IRELAND.
Lisburn has been the theatre of electioneering struggles for some time past. Finally the Liberals have carried the day : Mr. Jonathan Richard- son, a Quaker, was elected on Wednesday ; his Tory opponent, Mr. Bir- aey, declining to go to the poll. Six regiments from the Dublin garrison have been ordered to the Mediterranean. This statement was made early in the week, without ex- planation, and many connected the order and the Eastern question. An English journal volunteers an explanation, which seems probable enough : the regiments are to relieve others, which in their turn will proceed to North America and the West Indies, and five regiments there will come home.
The Dublin Evening Mail doubts this explanation ; and says—" It is a fact that troops are under orders to embark on Friday next [yesterday] from this port en route to the Mediterranean ; and further, that the orders were sudden and peremptory, and such as to prevent the slightest leave of absence being given to the officers."
The screw squadron, under Commodore Martin, was seen on Saturday, off the Old Head of Kinsale. It is stated that the Commodore was awaiting orders to join the Spithead fleet : but no such orders seem to have been communicated by the mail-steamer which reached the fleet that day.
Last year, as we learn from the Northern Whig, of Belfast, the agent of a Belgian manufacturing firm induced some Irish girls to leave Bel- fast and take service in a mill at Florival, near Louvaine. Here they were exceedingly ill-used by the agent ; their contracts were broken, they were nearly starved, and beaten with sticks. This came to the ears of the British Consul at Antwerp, and he sent information to the Foreign Office. Lord Palmerston also was invoked by the municipal authorities at Belfast. On Monday, the Mayor of that city presided over a meeting in the Town-hall, and read despatches received from the Home and Foreign Offices on the subject : from these it appears that steps have been taken by Lord Clarendon to forward all the girls home.
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