IRELAND. There was a "monster meeting" at Castlebar, for the
county of Mayo, on Sunday. The procession which ushered Mr. O'Connell into the town was composed of the trades of several neighbouring towns, with the 7.Otial banners and bands ; it is said to have been three miles ;.-.1 length. Mr. O'Connell was surrounded by an immense body of horsemen, and was joined on his way by a great many of the resident gentry in carriages. His immediate companions were the
Archbishop of Tuam, Mr. Daniel O'Connell junior, Mr. Steele, and
_Mr. Reilly. The speechmaking a
Kind ; the notable
Pintfi bent wag . — .ee ainner-speech of Dr. M'Ilale. He alluded to a .ff petition by the Grand Jury of Mayo against Repeal and in favour of the Arms Bill— Such men as the Mayo Grand Jury said it was quiet the country required. But were the poor people of Ireland, and particularly of Connaught, allowed to enjoy repose, each one under his own fig-tree, without any notice to quit from their landlords, without any vexatious prosecutions for exorbitant arrears, and monstrously usurious charges from their agents ? or were they not rather per- secuted by every species of bigoted tyranny, until driven from the quiet of their homes—fortunate if they had saved as much from the wreck as would trans- port them from the land of their birth and affection ? The quiet which was asked for was the penal repose of silence under such a state of things; reflect- ing on which, he bad resolved to be an uncompromising Repealer.
As a proof of the necessity for Repeal, he referred to a petition for an increased grant to Maynooth College, which had for some time been labouring under great pecuniary embarrassment— That petition was laid before the Irish Government ; and the Secretary's an- swer was, " In case of an increased grant, what quid pro quo are the Trustees of the College prepared to give the Government ?" or, in plain English, what equivalent would they give the Government for their money ? The Secretary accordingly enlarged on the necessity of giving in return a larger control over the College than the Government had hitherto been invested with.
At the usual weekly meeting of the Repeal Association, on Tuesday, Mr. O'Connell handed in 270/. from Newfoundland, and 20/. from Mas- sachusetts. The total amount of rent for the week was 2,005/.
Mr. O'Connell has sent a letter to the Irish papers replying to Mr. Sharman Crawford's letter to the Dublin Monitor, inviting him to become a member of the Repeal Association, and explaining that he could do so consistently with his opinion in favour of Irish "Federal- ism "—
" We have already declared, that every man who concurs in the principle that every law exclusively affecting Ireland should be passed in an exclusively Irish and domestic Parliament, is capable of being a member of our association without any inconsistency. It was expressly upon this principle that we re- ceived the adhesion of the Right Reverend Dr. Kennedy, Catholic Bishop of Killaloe, as well as of several other persons, many of whom are members of the Irish bar."
A Government inquiry has been ordered as to officers of the revenue who have subscribed to the Repeal Association or otherwise supported it, with a view to make them retract or resign their posts.
A very interesting and very numerous meeting of the landholders and occupiers of five baronies of the King's County took place at Raheen on the 24th of July : the extensive Protestant landholders of the district attended in considerable numbers, to cooperate with the Roman Ca- tholic farmers in demanding a large reduction of rents, proportioned to The diminished prices of agricultural produce, and in earnestly calling upon all other parts of the country to follow their example. The reso- lutions setting forth those views, which were very temperately worded, were introduced by Protestants and Roman Catholics alternately.
At Belfast Assizes, on Friday, a number of men were convicted of riot on the 16th, at the funeral of a Catholic whose dying moments had been disturbed by some Orange rioters. Mr. Justice Perrin re- fused to allow the two parties to be tried separately : all were guilty of one offence, and the court could recognize no political or religious body. The counsel for the Orange party alleged, in defence, that they were "supporting the authorities" 1 The Judge pronounced the plea " ridi- culous and absurd." All were convicted. The sentences were terms of imprisonment ranging from four to six months, with fines of a or 10/.
A terrible murder was committed at Toomayara, in North Tipperary, on Friday night. Roger Donohoe, a respectable farmer, was waylaid by four men, who "beat his head into a mutilated and shapeless mass, with stones and bludgeons." Roger Donohoe was murdered in mistake for his brother John, who had lately taken some land in the neighbourhood of room, from which the Shelleys, relatives of his by marriage, had been ejected. The murderers had been lying concealed in a pit near the Shelleys' house for the greater part of Thursday evening. They are supposed to be strangers to the district.
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