IRELAND.

The employment of the people on public works increases rapidly. Up to the 8th instant the numbers amounted to 150,000.

Several vessels have arrived at Cork with supplies of cereals from the Mediterranean and America, and the effect on prices is decided: a cargo of prime yellow maize from Leghorn was purchased at 101. 15s. a ton, which ten days ago would have sold for 151., and even on Saturday for 131. or 131. 10s.

Fears are beginning to be entertained that the task of finding employ- ment during the winter will prove too heavy for the Board of Works. According to the accounts from the country, the public works are pro- gressing so rapidly, that new Presentment Sessions must speedily be held to afford other means of employment; and the gentry, becoming alarmed at the heavy taxation, are exerting themselves very strenuously to make ar- rangements for drainage and other productive works, on such a scale as to absorb all the destitute persons requiring employment.

The Government does its best for the repression of abuses which are springing up under the new order of things. Instructions have been issued from the Castle, that no persons should be employed whose tenements are valued under the Poor-law at 51. and upwards, unless in cases of undoubted destitution. All instances in which payments have not been made weekly are to be reported; and it is forbidden under pain of dismissal that any persons employed by the Board of Works should be engaged in the " truck' system, or in the sale of spirits or food in the neighbourhood of works.

A circular has also been issued from the Board permitting far- mers and others wanting labourers to apply to the stewards of public works for them. In case. the persons selected by the stewards refuse to go on being offered the same rate of wages they are receiving on the roads, the stewards are required forthwith to discharge them.

On the subject of loans to railway companies, a "memorandum" has been issued by the Board of Works, for the consideration of Baronial Ses- sions desirous of presenting for the construction of railways. The con- ditions are as follows—

"The Lords Commissioners of the Treasury have ordered, that for such rail- ways they will sanction loans, on the recommendation of the Commissioners of Public Works, on condition that the loans be not made by the Government to the company on its own security, but to the baronies through which the railway passes, on the security of their presentments, leaving the baronies to make such arrangements with the company on that bead as they may think necessary; the Commissioners of Public Works taking no further cognizance of such arrange- ments than may be necessary to satisfy the Government that the baronies will be able punctually to repay the advances made to them by the Treasury upon their presentments."

For this latter purpose seven explanatory rules are given.

An Extraordinary Presentment Sessions was held in the Court-house of Ballymoney, county of Antrim, on Friday last week, to adopt measures for employing the destitute in the barony of Upper Dunluce. Mr. George 5facartney, who had recommended the reclamation of waste lands at a preliminary meeting, presided. It was determined to proceed under the Chief Secretary's circular; and 6,8091. was voted, to be assessed amongst the electoral divisions. Applications for the whole amount, in order to "productive works' " were received from the gentry and landed proprietors of the barony; so that there will be no taxation whatever upon this dis- trict.

A meeting of the county of Waterford was held on Friday last week, at Dungarvan, to consider the measures to be urged on the Government. The meeting was convened by the High Sheriff, on a requisition signed by the Lord-Lieutenant and the principal landed proprietors of the county. Sir R. J. Paul, the High Sheriff, took the chair. Lord Stuart de Decies pro- posed a series of resolutions, recommending the attention of the Govern- ment to the reclamation of the waste lands. Lord Stuart referred to the so- cial condition of Ireland as resulting from the conacre system—

On the Continent of Europe, and in England, a young man who wants to marry must first satisfy the parents of his intended wife that he can maintain her by his earnings: in Ireland, the facility of obtaining conacre has stood in place of every other preliminary provision; and consequently the potato crop—the most precarious in the world—has actually furnished the regulating principle on which the population has increased.

The Poor Employment Aot was passed before the total failure of the potato crop was known, and when it was still hoped that the destruction would only attial. The full extent to which it has to be applied was never contem- ed at tInt.titne. The proportion which the taxation under the act bore to the tat, Bien for the four months to the 1st of February, was something extraor- .'."7:dinirp. "For tbe barony of Gaultier, the taxation amounts to 4s. 3+1. in the llama; for the barmy of Middlethird, to 4s. 100. in the pound; for the barony 4. - Alltpperthird, to Cw. lid. in the pound; for the .rony of Decies Without Drum, .„, '7to Os. 9id. in the:,poand; for the barony of Decies Within, to 9s. Hid in the pOtold; for Coshinora, to 7a. Oid. in the pound; for the barony of Glenahiry, to

'`. '131. 20. in the pottod; and for the barony of Kilcullibeen to 2a. 10d. in the a.

pound." In January next they would have to meet again to assess themselves for a further amount; and although he hoped they would be able to employ the funds in works of a productive character, yet the amount raised must be fully as large as at their first presentment. " That is to say, gentlemen, we must continue to tax ourselves at the rate of a year and a half or two years' income for the sup- port of the labouring classes. Why, gentlemen, let this taxation be only con- tinued for a very few years together, and let me ask you what will it amount to? It will amount to the total confiscation of your property." There was, however, a remedy, " if we can only succeed in obtaining from the Legislature its sanction to a sufficiently large measure for the reclamation of those waste lands which, in this county, as well as, I believe, in almost all other coun- ties in Ireland, are lying as a captit mortuum, only requiring the investment of capital to become the means of wealth of the country. And in order that this land may be reclaimed to the utmost possible extent that nature will admit of, I should propose the reclamation and improvement should be carried out by Com- missioners, to be appointed by Government, who should be empowered to select the poor colonists from those town-lands on which the population may be found to be densest in proportion to the Poor-law valuation."

The meeting was subsequently addressed by Sir H. W. Barron, Lord Huntingdon, and other gentlemen; and the resolutions were passed unani- mously.

The Marquis of Hertford has issued a circular to his tenantry, " with .a view to alleviate the difficulties which the late failure of the potato crop must cause to the small farmer and labourer ": he proposes a premium of 21. for every acre of land drained on his estate between the present time and the 1st of next October. Where the necessary means to get to work are wanting, Lord Hertford offers to advance the needful funds, at 5 per cent interest. It is said that there are upwards of 60,000 acres of land re quiring drainage to which the proposal will apply; and, should it be ac- cepted to the extent of one-third of the whole number of acres, Lord Hert- ford will expend 40,0001. for the relief and advantage of his tenants.

The following account of the Anti-Rent conspiracy is published by the Evening Mail, as received from a gentleman who manages a small property of his own in the neighbourhood of Newcastle- " I have just returned fromwhere I went to meet my tenants; but I might almost as well have remained at—, home. Out of 4501. which they owe me, including the last September gale, they paid me only 661., and that was accom- panied with an assurance that I should get no more. I only demanded the March gale, amounting to 2001. The sum they gave me will not pay the half-year's head-rent and the tithe rent-charge. About a month ago, they proposed to pay half a year's rent on my giving them a receipt for the year's. They have since increased their demands, and refuse to pay more than one-fourth of the year's rent, and insist on getting a receipt for the entire. They at first made this proposal to me separately; and on my refusing to accede to it, they left me for a short time, and then returned all together to insist upon my agreeing to their terms. I again positively refused to do so; and was preparing to return to Limerick by the coach, which was going to start, when they thought proper to say that they would pay what they had on account. They then paid me the pittance above mentioned; but stated that for twelve months more I should not get a shilling. The largest holders, and the most solvent, paid me least in proportion. One man, whose rent is 821. a year, paid me 71.; another, whose rent is to the same amount, gave 201.; another, whose rent is 301., gave 81. Others did not give a single shilling: " This conspiracy is very general in the country; and on several properties in. the neighbourhood, some of them belonging to the best landlords in the country; not a farthing has been paid. On other properties (but those were peculiarly circumstanced) the rents have been paid most punctually. On the Devon estates the entire of the March rent has been paid, and part of the September; which last was never before called in so early. I was informed at Newcastle, that the only parties who were paid with satisfaction were absentee landlords, (who are not in the way of suffering personal violence,) and particularly those who have been heretofore strict and determined in the collection of their rents. Unfortunately for my chances of payment at this crisis, I have been always liberal to my tenants. I gave them the land at much lower than the usual rates of the neighbourhood, and for a long term (three lives); besides which, I allowed them largely for build- ing, draining, and other improvements; and nowhere in the country is there a set of farmers of the same class more comfortably off. At the same time, if I were to commence law proceedings against them, they would not be marks for the cost. They have no property but what they hold from me, and their farming stock and other effects they could easily make away with: they have all money, but that I could not come at. Indeed, there would be extreme difficulty in effecting the service of any law-process whatever." The Cork Constitution gives the following instance of the way in which public works are interfering with the regular sources of employment- " A gentleman came into town yesterday [Friday] from the neighbourhood of Carrigadrohid. He saw, as usual, numbers of idlers loitering about. He offered them work at Is. 6d a day; but they refused it. He inquired the reason; and the only one they could offer was, that they had not had sufficient food to enable them to do a day's work ! Their condition was not likely to improve, nor their strength to increase by standing there idle; but idle they preferred standing nevertheless. A gentleman from Glanmire, we are informed, offered 2s. some days ago, but was unable to tempt them even at that price, and had ultimately to get some of the labourers from the roads in his own neighbourhood."

One of the cases of alleged death from starvation, that of John Keefe of Kilbey, proves to be a mistake: Mr. Robert Percival Maxwell, one of' the members of the Tallow Relief Committee, has written a letter to the chair- man of the Board of Works, stating that, after strict inquiry, he is per fectly satisfied that Keefe's death was to be accounted for by natural causes. Mr. Maxwell expresses his regret that he should have been cis led by the erroneous statements of others.

The annual Dublin meeting of the Roman Catholic Prelates has been brought to a close, after a session of five days. It will be remembered that, in August last, a statement was made, apparently on Archiepiscopal au- thority, that the College of Cardinals at Rome had unanimously and un- equivocally condemned the system of collegiate education for Ireland, and that the sentence only awaited the ratification of his Holiness to withdraw the confidence of the clergy from the "godless" seminaries. In the Synod just closed, a studious silence has been observed: no communication im- peaching the principle of mixed education has been received from the Papal Court; and though resolutions have been adopted on various subjects,— the Bequests Act, mixed marriages, Catholic education for the children of Catholic soldiers, and the removal of penalties from the regular clergy, to which they are now subjected,—not a word has been uttered against the Colleges; no modifications have been proposed, no improvements suggested. The, liberal charaoter of the new Pope, and a desire on the part of the Pre- lates not to add to the existing embarrassments of Ministers, are supposed to have influenced the Synod. The principal feature at Monday's meeting of the Repeal Association was the presence of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Elphin; who pronounced in favour of Mr. O'Connell and " moral force." The Arch Agitator said a good deal in defence of his own conduct to his tenantry, and abused the Times.

The rent amounted to 3721., inclusive of 2001. from Boston, United States.

The Dublin Evening Mail makes the following report of certain proceed- ings in a committee of the Repeal Association. The report has been called in question, but we see no specific contradiction; and the Mail republishes the passage, vouching for its accuracy—

"At the meeting of the Finance Committee of the Repeal Association on Wed nesday last, the sum of 2001., being the subscription of the Association to the monument intended to be erected to the late Mr. Thomas Davis, was submitted for final auditing, in order to its discharge. "Mr. Steele, Head Pacificator, &a, opposed its payment. The Young Ireland party (thought this immaculate patriot) had disentitled the memory of their apostle to any testimony of esteem from a great moral force party such as that Association.

"The Liberator (after some altercation on both sides) rose and made the fol- lowing remarkable observations; which we will not venture to comment upon, as commentary would be in the last degree impertinent. "The Liberator= I disagree with my beloved friend Steele in suggesting poli- tical considerations on a question of this kind. It is purely financial, and should be so treated; and, for that reason alone, I suggest, with very great humility, that its consideration be postponed for a few days, until my accounts, as the trustee and treasurer of the Association, shall be wound up. They are very nearly corn pleted; and although I cannot speak with certainty as to a hundred or two, still I have no doubt that I shall be able to satisfy you that the Repeal Associa- tion is in my debt to the extent of at least 6001. or 7001. on a general balance. I think, under such circumstances, you ought to bejust before you are generous.' "The Finance Committee have adjourned sine die."