The Express.
London, England, 1848-05-11 00:00:00

IRELAND.

Drauvr, MALY 9.

They are stirring beyond the Boyne. The Hert-
ford and Downahire evictions have produced their
first fruits in a general movement among the farming
and labouring classes. Shane Hill, near Lurgan, of
Tommy Downehire celebrity, is to be the scene of a
great meeting of " the tenant farmers, cottier tenants
and working classes of all profeasione," on Saturday,
,the 20th of May.
The following are the purposes of the meeting:-
1. A declaration of loyalty to the throne. 2. Merger
of all political differences. 3. Declaration to land-
lords that " being unable to meet former engage-
ments, and having no resource left save from the
land, in order to sustain life we will require a general
reduction of rents. 4. A revaluation of the land. 5.
The institution of branch tenant-right associations in
connexion with the parent aseociation in Derry.
The placard, from which I write this, proceeds:
Every working man, of every party, and of every profession, who
has not mule up hi. mind that be and hie little ones should go in
rage and live on yellow Indian buck meal once a day, sometimes more
and rometimes lean, end finish his miserable life in the union work-
house, and be buried in a beggar's grave, will attend. "glen of
Ulster, your existence is ut make. l'nder the laws of God, who
created this earth soul all things thereon, you are fairly and justly
. netted to a living on the land tkat bore you. Assemble then, and
assert that right. Be brothers, be determined, be courageous, be
loyal, and, above all things, be peaceable."
Father lkrmingham, of Borrisokane, the author of
the celebrated letter preaching blood and slaughter,
and who was very properly suspended by his bishop,
in a communication addressed to the Erening Post
makes the following retractation of hie errors :
Burrisokine, May 7.—Sir,—l deeply regret having caused
to be published in the 'at ion newspaper of the 22nd of
April a letter by which I have incurred, and
doubtless justly, the displeasure and revere censure of
my bishop. I now fully and entirely retract this
letter, as appearing to others, and to myarif on
more mature considerath n, to have a tendency to incite to
civil war with its dr plorable consequences. As a minister
of religion and' a Christian, I deeply deplore that this hitless
should have a meaning so much at variance with the tealliffi
ing of our Divine Redeemer and hie ',leased apostles; anti
1 beg leave to express, through the medium of your respect-
able journal, these my sentiments of regret and my retracts-
tion of the letter.—l am. sir, your obedient humble servant,
• JAMES BEILMINOHAN, P.P.

TILE PROTESTANT REPEAL ASSOCIATION.
The first meeting of this body was held on Tuesday night,
in the Music Hall. •
Mr. BUIthETT proposed that George. leer Vinlra
should take the chair. Jtr
Mr. VANCE said he would endeavour to ssupport the posi-
tion no became a true protestant reyealer. (Great cheers.)
It had been said in parliament and by the press that very few
of the proteatants had joined the repeal movement, and
they had assumed therefore the appellation of " Protestant
Repeaters." He was sure the g od sense of their catholic
countrymen would prevent their supposing that it was
assumed for sectarian purposes. The minister had recently
declared that he would not grant repeal, but that he had
sent abundance of tams and ammunition into the country to
arm the loyal. He hoped that if any of their countrymen
had the bad taste to arm against their ctuntrymen, that they
would ho brought to their sinses.
The SECRETARY read letters from the editor of the
Drogheda Conservative and from Mr. S. Crawford, M.P:
lie said that he had been induced to refrain from johdog
repeal hitherto, because the protestant/ had not joined the
catholic' in demanding it. A letter from W. Ls slie Fos-
ter, Esq , was also said to have been received approving the
society.
Tne folllowing is an extract from the letter of Mr. Sharman
Crawford :
" Whilst I would desire to promote, in conjunction with my
Protestant and Catholic countrymen, everyconstitutional
means of attaining the restoration of an Irish parliament
based upon the principles of the equality of aU sects, and the
ascendancy of none, 1 wont i resist with equal determination
every attempt to carry it by violent or seditious action of any
description. I will join in no means inconsistent with my
often repeated oath of allegiance to our sovereign, and I will
uphold the a ivernment in the defence of order and the pre-
servation of peace. I am certain that if a repeal of the
Union be claimed by what may be fairly considered the
unitsd voice of the people of Ireland, Protestant and Catho-
lic, the moral power of that claim will succeed, and unless
that united voice be raised in its favour, it ought not to suc-
ceed.
" I do not advocate the repeal of the union on the plea of
Irish interests alone. I think the interests of England no
less claim a speedy adjustment of this question. I consider
that England cannot be safe with Ireland disaffected, and
that the discontents of Ireland cannot be removed otherwise
than by a restoration of her parliament. If Ireland be held
to England by a forced union of the legislative body, she
will be a continual drain on the resources of her ractecss,
both to supply her wants and to hold her in subjection. A
hostile body of Irish members in the legislature will act dan-
gerously to the rights and iaterests of England, as has been
on some late occasions already manifested. Ireland will con-
tinue to be England's weaknen, and a violent and hostile
Separation may not be the improbable result, when the con-
tingency shall arise to produce it. '
Mr. SAMUEL FERGUSON moved the first resolution.
That notional prosperity is based on social confidence, ail that
social confidence in Ireland cannot be expected to exist chile the go.
vernment is conducted, and the laws are made, by strangers to the
Irish people.
The resolution was received with the loudest possible
cheering.
Mr. FERGUSON said, that proposition he upheld, and the
convene he denied—the converse, asserted in the press
England, by some of that of Ireland, and bi the portion .
the French pressover which England had control. It was said
that what Ireland wanted was u social note political change.
Ile thought that it would be a most fatal result if they
should be diverted by that "urea:ion from the pursuit o
that which the resolution dictated to be the true ground __
national prosperity. Ile approved of the course adopted
by Lord Clarendon to pros me the peace. The temper c
the upper claws vas so opposed to the feelings of the peopl,
that it furnished them with an additional reason for change.
He argued that the attsiement of what they sought would
by making the people friends with the law, induce the e•
penditure of capital, and augment the national prosperity.
Mr. THACKER seconded the motion, and it was carried.

Mr. BAILEY moved the next resolt;tion. lie had been
conservative ; but what had they now to conserve. Was
their present condition? (No. no.) What, would they
conserve the present condition of Dublin? (No, no.)
Would they conserve Skibbereen ? (No, no.)
That we feel it to be our duty, in the present (vitae, unequivocally
declare our loyalty to the Queen, and our determination to maintain
the rights of property and to respect vratrd interests.
Mr. O'RettLY seconded the resolution, and entered int
a review of English rule in Ireland. Always their motto
was " Divide and conquer !" Even in their own days was it
not said that there was nothing which thsorangeman desired
more than the head of a croppy, and nothing which the ca-
tholic loved more than to revel in the blood of the orange.
man. That was gone fur ever. (The most vehement cheer•
ing followed this anne unecment.) The speaker continued
great length to declare that the orangemen of the north -
the protestant operatives were not opened to repeal.
The resolution was carried.
Mr. R. D. IRELAND, a barrister, moved the next revolt

Lion, and expressed gratification that there was no ant
gonism between • good Catholic and a good Protestant,
The pi ople who entered into that association neither desired
en ascendancy nor had any dread as to their own toleration,
(Cheers.) He then proposed the fdlowing resolution :
That while we maintain loyalty to our sovereign, we deem it
duty, as Irishmen, to testily our attachment to our country, and :
much as the imperial parliament has failed to male the Union
source of preeperity to Ireland, and it is certain that Inland sr
eminently prosperous before the Union, we desire to return to
ancient consatution, and pledge ouvolves not to drsis: frona
efforts until we are governed by the Queen, Lords, and Commons
Ireland.
He said his loyalty to the Queen was not of that unmeani
character of some late declarations. He was loyal to
Queen no long as the Queen was made an instrument
good to her Irish subjects. If it was asked, was he the frie,
of law ? he said he was not the friend of thatlaw which, pro•
fining to feed the people, beggared the gentry and starved
the people. He was nut the friend of that order which we'
the order of a funeral proceiskn. The resolution

carried.
Mr. Bunxirr proposed the next resolution, advocating
union and fraternisati JO between Irishmen, which being
conded, was paused.
The chair was then vacated, and the meeting separated.

PROVINCIAL.

L.ISCASIIIRE.

EFFECTS OF WAR ON ENGLISH INDUSTRY:-
meeting of the directors of the Manchester Commercial A.
iodation was held on Monday, in order to take into consi-
deration the propriety of sending a petition to Viscount Pal
merston, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, calling attention '
the distress which the present critical state of affairs in ,
north of Europe and the blockade of the river Elbe by Den
mark would occasion to the manufacturing and commercial
interests of this country. A memorial to this eff,ct, si
11 by abeut thirty individuals and firms connected with
trade of northern Germany, was forwarded to the associt.„
several days ago, and a meeting would have taken place
earlier had it not been for the absence from town of MI -
A. Turner, chairman of the board of directors. At
meeting on Monday, Mr. M. Ross, deputy chairman, pre-
sided. After a conversation upon the subject, it was decided
that the association should memorialise the Foreign Secre-
tary with reference to the existing differences between Der
mask and Prussia, expressing a hope that her Majesty's
vernment would persevere in those negotiations for a peace-
ful settlement of the dispute which, as it appeared from what
had transpired in the public prints, were now in progress,
and that those negotiations would be attended with success,
so as to obviate that interruption of our trads with the north
of Europa which would, in all probability, result
from the protraction of hostilities. The raemoris
of the Chamber of Commerce states that the memorially
have no wish to exaggerate the importance of the Brit._
commerce to the river Elbe ; but they believe that that trade
absorbs, of the gross quantity of cotton yarns exported, about
334 per cent. ; hosiery, about 154 per cent. ; woollen yarns,
about 45 per cent.; woollen good', exported in yards, about
144 to 1.5 per cent.; ditto, in pieces, about 22 per cent.:
whilst, at the same time, Hamburg constitutes a necessary
vent for an imme, se value of the produce of foreign coon
tries out of Europe, which, although such produce be returns
for British goods exported to those countries, our navigation
laws forbid to be imported into Great Britain. The direct