The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-01-14 00:00:00

IRELAND.

THE ANTI-INCOME TAX MOVEMENT.— A requisition is
in course of signature through the King's County, call-
ing upon the High Sheriff to convene a county meeting
to petition for a reduction of the income tax. The
requisition has been signed by nearly all the magistrates
and principal gentry.
INCREASE OF LUNACY.-It is a curious fact that lunacy
in this country is on the increase. Since the opening of
the Sligo Asylum, by which a large number of patients
were drafted from Ballinasloe, the latter institution has
been filled up close on its former numbers. Some have
attributed the increase in lunacy to the prevalence of
the use of intoxicating drinks by the lower classes, but
on enquiry we find this is not the case. We shall be
glad to know if the !commission at present sitting can
throw any light on the subject.
TAE MAGISTRACY.-It is thought that a revision of the
county magistracy is not unlikely to take place in Ireland
—no party to be re-appointed whose income is not
independent of his farming pursuits or trade, or whose
social position is not on a par with the gentry of the
district.

LAW APPOINTMENT.—Mr. Edward Griffin, son of the
Lord Bishop of Limerick, has been appointeJ, by the
Attorney General, Supernumerary Crown Prosecutor for
the county of Lmerick, in the room of Mr De Moleyns,
Q.C., promwed to be one of the permanent Crown
prosecutors, consequent on the appointment of Mr.
Michael Barry to an Australian Judgeship. Mr. Griffin
was called to the bar in Easter Term, 1854, and also fills
the office of Registrar of Friendly Societies.
THE VACANT BISHOPRIC.—The Tiestion as to who will
be appoidted to the Bishopric of Cork, is exciting a good
deal of interest. In well informed official circles it is
believed that the dignity will be conferred on either the
Ven. Dr. William Fitzgerald, domestic chaplain to the
Archbishop of Dublin, or the Rev. John Gregg, of
Trinity Church. The average income of the vacant
office, after necessary outgoings, is only £2,000 a year,
but the ecclesiastical patronage is considerable.
PROBABLE VACANCY IN THE COUNTY CLARE.—It iS
very generally understood that Cornelius O'Brien' Esq,
one of the present representatives for the County Clare,
means to retire from the representation, and that the
present Attorney General, the member for Ennis, will be
called upon to stand as a candidate.
CONTENTS NOT RATEABLE.—At the close of the Quarter
Sessions at Parsonstown on Friday evening last, Mr.
Assistant-Barrister Barron delivered judgment in an
appeal case which had been heard at the last Oc`ober
Quarter Sessions. It was an appeal brought by the
Superioress of the Convent of Mercy, at Parsonstown,
against an order made by the magistrates at Petty
Sessions for the sum of £1 Os, Ild., with costs ; being
the nroportion of County Cess anplotted on the Convent
of Mercy, according to Griffith's Valuation. His worship,
in giving judgment, referred to the several cases which
had been cited at the original hearing. He also read the
judgment of Mr. Jones, the assistant-barrister for
Downshire, delivered in the case of the Newry Convent,
and expressed his concurrence in opinion with that
eminent lawyer. The cave was an important on 3, and
there were different opinions on the question. It had
been decided in several eonnties, and was pending in
others at that moment. He therefore confessed that he
would have wished that the case had been brought before
him by civil bill, when those who had instituted the
proceeding would have bad an appeal to the judge of
assize. He was of opinion that the convent being
a building solely appropriated to reigious, charitable,
and educational purposes, was no rateable, and
therefore the order of the magistrates should be reversed.