The Sun.
London, England, 1838-10-23 00:00:00

THE DEVIL'S LAWS.

IRELAND.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDRNT.)

DUBLIN, OCT. 21.
THE NEW AGITATION.—Sinee my last communication, at
least a dozen meetings have been held, to form branches of
the Precursor Society. The one of these of the most im-
portance is the meeting at Belfast, where Mr. Sharman Craw-
ford and the .Northern Whig, enemies of the New Agitation,
have their chief strength. Among the other localities where
members have been enrolled, or where meetings are convened,
are Athlone, Kilworth, Carrick- Suir, Roscrea, Naas, Car-
rick-Rerlmont, Louth, and various parishes in Kilkenny.
Mr. O'Connell's late letter gave a very great impetus to the
movement, since it frees those who join the Society from the
Rep, al Pledge, previously necessary to admission. It is
thought that the active operations of the new body will com-
mence sooner than was anticipated, on account of the proba-
bility of an immediate meeting of Parliament. In addition
to the public dinners already noticed, Mr. O'Connell is invited
to others at Waterford and Galway, and still more are in
progress.
TfiE REGISTRIES.—The Reformers have been pretty suc-
cessful on the Registries throughout the country. In Galway
two hundred and thirty-seven have registered for them, whi.e
the Torics did not obtain the franchise for a single mai.
Again, in Armagh the Reformers had a majority of twelve;
and in Carlow, Newry, and same other places, they were
equally successful. In Dublin and Belfast, however, the
Tories unfortunately had a victory.
INTERCOURSE BETWEEN DUBLIN AND LONDON.---A meet-
ing of the merchants of Dublin was held yesterday at the
Chamber of Commerce, to petition Government to make
speedily the arrangements necessary for the greatest possible
intercourse with London. The merchants, by taking this step,
show they place very little reliance upon the promises of the
Post-office. A Committee was appointed to arrange the
business and procure signatures to the petition or memorial.
I have seen to-day a circular to the managing Committee
of the Dublin Library Society, calling them together to ar-
range a similar meeting of that important body. Nothing
will be left undone to secure to the public all the advantages
that can arise from the late changes.
CAVAN.--TIIC vacancy which has occurred in Cavan, by
the death of the Rev. and lion. the Earl of Farnham (who
had succeeded but a few weeks to his title), and the elevation
of his son to the Peerage, will riot, I fear, give a victory to
the Liberal party. A Reformer will scarcely be prevailed on
to stand for a county where the tenantry are nearly all the
nicer serfs of a bigotted clique of Tory landlords. Some
hopes were entertained of opening that county, from several
victories at the registries ; but the time for its emancipation
has not yet come.
NEW APFOINTMENT. —The Chairmanship of the county of
Louth, vacant by the resignation of Mr. Moore, has been pre-
sented by Government to Mr. William M'Dermott, an active
and useful Reformer.

Mr. Crawford, who so frequently declared the new Tithe
Bill final and irrevocable, is among the requisitionists of the
great Meath Anti-Tithe meeting, which is convened by the
most opulent landowners in the county, to petition for the ex-
tinction of the impost.

Broadstairs, within the last few days, has been the
scene of several serious and fatal accidents. On Thursday
week John Clarke, while employed in pitching some straw,
wounded his toe o ith a fork, a lock-jaw ensued, and on the
following Saturday he exiiired. On Saturday morning last
Mrs. Massared suddenly expired. The deceased, who was
seventy years of age, had been eating a herring, and while in
the act of asking for another, she ceased to exist. In ad-
dition to these we may mention another case, which though
not so fatal, is of a serious nature. Mr. Stevens, a tinman,
while closing his shop on Thursday evening, fell through into
the area beneath his shop, and fractured his leg. —Canterbury
Paper.

MARCH OF HUMANITY.—A humane gentleman
has introduced into Taunton a manner of killing pigs by which
the sufferings of the animal are lessened. lie proposes that
the pig should be struck on the'forehead between the eyes
with an iron hammer, weighing about seven pounds, which
stuns it, and, whilst it is in a state of insensibility, to be stuck
as usual. The cries of the animal, and its dying struggles,
which are repugnant to humanity, are completely obviated by
this method.—Taunton Courier.
EXTRAORDINARY CUCUMBER.—A cucumber of
the following dimensions has been exhibited at our office this
week, grown by James Brown, gardener to John Hebble-
thwaite, Esq., Leeds :—Length 25 inches, circumference in
the thickest part 91 inches, smallest part 94 inches, weight
6011bs. It was cut on the 17th inst.—Leeds intelligencer.
Our readers who travel from Oxford to the Tring
station on the Birmingham Railway will be glad to hear that
the road leading from Wheatley turnpike, through Tidding-
ton, to Thine, is henceforth to be a turnpike-road, although
without that drawback to the comfort of a turnpike-road—a
toll gate ! The trustees of the Thames and Aylesbury roads
have very liberally included the road in question within their
district, and have agreed to advance 500/. towards Putting it
in comp!ete repair.—Oxford Herald.

Mr. Morison, the Hygeist, hereby calls the attention
of those who may entertain a doubt as to the truth of the
fle,reian Theory (that on the, blood alone depends life or
death), to the lecture of Professor Alajendie, as published in
the Lancet, of the 20th inst., wherein they will see the opinion
entertained by that eminent pathologis'. on the subject, ard
also on the contradictory jargon of the present system of ti,e
medical profession ; in illustration o! which system, he ( Pro-
fessor 11.1ajendie) does not hesitate to declare that the higher
the reputation obtained in it, the greater the proof of ernpiri-
cim ; such reputation being grounded only on the monstrous
farrago of drugs prescribed at haz ird, thus leading the unwary
to believe tlie practitioner as " profoundly versed
in the matnria
medica, and being a man of immense resources," &c. The
learned professor further adds that, according to the present
system of medicine, " the practitioner mixes, combines, and
jumbles together, vegetable, mineral, and animal substances;
administers them right or wrong, without considering for a
moment the cause of the disease, and without a single clear
idea on the why and wherefore of his conduct," which is most
true.—British College of Health, New-road, Oct. 21, 1838.
On Saturday an inquest was held at the Middlesex
Hospital on the body of a young woman named Cushier', late
a ladies'-maid in a Nobleman's family. Deceased had left her
situation, and for some time had been in a very desponding
state of mind. On Tuesday, being taken suddenly ill, she
was conveyed to the hospital, and after her departure a basin
was found in her room containing same gruel, which, on being
analyzed, was discovered to contain arsenic. The father of
the deceased said he was unable to account for his unfortunate
child destroying herself. She hzd been a very good daughter.
She had not left her situ tion for any improper conduct. She
had latterly been very desponding. She had no male fol-
lowers. Mr. Curie, the apothecary, stated that the deceased
on her admission was apparently labouring under the symp-
toms of having swallowed either arsenic or oxalic acid. An-
tidotes were advninistercd, but she gradually sank, and died on
Thursday. On opening the body no vestige of
"is" could
be discovered. The contents of the stomach had not been
analyzed. Verdict—. That the deceased died under strong
suspicion of having taken poison, but the evidence was not
sufficient to prove such."

A steady advance in the prices of corn now takes place
on each market day at Mark-lane. For the last six, the
tvhole of the samples of old English and foreign wheat have
been taken off with the greatest avidity by th speculators,
and there is now, indeed, scarcely any sound old wheat to
be purchased at Mark-lane. The late accounts from the '
continental nations are also now fully confirmed as to the
deficiency and bad quality of the crops, the most recently
received letters describing the prospects of those countries
to be much worse than our own, as regards the price of
food for the ensuing winter months. In Germany parti-
cularly, we understand from persons who have lately visited
almost the whole length of the country, that the utmost mi-
sery is expected amongst the population ; for not only has
the present hai vest been deficient, but the old stocks of
corn have been exhausted by the purchases for the Eng-
lish market which took place about the time of the recent
opening of the ports ; so that there is not a village in Ger-
many where the people are not in consternation at the price
of bread, and "curses against the English" are described
as being heard on every hand. This is a view of the ope-
ration of the Corn-laws which is too seldom alluded to
in this country,,for the misery which these tyrannical regu-
lations bring upon foreign countries is even greater than
that which is inflicted upon the population at home. The
rise of prices in all other countries is expected to produce
the most distressing consequences to the trade of the world,
for in the United States, it appears by the latest intelli-
gence, the prices of flour and Indira corn had advanced to
enormous rates, in consequence of the speculative purchases
which were going forward for the English market to the
great injury of the mass of the population, who are only now
emerging from the late troubles of the trading world, to be
again subjected to difficulties arising from a double price
of the necessaries of life. In Canada, also, great
distress is expected to prevail from the same cause;
for not only will there be no surplus of corn,
to be this year exported to England, as in favourable
years, but so deficient has bean the production of grain
from the coldness of the autumn and the large falling off
in the cultivation of the lower province, in consequence of
the civil troubles, that a large importation of flour and
corn will be required at enormous prices from the only
market which can possibly be capable of sending out the
supplies—that of the United States. In the midst of the
difficulties in which so great a portion of the population of
the world is expected to be involved from the sudden
changes in the value of the necessaries of life, it is clear
that the effect upon the trade and commerce of Great Bri-
tain must be of a doubly distressing description, for the
consumption of manufactured goods, both at home and
abroad, must be extensively diminished by the impossi-
bility of purchasing clothing and other not so indispen-
sable articles of manufactured goods. • In this manner will
diminished employment, in all probability, come to double
the difficulties of the manufacturing population of Eng-
land and Scotland, and to force on that repeal of the
Corn-laws which circumstances are now conspiring to ren-
der it impossible for the English Aristocracy to continue
for their own advantage amidst the clamour and curses of the
people of almost every nation in the world.—Alurninq
chronicle.