IRELAND.

The Fermoy deputation had their interview with the Lord-Lieutenant on Friday last week. Several memorials having been read, embodying the resolutions agreed to by the meeting, Mr. O'Connell, Lord Mountmorris, and Mr. E.B. Roche, enlarged upon thi topics of the memorial. Lord. Besborough expressed the deep anxiety of the Government to amelio*Atill. the condition of the people; referred to some orthe difficulties which had been encountered; and assured the deputation that no effort would be spared to find immediate employment, and prompt payment for it.

A set of resolutions bearing the signature of the Very Reverend James M`Hale, and others of the clergy of Ballinrobe, has been published in the Irish papers. The following are the choicest portions of the document-

" Resolved, That the astonishing patience of the people, which has been sus- tained for the last month under the pressure of the most dreadful hanger, must at length give way under the increasing ravages of starvation, of which we are daily witnesses in the course of our Ministry, and which they can no longer endure.

" That at any time it would be terrible to contemplate the destructive conse- quences to law and order which must result from the horrors of starvation; but that now they must be peculiarly aggravated from 'hope deferred,' and from the persuasions now too generally established, that in the expectations of food and labour held out by the late baronial presentments, the people were cruelly made the dupes of specious and hollow promises, which there was no intention of ful- filling.

" That the belief of this collusion between many of the landlords and some is

The continuance of the system of intimidation in Clare has elicited from the Lord-Lieutenant an admonitory letter, addressed to the inhabitants of the barony of Upper Tulle and the adjoining districts. After stating the wishes of the Government to provide employment, and describing the means which they have adopted for that purpose, it announces, that, in con- sequence of the continued interference and outrage, the works in the district have been suspended; to be resumed only on proof of a return to a better course of conduct.

The repeated presentment of sums of money for chapel-building has led to an official announcement that presentments far the erection of places of worship will not in any case be approved.

The Board of Works have issued further instructions for the guidance of parties bolding extraordinary Presentment Sessions. The object of these regulations is to prevent confusion between public works, intended to be executed under the Labour-rate Act, and those of a reproductive nature, to be performed under the terms of Mr. Labouchere's letter of the 5th October. The instructions are arranged with great clearness, and it would be difficult for the obtusest presenters to go astray. Among other matters, it is stated that " the money expended upon drainage or subsoiling is to be a charge

on the land drained; and to be paid, with per cent interest, within a maximum period of ten years, by the persons who for the time being shall be proprietors within the meaning of the Drainage Act."

Lord Caledon has issued a notice to his tenantry in Armagh and Tyrone, communicating the reduction which he proposes to allow in their rents. The scale is a gradUated one; exhibiting a reduction of 50 per cent to all tenants holding under five statute acres of arable land, and to the holder of above twenty-five and not exceeding thirty-five acres a reduction of 10 per cent. Lord Calcdon further holds out the hope of remunerative em- ployment for those requiring it; and promises a supply of coals and meal at a reasonable price.

•

fluential members of the Government in intercepting the humane intentions of the Legislature, is driving the people to desperation; and as the Catholic clergy were chiefly instrumental in keeping up hitherto the hopes and patience of the people, not only by the consolations of religion but the assured prospect of relief, it is now to be feared that the people, on finding themselves disappointed, will bound over all the fences of patience and of order. " That it is but bitter mockery of the misfortunes of the people to be told that the Legislature has no funds available for their support, while the astonishment of the world points to that useless, nay, nauseous inctunbrance, the Church Estab- lishment. We deprecate interference with the present occupants; but we cannot help expressing our conviction, that it is a sin calculated to cry to Heaven for vengeance, to behold a people prostrate on the earth, and dying of actual starva- tion, saddled with such a monstrous sinecure, which enabled some of its prelates to bequeath the enormous sum of a quarter of a million of money. The sale of this immense property would, after a decent provision for the necessary ministers of religion, not only relieve the people from the present famine, but save them for ever from the grinding taxes as well as the odious bigotry and appalling immo- rality of the Poor-laws. "That we most respectfully suggest to the Irish clergy, to hold a correct re- gistry of the persons who either have died or shall have died of starvation and its effects before the next meeting of Parliament; and that petitions shall then be prepared, stating their number, and calling on Parliament to bring before their bar those persons who may be responsible for this awful loss of lives, by not car- rying into effect the just and merciful provisions made by the Legislature for the preservation of the people. " That judging as we do, that in extraordinary cases extraordinary remedies are required, we should consider it better economy to be early in the market, when food was comparatively much cheaper, and when there was no competition from other countries—what Sir Robert Peel would have done were he at the head of her Majesty's Government—than, like the tender-hearted Seotchman, most unfortunately for the poor of Ireland, now charged with the Commissariat de- partment, to wait for such competition, and consequently for higher prices, at the melancholy expense of the lives of a vast number of her Majesty s dutiful and i loyal subjects in Ireland." One of the resolutions strongly condemns the exclusion of clergymen from Relief Committees.

There appears reason to hope, that after all the potato crop is not utterly lost. The quality of the stocks sold in Dublin market have began to im- prove; and concurrently with the improvement prices have fallen by from 2d. to 3d. the stone.

The Times contributes some startling statements as to the actual condi- tion of many parties claiming relief-

" The Gliternment has already granted loans to the amount of more than half a million, arid set to work more than 60,000 men. It cannot go on long at that pace, and must exercise caution. Of coarse there is want, but there is also the grossest misrepresentation and fraud; and, what is worse still, there is good rea- son for supposing that the calamity is aggravated by the cry, and by the exorbi- tant demands upon the Treasury which agitators have mischievously put into the mouths of the people. Productive labour has been brought to a stand-still by the hope of a winter's repose upon' relief' wages. It would be thought perhaps neither a very charitable nor a very decent expression were we to say that the whole Irish population is making a very good thing' of the famine. There are, however, some very significant facts, explain them who can. Every branch of the Irish revenue, particularly the Excise, is flourishing

almost beyond precedent. The distM i enes are in brisker work than they have been for several years; and while Government is called on to ransack the whole earth for food, the wholesome meal of thousands is daily converted into an innutritions and hurtful stimulus. In the districts where the complaint is the loudest, Clare and Limerick, the deposits in the savings-banks are higher than ever, and there has not been any perceptible increase in the amount withdrawn. The small farmers are paying neither wages nor rent. They are laying by. It can scarcely be credited to what purposes. both the relief labour and the relief wages are applied. We are positively informed that it is not uncommon for the members of the Relief Committee to put their own tenants, labourers, or debtors, upon the relief list, and by a private ar- rangement to lay an embargo on the wages. The potato crop all this time is left in the ground, it being an object not to ascertain the extent of the failure, or do any profitable work. If it is ever the worst for wet, it is likely to suffer that disadvantage now. So great a point, however, is made of leaving it under the veil of the earth, that we shall not be surprised to hear of men being shot for digging up their potatoes, just as every day reports fresh victims to the ordinance against paying rent. Idleness and despondency, however, must be pre- sumed the chief causes of this absurd conduct, which is so general that we have heard of a man who had procured the distribution of a number of relief' hands, setting them to work on digging up potatoes, as the most profitable work he could think of. Jobbing is become so notorious, that sense of shame is overpowered in a general competition for the spoil."—Times, Nov. 2. "In spite of all threats, the Lord-Lieutenant is, it is said, resolved to introduce the practice of task-labour, so as to compel something more than a collusive at- tendance on the relief works. Where this rule has been enforced, a marvellous change has already appeared. The demand for labour-tickets' has at once fallen off, even though, in order to meet the case of second-rate labourers, the rate of payment has been put rather high. That of itself is a sufficient proof that there is not so absolute a want of profitable employment. From other quarters we know this beyond all doubt; witness the letter from "A Highland Proprietor" in yesterday's columns, who mentions that at Kincardine, whither labourers could be conveyed from the South of Ireland for is. Ocl. a piece, his works were at a stand-still for want of men, and he could employ 150 on terms by which they could easily earn 2s. a day."—Times, Nov. 4.

The same journal publishes a table issued by the National Debt Office, showing the sums paid in and drawn out of the Irish Savings Banks in the year ending October 10; and the remarkable results indicated by the figures are worked up in a commentary, the salient parts of which we freely abridge— Were superficial appearances to be trusted, the distress might be expected to appear in an immense deficiency of deposits as compared with repayments. Such is the case in France at this moment. It is not the case in Ireland: the savings- banks there, with one great exception, f to be noticed presently,] were never more prosperous than they are in this year of unprecedented distress. " What increases the marvel is, that their prosperity, in different districts, appears to be exactly in proportion to the extent of the demands on public benevolence. The more the people have wanted, the more they have had. Under increasing distress there has happily existed a mine of increasing wealth; and while the Treasury has been lavishing its bounties with the right hand, with the left hand it has received a back current of comfortable deposits." " Connaught and Munster are the provinces which obtained the greatest amount of relief during the twelvemonth; and Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo Clare, Kerry, and Limerick, were the counties which made the strongest appeal to the Imperial Treasury, and with the most success. The sums ' paid in ' and the sum ' drawn out' by the trustees in the province of Connaught are respec- tively 9,6001. and 4,400/.• so that the province had 5,2001. more in the savings- banks, it is to be presumed, on October 10th 1846, than on the corresponding day the previous year, though in the interest there were two famines, two great mea- sures of relief, two general sinkings or risings, prostration or insurrections, what- ever they are to be called, of the peasantry. This at least is singular. We have heard of bankruptcies being very profitable for individuals, but fur a whole popu- lation recommend us to a famine. Mayo, which a whole tribe of M'Halea are always declaring to be at the point of starvation, drew out only 2,3001., and paid in as much as 3,2001. Roscommon paid in 3,2001., and drew out nothing. Sligo paid in 1,8001.. and also drew out nothing." Munster exhibits equally wonderful results: it paid in 80,699L, drew out 53,0001.; excess, 26,899/. Of its counties, Clare paid in 7,1001., drew out 3001.; Kerry paid in 7,3001., drew out 3,1001.; Tralee paid in 4,8001., drew out 2,7001.; Limerick paid in 18,2001., drew out 3,3001. " Really, the county of Limerick cannot do better than confine itself for the future to the cultivation of rotten potatoes."

Thereat exception is furnished by Dublin; but it had nothing to do with the potato deficiency. As much as 223,8001. was drawn out by St. Peter's parish, Dublin, between 25th October 1845 and 3d January 1846, in consequence of a rumour that the funds of that bank were not sufficient to most the demands of this depositors. Of course, that large withdrawal vitiates the returns for the whole of Ireland; the figures being 393,3141 paid in, and 558,0241. drawn out. But, taking the provinces of Connaught and Munster alone, the figures are 90,2991. paid in, 58,2001. drawn out; excess, 32,0991.

The Standard gives a different turn to these figures. The bulk of the Irish people, little above the condition of paupers, are not depositors in savings-banks. The small dealers and farmers, however, have been en- joying famine prices, and it is their prosperity which is reflected in these returns.

After a long silence, Mr. Smith O'Brien is once more in print. In a letter to Mr. Duffy, he puts forth his views on the Repeal question. His

manifesto is a rallying-cry to all " Young Irelanders." After stating his reasons for having held back in the controversy, he declares that "inaction is now a crime." He thus expounds the " physical force " doctrine of Young Ireland-

" We hold ourselves pledged to spare no legitimate exertion which can tend to procure domestic legislation for Ireland. We desire to achieve a repeal of the Act of Union by peaceful means, believing that such means are more desirable and more efficacious than any other; but we decline to abjure, under every pos- sible contingency, that right of resistance which is the last resort of the oppressed, —a right inherent in the natives of every country, but especially the inheritance of the subjects of a dynasty which owes its sceptre to a successful effort to achieve political amelioration by means of the sword. It is not easy to understand what is the orthodox creed of the Repeal Association: I confess that I am unable to comprehend the subtle distinctions and contradictory definitions with which the moral force' doctrine has been enunciated."

The regret he feels at being excluded from the Association is greatly diminished when he reflects on the number of those who have been contumeliously expelled„ and " whose abilities, patriotism, and disinterestedness, shed lustre upon that con-

federacy." Collisions of opinion on other subjects were the inevitable consequence. —" The support given by the Association to an Anti-Repeal Ministry, accompanied

as it has been by open encouragement of the solicitation of patronage, the pursuit of which tends to render Repeaters the creatures and dependants of an English Government, must have occasioned perpetual remonstrance on the part of those

who spurn the blandishments of English corruption. Under these circumstances, no practical advantage would arise from an attempt to bring together persons who, though professing to seek a common end, yet differ widely as to the means by which it may be attained."

The Repeal Association did valuable service in 1844 and 1845. The excluded members are now deprived of many favourable opportunities of advancing the in-

terests of their country. "Men who are really in earnest, however, create oppm, tunities for themselves "—i. e. would form a rival society. The Nation is the in- strument designed to elicit the " latent genius of the men of your generation,"

and to inspire a spirit of nationality. " The time has arrived when the two sec- tions into which the Repeal force is now unhappily divided ought to abandon mu- tual recrimination, and to vie with each other in fidelity to Ireland and in devotioe to her interests."

The Young Ireland party had a groat meeting, at the Rotunda in Dub. lin, on Wednesday. The admission was by tickets sent to all who had signed the remonstrance which was kicked out of Conciliation Hall in the previous week. Among those present were about forty Repeal Wardens, be- sides several Volunteers; the rest, it is presumed, being seceders from the Re- peal Association. The meeting adopted " an address of the Remonstrant Re- peaters of Dublin to the Repealers of Ireland, especially to those of the working and trading classes." It complains of the indignity to the party and its remonstrance, as an insult to the people of Ireland; points parti- cularly at Mr. John O'Connell "and his abettors and agents"; but declares that the Remonstrants will know no line of separation from Repeaters, and will abide by the common cause of nationality and Repeal; "embracing

all men as brethren who act by our country as they ought, and standing afar off from all place-beggars, intriguing patriots, and foreign and do- mestic Whigs." The speakers alluded to Mr. O'Connell in marked, per- haps forced terms of respect; but Mr. John was warned that a sterner measure of justice would be dealt out to him.

The presence of Mr. O'Connell brought together a more numerous at- semblage at Conciliation Hall on Monday; and the Agitator made a speech. He said that he had intended to address the meeting at great length on the subject of the Cork schism; but " his heart was too full " of the misery of Ireland. He was sorry to pronounce it as his opinion that they were only at the commencement of their horrors. Famine was almost universal. Still, there was one good result, in the unanimity and forgetfulness of dif- ferences, whether religious or political, among all classes. The Fermoy deputation had waited on the Lord-Lieutenant, who was most anxious to do everything in his power. They had then gone to the Board of Works to pray for assistance, and had been well received. Indeed, he believed he was justified in saying, that the Board of Works were ready to work for Ire- land to the utmost of their power, and even to work on a Sunday, as they had lately been doing—and a better Sunday's work they could not be engaged in. Ile stated this, for he was under a misconception as to the Board of Works. He now saw that they were not to blame for any delay which had taken place; as it was altogether owing to the smallness of their staff, and he was happy to say they were doing all they could to have that staff enlarged. They had brought over a great number of Sappers and Miners from England; but still there were many yet required, for the misery of Ireland was great—greater, he was afraid, than could be relieved as they could wish. He had suggested the appointment of a National Committee: he was sorry it was not appointed to assist the Government and Board of Works, and he thought they would have to nominate one. His great anxiety was that the people should know their position, and assist the Board of Works, and say or do nothing which might prevent the officers of that establish- ment doing their duty. He had heard with regret, that in the county of Clare an engineer had been badly treated; and he would call on the people to avoid all col-

lision with the authorities, and not to attempt to Mop food in. its transit through she country.

He had left his native mountains to assist the Government to feed the people. Me was old- and getting feeble; but, thank God, he was still young and healthy enough to see the Parliament restored to College Green. There was another matter he wished to notiee—he alluded to task-work. He was a strong advocate for work being done by task, because a poor man could then get his children to assist him; and he was happy to say, the Lord-Lieutenant had promised to adopt it-and said he would issue directions to the paymasters under the act to pay as much as passible for the work at once, and the balance as soon as it could be as- certained.

It was perfectly clear that the Earl of Besborough knew the position of Ireland: but Lord John. Russell's letter equally showed that he knew nothing about her position; for he had written as if he altogether forgot the Union, the horrors of absenteeism, and the state of the country in a commercial point of view.

On the subject of Young. Ireland, and Mr. Smith O'Brien's letter in the Nation, O'Connell spoke with bitter ridicule. He proposed that the leaders of the Young Ireland body should join as a phalanx to address the country in the Nation every week. •Now, he thanked the young gentlemen for the same—they had called themselves "a phalanx," and therefore they could not blame him if he said they were a phalanx; and he would wish the phalanx every luck to go on, week after week, until it increased in ardour, and arrived at the bursting point—when it would fly like a soda-water cork. He blamed Mr. O'Brien for his physical force doctrines, and could not agree with him. In his letter he had pretty tolerably praised himself and abused others: but he [Mr. O'Connell] did not care for Sibuse—he only hoped that God would forgive him for the praise he had once bestowed in the same quarter.

At the close of the proceedings, Mr. O'Connell announced his intention to stand for the county of Cork. Dublin, being safe, he would leave to - others.

-Rent, 581.

Several shocking crimes are reported this week. A party of men broke into the house of James 11‘Carney, under-bailiff to Mr. M'Conkev, of Eneham, in Longford, shot him in the body, and then beat out his brains. It is said that the moan's offence was his having paid his rent ! Another bailiff, Flanagan, in the -employ of Mr. Montgomery of Cullentra, had his house attacked: he fired two shots at the assailants; but they broke in, beat him. and cut him with -knives. One of the ruffians remarked, " that Flanagan must have sus- tained some injury in jumping the ditches to make his seizures, and required scarifying on the back and hips. Before the savages went away, one of them told their unhappy victim, that should he survive and continue his trade, the next operation would be with lead." Two men entered the house of Thomas Walsh, a farmer in Longford county, and mortally wounded him by a pistol-shot through his-body. Mr. Benjamin J. Cooke, a small proprietor residing at Gal- booly, near Thurles, was shot at night while going from his stable to his dwelling- lhenae: he is not expected to recover. It is reported that he intended to eject three or four families for non-payment of rent on the following day; and another account says that he had acted with petty tyranny towards the people about him.

'Mrs. Finch, of Kilcoleman, near Nenagh—very wealthy, and having the repu- ftation of being a munificent benefactress of the poor—was waylaid on Sunday last, while returning from church in her carriage. The outrage was committed by three men armed with pistols: they fired into the coach, without, however, inuring Mrs. Finch; shot one of the horses, and decamped through the fields. 'May were immediately pursued; the son of Mrs. Finch's herd, who came up with -one of the men, crossing a trench, succeeded in knocking him down. The pur- suer left the man to the coachman, who followed close to him, pressed forward after• the others, and succeeded in arresting one more. The two captives were brought to 'Nenagh Gaol on a car. Their names are Joseph Spain and John Hogan: the latter had formerly been arrested for the murder of Mr. Waller.

Mr. O'Grady, a gentleman of blartinstown in Limerick, has committed two murders, in a fit of mental derangement. On Sunday morning, a female servant 'was alarmed by a noise in her master's bedroom; she entered, and beheld Mrs. O'Grady covered with blood from a stab in the neck, which proved mortal; the woman screamed, and ran away; Mr. O'Grady followed her into a stable whither. .she had retreated, and there stabbed her to death with a pitchfork ! The mur- derer then left the place, and was not seen till the next day; he was then captured. O'Grady had only been married six months, and was surrounded by circum- stances of a kind to make him pass through life happily, with one exception— his wife, prompted by her relations, resisted his desire to have his brothers reside with him, as they did before his marriage: this is said to have preyed upon his - mindsamlexcited him to madness.