The Sun.
London, England, 1834-05-12 00:00:00

IRELAND.

CHARLEVILLE, MAY 6.—This clean and well-
ventilated little town, with a good inn, and agreea-
ble prospect of the counties of Cork and Limerick,
on the confines of which it is situate, suggests the
mention of some particulars which are just now
among the news of the day, and will very soon form
an important part of the " res gestce," or history of
this beautiful but unfortunate country. It was a
borough when Ireland had her Parliament, and is
now one of the very few unrepresented places in
Ireland that might fairly prompt a commercial tra-
veller, like myself, to ask—" Who watches over
your interests and welfare in the Imperial Parlia-
ment ?" Most other Irish towns and villages that
I have seen are not more remarkable for their nar-
row streets, small low filthy houses, and the squalid
appearance of many of their inmates, than this is
for its broad streets, and high, well-built dwellings,
in most of which an invalid might be said to have
both air and exercise. But the reason that I make
its post-office the medium of communication with
you is, because I have just heard some inhabitants
of the place express great delight, while announcing
the intelligence, that Government has sent down
the Solicitor-General, Mr. Crampton, to inquire
into the causes of the recent disaster at Ferroonagh,
about eight miles from this town, in the county of
Limerick, where three persons were shot and se-
veral wounded, as you have been already informed,
in an attempt to rescue cattle taken in execution
for tithes. The Solicitor-General is said to be in-
tent on the thorough investigation of all the circum-
stances connected with this melancholy affair, and
has, for that purpose, taken up his residence, for a
few days, with Mr. Furlong, the agent of Lord
Courtney at Newcastle—a gentleman so well liked,
as to be called the poor man's magistrate in that
neighbourhood. There is a greater variety and
difference of stories respecting the fatal conflict
itself afloat here, than it would be prudent or pro-
per to publish at present. Some of them, however,
are contradictory of the published report of the Co-
roner's Inquest, which states that the soldiers fired
without provocation, under the orders of the Chief
Magistrate of Police in that district, while others
confirm that report. In fact, "guot homines tot
sententice." Every one has a story suited to his
politics, which are almost as varied as the features
of the individuals you meet with here. Should the
eye-witnesses of the scene differ as much as their
neighbours, the Solicitor-General will find it difficult
to come at the truth of the entire transaction. One
thing, however, is manifest—tithes were the remote
and proximate cause of so much bloodshed. They
have long since so debased, by their oppression,
And indeed so maddened the minds of the people
a4;t4 perverted their notions of meant et tuum, that
resistance to the laws sustaining them is looked
upon as a virtue. Consequently, when the officers
of justice come to enforce their payment, they are
regarded as accessaries to the violation of the laws
of nature and reason ; and the wretched people,
who are in other respects fond of justice, and obser-
vant of her dictates, in this instance expose them-
selves to be sacrificed, as it were, victims of their
Awn misguided and mistaken notions. At Ferroo-
nagh, they first attempted to rescue the cattle, and
subsequently assaulted the soldiers with stones, if
not with fire-arms. The place was well calculated
to favour this mode of attack ; it consists of about
twenty low mud cabins, extending twice as many
perches on each side of the road. Behind them, as
from intrenchments, the people assembled in great
numbers, threw or pitched stones into the road ,
N7hich, falling perpendicularly, did less injury, even
when they hit, than if they had been flung horizon-
tally, and with violence. This accounts for the sol-
diers n:caping unhurt. Mr. Locke, the owner of -
the tithes, was sought for on the occasion, and his
family, which is a large one, have been hitherto
universally esteemed ; which circumstance, together
with his unwillingness to forfeit nearly a fourth part,
induced him to prefer collecting his tithes in the
usual way, to claiming them from Government
/Icier the Million Act. Even the revising barristers,
'Acting under the lest-mentioned statute, are exposed
tg danger in this county, though the law under
whits') they preside, professedly for the relief of
tithe-owners, is greatly in favour of the tithe-payers.
But so odious is tithe become under any modifica-
tion, that the people are infuriated at its bare men-
tion. The court-house at Rathkeale was torn down
a few weeks ago, upon Mr. Ardill ; and it is said
that Mr. Roche was threatened at Askeaton last
week, because his decisions did not go so far in re-
ducing the memorialists' claim as the demagogues
thought they should.

" A Narrative of Two Years at Sea," from
the pen of a lady, nay be regarded as a curiosity in
literature. The writer (Miss Jane Roberts) recently
visited the settlement of the Swan River, and her work
will comprise a faithful description of the emigrant's
life, both there and in Van Diemen's Land, where she
also stayed some time. Thence she proceeded through
the Torres Straits, and, on her voyage home, stopped
at Rangoon, where she had an opportunity of seeing
much of the manners and customs of the Burmese, and
of detailing the progress of christianity among. a people
with whom the English reader is vor iirivelfcct ;lac-
%%tainted.