Lord John Russell has addressed, and the Dublin Evening Post
publishes, a letter to the Duke of Leinster on the present state of Ireland. It is brief and sensible, and what Mr. O'Connell would call " a heartless lecture." Touching " reproductive labour," Lord John avows that Government expected, to see the landed proprietors begin improvements on their own account, and in that case only surplus labour _wield have been employed on public works; and he laments the " wrong direction" which has been given to the Labour-rate Act. He exposes the absurd tasks demanded from Government, such as maintaining an unusual rate of wages and keeping down food to the usual prices. What Govern- ment cannot do, individuals and societies might: they maw buy food and sell it at a moderate rate. Lord John inculcates diligence and hearty cooperation amongst all classes, especially in considering what kind of agricultural products can in future be substituted for the precarious potato crop.
The Lord-Lieutenant postponed his reception of the Fermoy deputation until Friday afternoon.
Government have hazarded a stroke of mercy at the first trials for par- ticipation in the food riots. The rioters at Dungaree'', fifty-one in num- ber, were brought to trial at the Quarter-Sessions, on Tuesday. Mr. Mitchell stated the case against the prisoners very leniently; they pleaded 'guilty; the ringleader, Patrick Power, was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment, and the other fifty were discharged without sentence on finding sureties to keep the peace.
In the disturbed parts of Ireland pacification does not make way. Great alarm is felt in Tipperary at the hostile attitude assumed by the pea- santry: all have fire-arms; which they ostentatiously parade. The " Anti- Russell mania," as the Times calls the foolish cry for Lord John's resignation, is spreading.
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