11th May 1798, 5 pieces of cannon, and 500 pike handles, were seized.