20 DECEMBER 1851, Page 5

IRELAND.

The Lord-Lieutenant was present at a banquet given by the Directors of the Irish Midland Great Western Railway, in their terminus station, on Tuesday ; and made a speech congratulating the Directors on the im- proved prospects which diminishing political agitation and increasing commerce hold out to them.

We omitted last week to mention the election, by the Board of Trinity College, of their late Vice-Chancellor, the Lord Primate of Ireland, to be Chancellor of the University of Dublin, in room of the late King of Hanover. This week, the new Chancellor appointed Lord Chief Justice BLackburne to the office of Vice-Chancellor, vacated by his own pro- motion.

The office of Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, is vacated by the death of the Reverend Franc Sadlier, D.D., very suddenly, on Sunday night. Dr. Sadlier succeeded Dr. Lloyd in 1837. The emoluments of the office are upwards of 4000/. a year. The appointment is in the hands of the Government, who usually select the Provost from among the Senior Fellows of the College ; but all Masters of Arts in holy orders are eligible,

An active canvass is going on for the office of Secretary to the Catholic Defence Association. Mr. James Bourke, who got up the first great demonstration in the Rotunda, is considered to have the best claim, and all the Bishops are said to be pledged in his favour; but there are many other candidates for the enjoyment of the salary of 3001., "several Eng- lish Roman Catholics of high position," and among them the recently- perverted Mr. Wilberforce, brother of the Bishop of Oxford.

In several of the Roman Catholic chapels of Dublin, it was announced from the altars, onSunday, that the decrees of the Synod of Thurles are to come into operation with the first day of the year 1852. It was ex- plained, that the statutes chiefly aim at the restoration of that stricter dis- cipline in the administration of the sacraments from which the Roman Catholic Church has fallen away under the pressure of penal religious laws. Under the prohibitory laws, divers abuses have crept in—such as the celebration of divine service and the administration of the sacraments in private houses ; and it was stated to be the main object of the "Ple- nary or National Council of Thurles," "the third or at most the fourth of that kind held in Ireland since the introduction of Christianity," to re- form these abuses, as far as the present circumstances of society will permit. It is said that no allusion was made to the decrees respecting the Queen's Colleges.

At a meeting of the Ballyvaughan Board of Poor-law Guardians, last week, Mr. Pierse Creagla, a Roman Catholic Magistrate of the county of Clare, held forth the Protestant principle of disseminating the Bible among the poorer classes. In a speech recommending a thorough purging of the Parliamentary representation of Ireland, in order that protection may be restored, he said-

" Why is it that the province of Ulster, With an inferior climate, with worse and poorer land—why is it that the people of that province have con- tinued, even during the past years of famine, comparatively independent and prosperous, while the people of this and the neighbouring province are steep- ed in ignorance, and suffer under privations and poverty ? It is because that in Ulster the principle of self-reliance has been engrafted into the minds of the people. I find in Ulster even a Roman Cathohc Bishop (Dr. Denvir was understood) aiding in printing and circulating the Scriptures among the people. I find that he, a Roman Catholic like myself, believing that the truths of the Catholic religion can be proved from the Scriptures—" Mr. J. Macnamara—" Order, order!"

Mr. Creagh—" I am not out of order. I say, that so far from danger aris- ing from the general perusal of that book, I would place it in the hands of every man, woman, and child in Ireland. And my allusion to that is not at all irrelevant, because it is from that book the people of Ulster have learned the great principle and law of Providence that ' man must earn his bread by the sweat of his brow.' I say it is this knowledge that has spread both self-reliance and individual exertion among the people of Ulster, and has led them to pursue habits of industry. Is it not the reverse with the people of this part of the country ? Here the people depend not on their own exer- tions, but on the exertions of others. They rely on dragging from the farmer and landowner all their substance, to be scattered in the shape of in-door and out-door relief among them. But their instructors have not inculcated principles of self-reliance among them ; nor have they taken care to instruct them in the words of the Apostle, that if any man does not work, neither should he eat.' They have not explained to them that the reception of out- door relief by persons able to earn their bread (many such persons having re- ceived it in this and other unions) is equal to robbery, which the law of the land would punish by transportation."

The trial of Matthew versus Harty, in 'the Irish Court of Exchequer, has engrossed extraordinary interest during six entire days. The plaintiff is a young man who two years since obtained a scholarship in Trinity College, and has graduated there with much distinction. He was brought up by the defendant, a highly respectable medical practitioner in Dublin ; but he has never known who his parents were. He complained that Dr. Harty had subjected him to a long course of cruel usage, and had ultimately confined him in Swift's Lunatic Hospital during a considerable time for no reason but to subdue his spirit and to break down his health. He suspected that Dr. Harty was his guardian, and had property left for his use by his real parents. The details of the case were interesting, but they were all thrown into the shade when Dr. Harty himself came into the witness-box, and confessed, "with shame and grief," that the plaintiff was his own son, by one who "might fairly be denominated a lady," who had given birth to him in Mon- mouthshire, and had died at Dublin while he was still an infant. Almost every one in the court was moved to tears by the circumstances of the reve- lation. The Jury, on Wednesday evening, gave a verdict for the plaintiff, with 1000/. damages.

A Government reward of 100/. is offered for evidence to convict the mur- derers of Mr. Robert Bateson.