IRELAND.

The Irish Council had their meeting at Dublin on Tuesday, under their new title of "National Council of Distress and Safety." The meeting was held in the Rotunda. Mr. Henry Grattan, M.P., was called to the chair; and after a few observations from him, Mr. O'Gorman Mahon moved, and Mr. John O'Connell seconded a resolution, that the Members assembled should retire for the purpose of discussing the various plans, with a view to their being submitted for the consideration of the public on a future day.

The Members met on Wednesday, in the City Assembly House. Among those who were present, in addition to the gentlemen that attended on the previous day, were Mr. Maurice O'Connell, Mr. Morgan John O'Connell, Mr. Daniel O'Connell, Sir Lucius O'Brien, Mr. Monsell of Ter- voe and Mr. George Moore. Although the meeting was private, the ge- nerk results of the proceedings have transpired. It was resolved that Go- vernment should be called upon to complete the roads that have been left in an unfinished state, to employ people in making the earthworks of railways, to advance money on loan to companies for that purpose, and to establish public granaries. Some other resolutions were referred to a com- mittee. In the course of the deliberations, a suggestion was thrown out, that if the Government did not accede to the demands, the Members pre- sent should oppose them on every occasion, commencing with the motion for the Address: but this suggestion was not adopted. The meeting ad- journed till Friday.

There was the usual meeting of the Repeal Association on Monday; Captain Greene, M.P., presiding. Among other things, Mr. John O'Con- nell assured the meeting that the condition of Ireland should come under the consideration of Parliament in the short session to begin on the 18th— in spite of the Times. Rent 37/.

The Poor-law administration is by no means in a hopeful state. Ac- cording to the Cork Examiner- " The Skibbereen workhouse, built for 800, is shut—holding 1,340 paupers within its walls, and incapable of bolding more. The beggary of that vast and deplorable district must look elsewhere. It will increase fourfold in a few months --and where shall it look ? Unless pestilence shall diminish the occupants of the Skibbereen workhouse, the besieging paupers cannot get a meal of stirabout out of it. A deputation from Skibbereen has gone to the Lord-Lieutenant. The Re verend Mr. Harrington, of Berehaven, has informed us of the miserable and omi- nous state of the people there. As in Skibbereen, the workhouse accommodation is stretched to near its utmost—and must soon cease. In Bantry and Killarney the story is the same. The Boards of Guardians are in a state of apprehension all over the country, particularly the coast country."

The Sligo Journal describes a similar state of things at the Union Work- house— " The house has more than its full complement of inmates. On Tuesday last, between two and three hundred men, women, and children, assembled at the en- trance-gate, in the midst of a torrent of rain, clamouring for relief or employment. On the gate being opened for Captain Gilbert, Government Inspector, the crowd rushed forward to the workhouse. Mr. Savage, the Master, was sent to acquaint the men who were seeking employment, that, by making application to the Chair- man and Guardians, they would at once he admitted. Few, however, took ad- vantage of the offer; as they seemed to prefer taking a chance for casual work, of which there is at present a deplorable prospect."

While the Guardians of the Kantnrk Union were in deliberation, on Tuesday sennight, a mob of many hundred persons attempted to take the workhouse by storm. The military and police succeeded in checking the attempt, amidst a shower of stones, and captured some of the ringleaders. The mob tried to rescue the prisoners; and were only deterred by the threat that the Riot Act would be read and the troops ordered to fire. They then marched off, followed by the military.

"A strange fact," observes the Cork Examiner," more powder was purchased by these out-door relief folks on that day than was sold for the previous year in the town of Kanturk. The Messrs. Bruce and Barry, J.P.s, from whose neigh- bourhood the principal number of this troublesome mob were, gave them 2C to Ptuv.hase bread; the greater portion of which they applied to supply themselves with powder and ball. We are come to an awful crisis. The present expendi-

ture of the union exceeds 5001. per week; whence are the means to sustain this to be supplied?"

The resistance to the collection of poor-rates is spreading-

" The opposition to the poor-rate in the electoral divisions of Arles and Shrule,' says the Carlota Sentinel, continues with unabated virulence; so much so, that the law: is rendered inoperative by a movement at once general and systematic in its operations. Rescues continue to take place. Magistrates grant informations against the violators of the law; who either traverse in prox. or rely upon the sympathies ofjuries interested in the success of the movement. Thus, unless the Government put forth its strength and crash this opposition by the strong arm of the Executive, the Poor-law will become a dead letter; the union will become em- barrassed, and the poor of the defaulting electoral divisions left to their fate. The Board of Guardians have very properly thrown the onus on the Government, and it remains to be seen what measures the Government will adopt to meet this com- bination."

The resistance to rent continues in the county of Down. A receiver under the Court was forcibly resisted, and compelled to abandon the dis- traint. One of the persons concerned in the outrage is described as a farmer of the better class. Near Newry, a similar occurrence is recorded: a large party of armed men beat the bailiffs, and compelled them to give up the property under seizure. Warrants were issued against eighteen of the offenders; but only two could be captured, although two officers and forty constables were engaged in pursuing them.

A correspondent of the Sligo Champion, writing of Kilree parish, de- nounces the conduct of some of the landlords, who, "heedless of their duties, are enforcing even to the last farthing their rights." Among others, Lord De Freyne is accused of having recommenced his campaign of ejec- tion. The people are first offered sums varying from 2/. to Si. to raze themselves "the homes of their ancestors for centuries "; but that offer Is accompanied with an intimation that it will otherwise be done for them. "Even the proverbially kind and indulgent Lord Palmerston," says the writer, "has been affected with the mania of depopulation," and has been ejecting in Coolavin. Mr. M. Phillips, of Roosky, is accused of distraining on Sunday. The writer concludes by asking, "What shall become of us?" "On last week two tons and seven hundreds of meal were distributed in this barony. The objects to be relieved should, by agreement, be possessed of neither potatoes nor oats. The closest examination was made by the persons selected to distribute this charitable donation; still, three huAdred householders, with their families, constituting a population of fifteen hundred individuals, entit:ed to a portion of it, were found in the parish of Kilree alone. This class has, up to the period, subsisted on cabbages and on turnips: this resource being exhausted, whence are they to be succoured? By a tantalizing Poor-law they are promised relief, but when they apply to the district Belief-officer, he has no assistance to afford; and when they present themselves at the poor-house, they are informed it is equally as good for them to perish in their cabins as to be its starved inmates. What, then, shall become of these wretched creatures? There will, I fear, be effected by their hardships, and through the instrumentality of the landlords, a rising of the people, destructive of every bond of society."

The provincial papers contain accounts of outrages of all descriptions— firing at men and horses, carrying off cattle, &c.

In Roscommon, the murderers have despatched a gentleman whose character was so excellent that the crime has caused unusual excitement, in Dublin at least. The following account is dated from Strokeatown, on Tuesday night. "As Major Mahon was returning home from a meeting of the Board of Guardians of Ros- common Union, this evening, he was shot dead by an assassin, about four miles from Strokestown. Major Mahon has been in possession of the Hartland pro

for a couple of years. The tenants owed three years' rent, amounting to 30, 00 At first the tenants refused either to pay rent, till the land, or give it up. Last year, however, a large portion of them agreed to leave the country; and Major Mahon, at his own expense, chartered two vessels and sent a number of the tenantry to America. Long, however, before this occurred, it was well known in the country that Major Mahon was a'doomed man. His name stood first upon a list of twelve gentlemen, all of whom have been doomed to death on account of their refusal to continue the conacre system. The failure of the potato crop saved them for the time. As Major Mahon has been taken off, there is little doubt that other gentlemen will soon follow. Major Mahon, within the last few days, was publicly denounced, in one of the reports to head-quarters, as an absentee, and one who refused to contribute to the local subscriptions of the neighbourhood!' Another account agrees in the main particulars with this; but adds, that Major Mahon was attacked by two assassins; the piece of one missed fire, the contents of the other gun lodged in the victim's breast; he exclaimed "0 God!" and was dead.

One Flynn has been murdered while returning home from the fair of Newtown- hamilton, in Armagh: be was stabbed to the heart. Three men are in custody.

Another of those murders for which the general possession of arms by the pm- sentry gives so much facility is reported in the Limerick Chronicle. While Michael Walsh, steward and caretaker to Mr. O'Callaghan of Ballynahinch, was going along the high road near Scariff, at eight in the morning, he was fired at from behind a wall, and killed: two bullets entered his head. The reports of the guns were heard by persons near at hand; but the assassins got off undiscovered.