IRELAND.
The patents appointing the Right Honourable Thomas Lefroy a Baron of the Irish Exchequer, and Mr. Leslie Foster a Justice of the Common Pleas, passed the Great Seal on the 9th ; and the oaths of office were administered to them on Friday morning, by the Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
The Repeal Association held its usual meeting on Monday. Dublin is agitated by a very ridiculous speech from Mr. Thomas Steele, levelled at Mr. Peter Purcell, whom he called "the most diabolical of human villains." Mr. O'Connell disclaimed participating in Mr. Steele's sen- timents; and some of the Dublin papers suppress the report of his speech. The Monitor denounces it as tantamount to holding Mr. Pur- cell up as a fit object for assassination. But the most interesting part of Monday's proceedings was a report, brought up by Mr. O'Connell, on the case of one Reilly— It was necessary to state that Reilly, during the late election for the city of Dublin, became involved in a scuffle with some persons in the streets ; one of whom fired a pistol at him, and shot off the index-finger of his right band. Reilly at once seized the person who had fired at him, and, showing him his wounded hand, said, "Although you have maimed me for life, 1'11 for- give you if you vote for O'Connell." The man was so much struck with the gallantry displayed by Reilly, that, although be had been all his life a Con- servative, he came up and voted for him (Mr. O'Connell.) Reilly, however, had been sent to prison, and while there they had supported him. On his liberation they had purchased a horse and car for him, to enable him to pur- sue a course of honest industry ; and he hoped his coal-car would be always fully emeoyed. Be moved that the Association do approve of the acts of the Committee.
The motion was agreed to.
An inquiry is going on, by desire of the Poor-law Commissioners, into the mortality of children in the North Dublin Union Workhouse. The evidence will not be published until the investigation is closed.
In the Leinster Express, (a Tory journal,) published on Saturday, there is a report of an application, made on the previous Monday to the Magistrates at the Petit Sessions of Mountmelick, Queen's County, to receive informations for sedition against Mr. William Connor, a re- spectable landholder, who resides at Inch, in the neighbourhood of Straibally. Mr. Browne, from the office of the Crown Solicitor of the Home Circuit, attended by direction of the Attorney-General to prose- cute the case. The first witness examined was George Stewart Hill, Sub-Inspector of Police ; who read his own information-
" Recollects Sunday the 14th November last. After Divine service on that day, saw about one hundred persons assembled in the Market Square of Mount- melick, and saw William Connor addressing them in a violent and exciting tone of language. Heard Connor say that the Members of Parliament were a lazy, scurvy set of rascals, useless servants, and forgot themselves like other rascals ; that tyrant landlords would be murdered ; and that it was not to be wondered at, for it was nothing but the reward of tyranny, and the fault lay nowhere but at their own doors. And Connor further added-1 tell Sir Robert Peel and the Government that there never will be peace in Ireland till these grievances are remedied. Connor was frequently cheered by the people ; and witness has no doubt that such language, addressed to persons in the rank of life of those assembled, would be calculated to hold up landlords to hatred, and produce public discontent and hostility to tbe laws of the country." Mr. Hill further stated, that he bad been handed two printed papers by Sub-Constable Banally, with the name of William Connor attached to one of them ; and that that paper contained the following passages--" That every man having the possession of any portion of the soil as a tenant at will, or on a lease, shall have a fair valuation of his land by a jury of sworn men." "That neither tithe, rent-charge, county-cess, poor-rate, nor any other acreable assessment, shall be charged to the tenant, in addition to the valued rent." Mr. Hill said he believed that such words were calculated to create discontent and disaffection among her Majesty's subjects.
Mr. Samuel Sheane, a Magistrate, and a Policeman, gave evidence of a similar kind.
Mr. Connor said that he urged the people not to violate the laws ; though he could " predict " murder from the present state of the laws-
" My address on that and thirty or forty other occasions was not of a political tendency—it related to political economy : therefore, I think the whole matter harmless, and not a crime against the laws of the country. If 1 am allowed to examine witnesses, I shall satisfy the Magistrates of my innocence : my arguments are against the rackrent system of the country, founded on the law of the land ; and I told the people in my address, that nothing could justify them to raise their hands against their landlords or the laws of the country. I sin a landlord myself."
Mr. Connor afterwards added, that his object was to show the people the way to redress their grievances by their undoubted right to petition. Many speches much stronger than his had been delivered in Parliament. Captain Tibaudo, one of the Magistrates on the bench, said that he considered such language calculated to inflame an excitable mob ; and .Mr. Connor was held to bail to answer the charge at the next Assizes.
A correspondent of the Newry Examiner transmits a list of twenty- five families, comprising one hundred and ninety-one souls, who have been ejected from their farms in the townships of Cormore, Hal- tony, Eskermore, Dunbiggin, Newtownseville, Tulnafoil, and Teagheny, in the parish of Clogher, by the Reverend F. Gervis of Augher, in Tyrone County. They were all Roman Catholics.
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