IRELAND.
Mr. 0' Connell, in a long and lugubrious letter, addressed to the People of Ireland, dated April 8th, complains of their apathy in petitioning for the Repeal of the Union. He demanded a million of signatures, and has only got 80,000. This, he says, will insure the defeat of his motion by a majority of about 450 to 40. The prevalence of the cholera, which has withdrawn the attention of the Irish from politics, and his own incapacity as a leader to grapple with so vast a question, he reckons among the principal obstacles to success ; and describes the phalanx composed of men of all parties who will certainly vote against him. But he trusts that next year he shall have two millions of signatures; and hopes the Repealers will keep up their spirits. He promises imme.; diately to set about the organization of the electors, which shall be so complete as to insure the return of Repealers at next election through all parts of Ireland, except Ulster. It is curious that, while he attri- butes the paucity of petitions, in part, to the terror of the Coercion Bill, he mentions Kilkenny, where the bill is in operation, as one of the counties which has been most alive on the subject.
About fifteen thousand Repealers met at Navan, in Meath, on Wed- nesday week, to petition for a dissolution of the Union. Mr. Shar- man Crawford went from Belfast to attend the meeting ; at which he also presided. The famous Father Burke, of Castle Pollard, was the principal speaker. He concluded his address in these words-
" Be united ; be as one man ; fight the constitutional battle as if with one single arm ; and you must soon succeed in wresting from your enemies that comfort and prosperity which once was, and will and must be again, your own."
Four baronies in King's County have been placed under the Coer- cion Act.
It is said that the celebrated Dr. Doyle's health is fast declining ; that little hopes are entertained of his recovery; and that he has lately exhibited strong symptoms of an approximation towards Protestantism. The secession of such a celebrated polemic from the Catholic Church would produce a strong sensation throughout Ireland. A number of clergymen are daily and nightly attending his bedside ; and the Protes- tants in Carlow allege that sentinels are regularly kept up to prevent the egress of any heretical sentiments from the learned Bishop's domi- cile.—Morning Paper.
Mr. Robert Maxwell, who was condemned to death at the Limerick Assizes, for shooting at his cousin, Mr. Holmes, with intent to kill him, and was left by the Judge for execution on Wednesday, has had his sentence commuted to eighteen months' imprisonment. The Grand Jury memorialized the Executive on his behalf. [If Mr. 31as., well had beim a poor igoerant Whitefoot, nothing but a rescue could hove saved him from the gallows ; but it would not do to hang a gentle- man. Yet Ireland is the country of all others where justice should be even-handed, and no differeave shown to ftflons, be they peers or pea- sants.) As Mrs. Crampton, the lady of the Surgeon-General, was reading in her drawing-room one evening last week, her clothes caught lire ; and before her screams brought any of the servants to her assistance, she was so dieadfully burned, that notwithstanding the exertions of Mr. Crampton himself, assisted by his professional brethren, the unfortu- nate lady languished in great torture throughout the night, and expired next morning.
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