The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-15 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENI-o, AUGUST 15, tris6

IRELAND.

time were only distinguished by the conflict of races and'
the struggles of contending nations, how the represen-
tative of the Sovereign of this realm can not only ap•
proach but can make his way into the centre of that pro-
vince of Connaught, where, formerly, the representative
of the monarchs of England were defied and forbidden to
pass. (Hear.) He can now go there, and can see that
he has secured the allegiance and the affection of that
province with far firmer bands than any by which in
this country they were secured to ar•y Sovereign, be-
cause he wins them by relying on and existing in the
warm hearts and tender affections of the people. (A.p-
pla,use)."

offer, M. Baudin and the female were on the 11th of
that month enticed on some pretext to a house at a place
called La Chesnaie, at some little distance from Nantes,
which house belonged to Crochu. There they were
efF.ed refreshments, and a nareotie was mixed with their
wine. This produced sleep, and when they wire asleep
they were murdered. Tneir bedi s were then buried be-
neath a larze oak tree by the rind side opposite a pond
called the Etang de la Perriere. No sooner was this sta. •
went made than criers were transmitted from Rcuen by
telegraph t) have L- arrested, and on Monday he was
lodged in prison. On the same day, in onediei•ce to
telegraphic orders, a search was made in the place indi-
cated for the remains of the victims, but up to four in
the afternoon nothing had been found. The arrest of
M. L-- naturally created an immerse sen-ation at
Nantes, but, it is not eensidered improbable that Crochu
may have falsely denounced him, to satisfy private
vengeance, or to postpone his own execution. Crochu's
house, in which the victims are said to have been mur-
dered, was in 1851 quite isolated, but since then a num-
ber of•huses have been built and gardens formed around
it, so that the site is completely changed. It is expected
that Crochu himself will be removed to Nantes to assist
the autbarities in the searching investigation which they
have instituted.

DUBLIN, THURSDAY MORNING.
THE (GREAT NATIONAL OATTLE SHOW.
The Royal Agricultural Improvement Society
held their annual cattle show at Athlone yester-
day. Owing to the very unfavourable state of the
weather during the earlier part of the day the
:attendance of visitors was rather meagre, but sub-
BE quently the rain having ceased the show-yard
'7l6pidly filled with crowds of spectators from all
I trts of Ireland. The exhibition of stock of all
' kinds is described as being unusually fine. The first
prize in short-horned bulls, calved between January,
1851, and 1854, was awarded to Grand Turk, be-

longing to Mr. Henry Ambler, of Watkinson:hall,
Halifax. Lord Ciancarty's short-horned roan bull,
Pro Bono Publice, took the second prize. The
Lord-Lieutenant was present, and in the course of
the day a congratulatory address was presented by
the town commissiouers, to which his Excellency
replied zs folllows :
" Gentlemen—l beg to return my sincere thanks to
the Commissioners of Athlone for the expressions alike
Df respectful loyal'iy and friendly welcome with which
they have greeter'A me on my visit to their ancient bo-
rough. Its old and almost pre-historical name of Ath-
Lunn. or ' the. Ford of Luan,' the scene of many a
struggle bet•aeen conflicting tribes and jealous races,
affords a striking contrast to the spectacle it now pre-,
sents, whs,n, as the centre of the inland communication

APPOINTMENTS TO T FIE ARTILLERY
AND MILIT A RY ACADEMY.

List of successful Candidates for appointments to
Provisional Commissions in the Royal Artillery,
and for admission to the Royal Military Aca-
demy, Woolwich, at the examination held at
King's College, on 30th June, and following
days :

of the ki•Jgd'otn, it has brought this large and peaceful
concour de of its inhabitants together to witness the
bloodleAs triumphs of agricultural industry. I trust

that 'your community will ever entertain the noble re-
solul,iou of keeping due pace with the manifold advan-
tag'..s of your local position and the general improve-
In ent and progress of Ireland."
The banquet took place in the evening. The
Duke of Leinster, as president of the society, pre-
sided, and the guests comprised the Lord-Lieute-

I.—PROVISIONAL COMMISSIONS.
Names. Places of Education. Marks.
Tarleton, Edward Delaval University of Dublin.. 5,594
Darnall, Henry Ponntney Clare Hall, Cambridge 4,725
Cottingham, Edward R University of Dublin.. 4,633
Salmon, George Russell Privately
Barrington, Joseph Thos... University of Dublin 3,730
Townsend, Nath. Wm. 0... Trin. College, Cam 3.564
Auehinleck, John Claudius University of Dublin 3,534
Harvey, George Sheppard... Magdalen Col., Cam 3,471
Kyle, Samuel C0tter........ University of Dublin 3,397
Maunsell, Wm. Stopford.... University of Dublin 3,322
Mitchell, Herbert Leonard.. University Col., Oxfd. 3,166

nant; the Earl of Erne, Lord Monck, Lord Talbot
de Malahide, Lord Clancarty, Lord Clonbrock,
Lord Caitlernaine, Lord Clifton, Sir T. Redington,
Judge Keogh, and many of the leading gentry of
Westmeath, Roscommon, and the neighbouring

counties. The usual loyal toasts having peen given
and responded to, " The health of the Lord-Lieu-
tenant" was proposed amid great cheering. His
Excellency replied at considerable length, aud,
inter alia, supplied some highly interesting facts
connected with the annual return of agricultural
statistics which have not yet been officially promul-
gated by the Registrar-General. After alluding to
the historic recollections attached to the old town
of Athlone, the central garrison of Ireland, Lord
Carlisle proceeded as follows :
" Where could we have placed Irish agriculture upon
a more befitting throne ? Nor are there wanting some
very gratifying points of contrast with the times that
have passed away. This same majestic Shannon for-
merly separated Connaught almost as a distinct country
from the rest of Ireland. Sometimes, indeed, Connaught
was represented as being one side of a less political alter-
native—(lanighter and applause)—and this very year the
most brilliant of historians has described to us how that
inhabitants of the same realm guarded these lines, and
watched these fords, and reddened these plains in deadly
conflict. (Hear.) Now this same stream washes the
confines of ten peaceful Irish counties and benefits them
all, and, as on this day, brings together a large unarmed
assembly to meet in peaceful lists where there is no
more destructive rivalry than that between polled
Anguses and Berries. (Loud cheers.) While on the
subjeet of this great river, I may state much pains have
been taken of late years to heighten its natural capa-
bilities by improving the navigation and by diminishing
the overflow of its banks, to which it was so much sub-
ject ; and I am not sure whether our great Imperial
ally might not borrow some very useful hints from us as
to how to deal with these disastrous inundations, which
on a larger scale have so recently occurred on the banks
of the Loire and the Rhone. (Cheers.) But with re-
spect to ourselves, this deepening of the channel of rivers
and strengthening of their courses, and the redaction of
their waters to their summer level, prepare the way most
usefully for thorough drainage, and I rejoice to find how
much of that beneficial work is going on over Ireland
generally. I have learned that since 1848 no less than
176,000 acres have been drained by the Board of Works,
and I imagine more than double that area by private
hands; and sub-soil draining and surface draining on
mountain lands have been attended with like beneficial
results to the upland farmer and grazier. Now, I need
not point out to the practical and enlightened men who
now surround me how all-important drainage must be
to a country like Ireland,where the insular climate must
necessarily cause so great an abundance of moisture, and
where we cannot always rely on the brilliant sunshine
with which we were favoured during the last fortnight.
Ner can I be debarred, even by the golden promise of
the harvest which now gladdens our eyes, from urging
you to bear in mind that what Nature in her wise eco-
nomy seems specially to have fitted this island for is to
be the mother of flocks and herds—to be, if I may so
say, the herd and the dairy of the world—to send rations
of beef and bales of bacon to our armies wherever they
are, whether they are to be found, as many of our
friends here to-night can speak of their being, upon the
distant ridges of the Caucasus, and to send firkins of
butter to every sea and harbour of the habitable 'globe.
(Hear, hear.) Within the last twenty years more than
a million of Irish acres have been reclaimed from
the waste. In 1841 to eight millions of people there
were 13,000,000 of cultivated acres in Ireland. Now
perhaps more than a million has been subtracted from
the population, and more than a million acres has been
added to the cultivated area. (Hear, hear.) I wish,
however, not to deal in generalities on a subject of this
sort, but will confine myself to the actual progress as
contrasted between the present year and that which im-
mediately preceded it. I derive my information from
the very valuable returns collected by the constabulary
of this country ; and this is a matter in which I conceive
that you in Ireland have got a material start over your
proud neighbours in England. These returns, as you
are well aware, are collected annually, and, bait spoken
to the great credit of the Irish gentry, farmers, and peo-
ple, they are furnished voluntarily, and rare indeed are
the instances in which the information requested is not
supplied with alacrity and good will. (Cheers.) Well,
I find from these returns, which have not yet been given
to the public—the time has not yet arrived for their
being sufficiently matured for the purpose—l find that,
comparing this year with the last, there is a decrease of
some amount in the growth of oats and barley, but there
is an increase in the growth of wheat of 83,683 acres.
Tne increase in green crops amounts to no less than
114,774 acres ; and, though. I must admit potatoes are
by far the largest portion, yet I am in hopes that pota-
toes themselves are grown now more as a farmer's crop
than with a view to the exclusive subsistence of the cat-
tle. The increase in flax, which I ern especially glad to
learn covers 90,000 acres, and the increase of the whole
extent under tillage this year, as compared with the last,
amounts to 65,773 acres. So, with respect to livestock,
the increase in the number of horsesamounts to 18,000 ;
of head of cattle to 25,000 ; of the number of sheep to
90,000. There is a very large decrease observable in piggy,
amounting to no less than 250,000 ; but it is thought by
those who are charge I with the collection of these returns
thatit is owing to theirhaving been made up at an earlier
period than usual, for I believe the farmers generally
like to have their pigs to feed when they have the largest
quantity of actual produce to give them. However, that
Is a matter which must be tested by subsequent expe-
rience. I have the pleasure of seeing opposite to me on
this occasion a most useful public officer, Mr. Donnelly,
and 1 cannot see him witheut remembering that both he
and I have together striven to inculcate how much use
it would be to effect a still larger destruction of roadside
weeds. I do not like to go over ground which I have
travelled before, and I believe and hope much has been
done, and is doing in this respect. I know that some
railway companies have been good enough to give very
useful directions on this head, and I believe both they,
and grand juries, and road contractor 3, and proprietors
at large, might do still more. I do not wish at all to
treat even the unproductive pauper as a human weed—
I should be very sorry to represent him in that light—
but I am happy to say that. this crop shows a great defi-
ciency as c mpared with its state last year, for, upon
inquiring the numbers in the workhouses, I am happy
to find that in the last week there were 17,771 fewer
than in the same week in August, 1855, and there are
1,571 less last week than the week before. (Hear, hear.)
Indeed there is no circumstance in the present social
condition of Ireland which inspires me with more satis-
faction than what I believe to be the rise, perhaps the
gradual but the general rise, perhaps the slow, but I
elieve the certain, and I trust permanent rise, in the
rate of wages. An d if there are any here to whom that
has a less comfortable sound, I would invite him to
remember that low wages by no means always represent
cheap labour—(loud cheers)— and that no real or deep-
seated or permanent prosperity can be expected in the
country unless it is grounded upon a prosperous and
contented tenantry, and labouring class ; and, let me
add, that it is thus, amid the harmony of classes, the
co-operation of interests, the blessings of external peace
and internal concord, that I trust the Royal Agricul-
tural Society is destined to pursue its honourable and
beneficent career." (Loud cheering.)
The other principal speakers were Lord Erne,
Lord Clonbrock, Lord Clancarty, and Mr. Justice
Keogh. The latter concluded an animated address
in these terms :
"There are subjects on which no man can for a moment
admit himself to be ignorant, questions which, while
they do not trench iu any way on the disputed regions
of politics, on which we are never at liberty at meetings
of this kind to touch, yet all must know to be fostered,
to be encouraged by the exertions of the Royal Agricul-
tural Society of Ireland. They met together with no
selfish ends, except in the most enlarged sense in which
all men may be supposed to be actuated by selfish ma-
tives—naniely, the increasing the general store of wealth
and improving the character of the country which they
all love. But this society, meeting for the purpose of
diffusing useful knowledge among the humblest as well
as the highest classes of the community, spreading
among the peasantry of the land that information which
is calculated to improve their condition and raise them
in the scale of their fellow-creatures—(hear)-2nd surely
it is not necessary for me or for any one to go outside
the limits of this room to see how meetings such as this
are calculated to bring men together on occasions when
they can assemble without any difference of party or re-
ligious conflict—and forgetting those topics on which
unfortunately they may differ, combines in one common
concord for the common benefit of its country. Surely
also we can see in the observations which have been
made by his Excellency this evening one of the most dis-
tinct and clear marks of the regeneration of Ireland,
when he reminded us, and reminded us 80 appropriately,
that upon the banks of this river, which at no distant

11.--. ROYAL MILITARY ACADEMY.
Place of Education. Marks.
Millar, Joseph Allan Queen's Coll., Belfast.. 5,819
Nolan, Jon Philip .... University of Dublin. 4,716
Hardiuge, Edward Pelham. Do. 4,667
Stewart, Richard Warren Do. 4,019
Walsh, Edward
Davidson, Charles Richard King's Coll., London... 3,721
Walker, Edward James
tary Gram. School... 3,617
White, Thomas Pilkington. Privately .4,573
Bolland, George Herbert.... Gram. Sch., Clapham 3,518
Crawford, Charles
Gordon, Edward Smith Brighton College ...... 3,438
Hamilton, Thos. Bramstone Privately • 3,421
Le Grice. Frederick Sevaine Privately 3,399
Hozier, Henry Montague ... Edinburgh University 3,320
Vivian, Richd. Hy. Dansey Exeter Col., Oxford
Gallwey, Patk. Fitz-Gerald Catholic Univ.,Dublin 3,210
Lloyd, Francis Thomas...... Blackheath Prop. Sch. 3,166
Ls Mesurier, F. Augustus... RI. Naval Sc., N. Cross 3,116
Hollist, Edwd. Omtnanney Privately .. . 3,053
Strahan George Cumrniue.. Marischal College
Hogg, John Roberts
Aberdeen
Fleay, Augustus Timewell King's Coll., London 2,9 M
Cruikshank, Alex. Ramsay Do, Do. 2,817
Gillies, George James
Sturt, Napier George
Owen, John
Ferguson, Chas. J. O'Neill University of Dublin 2,696
Cooke, James Robt. Davies Privately
Stratton, J. Heathfield Brighton College 2,634
Melville, Bruce Hall