IRELAND.
A meeting was held at the Rotunda on Monday, to protest against the in- creased grant for Maynooth College. It was expected that the Earl of Roden, would preside, but he was not even present; and Mr. Grogan, one of the Dublin. Members, was called to the chair. The speakers were mostly clergymen, and the language was strong.
The sixth annual meeting of the Church Education Society took place at Dub- lin Rotunda, on Thursday last week; the Bishop of Kildare presiding. The Bishop of Cashel, the Bishop of Down and Connor, Lord Bernard, Mr. Frederick Shaw, M.P., Mr. G. A. Hamilton, M.P., the Honourable Somerset Maxwell, and many other clergymen and gentlemen, attended. The report stated that the number of local associations in connexion with the Society is 1,820; showing an i
increase on 1843 of 91 schools: the number of scholars is 103,883; of whom 32,963 are Roman Catholic, and 13,510 Protestant Dissenters; increase in scholars, 1,355: the income is 30,4201.; increase, 6,8741. The report echoed with approval the recent declaration of the Bishops against the National system of education; and several speakers pursued the same theme. The Bishop of Cashel cited statistics to show its working. In 1830, by the exertions of the Protestant schools, the number of males in Ireland who could not read or write was reduced to 35 in every 100. In the year 1831 the National Board was created; and the result of its operations was—that in the year 1835 the number of those who could neither read nor write in Ireland was increased to 42 in the 100; and from the last census it appeared that under its fostering care, and with the aid of the many thousands paid to it every year, the proportion of those who were illi- terate was 76 in the 100. Mr. Shaw, while speaking against the. Government on the subject of National education, took occasion to contradict a rumour which had been spread abroad, that the clergy of this country who could not adopt the views of Government on the subject of education were to be proscribed from professional advancement or reward. Several subscriptions to the funds were announced before the meeting separated.
The Lord-Lientenant has appointed Mr. Edmund Blake to be a Stipendiary Magistrate for the county of Roscommon. This gentleman was one of the ten Stipendiaries reduced on the accession to office of the present Government; he is a Roman Catholic, and very popular.
It is reported that Mr. O'Connell has promised to return at the next general election Mr. Thomas M'Nevin, a leader of the Young Ireland party, either for the borough of Clonmel or Cashel; both the present Members having come under the ban of the Repeal Association.
At the usual meeting of the Repeal Association, on Monday, Mr. Smith O'Brien read a report from the judges appointed to consider the essays on the Repeal of the Union. Forty-eight essays were sent in each of which the judges read separately. They assigned the first prize to Mr. M. J. Barry, (a barrister); the second to Mr. M. Staunton, the editor and proprietor of the Weekly Register; the third prize was given for the essay signed " An Irish Protestant," the writer of which concealed his name. Mr. O'Connell announced that he bad accepted invitations to a dinner and procession at Dundalk, on Thursday the 2d May; and in the county of Meath, on the 22d May, or Corpus Christi-Day. He also wished• to announce that he intended to suggest to the Association the pro- priety of having a grand banquet at Clontarf on the 30th May next. Handing in some money from Staten Island, in New York, he took the opportunity to de- nounce the annexation of Texas, and slavery in the United States. The rent for the week was 4781.
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