The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-08 00:00:00

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, lAN. 7.
At the monthly meeting of the Cork Agricultural
Society, held on Saturday, there was a very able dis-
cussion on the cultivation of flax in the south of
Ireland. There was a strong difference of opinion
as to whether the crop would be remunerative or
not. Lord Bandon occupied the chair. A letter
from Mr. O'Kearney White, Lord Fermoy's agent,
was read, in which he expressed doubts of the pro-
priety of encouraging the cultivation in poor soils,
remote from market towns. Professor Murphy

read a valuable report, and moved the appointment

of a committee to inquire into the subject, which was
seconded by Col. Beamish. Mr. Charles Beamish
argued strongly against the expediency of the culti-
vation. Flax is a precarious crop, and it exhausts
the soil more than any crop. The people have
not the means or the art of converting it into a
merchantable commodity. About ten years ago
Mr. Dargan got up a factory at Drinagh Mountain,
and abandoned it after spending £lO,OOO upon the
experiment. Lord Fermoy, in his turn, took up
the m
i adopted every means of stimulating
the
flax, as Mr. Dargan had done, but
growth ll, au d
of
they had heard
nothing of his lordship's success;.
Mr. Maguire, Mayor of Cork, replied very effee
tively to Mr. Beamish. -
He was obliged to come to
the conclusion that the potato was a crop that could
no had been inferior
for longersome
tibeme,
ibme
er, e
al ine
ad ownh. e a
t The
likewise.
If there were
three more seasons like the last three he would ad-
vise every man, woman, and child to leave the
country. Something must be done, and that imme-
diately. They had the authority of Sir Robert Kane
that the crop was not exhausting, and that, in fact,
it takes from the soil only what other crops do
rot want. This country produces only one-third of
the flax consumed in Ulster, there would therefore
be always a ready market in Belfast. He there-
fore concluded that the cultivation of flax should be
eneourged by the landlords, and that the necessary
mills should be provided. At all events, there should
be inquiry to ascertain what was best to be done.
He concluded by offering £25 as a premium for the
best crop of flax. Lord Band on, President of the
Munster Flax Society, took the same view as Mr.
Maguire, and gave some valuable informatiOn on the
subject. The resolution proposed by Professor
Murphy, appointing a committee, was passed
unanimously. . . .

A great dog case came before the magistrates at
the Lucan Petty Sessions on Tuesday. On Sunday
the 21st of December about 500 persons on 60 or 70
cars drove out from Coles-lane and other dirty
purlieus in Dublin to a place called Milltown, near
Lucan, in order to witness a dog fight which ex-
cited immense interest. Thirty-eight summonses
had been issued on behalf of the Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and the par-
ties appeared accompanied by great numbers of
the dog-fighting fraternity and their sympathi-
zers, who employed counsel for the defence.
Sub-Inspector Gunn deposed that he saw
the dogs fighting ; that the crowd, many
of them half drunk, were very violent
in preventing his interfering ; that they
forced him out of the field, shouting and brandish-
ing their sticks. Head-constable Nolan deposed
that. the dogs were kept fighting, round after round,
till they were dreadfully cut and injured and their
heads covered with blood. There were regular
" handlers," who examined the dogs' mouths, and a
timekeeper held a watch in his hand. At length
one of the dogs, utterly beaten and exhausted, re-
fused to fight any more. The offence charged in
the summonses was cruelty to animals, under the
second section of the Act. The third section re
lated to parties keeping a place where animals
were made to fight. There was considerable dis-
cussion between the counsel, Mr. Curran and Mr.
Purcell, as to the jurisdiction of the court. The
magistrates, Mr. Vesey and Mr. Clarke, decided
that they had jurisdiction, and the court ordered
two of the ringleaders, Goggin and Ruth, to be im-
prisoned for three months without the alternative
of a fine. Mr. Curran gave notice of an appeal to
the Court of Common Pleas, and pending the ap-
peal the prisoners may go out on bail. A number
of persons assisting were fined half-a-crown, with
costs.

The Earl of Darnley is the owner of a large tract
of land in the fertile county of Meath. His tenants
are said to be for the most part independent gentle-
men and Protestants. One of them, Mr. Hopkins,
had lived upon the estate for several years. An
advanced rent was lately put upon his extensive
grazing farm, which he declined to nay, and he
consequently got notice to quit, and has been
dispossessed. He has been succeeded by another
Protestant gentleman, Mr. Tottenham Alley, and
it is reported that the landlord insisted on his put-
ting out three cottier tenants. Mr. Alley had re-
ceived several threatening notices, which he sent to
the next police station, and the police were ordered
to patrol about his house from 8 o'clock each even-
ing. On Friday evening about 7 o'clock a blunder-
buss loaded with 12 slugs was discharged through
his dining-room when it was supposed he was at
dinner. The table lamp was broken and an oil
painting perforated by the shot. Mr. Alley and
his family had left the room but a moment before.
These facts are stated on the authority of a corre-
spondent of the Dublin Evening Post. The proba-
bility is that the Ribandmen have taken up the
cause of the cottiers.
The total amount subscribed by the officers and
others in the employment of the
for
tGreathe distress Southern
ia
and Western Railway CompanY,
Lancashire, is £265, of which £159 was contributed
by the engineering department, through Mr. Miller
the Company's engineer.

OUR DoINGS.--What is time that the age has
not achieved, or is in the act of ach.tlving ? What
department of human life has not taken a start Which makes
the aspect of the world, as we remember it 60, 40, ZaY even
30 years ago, appear, in comparison with what the N%,'Prld
now is, like an antediluvian petrifaction ? We run OU
paddle-wheels over the boundless waste of waters, and put
the screw upon the mighty deep. We harness panting
steam to our waggons and our carriages, realizing
an iron age of ceaseless locomotion. We track
I the storm on its pathway, and hunt out meteors
in their erratic courses. 'We pieroe the clouds in
balloons, and explore the bottom of the ocean in waterproof
armour. We make the sun and moon sit for their
photo-
graphs, and en revanche turn the sun into a whole-ale land-
scape and portrait painter. We use the lightning a°
a swift
n
messenger, and employ the vacuum as an errand boy. Ad
lest we should relax in the ardour of ever fresh invention
we are applying to our intellects and energies the stimulantS
not only of Scientific Congressesand International Exhibi-
tions, but more potent by far than either, of pecuniary gain
competition.—Church Review.
and of commercial cony
TULIPS._The question Whether this flower is
indigenous in France has lately excited some inte-
rest among florists and botanists. In the neighbourhood
of Paris, specimens of a wild variety, the tulipa spvestris of
Lin„Hue, are occasionally found. It is of a yellow colour,
.ad most frequently
seen in the vineyards and parks. Some
think it indigenous, others assert that it is a degenerescence
of the cultivated variety (tftlipa Geineria), which was
brought to France from the East about the middle of the
16th century, and universally regarded as a novelty, none
of the botanists who wrote before that date having noticed
such a flower. Dodonee knew only the Eastern tulip, and
was the first to give a passable drawing of it. The name
tulipa comes from the Turkish tuliband or the Persian
dulbend, a cap, from which also the word turban has been
formed. Conrad Gesner first directed attention to the tulip
which bears his name, not in his " Historia Plantarum,"
printed at Baden in 1541, but in the additions made by him
to the works of Valerius Cordes (in 1561). He says :
"In April, 1569, I saw at:Augsburg, in the garden of Id.
Hewart, a magistrate of that town, a plant called a " tulip,"
which was raised from seed brought from Constantinople, or
from Capadocia, as some say." About the same time it was
cultivated at Vienna, end towards the close of the century
several bulbs were sent to England. Every one knows th
in the 17th century this beautiful flower became the object
of extensive trade in Holland, chiefly at Amsterdam,
Haarlem, Utrecht, Leyden, and Rotterdam. This
tulipomania was at its height from 1633 to
1637. Bulbs of the
Viceroy species were then
often sold for 3,000 florins (6,000 fr.) and the Semper Au-
gustus variety e
venreached 5,500 florins (11,000 fr.). All
classes from the highest to the lowest then speculated in
tulips, more from a spirit of gambling than from any real
love for flowers. Time bargains were made in the tulip
market as there are now at the Bourse, and they were
settled, as now, by the payment of the difference in price,
and these dealings at last gave rise to so many abuses tha
the authorities were obliged to interfere. There were, how-
ever, many eminent man at that timewho cultivated tulips
and of the number were the celebrated Justus Lipsius, the
philologist, who counted among his friends, Dodonee and
Chains, the greatest botanists of that age.