The Sun.
London, England, 1867-06-07 00:00:00

IREL AN 0.

DUBLIN, JllllO, 6.
Very light has begin thrown upon the designs
of the strangers who so mysteriJusly landed on the
coast near Dangarvan on Saturday last. It is, how-
ever, pretty evident that they cannot have been of a
belligerent character, as no arms of any kind were
fnund in the possession of the 26 who were arrested
that day, although the first accounts of the occur-
rence described the whole 66 strangers who landed
as being armed, and a subsequent report stated that
one of them possessei a revolver. The vessel which
brought then' to the coast Iva.; it appears, a long,
low, rakish-lo3king craft, of great speed, showing

no colours; but of American build. S'ae appeared
to be crowdel with men. After hovering about the
coast for some time she was joined by a hooker, into
which most of her passengers were seen to get, and
on nearing. a low promontory called Cunnegar Point,
they jumped overboard and waded through the, water,
which was more than three feet deep. On reaching
terra firma they dispersed in various directions. The
owner of the hooker, a fisherman of Dungarvan,
named Patrick Whelan, has been arrested. He

states that, passing near the brigantine, he was
signalled to come alongside, when a person evi-
dently in authority offered him to bring off two
men. Whelan agreed, and bringing his vessel under
the bow of the brigantine, in an instant a crowd
of men rushed into her. The bargain was nego-
tiated in Irish, which Whelan's interlocutor
spoke fluently. Whelan states he only saw
four men in the brigantine at that time, an I was
totally surprised by the sudden inroad of his unex-
pected passengers, who, however, when onca they
got on board his vessel, settled down quietly, and
behaved in the most decorous manner during the
progress to land. None of those who were arrested
attempted any resistance. Four, who were arrested
together, said they werepart of a troop of emigrants
en voyage to the Brazils or Buenos Ayres, and that
their ship having sprung a leak they were trans-
ferred for safety into a Norwegian brigantine, which
was compelled to land them on the Irish coast in
consequence of shortness of provisions. They de-
clined to give the name either of the Norwegian
brigantine or of the vessel in which they had first
taken passage, answering in monosyllables upon
being sharply pressed, and ultimately maintaining
au obstinate silence. Others said that they were a
party of hop-pickers, bound for Rent, and that an
accident to their vessel had obliged them to abandon
her. Two others, named Palmer and Donovan, said
that the party were on a fishing voyage, that their
vessel took fire, and that the brigantine relieved
them. These men, however, had nothing of the
appearance of sailors, and all the party looked like
Irish Americans, while on several were found dis-
charges from the American army. Two or three
arrests, made in the evening near Youghal, bring
They havete
policeallbeen
are
making
remanded
forup tfhnertnhuenriibnevretsotig2a9t. ion,and the
diligent inquiries, but as yet nothing has been ascer-
tained to diminish the mystery in which the whole
ots
hi toiyo n
N,vielrarFrdeendiabny3 swohmo e,
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stuhpapt
hunted down by the police and military, were en-
deavouring to escape from Ireland, and were ob-
liged by want of food or stress of weather, to again
seek the inhospitable shore, will probably prove to
be correct.

A great Protestant meeting was held last night
in the Ulster Ilall, Belfast, which was crowded to
excess. The chair was taken by Mr. Stewart
Blacker, of Carrick-Blacker, who, in a long
address, treated of the attacks now being made
on the Protestant Church, and assailed Mr.
Gladstone for !:wing said that the Irish Church
must be sacrificed, because while the State endowed
Maynooth the Establishment could not be defen !el
on the prbiciplcs of truth ; anti with Mr. Glad-

stone he classed Earl Russell, for his recent resolu-
tion in the House of Lords, by which Protestantism
in Ireland would be attacked in another form. Mr.
Blacker then criticised the proposition to throw
open the offices of Lord Chancellor and Lord Lieu-
tenant of Ireland to Catholics. Political parties, he
declared, were contending for the dubious honour
of sacrificing the safeguards provided by the Eman-
cipation Ad, and declared that they were not being
destroyed fast enough. We have before us not
merely a scheme for doing away with the provision
which confines the office of Lord Chancellor to
members of the Protestant religion, but we have it
also proposed that the Lord Lieutenant should be