The Express.
London, England, 1849-12-24 00:00:00

IRELAND.

Dosuw, Dec. 22.
The Mail, of last evening, commences with the fol-
lowing pompous, but somewhat equivocal, announce-

merit 7 - -
We are in a position this evening to be able to state v-ith
confidence that the success of the Irish protectionist move-
ment is to he followed up by a great aggregate mewing of
Irish protectionists, to be held in Dublin on the 17th of
January.
It is not quite clear from the preceding whether
the success of the movement is alres,N•

• . •-, v•
whether it ts expecied to be so between this and the
lith of January ; or, finally, whether it is intended
to leave a back coot open, so that the meeting might
be postponed, it it were feared that the call of its pro-
meters would not be sufficientlyrespooded to. We
are not told whether the meeting is to be a public one,
whether any freedom of discumion is to be
allowed ; whether it is to be an assemblage repre-
senting merely the landed interest, a congregation of
landlords, bankrupt and otherwise, whose opinions
upon protection and free trade are already well
enough known.
The Preu of yesterday evening contains some im-
portant observations on the corn trade, in its commer-
cial article. After remarking on the present buoy ancy
in the Irish grain markets, and expressing an opinion
that that buoyancy will continue for some time, the
Preu proceeds :
We do not in thie expectation take into account any
rumoured project of re-enacting a fixed duty on corn at the
meeting of parliament. For this opinion we do not pretend
to speak from official authority ; but we have no hesitation
in saying that no such fixed duty is probable—that no
such intention exists in the cabinet—that if difference* have
really occurred therein they may have arisen upon colonial
or other questions, but not from any propthition fur chi
re-imposition of fixed duty—that those who originated
the reports had ho foundation for them in knowledge
—that inch rumou.s were invented in order, after
raising public expectation, to re-act by the disappoint-
ment ; and that those who have credulou-ly relied upon
their supposed attune, either believe, because they wick
them to be true, or because they fancy that the terns
are authorised by government, and are solici;ens to sustain
the ruling power in what they suppose to be its inthntions.
Our expectati ins of Improved prices for agricultural pro-
duce proceed from other causes than any such idea as an
intended re-enactment of fined, or of any other kind of duty
on corn. We cannot ezclud the fact, that although the
crops of grain in Ireland may be assumed as a fair average,
and that the potato rot has not caused by any mean, the
destruction that was supposed, little less than oae-third
of the usual arable laud remained uncultivated this year,
and that consequently even a fruitful harvest has yielded
les• produce in the aggregate than an indifferent one in
more favourable times. This deficiency of proda.tiou, tw,
is illustrated by the fact, that the Irish markets for corn
have come nearer, and, in many localities, have exceeded, the
prices of the metropolitan market throughout then season.
The next fact is, that the free trade which hu helped to
reduce the price of corn, and perhaps to diminish its pro-
duction in Ireland, has increased the consumption
in
England by fostering manufactures. Cheap corn not alone
r rabic, t'-e English manufacturers to make their comeudity
heaper, and, therefore, to increase the demand for it, but
by the reciprocity it has called forth, has opened new mar-
kets for the consumption of British fabrics.
The board of guardians of the Parsonstown poor-
law union have, by a majority. of five, resolved that
their schools shall not be administered in connexion
with the National Board of Education. The only
tangible objection, so far as we can collect from the
•
report of the prOceedings, was the use of te word
" penance " as an equivalent for " reFentance " in one
of the text books of the board. But it appeared that
the imports of the two words, as read in the respec-
t tive churches, were very fully explained, and, as it
terikes ue, simply enough for the apprehension of any
young person capable of receiving instruction in such
matters, in a note to the passage complained of. The
discussion elicited a very valuable testimony to the
merits of the board from the Earl of Rosie.