IRELAND.
The cross warfare of meetings for and against Protection is waged with unabated activity in Ireland ; up to this time with very discouraging want of success to the Protectionists. The successful meetings were held at Kilmainham and Dublin : but in the first instance the success was ob- tained by such careful exclusion of the general public, that another meeting in the same place is threatened for the purpose of reversing the decision ; in the second instance, the meeting is described as consisting of "just seven names, of whom two were dergym.n—the Reverend Tresham Gregg and the Reverend B. Johnson." On the other hand, meetings called by Protectionists have totally mis- carried at Dunmanway, in Cork, Cavan, and DonegaL At the first two places, Free-trade resolutions were moved by Roman Catholic priests, and carried by large majorities ; and at the last the meeting was so scanty, and the forces were so equally balanced in appearance, that a drawn battle was agreed on, the intention to hold the meeting was abandoned, and the persons who assembled dispersed.
At the Dunmanway Protectionist meeting, the Reverend Mr. Kelleher, P.P., who successfully led the tenant-farmer opposition, used an argument that the Irish papers characterize as both novel and forcible- " You will admit, I suppose, that the admission of foreign corn, causing cheap food, must benefit somebody—say it benefits the manufacturers of England. The landlords say, Oh, but the contracts into which we have entered should be fulfilled ; we want money to keep up our rank and our state; we want the means of paying labourers and tradesmen.' But, if you do, gentlemen, why should the manufacturers of England pay for them ? " Mr. Daunt—" For excellent reasons."
Reverend Mr. Kelleher—" It does benefit the manufacturers of Pngland ; but are not the manufacturers of England employing thousands of our Irish peo- ple? Have not they left this town to go to work in England ? and if the manu- facturers there were prosperous, thousands of Irishmen would get employ- ment there. Therefore, we have an interest in their position, so far from being in a position of antagonism to them."
In the pattern county of Down also the Protectionists were defeated at a meeting called by themselves. Mr. Sharman Crawford moved an amendment on the Protectionist resolution, and carried it Lord Down-- shire and the Protectionists retired from the meeting, but the High Sheriff would not dissolve it; and at the end of the proceedings Mr. Sharman Crawford was voted into the chair, in order to thank the High Sheriff for his impartial and manly conduct The Presidentship of Galway College, vacant by the death of the Reverend Dr. Kirwan, has been conferred on Mr. Edward Bernick, "a Protestant, highly distinguished for literary attainments, and of heredi- tary Liberal principles."
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