IRELAND.
Sir John Young was entertained at dinner last week by the Harbour Commissioners of Belfast. It was his first visit to the town ; and he gratified his hearers by praising the improvements. In returning thanks fur the Lord-Lieutenant, he said- " I need scarcely tell you that the weight and amount of the duties in- cumbent on the Insh Government have been very much curtailed, and its functions greatly limited and reduced. The principal part of the functions of the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland now consists in the preservation of order and the due administration of the law. The other interests of Ireland have been happily merged in the general interests of England, and in that de- partment receive the attention which they demand. The Lord-Lieutenant's functions, therefore, are now mainly confined to the preservation of peace and the administration of the law ; but I may say, that in a sincere desire for the welfare of Ireland, Earl St. Germans yields to no other man in the empire." From Belfast Sir John Young went to Armagh, on a 'visit to the Lord Primate.
Ihe Northern Whig publishes a correspondence between Mr. Sergeant Shee and Mr. Sharman Crawford upon Tenant Right. Mr. Slice lays it down as the duty of the party "to curb all little pride in mere verbal con- sistency," and to do its utmost to convince the Government that the Te- nant-righters-are, and always have been, "ready to accept with becoming thankfulness and contentment the substance of an honest and equitable reform." n' " The annual meeting of the Royal Society for the Promotion and Im- provement of the Growth of Flax in Ireland was held at Belfast on Friday sennight ; the Earl of Erne in the chair. From the report made to the meeting we learn, that the number of acres of flax under cultivatien has increased from 63,863 in 1848 to 175,495 in 1853; and that the value of The crop has increased from 800,000/. in 1848 to 2,040,135/. in 1853. But Lord Erne pointed out a farther source of wealth, in the seed. It ap- pears that the growers do not save the seed, estimated at 4/. an acre, but "leave it to be liquified in a bog-hole" ; thus losing something like 400,0004 a year. The Northern Whig ably comments on the folly of this Waste.
There has been a "run" upon the Abbey Street branch of the Dublin Savings-Bank. Upwards of 40,000/. was "called" for. The 124Magers immediately issued a statement showing the perfectly solvent ".'aditinn of the bank. The amount due to depositors is 275,8001.; there
is a sum of 275,8004 8s. 8d. lodged to the account of the trustees in the hands of the National Debt Commissioners, a balance of 1451/. in the Bank of Ireland, and the premises in Abbey Street. It is supposed that the depositors were alarmed because the Cork Savings-Bank had been closed for a short time to effect some repairs. No other cause is assigned or imagined.
The trustees of the banks received, on Wednesday, a notice from the National Debt Commissioners directing the Bank of Ireland to pay the trustees' draughts to any amount, without waiting for the usual period of four days, so long as the run might continue.
An evidence of the decrease of pauperism in the Irish Poor-law Unions is afforded in the fact that ffirty clerks at the head department were dis- charged on Wednesday.
The Dublin Exhibition building is to be opened as a promenade. It will be adorned with, fountains, statuary, and evergreen shrubs and flowers.
Captain Megan M.P., and a tenant of his at Moate, Peter Kelly, had a dispute about corn seized by the Captain ; which led to a riot and combat when the landlord attempted to carry away the sheaves. Moylan, one of Kelly's faction, was left dead on the field. Captain Megan had been sued by Kelly for an election-bill, and returned the compliment by distraining for rent on Kelly's corn. The corn was placed on the premises of one Green, a sub-tenant of Kelly ; and the latter thought he might distrain his tenant for rent due, and so recover his corn. Hence the riot. A company of the Thirty-third and a hundred Policemen were present when Captain Magan finally carried off the corn.
Garret Farrell, a Ribandman on whose evidence other Ribandmen were ex- pected to be convicted in Down county, has just died : there is no like- lihood of making up for the loss of his testimony, and therefore the accused will be liberated.
There has been some " excitement " in Sligo from the continued exportation of potatoes. In one case, a man was forced by a mob to take his cart-load of potatoes to the market and sell them, instead of conveying them to the stores for exportation.
John M'Cann, fireman at a flax seutching-mill near Portadown, has caused the death of himself and his son, and injury to a number of workpeople, by recklessly placing a brick on the safety-valve while the engine was not at work : the boiler exploded.
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