18 MARCH 1848, Page 2

The Irish sedition market is greatly agitated. On the one

hand, the ultra Repeal papers are running a race for the self- chosen goal—the gaol. On the other hand, the Government re- fusal, or delay, to prosecute, has evidently depressed the value of treason for popular sale, and the crazy speculator is more furious than ever at Lord Clarendon's forbearance. Mr. John O'Connell, who owns a most filial devotion to his father's pacific maxims, cautions the people against being led astray by " men whose wild language" has before entrapped the innocent. This pru- dence seems, in the vocabulary of " united Irishmen," to have brought Mr. O'Connell within the category of " bullies," " beg- gars, and " reptiles!' The Repealers, then, are in the most vio- lent state of intestine conflict ; which was only to be expected from the fact that they are making special efforts at reunion. From Mr. O'Connell's alarm, however, there does appear to be some risk that the Irish may be misled into more than their aver- age foolishness.

Meanwhile, the Lord-Lieutenant receives support from various quarters. The students of Dublin University offer themselves as volunteers in case of need, and are conditionally accepted. The Orangemen claim to be armed against rebellion : and indeed, if the seditions be too popular or too numerous for the ordinary law- courts—if the disorder be so extensive as to demand suppression by the energies of society—justice as well as policy will oblige the Government to allow the Orangemen their abandoned organ- ization and arms. Rebellion is the only thing that would make England cease to shrink from civil war in Ireland.