POSTSCRIPT.
SATURDAY NIGHT:
There will, it seems probable, be no Order in Council; but it seems equally probable that Ministers are preparing to grapple with the subject of provisions for the country. Parliament, it is understood, will meet early in January—a month sooner than usual. And the document sub- joined shows how Ministers are engaged. The Dublin " Mansionhouse Committee " deputed their Chairman, Lord Cloncurry, to embody their views in a letter to Sir Robert Peel. He executed his task with a respectful earnestness, that redeems some unclerkly awkwardness of style. Sir Ro- bert's reply, which cites the specific suggestions submitted to him by the Committee, is as follows—
Whitehall, Nov. 10, 1845.
" My Lord, —I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the communica- tion of the 7th of November, which bears your Lordships signature, earnestly calling the attention of her Majesty's Government to the calamity with which Ireland is threatened by the failure, through disease, of the potato crop, and suggesting for the consideration of the Government the following measures " 1. The opening of the ports of Ireland for all kinds of human food, free of duty. " 2. The closing of the ports of Ireland against the exportation of oats, either ground or whole. " '3. That the consumption of oats by cavalry regiments in Ireland be dial. nished as much as possibly can be with safety to the public service. " 4. That the distillation from grain be suspended in Ireland; due precaution being taken to prevent illicit distillation. " 5. That there be immediately raised money, by way of loan, to the extent of one million and a half at the least, and chargeable upon Irish resources, such as the department of Woods and Forests, &c., and the amount of such loan be ap- plied in the first instance to the increasing the quantity and decreasing the price of food in Ireland.
" 6. The forming of granaries in each of the Poor-law Unions and other localities throughout Ireland, so as to bring food within the reach of all its in- habitants.
" 7. The setting the people to work without any delay, by urging on and assisting in the construction of railways, and also in the works of drainage, as recommended by the Government Commissioners, and other works of general or local utilitv.'
" I give full credit to the assurance that in making this communication, your Lordship and those who are parties to it are influenced by no other motive than the desire to aid the Government in the efforts which they are making to avert or mitigate the impending evil. " I shall without delay submit this, as I have submitted all other representa- tions which have reached me on this painful subject to my colleagues in the ser- vice of her Majesty. " Although considerations of public policy and of public duty prevent me from entering, in this acknowledgment of your Lordship's communication, into a dis- cussion in respect to the advantage of the particular measures recommended for immediate adoption, yet I beg to assure your Lordship that the whole subject is occupying the unremitting attention of her Majesty's confidential advisers.
" I have the honour to be, my Lord, your most obedient servant,
" The Lord Cloncurry." " ROBERT PERU : The Irish Poor-law Commissioners have issued directions to the Boards of Guardians, empowering them to employ the labour in the several work- houses in extracting starch from such diseased potatoes as may be deli:vend to them for that purpose.
The latest accounts report the continued spread of the disease, or-at least the detection of it takes a widening spread. In Ulster and Connaught most of the local journals keep silence on the subject—perhaps for fear of creating panic; for those provinces are not so fortunate as they were sup- posed to be—Connaught especially was understood to be exempt from the calamity. And the worst news, repeated in accounts from several places, is, that the peasantry make no exertions to arrest the progress of the disease, or to save the diseased potatoes for conversion to use. They resign them- selves to the evil, perhaps desperate, or probably hoping for help.
Meanwhile, in some districts the people have taken upon themselves to attempt the extortion of help in a.very ugly and mischievous manner-' the ordinary spirit of outrage being aggravated by a new motive of law- lessness— " It having been rumoured," says the Limerick Chronicle," that five hundred labourers were to assemble in this city on Monday morning, for the purpose of compelling Mr. H. Owen to give them employment on the Waterford and Lime- rick Railway, the circumstance was communicated to the authorities, who thought it advisable to call in one hundred of the Police from the districts on Sunday night, to aid, if necessary, the city force in keeping the _peace. The withdrawal of the Constabulary from out-stations was seized upon with avidity by an agrarian band of ruffians m the neighbourhood of Castleconnell and Barnngton's Bridge as the favourable opportunity to attack their industrious neighbours: and accordingly, an armed banditti, numbering from sixteen to eighteen men, (who divided themselves into two parties,) with their faces blackened, traversed the districts of Ahane, Barrington s Bridge, Ballyvorra, Dromboy, Sallymount, and Woodroe ; attacked a dozen farmers' houses the same night in thew route; possessed themselves of twenty stand of arms; and in every instance assaulted the inmates—some in a barbarous and wanton manner. On entering the different habitations, their cry was Heads down!' which mandate having been obeyed, the murderous miscreants immediately proceeded to beat with guns and bludgeons whichever mem- ber of the family was to them most obnoxious. Mr. Christopher Bunten, of Ballyvarra, was severely beaten, and received several cuts on the head. Malachy Hogan, a steward, the same, for daring to pay rent." The Chronicle recounts other outrages perpetrated "by the midnight legislators, whose only object was to intimidate the well-disposed from paying any rent, owing to the supposed failure in the potato crop. This is apparent from the fact that for some days previous to the attack notices were posted in the above dis- tricts, threatening with death any tenant who should pay a halfpenny rent." " On Sunday night about eight o'clock, a party, consisting of fourteen men, well armed, went to the houses of Cornelius Conway and James Neal, tenants to Mr. John Brown, on the lands of Fahey, county of Clare, and beat them severely for having paid rent due last March. Information of the outrage having been given to Mr. Brown shortly after, he went in pursuit of the party, with the Police sta- tioned at O'Brien's Bridge, but unfortunately without success. Mr. Brown is a good landlord, and his character as such is well known in the district: he gives manure to his tenants every year, and informed them on the last occasion that if there should be a scarcity of the potato crop next spring or summer, he would not fail to see to their wants."
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