6 SEPTEMBER 1851, Page 4

IRELAND.

Reports fly about Dublin, to be doubted one day and reasserted with confirmations on the next day, that Government intends to prosecute the Bishops who signed the resolutions at the Aggregate Catholic meeting, with the illegal territorial titles.

There is now in Ireland a larger military force than there had been for many previous months. Including the Artillery and Sappers and Miners, the regular troops number 23,500 men ; besides the Mounted and Local Police, and the battalions of enrolled Out-Pensioners.

The murder of Mr. Edward White of Abbeyleix, on Monday sennight, in the hitherto quiet Queen's County, is supposed to have been connected with agrarian litigation. The deceased had, by a long life of industry, amassed a considerable personal property ; not long since he purchased in the Encumbered Estates Court the freehold of a portion of the Portarling- ton estates, of which he had been tenant on lease ; and the Court, by its decree, put him in possession of his land. But after he got possession, be found himself involved in a quarrel with neighbouring tenants as to their prescriptive right to cut peat from a portion of bog which had been thrown into his purchase, beyond what he had occupied as tenant- He prosecuted his rights in the courts ; and on Monday the 25th of August some assassin took his life. While driving to his land in the morning, it is supposed that a man met him, stopped his gig, shot him with a pistol through the heart, threw the pistol into the gig, and started the pony un- guided to carry the corpse of its master to his farm. The Coroner's in- quest has thrown no light on the authorship of the crime. The Zeinster .Express gives the details of the agrarian contest ; which we extract for our readers in this country, as the freshest illustration of Irish rural life.

"Mr. White held by lease made in 1729 for lives renewable for ever, one hundred and fifty acres of the lands of Ballyruin, on the estate of the Earl of Portarlington. The remainder of the townland consisted of one hundred acres of ordinary turf-bog. The Earl's estates having been brought into the Encumbered Estates Court, Mr. White became anxious to purchase the head. rent payable for the farm which he so occupied, and thereby to become owner in fee. He accordingly made a private contract with the solicitors having the carriage of the sale, to have it on payment of 710/. When this arrange- ment came before the Commissioners for their sanction, a difficulty arose as to the boundaries of Mr. White's farm and the severance of so small a townland ; and for the purpose of getting his own head-rent he was obliged to purchase the turf-bog in addition to his farm, for which he had to pay 1251. The Commis- sioners of the Encumbered Estates Court then granted him a deed by which he became owner of the entire townland ; they also issued an injunction, under the authority of which he was put in possession by the Sheriff of the county. Shortly after Mr. White getting possession, several of the tenants of the other townlands on the estates of the Earl of Portarlington (which are also for sale in the Encumbered Estates Court) entered Ballyrum for the pur- pose of cutting turf and removing bog-mould, under an alleged claim of a right of turbau upon the bog as annexed to their holdings upon the other estates. Mr. White caused application to be made to the Commissioners for redress, inasmuch as these claims were not put forward in the rental under which he had purchased. The answer he received was, 'We put you in possession, and you must protect your own rights ; we won't in- terfere.' Mr. White then attempted to cut away the road to these banks, but was resisted by a party of from three to four hundred persons col- lected from everydirection of the country by the parties claiming the right. Under the circumstances, Mr. White abandoned the attempt. He was then served with a written notice, signed by about thirty-two person; who claimed right to the bog as annexed to their holdings, and as having used it for years. These persons called on him to avoid a forcible collision, and to vindicate his rights, if any he had, in a court of 4uatice and by peaceable means. In order to follow up the advice, Mr. White summoned several of the persons who cut turf on the bog, before the Magistrates assembled at Abbeyleix Petty-Sessions. Having proved the act of trespass, and exhibited his deed of sale from the Encumbered Estates Court, the accused parties proved to having cut turf on the bog annexed to their holdings on the other portion of the estate for a series of years. The Justices, after some de- liberation, dismissed the case. Mr. White then threatened the parties that he would institute proceedings in the superior courts, for the purpose of try- ing his right peaceably ; but the deathblow of the assassin interposed, as- suming to itself a power beyond the laws of the land."

On the 18th August, a number of Scotch settlers in the county of Kil- dare met at Athy to receive a deputation from the Dublin Presbytery, and arrange matters for the formation of a church in that town. A committee, with secretary and treasurer, was appointed to carry out the resolutions passed ; and there is every likelihood that ere long Presbyterianism will raise its head for the first time in the county of Kildare.—Leinster Ex- Press.

A steam-ship is now building in New York, and will be ready for sea by the 1st of December, which is intended to ply between that city and Galway, stopping at Halifax on the route. The contract with the build- ers is, that the steamer shall make the trip between Galway and Halifax in six days ; otherwise the parties contracting for the vessel are at liberty to reject her. The steamer is to be of the largest size, with accommoda- tion for 700 second-class passengers, besides accommodation for first-class passengers—Limerick Chronick.