The Express.
London, England, 1847-06-02 00:00:00

IRELAND.

____
DUBLIN, May 31.
Some slight excitement has stirred the public mind
on the prospects of the next harvest. A rumour
had been put into circulation as to the re-appearance
of the potato blight, with all the destructive pheno-
mena of the past year. It was traced to Carlow, and
to Cork, aad various other localities which false ru-
mour had loosely adopted. There has, it is true,
been a slight discoloration of the leaves in some
instances; but very competent judges have referred
these common appearances to the high prevailing
winds. Generally, the plants are in the moat healthy
condition, without the least trace of last year's affec-
tion.
Archbishop M'Hale was silent during the physical
and moral force struggle. He did not abet the peace-
ful policy of O'Connell, or condemn the fighting prin-
ciples of his adversaries. His grace's opinions have
undergone a change, and Young Ireland becomes the
aim of his rhetorical arrows. In an encyclical, ad-
dressed to the clergy of his diocese to render all reli-
gious services and other fitting marks of respect to
the remains of O'Connell, he takes care to remind
them that the paths of pleasantness are the paths of
peace ; that the armed doctrine must be combatted and
put down, and the " infidels" who would desecrate the
national share and hand over the clergy to the state,
as slaves and stipendiaries, are to be resisted. His
grace does not specifically point out the objects of his
hostility, but the " enemies of O'Connell," and of the
church, though passing under the name of catholic,
is a sufficiently clear designation. The Young Ire-
lenders will be pushed hard fur existence as a party
and a power, to both of which their present preten-
sions are singularly slight.
A Cork newspaper of Saturday contains a fact
which proves how much may be done for the public
advantage by a little judicious encouragement and
enterprise. Lady Carberey, aided by three or four
gentlemen of the barony represented in her lady-
ship's title, recently contributed a sum of 201. in
repairing the boats and purchasing fish-tackle for
some fishermen en the coast, and by this outlay they
have not only augmented the supply of food in the
district, but have furnished the fishermen with an
assured source of profit, and taken from off the relief
lists of the districts 260 persons. Upon several other
parts of the coast similar efforts have been made with
corresponding success.

REPEAL ASBOCIATION.—There was a meeting of the com-
mittee held to-day, at which Mr. John O'Connell attended,
and acted as chairman. He was very deeply affected. The
object of the meeting was to take counsel as to the position
of repeal at the present juncture. A letter was read from
the Right Rev. Dr. O'Higgins, Roman Catholic Bishop of
Ardagh,pointing to Mr. John O'Connell as the successor of his
father in the conduct of the repeal movement, which was
well received. An address from the corporation of Water-
ford to the same purport was also read, and, so far as •
numerous and working section of the Repeal Committee
may be supposed to carry weight, Mr. John O'Connell is
now the leader of the repealers.

SCOTLAND.
EDINBURGH, May 31.
The Glasgow superintendent of the poor is another
typhus victim, fallen in the discharge of official duty.
His death will add promptitude to the deliberations
of the fever meeting about to be held in Glasgow. In
connection with this subject, another but very differ-
ent kind of victimisation deserves to be recorded.
The Scotch crown, sceptre, &c., as is well known, were
after long concealment, found in an apartment of
Edinburgh castle, and since their discovery, have
liberally been shown to the public in the place where
Sir Walter Scott first found them. But unfor-
tunately the place of concealment either never
had windows, or has at some time been de-
prived of them, and in consequence these in-
teresting relics are constantly exhibited by
lamplight, and the dimensions of the exhibition
room being small, its convenience is farther abridged
by the "baubles" being enclosed with iron bars,
exactly after the fashion of a condemned cell. Visitors,
who are most numerous, describe the circumference of
the grating ; and, what with the lamps, bars, gold, and
carbuncles, the show, so far from being imposing,
savours strongly of a magic grotto in the temple of
Madame Twmaud. But the went of dignity might
be excused, were it not that the eeneschalship of the
regalia is entrusted as a compliment, honour, and
privilege to military veterans of famous service, who,
deprived of the sun's light, and suffocated with lamp
and human heat, in a place which Dr. Reid could not
ventilate, die in the service by inches. The last
keeper died of pulmonary complaint, and it is said
that his successor is rapidly acquiring the sickly cast
of office. If the castle has no suitable windowed
apartments, Holyrood bas, and the officers of state
who are custodies have but to say the word, and so
consummate an arrangement desirable both for
keeper and public.
The university of Edinburgh, which is praise-
worthily free from the profwriveness with which
other Scotch colleges bestow academic honours, has
conferred the degree of LLD. on Mr. Owen the
naturalist.
The weather is now all that the most fastidious
agriculturalist could wish ; but, as yet, the downward
movement that has taken place in the London bread
market has not extended to the northern metropolis.