IRELAND.
Mr. More O'Ferrall has been returned for Longford County. The numbers were—for O'Ferrall, 938; for Mr. Skater, as the nominee of his angry father, whose outrageous proceedings we mentioned last week, 80; majority, 858.
The election for Cork was an unopposed one. Mr. Sergeant Murphy has been returned, in the room of Mr. W. Fagan. Mr. J. Francis Ma- guire attempted to get a pledge from the new Member, that he would give an " unconditional " opposition to Ministers, like that which Mr. Reynolds glories in : but the pledge was refused, and Mr. Sergeant Murphy comes to Parliament with the strongest determination to wage a rational opposition against the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill.
The inaugural proceedings of the cattle-show of the Royal Dublin So- ciety, on Tuesday, were graced by the presence of the Lord-Lieutenant; who praised the increasing activity of Irish landlords, discoursed sense on the text that "all are agreed that none but good farming now-a-days is likely to be fluccessful," and gave advice to the feudal possessors of Ire- land, which may be well repeated to the same class in this country.
"I speak as a landowner myself, whose sole dependence is on the land ; and I have no hesitation in expressing my feeling that, in order to maintain our position, and command that consideration which is always and willingly accorded by the public whenever it is deserved, I think we have some right of late years to come down from what I may call our feudal stilts, in times like these, of education, enlightenment, and intellectual progress, springing, as it has done, and I am happy to say it has done, from below, because its basis is more solid and more extended ; but, on the other hand, met in the spirit in which it ought to be viewed, without any jealous eye by other classes. I think we must abandon, as we have abandoned, that agree- able but delusive notion that we are a privileged class; and we must be content to view ourselves as manufacturers, exposed, like other manufac- turers, to active competition, and interested, like them, in producing the greatest possible amount at the lowest possible cost. Knowledge, attention to business, acqualMmer with all its details, economy in all its branches, are alike essential to the success of the landlord ; and yet how often do we see proof that the science—the abstruse science—of agriculture is viewed as if it required no training ? How often do we see land taken by men without capital, or skill, or knowledge; and yet when failure ensues, other causes than the real ones are assigned for that which is inevitable in the natural state of things, and which would equally befal any other trade or profession if undertaken without knowledge." -
The reports state that the exhibition of stock by the Royal Society far
exceeded anything of the kind ever seen before in Ireland : the number of cattle in every class was unpreeedentedly large, and the quality was in sonic departments almost equal to that of the animals displayed in the more advanced shows of England.
A Dublin writer gives evidence of new spirit in the rising generation of Irish farmers.
"A novel feature has been presented at the course of lectures just con- cluded by the Professor of Botany in Trinity College, on the application of that science to the purposes of general agriculture, in the presence of large numbers of the tillers of the salsa listeners, with marked attention, to every word that had reference to the process and progress of vegetation and the im- proved practice of agriculture. This is the first ocresion on which any of this valuable class of persons have been ever seen within the walls, I believe, of a Trinity College Hall; and may it not be hoped, that it is a favourable presage of opening such minds to a better and a brighter prospect, than fol- lowing the visionary schemes of bootless and selfish agitation."
Archbishop M'Hale and his clergy assembled in synod, " to celebrate the melancholy but merciful anniversary of our Redeemer's passion," have issued their "solemn and seasonable warning to the Ministers of her Majesty " against persisting with " the measure of persecution, suffi- ciently known and execrated," which they have introduced against the Catholic hierarchy. The warning is embodied in resolutions, which con- clude with these mutual pledges- " That on our return to our respective parishes, we will proclaim to our faithful flocks our well-founded alarms for the safety of the hierarchy, as- sailed as it is by truculent foes, while many hollow-hearted Catholics, whose fetters were struck off by the united exertions of the hierarchy and people, look without emotion on the dangers with which our holy religion is threatened. That in such a crisis we feel the forcible truth of our Redeemer's adage, He that is not with me is against me '; justifying us in ranking among the enemies of the Catholic religion all those who will not now lend their strenuous efforts in vindication of its freedom. That we express a fervent hope that strong and repeated remonstrances will be sent forth against this measure during the Easter recess, in every variety of form, from the parochial and district meetings, to the aggregate meeting of all Ireland, sending forth the united voice of its people as the roar of many waters, and proclaiming in the name of that people, still strong, though decimated by a murderous famine, whose progress is not yet checked, that they will not tamely suffer the priests and bishops to be banished, their temples to become a wilderness, their altars to be deserted or profaned, their consecrated virgins to be insulted by the impious intrusions of licentious and insolent officials, or the sacred but scanty offering which piety has recently made for diffusing religious edu- cation and morality among the humber classes, to be again rifled by impure and alien harpies, who, not content with the hecatombs of victims that have been sacrificed to their cruel avarice since the spoliation of Catholic charities, have abandoned the destitute to starvation, and are again panting for a sa- crilegious robbery of the poor and of the sanctuary, and which avidity for Catholic charities reveals the pretended frenzy about Papal aggression."
The following petition to the Queen by Roman Catholic ladies in Dub- lin is said to have already received a very large list of signatures. " May it please your Majesty—We, the undersigned Roman Catholic ladies of the city of Dublin, humbly approach your Majesty to express our alarm and regret that a bill has been laid before the Commons House of Parlia- ment entitled ' A bill to preient the forcible detention of females in religious houses,' having for its assumed object our protection, but in reality our further degradation.
" The Roman Catholic ladies of this United Kingdom require not the pro- tection of Parliament against a mode of life which they have ever believed one of evangelical perfection, and at once an honour to their religion and the pride of their sex, and which they vainly supposed would have shielded them from the wanton calumnies and unprovoked insults of gentlemen in that assembly, which, excluding ladies from all share in its constitution and deliberations, yet iniquitously arrogates to itself the right of disposing of their reputations, fortunes, and lives. The undersigned, in all humility; beg leave to submit to your Majesty, that, knowing as they do, the pre- ference, protection, and cheerfulness with which those devoted ladies have chosen the better part,' and that, in sacrificing themselves to their labo- rious calling of visiting the sick, instructing the ignorant, and praying for. us all, they do nothing more offensive or illegal than what our Lord and Saviour himself practised and recommendi; which, unambitious of Govern.. ment or Parliamentary observation or applause, they hope they will be allowed to pursue, awaiting the reward of Him who has promised to return a hundredfold to those who have left father and mother, wife or children, for His name's sake.
" The undersigned cannot avoid expressing their conviction, that had the Parliament been as anxious to take advantage of the valuable services of those admirable ladies for the instruction and improvement of our oppressed and injured sex, they would not at this day be engaged in framing a bill* which—Oh, shame to its propounders,. — adds another to our wrongs, by implying a peculiar propensity to assassination in women, and to sanction which your Majesty's Royal assent may soon be required. Those who dare to make this odious, abominable distinction, but too well know, that amidst all the wrongs and provocations to which our sex is unhappily condemned, how much more rare are the infringements of the laws of God' and man by women than by those who accuse us.
" To your Majesty, as the first and head of our sex in this great empire, and her to whom alone the law accords her national rights, we humbly and confidently appeal, beseeching your Majesty, should this bill to prevent the forcible detention of females in religious houses' be laid before you for Royal approval, to graciously signify your displeasure by refusing it the sanction of your Royal name. And your petitioners; as in duty bound, will ever pray, &e."
• The Sale of Arsenic Regulation Bill, prohibiting the sale of arsenic to any but a male person.
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