The Express.
London, England, 1847-04-13 00:00:00

IRELAND.

DUBLIN. Aran. 11.

Belfast, the chief seat of bisiitrasle and msnutac-
tures, shares in the general distress to an extent for
hicl, you will b prepared. Wh a thAt
emporium of commercial and manufacturing prosperity
contains a population of 15,000 destitute, subsist.ng
by local benevolence, how dreadful mud be the con-
dition of other districts without opulence, trade, or
employment ?

"-It-will scarcely be credited," says the report of the Bel-
fast Soup-kitchen Committee, just issued, " that the re are in
a town like Belfast, the seat and centre of wealth and manu-
factures, to be found a vast number of families, pro!. tb4 not
over. estimated at 1,000, who bare neither bed nor bedding of
any description, whose only couch is a heap of Intl y straw,
and who are without any artiste of furniture whatever."
Could there be possibly borne so strong a direct
testimony as this furnishes of indirect evidence as to
the overwhelming misery of the rest of Ireland—
where wealth is not and, manufactures are unknown.
The committee, amongst other labours, undertook to
re-whitewash the dwellings of the poor and distribute
among them straw as well as soup.
Excellent though M. Soyer's soup may be for
stomachs containing a basis of solid food, as a dietary
for an entire people, even accompanied with a biscuit,
it is regarded with much suspicion. Dr. Aldridge, an
eminent chemist, has delivered a very telling lecture
at the Royal Dublin Society against the geuc ral ap-
plication of a vegetable soup,—such as Soyer's, in sub-
stance, is; for the meat only fulfils the ditty of the
" hammy knife," and gives a poor relish. Dr. A.
showed from analysis that the soup prepared in the
parish kitchens was better and cheaper, though cod-
ing more nominally, because more nutritious. A very
distinguished authority in support of these views has
Mst appeared. The celebrated physician, Sir Henry
arsh, has published a small but conclusive pamphlet
in which he says, if soup diet be relied on to any
considerable extent, the population will be carried off
by dysentery.

THIS LAW OF Exconna.—M. Jullien who has been enter-
taining the citizens of Dublin for the few last nights,
at the-Music-hall, Abbey-street, has fallen into great disfa-
vour with our population. On Friday night Herr Pischek
with M. Jullien, was called on to repeat a song. The
I leader refused to permit him—the audience got angry, and
the maestro called them "a sixpenny mob." They reta-
listed by groaning, biasing, and finally broke some of the
I benches. Last night the " sixpennies"—by the b., the ad.
mission is a shillicg—mostered in great force, and though
M. Jullien was all submissivenc-aas to encores, yet As he dal
not apologise he was attacked. A rotten err{ war broken
upon hie forehead, and, as he turnrd round, au orange
struck him on the cheek. Some of the disturbers ere re-
moved by the police, aad quiet was restored.
ektAND CANAL COMPANV.— Stated half-yearly meeting
on Saturday, at their offices, William-street—Chairman, Mr.
John Barton. The report refers to the condiiiou of the
works, which are generally satisfactory ; to the losses in
trade, arising from the destruction of the potato crop, and
the great interruption of the navigation durifar Ot^ winter
and spring by frost, from which cruses from 3,0001.:o 4,0001.
of revenue were lost. The report also adiverte to the increase of
the passenger trade, arising from the tendency to emigra-
tion; and states, that the company has entered into a con-
tract with the Cashel Railway Company, which wid enable
them to remove their packet atatten to Satins, nineteen
miles west of Dublin ; the passengers to come 011 by rail.
The kill for constructing a rail on the canal bank has been
abandoned.

STATE OT THE COENTET.-Mr. Henry Carmody, of
Limerick, who acted as agent to • lady in Clare, was
wounded near Killaloc, on Wednesday last. The Leal viper
sta es his ease to he hopeless. Two persons whu o ere with
him at the time of the attack were wounded also.
—Seven men and one woman have been arrested for the
plunder of Mr. Lahiff sheep, neer Gort, but only one of the
sheep have been recovered. The who'e numbir plundered,
it now appears, was lii.—ford Monteagle has piireh^ste,
for the use of his Limerick tenantry, a cargo of It sa seed ;
his lordship having determined to encourage amonouit them
the growth of flan.

SCOTLAND.
EDINBURGH. Arun. 10.
The meeting of the Edinburgh Town Council at
which the education scheme was discussed was thinly
attended, and the majority was, in consegcence, only
one; but it him now been ascertained that had all the
councillors been present, the vote would have stood-
20firr to 12 against. The Glasgow meeting held
yesterday evening, ended in the adoption of resolu-
tions against the scheme, moved and seconded by two
ministers of the secession church. The lies. Mr.
D'Orsay, amidst much uproar, moved an amendment,
which was lost, greatly, it is to be feared, from the
confusion engendered by the introduction by some
Chartists of a second amendment, that no education
scheme should be carried into effect until the working
classes were enfranchised.

The sectarian rivalries in connexion with the
Aberdeen industrial schools which was alluded to in
• former communication, has ended in the disruption
of the Female School of Industry. According to the
Banner, the Free Church party have commenced an
institution of their own, and have carried with them
57 of the 59 pupils attending the original seminary.
The severe weather recently experienced in this
country, assumed the character of a gale or hurricane
in various parts of the provinces. The ferry-boat
between Burntisland and Granton had her funnel
blown down, and was so disabled as to prevent the
passage from being accomplished. A pilot-boat was
also upset in the Firth of Forth and a boy drowned.
At Glasgow the Clyde was in a fearful state of com-
motion, and boats were forced from their moorings
and driven upwards in spite of the current. Inthe
city a wall was blown down, and several persons
were, in the course of the day, knocked over by the
sudden squalls. At Gourock-bay, near Greenock,
several vessels drifted from their anchors, but were
assisted into the harbour without material damage. At
Montrose a turret of the church-steeple was blown
away, and so were several factory-stalks. Further
north the Aberdeen steam-boats could not land their
Elgin goods and passengers, and had to carry them
to Inverness. These, as yet, appear to be the extent
of the calamities, and they are worthy of notice more
for the wideness of surface over which the storm pre-
vailed than for any very destructive intensity in given
localities. The green crops are not yet so far advanced
as to have sustained any damage.
A deputation of Free Church clergy and laity have
had an interview here with the Lord Advocate, on
the subject of quoad sacra chapels, i.e. chapels of ease
erected by voluntary effort, in connexion with the
Church of Scotland before the recent disruption took
place. The Free Church party hold that these edi-
fices were mainly built with their money, and that,
de jure, they ought to be theirs. They are still in
possession of many of them, and, unless special
legislative interference takes place, which is not
likely, the law processes presently going on
will inevitably result in their expulsion.----An-
other deputation, of a different character, waited
on the Lord Advocate from Glasgow. Its object was
to confer with his lordship on the five acts to be intro-
duced by him for the abridgment, simplification, and
economisation of the title deeds of heritable subjects
in Scotland held in property and mortgage. The
Glasgow reformers, although approving of the new
acts, did not think they went far enough. The Edin-
burgh lawyers will doubtless think they go too far,
and, as Reuben Butler's grace was thought toe short
by David Deans, and too long by Captain Knock-
dunder, and was thence concluded by the author of
" Waverley " to be of proper dimensions, so, in like
manner, the Lord Advocate has, in this instance, most
probably drawn the correct diagonal line between two
conflicting classes of dissentients.
-

A correspondent of the Kilmarnock Journal
asserts that the general assembly of the chnrch of
Scotland, sanctioned, in 1810, a system of registra-
tion of births, deaths, and marriages, substantially
the same as the Lord Advocate has proposed to intro-
duce, with the single exception that the parochial
schoolmasters, instead of being excluded, were arbi-
tarily named as the registrars.
. .

At yesterday's meeting of the Highland Society,
a communication was read from Mr. Mitchell
Wester Alves, nn the dibbling of seed corn.
Mr. Mitchell expressed his belief that the process of dib-
bling iced corn, though not advantageous in ordinary years,
was of muck importance at the present crisis, and might be
made available in modifying the existing distress, parties-
lazly in Ireland, as well through a saving of food, as by
employment of labour In Ireland there are upwards of
300,000 farms of about five acres each, and 250,000 more of
fifteen acres each or under, besides those of larger dimensions
to which the process could not be so well applied. Now, if
one-third, or say 500,000 acres of the five-acre farms, cud
one-third of, or say 1,600,000 acres of the fifteen-acre farms,
making 2,000,000 of acres in all, were dibbled, the results
would be as follows:—The soil in Ireland being fertile,
and the climate more genial than Scotland, the dibbling
might be performed 4 by 4 inches apart, which would
take about one bushel of seed per acre ,• 2,000,000 of
acres would take 250,000 quarters of seed, and supposing the
ordinary broadcast system required five bushels per acre, the
saving of grain would be 1,000,000 of quarters of grain, and
which, at the present prices, would be upwards of two mil-
lions of money. The number of hands employed would be
1,000,000 of men and 4,000,000 of wemen and children for
two weeks ; and calculating the men at ss. a week, Is. more
than what is allowed by the Board of Works, and four

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