4 1Dr. Murray, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, has published a
defence, in the form of a letter to the Irish Catholic clergy, of the proceedings of the National Board of Education for Ireland. it is really, but not openly, directed against Dr. M'Hule, Archbishop of Tuarn, who has been pertinacious in his attacks on the Board. The said " John Tuaai " has put forth another long epistle to Lord John Russell, in ridicule of the contemptible measure for " settling " the Tithe question ; and talks in a very exalted strain about the authority of Bishops over their clergy, and his resolution not to allow the in- spectors of the National Education Board to interfere with the manage- ment of the schools in his diocese.
No tithes can be recovered from the tenant under the present Act until the landlord has previously paid the minister ; and the tenant may demand the clergyman's receipt before he is liable to the landlord.— Iris!: Paper.
Daniel O'Connell was the first person who lodged a tithe schedule (for his share of the million) at the Castle.—Limerick Standard.
The High Sheriff of Meath has called a meeting of the noblemen, freeholders, and inhabitants of that county, " to petition Parliament for the total extinction of tithes in substance as well as in name, or their appropriation to national purposes; and for a just measure of municipal reform in Ireland." The requisition is signed by Lords Beadford and Cloncurry, five Members of the House of Commons, and eight Magistrates of the county. It is worthy of remark, that aeither the Catholic Bishop nor any of the Catholic nobility of Meath (including Lords Fingal, Gormanstown, Trimlestown, &d.) have set their names to it ; but, on the other hand, it bears the signature of Mr. Yleredyth, the sun of Sir Henry AIeredyth, an Ecclesiastical Cosnurissioner, who is paid 1,0001. a year for taking care of the tem- poral interests of the Church, which certainly cannot be served by a renewal of agitation upon this question. A requisition to the Sheriff of Queen's County is in progress for a purpose of more immediate practical utility than that announced by the gentry of Meath. It is " to take into consideration the present law of tithes in Ireland, with a sieve to prevent injurious misunderstandings and ruinous collisions between landlord and tenant on that subject.—Dublin Correspondent of Me Chronicle.
The Thum Herald states, that on Sunday there was a great meeting, !mid at a place called Chequerhill, of the united parishes of Dunmore, Bevenagh, Killolla, Templetown, &c. Although the day was wet, the Embers assembled are estimated at 20,000. Flags and banners
were borne, bearing the inscriptions " No Tithes," " Justice to Ire- land," and " Repeal of the Union." The principal orator was the priest, the Very Reverend Martin Loftus ; and the substance of his speech was to let those build churches who want them. A resolution was passed in favour of that passive resistance which bad formerly been so successful. Another regarded the Education Board ; and by it the meeting are made to say, " We solemnly pledge ourselves that we shall not suffer persons of any other faith to be regulating the reli. gious education of our children."
" We, who are on the spot," says the Northern Whig, "were not aware that Belfast is in a sort of Precursor fever, until we got the intelli- gence from the Dublin Freeman. A correspondent of that journal gives a glowing account of the Precursor agitation in this town. Bel. fast is up and acting!' So says the writer ; and all that we can say is, that the account is news to us. We did hear, that on Sunday week, (the day referred to by the correspondent of the Freeman,) a number of individuals met, after public worship, in a room attached to the chapel, when the subject of the Precursor Society was talked over ; but, though we had a conversation, some days afterwards, with one of the gentlemen who was present, we were not led to understand that the meeting was any thing else than of a preliminary kind."
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