The Express.
London, England, 1847-11-03 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 3, 1847.

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, Nov. 1.
Several of the repeal members have arrived in town,
to attend the "National Council of Distress and
Safety " to-morrow. Among the most hopeful of the
arrivals is Alderman Fagan, of Cork. The counter
assembly, contrary to expectation, will hold a con-
current session with the " Council." The Irish coun-
cil originally appointed no particular day, the resolu-
tion running " after the 4th of November." A notice,
however, appears this morning, convening a meeting
of the Lords and Commas of Ireland on the 4th,—a
notice which will secure very little attention from the
aforesaid lords, &c. The National Council, of the
two, is likely to have the most numerous attendance.
The order of the relief commissioners, impounding
the credits of the guardians in the country banks, has
raised a thunder of indignation. So incredible did it
seem to the Thurles board, that one noble guardian
deemed it " all a joke"—another, "a mistake"—a
third, "an impossibility." It was, however, a very
serious fact, and there can be no doubt that if rigidly
carried into effect the guardians would take advan-
tage of the want of funds, and close the workhouses.
Such a calamity would lead to the worst conse-
quences. Already the government is repentant. On
Friday the order to impound arrived. On Saturday
the bank received orders to honour the drafts of the
Cork guardians. In Drogheda the same prudent
course has been pursued. It would be impossible,
consistently with the proper administration of the
poor laws, to act strictly and invariably on the rule.
The Lord-Lieutenant will inspect an exhibition of
roots and farm produce at the Royal Dublin Society,
on Wednesday and Thursday nett, which is likely to
be the most successful display of 'the society in that
department of productions since its foundation. It
is greatly to the credit of the society, that amid the
universal gloom and despondency it has held three exhi-
bitions within the present year—of agricultural stock
—of Irish manufactures—of Irish sculpture—and now
one of farm produce. In addition to these exertions,
large quantities of work by female peasants have been
sold on the premises, and a fine range of buildings
is now in at Olasnevin.
How to employ the able-bodied poor, to the relief
of the rates and the improvement of the soil, is now
the problem which is being considered in various
quarters. I have already noticed the sound views on
the subject which prevail in parts of Westmeath. In
Meath, also, there is a salutary movement in the
same direction. At the last meeting of -the Bells
union, which comprises the most fertile portion of
that proverbially fertile county, the Archdeacon of
Meath, the Rev. Mr. Stopford, proposed a set of reso-
lutions, which were adopted, and of which the follow-
ing is the substantial outline :—That landlords and
farmers should employ the labourers of each electoral
division to the extent of one man for each family not
exceeding four, and two for each larger family ; that
landlords should employ one-third in permanent im-
provements, and tenants two-thirds. Lists of labour-
ers having been made, the apportionment was in the
ratio of six men for every hundred acres. A resolu-
tion undertaking to employ such proportion has been
very numerously signed by proprietors and occupiers.
An improvement is about to be made in our system
of deed registration. The Treasury, having consulted
with Chief Baron Pigott and Mr. Monahan, have
carried out the suggestion of Mr. Pierce Mahony, and
ordered copies of all searches to be placed upon record.
It is also intended to make arrangements for placing
on record the satisfaM ion of judgments in the Judg-
ment-office. Then imeovementa have been approved

of by the highest legal authorities ou both aides of the
Water.

Tile Enema. ASSOCIATIoN.—This body. met to-day,
Capt. Greene, M.P. for Kilkenny county, in the chair.—
Mr. O'Connell read a communication from Clonmel, con-
veying a resolution agreed to at a meeting of the constituency
there, calling upon their representative, the Hon. Mr. Law-
less, to attend the meeting of the national council of the
Irish members to meet to-morrow. Mr. O'Connell com-
mended the resolution, and hoped other constituencies
would imitate that of Clonmel. It wu not yet too late, as
the council would, he did not doubt, adjourn front day to
day over the next fortnight, there were such important in-
terests to be discussed.—A Mr. Burke addressed the meeting,
ehuging the Young Inlanders with inciting the people not
to pay poor-rates.—Mr. O'Connell again rose, and, in a very
long address, he adverted to the topics which occupy public
attention at this moment. lie referred at very great length
to the returns from a nortion of the diaoeueof Elphin, given
In puma= to a tesofution passed at a recent meeting of the
Rennin catholic prelates of the west of Ireland, at Lougbrea.
These returns have already been before the public in the
repeal journals, and they contain details of the sanitary and
food statistics of several parishes, together with an estimate
of the number of deaths in each Homan catholic benefice
which occurred within the past 12 months. Those accounts
extend to great length, and present feature of a deplorable
character. Mr. O'Connell referred to these seriatim, and
urged them u evidence of distress which called for prompt
and ample measures to prevent a renewal of the destitution
and of the deaths which must inevitably fallow unless those
means were adopted. Mr. O'Connell said that these returns
would form, of course, matter for consideration in the coun-
cil of Irish members, and they could not be passed over in
silence by parliament. For not only would such a short
session as that intended to commence before Christmas be
insufficient to give adequate time for the consideration of .rich
a state of things as those returns disclosed, but even a
full session would find abundant business in discussing
their existence and the mode of preventing a recurrence of
such a state of things as they disclosed. The condition of
Ireland should come under the consideration of parliament
in the short session, notwithstanding the announcement in the
Times that the proceedings would refer to England only.
'rho " infamous Times " had stated that the executive had
funds and food enough to meet the destitution in Ireland,
though the Lord Lieutenant had been assuring every Irish
deputation for the last three months that he had neither food
nor funds. He believed the Lord Lieutenant, and
that the Times invented this statement to rave the
minister. Mr. O'Connell promised the meeting that
whatever number of Irish members should act together,
were it only five, they would force the case of Ire-
land on the attention of the legislature. After a reference to
foreign politics, in which Mr. O'Connell censured Lord
Palmentan's policy, as stimulated by his anti-catholic ten-
dencies to the perpetration of injustice, of which he instanced
Syria, Luxembourg, and Limbourg, as affording proofs, as
well as Switzerland, he concluded by a reference to repeal.
—Mr. D. Callaghan, M.P., addressed the meeting, after
which the rent was announced to be 371.
. . .

STATE or TILE COUNTILY.—TEE Limerick Chronicle, in
a third edition of Saturday's date, records, on the authority
of a maaistrate, the murder of another land-steward in the
county of Clare. This unfortunate individual was steward to
Mr. C. G. O'Callaghan, of Bollynahiach, and was murdered
on Saturday morning near Fort Anne, on the road leading
from Killslue and Scar Al to Ennis, in that county. The
victim fell pierced by two balls, which entered his head, one
going in at his mouth and carrying away a portion of the
skull. The name of the victim was Michael Walsh.—lle-
, faults have been detected in the accounts of the collectors of
poor rate in Curk ; the plan made use of was to fill into the
book a small rate from a low-rated occupier where a large
rate had been collected. The defrauders have absconded.—
In the parish of Kilfree, county Sligo, where great distress
prevails, 2 tons 7 cwt. of meal was given to be distributed
last week to persons not having in their possession either
potatoes or oats. Out of the parish, numbering 1,000 fami-
lies, 300 families were round in that deplorable ptsition, and
had meal accordingly.—The guardians of Athlone union
have refused to strike a new rate, as was proposed, there
being no funds in hand. Their apology is, that there is un-
collected of the last rate struck 3,4581.

SCOTLAND.

EDINBURGH, Nov. 1.

This is the week for Scotch municipal elections, but
never was such apathy ever witnessed in regard to
local honours as exists at present. Only one worthy
in Edinburgh has advertised for s councillorship, and
ward meetings could scarcely be got up at all. In
Aberdeen one ward will be contested, and in Glasgow
it is thought that there will be no opposition of any
kind to such candidates as have been prevailed on to
come forward. The state of trade, obliging every
man to mind his own instead of national or burghal
I business, and the growing conviction that public ap-
pointments confer, in homely phrase, " more kicks
than halfpence," may be assigned as general reasons,
to which more specifically local controversies often
raise tides that swamp the usual landmarks of whig,
tory, and radical ; and staunch adherents of the whole
three will on a railway, police, or gas company act,
sink "minor differences," and pull for and against
each in glorious confusion ; and then, when the tem-
porary exigency is past, the old York and Lancaster
cries will arise, and set all by the ears as before.
Non-residence is in future to be eschewed by the
Scottish episcopal bench, and not without reason, as
hitherto residence within the diocese has been the ex-
ception, not the rule. Thus, the Bishop of Glasgow
resides in Leitb, ho of St. Andrew's, Dunkeld, and
Dunblane, in Peterhead, and he of Moray and Ross,
in Fife; and this, not from caprice or desire of fine
living, but simple poverty. The pay of Scotch ordi-
naries is so miserable that the episcopal fees are not
sufficient for maintenance ; and as bishops elect have to
retain their original pastoral charges, the mitre leaves
them where it found them. As almost all the Scotch
nobility belong to the episcopal church, this niggardli-
ness is highly disgraceful. However, by their in-
creased liberality, or by the superior resources of the
new prelates, Bishops Forbes and Ewing are to re-
side within the precincts of their respective dioceses.
The secretary of northern lighthouses has addressed
a letter to his brother official at Lloyd's, pointing out
some dozen of serious errors in the descriptions of
Scotch lighthouses given in five different charts in
current use by navigators, which furnishes another
among many reasons for the completion of the govern-
ment survey.

DARING AND BECRDE1101.:8 ASSAULT.—AII moult, with
intent to rob, was committed upon a workman on Saturday,
which, from the aggravated circumstances of the case, de-
mands more than a mere notice. It will be recollected that,
in the report of the destructive fire at Lancefield, on Friday
evening, it was stated that the warehouses of Messrs, P. Ro-
bertson and Co. were in considerable danger. The work-
men belonging. to the firm who were on the spot, observing
that the proprietor was nal present, deemed it expedient,
about one o'clock, , to despatch one of their number to
Mr. Robertson's residence in Buceleuch-street, Garnet-hill,

v7iii:;i7riTznatron of The nature of the fiee. This wed
accordingly done, and The man, after delivering his mes-
sage, returned by Main-street, an unfinished street lead-
-1 ing from Argyle-street up to Blythswood-aquare. He had
got about half-way down, and was at the open and un-
protected part of the road, when three stout men, who had
the appearance of carters, darted out from the side of the
path, and collared the unfortunate messenger, roughly de-
manding where he was going. Thinking they were but in
j. at he told them where he had been, and entreated them to
let him pass, but the only reply he received was a blow
which felled him to the ground. One of the ruffians then
threw himself on the poor man, and the other two com-
menced to rifle his pockets. In their savage haute, for the
man called out for assistance, they had apparently used a
knife to tear open his clothes, as he felt a sharp weapon
grazing along his skin while they were handling him eery
roughly. Dreadfully alarmed, the poor fellow naturally
thought they had a design to murder him, and contrived to
get his clasp knife out of his pocket, which he opened, and
by a desperate effort turned himself over, and stabbed in
the groin the man who was holding him. The stab
must have been a severe one, if it do not
ultimately fatal, as the man, immediately after receie4r7.
t,
fell back heavily. His comrades, seeing the condition he
was in, slunk behind, and thus allowed the workman, whe
was in a terrible state of excitement, an opportunity of ef-
fecting his escape from them. Having found three police-
men in Argyle street, he communicated to them the par-
ticulars of the attack, and they immediately proceeded to
the spot, but the vagabonds bad made good their retreat,
carrying with them their wounded companion. The clothes
which the man bad on, when attacked in this murderous
manner, were in numerous parts completely cut through,
and a deep scar in his left arm' and three cuts on his breast,
attest the ruthless manner of the assault which was made
upon him. We sincerely trust that the miscreants will
speedily be apprehended.
TILE MISSING WHALE•IIOATS. —.rho two boats' efewll
left on the ice by a Peterhead whaler have been brought
home by another vessel belonging to the same port.
PROVINCIAL.

New LUNATIC A8Y1.1113 are about to be erected in
various parts of the country, and the total cat of the build-
ings will be very considerable. It would appear from the
discussions at the recent Quarter Sessions that insanity is in-1
creasing in a somewhat greater ratio than can be accounted
for by the increase of population. Of the unfortunate per-
sons so afflicted • considerable number are paupers, and
these, in obedience to a recent act of parliament, are to be
accommodated in asylums to be raised in each county, or,
where the number of patients does not justify the erection of
a special building, two or more counties are to divide the
cost of a lunatic hospital, to be completed for joint use. The
estimated coat of these new airy lums, varying ofcourse with load
circumstances, appears to average from 1001. to 1201. for
cacti patient, betadee the cost of land ; making from 25,0001.
to 30,0001. for 250 inmates. The committee appointed by
the Wiltshire magistrates to consider this subject have re-
ported that there are already confined in that county 220
pauper lunatics, and that besides these there arc 196 persons
of imbecile mind not at present confined, but for whom,
under the new law, accommodation must be prepared. It
is recommended to buy for the new asylum 40 acres of land in
a dry and elevated situation, where an abundant supply of
water may be had. In Surrey the visiting justices stated
the number of patients at present in that county to be 185
males and 225 females, The committee for enlarging the