IRELAND.

Mr. Smith O'Brien's counsel have given notice of their determination to apply for a writ of error, on the ground that copies of the bill of indictment and lists of witnesses were not delivered ten days before his trial.

All parties and ranks in Ireland seem to be moving heartily in behalf of Mr. O'Brien, to obtain the mercy of the Crown in mitigation of his sentence. The Protestant Conservative Fellows of Trinity College, and the Bishops and Archbishops of the Romish Church, are alike signing memo- rials and forwarding them to the Lord-Lieutenant. But, more remarkable, the Orangemen of Dublin have come forward with strenuous zeal; and their memorial seems almost ironical in its plain speech. Among its nine rea- sons for "an act of clemency "—" for not carrying out the extreme sen-

tence of the law "—are the two following, borrowed from the points urged in the prisoner's defence at his trial-

" 2. That the passing of the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act, which gave to your Excellency extreme power to arrest and imprison any man suspected of dis- affection, may be naturally supposed to have driven Mr. O'Brien to assume a hostile position, whether in self-defence or against.. the authorities, which under other circumstances he might not have done.

"3. That the feeling is very general amongst all:Armes of Protestants, that several Roman Catholic priests and bishops, whose names we believe to be well known to the Government, were leaders of the disaffected party, and that these men have not been prosecuted by the authorities, while Smith O'Brien has been sineed out and the strongest measures adopted to bring him to justice "— Two other grounds urged are more general-

" 7. That since the law.was framed which required an extreme sentence to be passed on a person found guilty penalty oftreason, the feeling has been strong in the public mind that the extreme of the law should be carried out only in cases of guilt—such, for example, as wilful and premeditated murder.

"8. That the execution of Smith O'Brien under the ancient severe code will give a shock to the whole empire, create a thrill of horror in the hearts of the people, and be repugnant to the feeling of a large portion of the Protestant popu- lation; and that the law can be sufficiently vindicated without taking his life."

On Tuesday, the Lord-Lieutenant received the deputation appointed by the citizens of Dublin to pretent their memorial in favour of Mr. Smith O'Brien. Lord Clarendon treated them with marked courtesy, and gave them the following written answer-

" As it appeared to be the wish of Mr. Sharman Crawford and the gentlemen who accompanied him here last week, and subsequently of the Lord Mayor, that I should receive from the hands of a deputation this memorial, which has been so numerously signed by the inhabitants of Dublin, I have not hesitated to comply with that wish; but, while the Commission is still sitting at Clonmel, and occu- pied with the trial of persons charged with the same offence as Mr. O'Brien, and having reference also to the notice of a writ of error that has been given, I need hardly inform you, and I feel certain you will not expect, that I should now give any definite answer to the memorial, beyond an assurance that full weight will be given to the recommendation of the highly respectable jury who tried Mr. O'Brien."

More deputations from Cork, Limerick, and other places, have waited on the Lord-Lieutenant; and have had for answer a polite reference to the written reply received by the Dublin citizens. The memorial of the Orangemen of Dublin, however, was deemed worthy of particular notice: Mr. Curry Connellan writes- ' I have to convey to you his Excellency's regret, that the persons who have affixed their signature to that document should have thought fit to introduce into a petition for the extension of mercy, a groundless imputation upon the impartial administration of justice by the Executive Government."

The trial of O'Donohoe proceeded on Friday; presenting scarcely any feature of interest. One important witness, Thomas Sullivan, prevaricated and contradicted his sworn informations in a glaring manner another wit- ness, Carroll, the policeman who was taken prisoner, stated his belief that the prisoner was not the O'Donohoe present at the affair of Farrinrory.

Mr. Maher's line of defence was partly the same as that of the other prisoners, and partly grounded on an alibi. The prisoner was a lawful member of lawful clubs so long ache remained in Dublin; be escaped thence on-the passing of the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act, to seclude himself with Mr. T. F. Meagher in Waterford. Coming to Kilkenny, he found that Mr. Meagher had gone towards Callan and Mullinahone. He followed, and came to Killenaule after the barricade was erected there; but as soon as he came the barricade was removed. As soon as Mr. Meagher arrived at Mallinahone, the prisoner joined him, and separated himself entirely from Mr. O'Brien; to whose personal defence he had contributed till that moment. Together with Mr. Meagher and Mr. Leyne, the prisoner then departed for Carrickmockler Rock; and all three were asleep at that place during the whole time of the conflict with Inspector Trent.

On Friday evidence was given by the prisoners to prove the alibi. Patrick Hanrahan, a respectable farmer at the foot of Slievanamon, deposed that the pri- soner,. with Mr. Meagher and Mr. Leyne' came to his home at daybreak on Sa- turday the 29th July, and slept there; he dined " on a rock in a corner of his field " in the afternoon, and departed for the house of Hanraluin's brother in the even- ing. Hanrabart's maid-servant, and some other witnesses confirmed his evidence. Johanna Kickem, a young lady of Mullinalione, contradicted Sullivan, the Crown witness, about the drilling there. She was up all night at her father's house, watching from her window the same crowds that Sullivan swore to have been drilled and marched in a mass of 6,000: she saw no marching nor drilling.

Mr. Butt made a speech on his evidence, and on the Crown.case. He made prominent use of the obvious falsity of the witness Sullivan, and of the facts re- garding the non-appearance of the original informations sworn by him and now contradicted by him. Those informations seemed to have been obtained back from Mr. Kemmis the Crown Solicitor, by Mr. Despani, the Magistrate who took them down "because he had a quarrel with a person in the country." Mr. Butt stigmatized the .transaction as a "violation of enact. of Parliament, and a taint to justice in its very source." Mr. Butt's substantial defence was, that his client left Mr. O'Brien before he wrote the letter to the Mining Company, on perceiving the designs that Mr. O'Brien entertained. The Solicitor-General replied, and Mr. Justice Moore summed up. The Jury found the prisoner guilty on all the counts except the one which charged him with taking part in the attack at Farrinrory.

The trial of Mr. Meagher began on Monday. Mr. Whiteside, Mr. Butt, and Mr. Maher, conducted the defence. The same forms of objecting to the non.delivery of a jury-list, &c., were gone through as hi the former cases.

On the subject of the jury array the prisoner personally addressed the Court with a respectful protest—" I protest against the constitution of the panel from which the jury by whom Lam to be tried is to be selected. Personally, I care not whether I am to be tried by Protestants or Roman Catholics, though I sal myself a Roman Catholic. I feel that I may place my honour, my liberty, my life, as safely in the hands of a jury composed exclusively of Protestants, as it would be in the hands of a jury composed exclusively of Catholics. Were I to consult my own feelings, I should not make these observations; but as a matter of principle, mutually affecting the legitimate, the pure, the satisfactory adminia.' tration of justice, on high public grounds—perhaps the highest grounds that can exist—I feel called on to protest, and I do seriously and solemnly protest, against a system by which, in this Catholic district and this Catholic country, eighteen Roman Catholics have been returned upon a panel of three hundred jurors."

Some of the jurors were challenged for non-indifferency—as having formed an ." opinion on the prisoner's guilt. The/: objection was overruled, as contravening cases, especially that of the King v Edmonds, which was most solemnly argued and determined. It was against all principle that a challenge should be allowed ' which did not impute the expression, but only the formation of an opinion; and there was no ground for atatuig that recent practice in England had qualified the rule.

Triers were appointed; and they determined in favour of the jurors objected toe = for cause shown. The Attorney-General opened his case. He went over the same ground that he traversed in the case of Mr. Smith O'Brien; reading the speeches delivered by the prisoner in the early spring of the present year, to manifest the intention with which the various subsequent acts he relied on were done. He believed he should be able to show that Mr. Meagher was actually present at enough of the criminal transactions of the conspirators to convict him of the treason now charged against him; but at all events, if he was absent from some of the most marked of those transactions, it would be shown that he was only absent in order to be, in his own words, "fanning the flame elsewhere"; he would be shown to have so embarked in the general treasonable plans that he would be legally responsible for all that oecurred.

Mr. Hodges, the Government reporter, was called to prove a speech made by Mr. Meagher at a meeting of the Irish Confederation on the 15th March last. Mr. Whiteside and Mr. Butt raised anew the objections before made to this course. They contended that the fair and legal way was to give evidence of acts first, and then add the evidence which would throw light on the intention of the acts: otherwise, evidence would be.received and would prejudice the Jury, which the Judges might after alIfermallTreject as irrelevant. The Judges unanimously overruled the objection: they would take care to put aside whatever might turn out to be irrelevant or improper. The prisoner's speeches at the soiree given to Mr. O'Brien on his return from Parisi, and at the meeting of the Confederation on the 6th of June, were then read by Mr. Hodges. [We indicated their nature at the time of their delivery. Their staple was defiance to British rule, and an exulting anticipation of the free inde- pendence of Ireland.) Tuesday was occupied by Crown evidence. The informer Dobbin was exa- mined; and repeated his former testimony, with additions of minute detail. He used a memorandum-book, and a great bundle of pieces of paper, to refresh his memory; and he seemed to have noted down every fact of the least prominence that occurred during his connexion with the Clubs.

Mr. Whiteside cross-examined Dobbin at great length, and got from him the history of nearly his whole life. The cross-examination abounded in questions im- puting lies, dishonesty, and even crimes; but no marked success was gained be- yond once. It seems that twenty years ago, Dobbin, though a Protestant, represented himself as a Roman Catholic to Dr. Magian, Roman Catholic Bishop of Derry, in order to get appointed Roman Catholic master of one of the National Schools. Dobbin was a member of an Orange lodge, and the questions put to him as to the cessation of his membership implied that he was expelled as espy; but he asserted that the Club itself broke up when it was found to be illegal. Other witnesses, policemen, deposed to the character of the speeches made by the prisoner at Enmscorthy and Callan.

Daffy has been detected in preparation for an escape from Newgate' A. rope ladder of forty feet long, with a long coil of single rope, was dis- covered in a leathern is room. Mr. Duffy's room was one usually o_ s_zessifled ey- e tors, and it had a room opening over Green Street. —.The discovery is said to have been made through the indiscreet talk of a nautical friend of the prisoner. Duffy was removed instantly to a safer lodging.

The Cork Examiner states that the convicted prisoners are in the most cheerful spirits: M‘Manus and Leyne amuse themselves by playing at marbles in the gaol-yard.

Mr. Michael Doheny has written a letter to the Tipperary Vindicator, dated from Paris, with the object of defending Mr. O'Brien from the im- putation of having been "led on by others," and of repelling the charge made against himself of deserting the cause. He states that he was in the country when the passing of the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act was an- nounced in Ireland, and that the actual rising was begun without his taking part in it. He proceeds-

" Many ridiculous and false stories have been told of our differences, and our proposals to deal summarily with Mr. O'Brien. We did differ, it is true- but those who differed most widely from Mr. O'Brien accorded to him their admiration for the chivalry of his nature and the thorough nobility of the principles which guided him. "We then separated for the last time, but with his concurrence also. From that hour forth I determined to act for myself and on my own principle. . . . I remained for five or six days on Slievanamon mountain, determined at all events not to be arrested alive. I afterwards changed to the county Waterford side. . . . My adventures since then, though personally interesting, shall not here be alluded to. James Stevens, who was said to be dead and buried, shared my risk; and, thank God, now shares with me the hospitality of the French Republic. He and another, who yet can speak, if usedbe, will attest for me that I only abandoned the cause of my country when that cause became ut- terly. hopeless. . . . May I take this opportunity of offering my public thanks to those generous, devoted, and brave men who assisted me? Any day for six weeks I could have been sold dearly by hundreds of men on the very brink of starvation. May God bless and Save them . . . I shall reserve to myself the task of vindicating openly the conduct of my comrades when the fate of those on trial shall be decided."

The Cork ,Constitution narrates some remarkable adventures of G'Ma- honey, who has escaped to France. Oldahoney was a fugitive in the Curraghmore mountains, his retreat unknown even to his family, till Tuesday the 10th, when he appeared suddenly at the door of his own house, and took a hurried farewell of his wife and children. From this be hastened across to the Waterford mountains; and the next night arrived at Bonmahon, where he was to be met by a boat, which was to convey him to a ves- sel lying off the land. While scrambling his way over the rocks to the beach, his foot slipped, and he fell down a precipice, some two hundred feet, into the sea. Unhurt by the shock, he swam along the base of the precipice, in quest of a land- ing-place; but could End none. Neither could he find any projection to hold by, huts small notch in the rock, that would admit half his fingers; and he clung there till the dawn: he then espied the boat which was to have taken him aboard, rowing up and down, as if waiting for him. He had been six hours in the water before the boat took him up, and carried him to a French smack lying out at sea.

Some of the prisoners in Carrickfergus Gaol attempted one day last week to break prison while the turnkeys were opening the different cells in the morning. Some of them managed to get out of the cells and shut the turnkeys in them, and to scale some inner walls. But two came upon a sentinel, who challenged them, and told them to stand or he would fire: they ran towards him, armed with a sheet containing a heavy stone, which they were using to climb the walls; and he shot one of them dead. A general alarm was then raised, and all the others at 'ergs were recaptured. A Coroner's inquest found a verdict of justifiable homicide done in performance of duty.