IRELAND.

Lord Ebrington left Dublin Castle on Saturday, on a visit to his father, Earl Fortescue, in Devonshire.

The Lord-Lieutenant has consented to be President of the Dublin branch of the Society for the Extinction of the Slave-trade and Civili- zation of Africa.

The Earl of Belfast has been appointed Lieutenant of the county of Antrim.

Lord Blayney has announced himself as the candidate for the vacancy in the Irish Representative Peerage caused by the death of Earl O'Neill.

Besides the two candidates who have addressed the electors of Antrim county, Mr. M`Donnell and Mr. Alexander, a third is talked of, Mr. George Macartney, of Lissanoure Castle.

The Conservatives oF the county of Wicklow are making vast ex- ertions to secure the return of Colonel Acton, the late Conservative candidate, on the first occasion of a vacancy in the representation. They claim a majority on the new registry. In the city of Cork, the Conservatives claim a majority of six ; and' it is again confidently asserted that Colonel Chatterton will cant-est the city with the present representatives on a dissolution of Parliament.

At the weekly meeting of the Loyal National Repeal Association, in' the Dublin Corn Exchange, on Monday, Mr. O'Connell produced the- report of the Committee developing his plan for improving the tenant's• tenure of land in Ireland. The report commences by adverting to the- history of agrarian disturbances in Ireland, which began shortly after the- accession of George the Third. Since that time there have been intervals- of comparative tranquillity, the longest of which has occurred under the• administration of Lord Normanby and Lord Ebrington. The causes of those disturbances are twofold—the dislike of the people of Ireland to be burdened with the charge for the Protestant clergy, and the defective rela- tions between landlord and tenant and the system of ejectments, ag- gravated by that decay of Irish manufactures which was consequent ort- the Union. The report draws a distinction between two classes of agrarian crimes—the crime of the landlords in driving human beings from house and home, and of the tenant in violence to persons and pro-

perty. Statute after statute has accumulated power in the hands of the landlords, without giving any protection to the tenant. The report cites evidence before the Commons Committee on the State of Ireland' in 1832, to prove that such disturbances have their origin in the oppres- sion of the landlords by the practice of ejectment for the consolidation of farms. It combats the notion that Ireland is really over-peopled, by • pointing to the facts that one quarter of her fertile lands are unculti- vated, and that her exports are necessaries of life which go to support millions in foreign countries. This is the outline drawn by the Com- mittee of their proposed remedy- " First, that means should be taken to procure the sale of lands in Ireland' in lots suited to the means of small capitalists, or indeed of industrious farmers. These lots may vary from ten to one hundred acres : they may be sold either for a bulk sum, payable at once, or by instalments, or by an in- creased rent beyond the value; the surplus of such rent to be applied in the purchasing of the fee. " It is believed that if such a plan were encouraged by the Legislature, or countenanced by an influential portion of the Irish people, private individuals would be found to advance capital, in order to purchase estates wholesale in large tracts, and sell them out in such lots as we have mentioned. The utility to the Irish people would be great and permanent ; and the profits, it is consola- tory to say, would manifestly compensate abundantly and most satisfactorily the persons who should advance their capital. " The second suggestion is, that there should be no shorter tenure in Ireland' of lands in the hands of tenants than twenty years. " The third suggestion is, that in case the landlord and tenant were not amicably to settle the matter between them, a tribunal should be instituted of a competent judge, with power to summon a jury to ascertain what would be the fair rent which a solvent tenant ought to pay for the premises; such jury to be in the nature of those that have valued two-thirds of the city of Dublin under the Wide Street Commissioners, and such as have made the most compli- cated valuations in England under the several railroad acts. " The fourth suggestion should be, that the tribunal should be so arranged- that there should be a power easily put in operation to set aside and grant a new trial in every case of a verdict grossly wrong to either party.

" The fifth suggestion is applicable to the falling-in of terms in future : and in every such case we suggest, that the jury should, in estimatiug the increased value, be bound to ascertain the expenditure of the tenant during the term in

useful and valuable improvements upon the premises ; and after a reasonable deduction for the profit derived by the tenant from his own expenditure during the term, the surplus should be ascertained, and one-third of such surplus attributed to the tenant, and only two-thirds of the improved value charged by way of rent for the new tenure. Sixthly, it is suggested that an option should be given to the landlord, at. the expiration of such future term, to pay the full amount of the capital ex- pended by the tenant in improving the lands, and thereupon to resume pos- session; but in every other case the possession of the tenant to be continued for a fresh term, subject to an increased rent, ascertainable as above men- tioned."

The Committee count upon great things as the consequence of their- scheme— " If our plan succeeds, the rent payable to the landlord will continue steadily to increase. The tenant will be ready to expend his capital, being secured. against the existing calamity of improving the land for the benefit ex- clusively of others ; the houses of the occupants will be rendered comfortable,- and creditable to the iuhabisants ; the face of the country will be changed, ancr misery and destitution will disappear ; and even in better situations, where in- dustry now exhibits itself, the farmer will zealously improve the land for the- benefit of his descendants, and no longer think of scattering his family all over

the world ; the superabundant fertility of our soil will be promoted to the ut-

most extent of productiveness; the excitement to crime will be taken away; the causes of human sufferings and the provocation to murder will be anni-

hilated ; - and peace and prosperity will reign over the green land of our birth."' The Committee, however, consider such a plan only to be perfected by a "domestic Legislature." A letter was read to the meeting from Mr. Sharman Crawford, with whom the project originated, promising to cooperate in carrying it out. On the motion of Mr. O'Connell, a vote of thanks was passed to Mr., Crawford for his letter.

Mr. O'Connell, referring to a paragraph in the Newry Telegraph,_ stating that Chartism had recently been established in Newry, denounced the introduction of that political heresy into Ireland— He would have discredited the paragraph if he did not find the statement in the journal to which he alluded ; and he was sure that they could not be too- prompt in taking notice of the attempt to disturb the harmony of the country, and introduce into Ireland that which they all disclaimed—the advocacy of physical force. If ever there was a period at which they should keep themselves perfectly clear from any connexion with the Chartists of Englan‘ it was the present. Their principle was directly the reverse. It was the moral force—the power of opinion, and the concentration of the wishes of as entire nation. They could not overlook that attempt to sow dissension amongst the Repealers, by introducing Chartism amongst them. [Mr. O'Connell prefers having the physical force performed for him by proxy, making a cat's-paw of " Gaul or Muscovite," while he and his friends stand with their hands in their pockets.] A person among the audience said that there was a meeting of Chartists every Sunday evening in Dublin, at a house in Golden Lane; but it seems not certain that he did not confound the society with a. Chartist meeting at Goldsmith's Hall some time back. Mr. O'Connell asserted at the meeting that strong efforts were mak- ing to counteract the movement in favour of Irish manufactures;

many workmen had come over from England to keep down the wages of the Irish operative. [Is it necessary to account for the ill success of Mr. O'Connell's anti-free-trade project ?]

The Dublin Monitor of Tuesday last gives some practical examples of the working of the system of appeals in frustrating the Parliamen- tary franchise in Ireland- " Some recent occurrences are calculated to add still greater force to the de- mand for a change in our system of registration, and to show how pernicious would be the plan which it pleased Lord Stanley and his friends to offer for our acceptance. During the late Assizes, fifty-one registration appeals stood for hearing before Chief Justice Bushe, at a single assize town. His time for deciding upon them was limited, as he had to open the business of the next county by a fixed day and hour. He succeeded in getting through only seven of the cases, when he was obliged to decamp, leaving the remaining forty-four undecided. Of the seven claimants, six were admitted, and only one was re- acted. Now, if we are to judge of the remaining cases from those that were eard, we may conclude that about thirty-six persons, who have a right to be registered, are temporarily deprived of their just privileges, because the Judge bad not time to take their cases into consideration. But he had spent two days with the seven claimants. Under Lord -Stanley's bill, the system of ap- pealing would Boorish most luxuriantly, unless, perhaps, people should become sick of the trouble and cost of appearing at the assize town time after time. In the one case, the work would become so great that it would be enough for the Judges if they had nothing else to attend to. In the latter, the great body of the equitable claimants, or of those who should b3 entitled to prefer claims, would be disfranchised. Either alternative would, no doubt, satisfy the Stanley party ; but how far it would answer the ends of public justice, and secure the liberties of the people, we may call upon the people themselves to decide. "At the Galway Assizes, no fewer than 110 registry appeals were lodged for hearing before Judge Ball. The first curious circumstance connected with these cases is, that the claimants were all Liberals, whom Mr. William Deane Freeman, Assistant-Barrister, had thought proper to reject. It would appear that the Tories had no appeals from his worship's decisions ; with which de- .cisions, therefore, we may infer they were well satisfied. On the first day of the hearing of these appeals, one claimant was admitted and another rejected. On the second day, out of 19 claimants, 18 were admitted; and it is stated, that in several of these cases the opposing counsel did not even attempt to sus- tain the objections. Thus it would appear, that a body of men were most vauselessly put to tine trouble and expense of appearing before the Judge to make good their rights, because it had pleased Mr. Deane Freeman, in the conscien- tious exercise, no doubt, of his duty, to reject their claims. Is a system to con- tinue under which such things can occur? Arc we even to have matters made worse, by the adoption of Lord Stanley's bill, which is so well calculated to in- crease appeals and place obstacles in the way of the voter ? Among the reasons assigned by Mr. Freeman for his rejections, was one of a very curious kind. It was this, as officially entered in his own words and certified by the Clerk of the Peace, 'Rejected, having kissed Ms thumb.' Judge Ball sup- posed that the counsel was not serious' in saying that this was the reason assigned for the rejection; but, to his amazement, the fact was found, on refer- ence being made to the certified copy of the appeals, to be simply as stated. This circumstance caused no little astonishment in court."

The Treasury has at length come to a final determination respecting the Government Docks in Dublin. The water in the Docks is to be placed under the conservancy of the Ballast Board, which already has the con- servancy of the river Liffey ; the use of the quays is to be thrown open .to the public under the same regulations as the public quays of Dublin; the warehouses are to be divided into two lots, and disposed of by pub- lic auction some time in the middle of May, and the successful bidders are to enter into possession on the 25th June.

Speaking of railroads for Ireland, the Waterford Chronicle says—" At length this subject is taken up in good earnest: a number of English -capitalists have come forward with the necessary funds, and they are to be secured by the Government in a certain percentage on their outlay. We understand that the Messrs. Baring stand at the head of the list."

Speaking of the Paris fortifications, the Dublin Evening Post says- " The works are going on with increased activity. We have heard, and, from our authority are rather inclined to believe, that a number of quarrymen from Bullock (which, it may be necessary to acquaint foreigners, is a village six or seven miles from Dublin) have been en- gaged and are gone off to France to work in the fortifications. These are the idle Irish, for you."

At the Dublin Commission Court, on Tuesday, Mr. John Cluff, of the firm of William and John Cluff, extensive merchants in the Man- chester trade, was charged with having feloniously uttered a bill of ex- change for 2721. 16s., purporting to be the draft of Andrew Thompson. The bill was sent in with some others to the Bank of Ireland on the 11th February, and discounted. It was, however, subsequently dis- covered to be a forgery. Mr. O'Connell appeared as counsel for the prisoner, and objected to the indictment ; which, after setting out the bill and acceptance, had the name "Andrew Thompson" at full length, whereas in the bill of exchange the signature was set out in the abbre- viated form of "Andy. Thompson." The objection was admitted, and 'the indictment quashed.