The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-14 00:00:00

. .
tdagascar, RiEleman,-and Spy; American, SaVan-
nab; French, Capricieuse, and Thisbe. At Bahia,
H.B.M. sloop Siren.. H.8.M.. screw-steamer
Tri lent 'had sailed a few days previous from Per-
nambuco. At Lisbon, M. Blenheim.

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, SATURDAY EVENIXO.
MR. JUSTICE KEOGH.

The Right Hon. William Keogh has been sworn
in before the Lord Chancellor as one of her Ma-
jesty's Justices for. the Court of Common Pleas.
Air. Keogh is one of the youngest judges by some
years who has ever sat on the judicial bench in
Ireland. He was born in the year 1817. Mr._
Richard M'Kevin, solicitor, has been appointed his
registrar.

THE MYSTERIES OF ROOKWOOD-HOUSE.
Under this head one of the Dublin papers fur-
. nishes the following sketch of some of the main
incidents in the eventful life of the late Sarah
Kelly. It may be mentioned here that all kinds
of rumours have been current since yesterday re-
spectirig the testamentary disposition of the pro-
perty of the ill-fated woman.; but as some of the
stories carried with them an air of almost startling
improbability, there would be no use in making
further reference to them, especially as the real
facts must be known before the lapse of many
days:—
" Mrs. Sarah Kelly, a lady of great wealth, residing
on • her estates in Galway, went out to walk in - her
, grounds on Tuesday last, accompanied by her nephew ;
two persons, respectably dressed as females, in black
bonnets and veils, walked up to her, desired the nephew to
move out of the way, and shot her dead through the head.
The assassins then escaped. Such is all that the world
knows of a murder, dark, hideous, and mysterious as any
which the chambers of Stamboul, the qbays of Venice,
• or the midnight streets of Paris could reveal. But,
strange and mysterious as has been the death of this -
lady, it is only when, viewed in connection with her past
life that it is seen in its true light ; that death so awful,
so unparalleled in its circumstance, closed a life of al-
most fabulous incident and change; it terminated a
, career such as no novelist has ever dreamed of por-
traying. Sarah Kelly was born at Broadataire, a
watering piece on the coast of Kent, where her father
legot an inn. At this inn, about 50 years ago, a.
young Irishman, named Meredyth, the heir of a hand-,
some estate and a baronetcy, was sojourning. The •
beauty of the innkeeper's daughter attracted the notice ,
of young Meredyth, and lie devoted himself but too
successfully to the task of her conquest. Miss Birch
• —for that was her name, fled with her admirer to the
Lind of tie West,' where she in due time presented
• him N ith a too convincing token of attachment. Love
has been said to fly at sight of ' human ties ;' in
• this case his light wings spread for want of them ;
, Meredyth,. the betrayer, abandoned his victim and her
infant, under circumstances of desertion so heartless,
as 'to induce a Dublin jury subsequently to award a=
sum of 3,0001. as damages in an action brought against,
him for her seduction. The trial took place about 1817,,
and elicited the forensic art and eloquence of some of the
most distinguished advocates of the time. Over the next,
succeeding chapters of Miss Birch's life we desire to pass-
' with as little detail as possible ; she led the life of ad-'
• venture and difficulty, of error and shame, into which,
her previous misfortune and her beauty bad, we,
might almost say, driven her. Mr. Edmund Kelly,
gentleman, of Merrion-square, an elderly widower, a,
land agent, solieitbr, rethionaaire, became acquainted;
with her ; she gave up her city life, and became his
Housekeeper ; subsequently, it appears, his wife, and
mistress of Rook wood• house, county of Galway. Mt.
Kelly had a daughter by his first wife, but she bad dis-
appeared. • He had, however, relations who expected to
divide at his decease the enormous wealth, estimated at
' 300,0001 to 500,0001., of which he was the possessor.
Mss B rch was not as yet known, or, at any rate, not
recognised as Mr-. Kelly. See was, however, most assi-
i duou- in her attentions to the old man, who every day
grew more weak, more eccentric, and, it is said, more
, imbecile. Strange stories were told of his las; days;
how the idea hau ei him that he should die of hunger ;
now his watcotul mistress, wife, nurse, or gaoler—which-
,oever she was—bad his bedroom hung round witb eat-
' ables of every description, stories of a deathbed marriage,
of a deathted will ; but how much of all this was truth;
' and how much Lille, can never be satisfactorily ascer-
tained. Mr. Kelly died ; Miss Birch claimed the recog-
nition of her position as his widow, and produced a will
• entitling her to all the prodeity, real and personal, of
the late owner of Reek's° idshouse. His nearest rela-
tive, an elderly maiden lady named Thewles, denied the
validity of the will ; her means were slight, but her
claim was strong—at least so thought her friends, who
advanced her the money sufficient to prosecute her
Suit tit law. The action must be' fresh in the re-
collection of our realers, so we do not mei to give
iis curious details. Miss Thewles had a ver fct
in • her favour. Mrs. Kelly appealed from the
Court of Delegates, but now offers of money flowed
p'ebtifully upon Miss Thewles ; offers of matrimony
came also ; she accepted one, that of her confidential soli-
citor. He aa' not a; successful for his wife as he had
been for his client; the verdict in favour of Miss Thewles
was totally set aside by the late Chancellor Blackburne
in an able judgment upon Mr-. Kelly's application for a
Court of Review. Mrs. Kelly now set out to enjoy her
wealth ; she resided in Merrion-square. One day a poor
woman with two little children by the hand pulled the
be.), and humbly asked the powdered and gold-laced
footman to bear his mistress a note ; there was no an-
swer. She called again and often, and as often turned
wearily and dejectedly away. It was the &tighter of
the late Edmund Kelly, who was begging a morsel of
all her father's wealth. What a history was hers! She
had been brought up with the fondest parental care ; ass
had been placed at a first-rate boarding-school in Clifton,
in England, where no less than 3001. a-year was pail for
her. When her father married secondly she was re-
moved to an inferior' school at Bath, and her allowance
,o-a.dually reduced. After many trials and vicissitudes,
chiefly caused by fa ee information as to her father'e
death, she was at length abandoned, with two children,
by a profligate villain, who had married her under the
pretence of being hsr father's agent. She contrived to
eke out a livelihood for herself and children as a governess,.
until she again married a Mr. Morton. She had heard
of her father's death, and of his extraordinary will, and
of Miss Thewles's action, and she came across to Ire-
land, to see if Mrs. Kelly would not help her ia some
way. Mrs. Kelly bad a confidential solicitor, names
Birch ; she called him her nephew ; others said he
was 'a'eearer relative still. This Mr. George Birch told
the applicant that his suet would do nothing for her, but
that he would do something; lie made vile proposals to
her—and worse. Her husband. Mr. Morton, brought
an action for assault, and obtained damages 2001. and 6d.
coats, ;igiticst Mr. Birch.
" The wealth of Edmund Kelly seemed to rest never,
as if it were fated to be the prolific source of strife and
contention, a curse and not a blessing. Mrs. Kelly
dove up in great haste one day to a police office in the
city, and applied for a warrant against her nephew,
George Birch, who had absconded with 200,000/. ! He
was arrested on board the steamer, leaving B gland for
the continent, but on being brought back not only stood
his trial, but challenged a prosecution—none was pressed,
we believe • matters were settled. The last appearance
of Mrs Kelly in the law courts was as defendant, sued
by the police sergeant who arrested Mr. Birch, for the
reward of 5001. which, it viva§ alleged, she bad offered.
Since then she has resided principally on her estates in
Galway, where she has been thus barbarously assassi-
nated. The attempt to divert the public from the true
scent, by the idea of the murder being of an agrarian
nature, has been a signal failure. All, save a few per-
sons who could not he expected to forego on any positi-
hle occasion a war-howl against the Irish peasantry, re-
cognise in this mysterious murder a finale to this most
extraordinary history, connected with and springing
from circumstances in her career and position, far differ-
ent from what the assassins ints: del to suggest."

THE TIPPERARY BANK.
A notification from the It asterin Chancery inti-
mates that he will proceed on Monday, the 28th
inst., to settle the list of contributories to the Tip-
perary Bank. After such lists shall' have been
settled,'the Master fin ther_intimates that no pet-
son affected thereby will be allowed to dispute the
same without the leave-of the-Court of Chancery.

THE CONTEST FOR ATHLONE.
At 11 o'clock to-day the Hon. Captain Handcock
was 11 ahead of Mr. Ennis, and two hours later
tho Derbyite maintained the first place, although
his majority was lessened by one vote. At that
hour the numbers stood thus :—Handcock 80 ;
Ennis, 70. If the estimate be correct of the total
available constituency being not more than 160,
there would remain but 10 more votes to decide the
contest—if, indeed, it be not already decided in
favour of Captain Handcock, who, of course, will
be mainly indebted for his return to the support of
the 30 Roman Catholics who seceded from the
Liberal camp. No later account has been received
up to post hour.

ROYAL GALLERY OF ILLUSTRATION.—The following
persons of rank have recently visited this gallery to wit-
ness Miss P. Horton's popular entertainment. The Duke
and Duchess of Wellington, the Duke and Duchess of
Montrose, Lord Brougham, the Earl of Seafield, Lord
Macdonald, Lady G. Lennox, Lady Mary and Miss
Saurin, the Earl of Caithness, Lady Dufferin, Sir Jas.
F'ergusson Lady Torrens, Lady Craufurd, Lady Mac-
naghten, Sir John and Lady Campbell, Lady Langdale,
Sir. W, Davidson Sir A. Burton, Sir R. Anstruther, Sir
G. Brooke, Sir J. Macdonald, the Hon. It. Burke, Sir
C. Fox, Lady Williams, Sir J. Harding, Lady Loper,
Lady Young, the Hon. Mr. Vereker, Sir R. Gunning,
the lion. Col. Bruce, Sir H. Fairfax, Lady Maxwell,
Sir D. Kinloch, Lady Lyell, Sir C. Parsley, Mr. Schole-
field, M.P., Sir G. Armytage, &c., &c.
ACCIDENT AT THE LYCEUM THEATRE.—On Saturday
as some of the workmen, who were engaged et this
theatre preparing 'for the opera season under Mr. Gye,
were fixing their ladders at the end of their day's work,
the whole of the stone coping and balustrades fell into
the street with a loud crash. A man named Porter was
standing at, the time on the summit. of the coping to a
which be was about to make fast with rope the upper
part of the ladder. Fortunately he fell backward on the
roof instead of into the street,' and his fellow-work Men
seeing one of his legs hanging over the parapet, ascended
the ladder, and...brought hiraslaw.h happily more fright-
ened .tban injured. The flag stones of the pavement
belovi were split by the weight of-the fall,- hut no one
ivai-injiired. "The stone work which fell 448 composed
nth stone, which is at a very brittle description.-