14 MARCH 1857, Page 9

IRELAND.

Great electioneering activity of course shows itself in Ireland ; but it will probably not be found so profitable an investment as formerly for enterprising place-hunters. The Northern IVhig gives a piquant description of the present electoral condition of the country. "O'Connelliam, the dreariest of impostures, is quite dead ; and with O'Connellism has almost totally, disappeared that nasty animal which, in

English apprehension, was 'the Irish Member,'—a pauper fed by the Whip per-in, at home a hanger-on of the priests, and in London a resident of the night saloons. Sadleirism, that succeeded to O'Connellism, is dead too; and no constituency is now to be won by a mercantile or legal gentleman coming forward and declaring, in the name of God, that his patriotism is a passion, and that he will never take place. Independent party ism is not altogether defunct, but it is a sectional affair, for not more than half-a-dozen counties and boroughs can be brought to believe that their Parliamentary interests are best served by their delegate consigning him

self to utter impotence in London ; and the delusion, such as it is, would be

exploded altogether, but that Mr. Moore unaccountably sinks all his talents as leader, and debater, and journalist, in recommending a chimera to simple peasants and pious young Dublin journalists. On the other side,

the violent Orangeman candidate no longer answers in the market. Irish Toryism, like French Red Republicanism, has become tempered by civiliza tion; and we trust to see the vices of long ascendancy still further alle

viated. Well, this absence or modification of isms is a great advantage to electors really intent upon getting at a fair representative body. There is not an agitator in the country to distract or deceive. The Catholic hierar

chy is quiescent from prevalent taste and a new policy. The Lord-Lieutenant cares a good deal more for his' dignity than for his party ; and we

really look for a blessed minimum of Government jobbing. Now, all this is new in Ireland. It is the first time we have been out of a fever when caught by a dissolution of Parliament. They talk of a 'good cry' in Eng land; but the word is too mild for us. We have generally had a 'good

roar' to go to the country with. One ?—twenty: At the last general election the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill was in men's minds, and with the Liberals

it was all denunciation of the Whigs. Lord Derby was in, and his friends on this side of the Channel made the utmost fuss about Protestantism. Mr. Duffy, and Mr. Lucas, and Mr. Keogh—all three now removed from the

arena—were powers in the land, and frightful personal controversies raged on all aides; and the general result was sending to Parliament, as an independent party, a collection of the greatest rogues that ever imposed on a people. All that happened scarcely five years ago, and the bitter lesson cannot be quite forgotten."

The Tipperary county election has resulted in the return of the "O'Donoghue." His opponent was Mr. Waldron. At the close of the poll on Thursday, the numbers were—the O'Donoghue 1832, Waldron 1139.

At a meeting of Liberals in Belfast, on Saturday, a resolution was adopted expressing "entire confidence in Lord Palmerston's Government," and the determination of the meeting to assist in returning two Members who will support his Administration. Belfast at present is represented by two Conservatives.

The Lord Chancellor has confirmed the judgment of the Master of the Rolls in the case of Ginger and the other "English shareholders" in the Tipperary Bank—that these alleged shareholders were not liable as contrihutones, as they had been induced to take shares by the frauds of the Sadleirs.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE GENERAL ELECTION. [In the following brief notes of election movements and preparations, repetition of merely vague rumours has been avoided ; and, for the saving of space' except in important cases, or where peculiar circumstances exist to give interest to the announcement, the fact that no change in the representation of a particular place is at all probable has net been noted.]