IRELAND.

The Dublin accounts of the Lord Chancellor's health are satisfactory: the improvement is so great that bulletins have ceased to be issued. A report that the Great Seal was to be put in commission is unfounded.

The initiative step of proclaiming certain counties and baronies has been followed by a proclamation requiring all persons (not being specially enti- tled to carry fire-arms) to place their arms in certain &Splits, under penalty of two years' imprisonment with hard labour. The districts thus pro- claimed are the following—

Tipperary county. Limerick county. Baronies of Upper and Lower Bun- ratty, Clonderlaw, Inchiquin, Islands, and Upper and Lower Tulle, in the county of Clare. Baronies of Orrery and KtImore, in the county of Cork. Baronies of Athloue, North and South Bailintubber, Ballymoe Boyle, and Roscommon and the parishes of Crieve, Kilmacuinsey, Kilcola, and Kilnamagh, in the barony of French Park, county of Roscommon. Baronies of Glenahiry and Upperthird, in the county of Waterford. Baronies of Ballybrit, Clonlisk, Eglish, and Garry- castle, in the King's County. Baronies of Ardagh. Granard, and Longford, in the county of Longford. Baronies of Carrickallen, Leitrim, and Mobil!, in the county of Leitrim. Baronies of Clonuaation, Tullyhunco, and Upper Loughtee, in the county of Cavan.

More proclamations were issued, in a Gazette Extraordinary, on Mon- day evening: the following places are included—

The barony of Longford; the parishes of Ballynakill, Clonrash, Daniry, Ty- nagh, and that part of the parish of Innisealtra, situate in the barony of Leitrim; all in the county Galway. The barony of Clonowley, county Fermanagh. The barony of Tullyhaw, and the parish of Drumlane, in the barony of Lower Lough- tee, county Cavan. [To all these places the provisions of the disarming clause have been extended.] The Special Commission was opened at Limerick on Tuesday, by Chief Justice Blackburne and Chief Baron Pigot. The gentlemen summoned to the Grand Jury, including Mr. Smith O'Brien M.P., Mr. Monsen, M.P., Sir Vera de Vera, the O'Grady, and the Knight of Glin, attended without exception. The Chief Justice delivered a charge remarkable for its dis- tinct and useful enunciation of law, its clear, plain, and nervous language, and its statement of some striking facts.

He described the object of the Commission; the general spirit of insubordina- tion in the country; the existence of a conspiracy against the rights of landlords, which threatens to dissolve the very bonds of the social system. " Gentlemen, according to my means of information, it does appear to me that the actual perpetra- tors of these outrages are comparatively limited in number, and I believe their spirit is as dastardly as their numbers are limited; and it requires but a steady admi- nistration of the law and a decided opposition, by those who value the safety of person and property, shortly and effectually to extinguish this evil. But we can form a very imperfect idea of the actual state of the country if we look merely to the number of those who are the actual disturbers of the public peace. Unfortu- nately, I believe they are ahetted by persons who hope to profit by their crimes; and I do believe, also, that a much larger number of persons connive at their crimes, either in the hope of benefiting in the common fund, or from actual ap- prehension and terror they forbear to give to the law that support and assistance which it is equally their duty and interest to afford, and that they actually con- tribute to a state of things which must end, in my apprehension, in their own subjugation to that tyranny—for I can call it by no other name—which covers the country, and which must involve all in common misery." [The Chief Justice also administered a temperate but severe rebuke to those who, neither conniving nor abetting thew practices, neglect through apathy and indifference to lend their influence and active cooperation in support of the law.]

He recognized the fortitude with which the peaceable had borne the calamities that have passed over the land. "1 do not find in the calendar before me, nor after the experience of the last two circuits have I been able to find, a single case in which destitution or distress arising from the visitation of God has in the re- motest degree influenced this illegal confederacy, or stimulated any of those out- Gentlemen the deplorable state of things which has obliged us to assemble has been ascribed to various causes of a social and political character. With the investigation of those causes, and with the reasonableness of these opinions we have now nothing-to do. We have no power to investigate, no power to redress. The only redress which this Court can administer is redress to the peaceable the loyal, and industrious by putting an end to the system by which they are held in thraldom, and by which their property is rendered insecure and their persons lia- ble to be assailed in all directions.

"But there is another reason why I do not advert to those causes. We are here to administer the law; which does not admit any cause or any fact to be an excuse or justification for the commission of crime. The law cannot tolerate its own violation. Wrongs there may be—injuries and sufferings there may be—all orraing a just ground for complaint; but it is perfectly plain, that, however those offerings may be aggravated, they never can be alleviated or redressed, by a 'elation of the law. If there be any such who disseminate such an opinion, or who give advice in opposition to these simple troths, they incur in my mind a "sat serious responsibility; and, in my opinion, the responsibility and the danger that advice are not the less pernicious when the crimes are stimulated by, and the criminal has the object of exciting the commiseration of the public, than if the violation of the law were in express terms inculcated by them."

He described the effect of the divers " Wlaiteboy Acts 5' for suppressing dis- turbance. Some points are probably new to our readers. "By the law of Eng-

land, a person would be accessory before the fact only if the murder were ac tuall 7

committed; but in Ireland, the mere conspiring to commit the murder was a capi- tal felony, whether committed or not. He would then call their attention to the provisions which the law had provided relating to vagrants. It was unnecessary to tell them that crimes were frequently committed by strangers hired and intro- duced from other parts of the country; and it was with reference to that practice that a statute was passed' in the 5-21 year of George III., by which Justices of the Peace were enabled to examine vagrants as to the place of their abode, the place whence they came, the manner of their livelihood, and the object of their remaining or coming into any county, city, or town in which they were found. That was a power of a most salutary kind, which ought not to remain unexereised." He had no doubt that the exercise of the powers conferred by law would restore order and tranquillity. "I speak from very good experience. This is not the first time that conflicts such as we now witness have taken place between in- cendiaries and the law of the land: but the result has always been the same—the law has ultimately triumphed, and their designs have been frustrated. What has happened before will happen again."

The Grand Jury withdrew, and proceeded to business. On that day the prisoners in nine murder cases were arraigned.

Sir George Grey has issued a circular to the Magistracy'of Ireland, di- recting their attention to the propriety of arresting and strictly examin- ing all vagrants and suspicious-looking strangers. Some of the Lieutenants of Counties have anticipated the wishes of the Government- Dr. M'Ilale has addressed another characteristic and impudent letter to Lord John Russell; calling upon the Premier, " now that the cries of the famishing poor cannot be drowned amidst the tumult of dramatic execra- tion, wickedly excited for the purpose of hunting down the character of the Catholic clergy," to save the surviving remnant of the Irish people- " The people are on the brink of famine, nay, they are plunged into all the depths of starvation, at Christmas, usually a season of festive plenty. They are seen devouring raw turnips in the streets. I have known whole families that would have deemed turnips a luxury, subsisting for ten days on rape alone, until they exhibited the appearance of livid corpses. This is the condition of thousands in this vicinity, of which I speak from my intimate knowledge; and the condition of several districts is worse, as I learn from the most trustworthy sources. On inquiring of such persons, Why not go into the workhouse? ' their reply usually is, that there was no chance of admittance until they left their cottages; and that they see numbers who abandoned theirs repulsed from those counterfeit asylums of charity, without a chance of again evar occupying their little habitations that were inexorably thrown down." The Irish are ignorant of any Divine or natural law which should oblige them to hand over the entire of the produce to the proprietor of the land. There can be no doubt, says Dr. that the recent onslaught on the Irish priesthood " has resulted from deep contrivances." The causes that have evoked from the depths of bigotry the English feeling against the Catholic clergy are no doubt to be traced to the desire to take vengeance on their faithful alliance " with the man of strength, of wisdom, and of peace." " Was it intended that those fiendish calumnies on the priesthood should be sent to Rome to furnish Lord Minto with plausible arguments for conducting to the desired issue his mysterious diplomacy ? \Vas the coincidence between his Lordship's mission of amusement and the meeting of Parliament merely casual ? or was it meant that the priests in the mask of pitched skins and flames, after furnishing the Lords of England with each excitement as to spare them the necessity of going to Covent Garden to be roused from the drowsiness of dulness in which they are wont to slumber, should in the after-rehearsal of the dramatic envoy be shown, like their Christian predecessors, in the same circus that now surrounds the Vatican, to excite the horror of the modern Romans?

" What a proud boast inight it not afford to this noneommissioned ambassador, to be able to lift his noble kinsman the Prime Minister of England into unprece- dented importance, and to enable him, who has one foot already on the Church of England, to plant the other on the Catholic Church of Ireland, thus to be raised on these foundations into colossal dimensions. What a delightful vision to behold Infidel colleges flourishing in the distance notwithstanding the decree that went forth from the successor of St. Peter, deeming the unholy establishments to con- demnation and extinction; as if Ireland were not sufficiently oppressed and de- graded by that monstrous Church Establishment, which, as the high-minded Charles Waterton indignantly writes, is the prolific source of our misery—gorged with the sacrilegious spoils of the poor—and then inflicting, as the offspring of its cruelty, a mockery of a poor-law, which fattens foreign stipendiaries and yet leaves the native poor to starve! Row consoling to the Minister, to be able to subsidize priests in defiance of the authority of Bishops and of the Pope, and to secure by enormous salaries, which would feed thousands of the poor who are now furnishing, the disinterested allegiance of thoie self- denying functionaries! How conducive to the interests of virtue and the repose of society, were he enabled to recommend to some of the Catholic sees some enlightened and liberal ecclesiastics, whose opinions might keep pace with the fashionable opinions of the age, and who might rank among the exploded subtleties of scholastic theology all defined doctrines regarding the principal mysteries of our faith, such as Baptism, Original Sin, the Trinity, and the Incarnation! As your Lordship and Lord Lansdowne, it is said, are inspired with new-born reverence for Rome, you will not forget, I trust, to accompany any despatches regarding the priests with your letter to the Regius Professor of Ox- ford, which will show how Dr. Ilimpien is selected for his Ultra-Protestantism —a Protestantism which seems to protest against all creeds and confessions, even those of Nice and Athanasius, in order that this most diverging Protestant- ism might counteract any returning tendencies to the centre of unity in Rome." For the calumnies and cruelties now heaped upon them, the Catholic clergy will take the noble revenge of winning their persecutors over to that religion against which their fury was directed. "Again shall a Coleman and a Columba, cooperating with the pious Bishops on the other side of the Channel, without aught of national jealousies, lend their aid in converting Albany and Saxonland (these are their names in the beautiful language of our country) from the domi- nion of heresy, as their predecessors did from the errors of Paganism.

assail him, and so long will he have to battle with the principalities and powers of darkness. But, this admitted, is it not the duty of his guide in spirituals, rather to teach him to resist his passions, than to tell him he is not surprised that he should be overcome by their assaults?" The public at large look to the Prelates of the disturbed districts to see that the clergy do their duty. But Lord Shrewsbury follows up Lord Arundel and Surrey's demand for ex- planation, in a more urgent tone. "My Lord, it is not only incumbent on you to satisfy the inquiries of all interested in the repression of cnme, and the preserva- tion of the social system against that destruction which now threatens it within your own boundaries and from your own people, but also to answer the earnest appeal of those who have a twofold reason to deplore the evil—that it is a scandal to religion, as well as ruin to the state. To all, my Lord, especially does it be- hove you to reply, when it is currently reported, and readily believed, that in what concerns religion your Grace's diocese is in a state of peculiar destitution; that you have ever debarred your poor from the benefits of education under the Na- tional system, without any efficient substitute of your own; that you have never admitted Father Mathew within your limits; and that too many of your parishes are without a school, and some of them without a chapel, though the Repeal rent is regularly levied, and ungrudgingly paid. I sin far from asserting, my Lord, that in these matters common rumour does not wrong you—I sincerely hope it does; but I do suggest that the occasion offers you an opportunity for redress: nor should the ignorant or malicious be allowed, uncontradicted, to palm upon the world their solution of the difficulty, and thus account through their own fancies for crimes which spring up as the grass of the field among a people hitherto proverbial for their religious perceptions. Like Lord Arundel and Surrey, I feel too keenly the reproaches cast upon the religion which I profess in England, through the excesses of some who profess Catholicity in Ireland, not to endeavdur to show that such are neither the natural nor usual results of the teaching of the ancient and universal Church; and which I fear your Grace's answer to Lard Arundel and Surrey will by no means establish, for want of sufficient explanation and detaiL It is for this reason, my Lord, that it would appear as necessary to address you now as if that letter had not been written." Dr. M'Hale complained that no seasonable aid has been administered to the starving people; while the same journal in which his letter appeared contained the repetition of an announcement made by Sir George Grey to a deputation of Irish Representatives, that where the poor-rate levies failed from the impossibility of raising them, Government would apply a large fund in hand to purposes of re- lief. "If that effort [the aid of last year] were not altogether successful—if it still fell short of the necessities of the case—the defect at least was not in the in- tention, but may with far more justice and propriety, I venture to submit, be im- puted to the unerring though inscrutable designs of God, who so blinded the un- derstanding of our rulers that His visitation might not be averted by any human ingenuity; and I would even suggest it as a subject for reflection, whether that visitation were not aggravated—whether it be not very grievously aggravated at this particular moment, because, my Lord, sufficient expression of gratitude has been withheld both from the Government and the people of England, for the very generous sacrifices which in their charity, as in their duty, they were pleased to make last year in favour of their suffering brethren in Ireland, but which this year have been arrested by the scantiness of her thanks, the bitterness of her re- proaches, the crimes of too many of her people, the unrestrained violence of some few of her pastors, the apathy of still fewer, as we hope, of her prelates."

Turning to Dr.M.Hafe's description of Irish outrage as purely "stimulated by the cruel and heartrending evictions of the poor," Lord Shrewsbury points to the seine journal which contains the Archbishops letter, for a list of twelve foul mur- ders, having no reference to evictions, but the fruit of Molly-Magaireism, Terry- Altism, and so forth. But are there no abettors before the fact—no accessories after it?

When told that men were denounced from the sanctuary in the morning and murdered in the evening, the Archbishop's answer is' "St. Gregory recommends the treatment," and " the ancient Fathers denounced the persecutors of the early Ckristians": but wakes it can be shown that the men denounced by the early Fathers were thensupoo shot, the argument is wide of the mark.

"If the denunciations be all a fiction, deny them by some less equivocal phrase than that they are not the practice: if ever they be made, whether followed by the fatal results attributed to them or not, from this moment forbid them for the fu- ture, if it were only to acquit a dignitary of the Church of the imputation before the public, which with one voice calls for their suppression, and which will accept neither apology nor explanation for their continuance. Claim not 'the right of denouncing aggressions against justice and humanity from any quarter': it is investing the priest with a judicial power which he is unfitted to exercise with .impartiality; it is a right too easy to abuse, too dangerous to enforce."

Dr. Browne, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Elphin, has replied to some ,portions of Lord Shrewsbury's letter- " Allow me to assure your Lordship, that I have never ceased, both publicly and privately, to denounce all and every species of illegal combination; that I have often exposed my life to imminent peril in my conscientious efforts to pre- vent crime and reclaim the deluded miscreants from their guilty pursuits. I have even, in the chapel of Strokestown, about three or four weeks previous to the horrid murder of Major Mahon, with all the energy I possessed, portrayed the dreadful and awful consequences of murder and of seeking private revenge. I have declared to them that all vengeance pertained to God. I preached patience, resignation to the Divine will, &c. I visited Strokestoivn subsequent to the mur- der, and could never obtain the slightest information that could implicate the Reverend Father M`Dermott in the crimes imputed to him. The result of my inquiries and investigation has been, that he has not on Sunday, Monday, ferial or holy day, nor at any time nor in any place, directly or indirectly, denounced

Major Mahon, or encouraged any species of harm or injury to him. • • •

The Reverend Mr. MDennott was, according to the reports of the public journals, most wickedly calumniated and most falsely accused. I knew his inno- cence, and relied upon the motto Magna eat veritas et prevalebie If there could be found one single individual deserving of any species of credit on his oath, long since Father MDermott would have been committed to the felon's prison, if there were grounds for any charge against him. My Lord, the Irish Bishops must be the best judges of the time and periods when it is most prudent to issue public pastorals. If we were to do so at every time that the ministers of our holy religion are calumniated by intemperate bigots, we should have much to do."

Dr. Browne encloses a statement signed by Mr. M'Dermott's principal parishioners, testifying that he had not denounced Major Mahon on Sunday, Monday, or any other day. The Bishop adds a personal circumstance to illustrate the wretchedness of the country— "I am even this moment raffling my carriage to support a few religious women of the order of St. Ursula: so extreme is the misery of this country that I cannot support them, such the miseries, each the straits to which we are reduced. And for all that we humbly aspire, through the grace of God, to do, we meet, like our Divine Master, with nothing but calumny and vituperation."

The Reverend John Kenyon of Templederry Chapel, "flatly, emphati- cally, and indignantly contradicts" the assertion that he had "so de- nounced Mr. Going as to expose him to assassination." He appeals to persons and policemen living in various parishes where he has been priest, to testify that he strongly and perseveringly denounced assassination for eight years. When Mr. Bayly was in danger of ascossination seven or eight years ago, at Ballinaclough, he had few better safeguards than Mr. Kenyon; who would equally protect Mr. Going. "Assassination," says Mr. Kenyon, 'independently of its moral guilt, is peculiarly repugnant to my disposition. Even though it were in any case morally justifiable, .1" would in no case resort to a for redress. hove open and manly opposition; I respect an open and manly opponent; but false pretences and false pre- tenders I utterly scorn, whether on the bench, the tribune, or the chair editorial."

The Deanery of Tuam is described as being very active. Meetings are frequent; and at the last convocation, over which the Archbishop pre- sided, a string of resolutions was adopted as the basis of a petition to Par- liament; asking these things- 1. That the Church Establishment be reduced to the strict limits of its neces- sity, and the surplus be applied to the maintenance of the poor. 2. That the waste lands be appropriated to the ejected able-bodied tenantry, "rather than that, through the cupidity of shipowners and the cruelty of depopulators, they should be drowned in the passage, or carry contagion and death to the Colonies." 3. That all workhouses be converted into industrial establishments, with land an- nexed, to relieve the farmers from heavy rates, and the inmates "from the curse of idleness, and the shame of a felonious incarceration." Sundry other resolutions were adopted, relative to the "Infidel Colleges," the Repeal agitation, Switzerland, and a National University.

The first meeting of the Repeal Association in the new year exhibited fresh signs of life in the apparently expiring body. A circular had been issued by the Secretary, exhorting members to send in subscriptions, in order to make the better show. Mr. John O'Connell was able to announce a considerable remittance from the notorious WHale, the produce of a col- lection among the clergy of Tuam, as well as contributions from other quarters. Mr. John dwelt on the importance of this accession of funds, as their resources were nearly dried up. A new clerical orator appeared in the person of a young priest, named Mulligan; who made a fierce attack on the landlords. Rent 151/.

In Tipperary, last week, a small farmer named Brown was shot within a few yards of his own house: he fell dead, struck with five slugs in the breast. The murder is ascribed to disappointed rivalry; Brown having some months ago mar- ried a wife with a little property, to the discomfiture of other suitors.

On Wednesday night last week an outrage of peculiar atrocity was perpetrated on the estate of the late Reverend Thomas Gough, which is now under the care of the Court of Chancery for the benefit of the minors. As a care-taker on the estate, named Galvin, was seated at the fire, surrounded by his family, consisting of his wife and three or four children, suddenly, and without any previous warn- ing or intimation by noise or otherwise, the contents of a gun or blunderbuss were discharged among the group; dangerously wounding Mrs. Galvin, who received a bullet in the thigh. The husband rushed to the door at once, but was unable to distinguish any person in consequence of the darkness. Surgical assistance was afforded to the poor sufferer as speedily as possible; but, when the last account arrived, her life was considered in imminent danger. Two other ballets passed by the children, fortunately without injuring any of them. No dissatisfaction had been expressed by any of the tenantry on the property; over which Mr. Peter Keogh, solicitor, is receiver. It appears that some tune ago a number of poor tenantry voluntarily surrendered their holdings. The lands thus left unoccupied were not intended to be reset until certain drainage operations at present in pro- gress should be completed. Galvin was placed as care-taker over this portion of the estate, and was not brought into collision in any way with the tenantry.— Tipperary Constitution. The Romanist Curate of the parishes of Rattoo, Aiimoily, and Ballyheigne- the Reverend Edwarlaherty—has been, even on the holy festival of Christmas, and on last Sunday, denouncing from the chapel of ulnae parishes the several Poor- law Guardians of the district; and, as he is not to be deterred by acts of Parlia- ment, avows his intention of continuing to do so. We have heard that so violent was his language, that the lady of a Protestant gentleman, herself a Romanist, hearing her husband denounced in such plain terms, immediately with her daugh- ters left the chapel, in a dreadful state of mind. We have also learned from good authority that this transaction has been reported to the Government, and that it will be brought before a legal tritinnal.—Kerry Post.