According to the accounts furnished by the Tories from Ireland,
numbers of the Established Clergy are in a state of absolute penury, in consequence of the non-payment of tithes. There is no lack of will to compel the Catholic cottier to give up his pota- toes and milk to the Protestant parson,—tithe processes by the
ten thousand have been granted to the clergy: but in many di3. tricts the peasantry are too strong for the law. This is no new state of things : the Bishops who voted against the Irish Church Bill knew perfectly well that its rejection would consign the clergy in the South and West of Ireland to extreme distress: They should have been prepared to relieve it; but they prefer doling forth pharisaical addresses and exhortations to endure hunger and misery with resignation. We regret the distress to which the clergy have been reduced in order to serve the purposes of a faction; but we cannot forget that, in a great majority of cases, taking tithe from the Irish Catholics is taking the food out of their children's mouths. We have sympathy for the clergy, but we pity the sufferings of the oppressed peasant also, and are not prepared to say that the latter should be the one to starve. But we question, after all, whether there is any risk of the par- sons starving. There.cannot surely be any such danger, while the income of the Irish Bishops and dignitaries of the Church, arising from land and houses, exceeds 200,0001. per annum. The Irish Privy Council has offered a reward of Mg. for the apprehension and bringing to justice of the persons who on the night of the 29th of October attacked seven houses belonging to Roman Catholics in the parish of Killyrnan, barony of Dungan- non, county Tyrone. In some instances the banditti, e ho we:e armed with guns and swords, contented themselves with breaking windows and carrying away arms and other property: but in other cases they maltreated the unfortunate inmates, kicking, stabbing, and beating them brutally. The assailants being Pro- testants and their victims being of the proscribed sect, the former were very much surprised that any notice should be taken of their freaks in the Orange county of Tyrone; but Lord CALE- DON, the Lord-Lieutenant, did not think proper to wink at such outrages: he summoned a bench of Magistrates; informations were sworn against nine or ten of the ruffians; and, as we have stated, Lord MuLortavE has offered a reward for their apprehen- sion. The outrage took place in the parish of the absentee Orange parson and agitator, the notorious MURTAGH O'SULLIVAN. The Standard affects to be in a perfect fury at the interference of the Government ; and styles the proclamation an infamous one, because the creed of the aggrieved parties is named. This, says the Standard, is intended (!) as a direct provocation to the Catholics to retaliate upon the Protestants. There is little danger of re- taliation in Tyrone, which is full of armed Orangetnen and Police. But the reason for stating that the houses au/eked belonged to Catholics, is evident enough. It is to let the Protestants understand that the Catholics are under the protection of law and government, and that they are not to be stabbed and robbed even in Tyrone with Impunity. It may also have been wisely intended to cheek any schemes of retaliation on the thin Protestant population of the South of Ireland, by informing the Catholics that Grovera-• meut would .see to the execution of justice, The Marquis of CHANDOS has at length appeased the anxiety of the agriculturists. At an /sting of delegates, from the counties of Cambridge, Warwick, Mast Staablk, Lincoln, Worcester, and Buckingham, held OR Thuesday at Aylesbury; his Lordship dig- closed his grand panacea,--which turns out to be the old remedy, a Committee of the House of Commons to inquire into the causes of agricultural distress! The repeal of the Malt-tax, Lord CHANDOS avowed to be out of the question ; and he strongly re- commended that nothing should be said about the Currency. This was a very unpalatable suggestion to many of the deputies, who were positive that the alteration of the currency had a vast deal to do with low prices. However, it was finally agreed, after much talking and grumbling, that petitions should be got up for a Com- mittee on the state of agriculture.
Thus has burst the bubble blown this time last year by the Farmer's Friends. You are still to have the Malt-tax, gen- tlemen—still to groan under the evils of a sterl!ng currency ! You have the satisfaction of knowing that at the last Election you were laughed at, cheated, made egregious fools of, by your pretended Tory friends—" the Farmer's Friends ! "
