IRELAND.
The new Judges of the Landed Estates Court, vice Encumbered Es- tates Court superseded, are Mr. Henry Martley, Q.C., Mr. Mountiford Longfield, LL.D., Q.C., and Mr. Charles James Hargreave, Q.C. They were sworn in on Friday week before Lord Chancellor Napier.
The narrative of the successful laying of the Atlantic cable, so far as the Agamemnon was concerned, has been made public. It has not the wild romantic air of the narrative of the preceding attempt ; but it is not without dramatic incidents. The ships left Queenstown on the 17th July—the Agamemnon after the others. Her progress was so slow in consequence of lack of wind and scarcity of fuel that she did not arrive at the rendezvous until the 28th July. The other ships were there waiting in anxious expectation, and much surprised at the delay. They went to work at once. The cable was spliced by midday, sunk in the sea by the aid of a 32-pounder shot, and the signal being given, both ships began their great enterprise. The Agamemnon had not gone many miles when a huge whale threatened to foul the cable. He came on at -speed and actually grazed the wire as he passed astern. His inter- ference suggested the idea that one of the previous breakages may have been due to one of his brethren of the deep. The next danger was more serious. About a mile or two from the portion under water an injury in -the coiled up wire was found. When it was repaired Professor Thomp- son reported that the continuity had ceased. The cable was cut again at the injured part, and then it was found that the fault was in some part of the line overboard. There was now an exciting race against time. It was dangerous to stop the ship while the splice was made ; it was barely possible that it could be made before the part was taken out of the hands of the workmen.
"The main hold presented an extraordinary scene; nearly all the officers i
of the ship and of those connected with the expedition stood n groups about the coil, watching with intense anxiety the cable, as it slowly unwound it- self nearer and nearer the joint, while the workmen, directed by Mr. Can- ning, under whose superintendence the cable was originally manufactured, worked at the splice as only men could work who felt that the life and death of the expedition depended upon their rapidity. But all their speed was to no purpose, as the cable was unwinding within a hundred fathoms, and, as a last and desperate resource, the cable was stopped altogether, and for
ie
ac' minutes the ship hung on by the end. Fortunately, however, it was ' oh for a few minutes, as the strain was continually rising above two tons, . *ISz it would not hold on much longer ; when the splice was finished the signal was made to loose the stopper, and it passed overboard safely enough."
The electrical continuity was still wanting. It was supposed that the cable had parted, when suddenly the stoppage disappeared, and once more signals came regularly from the Niagara. The next trouble arose from heavy winds, delaying the ship, and consuming her fuel without adequate results. The sea was heavy, but the machinery was carefully tended by the engineers who never left the wheels a moment unguarded.
These were critical times, but the perils were safely overcome. Two other dangers menaced the undertaking. First, an American schooner insisted on directing her course straight on towards the bows of the Agamemnon, in spite of the warning guns of the Valorous, and the great man of war, to the manifest danger of the cable, had to alter her A collision was only just prevented. Then another American ship we; seen standing across the stern of the Agamemnon. This time the Valmose took sharper measures, and fired gun after gun until the astonished Yankee hove to. After this all went well. The sea changed from de„, to shoal water-250 fathoms—the change from the lower main coil deep that On the upper deck, a ticklish operation, was successfully effected and soon the rocks of the Irish coast rose in sight, and the ships were safely anchored in Dowlas Bay. The cable was landed, and fixed under a royal salute, nearly at the same time that the Niagara landed her pot_ tion on the American Continent.
The Commission ordered to inspect the report upon the coast defences in the south of Ireland is now at Tralee. 'The members consist of Cap. tam Westmacott, RE., Captain Wilmot, R.N., C.B., and the office-a commanding the Artillery and Engineers in the Cork district, namely, Colonel Paynter, C.B., and Captain Grain, R.E. They are to visit lien. mare, Bantry, Kinsale, Cork, Youghal, and other places.
Mr. William Graves, who has for so long a period filled the responsible office of secretary to the Bank of Ireland, has retired from that post upcs his full salary, after fifty-two years' service in the bank. Mr. Dubedat, the cashier, succeeds to the office, and Mr. Blacker, head of the agents' office, becomes chief cashier.
Mr. Berm, an improving landlord in Antrim, has been fired at while shutting up his house. Ile was closing a shutter ; one arm was extended; and the ball passed between that arm and his body. The gun was fired froni the shelter of a shrubbery.
Riots, at first of a very menacing aspect, broke out on Sunday in gib kenny. Some thousands of reapers, enraged by the introduction of Ma. chinery, appeared in the town. They occupied the streets to the terror of the inhabitants who, having no force, were compelled to take it all quietly. The object of the rioters was to destroy the reaping-machines all over the country side. This, in two or three cases they effected. Aid from the mili- tary at the Curragh was at once invoked, and the magistrates determined to call also for a police-force. Two troops of the Third Light Dragoons, and fifty constables, had calmed the alarms of the people, and tempered the es. lour of the machine-breakers with discretion.
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