The Express.
London, England, 1847-11-10 00:00:00

THE REPEAL ASSOCIATION.

The usual weekly meeting of this body was held to-day ,
Mr. Maurice Power, M.P. for Cork, in the chair. There
were 16 M.P.'s present, and the hall was crowded.
Mr. Joust O'CONNELL read a letter from the Most Rev.
Dr. fil'Hale, in which he described the distress of his diocese
as excessive, and referred to the painful appeals daily made
to him to know when the assistance promised by government
in the Lord-Lieutenant's answer to the Roman catholic pre.
lates' address would he available. He stated that the land-
lords were proceeding in many instances with great
harshness, and regretted that their conduct was met by
violence en the other hand. He earnestly implored relief
(or the sake of peace and order ; called for the pro-
tection of the tenantry, and thy alteration of the
condition of land tenure ; referred to the recent
rescript from Rome, and promised that the pre-
lates would, by every means in their reach, endeavour to
carry out the recommendation to establi‘h " catholic col-
leges." The archbishop referred to some statistics presented
by hie clergy in reply to the questions put by the prelates
who recently assembled at Loughrea. These are exceed-
ingly voluminous and psialul to dwell upon. I shall select
two from amongst those communications, one referring to
the sea-coast district of Westport, in the west of the county,
the other to the inland parish of Ballagbaderrin, in its
eastern extremity. Ido not say that the features they pre-
sent are not exaggerated ; but knowing the gentlemen who
write them, I should judge from their characters that they
are as little so as it is possible for men living in the midst of
isaelt misery, to commit.
The Very Bev. Dean Burke, P.P. and V.G., states—the reduction in
taw number of my eerie/stoners by famine and its eon-sequence, epi-
demic disease, is about 1,000, to the best of my knowledge. The pre-
sent population of my parish is about 12,000. From two to three
hundred families have been obliged to desert their holdings. Out of
the entire population of the pariah, with the exception of the towns-
people, these are not 20 families that have sufficient food to sustain
themselves until the coming harvest ,• and if all rents, arrears, and
texas of all kinds are exacted, not a family except two or three will
have a morsel of food at Christmas. Theentire population depending
on comae are at this moment in destitution, as the trilling harvest
earning in this country is now at an end. Never was the pupu'ation
ao deficient in duly and night covering. The cloth shopkeepers have
turned meal dealers, the cloth trade having almost disappeared. The
present eve= is vastly more gloomy than this time laic year. The
stock of cattle of all Mods le reduced certainly one-half: DO pigs, ex-
cept a few in the town ; poultry all but gone.
The lies. Denis Tighe, P.P., of Rallighaderrin, gives the following
account of the parishes of Kileoleman and Castlemore The popula-
tion of this parish at the commencement of last year was near 12,000,
it is now reduced to 9,860 persons; 478 died of famine and its imme-
diate consequence since the Ist of October, 1846. There are at
present 138 rectifies suffering from fever. The great bulk of the
people hold very tittle land, which ia of inferior quality ; it barely
supplied potatoes in past years, and now that the potato crop is gone,
the poor are in the greatest distress 1 find that 129 families were
obliged to desert their little holdings and cabins. There are at
present 470 families, coneisting of 2,246 persons, in extreme want,
living on turnips and a little Indian meal. No language can describe
the miserable condition of the most of them. There were no public
yaks carried en in this extensive parish from the let of May Last to
the let of November. As there was little or no petato digging this
season, alit& poor were idle ; I knew many who
for
not procures
single day's work all the harvest. The landlords are for the most part
absentees—aome of whom am. at present, selling out the oats of their
poor tenants, and meting rents with the utmost rigour. One of this
class "cleared" Ms estate of Lung, in April set, of 19 families, can-
na/rig of 128 indivkings. This was not enough to prove that " pro-
ETbes its rights ;" his agent had carte employee is harvest carry.
,„ the oat =n9 and fiat of the estate, and the place Is new as Be-
te as if a plains had Bun swept over it, levelling everything in its
way. The poor =enter= who had " happy homes" in Lung for the
last 10 years and more are now in the greatest want, and are adding
much to the mieeriss of the locality. Pigs and poultry have nearly
disappeared from the poor—many who had cows last year are thu
year without one. Fever Le again very prevalent. At this season of
the year we hold stetsons of confession out in the country, end in
some town lands it is difficult to get a cabin to assemble the people in.
The prospects before us this winter are truly awful andappalling, most.
M the people without clothing, without food, and, to crown our
miseries, a heavy poor rate of 2s. 11d. in the pound already struck,
and about to be collected from these paupers. No private charities
can meet the crtais; if the government do nut give immediate and ex-
tensive employment the people will be lest.
Mr. JOHN O'CONNELL having concluded the reading of
the documents, entered on the business of the day. He re-
ferred to the course he had taken with respect to the measure
for the establishment of colleges, and stated that be did so,
not through opposition to the spread of education, but from
a desire to have education connected with religion. He re-
ferred to the subscriptions already announced for the purpose
of erecting a catholic university, announcing himself as a
subscriber of 1001., as proofs that those who opposed " Peel's
swindling scheme of education" were not the enemies of
knowledge. His own subscription was he admitted small, but
his menus were limited, and were sure to be more so.
lie referred to the meeting of the Irish members, stating
that they had agreed to certain resolutions, the substance of
which had, he admitted, been given in the public prints,
though the meetings were not public. The body were about
to adjourn over to the 16th, when they would consider a
motion, of which notice had been given, that their resolu-
tions should be submitted to a public meeting. Whether
the meeting would be held would depend upon the consti-
tuencies, and they ought to call on their representatives to
meet openly. Mr. O'Connell said that the resolutions were
all excellent in spirit, though they might be sometimes more
direct and pointed. As regarded the course they would take
in parliament he said they would oppose in every way, and
under every form, any ministry which should not do justice to
the Irish people in the present crisis—which should not come
forward to alleviate the distress, to feed the people, and to
afford employment; and if Irish business were not attended
to there should be none other done. Mr. O'Connell con-
demned the Irish Council, opposed the income tax, and
called for tenant-right.
Mr. D. CALLAGHAN gave expression to similar sentiments
in all respects.
Mr. M. O'CONNELL said that great cordiality and union
bad prevailed at the meeting of Irish members—a proof that
there was no foundation (or the assertion, that even had
they repeal their own divisions would compel them to have
recourse to England. Mr. O'Connell rid.culed the Irish
Council, and said he regretted his brother should have gone
amongst them and consented to play second fiddle to any of
the body.
Some other members having addressed the association, an
address from Limerick was read, enclosing 761. Bs. Iod., con-
tributed by members of parliament, corporator', and Roman
catholic clergymen.—The repeal rent for the week was
911. is. 7d.

•
THE CHARGE or EMBEZZLING PUBLIC Moxry.—The
investigation of the charge of embezzlement of the public
money entrusted by her Msjesty's government to the Com-
missioners of Public Works, for the employment of the people
during the recent destitution, against John Meson (an officer
of the board), was resumed at the Henry-street police-court,