IRELAND.
The Lord-Lieutenant returned to Dublin from England on Monday night, and took up his abode at the Castle.
The Ulster men are not inclined to grow cold in the noble work of sustaining and promoting the national system of education. On the 11th instant a very decisive demonstration of their strength and heartiness was made at Belfast. Men of all classes and persuasions met in the Music Hall. Major-General Chesney presided over the assembly. Churchmen and Nonconformists took an active part in the proceedings, and showed by their speeches how thoroughly they comprehend the im- portance of the work in hand, and the necessity for doing it with a will. The speeches of Professor Gibson, Moderator of the General Assembly, and Professor M.'Cosh, of Queen's College, Belfast, were especially re- markable for sound, liberal and just views. Among the others who took part were the Bishop of Down and Connor, Mr. J. G. V. Porter of Fer- managh, Dr. Willocks, the Reverend Robert Wallace, Dr. Cooke, Mr. James Hamilton, and the Reverend John Scott Porter. The resolutions were similar to those we printed in a recent number. The Ulster Na- tional Education Association, now fairly established, is one of the most hopeful public movements of the present time.
The Ultramontane papers and persons have grown more furious than ever. They write and declaim against the Emperor of the French, and insist that it is the duty of the Roman Catholic Members to vote in any way and with any body so that the result be the turning out of Lord Palmerston.
The best illustration of the feeling which exists in the Cullen camp is the following letter, signed "John Dixon Archbishop, Primate of all Ire- land." It is "a manifesto to the faithful of Drogheda." "Dearly Beloved Friends—On the late occasion of our meeting to express sympathy with the Holy Father I considered it my duty to make such ob- servations on the conduct pursued by the French Emperor since the corn- mencement of the war in Italy as were not calculated, I freely admit, to create an impression favourable to his Imperial Majesty, and that those observations were not disagreeable to you may be learned from the remark- able fact—peculiar, I should suppose, to our meeting in Drogheda, among all the meetings lately held in Ireland—that the only name received with hisses at that meeting was the name of Napoleon III. "I avail myself now of the public press to call your attention to the full confirmation which the events of the last few days have given to the justice of the sentiments which then found favour with you.
"Some, even among our Catholic brethren in this country, were disposed to censure us as exceeding in severity towards his Majesty on the occasion to which I refer. All such persons are now, I should hope, undeceived. The Emperor has thrown off the mask. By means of the letter which he addressed to Rome on the 31st of December, and which he has published in the MOniteur, he stands revealed to the world as the imitator of his uncle in his treatment of the Holy See. The wretched plausibilities with which that letter is interspersed can impose on none.
"To find a parallel for the infamous address which he makes to the Holy Father, let us imagine a well armed captain of a gang of robbers, who, placing his hand on the throat of sonic unfortunate and defenceless traveller whom he has seized, says to him :—
" You have indeed, my dear friend, an incontestable right to your money ; but consider this—I cannot permit any foreign or external aid to come to your defence ; you may yourself, if you please, defend your purse ; but I advise you not to mind doing so; the easiest solution of the difficulty in which you find yourself is, to give up your money quietly to me ; and, in return for this amiable condescension on your part, I shall guarantee to you the secure possession of your clothes and your life. You may range with safety for many years through these mountain passes, and you will place me and the banditti, who acknowledge my autism ity, under a debt of gratitude, which we shall ever cheerfully acknowledge.' "It is such an address as this which the Eldest Son of the Church has made to the Father of the Faithful. 0! how all good Catholics over the world must be horrorstruck on reading that letter in the _Walton. ! You will admit with me that the appropriate residence for its author would be the prison of Ham rather than the Palace of the Tuileries. How I pity the chivalrous French nation lying prostrate under the feet of such a ruler.
"But let us hope that a voice will yet reach him, which by the awe that it shall inspire will have the effect of paralyzing the hand stretched out against the Holy Father—I mean the voice of indignant Catholic Christen- dom, which, rising above the jubilation of the enemies of the Church over the world, will fall on his ear in some such words as these :— " 'Robber, take your hand from the throat of the Vicar of Christ.' " The appointment of Sir John Bradstreet to the commission of the peace has attracted some attention. He is President of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, and has been one of the prime movers in the Pro- Papal agitation.
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