IRELAND.
The meeting of the Irish Agricultural Society, in Dublin on Wednesday and Thursday last week, supplies some notabilia besides the exhibition of the stock. At the Council dinner, on Wednesday evening, Mr. Naper, of Loughcrew, acting as Vice-President, delivered some strictures on the low wages of his country— That learned and highly-gifted gentleman, Dr. Kane, bad called the atten- tion of the country to the necessity, justice, and good policy of remunerating liberally the agricultural labourer; and in the last chapter of his valuable work on the Industrial Resources of Ireland, had clearly demonstrated this pro- position, that cheap labour would eventually prove anything but cheap work. He trusted that this great society would adopt that sentiment as their own, and hoped the day was not far distant when the truth of it would be ac- knowledged throughout the length and breadth of the land. In travelling on the train to London, he met at Rugby two intelligent fellow-travellers, with whom he fell into conversation. One of them was an elderly gentleman from Mon- mouthshire. He was well versed in all matters connected with the science of agricultural improvement, and appeared to take a deep interest in Irish affairs' They had a long and interesting conversation • in the course of which they took occasion to allude, at some length, to the different condition of the lower orders of society in both countries. Opposite them sat a gentleman who was one of the directors of the railway upon which they were travelling. With him, too, was a man of shrewdness and intelligence. He entered into conversation, and asked him how it came that he and men of his class, who principally re- sided in towns and had their money in the Stocks, (generally speaking,) got their labour done in a better and more satisfactory style than agriculturists ? The director replied, with great force and truth, that the reason why this happened was, because he and men of his class paid the labourer honestly and liberally in the proportion of what he was able to do, and accordingly had their work well done. There was in that room a gentleman, whose name he could mention, who had adopted this principle in its wisest and most liberal sense. Ile paid his servants in the honest proportion of their works; he treated them as friends and as part of his family ; and the wisdom of his so doing was eloquently evidenced in the success which had attended him in all his agri- cultural pursuits. * • * He was not without hope that there were better days in store for their country ; and he was inclined to believe that much good might result from the Landlord and Tenant Commission which was now sitting. A distinguished member of that body had assured him that the Commission would gladly take into consideration any judicious suggestion consistent with their duties that might be made to them : and, for their own part, he thought that if they were to lay before the Commission some well-digested scheme for improving the condition of the agricultural labourer in Ireland, they would by so doing discharge a duty which they owed as Irishmen to themselves and their country. (Cheers.) There was a grand banquet in the Theatre Royal on the Thursday night ; which was chiefly distinguished by an inauspicious misunder- standing. Among the speakers was the Earl of Erne, a Vice-President of the Society ; who took occasion to remark, that there had been a great improvement in the state of the agricultural population : this he imputed to the landlords, whom he declared to be all good—or at least a majority of them : but he asked if it could be ascribed to the collection of money from week to week, from month to month, from year to year ? This allusion to the Repeal Rent provoked a storm of hisses, with some cheers, and great confusion. Mr. Smith O'Brien, who sat near the Chairman, rose and left the place, followed by Mr. Nicholas Mahe; amid the loud cheers of their friends. Lord Erne continued his speech undaunted ; but did not prosecute his attack on the Repealers.
Next day, Mr. Smith O'Brien addressed a letter to the Secretary of the Society, briefly reciting the facts; stating that he had attended the dinner under the belief that the political opinions of the managers of the Society would not be allowed to manifest themselves in such a manner as to wound the feelings of any section of the subscribers; de- claring that he had left his seat rather than convert the meeting into a political debating society; and asking whether the Society sanctioned the language used by Lord Erase? The Council of the Society met on Friday evening, the Marquis of Downshire in the chair, and agreed to a minute, in which they said- " Lord Erne having come forward and expressed, in the promptest and most handsome manner, his regret that any observations should have fallen from him of a political tendency, and calculated to offend the feelings of any member of the Society—and which expressions were contrary to one of its fundamental rules—it was unanimously resolved, That it is a matter of the greatest grati- fication to the Council that so satisfactory an explanation has been given by the noble Earl; retaining as they do the strongest conviction that the security and prosperity of this great Society can only be preserved by a complete absti- nence, at all its meetings, from allusions of a political tendency."
This resolution was duly forwarded to Mr. O'Brien ; who expressed himself quite satisfied; and thus was the feud appeased.
The usual meeting of the Repeal Association was held on Monday. Mr. Dillon Browne took the chair, and repeated the abuse of the Cha- ritable Bequests Bill which he delivered in the House of Commons. If the Irish Members, he said, had made the least opposition to the mea- sure, it would not have become the law of the land. In the course of the many interviews he had with Lord Eliot on the subject, his Lordship unequivocally stated, that if it were the wish of the Irish Members, he would either withdraw the bill or at all events postpone it. Mr. Daniel O'Connell reported a resolution passed by the Parliamentary Committee of the Association before their separation, thanking Mr. Smith O'Brien for the services twhich he had rendered to Ireland. The resolution was adopted by the meeting. Mr. M•Nevin, a barrister, brought forward a report on the "hurrying of bills through Parliament "; and commented on the indecent haste viith which measures, particularly those having reference to Ireland, were passed on the termination of the session ; whilst the early part of it Was spent with little or no advantage to the country. Referring to Sir Robert Peel's altered sentiments towards Ireland, Mr. DEPNevin expressed his conviction that sincerity could not be expected in a statesman educated in the school of Eldon. Sir Valen- tine Blake read a letter from Dr. M•Hale, the Roman Catholic Arch- bishop of Team. The Archbishop had received a letter from the Association, enclosing a resolution for the more extensive circulation of his Irish translations ; expressing his satisfaction at this encouragement of the native literature, he approvingly mentions a pupil in the study- " To Mr. S. O'Brien my special thanks are due, who, by introducing this subject entirely unsought, has given a proof of his appreciation of the genuine language and literature of Ireland. I am rejoiced that, far younger than Cato, he is about learning the language of his fathers. It requires, perhaps, not less moral courage and vigour of mind to disentangle oneself from the fine meshes of small and foolish anti-national fashions, than it does to gtapple with the late' formidable difficulties of anti-national misrule. It well becomes him to be the foremost in asserting and cultivating the venerable language of his country, whose ancestor stands out the most prominent name in its dark annals, and to the celebration of whose reign in achieving the freedom of Ireland the most precious specimens of its ancient literature have been devoted."
Mr. D. O'Connell junior, in making his customary report of good health and spirits from the prison, suggested a new movement— He could state it to be the opinion of Mr. O'Connell, that the Association should take steps to get as many persons as possible, not being already pledged i Teetotallers, to take the Abstinence pledge for a limited period—that s, until the Repeal of the Union. Mr. O'Connell had consulted Father Mathew, who approved of the limited plan for those who would not take the pledge for life. Four of Mr. O'Connell's grandsons had already taken it in the limited shape ; and Mr. Smith O'Brien upon his return from the country would probably shape a motion for an aggregate meeting at Clontarf, or some other suitable vicinity, to administer " the Repeal Total Abstinence Pledge." He had also reason to know that Mr. O'Connell concurred in another suggestion of Mr. Smith O'Brien, to have another pledge taken as universally as possible, against the consumption of tobacco in any shape until the Repeal of the Union. That pledge, if universally or even generally taken, would have a great effect upon the minds of British statesmen in favour of doing justice to Ireland. He knew that it was the intention of Mr. O'Connell himself, upon the 30th of May 1845, to institute a pledge for the non-consumption of exciseable articles in Ireland, and also a pledge for the non-use of any article not of Irish manufac- ture. All these pledges would be upon the same footing as the Total Absti- nence pledge. In reporting to the Association the state of the imprisoned martyrs, he had distinctly to state, of his own knowledge, that nothing could give more pleasure and comfort to them than the continued tranquillitI of Ire- Land. How insane must the policy of the British Minister be, to think that he can delude such a people by hypocritical pretences and plausible words; and how much more than insane must he be to refuse that people justice and con- stitutional freedom !
Mr. Henry Grattan made a long speech on Mr. Smith O'Brien's cor- respondence with the Secretary of the Irish Agricultural Society—which he caused to be inserted on the minutes—on Repeal, and other topics. The Rent for the week was 1,162/.
The Archbishop of Tuam, whose epistolary copiousness is well known, has just written a letter to Sir Robert Peel on the Charitable Bequests Bill, marked by the Prelate's usual fierce sarcasm. He congratulates the Premier on his recent victories in the House of Commons, and on having been "so successful in taming the fiery patriotism of the Celtic Whigs as to make them put on, with the utmost equanimity, the ignominious yoke of the Saxon Tories."
"At the tail of the session, verifying the ancient proverb of being fraught with poison, a measure clearly and incontestibly bearing on the face of it evidence of hatred to the Catholic religion (!) is introduced into Parliament ; and in- stead of meeting with opposition from the professing Catholics of the House, is hailed as a boon conferred on the Catholics of Ireland! They might have delivered their own individual opinions, and poured forth their gratitude for the showers of Ministerial patronage for which they thirsted, but they had no right to misrepresent and insult the Catholic people. No time was allowed for petition or remonstrance; but even during the brief interval in which the bill was hastily precipitated through the House, there was more than sufficient of the public feeling manifested to convince them, if they were not deaf and blind, that the bill was universally execrated. Numbers of the Catholic clergy and people petitioned against it. Many of the Catholic Bishops from the pro- vinces, some in union with their clergy and others assembled in synod, sent forth in explicit terms their remonstrances and their reasons against this atro- cious bill. The Repeal Association, the best (!) and most unequivocal organ of the feelings of the Irish people, denounced it. The public journals that re- flect faithfully the national mind were equally unsparing in their condemna- tion of this penal measure. The son of the great and revered individual who is now paying the forfeit of loving his country and his faith too well, found it ne- cessary, in defence of his father's insulted honour, whose name was attempted to be treacherously mixed up with this odious transaction, to come forward and repel the idea of any, even of a constructive identification, with a bill of which the accursed object is to rivet again the fetters which he was so success- ful in breaking. Thus, through every channel from which the feelings of the people usually find vent, was poured indignant condemnation of the measure. And yet the recreant Members for Ireland—it is unnecessary to point out the exception—persevere to welcome as a boon a bill so universally stigmatized."
It was, says the Arehbishop, a master-stroke of a terrible policy to imprison Mr. O'Connell-
" His seasonable letters weuld have conveyed lessons of awful warning to the Catholic people. The tones of his indignant denunciation would have rolled dismay along the benches of the Treasury, and checked the terrified Minister from profanely handling the sacred ark of our religion." The Archbishop makes specific objections to the measure, but not always in very clear language. He objects that the Commissioners will have power to adjudicate on matters not within their province,—usurping the rights of each Bishop within his own diocese and of the Pope over all. That Roman Catholic Prelates may be appointed does not re- medy this evil ; but that portion of the bill is "frightful, daring, and revolutionary." He objects that "no religious orders are to be tole- rated ; hence no pions or charitable donations to sustain them." One objection we will not venture to translate, because we do not under- stand it- " Why, it may be asked, introduce and persist in retaining the damning clause of invalidating the will of an unjust spoliator, should he not be fortu- nate enough to redeem his soul by alms,' by disposing of his real property three months before his decease ? Let not the abettors of this bill affect to be shocked at the epithet with which it is qualified."
Sir Robert Peel is promised more of these edifying strictures.
The Limerick Chronicle relates a very bold abduction of a young lady of that city. "Miss Cussen was walking in company with her aunt, Mrs. O'Leary, on the Roxborongh Road, when they were met by four men, unknown, one of whom was armed, who seized on Miss Gasmen, and dragged her down the avenue lead- ing to the Cork road, where twc covered cars were in waiting, in one of which a respectable young man, in appearance, was observed. The victim of this audacious outrage screamed violently when torn from the grasp of her aunt ; and with violent exertion was thrust into the car in which the gentleman was; when another struggle ensued, and she succeeded in getting out ; but was again dragged into the vehicle; and the assistants having mounted the second car, the party drove off rapidly on the Cork road with their prize. There were a few persons attracted to the spot, one of whom seized the horse's head, bat was obliged Wet go when a pistol was presented at him."
sfe the abducer had fled. bliss Cassea is supposed to --F4sitstually; however, the police traced the young lady to Gort, and eered her; but .Vvp a handsome forte,
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