The Sun.
London, England, 1840-11-03 00:00:00

KING'S COUNTY.

The following is the reply of the Lords Justices to
the memorial recently adopted at a meeting of Magis-
trates of the King's County, convened by Lord Oxman-

town at Parsonstown :
Dublin Castle, October 28, 1840.
Mv LORD—I am directed by the Lords Justices to
acknowledge the receipt of a memorial, approved and
transmitted to them by your Lordship, as Lieutenant
of the King's County, and signed by a large proportion
of the Magistracy of that county.
Their Excellencies concur with the memorialists in
thinking that a renewal of that species of outrage, which
has unhappily prevailed of late in the King's County,
demands the gravest consideration on the part of the
executive ; while there are circumstances connected
with the late attempts on the life of Mr. Biddulph,
which place it beyond the level of ordinary crimes.
The boldness and confidence of the attack, made in
open day—the unwillingness of those near the spot to
render assistance when called upon—are facts.too clearly
indicative of a state of society, where the criminal is
looked upon rather as the assertor of some imaginary
right, than as the perpetrator of a deed of atrocity and
horror.

...........
The total inefficacy of a reward, as a means of dis-
covery, and the failure of all attempts to bring former
offenders to justice, are but further proofs of the exist-
ence of this sympathy.
I need scarcely assure you that their Excellencies
view such a state of things with the deepest concern,
and that they are specially ready to co-operate most
warmly with the local Magistracy in any mode calcu-
lated, in their opinion, to lead to its suppression ; nor
are they disposed to shrink from calmly investigating
the causes to which this unnatural connexion of public
sympathy with crime' may be traced.
The statement in the memorial is professedly one of
fact, confined to a detail of outrage, while it is left to
the Government to infer the cause and to devise the
remedy. But their Excellencies feel that with regard
to the cause there is little necessity for looking beyond
the facts recorded in the memorial. It would appear
that, with the exception of the case of Mr. Synge—one
certainly of a very peculiar nature—all the outrages
which have occurred have arisen from disputes con-
nected with the tenure of land.
The difficulties with which the landlord has to con-
tend are fairly stated in the memorial ; and their Ex-
cellencies consider that any inquiry into the system—
out of which these difficulties have sprung, as affecting
the personal conduct of the landlord—could practically
do little more than raise a difference of opinion, or re•

vive feelings which it is the duty of the Government to
strive to allay. Other causes, which have obviously
contributed to the evil that exists, have been long in
operation : the changes in the nature of the franchise
indirectly inducing changes in the tenure and occupancy
of land ; the traditions handed down, and fondly che-
rished, of properties transferred by right of conquest ;
and, above all, the absence of any provision for the des-
titute, and the desperation consequent on the know-
ledge of there being no alternative between starvation
on the one hand, and retaining possession of land on
the other—may, in a great degree, account for some of
the worst features in the present state of things ; and
whether or not a reciprocal feeling of duty has existed
long enough between landlord and tenant (for the seed
is not sown and the harvest reaped on the same day),
or whether a sense of common interest has been, for any
extended period, naturally cultivated, it cannot but be
gratifying to their Excellencies to find so large a body
of resident gentlemen to give expression to feelings so
altogether creditable with respect to the relations which
ought to subsist between them and their tenantry.
Happily a law is now about to come into operation
which may tend to remove one of the main causes of
agrarian outrage : and the unceasing attention of the
Government will be given to the promotion of any mea-
Eares which may seem calculated to promote a perma-
nent improvement in the social relations, and in the phy-
sical and moral condition of the people.
Their Excellencies are glad to perceive that, even
while the memori aliits feel themselves called upon to im-
ply a doubt, with respect to the effect of one portion of
the arrangements in the present constitution of the con-
stabulary force, they willingly do justice to the admir-
able equipment and discipline of that body of men, to
which the most concurrent testimony has been borne
from all quarters. With respect to the specific point
in question, their Excellencies will direct the Inspector-
General to inquire whether some of the best conducted
men in the force might not be permanently located ,with
a view to become more thoroughly acquainted with par-
ticnlar localities ; and at the same time, with no invi-
dious distinction, from its being considered as a reward
for past good conduct.
Their Excellencies have only to express their satis-
faction at the cool and temperate manner in which the
facts, set forth in the memorial, have been brought be
fore them. I have the honour to be, my Lord,
tour Lordship's most obedient humble servant,
N. H. MACDONALD.
To Lord Oxmantown, &c. &c.

EARTHQUAKE AT COMRIE.—A rather smart
shock was felt here on the evening of the 26th, to a quar-
ter to seven o'clock. Reckoning the severest ever fi It
here, viz , the one on the 23d October last year (which it
will be recollected convulsed Scotland almost throughout)
at 10 deg., this last one would stand on the same scale
about 4 deg. The seismometers, or earthquake markers,
were on this last occasion very sensibly affected. One of
them—Mr. Milne's vertical force one—ranged 4 deg. on
its scale, which is about three-fourths of an inch from its
zero, or point of rest. Another—the dip instrument—in-
dicated the shock to have come upon it at angle of 45 deg.
to the horizon, in the direction of W. by N. So that if
the hill of Cluan be, as is here generally supposed to be
the case, directly over the focus of these shocks, this would
give a depth to it under that hill, within the bowels of the
earth of about two miles. The barometer and thermometer
were not affected. The former stood at 29 3-8 inches, the
other at 48 deg. Fehr. The night was calm and misty—
Scotch mist it might be called—for it was accompanied
with a gentle drizzle. This is now the third shock that
has been sensibly felt within the current month.
WEYMOUTH.-011 Sunday morning last, at
about four o'clock, during a violent storm from the eastward,
the Eagle, revenue cutter, Lieutenant Ray, R.N., in en-
deavouring to pick up her boats that were rowing guard in
Portsmouth Roads, was driven on the sands near the old
Castle it. a dangerous position, but was got off with
assistance with but little damage. Two boats belonging
t7.the Royal George, revenue cutter, Lieutenant Inakip,
R. N., were swamped in thele endeavours to render assist-
ance to the format, but no lives lost.

A highly respectabla and very skilful farmer in
our neighbourhood, who, for many yearP, had suffered con-
siderable loss among his calves by the quarter-ill, has
fuund that feeding them during winter on oil-cake, and
keeping them entirely from turnips, is a complete preven-
tive. After for sever:l years following this plan, always
with the same fortunate result, bey one year, gave them a
few turnips, and Qn that occasion he lost a calf by the dis-
uze alluded to. A respcetable farmer near Alnwick also,
who had annually suffered greet loss from the quarter-ill.
has experienced the same salutary eitecta from pursuing
the ibove practice.—erwick Advertiser.

---EXTRAOIIINARY PRODUCL—Last week Air.
am. this city,
Thomas Lambertg,airndne‘n-eetpheer,fokloowwiCngrosby,
cumber, lt
w a 1
the ‘'
le44l)t;*rr"od 3r:d.ribniaceirieYpi of
dcpitigocceluToociftnrpinal h4ilnel et potaitno.
320 potazoii
which was upwards of two stones four pounds.
was of the fiffc OlLlOjle,c9nd early.-Carlisle Patriot,