14 MARCH 1846, Page 9

IRELAND.

The contest for the county of Mayo has terminated in favour of Mr. Joseph Miles M`Donnell, the Repeal candidate. On Saturday evening the official declaration was made—For M`Donnell, 477; Moore, 417; majority,

O. Mr. Moore delivered a parting speech, remarking that the lustre of the victory was dimmed by the loss of life at Westport. Mr. Dillon Browne, on the part of Mr. htDonnell, declared that the victory was the greatest obtained since the Clare election, as the Repealers had defeated the Whigs and Tories combined.

The Repealers held their weekly meeting on Monday, at Conciliation Hall; Mr. Daniel Callaghan, M.P., in the chair. Another long letter was read from Mr. O'Connell, containing more reasons why "the recent ukase of the British Minister" should be resisted by the Irish people. The rent amounted to 283L The Catholic Bishop of Elphin has issued a Lenten pastoral, cautioning the people against connecting themselves with "that accursed and illegal system of Molly Maguirism, equally condemned by the law of God and the law of the land."

Actual scarcity of food is advancing with rapid strides. The Reverend W. R. Townsend, Rector of Aghadda, diocese of Cloyne, states in a letter— ".In this part of Ireland we are in a frightful state; the humbler classes all living on the contaminated potato; the sides of fields and gardens literally covered with rotten ones thrown away. The detail of destruction is end- less." At a public meeting of Magistrates and others, held at Killone, county Clare, on the 6th, a statement was read to the effect that numerops families in the parish could not procure even one meal in the twenty-fax hours; that in another month the number would be largely increased; and that the farmers had lost almost the entire of their potatoes.

The hurricane which proved so destructive in Scotland on Wednesday sennight was felt also in Ireland. In Parsonstown a house was blown down, killing a woman and her child. Numerous other casualties are reported in different parts of the country.