IRELAND.
Mr. Conway Dobbs, the Registering Barrister at Dublin, has pro- nounced three decisions which will have the effect of invalidating the claims of two or three hundred freemen recently created by the Lord Mayor. Mr. Dobbs disallowed the claim to register without having served a full period of seven years; the evidence as to the usages of the late Corporation showing that a bond fide service of seven years under indenture was necessary to the title. Mr. Dobbs next decided against the right of each who claimed the franchise as great-grandson of a free- man, or as the son or grandson of a person who was not a freeman at the time of the claimant's birth. And thirdly, the Barrister rejected the claim founded on apprenticeship where the indenture had been ante- dated, so as to include the time during which the party was on trial with the master to whom he was apprenticed; and the same decision was ex- tended to the claim of a person who did not serve the whole time of his apprenticeship to a freeman, or whose master was not a freeman through- out the period of the indenture. The last decision affects a very nu- merous class.
A Crown solicitor died lately in Munster, and the Limerick Chronicle is "assured by an officer of the department that there were one hundred and fifty candidates for the situation."
At the Assizes, some cases of alleged Ribandism have been tried. At Longford, on Friday, Michael Casey was arraigned for having in his possession papers containing passwords connected with the riband so- ciety. Casey said he could not account for his having the papers ; but in the course of the evidence, it was proved that they had been put into his pocket by Hoey, a man who had informed and given evidence against him. A verdict of "Not Guilty" was returned. Michael Hatton was indicted on the following day on the same charge. The testimony against him also rested upon the evidence of Hoey ; to whom in like manner was traced the putting the papers in Hatton's pocket. Hatton was of course acquitted.
At Longford Assizes, Michael Gill was accused of the murder of John Morrisson, near Drumlish, on the 2d November. Gill is nephew to the widow Murphy, the woman who bad so long a litigation with Lord Lorton ; and Morrisson was the individual to whom the land taken from her would have been let. The accusation was, that Gill and some others, two of whom were admitted as witnesses against him, met Morrisson at a fair, made him drunk, and then fell upon him and murdered him on his way home. The proof of guilt rested on the testimony of these two men ; who acknowledged having committed both perjury and robbery. A verdict of acquittal was returned.
At the Antrim Assizes, on Monday, William Matthews, William Andrews, Thomas Scott, and William Stewart, were tried for the murder of Hugh M`Ardle, who was shot in an affray at Ballyroney, on the 25th December. The first dispute arose between some Catholics assembled in a public-house respecting a bet at a horse-race, and M`Ardle was active in reconciling the disputants. The disturbance was renewed by a Protestant party shortly afterwards ; and WArdle, who resisted, be- came the object of attack and pursuit to a number of persons, among whom were the accused men. They followed him to a house where he sought refuge, and where one of the rioters fired a gun at him, and he was instantly killed. The prisoners' counsel rested on the uncertainty as to their participation in the murderous affray, and set up a defence of alibi; which prevailed with the Jury, for they acquitted all the prisoners.
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