The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-03 00:00:00

NEWS FROM IRELAND.

The chairman of County Down quarter sessions—Mr.
Robert Johnstone, Q.C.— took the opportunity on Friday,
in opening the sessions for the Downpatrick district of the
county, to make some observations on the provisions of
the Land Act and their probable operation. It was, he
said, a startling fact that there were no less than 36 eject-
ment cases set down for hearing, a number for that
one district exceeding the entire number he had
ever had at one session in the four towns. The
Land Act was perhaps the most important affecting the
farming classes which had been passed by the Legis-
lature during the present century. The changes would
not be so much felt in that part of the country, he
said, where the relations of landlord and tenant stand in
such a favourable light, compared with other parts of
Ireland. Yet, nevertheless, this startling programme of
cases stared him in the face, which he presumed were,
for the most part, merely brought to test the Act. He
could not see how any Legislature, having due regard for
the rights of landed property, could be expected to go
further to secure to the tenant the fruits of his labour and
the stability of his tenure, because he apprehended when
the landlord knew that he could not disturb or remove
the tenant without compensating him for the disturbance
and, at the same time, paying him for improvements made
upon the farm, there would be few found to encounter
such an expense as would be r ecessary to evict.
A strong guard of police still continue night and day
to hold possession of Walker's Pillar and the bastion on
which it stands, so that no civilian can be admitted.
The Waterford Militia is being recruited, as well as the
other regiments of the force. A local paper says that the
other day the staff and band paraded the city at an early
hour, to announce an order received from the Government
to enrol for the cows. During the day nearly all the old
hands were taken on, and about forty new recruits. The
regiment is to be called out early in February for three
months, and in all probability much longer.
The moving bog near Castlerea, County Mayo, con-
tinues to excite apprehension. There is fear that the
town may be destroyed if the efforts to arrest the march
of the bog are not successful. Numbers of labourers are
employed to prevent such a catastrope. A goodly area
of the upland has been covered, and some houses and
farms, with the crop of the late harvest, literally de-
stroyed. The mass of peat and mud has spread over a
course of some miles, covering, it is computed, between
2,000 and 3,000 acres.
A Dublin correspondent writes :—On Sunday in almost
every Episcopal Church in Dublin reference was made
from the pulpit to the altered circumstances of the Irish
Protestant Church, the Act disestablishing it having
now come into force. It was generally made matter of
congratulatiln that during the year 1870 so much had
been done, with tolerable success, to reconstruct it on a
new basis. There was very little political matter in the
sermons, and collections were made everywhere in aid of
a Sustentation Fund.

In a mercantile point of view, the year 1870 has been
favourable for Ireland. The agricultural classes have been
benefited by the high prices for all descriptions of live
stock, and there is no want of money in the country ;
credit is sound, and bankruptcies and insolvencies are
comparatively rare. Railway traffic, too, has increased
in all directions, including the lines in the North, where
the dulness in the linen trade was calculated to
produce an adverse effect, and several projects for branches
and extensions will come before Parliament in the ensuing
Session. When some of these proposals shall have been
carried out, and it is stated they are partly supported by
the London and North-Western Company, there will
be unbroken communication by rail between North,
South, East, and West, as the principal lines will be
then connected together on the north side of Dub-
lin. The scheme of " The Dublin Trunk Connecting
Railway Company," which was intended to do this, and
to join all with the Dublin, Wicklow, and Wexford line
by a tunnel under the River Liffey, will in effect be carried
out, with the exception of the tunnel. It seems also
worthy of remark that the port of Dublin is becoming
every day more important, and the connection of the
northern and southern lines of railway, now pushing their
way down to the river side, as has been long since done by
the Midland Great Western, will add to its facilities and
consequent value.—Times' Dublin Correspondent.

DEATH OF LORD HENRY BENTINCE.-011 Satur-
day night Lord Henry Bentinck died suddenly at Tath-
well Hall, near Louth, Lincolnshire. His lordship was in
his 67th year. He was well known in that county, and all
over England, as a great sportsman. For many years he
was master of the Burton hunt, and was also a celebrated
deerstalker and angler.
GUN LICENCES.—Since the herd weather has set
in the post offices in suburban districts have been be-
sieged by small bird shooters for a ten shilling gun
licence. , Hitherto the Gun Licence Act was a complete
blank. The lowest penalty for using a gun without a
license is 505., and the highest £lO and costs.
THE LATE MR. GEORGE WILSON.—It is said that
the late Mr. George Wilson might many times have been
returned to Parliament ; but he always contended that he
could serve his party much more effectually out of doors.
It is a singular fact that, although often consulted by the
leaders of political movements in London, he hardly ever
addressed a public meeting in the metropolis, at least
since the period of the anti-corn-law demonstrations in
Covent Garden Theatre.

THE LONDON SCHOOL BOARD.—lnstead of there
being only five candidates for the secretaryship of the
Lcindon School Board, there are at least twice or thrice
that number. As for the lesser clerkships, the candidates
for these are so numerous as to provoke the committee al-
most to despair, and many of them, moreover, are men
of high qualifications. Until these preliminary matters
are settled, it is impossible that the Board can get
to work on the education of the metropolis. The solitary
clerk whose services they now command has been lent to
them by the Corporation of London. In the list of candi•
dates for the secretaryship we find the names of the Rev.
T. H. Lindsay Leary, M.A., D.C.L., lately the editor of
the Rock newspaper, and of Mr. George St. Clair, F. G.S.