IRELAND.

The Irish journals publish a Papal rescript on the new Colleges, in their modified form. It states that extracts of the amended statutes have been submitted to the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide; which has some difficulty in pronouncing what may be the authority of the statutes accord- ing to the constitution of the English realm, but, considering the manifest dangers to the faith, the College could not be induced to mitigate its pre- vious decision of the 9th October 1847. This decision of the College the Pope sanctions and ratifies. The Pope, however, urges the formation of a Roman Catholic University, that Catholics may receive more ample in- struction "without their religion suffering danger from that source "—that is, from its connexion with the Protestant state.

It is stated that the Government contemplate an early augmentation of the Constabulary force in Ireland to 30,000 of all ranks. In addition to present Constabulary duties, the newly-organized body is to be employed in all descriptions of service for which the regular military are now re- quired; the whole or the greater part of the latter force to be withdrawn: from Ireland. The increased force will be placed upon a new footing, and will comprise cavalry, infantry, (including rifle corps,) horse and foot ar- tillery.

The Times formally announced on Wednesday, as if on authority, that, the lives of the prisoners under sentence for high treason will be spared. The Dublin correspondent of the Morning Chronicle has a statement regarding Mr. Smith O'Brien more to be lamented than wondered at— regret to learn that a circumstance of a rather unpleasant nature took place with regard to this gentleman, in the gaol on Saturday last. It seems that Mr. O'Brien, while taking his accustomed exercise in the corridor of the prison, insisted on seeing one of his fellow convicts; and his wishes not being complied with, it is said he became violently excited, and proceeded to such extremities that he *fits obliged to be forcibly removed to his cell, and placed under greater restraints than had at first been considered necessary."

The Cloumel Special Commission has finithed the trial of the leading State prisoners, and adjourned its sittings.

On Friday, Mr. Whiteside resumed his defence of Mr. Meagher, with an elaborate

analysis of the oral evidence given by the Crown. He demanded of the Jury that they should absolutely throw aside Dobbin's evidence, as unworthy of belief in the absence of corroboration—of corroboration which the Crown had full opportu- nity to give if that were a safe course. He criticized the speeches reported by the Police, and declaimed against the Government for using such instruments as the l'olice for such purposes as reporting. In conclusion be said—" Before you bring down upon yourselves the horror of shedding the blood of a fellow creature, be certain to demonstration that he is guilty. I demand an acquittal because the case is not proved—because justice requires it. Give your verdict in conformity with the law, and posterity will remember and bless you and your verdict, and say that, empanelled in a period of strong excitement in a case affecting human life, you gave that verdict between the prisoner and the Crown with fairness—the happiest duty you could perform. Words form the case against my client; a ver- dict of acquittal will strike down the unconstitutional doctrine of constructive treason, and vindicate the law." Evidence for the defence was then given; chiefly of a character to :impugn Dobbin's truthfulness.

John Nugent stated that he was a member of the Red Hand Club, and became ft member before Dobbin; whose admission he recollected. Neither Dobbin nor any one else was ever appointed a delegate from the club, and no person of the club ever armed himself.

Mr. Kirwan, the solicitor for Mr. Meagher, stated that he had examined the balloting-papers for the Confederate Council of War. Dobbin had stated that Mr. Devin Reilly and Mr. Lalor had an equality of votes: Mr. Kirwan found that the number of votes on the first ballot was 16 for Mr. Reilly and 10 for Mr. Lalor. Some evidence was given to prove an alibi in regard to the attack on Widow M'Cormack's house.

Mr. Butt followed with argumentation on the law as applicable to the few facts which he admitted to be proved. Going to great length in his remarks, he prayed an adjournment. The Court at first refused; but afterwards yielded at the ear- nest entreaty of the prisoner.

On Saturday, Mr. Butt's speech was resumed and concluded. The prisoner de- clined to add any remark; saying—" I have committed my case to counsel,whose abilities and genius I am satisfied with, and who have said all I could wish." The Solicitor-General replied shortly; and the Lord Chief Justice summed up. He read the evidence of Dobbin verbatim, and told the Jury they were the sole judges of its credibility. The Jury found a verdict of " Guilty," and added a recommendation to the mercy of the Crown "on account of the prisoner's youth, and for other reasons." On Monday, the prisoners, M'Manus, O'Donohoe, and Meagher, were placed to- gether at the bar, and called on to say why sentence should not b:passed on them.

M`Manus spoke first. In beginning he hesitated, with a brief emotion; but he quickly recovered himself, " and with a firm voice, and that composure and pro- priety of manner which characterized him during his trial," spoke as follows. "My Lords, I trust I am enough of a Christian, and enough of a man, to under- stand the awful responsibility of the question which has been put to me. Stand- ing upon my native soil—standing in an Irish court of justice, and before the Irish nation—I had much to say why the sentence of death, or the sentence of the law, should not be passed upon me; but upon entering into this court I placed my life—and what is of more importance to me, my honour—in the hands of two advocates; and if I had ten thousand lives and ten thousand honours, I should be content to place them all under the watchful and glorious genius of the one, and under the patient zeal and watchfulness of the other. I am therefore content on this point, and I have nothing to say with regard to it. But I have a word to say which no advocate, however anxious and devoted he may be, can utter for me,—that, whatever part I may have taken in the struggle for my country's inde- pendence, whatever part I may have acted in my short career, I stand before you, my Lords with a free heart and a light conscience, to abide the issue of your sen- tence. /Slid now, my Lords, this is perhaps the fittest time for me to put this sentiment upon record: 1 say that, standing in this dock, and about to ascend the scaffold—it may be tomorrow—it may be now, or it may be never—whatever the result may he, I wish to put this on record, that in the part I have taken I was not actuated by enmity towards Englishmen; for among them I have passed some of the happiest days of my life, and the most prosperous; and in no part which I have taken was I actuated by enmity towards Englishmen individually, whatever I may have felt of the injustice of English rule in this island. There- fore, I have only to say, that it is not for having loved England less, but for having loved Ireland more, that I now stand before you." (Applause in the gallery.)

O'Donohoe was pale, but collected. He begged to say, that the Law-officers of the Crown had conducted his case fairly, though strictly ; and be found no fault with them, or with the evidence against him, as far as it was acted upon by the Jury. "But," said he, "I do complain, that in such a county, the jurors sum- moned to try me, a stranger, for a political offence, were exclusively political op- ponents; and with such a panel, I regret that your Lordships did not, as my coun- sel requested, allow my Jury to be called from those who had not served or been rejected on a former trial. My Jury, thus selected, could not be supposed to over- come all bias; and I believe they found a most mistaken verdict." He also be- sought the reservation of a legal point. "Mr. Justice Moore, in his direction, told the Jury that if I assisted Mr. O'Brien while engaged in a treasonable design, I was guilty of treason, although I might not know of his intent; and from their recommendation it appears they found me guilty on that direction. To one unlearned in the law, and supposing that treason depended on intention, it seems contrary to common sense that I can participate in a treasonable design, of the existence of which I am ignorant. I do not, however, presume to dispute the law, as your Lordship has stated it: but no earthly judge is infallible; and, as the doctrine is so startling, and stamped with the authority of Mr. Justice Moores high constitutional character, would form a precedent dangerous to the lives and liberties of the beet men, I humbly request your Lordships to reserve the point for the consideration of the Judges." He alluded briefly and decorously to his own opinions and character, as "always tolerant, sincere, and consistent"- he grate- fully acknowledged "the eloquent and truly able defence generously given by Mr. Butt without fee or reward—given to a political antagonist"; and he thanked the Court for a patient hearing.

Mr. Meagher rapidly delivered a longer address. He is described as having "a little ostentatious display in his attitude, which gave some insight into one great feature in his character." He spoke as follows. " My Lords, it is my intention to say a few words only. I desire that the last act of a proceeding which has oc- cupied so much of the public time should be of short duration; nor have I the in- delicate wish to close this dreary ceremony of a state prosecution with a vain dis- play of words. Did I fear that hereafter, when I shall be no more, the country I have tried to serve would think ill of me, I might indeed avail myself of this solemn moment to vindicate my sentiments and my conduct: but I have no such fear. The country will judge of those sentiments and that conduct in a light far different from that in which the Jury by which I have been tried and convicted have received them; and by the country the sentence which you, my Lords, are about to pronounce, will be remembered only as the severe and solemn attestation of my rectitude and truth. Whatever be the language in which my sentence be spoken, 1 know that my fate will meet with sympathy, and that my memory will he honoured. In speaking thus, accuse me not, my Lords, of an indecorous pre- sumption. To the efforts I have made in the just and noble cause I ascribe no vain importance, nor do I claim for those efforts any high reward; but it so happens, and it will ever happen so, that they who have tried to serve their country, no matter how weak their efforts may have been, are sure to receive the thanks and bless- slags of its people. With my countrymen I leave my memory, my sentiments,

my acts—proudly feeling that they require no vindication from me this day. A Jury of my countrymen, it is true have found me guilty of the crime of which I stood indicted. For this I entertain not the slightest feeling of resentment towards them. Influenced as they must have been by the charge of the Lord Chief Justice, they could have found no other verdict. What of that charge? Any strong observations upon it, I feel sincerely, would ill befit the solemnity of this scene; but I would earnestly beseech of you, my Lord—you, who preside on that bench—when the passions and prejudices of this hour shall have passed away, that you will appeal to your own conscience, and ask if it were a charge, as it ought to have been, impartial and indifferent between the subject and the Crown.

" My Lords, you may deem this language unbecoming in me, and perhaps it may seal my fate. But I am here to speak the truth, whatever it may cost. I

am here to regret nothing I have ever done—to retract nothing I have ever said. I am here to crave with no lying lip the life I consecrate to the liberty of my country. Far from it. Even here, where the thief, the libertine, and the mur- derer have left their footprints in the dust—here, on this spot, where the shadows of death surround me, and from which I see my early grave in an unconsecrated soil is opened to receive me—even here, encircled by those terrors, the

hope which beckoned me on to embark upon the perilous sea upon which I have been wrecked still consoles, animates, enraptures me. No, I do not despair of my poor old country. I do not despair of her peace, her liberty, her glory. For that country I can do no more than bid her hope. To lift up this isle—to make her a benefactor to humanity, instead of being what she is, the meanest beggar in the world—to restore her ancient constitution and her native powers—this has been my ambition, and this ambition has been my crime. Judged by the law of England, I know that this crime entails on me the penalty of death: but the history of Ireland explains this crime and justifies it. Judged by that history, I am no criminal—you [turning to M'Manus] are no criminal— you [to O'Donohoe] are no criminal; and we deserve no punishment. Judged by that history, the treason of which I stand convicted loses all guilt, has been sanctified as a duty, and will be ennobled as a sacrifice. With these sentiments I await the sentence of the Court. Having done what I conceive to be my duty,— having spoken now, as I did on every occasion during my short career, what I felt to be the truth,—I now bid farewell to the country of my birth, of my passion, and of my death; the country whose misfortunes have invoked my sym- pathies, whose factions I have sought to quell, whose intellect I have prompted to lofty aims, whose freedom has been my fatal dream. To that country I now offer as a pledge of the love I bore her, and as a proof of the sincerity with which I thought, and spoke, and straggled for her freedom, the life of a young heart, and with that life all the hopes, the honours, the endearments, of a happy and an honourable home. Pronounce then, my Lords, the sentence the law directs, and I shall be prepared to hear it. I trust I shall be prepared to meet its execution. I hope I shall be able, with a pure heart and perfect composure to appear before a higher tribunal—a tribunal where a Judge of infinite goodness as well as of infinite justice will preside and where, my Lords, many, many of the judgments of this world will be reversed." (A murmur of applause ran through the court; and many persons were moved by the prisoner's words to tears.) Chief Justice Doherty proceeded to pronounce sentence on the prisoners. After deep consideration before entering the court, he had resolved not to prolong their stay at the bar by any lengthened observations; but he felt bound to state the unanimous opinion of the Court, that the verdicts could not honestly and consci- entiously have been other than they were. In reference to any legal doubts, he made this declaration—" From the commencement to the conclusion of this Com- mission, which has now extended to the fifth week, there has been a perfect coin- cidence in the views of every member of this bench as to the law." Mr. Meagher's personal observations on the Lord Chief Justice Blackburne compelled a rebuke; which, however, was given with the gentlest dignity—" If the observations of the distinguished Judge who presides here did seem to you (and I can make every al- lowance for their doing so) to press and bear severely upon you, perhaps, in a calmer moment, when you come to reflect upon it, you will see that it was from the very nature of the transactions themselves that those comments legitimately arose which appeared to you to press with undue severity upon you. Perhaps, when you come to reflect dispassionately, you will see this in the same light; and I trust that you may be more reconciled than you appear at present to the justice of the unhappy fate which awaits you, and which there is not an individual with a heart to feel who mast not deeply deplore." The recommendations accompanying each verdict had been sent to the Lord- Lieutenant, and with him alone the fate of those recommendations now rested. "The sentence of the law is, that you Terence Bellew M`Manus, you Patrick O'Donohoe, and you Thomas Francis Meagher, be taken hence to the place whence you came' and be thence drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution and that each of you be there hanged by the neck until you be dead; and that after- wards the head of each of you shall be severed from his body, and the body of each divided into four quarters, to be disposed of as her Majesty shall think fit: and may the Almighty God have mercy upon your souls."

The Judges left the bench; and the Governor of the Gaol and his assistant re- moved the prisoners; who bowed to the Court as they retired down the steps of the dock, and shook hands with their friends. There was a dead silence in court for a short time: then, says the Times reporter, "the noise of conversation became louder and louder, and at last the persons who perhaps had wept at the address of Mr. Meagher, forgot their sorrow in laughter, which sounded harshly and gratingly on the ear after the solemn words so recently listened to." The Solicitor-General stated that he did not propose to proceed with the trials of the minor prisoners for the present; and on his application the Commission was formally adjourned till the 5th of December.

With respect to the men who refused to give evidence against Mr. O'Brien, the Judges have ruled that John O'Donnell, a farmer of the better class, and Richard Shea, a half-famished lad of about eighteen years old, are to be imprisoned for one year from the 1st of October, and fined 101.; and in default of paying the fine, they are to be further imprisoned for a period of three months. Edmund Egan, the other man who refused to give evidence, is now in custody on a charge of high treason; and true bills have been found against him. The Pilot states on authority that Mr. John B. Dillon has landed safely at New York.

The Dublin Commission opened its sittings on Monday, but has not yet tried any case of interest. True bills of indictment for felony under the recent act have been found by the Grand Jury against Mr. Gavan Duffy, in addition to those presented at the August sitting of the Commission. The trial will probably commence by next Monday.