IRELAND.
Some weeks since, a special meeting of the Magistrates of the county of Cavan was held in the Court-house, Lord Farnham presiding, to petition the Government to extend the time for the repayment of the loan made to that county by the Board of Works, to twenty years. An answer has been received during the week by Lord Farnham, granting fifteen years.— Morning Chronicle.
Mr. Roily Kennedy, brother of the Right Reverend Dr. Kennedy, Roman Catholic Bishop of Killaloe, has received, within the last few days, the appointment of Postmaster to the town of Birr, in the King's County, in place of Mr. Dooly, who held that situation for some years.—Tipperary Vindicator.
The Dublin correspondent of the Morning Chronicle notes the progress of the new buildings at Maynooth.
"The new College buildings, on the lands held from the Duke of Leinster ad- joining his Grace's demesne at Carton, are in progress of erection, under the di- rection of the well-known English architect Mr. Pugin. Some time after the passing of Sir Robert Peel's Maynooth Act, it was determined to erect a new col- , on a site at some short distance from the old one; to consist of a square, with a chapel and examination-hall apart. The fund granted by Parliament for this object was found insufficient, but the residue is to be provided from other sources. The new buildings have been for some months in progress, and, in all probability, will be nearly completed in the course of the next summer. As soon 88 they shall be fit for occupation, the old college will be taken down and the ma- terials sold.
"The village of Maynooth, since the establishment of the Midland Great West- ern Railway, which passes by it, has fallen away considerably. The hotel and posting establishment are abandoned; and it has, in fact, become a deserted ham- let. The professors and students carry on their intercourse with the metropolis by the railway; and a traveller rarely stops in the village, which had, a few years since, been a lively and attractive object with tourists and casual visiters. In- deed, since the Young Ireland insurrection, this country appears to have been shunned by English and other tourists. During the last summer and autumn, a stranger was rarely to be seen, even in the romantic wilds of the county of Wick- low; and the hotels at the Vale of Avoca, Roundwood, Newrath Bridge, and other places which figure in the guide-books, and which used to be crowded during former seasons, remained almost tenantless."
The Chronicle's correspondent describes some results of strictly carrying out the Poor-law in Ireland- " There are now some twelve or fifteen union workhouses in this country in which a system of productive employment amongst the pauper inmates is in full and profitable operation. This mode of lessening the burden of poor rates, and at the same time of training the pauper population in habits of industry and self- reliance, has been introduced within a few months past, in some unions where the ordinary Guardians have been dismissed and Vice-Guardians have been appointed by the Poor-law Commissioners. Already considerable savings have been effected in the workhouse expenses where this simple experiment has been tried, and in other respects most valuable results have followed. I shall take one union as a specimen—that of Kilkenny, where the regular Guardians had been removed about nine months since. At that time, as appeared by the official report of Mr. Joseph Burke, Poor-law Inspector, tbe affairs of the union had been in a state of utter dis- organization; debts to a very large amine: bad accrued; the collecting of the rates was resisted; the paupers were miserably fed and scarcely clothed; the most gross corruption existed in the arrangement of the contracts; some of the elected Guar- dians were in the habit of drinking whisky punch at the porter's lodge; and, in fact, so shameless was the whole system, that the Commissioners found it neces- sary to dismiss the Guardians and appoint paid officers, and also to remove most of the officers. And a most fortunate day it was for the Kilkenny Union when this change was determined upon. After a lapse of nine months, the workhouse has become a perfect model for Ireland: the treasury, which bad been bankrupt, Is now supplied with ample surplus funds; the opposition to the rate has entirely ceased; the burden on the rate-payers has considerably diminished, even during a period of severe destitution; and the workhouse is becoming self-supporting, through the persevering exertions of the Vice-Guardians in establishing a system of productive Industry in the house and of agricultural employment in the land attached to it."
The Southern Reporter has the following—" Within the last few days, I have been informed on indubitable authority, that some of the talented and scien- tific gentlemen connected with the Royal Irish Fisheries Company have discovered that the celebrated fishing-banks of Newfoundland actually extend across the Atlantic to within 100 miles of Ireland 1' and the quantity of fish on the said banks is more than sufficient to supply the markets of the whole world."
The Court of Queen's Bench gave judgment, on Friday, upon the writ of error in Mr. John Martin's case.
The objection against the caption of the indictment was briefly disposed of: the caption was not a pleading, but only a statement of the proceedings in the case; and the time and place where the indictment was found, and the jury who found it, were here alleged with sufficient certainty. The objections to the counts of the indictment were founded on the requirements in cases of libel: it was ob- jected that the felonious writings were not alleged to have been feloniously pub- lished; but the writings themselves were so plain in their sense that no in- uendoes were necessary on the separate point of publication. Indeed, it did not seem rational to say that the publication was felonious. The word " publica- tion " was descriptive of the intention, and not of the article manifesting the intention: it would be incorrect to call a gun "a felonious gun" because it had been used in a felonious outrage. The challenge to the juror was properly Overruled on the merits; without reference to some grave objections that might be made against the form of the challenge itself. It was not shown that the cor-
poration fond was deficient, but merely that it might be; nor that the juror must be rated if the fund were deficient; nor even that he would be liable to be rated: ample means might be found after the estimate was made and before the rate was imposed. Again, the goods of felons were not forfeited till judgment, and in the time between the challenge and judgment the prisoner might assign his goods: though he have goods now, he may have none hereafter. Again, he may die and cease to be rateable. The interest of the juror in the convict's chattels depends therefore on so many contingencies that it is altogether ideal; and the case resembles none in which the juror has been held to stand not indifferent as unsworn. The objection to the sentence, that it did not state some place of transportation not in Europe, assumes that the sentence is founded on the 26th Geo. III. cap 24, sec. 66; but it is not so: it is in the very terms of the act which created the felony under the 3d Geo. IIL The Court was unanimous in overruling all the objections.
The writ of error in Mr. Smith O'Brien's ease was argued in the Queen's Bench on Tuesday and Wednesday. Mr Fitzgerald opened the case for Mr. Smith O'Brien, with a speech of abstruse pleading. He raised eight several points respectively against the form of the caption, the form of the indictment counts, and the determination of the Judges on the points raised at Clonmel. It was contended that the treason law of England as founded on the 25th Edward IIL does not exist in Ireland; Poyn- inert law did nothing more than make the English offences triable in Ireland. The counts of the indictment were bad also for alleging the offences to have been committed "in this realm": the word realm meant kingdom, and the word kingdom is only applicable to England within the four seas; the phrase for Ireland should have been "in the land or domi- nion of Ireland." The other points were of a purely technical character. Mr. Lynch replied, and was followed by Mr. Whiteside; who was an- swered in turn by the Attorney-General. At the end of the arguments, it was agreed that one counsel should be heard on the similar causes of error in the cases of Mr. Meagher, O'Dono- hoe, and Anisusus.
The Freeman's Journal authoritatively contradicts the statements that Mr. Smith O'Brien intends to vacate his seat and retire from public life—
"Referring to an article in the last number of the Limerick Reporter, we have to state that the position which Mr. Fitzgerald is a candidate for is not at present a legitimate object of his or anybody else's ambition. Mr. Smith O'Brien has not the most remote intention of abandoning, if he be allowed to retain it, the repre- sentation of his respected constituency in the county of Limerick. Should the decision of the House of Lords upon the writ of error be adverse to Mr. O'Brien, (a matter which we by no means anticipate,) his seat may then be vacated by a resolution of the House; but until that should occur—which we firmly believe will not occur—from what we know of Mr. Fitzgerald's connexions we are sure he would be the last man in Ireland to canvass the county were he aware of the circumstances we now state."
The library of Conciliation Hall was sold by auction last week, and realized less than 5001.; so that the hall itself will have to be sold to meet the debts incurred by the Repeal Association.
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