The Express.
London, England, 1848-05-15 00:00:00

puss-office shall be applied exclusively to the expenses of
that department, and all surplus he devoted to the re.
ductlon of the present chartes, or to lamas. d facili-
ties. A hope was furth, r exprused that under a more
rigid syt.em of management, with economy, the crown
lands might be able to iuidat the civil and the ex
penises ot roalty. Aftelrq somee little discussion, Mr. Wylie
stated that he bad received a letter from Mr. Cobden that
morning, in which be states, " I would go for a reduction
of at least ten millions, the amount saved to be applied in the
diminution of the excise and customs duties. A committee,
consisting of Meters. Robertson, Holland, Ileyworth, Wylie,
and Shiel, was appointed to draw up ••plan for the approval
of the council and the general body. A committee to draw
up rules and regulations was also appointed, and the meet-
ing soon afterwards adjourned.
REI•0101 CONEERENCE IN NEWCASTLE.—A large
and Influential body of the reformers of this town, at a con-
ference on Wednesday evening, " hail, el with pleasure the
formation of the parliamentary people's party," and pledged
themselves is aid that party in their endeavours to obtain a
reform in parliament. The parties present were almost
unanimously in favour of • still further extension of the suf-
frage than is contemplate,' by the Reform League, but were
unanimously in their approval of the recent organisation, and
manitested the utmost confidence in those who are at its head.
Tug GLASGOW Par tnoN.—The petition on this sub
ject, which wu recently agreed to at a public meeting of the
electors of the flat ward of the city of Glasgow, held on the
18th ult., has been transmitted for presentation to the Lord
Provost, with a request that Mr. Macgregor would support
the pre) er of it. The 13. tition i. signed by 159 electors of
the ward, being a majority of the whole.

IRELAND.
MUSLIN, MAY 13.
The approaching trials of course form the staple
of conversation in the Four Courts. lints are offered
freely, two to 1, that ther will be no conviction.
The chances, certainly, are in favour of a disagree-
ment, but I may not at present communicate the
grounds of that opinion. Mr. O'Brien and his friends
are highly elate at the prospect of his escape. I have
just learned that in the absence of the Solicitor-
General, who is now in London, Mr. SA rjeant
Warren will reply on behalf of the crown. It is
settled that Mr. Bute, Q.C., is to defend Mr. Smith

O'Brien.
The heads of parties—moral force, physical force,
and protestant repeal—have lately been drawing
closer, and sounding each other's sentiments, with a
view to a grand coalition. Various meetings have
been held, and bases of union proposed, which are to
undergo future consideration. At a recent meeting
the " church " was the topic, and the protestant chiefs
abandoned it toto rum conk, together with all ideas
of ascendancy of every kind whatsoever. The catholic
chiefs, e contra, guaranteed the strictly laical character
of the " two Irish houses." No bishops—no priests
are to carry the seeds of strife into the assembly of
the nation!
The United Irishman regards with sovereign con-
tempt all those attempts at union for a repeal of the
Union merely, and describes the address signed by
Dr. Miley, Messrs. Smith O'Brien, Meagher, John
O'Connell, and others, as " a piece of balderdash of
the very balmiest kind."
At a meeting of the Royal Agricultural Improve-
ment Society, yesterday, a letter was read from the
Earl of Clarendon, placing 1,0001. to the credit of the
council, towards defraying the expenses of the prac-
.

tical instructors.
Father Hughes, of Claremorris, in the county of
Mayo, has published, in the Nation of this day, a letter,
addressed to the Prime Minister, in which he has
laid down the regular plan of the campaign, to com-
mence the latter end of September. He declares
that the struggle will be decided in less than a half
year, and thus points out the fashion and the means :
It is now universally admitted by all, on the repeal side,
that a shorter period than six months will, in the event of
your forcing on a civil war, decide the struggle. The sir
months best suited and adapted to ensure the triumph of re-
peal are those intervening between the 21st of Sel iamb. r
and the 21st of March. This season, the commissariat of the
Irish army will not he dependent for its supplies on
foreigners. It is the season that C.lll afford best to sp.re moat
hands, without prejudice to the general employment and
pursuits of the natives for the service of the it country. Evssy
parish, or mere than three-fourths of the parishes of Ireland,
will turn out a regiment of national guards, smouatiag
each from 500 to 1,000 strong. This distineion of
parishes must bo.most strictly soh d, as the inhabitants
of the same parish will not only know each other best,
but will, in a crisis, and in cases of great difficulty, be not
only moat faithful to each other, but also to the national
cause. In cases of the expediency of the concentration
in env nutria place of a force from 10 to 40,000, the guides
nd conductors will b 3 principally selected from such a
place. This will be best calculated to crown with success
every engagement with the enemy, particularly the noc-
turnal skirmishes, from the more perfect knowledge of the
leaders of the different advantages that wl.l he presented
through walls and hedges, grove' and plantations, bills and
valley s, bridges and rivers, Isor,fmouutains, and trenches,
over the country. Every, the most trivial circumstance
and incident, must be made industriously available to the
wlvancement and success of the national cause. I need not
remind your lordship that, out cf 2,000 parishes in Ireland,
1,500 of the n will furnish each a body of national guards,
varying from 500 to 1,000 of determined and vigorous fight-
ing Irishmen, making an army of not less than 750,000 ad-
vantageously Icested over the country, under the management
and guidance of resolute and intrepid Irish officers. There
is not a day that passes that does not devolope unmistakable
evidence of what part the catholic clergy of Ireland will
take in this emenfe, in their respective districts and parishes,
should your lordship's misguided zeal force it on the country.
In this crisis the motto of the people of Ireland, flocks and
pastor', shall bp /Isla separabit.' The warfare system will
be to render, as far as it can be accomplished, entirely nickel
and to paraljse the efficiency of the artilary, cavalry, and
infantry of the enemy, by every cr.ft and stratagem, in
which the well-furnished, and well constructed pike will
prove the most destructive and successful instrument.
Everything approximaticg to general engagements must
be carefully avoided ; the meetings and encounters of
the enemy must be principally conducted by night,
except when victory by day appears morally certain.
Every night, from the Ist of October to the Ist of March,
will supply ten hours for worrying the enemy. When they
approach, by day, the villages, to destroy corn haggard', the
opportunities for successful resistance will be most favour-
able. Then the field fences, ditches, garden enclesures,
hedges, bushes, narrow passes, &e., will present so many
embarrassing obstructions against them, and serve, for the
national guards, as so many ramparts and barricades. All
care must be taken to remove every description of cattle in
all directions, some six or eight miles from the enemy's
camp. What wilt most multiply their difficulties will be
the conveyance of provisions, after advancing any consider-
able distance in the interior of the country from the
attacks to which their escort will he, from all quarters, ex.
posed through the country, by day and by night, from the
national guards, with whom they will be sure to be sur-
rounded in all directions. The repeal forces will have to
remove every morning, one hour before day, at least three
or four miles from the enemy, fir the purposes Of rest and
rerreshments. By this arrangement they cannot be affected
by either the artillery or cavalry of the enemy ; nor will the
infantry consider it expedient to pursue them that distance,
from the danger and various disadvantages to which they
would be :wed in a strange county during the short
days and long nights of winter.
In cootemplattng the coming struggle, the Irish consta-
bulary and Irish soldiery, whether Protestant or Catholic,
thus acquainted with the duties of allegiance towards their
sovereign, will put to themselves this question—does it form
any section in the compact between them and their sove-
reign, that that sovereign, at the capricious whim of his sub.
jests, should exercise his or her authority for the assassina-
tion of his children, family, and relatives; or that the sub-
jects were bound to sacrifice the lives of their parents, chil-
dren, brothers, sisters, friends, relatives, and neighbours, to
render endless and perpetual the slavery and degradation of
their native country, for the maintenance of an unjust and
tyrannical domination, based on perjury, bribery, treachery,
and every species of foul play, dishonesty, and corruption
This question, my lord, will naturally and necessarily be put
by these Irishmen in the coming struggle and I will leave
it to your lordship to conjecture what ;be the answer
and their decision. That decision can be no other than that
their fraternisation with their countrymen must be a matter
not only of duty hut of necessity, as it has been of late days,
under similar circumstances, in every country of Europe,
that the blessings of such fraternisation must lie incalculable;
that it implies no violation of the dictates of religion or con-
science; that no loss can be sustained by them from it; that,
on it will depend the future fate of their country; and that
whatever may be the form of the future government of
Ireland, whether republican or monarchical, all the vested
rights, pensions, &c. of all classes of its subjects, constabu-
lary, soldiery, &c., will be protected by it, and held sacred
and inviolable.
The following announcement, given on " autho-
rity," appears in the Mail of this evening :
We are enabled to state, on authority, that it is her Ma-
jesty's intention to visit Ireland within two months from the
present time, and, probably, to remain a considerable portion
of the autumn. Arrangements for the Queen's reception
have already been commenced.

EX OFFICIO PROCEEDINGS.
The preliminaries were drawn to a close yesterday. In
the case of Mr. Mitchell, the Attorney General applied to
the court to fin Monday, the 29th, for the trial of the first
informa.ion, and Wednesday, the 31st, for the second ; but
the latter being error-day, the ensuing day was selected.
Judge Crampton suggested the after-sittings of Trinity as
more convenient for the public, but the Attorney General
observed that the effect of such postponement would be the
delay of final judgment until November term. The days
then are Monday, the 29th, and Thursday, June the Ist.

STATE OF TIM Conicray.—The state of the country to•
day presents a rather agreeable asp.ect. From every dis-
trict whence accounts have come to hand the representations
as to the prospects of the crop are gratifying. The young
corn looks healthy ; the potato plants quits as well ; and
the whole aspect of cultivation most luxuriant. A circum-
stance respecting the potato crop was related to me to-day