IRELAND.

,Friday the 20th November having been appointed by the Church as a day of humiliation and prayer all over the kingdom, Divine service was performed in the churches, in accordance with the instructions prescribed in the circular of the Lord Primate.

The Dublin Evening licist says that it is" authorized" to deny the truth of the report that Mr. Morgan John O'Connell has been appointed a Poor- law Commissioner, in the room of Mr. Twistleton. The Times remarks, that it was the same paper which first gave currency to the rumour; and asks why did not the contradiction come before this?

According to the Times, the statement that Mr. O'Dowd, a barrister and hanger-on of Mr. O'Connell, has been appointed a Divisional Magistrate, in succession to Mr. Thomas Conel Duffy, of Henry Street Police-office, is premature. Mr. Duffy has not yet tendered his resignation, although for many months past he has ceased to discharge his Magisterial duties. Dr. Nugent's appointment to be Inspector of Lunatic Asylums is also contradicted.

The Northern Whig gives currency to a statement that the Government have endowed four new Professorships for the Queen's College, Belfast, in connexion with the Presbyterian. Church of Ireland, and also two new Professorships in connexion with the Unitarian body. It adds, with respect to these two last appointments, "it is the intention of the Government to give an endowment of 1501. a year to each of the two Theological Profes- sors (Dr. Montgomery and the Reverend J. S. Porter) ofthe Non-Subscribing Presbyterians.' The first four appointments are mentioned less positively, as Professorships of New Testament and Ecclesiastical Greek, Hebrew and other Oriental Languages, Moral Philosophy, and Sacred Rhetoric and.Cateehetical_Instruction, with salaries of 2501. each.

At the weekly meeting of the Council of the Royal Agricultural So- ciety, held on the 19th, the following letter from the Duke of Leinster was read- " Carton, Maynooth, 12th November 1846.

"Sir—The special general meeting of the Royal Agricultural Improvement Society of Ireland having yesterday decided to suspend, until April 1847, the latter part of the fourteenth rule of the Society, I consider it will be impossible to prevent matters totally unconnected with the object of the Society front being discussed. I beg, therefore, to resign the honour of being their President; and request that you will have the goodness to inform the Council of my determination. "I am, Sir, your obedient servant, LEINSTElt." "Edward Hellen, Esq." The Society passed a resolution expressing the regret of the Council; and the hope "that the constant abstinence in the mean time from all dis- cussions unconneeted with the objects of the Society, may prove that his Grace's apprehensions will not be justified by any departure on the part of the Society from the spirit which dictated the law in question." It is stated that a meeting of the friends of the Duke of Leinster has since been held, to consider the best, means of restoring him to the chair of the insti- tution. But none of the proceedings have transpired; and it is generally supposed that the Duke will not return.

The following letter of resignation has been sent by the Marquis of Downshire-

" 111llsborough, 17th November 1846. "Sir—Having just read in the newspapers that the rule (which has been one of the great means of bringing the Royal Agricultural Society to what it is) that politics be excluded, has been broken into and done away with, I beg yoa will take my name off its books. "I am, &c., Dowses:am*

It is remarked that this letter was published in the Evening Mail twenty- four hours after the meeting of the Society, anti that no notice of it appears in the printed minutes of the proceedings.

The meeting subsequently agreed upon a memorial to the Lord-Lieute- nant, detailing the reasons why in the majority of cases it was found im- practicable to carry out his Excellency's views respecting reproductive works, made known in Mr. Labouchere's letter of the 5th October. The memorial concluded with a prayer to the Lord-Lieutenant, . . . .

"to enlarge the terms by which your Excellency's intentions are at present limited; and to declare that any tovvnland which shall expend in labour upon drainage or other productive works its proportion of the sum assessed on the barony i in which it situated, shall be exempt from farther taxation under the provision of the 9th and 10th Victoria, chap. 107; and that the same principle shall be extended to cases where two or more proprietors of separate toivnlands shall for this purpose agree to act in concert."

The Earls of Shannon and Enniskillen, and a host of influential gentle- men, Whig and Tory, have sent in their resignations as members of the Royal Agricultural Society, on the grounds already set forth in the letters quoted above.

An extraordinary Presentment Sessions was hehlat Croom on the 17th instant; the Earl of Dunraven in the chair. Resolutions were unanimously voted setting forth the difficulties in the present position of the magistrates and cess-payers in the barony of Coshma. While expressing their willing- ness to tax themselves for the support of the poor, the meeting deprecate any waste of property and labour on useless works. They set forth that it is impossible, from local circumstances, collectively to make presentments for reproductive works: and express their belief that unless each town- land can be enabled to employ the labour for which it is to be taxed to works of utility, the consequences must be ruinous. They then say— "We are willing to charge ourselves with the destitute labour on our own es- tates; to find for such labour fall employment, at fair wages, provided the desti- tution upon neighbouring properties shall not be chargeable on our lands. All we require is an amendment of the laws obliging each townland to provide for its own labourers as far as 50 per cent of its value; after which, we submit that the remaining distress on such townlands should be met by some general arrangement of Government."

The resolutions advise that proprietors or their tenants should be forced to provide for the population on their respective estates; or in default, that "a moiety of such estates should be confiscated to the poor thereon": but they declare, that if the present mass of 2,000 destitute persons, now eat, ployed in the barony, continues to be thrown into one common stook chargeable to the barony at large, it must end in a confiscation of the estates, and in throwing the people altogether on the Government for support.

A letter from the Marquis of Londonderry has appeared in some of the papers, addressed to his agent at Newton nerds, Mr. Andrews, announcing his views as to the Down estates. The Marquis differs from some of the leading proprietors of Down _respecting the advantage of making large abatements of rent. He stands on his just arrangements as a latidlord, and appeals boldly to his tenautry for proof that as a body they neither need it nor desire it. He proposes, however, during the period between this and next harvest, to aid the poorer and more backward in draining their farms; and for that purpose, offers a premium of fivepence per Irish perch for all drains executed on the Deanston system. There is at present no general want of employment on the Down estates; but should employment fail, the Marquis is prepared to meet the emergency without resorting to the Labour- rate Act.

The Earl of Devon has written a letter to the Dublin Evening Mail, de- nying the accuracy of certain recent statements founded upon an anony- mous communication relative to the Devon estate. Not one-third of the March rents has been paid, and very little of the September rents. Lord Devon indignantly repels the insinuation, "that the only rents paid with satisfaction are those of absentee landlords, who are out of the way of suffering personal violence." His own experience entirely disproves the statement.

From statements which have appeared in the Tipperary Vindicator, and the Leinster Express, it appears that the peasantry in the South of Ireland are procuring arms and ammunition with an eagerness quite unac- countable. They make no secret of the matter, but besiege the doors of the different gunsmiths in open day, either buying fire-arms or getting them repaired. The Evening Mail calls the attention of the authorities to the matter, as one demanding instant investigation.

Mr. Smith O'Brien has availed himself of the columns of the Nation to commence a series of epistles. "No. 1" is addressed to the " Landed Pro- prietors of Ireland"; whom he endeavours to rouse to a friendly union in behalf of a "susceptible population," by exciting their animosity towards England, in the following fashion- " The Premier taunts you with neglect of duty, and leaves you to your fate. The English press, faithfully representing the public sentiment of England, re viles you as the authors not only of the mischiefs produced by the Union and by British misgovernment, but even of the calamities inflicted by the hand of Provi- dence."

Mr. O'Brien sticks to the plan of a meeting in Dublin. The requisition for such a meeting, "by some manteuvre of which I have not heard any satisfactory explana- tion," was suppressed. The early meeting of Parliament was also given up. It appears to have been "thought more prudent, by a Government which cannot com- mand a majority in Parliament, to avoid the risk of losing their places." But, how- ever advantageous to the present Administration, this decision has caused "many a pang of hunger, not a few deaths by actual starvation' great waste of labour, and much social disorganization." • * "Little asl am disposed to place con- fidence in the kindly feelings of the British Legislature towards Ireland, I yet cannot believe that all the leading statesmen of the empire would have adopted, on the approach of famine, the same tone of philosophical calmness with. whlh Lord John Russell promulgates the abstract doctrines of isolitical economy as a substitute for energetic action. The Minister would have been told by the voice, as he might have been taught by the example of Sir Robert Peel, that it is the duty of a Government, when the ordinary laws of supply snd demand are deranged by a great and sudden calamity, to take care that food shall be placed within the reach of every individual, and that all abstract theories must bend to this neces- sity. Even the Protectionists would have consented to suspend for a season the

duty on foreign corn, in order to augment the supply of food in Ireland." * • "Instead of resorting to Parliament for advice in the present emergency, the Go- vernment have preferred to violate and dispense with the laws of the land." Mi. O'Brien proceeds to attack Mr. Labouehere for superseding the Legislature in its functions, by the issue of regulations which should have the force of sta- tutory enactments. The imperfections of the Labour-rate Act had naturally in- duced the landlords "to grasp at any proposal which promised that the employ- ment of labour should not be wholly unproductive."

The resolution of the Royal Agricultural Society recommended a total change in Mr. Laboachere's "instructions": to that Mr. O'Brien gives a partial assent, but he enjoins them to "remember" that they are called upon to make arrange- ments for the employment of the people, not only for a few months but "during future years." "We shall be subjected after the harvest of next year to nearly as great a pressure from surplus labour as that which is now felt, unless the most vigorous measures for stimulating employment be adopted during the next session of Parliament."

He concludes with this suggestion—" Let the most energetic and intelligent of your body, together with the Irish Representatives, assemble in Dublin for a month previous to the meeting of Parliament, and boldly, yet temperately, disease every suggestion which may be brought forward with a view to extricate our country from its present difficulties. I have little doubt that with respect to a very large class of useful proposals there would be no difference of opinion. We night even go so far as to prepare bills in the exact form in which they should be laid before Parliament, and arrange that they should be brought forward by Irish Members belonging to different parties, supported by the united strength of all."

The weekly Repeal meeting, in spite of a large attendance, was an un- usually dull affair. In place of the customary speech from the Agitator, Mr. O'Connell read his report on the existing disunion among Repealers. It set forth the various points of difference between " Old " and " Young " Ireland; his own exertions previously to the passing of the Emancipation Act; and concluded by enumerating the advantages of" peaceful" exer- tion in establishing the nationality of Ireland, and making her what she ought to be-

" Great, glorious, and free ;

First flower of the earth, and first gem of the sea."

Rent, 551.