The Express.
London, England, 1847-02-04 00:00:00

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, Fen. 2.
Charles Crawford, Esq., barrister, and third son of
W. S. Crawford, Esq., has been appointed assistant
poor-law commissioner. The appointment, I under-
stand, was wholly unsolicited, and the voluntary act
of Mr. Twislcton, under whom Mr. Crawford had
been engaged in making some returns connected
with the poor law. Mr. Crawford was called to the
bar in 1839.

A Mr. Baldwin, in a letter to the Freeman, con-
tradicts a foolish statement made by Lord George
Bentinck, that the steamers left Dublin, crowded with
poor creatures, free of charge, on the certainty that
they would be reshipped at full fare. Mr. Baldwin
applied to the chief carriers of the port, the Dublin
Steam-packet Company, and found that for the last
three months the average per month is not 50, and
these consist principally of persons recommended by
merchants interested in the company to be conveyed
to their friends in England—a very common occur-
rence in all shipping establishments.
Eight cargoes of " breadstuffs " have been cleared
out for consumption. free of duty, in the port of
Dublin, since the 27th ult., consisting of 640
quarters, and 980 hectolitres of Indian corn, 500
quarters of wheat, 550 do. buckwheat, 2,823 quarters
of barley, 1,144 barrels of flour, and 90 tons of
potatoes.
On Saturday and Monday last the central relief com-
mittee received subscriptions to the amount of .5001., in-
cluding 200/. from Messrs. Moffat and Co., of London.
The awards on Friday and Saturday last were on the
most extensive scale, exceeding 5,000/., which must
leave the funds of the committee in a very low state.
Of this large sum Donegal received 370/. ; Galway,
330/. ; Mayo, 3501. ; Roscommon, 325/. ; Tipperary,
2001.; Cavan, 1751., with various smaller sums to
thirteen other counties. One of the chief causes of
this liberality may be, to awaken the relief com-
mittees to buy in provisions in the declining state of
the markets, sufficient to pass through the interval
between the present system and the organisation
under the new bill.

The various savings banks in Ireland have a sepa-
rate surplus fund of about 11,0001., consisting of re-
alised property ; and in addition, at the end of each
year, a large amount of unfunded property over and
above all engagements to depositors. This sum is
strictly confined by law to the management of the
banks, for which it is far more than sufficient. The
committee of the Cork Savings bank have taken up
the subject; and with equal justice and charity seek
for the appropriation of those surplus funds and
property to the relief of the present distress. The
property of the depositors would be wholly untouched
andthe usefulness orsecurity of the banks not impaired
in the slightest degree. The Cork trustees have
authorised the Mayor to write to Lord John Russell
urging his lordship to introduce an act giving a
permissory power to the trustees to appropriate a
part of their surplus property to the purposes of relief,
subject to the assent of the commissioners for the
reduction of the national debt. .

. -
In the Cork workhouse the mortality has increased
from an average of one per cent. to two per cent. on
the present number of inmates. In six days, accord-
ing to the Cork Examiner, from Monday to Saturday
last, the deaths amounted to 102.
This was market day on Burgh Quay, and the
quantity of corn on the stands for sale was very con-
siderable. Little was, however, disposed of, as the
holders would not submiti to any further reduction.
Whatever sales were effected were at lower rates
than on Friday, but not so much as to warrant quota-
tion. The rates of the lower qualities of breadstuffs,
including Indian corn, declined from 6d. per barrel to
Is. 6d.

There were vet 7 considerable quantities of the pro-
duce in the hands of the farmers on the Exchange
to-day.

MEETING OF IRISR DISTILLERS.
The Irish distillers held a meeting of the trade today, at
the Corn Exchange-rooms, Sir John Power in the chair,
and Mr. Jamieson acting as secretary. There were very
few members of the trade present, but it was understood
that this arise from the number of them at present in Lon-
don, and who fully concurred in the object of the meeting.
The purport of their addresses went to show that the Irish
distillers could not continue to work under the proposed law
with safety to their own interests. That consequently the trade
must cease, that numben of persons, many thousands, must
be thrown out of employment, and that a large and valuable
home market for agricultural produce must be demolished.
It was asserted that the duty to be levied on rum, while it
afftcted to discriminate, would really enable the producers
of that commodity to offer it to the consumer at a
lower rate than the distiller could offer whisky,
under the new bill, and the supposition that
the new arrangement could, by possibility, save for the con-
sumption of the present year even one barrel of cern was
scouted as a pretence under which the Irish distilling trade
could be sacrificed conveniently to the interests of the West
India merchants and planters. The aid and countenance of
the distillers of England and Scotland avers solicited for a
common interest, and the support of the Irish landlords and
farmers was challenged as still more deeply interested in
opposing the proposed law than the Irish distillers. Resolu-
tions and a petition in accordance with these views, were
unanimously adopted, and agreed to be presented to the
legislature forthwith.