10 APRIL 1847, Page 4

IRELAND.

The accounts from the different parts of Ireland indicate a consider- able improvement in the condition of the country. Tillage of the land is proceeding, and an increased inclination is manifested among the people to resume field labour. The counties in which the greatest activity is ob- served are King's, Queen's, Kildare, and Carlow; Tipperary, Mayo, Ros- common, and Sligo, being still backward. One strong evidence that these accounts may be relied on is, that there are no complaints from the men re- cently discharged from the public works.

There is no doubt that fever still prevails to an alarming extent; but it is remarked that the tone of the accounts from Clare, Galway, and other more distressed districts, is considerably mitigated. There is still great distress; but absolute famine would appear no longer to be the universal characteristic.

The main reason for this improved state of matters must of course be sought in the increased abundance of food, and its consequent fall in price. Indian corn was sold at Cork on Thursday week for 10/. a ton. Consider- able surprise has been created among the observers in several markets, at the unexpected appearance of large supplies of sound potatoes, which had been held back by speculators. It tarns out that they have missed their mark, prices being no higher than in September; while the people have learnt in the interval to prefer Indian corn.

All the accounts yet published of early-planted potatoes in Ireland, and more particularly in the South, are most favourable. There have been no traces of disease in the stalk or the tuber.

Meanwhile, emigration is proceeding on a scale of unusual magnitude; and the quays of Dublin are likened to the halting-place of an Eastern cara- van. It is understood that Government have appointed several additional Government Emigration Agents; increasing the strength of the depart- ments, as at Liverpool and Sligo; and appointing naval officers for the first, time at Waterford, Newry, Galway, Tralee, and Baltimore.

One remarkable feature presented by the provincial accounts is the vast increase of litigation in the Civil Bill Courts. In the county of Cavan, there are upwards of 2,000 civil bill entries at the Quarter-Sessions; being four times the usual number. In Kells, the average number of suits has been 400; they have increased to 850. Rent and the reoccupation of land are the motives of this litigation.

Signs of commercial advancement even are to be noted in some quarters. At Dundalk a public exchange is about to be erected. After a long respite, Friday's Gazette contained proclamations of not fewer than twenty-one Presentment Sessions for the completion of old road works. The Gazette also contained notices of the formation of one hun- dred and five relief districts in the several unions of Ireland.

Emboldened by the apparent snqcess of the first reduction of 20 per cent of the numbers engaged on, public works, the Government are pre- paring for a second disbanding: Circulars have been issued from Dublin Castle to the inspecting-officers of the several unions, directing them to warn the local Finance and Relief Committees to take prompt and ener- getic measures under the Relief Act for averting confusion and distress. The Wexford Grand Jury have applied themselves to this task with vigour. They have issued a stirring address to the landowners and occu- piers of the county to cooperate for preventing the "degradation and ruin" which will otherwise threaten the country. As an instance of an entirely opposite condition of mind, we quote the following passages from resolutions recently adopted at an extraordinary meeting of the Roman Catholic clergy of Mayo- " No language at our command can sufficiently express the horror we feel at the conduct of the present bungling Government" [in disbanding the labourers]. "The cries and shrieks of those famishing creatures, which have been inces- santly ringing in our ears since that fatal day, are enough to move even the most obdurate to sympathize with the poor outcasts, who have been thus sacrificed by the ruthless policy of those monsters, who, as it is well known, are alone anxious to rid the country by any means of its superabundant population." "The Government are unquestionably responsible for all the terrible conse- quences which must inevitably follow in the interim from such a dangerous ex- periment, and are accountable before God and man for the lives of those forlorn creatures who are now doomed to die of starvation in this unfortunate locality.'

A circular letter has been published containing the instructions issued by the Lords of the Treasury to the officers in command of the "Irish Provision Squadron." The officers are directed to sell their cargoes of seed for immediate sowing through the intervention of the local authorities, to the several Relief Committees. The dealing is to be for ready money, at the following prices—

Oats, 20s. per barrel of 14 stones; barley, 25s. per ditto; peas, 508. per quar- ter; beans, 40s. per ditto; white stone turnip seed, 25s. per bushel; all other kinds, 35s. per bushel; onion seed, .3s. per pound. A course of procedure is pointed out; but a discretion is given to visit intermediate places when necessary, provided it can be done without danger to the ship. Any seed remaining unsold is to be transferred to the Com- missariat officer in charge of the depot.

In many districts the landlords are supplying their tenantry with seed. The Marquis of Hertford has given 1,4001. to the Relief Committee for the district in which his Antrim estates lie. The Dowager Marchioness of Hertford has given a donation of 4001.; and the Marquis of Downshire has sent 2001. to the Ruthfirland Committee.

On the other side, General Meade, who has a property of 20,0001. a year in Down, has obstinately refused to make any charitable contribution.

M. Soyer has completed his preliminaries. The Lord-Lieutenant and his household, the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, the Relief Commissioners, the Poor-law Commissioners, the Chairmen of the Boards of Guardians and temporary Relief Committees, some gentlemen connected with the metro- politan newspapers, and many of the heads of the various public depart- manta, were present on Monday, by invitation, to inspect the model soup- kitchen which Soyer has erected on the esplanade at the Royal Bar- racks. M. Soyer exhibited the various operations of his establishment, and furnished the company with samples of his soup. From this kitchen he considers that he can supply soup to 5,000 persons daily. The establish- ment is to serve both the relief districts of Dublin.

• Mr. Sharman Crawford has availed himself of the leisure afforded by the recess to write a letter to the Times levelled at a clause moved by Lord George Bentinck in the Committee on the Irish Poor-relief Bill. The ob- ject of the clause was to abolish the power given to the tenant of deduct- ing from the landlord's rent a proportion of the rate. This clause was de- feated by a majority of 3, and Mr. Crawford fears that it will be reintro- duced and carried in the House of Lords. He therefore addresses himself ably, and at some length, to explain the absolute necessity of the power conferred by the Government bill. Without it, he says, no rates will be levied; and the people will be driven to passive resistance. It is absolutely necessary that the landlords and tenants be made separately liable, each for their respective proportions.

The weekly meeting took place as usual in Conciliation Hall. Mr. John O'Connell renewed his overtures to the "Young he:lenders" to reenter the Association ; and repeated his readiness to apologize for anything person- ally harsh he might have said during the bitterness of the contest. He would do anything for reconciliation, save surrender principle; be would even, if that could facilitate union, retire altogether from the Association. Mr. J. H. Dunne and Mr. Stritch repeated these apologetic and objurga- tory invitations. Mr. John dilated in a speech on "the state of the coun- try"; and Mr. Ray read some lengthy reports upon the hest means of em- ploying the people of the country in industrial pursuits. Rent 211.

The Nation replies to Mr. John's invitation in a long paper: the follow- ing extracts indicate its spirit and objects- " Ireland, the tamest of victims, at length driven to extremity, gives signs of turning on her pursuer. On all hands we hear boding murmurs that the time has come for some aggressive policy; for some new and master-stroke that will once and for ever awaken England to the forgotten fact that this island is a na- tion with a nation's rights and a nation's resources. The landlords, it is affirmed, are na- tion, for such a measure—the middle classes, we know, are ready for it—and in the decimated and broken ranks of the people the dust in nationality still burns, shining brighter for their evil fortune, like the last star in a gloomy sky. It is indeed, full time that we cease to whine and begin to act." "For it is scarce a lesser sin to permit murder than to commit it. And we solemnly believe, if the English Minister had cut off our people with poison or the sword—if he had plundered the Irish revenue with his own hands, and flung our resources to his hungry minions—this would not have been plainer murder and robbery than have been committed amongst us in his name. The cholera, in its wildest ravages, was a leas destructive scourge than English rule within the last four months."

"A new famine awaits us in the new year; and worse evils than famine itself. A new generation born in disease, or reared in destitution, pitbless, imbecile, idiotic, threaten to drag down our nation to eternal and hopeless slavery. And these fearful curses have been wrought on us, to save money to England; oaths shameless lie that her resources were inadequate to the emergency."

"The robbery of our resources may seem a small matter after the loss of our people; but it is full of moral influences. To make a nation beggars, is to rob them of personal independence and public spirit. And even the money loss does not end with the sum that is squandered: we are plundered not only of the money misspent, but of the useful works which it might have accomplished under wiser management."

"Experience has, indeed, brought her [England] no wisdom. There is a noble empire in the West, the spring of enterprise, the seat of commerce, the patron of arts, the refuge of liberty,- an empire where no class withers under the ban of ex- clusion—where no man asks a career in vain—where the force of imagination can scarce picture the unknown and incredible spectacle of a human creature dying for want of bread."

"Canada, too, the ally of England in that war [the War of Independence] against America, has since been driven, step by step, on the same dazzling, dan- gerous path. At this hoar it is more of a French than an English colony," "There is one resource adequate to our emergency—we believe there is only one. A convocation of our wisest and best Irishmen, to determine how the nation may still be saved. Not a new Rotunda meeting, to be adulated at home and spat upon abroad, but an assembly that shall be spat upon nowhere, being fit to act as well as to speak." "The constitution under which we live is full of resources for our emergency, and a convocation speaking with the authority of the country could use them with irresistible effect. For England most be made to feel that it is no longer a question of favours, but that it is her interest to bring this quarrel to a speedy issue."

"There is no law that we are acquainted with to compel us to send food to Eng- land, or to use or purchase English manufactures. The Americans resolved to wear their old clothes till they could make new ones."

"There is no law to prevent our merchants sending their invoices to the Eng- lish manufacturers with directions to forward the goods when, but not till, the question of life or death for Ireland be settled." "Neither is there any law we know of to prevent an assembly representing the wealth and industry of Ireland from negotiating loans in America and elsewhere to meet the wants of the country." "A National Assembly, then, is our last resource. The ways and means of action which we have suggested may be impolitic or ineffective. Wiser and bet- ter plans may exist, of which we know nothing. We stand upon no details. We insist upon no more than the mortal necessity of taking counsel together, and doing whatsoever may seem best to the assembled wisdom of the country." "Mr. John O'Connell asks for a reunion of the Repeal party. Surely, surely, if it be upon some basis of action, some centre like this, round which hope and purpose may rally."

The "Irish Confederation," or organized association of Young Ireland- era, had a meeting on Wednesday, in the Dublin Music Hall. The as- semblage numbered about 2,000. Mr James Haughton junior, having been called to the chair, told the meeting that " confederation " had for its object the prosperity of Ireland through the repeal of the Union; but to this end the "pecuniary support" of all Irishmen was necessary. He hoped, however, that not a dollar would be accepted from "the women- whippers and el-wile-robbers of America." This called up an American citizen who was present, to protest against such language. Mr. Smith O'Brien described the sufferings of the poor from famine and pestilence; horrors which he attributed to the present Government, and which he in- stanced as a fatal proof of the consequences of the Union—

Lord George Bentinek brought forward a "noble measure," that would have caused the expenditure of probably 30,000,0001. in Ireland. The "Irish party" expressed their approbation; but the British Minister raised the cry of distress,

and threatened to resign; and Irish Members, who did not hesitate to avow that they approved of the bill, had the hardihood to vote against it. [A burst of groans, particularly for Dillon Browne and Morgan John O'Connell.] Adverting. to the new invitation from the Repeal Association, he said that there were certain prin- ciples involved in the secession which he was not disposed to give up: he would not abate a single jot of his opinion on physical force, or on the publication of the accounts. The Whig alliance had been most disastrous for Ireland: it had been the cause of the deaths of hundreds of thousands of the Irish people. Mr. O'Brien concluded by moving a resolution " arraigning " the British Government for neglect, and deploring the fatal Union with England.

After several other Anti-English speeches, Mr. Meagher proposed a re- solution, and opened the floodgates of his eloquence after the following fashion- " England, your great difficulty,' is at an end ! Your red ensign flies, not from the Rath of Mullaghmast, where you played the cutthroat; not from Limerick wall, where you played the perjurer; not from the Senate-house, where you played the swindler- not from the Custom-house, where you played the robber: but it flies, like a red phantom, from a thousand graveyards where the titled niggards of your Cabinet have won the battle which your soldiers could not terminate. (Sensation groans, and cheers.) America has her eagle, let England have her vulture. (Groans.) What emblem more fit for the rapacious power whose statesmanship depopulates, and whose commerce is gorged with famine prices?"

The resolutions passed of course.

About 1,500 pauper labourers entered the town of Gort on Monday, and paraded the streets, exclaiming occasionally that they should have "blood or bread"; to the great terror of the inhabitants. They eventually dispersed; but during the night, 154 sheep belonging to Mr. William Lahiff were carried off.

A monster trial has just terminated in Cork, after six days of hard labour. It wan an action brought by a Mr. Oliver against the Cork Steam-ship Company, to recover damages for the loss of eight very valuable horses, which were shipped on board the Jupiter for Bristol. [he vessel ran agroundin the Avon, and the horses were lost. Verdict for the plaintiff, 1,5001.