IRELAND.
At the weekly Repeal meeting, on Monday, Mr. Thomas Steele, "Head Pacificator of Ireland," called upon the Repeal Members of Parliament who are loitering about, to attend in the House of Commons immediately after Easter, to assist Mr. O'Connell in thwarting the "Coercion" Bill : those who will not comply he calls upon to resign. Mr. O'llea succeeded with- out difficulty in getting a suspension of the standing order to enable him to move the thanks of the Association to Mr. O'Connell and the other Irish Members for their exertions in support of Irish liberty, in the Saxon Par- liament. Rent, 1901.
Mr. John N. Gerrard, the proprietor of the estate of Ballinlass, county Galway, from which 270 poor persons were evicted last month, has ad- dressed an explanatory letter to the editor of Sauriders's Newsletter—
Mr. Gerrard states, that in 1827, thirty persons sent him a proposal in writing to become his tenants at a rent of 11. 10s. per acre for 300 acres of prime upland, 50 acres of bog to go for nothing. He agreed to the proposal; allowed the thirty persons to take possession; and received from one (the principal of them) the rent half-yearly. In the period intervening between 1827 and March 1842, the original tenants sublet considerable portions of the lands to about forty miserable persons; exacting in some cases a rent of 21., 21. 108., and even Si. an acre. Mr. Gerrard remonstrated against this practice; and, with the view of discouraging it, insisted upon the rent being paid by the principal of the original thirty tenants, and refused to recognize the listhiliq of the under-tenants. From 1827 to 1842, the rent was regularly paid each half-year, by the representative of the thirty tenants; but on the September rent of 1842 being asked for, one and all of the original tenants refused to pay for more than the lauds in their actual occupa- tion; and as their under-tenants were unable to pay any rent, Mr. Gerrard waa asked to settle with them as he best could. The same answer was given in March and September 1843, and in March 1844.
At Easter term 1844, Mr. Gerrard brought an ejectment for non-payment of rent; but the processes could not be served, owing to the violence of the parties. In consequence of this, the Court of Queen's Bench dispensed with the usual ser- vices, and substituted another mode of effecting them. At length the tenants "took defence"; their plea being, that Mr. Gerrard did not sign the "proposals" of 1827. A long and expensive litigation followed. At the Summer Assizes of 1844, Mr. Gerrard obtained a verdict for 7081. 10s. 9d. as the amount of rent due to March of that year, subject to a point of law raised about the non-attachment of the signature. That point was argued in the Dublin Queen's Bench, and another trial ordered; which took place, with exactly the same results—a verdict for the arrears, but a reservation as to the point of law. Not a farthing of rent was paid during these proceedings; the lands were regularly cropped; and the proceeds went in part to sustain the expensive litigation, and the residue into the pockets of the defendants.
With the view of pitting an end to the litigation, Mr. Gerrard, in September 1845, sent a professional man from Dublin to the defendants, offering on his behalf to forgive the parties all that was due, to allow them to crop the lands free of rent, and to remain in undisturbed possession till the 1st of February 1846, pro- vided they should then give up possession. To this they consented, and signed the necessary legal deed. When the time came, the same gentleman was sent to the lands to see the engagement fulfilled: but, after remaining in the neighbour- hood for a month, and oaring the parties every facility for the removal of every- thing which belonged to them, including their dung-heaps, a few removals only took place; the other persons refused to go; and actually subscribed money to consult an attorney as to whether legal opposition could not still be made to giv- ing up possession. It was under these circumstances that application was made to the Sheriff for a forcible ejectment. Mr. Gerrard asserts that the ejectment was carried into effect with the utmost regard to the comfort and interests of the persons ejected; that no person was hurt; that in the case of two sick families a doctor was brought to them, and they were allowed to remain. Mr. Gerrard adds, that he gave 41. each to five females, the widows of five of the original tenants, after they were dispossessed ; and that the rent, up to the 1st of March, which was due out of the lands, amounted to 1,6021. 18s., besides poor-rates, county-rates, and the costs of the proceedings.
In the Morning Chronicle of Monday, Mr. O'Connell acknowledges the receipt of "the half of a fifty-pound note for the relief of the wretches driven out on the highway by the mzzia of Mr. and Mrs. Gerrard."
The price of potatoes in Dublin has now risen to 9d. a stone for good quality, and 61. for very indifferent This is an advance of at least a handled per cent on the prices of last year.
Vessels are arriving daily with Indian corn. On Monday four ships arrived from England with 10,000 bags of biscuit, intended for the use of the poor of this country, in addition to the Government importation of Indian corn from America; and further supplies of bread are expected. The biscuit is not made of Indian corn- meal, but has been manufactured at the Government dock-yards of Deptford and Portsmouth. The vessels have arrived for private speculation with Indian corn, to be sold in England or Ireland—Cork Constitution.
Mr. Dowden of Cork has received six baskets of fine potatoes for seed, and one box of the native potato peculiar to Mexico, as a present from that country.
The average weekly espcnse of each pauper in Tmlee Workhouse is Is. 9id.
A trial of unprecedented length took place at the late Nenagh Assizes: it occupied nine days. Patrick Rice and Patrick Hayes were charged with con- spiracy to murder Mr. Clarke, the gentleman who was assassinated in Tipperary in October last. The principal witnesses were an approver named Burns, his two sons, and a daughter. The men were found guilty, and condemned to die. Their counsel have moved for an arrest of judgment, on three grounds.
A case of assassination is recorded in the following matter-of-course and quasi-approving manner by the Nation of Saturday- " One of the two men named Cantwell, who had made themselves notorious by acting as bailiffs on the lands of Clonaheen, near Mountmellick, was shot on Sunday evening last, in the house in which his mother and brother resided with him, and died of his wounds on Tuesday."
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