The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-14 00:00:00

OUTRAGES IN IRELAND.

The report of the Select Committee appointed to
inquire into those parts of the counties of Armagh,
Monaghan, and Louth, which were referred to in the
Speech from the Throne, embraces a variety of topics
—agrarian outrages, secret confederacies, emigration,
encumbered estates commission, juries, tenant-right,
Itibbonism, &c. The witnesses examined consisted
of three parish priests, five magistrates, two barristers,
and one under-sheriff; and the opinions expressed by
the various witnesses are as varied as are the topics
which engaged the attention of the Committee. One
witness attributes Ribbonism to agrarian outrages,
which another as flatly denies, another believes that
crime is to be attributed to competition for land ;
whilst another iit equally convinced that such outrages
would prevail did no such competition exist, and
does in fact prevail where no such competition is
known and the population are in comfortable cir-
cumstances. One class of witnesses throws the fault
upon the tenant-leaguers, whose object is to transfer
land to the hands of the present occupiers ; whilst
others are equally convinced that the present distur-
bances are to be attributed to free trade and to the
fact of rents remaining as they had been previous to
1846.
In the midst of all this variety of opinion, the
committee, without attempting to reconcile such ob-
vious contradictions, have satisfied themselves for the
resent with recommending some slight reforms.
These chiefly consist in attempts to secure more re-
speetable and impartial juries; in the removal of
trials for murder, on special application, to the
411,:en% Bench, and, in cases of intimidation, to a
defferent country ; in withdrawing licences granted to
public-houses where secret societies are suspected of
11)
.6eting ; and finally, in a better regulation of the law
between landlord and tenant.
In incom-
parably with this last topic, which is incom-
parey of the weightiest importance, the attention of
all those who are interested in the improvement of
Ireland may well be directed to the " Transaction of
the Central
ueuef Committee of the Society of
Friends, during the Famine
in
Ireland in 1846 and
1847," The very most title
assumed by the
authors of this very excellent eeeek
scarcely
to the general reader a fair estimateef conveys
its contents.
II gives an account of the attempts ma
Society of Friends to alleviate thedread
dreadful
le byfainine
the
which occurred in that unhappy country intheTear
Above-mentioned. But it also conveys the resultsosf
those attempts, and shows what men, actuated solely
by Christian benevolence and a sense of duty,
felt
,would be de'irable for permanently anis.
Tiating the condition of this unhappy country. The
"work will, unquestionably, take place among the last-
ing historical documents of this country; the corre-
spondence contained in it will be read with the
deepest interest ; and whatever opinion may be
formed as to the plane proposed in it for the relief of
Ireland, all will readily confess that those plans have
been suggested in the spirit of the purest benevolence,
and after an actual examination of the state of the
country—an examination conducted with that sobriety
and faithfulness which eminently distinguish this great
body of our Christian community.--ilforning Herald,

SCARCITY or Slivisa CotNAGE.—ConsiderablP
sonvenience in minor commercial transactions arises daily
from the extreme scorcity of silver. It has become next to
impossible to procure cherim even for small notes. For some
weeks past persons wanting the change even of a pound
note have been obliged to search from twelve to twenty
shops before they could be accommodated. If silver cannot
be had in sufficient abundance for coinage, a gold coinage
of five shillin4 and two shilling pieces will be essential.
,
Mare at least some effort should be made to procure a supply
of small coinage. otherwise the shop trade will be in a dead
galwrip Feakot.