The Sun.
London, England, 1848-10-23 00:00:00

IRELAND.

THE, SPECIAL COMMISSIONS.
DUBLIN, SATUBDLY.—The Clonmel Chronicle of
Friday says--
"The Special. Commission at Clonmel will not close
till all the political prisoners shall have been tried. The
Attorney-General leaves town to-morrow night for
Dublin, to conduct the prosecution against Duffy and the
other State prisoners fur trial there. Crown summonses
were served here this morning and yesterday, upon per.
sons required to give evidence against Duffy. The Soli
citor-General will conduct the prosecution for the Crown,.
in the cases of the State prisoners for trial in Clonmel.."
MAIL COMMUNICATION WITH ENGLAND.
A correspondence is in progress between the
Dublin Chamber of Commerce and the Postmaster-
General, respecting the inconvenience of the present
snail communication between Dublin and England,
via Holyhead and Liverpool. The Chamber of Com-
merce object particularly to the departure of the
Liverpool mail at so early an hour in the afternoon as
four o'clock, and they also draw attention to the in-
convenience of the Holyhead route, the mail steamer
being dispatched from Kingstown at half-past eleven -
A.M., only three hours after the departure of the
steamer belonging to the. Chester and Holyhead Com-
pany. The Mercantile Advertiser contains the last
letter from the Chamber •of Commerce to the Post--
master-General, dated October 13, which concludes
as follows :

" On the strong objections which exist to the present
arrangement your Lordship has been informed.
" Your Lordship has been apprised that all the banks,
the custom-house, and nearly all the public offices, close
at three o'clock, rendering the previous hours amongst
the busiest of the day, and rendering it extremely diffi-
cult, and in some cases impossible, to make that business
the subject of letters which are now required to be
posted at the receiving-houses throughout the city before
three o'clock, and at the General Post. office befure half-
past three, or until forty minutes past three, on pay-
ment of a fee of sixpence in addition to the postage on
each letter.

"Your Lordship has also been informed that the mail
for Liverpool is not required solely for correspondence
with London, but is at present essential to the impor-
tant communication with. the manufacturing districts of
Saglapd, and ,tiv.s-41tia mitorreepowciance Is, seriously im-
Peded Isy the entlitsing regulation.,
" That the letters, for Belfast, which do not arrive in
Dublin until a quarter before five o'clock, and which
were formally forwarded via Liverpool when that mail
was dispatched at half-past six, are now wholly excluded
from a mail dispatched at half-past four.
" That the letters from Cork, which do not arrive- in-
Dublin -until twenty minutes past three, cannot, as for-
merly, be delivered in time to permit of any communica-
tion arising out of them being made via Liverpool, &c.,
although Cork being the port of call' for vessels arriving
for orders, it is. highly important that such communica-
tion should not be delayed.
" The Chamber of Commerce refrain from trespassing
on your Lordship'& attention by a detail of minor incon-
veniences; nor need they refer to transactions which
occurred in 1846, except to point out to your Lordship
than wh6n an alteration in the dispatch of the Liverpool
mail, similar to that now complained of, was made in a
similar manner, that is, made by the anthorities in
London, without any communication whatsoever with
those locally formed in Dublin, it was found necessary
almost immediately to annul that arrangement, and to
adopt the regulation which has since existed.
"Your Lordship is possibly not aware that the recent
alteration in the dispatch of the Liverpool mail was not
made at the request or on the suggestion of the bankers,
merchants, or traders of Dublin, or, so far as can be
ascertained, on that of any portion of the community
interested in the postal communication between Great
Britain and Ireland; that no effort appears to have been
made by the Post-office authorities to consult the wishes
or elicit the Opinion of those whose interests and con-
venience were most likely to be affected; nor was any
intimation whatsoever given of the arrangement until the
Post-office authorities in London notified, by public ad-
vertisement, that it was completed, and it would be car
ried into effect at an early and specified day. This course
of proceeding, with reference to the interests of the citi-
zens of Dublin, the Chamber of Commerce deeply regret;
they are led to believe that it is not in accordance with
the course usually adopted, where the similar interests
of important towns in Great Britain are affected, and
must have been adopted in forgetfulness of the assurance
contained in the Postmaster-General's letter of the 25th
March last, that in consequence of a letter which his
Lordship had then recently received from the Secretary
of the Chester and Holyhead Railway Company, he was
unable to afford any -definite information as to the course
be would be prepared to pursue (when the Holyhead
line would be opened), but that he would not fail to
communicate further with the Chamber of Commerce
upon the subject as soon as his arrangements were finally
decided. Hoping-for your Lordship's favourable consi-
deration of the suggestions offered and relief from the
inconvenience consequent on the too early dispatch of
the Liverpool mail, I have the honour to be, my Lord,
your Lordship's most obedient servant,
" CHARLES lIALIDAY, Hon. Sec.
" To the Most Noble the Marquis of Clanricarde,
Postmaster-General, &c. ttc., London."

OPENING OF THE DUBLIN COMMISSION.
The commission was opened at the Court-house,
Green-street, this day. The presiding judges were
Mr. Justice Torrens and Mr. Justice Crampton, who
were accompanied by the Lord Mayor and other cor•
porate officers. The grand juries for the county and
city having been sworn, _
Judge TORBENS, in.addre sing the city grand jury,
said it became his duty to call their attention to the du-
ties they were imperatively called upon to perform, and
to instruct them as, to the state of the calendar, and
make such observations as he might deem
just in the
performance of his duty. In the first place, he had
to tell them that, notwithstanding the calendar pre-
sented crimes affecting the state of society, yet, in
consequence of proceedings which had taken place at
the last commission, they would not be called upon to ex-
amine into evidence affecting those serious cases. He spoke
from the records of the city, in which he found that at
the last. commission there were four persons charged
with the serious offences to which he alluded. Three of
those four persons were Charles Gavan Duffy, Richard
D. Williams, Kevin Izod O'Doherty, who were charged
with felony for publishing certain seditious writings in
the Nation and, Tribune newspapers. One of those persons
was tried at the last commission, under bills of indict-
ment found by their predecessors, and on that subject
any further explanations which the Court could give
would be quite unnecessary. Bills of indictment. having
been found by a former grand jury against those persons,
it was not necessary that new bills should be sent up on
the present occasion in the cases of Williams and
O'Doherty. The third case was that of Charles Gavan
Duffy, against whom bills had been already found, for
the publication of certain seditious writings in the Nation
newspaper; and upon being arraigned, and called upon to
plead, he put in a plea, in which the Crown joined
issue, so that, bills having been found by their predeces-
sors, the present grand jury were relieved from the con-
sideration of those three serious cases. Respecting the
other cases on the calendar, with the exception of one,
he found them of the ordinary nature which frequently
occur in the metropolis,
and being such he found it un-
necessary to draw their attention to any but the one he
had alluded to. That case, too, WAS connected with
political subjects, which had been before the Court, and
which, in another place, was now under inquiry.
The case to which he alluded had reference to the
policeman, with intent. to kill and
wounding of a
murder.. Ho •had looked- into the- informations, which