5 DECEMBER 1840, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

Two elections are now pending in Ireland, which, if carried ad- versely to the Liberal candidates, may turn the scale against Mi- nisters in the House of Commons on some questions on which they last session boasted of nominal majorities. Appearances are against them. The Repeal agitation has divided and censequently weak- ened the Liberal party, and reanimated the CotiServative. Many, heretofore numbered as good Reformers, view' the rupture of the Union between Britain and Ireland as a greater evil than the re- storation of the Tory power. The Constitutional Association of Ulster, to which Lord CHARLEMONT and most of the influential Liberals in that part of the country belong, was established for the purpose of separating Reformers from Repealcrs an attempt lately made to seduce Lord CUARLEMONT from the Opposition society, produced from that nobleman a vigorous reply in defence of the English connexion. In another way the Repeal stumbling- block helps the Tories: those whom O'CONNELL has taught to distrust the Imperial Parliament, will hardly care to make personal sacrifices by voting against their landlords; for no good, they are told, can come of it. They see, too, that the Liberal candidates are as much opposed to their infallible nostrum for social and na- tional ills as the Tories, for whom it is their interest to vote : the balance, therefore, preponderates in favour of the latter. No can- didate pledged to Repeal has been .brought forward to contest either of' the counties now vacant : this would seem to imply that, notwithstanding O'CONNELL'S boast of the hundreds of thousands who march under the Repeal banner, the feeling in &your of sepa- ration has not yet gained much hold on the great body of the oounty constituency.

The efficacy of Father MATunw's crusade against whisky was put to a severe test at the Carlow nomination. The orderly con- duct of the populace, however, proved that very few had trans- gressed their vow, to a perceptible extent at least.