IRELAND.
The efforts of the "Irish party " to limit the operation of the Govern- ment measure of poor-law relief have led to a counter-movement in Ireland. The Catholic clergy of the diocese of Cloyne and Ross have. selected the Reverend Dr. Collins as a deputation to proceed to London and enforce upon the body of Irish Members the necessity of an efficient measure of out-door relief.
The Castlebar Board of Poor-law Guardians ceased to be on the 29th, of January. It has been dissolved by the Poor-law Commissioners.
At a meeting of a Relief Committee, recently held in Queen's County, it came out that the annual properties of absentees from the district was 25,5781., and their subscriptions 2081.; but while the annual properties of the residents was only 4,550/., their subscriptions amounted to 4591.
The return of severe frost, with the consequent closing of the means of inland communication, produced a reaction in the price of grain; which has been rapidly rising throughout Ireland. Trade is described as "miserably slack."
Considerable interest has been excited by a letter from Commander Caffin, of the Queen's steam-sloop Scourge, to Captain Hamilton, R.N., describing the state of Skull, a remote place on the West coast. Captain Coffin had been thither to discharge a cargo of meal and other provisions: anxious to see the real state of matters with his own eyes, he. obtained the guidance of Dr. Train, the Rector of the parish, for a drive round the. ' neighbourhood; and they entered several cabins. He found all the people, even those who had been in comparative comfort, gradually sinking under' mortal famine. His account resembles the reports received from Skib- bereen and many other places: its peculiarity is that the writer belongs to a totally different class from those who contributed former accounts, and one in whose worldly knowledge and integrity the English public has every cause to rely. Captain Caflin makes a suggestion which seems very useful—that Navy surgeons might be employed in administering both food and physic: they would possess every qualification of knowledge in such matters, and would be without local partialities.
A letter from the Head Constable of Riverstown, published in the Sligo Champion, mentions that forty corpses were awaiting the Coroner in the district of Maugharow.
At the usual weekly meeting of the Repeal Association, on Monday, a letter was read from Mr. O'Connell. The state of his health, he says, pre vents his active interference in public business. Of Lord George Bentinck's Railway Bill Mr. O'Connell expresses only a very qualified approval-
" It has, however, one overwhelming recommendation: it would give some em- ployment and some wages to the starving people. These advantages are greatly exaggerated; still there are advantages not to be overlooked in such a season of direful calamity as this. This is the principle upon which I act—Lord George proposes to employ sixteen millions sterling in Ireland; if I saw anybody who was disposed to give more, I should reject Lord George, and take the larger sum; but when I cannot see anybody offering so much, with the people dying in thousands about us, I cannot afford to reject his proposal."
Rent 181.
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