IRELAND.

The Irish Protectionist movement meets with little sueeer oven among its own friends, and it has called up demonstration of hostility in an unex- pected quarter. A meeting was held at Mallow on Friday, at which Colonel Chatterton presided over a considerable assemblage of county gentlemen : the pro- ceedings wore quite unanimous, and Protectionist resolutions were

But at Galway, a-meeting called by the " High sheriff of the county of the town," on Saturday, fell through for want of energy in those who re- quested it. The meeting was large, and the two Members of P.arliemmit were present, with a party of Free-trade supporters. Mr. Kirwan made a speech of a few comments on the Glengall petition, but sat down without making a motion. After a pause, Mr. Michael Winter moved that the meeting should adjourn. On this Mr. Kirwan rose and supplied his omission by making a substantive " motion" that the Glengall petition be adopted. Another pause having ensued, the High Sheriff complained of the apathy of those who requested him to call the meeting : he had journeyed one hundred and fifty miles to preside, and he urged a free expression of opinion in presence of the two County Members. The Reverend Mr. Daly, P.P., made a speech against protection and in arraignment of the landlords— . The landlords had not always thought, as they now thought, "that the interests of the several classes of the people are bound up to- gether"; if they had always, thought that, and acted on it, their position would he better now. The feeling among the landlords ever was, that if they were rich, it mattered little how the affairs of the poor man went; if they could revel in luxury and licentiousness, it was of no consequence whether the tenant lived or died. That was the plain fact; in that way did things go on for upwards of six hundred years, until now, at length, they had brought on their own destruction. Mr. Somerville seconded Mr. ICirwaa's motion, and supported the Glen- , gall petition, on principles of commercial protection. The High Sheriff expressed his opinions on free trade. He warned the Members, that at the next election they would fled how little the people liked their princi- ple. He defended the landlords] against Father Daly ; but expressed his fears that, through the agency of the three Infernal Judges in Dublin "— the Encumbered Estates Commission—" Ireland would soon have another race of proprietors:" Mr. M. J. Blake, M.P., defended his Free-trade votos, and declared that the people approved of them. He moved as an amend- ment, "that the High Sheriffleave the Chair, and that Mr. Ireland be called thereto, for the purpose of returning thanks to the former." Mr. Blakcney made a Protection speech, and finished by " moving " that a petition for pro- tection be presented to Parliament on behalf of the meeting. Mr. Kirwan rose again, though his own motion, with all the subsequent " amendments " and " motions," had not yet been put by the Chairman, and seconded Mr. Blakeney's motion. Mr. Pierce Joyce "seconded the amendment; which, after noisy discussion, was adopted. The chair was then taken by Mr. Ireland, amid loud-cheers." Mr. O'Flaherty, M.P., made a Free-trade speech. Mr. Daly moved a vote of thanks to the High Sheriff; which was carried unanimously. The meeting then separated, many cheering' loudly for cheap bread, free trade, and tenant-right

But the climax of failure occurred " urred at Wexford, on Monday. The Sheriff had summoned a meeting there on requisition ; but when he came - to preside he found scarcely any to preside over. The business in hand could not be proceeded with ; and the persons who met were dismissed sine die, shouting, like those at Galway, for free trade and low rents.

On the other hand, the movement of the tenant-farmers, led by the Roman Catholic priesthood, against high rents and insecurity of tenure, gains impetus.

A "vast out-door meeting" of tenant-farmers was held at Temple- more, in the county of Kerry, on Wednesday week. It was summoned by a requisition said to have been prepared by the priests ; and was in- tended to give an opportunity to "lay before the landlords of this im- poverished union the utter impossibility of their continuing to exact the present exorbitant and oppressive rents without ruining themselves and their unfortunate tenants.' The only speech reported is that of Mr. O'Sullivan, parish-priest of Kenmare, 'a clergyman of considerable in- fluence in that part of the county." This speech was the characteristic feature of the meeting. Mr. O'Sullivan is reported to have commenced with "a coarse invective against Lord Glenpll.' He then turned to the proceedings of a Mr. Her- bert, who, he said, had been " getiang up a Committee to show the people of this county how they are overburdened by taxation." Mr. Herbert "never was

i

more mistaken in his life ; as far as Kenmare is concerned, at all events. According to Mr. Herbert's argument,. and that of his fellow proprietors, it follows that, because the county-cess is so much increased, ergo the country has fallen back in proportion. It is quite the contrary." Mr. Henry Stokes, the county surveyor, had written to Mr. O'Sullivan making these state- ments—

" The state of Kerry has improved in every way since 1834, when I first knew it. The markets are trebled, and they have sprung up in places where eight years ago they were not in existence; and when we consider that in those last ten years we have opened and repaired roads so as to make 1,100 now of good roads instead of about 400, many of which were very bad lines, it is not too much to say that the im- provement of the county has resulted in a great measure from that extension of available roads."

"That was before the potatoes began to fail. You all knew the late Mr. Godfrey, the Protestant Rector of Kenmare. There was no man in this county more respected. (Loud cheers.) What did he tell me ?—That when he came to this parish thirty years before, there was not a single baker's shop in the town of Kenmare. Well, this blessed St. Stephen's Day there are no less than seventeen : what has brought that about ?—It is because every one eats bread k and much good may it do him. The landlords, in their benevolence, think that it would be good for us to throw us back on potatoes, by putting a high price on bread. The first Christmas I came here, about twelve years ago, there were only three cows killed : how much do you think were killed last week ?—Give a guess. There were thirty-seven cows and twenty sheep. But because we are eating beef and mutton, instead of letting the price of it go into the pockets of the land- lords, they make a rout, and express great indignation on the subject. They think those things ought to be sold as before, and the price put into their pockets. That is what is making the landlords bestir themselves. It is not that they care one farthing what we eat or drink, or what is our condition ; but they are endeavouring to bring about a state of things which will in- crease rents on you, in order that they may be able to spend them in riot, and live as expensively and recklessly as before Is it any consolation to the farmers of this country to know what price is got for corn It is never by corn he makes his rent ;—all your rents are made by butter. The advantage of having corn so cheap is, that bread-stuffs are beginning to form your staple food, instead of wet potatoes. Will any one listening to me say that this country ever grew food enough for itself? It is melancholy to think that while there are 277,000 acres in this union, we never could grow enough of food to support 33,000 people. What is the reason of that ?—Because the lands are not half tilled, the earth does not yield half

• herproduce. The land would support four times the population." He "set the Irish peOple right with the English people," and especially laud- ed the English Government for its help at the famine time. " I will show you what that Government did for this union. They lent you 28,0001. ; they for- gave half that. They gave 14,0001. for the stirabout ; they forgave 11,0001. of that. They made an advance of 12,0001. for out-door relief ; and we have a letter this day remitting the payment of that 12,000/. So that there have been 37,0001. given as a donation to this union, at different times, by that very Government against which the landlords are railing and so indignant. What did they subscribe themselves to the relief of the poor ? Their joint subscriptions would not amount to the hundredth part of what was so ad- vanced, nor to the fortieth part of what Lord Lansdowne sent for the relief of the poor tenants on his estate. As my words will go forth on the wings of the press, I wish also to state, that on no other property in this union ex- cept that of. the Marquis of Lansdowne does that confidence on the part of the tenant about which I have spoken exist. On that property, so long as a man pays his rent, he is never disturbed ; and when he chooses to leave, the good-will of his tenement and of what he has done will be purchased of him at thirteen or fourteen years' purchase. You have been making all manner of exertions to till your land ; but, though you have been doing so, the land- lords have not met you—with a few exceptions—in any way, or encouraged you. Your cattle sold, you have not been able to purchase a coat to put on your backs; your wives' cloaks have been in the pawn-office all the summer to purchase seed to put in the ground. I ventured to state their wants to Sir Moses Montefiore. Through his benevolence these poor women are now enabled to appear at mass on Sunday. Let not the landlords, then, rail against the Government or the English. people. I can assure them, all those facts will be found staring them in the face in the

House of Commons. There is not a part of the world where such magnani- mity and generosity have been exhibited as on the part of the English people towards us III our distress. You all recollect when I went to London, with that excellent Protestant clergyman Mr. Gowing, in order to lay our priva- tions before the English people. I told the noble-hearted men who met us with such practical generosity and hospitality on that occasion, that I would take the first opportunity to thank them in the name of the people. We had the first men in London, such as Jones Loyd, Sir Moses Monteflore, Baron Rothschild, (who sent his own ship to Kenmore with the first cargo of meal,) Samuel Gurney, Mr. Trevelyan, David Salomon, and Mr. Braon, the only

Catholic amongst them : there they were, meeting every night--men with millions of money, to whom every moment was of the greatest importance ; there they were, night after night, listening to our details of the state of our unfortunate country. If a prince of the blood came there, he could not be treated with more deference or courtesy, than we, the humble representa- tives of our suffering poor. Therefore it is our duty to put the saddle on the right horse. Let us not be placing our misfortunes at the door of the English people, but of those people who saw their suffering fellow men every day in the year—who were content to look on two millions of people living on the charity of others, yet never attempted such a move as that now

ntemplated by them, till they saw the thing coming home to themselves— the founfl Vie ground fast slipping from under them."

- lie-atatnuously advocated the fair working of the Poor-law. "I

4 /ray, if anything ever sets this country right, it will be the Poor-law. Az.' Do not imagine that the officers get everything in the house. You are led to imagine that you are only supporting a staff instead of the paupers.

I hold in my hand a return—an official document—giving the propor- tion of the several heads of expenses incurred under the Poor-Relief Acts in one year. It shows that, out of every 100/. spent, 80/. goes for food and

clothing, instead of being scattered in the way that the landlords lead_you to believe. I tell you, if anything brings round the poor, it will bci.

the poorhouse; because the landlord will be taught to see that it is cheape to employ the poor on the land than support them in the workhouse. If th people had common sense and worked together in that manner, the coun would have righted itself long ago. If all the meetings called for Repeal and other political purposes had assembled in the tone and temper of this meet- ing today, we should have been a much more independent people twenty years ago, than, unfortunately, we are at present."

The following were among the resolutions passed-

" That it is the opinion of this meeting, that the free importation of corn into this union is essentially necessary, not only for its wellbeing and pros- perity, but for its actual existence • and that any attempt to reimpose a duty on the importation of food can only have the effect of swelling the purses and increasing the rentals of a few landlords, whilst it must of necessity tend to the starving of the people. " That we do not by any means concur or participate in the cry that is being raised against the present Poor-law ' - inasmuch that, with all its de-

fects, it places the burden of the poor on those who are best able and who

ought, to bear it. It, to a certain extent, relieves the struggling farmer of a heavy burden he bad hitherto, solely and unaided by the landlord, to bear,

viz. the support of the poor • and it leaves no choice to the landlord between supporting the poor idly and unprofitably in the workhouse, and their use- ful and remunerative em,ployment in the cultivation of the soil outside.

" That the rents of this union have been at all times immoderate, and of late years so oppressive as to render it impossible to hold out any longer un- der so grievous a burden. All our means have gone out for the import of food during four successive famines, our farming produce has fallen to half its value, taxation has been doubled ; and yet the same rents, with few excep- tions, have been demanded and paid with as much severity as they have

been in times the most prosperous and flourishing. Seeing, therefore, no isposrtion on the part of the landlords to take our case into consideration, and seeing them meet and come together for no other purpose than to make

more grievous the yoke that has been for centuries cast upon us, it only re- mains for us to resign their lands and betake ourselves to a country where a man may feel that he is labouring for himself, and where the fruits of his labour are not likely to go to other than his own family."

Mr. Sharman Crawford has addressed to the tenants on his extensive estates in the county of Down, a circular letter proposing a provisional rearrangement of rents on the basis of the lowered price of agricultural produce.

It has always been his opinion that "the estimate of rent should be based upon a consideration of the productive powers of the soil ; according to its qualities appropriating to the landlord, for the use of the land, an annual amount, equivalent to his fair proportion of the produce created, after allow- ing to the tenant his fair proportion of the products, for mansgement, for labour, and capital employed in the culture and improvement of the soil, and for all other charges which he might be liable to pay." He is also of opinion "that every letting of land, in any form, whether for a longer or shorter term, should be subject to a readjustment of rent according to the variations of the prices of produce, either annually or from time to time, as may be agreed upon." He proposes therefore to reconsider with each tenant all the circumstances of his case, and to determine the rent for the present year; to repeat the review every successive year, and alter the rent as prices rise or fall ; and ultimately to fix the rent at an average of a series of years.

Mr. John O'Connell has announced his intended resignation of his seat in Parliament. In a letter to his constituents of Limerick he says--

"Circumstances not of my own creating have so limited my means as to necessitate the resumption and pursuit of my profession, abandoned twelve years ago at my father's desire ; and the attention requisite for this purpose must incapacitate me from giving even occasional attendances in Parlia- ment. I feel that it would be flagrant ingratitude, as well as gross injustice, were I to retain my high position as one of your representatives when unable any longer to discharge even occasionally its duties in Parliament. I there- fore shall divest myself of the high honour you so generously conferred upon me in 1847, at the first intimation of your being ready and willing to pro- ceed to a new election."