The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-18 00:00:00

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, Aug. 17.
The Registrar-General, Mr. W. Donnelly, has
issued a return, showing in statute acres the extent
of land under flax cultivation in Ireland in the years
1864 and 1865, the number given for each county.
In Ulster in 1864 there were 278,143 acres under
flax, and in 1865, 233,289—decrease, 44,854 ; in
Leinster, in 1864, 7,388 acres, and in 1865, 5,862
acres—decrease, 1,526 acres ; in Munster, in 1864,
7,580 acres, and in 1865, 4,980 acres—decrease,
2,600 acres; and in Connaught, in 1864, 8,582
acres, and in 1865, 7,421 acres—decrease, 1,161
acres. The total number of acres- in 1864 was
301,693, and in 1865, 251,552—decrease on the
whole, 50,141 acres. The quantity grown in 1865
is still, however, by a very large figure, greater
than that of 1863, which is greater by about 60,000
acres than any of the previous 10 or 12 years. The
reaction this year in consequence of the termination
of the civil war in America, and unsuccessful at-
tempts at cultivation in some places,will account for
the diminution.

The circumstances attending the melancholy
death of the late Mr. Herbert Francis Hoare, J.P.,
were made the subject of an inquiry yesterday. Dr.
Kirwan, coroner, held an inquest on the body, at the
late residence of the deceased, 15, Kildare-street.
The deceased gentleman was a magistrate for the
county of Wexford, where he had extensive landed
property, and served as a grand juror. In the
earlier part of his career he had held an office in the
Admiralty Department, but he had latterly retired
into private life, and resided principally in Dublin and
its vicinity—sometimes, however, visiting his country
residence of Pole-a-Hore, near the town of Wexford.
He had been many years married, and leaves a
widow and several children. He is stated to have
been a man of considerable intellectual ability, and
took much interest in the study of Irish anti-
quities, on which subject he had written several
essays for scientific and literary periodicals. One
of his chief motives for residing in Dublin was that
he might have access to the public libraries of this
city, of most of which he was a pretty regular visi-
tor. His nervous system, however, was weak, and
he suffered severely at times from neuralgia of the
head and face, which frequently kept him awake for
several nights together. It appeared from the evi-
dence of Dr. Ellis, who had been professionally at-
tending the deceased for about three weeks previous
to his death, that he had suffered greatly from men-
tal depression, partly attributable to the state of his
affairs, but principally caused by the immoderate use
of chlorodyne. He had frequently been kept awake
at night from neuralgia in the head, and was ad-
vispre. dEb a
llisy
hfardienf dr e to
quteankt el y c hwl
ao
rr
no de
dy nhe
mt o induce
tsleep
per-
sisting in the use of chlorodyne, and that conti-
nuance in its use must be destructive to his health,
if not to his reason. Deceased, it was stated, was
in the habit of taking as much as an ounce of the
drug within 24 hours—a quantity equivalent to 20
ordinary doses, and which would be sufficient to
kill any one who had not previously by degrees
habituated himself to it. On Tuesday morning,
while the deceased was alone in the breakfast-room,
the report of a pistol was heard, and on Miss Hoare
and the servant going to the room to ascertain what
had occurred they found that the doors leading into
the apartment had been locked on the inside. On
being forced open the deceased was found lying on
the floor quite dead. The roof of his skull had been
blown off by a pistol, and fragments of bone, brains,
and blood were scattered upon the floor. Death
must have been instantaneous. From the evidence
of Mr. Wynne, the land agent of the deceased, it
appeared that the condition of his affairs had for
some time weighed heavily on his mind ; that he
had complained that his brain was on fire, and was
apprehensive that his reason would go. The jury,
after a short deliberation, found that the deceased
had committed suicide while in a state of temporary
insanity.

TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION.—A corres-
pondent sends us the following interesting narrative,
with the assurance that its accuracy may be relied on :
At the time that the notorious Tippoo Sahib fell at the
siege of seringapatam, in 1799, there was in one of the
English regiments engaged on the occasion a native of
Bury St. Edmunds, who was supposed by his comrades to
have been killed. His immediate relatives could gain no
intelligence of him, further than that he was put down as
among the missing, and that he was generally supposed
to be dead. It appears, however, that he was mainly in-
strumental in saving the life of one of the ladies attached
to the court of Tippo Sahib, and that she, in gratitude to
her preserver, induced him to fly with her into the interior
of the country, where her father consented to the marriage
of the gallant soldier with his daughter, on condition that
he embraced the religion of the country. Our hero, it
it appears, thought he could not do better than embrace
the new religion together with the young heiress, and it is
said "they lived and loved together through many happy
years." But death first cut down the father and after-
wards the daughter, leaving the once poor soldier enriched
with the wealth of India. His relations in the meantime
had frequently applied at the War Office, but always re-
ceived the same answer—that he was missing, and sup-
posed to be dead. At length the time came when he was
called upon to depart this world, and, having no heirs
direct or indirect, he made a will in favour of his eldest
sister and her heirs male. This has recently been brought
to light through a firm in London advertising for the next
of kin of the missing soldier, and it appears the heir has
turned up in a person who has been travelling in the
counties of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire for some years as
a book hawker. It is said that it will be necessary for the
claimant to proceed to India to substantiate his right to
the property, and that an eminent firm has undertaken to
furnish him with the means, upon condition that they
receive one-fourth of the proceeds of the estates in ques-
tion, the value of which is reported to be enormous, the
property having laid in abeyance for a long period. Fur-
ther particulars of this interesting case will probably be
shortly published, but for certain reasons the name of the
claimant is at present withhell—Norfoß News.