The Express.
London, England, 1847-06-07 00:00:00

IRELAND,

—____
DUBLIN, Juin 6. 1
A meeting of the Agricultural Society took place
on Thursday, to consider the potato question. Some
reports were read detailing the existence of the
disease in the neighbouring counties, and specimens I
were sabsaitted to the council containing nneqqivocal
symptoms enact years' epidemic. Professor Allman,
and several scientific and practical gentlemen were
satisfied with the identity of the blight. The counties
from which the reports were derived, were Carlow,
Kildare, and the Queen's. Without further informa-
tics the council refused to take any decided course
as to the recommendation of a substitute ; and to
obtain information, circulars were directed to the
'secretaries of the local societies. The tone of the meet-
ing was hopeful. The infested counties were few, and
even in these the blight was but very partial, while
the accounts from the great potato districts in the
south and along the sea border were meet cheering.
The Cork Reporter keeps up the spirit of the
" Southern," in declaring that disease has not appeared
in that extensive county. It had taken considerable
pains to obtain accuracy on a subject of so much im-
portance, and the result was, the absence of all the
old phenomena. In the north discoloration have ap-
peared in a few districts. The Tyrone eonslitution
says, the old spots are spreading on the stems and
leaves; while another respectable Ulster paper (the
Anglo Celt) declares that the crop never looked more
beautiful and healthy. The government inspectors
are collecting authentic facts on this very serious
question.
The guardians of the Bailieborough union, Cavan,
have applied to the poor-law commissioners to instruct
them as to the striking of a rate to promote emi-
gration from the district. This, I believe, is the first
time the discretionary power vested in the guardians
by the Poor-law Act has been called into effect for
1 promoting emigration at the charge of the union.

Though it be desirable, while the season continues, to
facilitate the movement by all practicable means, still
the outflow has been enormous, and, after a brief
repose, begins again, with renewed activity. Within
the last month thirty-one vessels railed from the port
of Dublin, carrying nearly 7,000 passengers; of
these only ten were for the United States, with about
1,600 passengers; the rest were for the British
North American provinces. It is right to add, that
the emigration agents in this city have proved in-
valuable in their activity and information.
The Museum of Economic Geology, founded in the
late administration, and placed under the direction of
Sir Robert Kane, has assumed another title, and em-
I braces a wider range of objects than the original inten-
tion. The Museum of Irish Industry is the new and
'more appropriate name. In a circular lately issued
by Sir Robert, inviting donations to the museum, the
departments and objects of the institution are statedl
to consist in—Complete collections of native rocks,
minerals, and ores—the latter in all stages of metal-
lurgic process—of the characteristic Irish soils, with
the manures employed or occurring in the same dis-
trict, with the nature and return of the agricultural
produce; of the constituents of Luckey to elucidate
the geological history of the island; of animals and
plants; of the raw materials used in manufacturing
processes; models of mining, manufacturing, and
agricultural machinery ; models °f uts. boats, and
fishing implements; a chemical department for
analysis of soils, and a department of documents and
records of an economic or descriptive character, to
which easy access can be had at all times for informa-
tion or inquiry.
A furious onslaught has been made on the judges
for having postponed mixes not yet undisturbed in
their usual periodic course. They have been consider-
ing, but not determined until Monday next. Personal
convenience is not the motive of the judges, though
perhaps a few are nervous ; such as Baron It —, who
converted the upper-gallery of the Cork Courthouse
into a dock at the last asi izes. The danger of bring-
ing together large masses of men, from great dis-
tances, in the depth of summer, and on insufficient
maintenance, is only balanced by the other serious
evil of keeping prisoners crammed together in gaols
for three additional months. It is rather a question
for the Commissioners of Public Health than of public
justice. I may state, in ruiticiption of the result, that
the assizes will be held according to the usual course.

STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
The quantity of potatoes sown this year and the import-
ance of the question of their earner or failure as o atop, is
of so much importance, both in a national and economic
point of view, that every particle of evidence respecting it
must be regarded with intense interest. The Irish Farmers'
Gazette, an agricultural publication of considerable merit,
when the intelligence that disease had appeared first startled
the country, can,ed circulars to be sent into various districts
to parties of known agricultural information, prac-
tical and in theory. The result of a considerable number
of these inquiries is given in the Gazette of this morning.
There are replies or returns from seventeen several districts
in Ulster, and iocluding almost the counties. From thirteen
of those the replies are most cheering, and these from the
other four scarcely amount to more than the hesitation of a
doubt, that disease is apparent, the disease in ono instance
only having assumed the aspect of last year. The doubtful
answers are from Dungannon, Letterkenny, Saintfleld, in
Armagh, and Strabane. From Leinster, thirteen replies are
made
üblic ; two only speak of disease, one that it had ap-
pearedin hot-bed plants, another that it had manifested
itself to some small extent in Carlow. From the south there
is only one reply—Castlecounell, near Limerick, the
locality, and the accounts most favourable. From the west,
one reply—locality Ballinsaloe—accounts most cheerirg.
In
addition to them communications, which must be held of
great weight, there are accounts in the journals today from
Kildare, King'. County, Queen's County, Monaghan, Louth,
Down, and Limerick. They are all favourable. The intel-
ligence in the Cork paper which has come to hand while I
write, is equally flattering, and thus we find that, notwith-
standing the gloomy anticipations of the Agricultural So-
ciety, we may be all but convinced that Providence is not
about to effilet us with the potato disease again this year.
The police-force of the North Riding of Tipperary has been
strengthened by an addition of 24 men. The South Riding
would seem emulous of the ill fame of the north, for in a re-
cent Clonmel paper we find recorded a murder of a shocking
description as having occurred at Mondial, near the town
of Tipperary. The name of the murdered man was Crotty,
and the object of the murderers was plunder.—A poor man,
named Magmas, who was arrested • few days since in the
county of Longford, under • civil bill decree, died of exhaus-
tion in Longford town, ere he could be placed within the
prison. His death was caused be denituvon, and the debt
he owed was for provisions—ln Nenagh the relief committee
have come to the determination of refusing relief to parties,
who, being destitute, are guilty of the immorality of her.
;,,,,,eoper females, or men of bad character and repute.

SCOTLAND;
EDINBURGH, JUNE 4.
The cause of Dr. Chalmers's death was generally
understood to be apoplexy, but the autopsy has
shown it to have been disease of the heart, that organ
having, to a considerable extent, been converted into
fatty matter, and so becoming incapable of mus-
cular action. The other parts of the body were
decidedly healthy.
Phrenology is rather at fault regarding Dr. Chal-
I mere. From the largeness of his head externally and
' the peculiarity of his mental temperament, the lead-
ing craniologists have long spoken of him as of neces-
sity poisoning a large brain ; but the post-mortem
inspection of the eneephalm has disabused this idea.
Thus, the weight of brain in Dupaytren was 64 oz.,
in Cuvier 63, in Abercrombie 63, in Chalmers 53
the average weight in persons from 50 to 60 years of
age being 60 oz. 2 drachms. O'Connell was also
spoken of as possessing a brain of extraordinary
dimensions, and it would be interesting to know if
dissection threw any light upon this. The removal
of his heart necessarily involved the use of the scalpel,
and, doubtless, it would have been used in the cranial
as well as in the thoracic regions.
The funeral takes place to-day, and a new and
enlarged programme has been issued this morning.
The magistrates and council are to attend in their
robes, and also the rectors and teachers of the high
school, but it is matter for regret that the university,
of which Chalmers was once so distinguished a mem-
ber, has made no movement.
The " navies " employed in the Edinburgh and.
Northern Railway amount to 8,632; and the peace of
the county of Fife is ever and anon disturbed by
strikes and brawls between the Irish and Highlanders,
on which latter ocecasiou lethal weapons are largely
displayed, and sometime* dangerously used. On
Saturday last a serious outrage was attempted near
Kirkaldy, but the timely interference of the sheriffs
and other authorities kept down the uproar.

Loss OF THE EXISOCTR.—The report of Lieut. Ramsay,
the government emigration agent at Londonderry, relative
to the condition of the Exmouth, wrecked, with great loss of
life, on the coast of Islay, contains the following additional
particulars:—Th. Exmouth (although an old vessel, built at
Sunderland in 1818), was In a perfeet state of repair, and
underwent a thorough survey by Lieut. Ramsey and an ex-
perienoed ship-builder. She was properly fitted out for
emigrants, the aggregate number of superficial feet in
the several compartments set apart for steerage and
intermediate passengers being 1,675, She was well
provisioned, and was supplied with three suitable boats,
with every requisite for their use, and two Illb-buoys. It
gives the names of the passengers (moot of whom were
' middle-class farmers, their wives, andfamilies, and pones**
property). The numbers wan: minis entigrantsat
female emigrants, 62; male (*Alma wider 14,29 ;
! children under 14, 31; iamb, 9 1 odds pmee=oll4
, master (Capt. Booth), 1 ; mew, B—Telal wasaber
220. The spot when dm eh.
_we weird INNS
north.west part of Maiden& et 'dew A
! nye :—Tbe vessel woe mmsbet
It was on a point at a emeow past, &up, dark, end
awning. Nothing but iron bound rocks 80 to 180 feet
Leh. The fragments of the wreck (and' fragments they
truly might be called) were driven into the chasm,
where, mixed with dead bodies, they were tossed and kept
in wild commotion by the violence of the wind and waves
for days. A. more harrowing eight wee never witnessed.
By the last accounts received from the island, it appears no
fewer than 108 bodies bad been recovered; they were hooked
up out of the gullet by men who were lowered by ropes from
the summit of the rocks. Most of them were women and
children, who were entirely naked; they were dreadfully
mutilated, some without fiioes, others without heads or
limbs. They were wrapped in sheets by two gentlemen
named Campbell, who saw to their decent interment in a
beautiful spot near the point where the mournful event oc-
curred. We (Margate Argue) understand government have
notified to those gentlemen their sense of such meritorious
example and exertion, and to add a gratuity to the men who
have been engaged in recovering the bodies.
BURNS RAD THE Panama...sea. —A meal has been
ed
held in Edinburgh by • few gentlemen possess the means
of throwing light en the supposed discovery of MS. altera-
tions by Burns on the 43d and other paraphrase,, for the
purpose of coming, if possible, to some conclusive opinion
on the subject. The gentlemen who conducted this investi-
gation were the Very Rev. Principal Lee, Mr. Robert
Chambers, and Mr. W. F. Watson. The Rev. Mr. Jaffrey,
agent for the schemes of the Free Church, produced a volume
which was found to contain the MSS. in dispute ; there were
in it traces of the ealigraphy of Blair, well known to Prin.
011 Lee and Mr. Watson. Principal Lee produced portions
of Logan's ordinary MS. ; Mr. Watson produced specimens
of Burns's and Logan's, along. with an alphabetical key
which he had prepared, its far simile of the disputed MS.,
of Logan's MS., and of that of Burns. Upon a Minute com-
a pension of the three MSS., which was by means of the mate-
, nosh thus collected together, the conclusion arrived at was,
' that the disputed MS. was the MS. of Logan, and not that
• of Beras.—North British Mail.