IRELAND.

The Irish Representative Prelates for the session of 1846 are, the Arch- bishop of Armagh, and the Bishops of Tuam, Derry, and Limerick.

Sir Horace Beauchamp Seymour has been returned without opposition for the county of Antrim. The election took place at Carrickfergus. Sir Horace pledged himself to support "the interests of Protestantism": he re- fused to pledge himself to vote for a repeal of the Maynooth grant; but he undertook to oppose any augmentation. The Morning Chronicle, in speaking of this election, says—

So complete is the prostration of the Orangemen, and such the depth of de- basement into which they have sunk already, that the very man who proposed the Peel candidate upon the Antrim hustings was the very Mr Watson who has been removed from the Magistracy and Deputy-Lieutenancy of the same county ! "

The Ministerial crisis was still the subject of discussion at the meeting of the Repeal Association, on Monday. The news of Lord John Russell's failure had been received; but it had not reached two correspondents who touched upon the subject. One was Dr. APHale, Archbishop of Tnam; who alluded to the probable exercise of "seductive patronage to betray the Irish people from the steady pursuit" of Repeal- " What monuments has the Whig dynasty left of their regard for Ireland, that could induce the people of this country to relax at their balding their exertions for Repeal? Not, surely, the poor-houses, by which the legalized robbery com- mitted by the Establishment has been aggravated with another odious imposition on the people. Nor can we free them from a participation in those tyrannical acts by which the Tories have earned the execration of the Catholic people." The other was Mr. Pierce Somerset Butler-

" If Lord John Russell succeeds in forming an Administration, I trust that Ireland will show firmness, prudence, and generosity, without any compromise of her avowed principles. Lord John must restore the Magistrates—Orangemen and Repealers; he must give a powerful but judicious support to our railway speculations in Ireland, so as to thoroughly employ our labouring population; he must impose a tax—a reasonable tax, upon the absentees, for charitable purposes in Ireland. In fine, he must make Ireland what she ought to be. As for the late Ministry., I have no feelings but those of contempt and indignation, when I think of thew incalculable follies in regard to Ireland."

Mr. O'Connell also enlarged upon the subject: but he began his speech by presenting the first report from the Franchise and Election Committee of the Association; which consisted of these two resolutions- " 1. That it is the imperative and sacred duty of the constituencies of Ireland to return as Representatives none but Repealers, members of this Association, at the ensuing elections. "2. That every constituency that shall elect, and every individual voter that shall support a non-Repealer, where a Repeal candidate may start, shall be deemed guilty of treason to Ireland."

Adverting to Lord John Russell's retirement, he expressed an opinion that very likely the Tories would not be able to form an Administration. He alluded to the internal dissensions within the Whig and Tory parties. They had, he said, agreed upon nothing but to differ; all other questions Were open—

What was this to Ireland 7—that was the question. It was a good deal. It animated their hopes, raised their expectations, and gave them a certainty of suc- cess, if they were but true to themselves and their country. What cared they for Whig or Tory? Their cause was that of Ireland. They were upon the ma jestic march to nationality. That was the time to rally the country. Every man should be a Repealer. That day week he concurred with Mr. Smith O'Brien, who called for an hurrah for Repeal and no compromise. He repeated his words; be was in favour of Repeal and no compromise—no postponement. Nothing should delay them in their career, nothing should drive them from the pursuit of their object. He said that he would support Lord John Russell upon the Corn- laws; and and that he would attend during the debate and influence as many of the Irish Members as he could influence to vote upon every division with Cobden and Bright. They knew that he had no great liking for Peel; he was well aware what kind of a honied trickster he was: but he was equely ready to support him upon the Corn-law question; and he would vote for him upon every motion that had for its object to make bread plentiful and cheap. While he said this, he

would do Lord John Russell the justice to say that he had placed himself in a position, a very prominent position, of the highest honour. Whatever his conduct as a Whig might hare been, it was impossible to look at his behaviour and mode of acting respecting the Corn-laws without feeling a kind of veneration for his person and concurrence in his opinions. He had behaved himself admirably. He went with him so far as be behaved himself well, and not one inch further. He had, as it were, pledged himself to a fixed duty and a total repeal of the Corn. laws. He found that famine was increasing; that the distresses of England, es- pecially in the agricultural districts, were growing more alarming; and he knew that the amount of wages paid in the manufacturing localities would diminish. He further knew that in Ireland they were approaching a famine, and the neces- sary consequence would be pestilence. Ile did not let the taunt of inconsistency retard him from boldly and manfully abandoning his former opinion, and adopting that which would prove beneficial to the people. He was not justifying the con duct of the Whigs, nor was lie speaking in their praise as a party; but he could not avoid speaking in terms of the highest commendation of their leader, who had vindicated the ancient fame of his family, from whom many martyrs to liberty and the greatest friends to the constitutional freedom of the country sprang. He could not avoid praising his Lordship for his recent conduct. He was ready to support Peel in any good measure lie proposed for Ireland, no matter what it was—whether to repeal the Corn-laws, or to cheapen provisions—to avert the threatening famine.

Mr. O'Connell touched digressively upon a variety of topics,—the first and second Potato Commission; Sir James Graham, and the limits of con- cession; the Bequests Act and "Infidel" Colleges Bill; fixity of tenures; the sixty Repealers to be returned, &c. He made a declaration—

He had no preference for Whig over Tory, or for Tory over Whig, except their future conduct entitled them to it. If he ever gave a party vote, he declared he would never give another. He never voted that he did not think lie was right, but he might have had a leaning in favour of an Administration upon certain questions: but he would never again give a party vote, being resolved to take that course alone which would be the best for Ireland. As to supporting Whig or Tory, he totally disclaimed the intention, and he would never follow such a sys- tem of action.

He announced his intention to call together all the Irish Members who. could assemble in Dublin, in order to agree upon a future line of action. The rent for the week was 2141.

Mr. Maurice O'Connell, in a long letter to the Times, inserted in that journal last Saturday, has enter& the lists in defence of his father against the charges preferred by the Times Commissioner.

He begins by accusing the Commissioner of making assertions the accuracy of which he did not test, although he possessed the means of doing so. Thus, instead of going into the houses at Darrynane Beg, as he said he had done, he did not go into one of them. It so happened, however, that at the distance of two miles from the residence of Mr. Atkins, a gentlemen with whom he was staying, the Commissioner entered a house erected on the property of an absentee huidlord,- and, reasoning on the assumption that the houses at Darrynane Beg were as bad as that one was, he made the description of this hut serve for all. Mr. Maurice O'Connell does not hesitate to accuse Mr. Atkins of having "crammed" the Commissioner with stories prejudicial to the O'Connell family; which the other sat down and wrote to the Times without troubling himself to inquire into their truth.

Mr. Maurice O'Connell admits that his father is a "middleman"; and further, that in the case of Darrynane Beg farm, which is let at a nominal rent of 1501. per annum to four tenants, only 30/. is paid in money, the rest being accounted ter in labour. The gist, however, of the statements and ample figure details fur- nished by Mr. M. O'Connell as to the property. held by his father in lease, is to show that Mr. O'Connell is a very liberal and indulgent landlord; encouraging in- dustrious habits, making ample compensation to those who build houses on their holdings, or otherwise improve the land ;that he has afforded shelter to persons evicted from other estates; and that he is merciful to the poor. Mr. Maurice adduces figures to show that the property is not overpeopled. He laments the keenness of the competition which exists for land; but denies that his father is responsible for it, or that he has availed himself of the necessities and habits of the people to promote his personal ends. One passage we will quote as illustrating the mode in which waste land is "reclaimed in Ireland. Attached to Mr. O'Connell's property was a mountain region, lying in a state of nature, but capable of cultivation, which he resolved to apply to a useful purpose. Allotments were given to any persons of good character; the extent of ground varying with the means they possessed for reclaiming and cultivating it. "The parties were assisted to build their houses, provided with tir.ds in most instances, and entered into possession of their tenements on the understanding that they were to pay no rent for seven years certain; that then a rent should be affixed (with the understanding, of course, that if the allottee showed cause his rent-free tenn might be extended for such further period as should then be settled); and that in all cases the rent should be such as merely to constitute an acknowledgment of tenancy for such a further period as should be agreed on, when a bona fide rent was to be assumed. I have fore me documents which show that 134 families now hold such allotments from mz father; for which, the free term having long since elapsed, they assume rent; 2/ families assuming rents above 11.. per annum, 107 fanulies rents varying from 1/. to la., the yearly rent of 134 allotments is 122/. 19s. 6d.; averaging, therefore, the sum of 188. 4id. per lot. The largest rent assumed is 61., and there is only one individual so rated. His allotment feeds four cows and a horse, besides giving him sufficient tillage; and he sells annually a considerable quantity of potatoes and hay. There are two lots at 31. each, and 24 varying from that to 1/. 4s. yearly. If my father were the greedy exacting land-auctioneer which he is set fOrth to be, he could receive from these 134 lots at least 3001. yearly and a. fine of a year's rent for each. Of the 134 families thus located there are not a dozen who had any claim on my father but that of their distress." Thia speculation, we are told, has proved a losing one to Mr. O'Connell. As to the "hotel" at Cahweiveen, which the Commissioner sneered at, Mr. Maurice O'Connell says that the Commissioner was never in it: he took up his* lodgings at time house of the postmaster; "whose accommodations, if not se luxurious as those of the Clarendon, have sufficed many a better-born and more tenderly-nurtured man" than its defamer. As to the town itself, Mr. O'Connell cannot be held responsible for "the tidiness of every individual household.* He has done everything that he could to render the place prosperous and agreeable to the inhabitants.

The tribunal proposed by the Commissioner, of twelve persons—six to be ap- pointed by Mr. O'Connell and six by himself, to decide on the truth or falsehood of his allegations—is objected to by Mr. Maurice O'Connell: he does not know where so large a number of properly-qualified men are to be found, "willing and able to abandon their own business, and become viewers on my father's property at this season of the year"; neither does he know how their expenses and remu- neration for their trouble are to be paid. He suggests another coarse—" If the inquiry is to be made, let the usual course in arbitrations be taken: let our flip- pant and ignorant and foul-mouthed accuser name any one person (excepting Mr. rwiss and his brother-in-law); let my father name another; and let them choose a third man—they shall be welcome to go through every farm on my father's pro. party, through every house if they please." But the filial labours of Mr. Maurice O'Connell are not likely to termi- nate with this letter. The old charges have not only been reiterated by

the Commissioner, but the evidence of another party has been adduced in confirmation of what was asserted about the state of the O'Connell tenantry. Nay, more; Mr. Maurice O'Connell has actually trudg,ecl about

with the Times Commissioner, and his " witness," for the greater part of a day, seeing sights, and acquiring knowledge about his father's estate ma-

naged by himself, of a kind which actually surprised him. This personal intercourse had its origin in the following circumstance. Mr. O'Connell having declined to submit the points at issue to the arbitration of twelve persons, and the Commissioner feeling aggrieved at the free and easy man- ner in which his statements were " disproved " by the Irish press, and

himself designated "liar," made a suggestion to the Times Office, that another gentleman connected with the establishment should be selected and sent

to Kerry, to traverse the territory in the Commissioner's company, take

note of what he saw, and report details to the Times. The suggestion was acted upon; and the O'Connell property was subjected for three days

to the scrutiny of the Commissioner and a " reporter." While the pre-

liminaries were arranging, Mr. Maurice O'Connell was writing the letter noticed above, dated the 10th instant ; and before it appeared in the Times,

on the 20th, he had met the object of his criticism on the disputed ground.

He does not seem to have mentioned that he had written "a reply" ; and neither the Commissioner nor" the reporter" could have been aware of the

existence of such a letter when the researches were made, the results of which have been published in the Times of the 25th. Mr. Maurice O'Con- nell was encountered on the third day ; and our notice of what occurred then, and on the previous days, will be taken from the communication of "the reporter," as being the freshest, and as possessing also some of the features of a statement by a neutral party.

The newspaper inspectors commenced their inquiries on Tuesday morning, the 16th instant ; starting from Waterville, a small village near Darrynane Abbey ;

Mr. Atkins and Mr. Sullivan, the agent of Mr. Hartop, from whom Mr. O'Con- nell rents several large farms, accompanying them. This Mr. Sullivan is spoken of as " a warm partisan" of Mr. O'Connell. The cabins of Ightercoa, erected on land held in lease by Mr. O'Connell, were minutely inspected. The habitations are described as " dilapidated, giving the impression of dirty cow-houses" ; while the surrounding land is in a very bad state of cultivation. The entrances to the huts were obstructed by heaps of manure, and filth of all kinds. "In every one of them were from four to eight children. The walls were of loose stones, through which the wind came as it listed—the smoke feund its exit through holes in the roofs—there were no windows. * * Spectacles of varying distress and neglect were more or less visible in all of those dwellings." The only exceptions were the cottages of a widow who rents the grass of eight cows, and of a retired Coast Guard man. In the evening, the Commissioner and the reporter repaired to Va- lentia. On Wednesday morning, Mr. John Connell, a person employed as a collector and bookkeeper to Mr. Maurice O'Connell, called upon the party with a letter from that gentleman, in which he demanded of them to do what they had intended—make a personal inspection of the property at and near Darrynane. The letter stated that every facility would be given for conducting the inquiry ; and it denounced the Commissioner's previous statement as a caricature. Towards Darrynane, then, the inspectors proceeded, accompanied by Mr. John Connell. Three or four townships were visited ; and the condition of the population is described as wretched. The huts were of the usual construction, blockaded by heaps of mud and manure, nearly dark inside, and containing little furniture. The hut of a farmer renting six; cows' grass, the father of a family, contained nothing more than a rough deal table, a settle, an iron pot, a few earthen vessels, and a potato heap. In another case, a cow and some pigs labouring under sick- ness shared the accommodation with the man and his wife and twelve children. For this dirty cabin, and the grass for four cows and a horse, the man paid a rent of 11/. to Mr. O'Connell. As to food, be stated that he and his family lived on potatoes and butter-milk all the year round, and that at present the supply was insufficient for their wants. [Two farmers, well mounted and of respectable appearance, whom the party met by accident on the main road, made a similar statement as to their mode of living. They produced beef and pork, but could not afford to eat of either. Mr. Connell (the collector) expressed surprise at this statement, and asked, " Do you mean to say, Conley, that you never eat beef or bacon?" " Ah, sure you know yourself, John Connell, that I can't kill a cow or a pig for myself—that all goes to the rent." These men were the tenants, not of Mr. O'Connell, but of his son John.] As the inspectors advanced, the same miserable spectacles were presented. .A poor woman, whose husband was "away," was found crouching, in almost total darkness, over a few sods of turf, with three children sprawling on the heather which was laid on the mud floor to suck up the wet. The rent-collector learned for the first time, from the lips of this poor creature herself, the nature of her tenure: the holding of which her miserable hut formed part was sublet to one Keatinge, who, contrary to his agreement with Mr. O'Connell, was exacting from her a rent of 25/. a year. The same Keatinge had sublet huts to other persons; and the accommodation they afforded was equally wretched. On Thursday morning, Caherciveen was visited; and the reporter asserts the accuracy of the description given of it by the Commissioner. In the afternoon, the party returned to Waterville, where Mr. Maurice O'Con- nell was waiting their arrival; and all three went in his carriage to inspect the property in the more immediate neighbourhood of Darrynane Abbey, the family mansion. Mr. Maurice had taken the precaution to provide an "interpreter." [The Commissioner, in his letter to the Times, mentions that the interpreter was Mr. Maurice O'Connell's huntsman; and states that his practice was to enter the cottages before the party, and speak a few words in Irish to the inmates in an under-tone. "The effect of this introduction was, that it was very rarely that any tenant would speak anything but Irish; and, of course, our questions were asked through him as interpreter."] The first farm visited was Ardcara, held by Mr. O'Connell for his life under Mr. C. Bland. It was covered with clusters of the most miserable-looking hovels. The first cottage entered was found to be as bad as any previously described: the occupant paid 5/. for his holding. A wo- man, described as a "stray beggar," was found living in a sort of out-house, in "utter darkness, and indescribable wretchedness." A number of children, one of them sick, were rolling about; and the sole article of furniture was a broken iron riot. The next cabin "was scarcely clean enough for an English pig-stye"; it was occupied by a man, his wife, and four children. Mr. Maurice O'Connell did not know that such persons were there. The next cabin was, "if possible, in a more deplorable condition "; and the occupant was equally unknown to Mr. Mau- rice O'Connell. It is needless to multiply the examples of these descriptions. Darrynane Beg was found to contain sixty-two cottages, described as "time worst," taking them altogether, that the reporter had seen. There is one cottage, how- ever, in the course of erection, which exhibits a roof of slate; "the rest are built of mud and stones, very small and low, wedged together in trenches of filth and liquid nastiness—badly thatched, and for the most part without chimnies ": light is admitted by a hole. Throughout this inspection, Mr. Maurice O'Connell dis- played much openness and candour. He admitted that he never looked at the furniture of the tenants before, and stated also that some of them he had seen for the first time that day. As to agricultural improvement, he frankly admitted that mangel-wurzel has not yet been cultivated on his father's property. 'This is a direct negative to a statement made by a Mr. Edward Carroll, one of Mr. O'Connell's agricultural defenders, and published in the Dublin Evening Packet. That person had asserted that he found on the O'Connell property, "a species of cultivation that would do credit to a London market-gardener--all encouraged

by Mr. Maurice O'Connell"; and in proof he mentioned that he saw mangel- wurzel, and Swedish turnips, of such a quality and in such estate of preservation as would do credit to several "practical friends," among others, "Mr. Skining at the National Model Farm."] It was scarcely to be expected that a visit so peculiar should be destitute of characteristic incidents. One may be mentioned. On the first day, a cabin occu- pied by P. Sullivan was visited; and during the stay, several -complaints were made by that person as to his condition. On the following Thursday, however, Sullivan called upon the inspectors at Cahereiveen, with the view of swearing that what he had told on Tuesday was untrue. He was accompanied by a Magis- trate, who acted as interpreter; and the substance of his statement was, that he thought the two persons who called upon him were Government Commissioners inquiring into the state of the potato crop; and, with the view of making the most of things, he aggravated not only the badness of the crop but the difficulties of his own position. He was now ready to swear that he had plenty of potatoes and milk; that he had a bed-tick in the loft; and that his rent was not so high by 10s. as he had statedit to be-10/. 10s., and not 11/.

The Commissioner comments triumphantly on the evidence furnished by his colleague. He enumerates some facts which were stated by him, were denied by Mr. O'Connell, and are now confirmed: for instance, a flat denial was given to his statement about the want of glass windows at Darrynane Beg; and Mr. O'Connell sneeringly denied that he was a "middleman." On this latter subject the Com- missioner has obtained some additional information. The substance is, that for the land held under Mr. Hartop Mr. O'Connell charges his tenants three times the amount he pays; that he charges profit-rent on his other holdings; and that his yearly profit from this source alone amounts to 2,0001.

Speaking of the result of the inspection in which Mr. Maurice O'Connell took part, the Commissioner says—" I have been all over England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland; and I declare to you solemnly, that in no part of the United King- dom is such neglected wretchedness—such filth, such squalor, such misery of every kind—to be seen, as I saw that day on Mr. O'Connell's estate, in the pre- sence of Mr. Maurice O'Connell."