The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-13 00:00:00

THE GREAT EASTERN.

In the course of a few days the Great Eastern
Will be ready for service between France and New
York, as nearly all the alterations and repairs will
be completed by the end of this week. Since the big
ship returned to the Mersey after her successful
cable expedition she has undergone a complete
overhaul. In the first place she was stripped of all
her cable-laying fittings, and had her screw boilers
removed, after which she was placed on a gridiron
on the Cheshire side of the Mersey, and nearly
opposite to the vessel's moorings in the Sloyne.
While beached the bottom of the ship was scraped,
and one or two plates which were in a somewhat
defective state were replaced by new
_ones. 'These
repairs were done under the immediate superinten-
dence of Mr. George Beckwith, the chief engi-
neer on board the Great Eastern. While these
repairs were being accomplished outside the vessel,
a number of extensive and important alterations
were being carried on inside the ship, under
the direction of Sir J. Anderson. New screw boilers,
especially designed by Mr. Beckwith, and con-
structed at the Vauxhall Foundry, Liverpool, were
put on board without the slightest hitch, and satis-
factorily tested. These new boilers will generate a
much larger quantity of steam than could be pro-
duced by the old ones, and as a matter of course
give a greater propelling power to the engines.
The old paddle crank has also been removed
—a task attended with considerable risk and
difficulty, but safely accomplished— and a new
eccentric shaft, made at the Mersey Forge, has been
introluced instead of thepld crank. This alteration
will also tend to give increased power to' the
paddles. In fact the engineering department has
undergone a most efficient and careful overhaul,
and when the big ship is ready for sea, this de-
partment of the vessel with its workshops, con-
taining lathes, forges, &c., will have more the
appearance of a well-regulated foundry than the
engine department of a steamship. A steam steering
apparatus has also been constructed on deck close to
the wheel, and the ship can be either steered from
the bridge or from the site of the steering gear.
There are also two powerful donkey engines on
deck—one forward and the other aft. Extending
about 140 feet on the after-part of the deck is a
splendid dinner saloon, capable of accommodating
about 500 people at once. This saloon will be one
of the most splendid on any ship afloat, it is twice
the length of the one on board the Scotia, is 2ft.
higher and 7ft. broader. Attached to this saloon is a
commodious house, containing the pastry shop,
bakery, and a bar. The top of this saloon forms a
fine promenade, about 200 ft. in length, which in fine
weather will, no doubt, be well appreciated. On the
forepart of the deck is another but smaller saloon,
which, among other essentials to comforts, contains
a barber's sho p. While other alterations and improve-
ments are being done on the deck, down below the
alterations are of an equally elaborate and extensive
character. The large space which was formerly used
for the cable tanks have undergone a complete
renovation. Three grand saloons have been con-
structed, and when completed will form a splendid
suite of apartments. The ceiling of these saloons
will be beautifully decorated, and the walls
covered with a splendid French paper, on which
will be impressed scenes of different places in
Europe, Asia, America, &c. Close to and in
easy communications with these saloons arc the
berths and staterooms. The curtains for the berths,
which will give sleeping room to 3,000 pas-
,
' aengers, are all of one uniform pattern. The mate-
rial selected is an elegant and costly English
challie, of a light cream-coloured ground, with run-
ning roses. In order that the passengers may be
well cared for, a washing machine, capable of
doing any amount of washing, has been fitted up,
combined with which is a large drying-room.
There is also a clean and well ventilated hospital
fitted up. Further down in the vessel, but almost in
direct communication with the upper deck, arc
the ice-houses, beer and wine " cellars," to-
gether with an immense storercom, capable of
containing 500 tons of passengers' luggage, and
that without inconvenience. One of the wine
" cellars" alone has room for 500 dozen of wine.- The
Great Eastern will, in addition to 11 lifeboats and
11 ordinary boats, carry a screw steam launch,
55ft. long, which will be slung to the ship's sides by
two immense davits. A. large condenser will also
be on board, capablaAsstudensing 10,000 gallons
of water per day, which will lae,yel_ry ample for all
purposes, when we consider that wlTn the vessel
sails from the Mersey she will have 3001 gall ins
of water on board. She will also take out 7,000
tons of coal.

lIER MAJESTY'S STAGHoUNDS.— We are requested
to state that Lord Colville will not take these hounds to the
proposed meet at Colonel Lloyd Lindsay's on the 22d inst.
the local farmers having intimated that their grass land is
" laid, up" for the season.

MACKEREL—During the past week from 40,000
to 50,000 mackerel were caught by the Cornish boats, a very
large proportion of which supply was sent to London,
Prices varied from Oe. to•3Ba. per six score. ' •

THURLES, March 11.
Until to-day this town was unprotected by troops.
It is the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishopric,
and here the famous Synod of 1850 was held ; but
I fear that neither its college nor its cathedral, its
educational establishments, nor the religious edifices
with which Roman Catholic piety have endowed it,
have kept out disaffection. Besides being an object
of reverence to Catholics, Thurles is the centre of a
rich agricultural district-, and can boast of a con-
siderable trade; but a large proportion of the in-
habitants are possessed by the Fenian folly. For
some days past it has been feared that they might
have an opportunity of showing their sympathies,
for Thurles is among the many place designated,
with more or less of truth, as points of attack. No
doubt its name and tradi ions, to say nothing of its
position on the line of railway midway between
Dublin and Cork, would have made it a convenient
point for the insurgents to have and to hold. But
the town was garrisoned by a considerable body of
constabulary, and the Fenians here, as elsewhere, had
a wholesome dread of the rifles of this stanch and
well-drilled force. It so happened that on the dar
appointed for the general outbreak a fair held at
Thurles had caused a concentration of the police
force there ; and afterwards, instead of being scat-
tered in out-stations where they would have invited
attack, they were very properly kept in the town.
The insurgents were in some force around Thurles.
At Rosskeene, about four miles off, they burnt a
police-barrack,
m-bara
dre usual
licewas empty a
arms
thee in time
housesand
they theirack, whichua l
foray
of the neighhouring gentry. But their worst act
was the murder of a man named Tracey, who re-
fused to join their ranks. The insurgents called at
the farm-house of a Mr. Reardon, and demanded
arms. Seeing Tracey, who was. Reardon's brother-
in-law, they summoned him to follow them, and,
when he would not do so, one of the party shot him
without scruple.

There is reason to believe that this is not the only
instance in which summary punishment has been
dealt out by the insurgents for this contumacy and
want of patriotism, as they regard it. Elsewhere
men have come in with wounds which they allege
were thus inflicted, though, of course, it is possible
that those wounds were received when the men were
attacking or attacked by the constabulary or troops.
From the first, however, the peasantr3 have shown
alarm at the prospect of impressment. Probably
the Fenian leaders caused their agents throughout
the country to give out that those who did not enter
their ranks when the rising came would be punished.
That this was understood is evident from the anxiety
of many of the country people to get out of the
way. In Kerry, at the first outbreak three weeks
ago, some of the men took to their boats and hid,
themselves in the creeks and estuaries of the deeply
indented coast. Again, some fugitives were found
on the G-altee mountains the other day, who had
gone there to escape the Fenian press-gang ; and I
am assured that around this town some of the pea-
santry have slept away from their cabins, behind
haystacks or even in ditch-bottoms, while farmers'
sons have come into Thurles at night to be out of
harm's way. The Fenian chiefs evidently desire to
compromise as many as possible of the country
people, whose enthusiasm much colder than that
of the dwellers in towns. They think, with rea-
son, that when once they have put a pike into
a man's hand and placed him in the front
rank he must go forward, since the chances
are that no one will believe him if he says
that he was there unwillingly. At Kilteeley, the
other day, recruiting was enforced by repeated
threats to shoot any one who refused to serve ; and
shots were now and then fired in the air to intimi-
date the villagers. The relations of one of the
men killed in the attack on Kilmallock barrack
declare that he was forced out of bed by the in-
surgents, resisting as well as he could, and that they
threatened to cut off his hands unless he marched
with them. Poor fellow, it was for him a march
to death ! lam afraid it would not be safe to infer
that the country people are opposed to Fenianism.
Most of them hereabout sympathise with the in-
surgents, or at best hold themselves neutral ; but
there is little or none of that active sympathy
which would induce them to offer themselves as
recruits. In the towns far more fiery spirits are to
be found.

It is likely that this sympathy would really
have taken an active form had the Fenian plans
been matured a few years ago. Then the Irish
farmers were in wretched plight, and would have
listened far more readily to seditious teaching
than they are disposed to listen now. In the
counties of Tipperary, Cork, and Kerry, I hear on
all sides that Irish farmers were never better off.
Butter, eggs, dairy produce, and stock fetch high
prices. and the small farmers in these and no doubt
in other parts of Ireland are in their small way ex-
ceedingly prosperous. " They are full of money,"
one of this very class said to me; and he was a man
who had bought his 20 acres of land, and was no
doubt himself well to do. These men can afford to
give comfortable marriage portions to their daugh-
ters, as the invariable practice here is ; and mar-
riages were never more frequent than they are in
certain districts here—a pretty sure test of prospe-
rity. This prosperity makes the farmers in general
think that a change in the direction .of a Fenian
Republic ►night not 113 for their good. such loyalty
is rather of the negative order; but as far as I can
test the prevalent feeling this is really what it comes
to.

As for the peasantry they are timid, and have
not much faith in the Fenian enterprise. But they
sympathise with the insurgents, and give no infor-
mation of their movements. Rewards of £250 have
just been offered for the apprehension of Captain
or Colonel Dunne, who led the attack upon the
police-barrack at Kilmallock, and small rewards
for those concerned in attacking the barracks at
Emly and other plats. But these offers hardly
ever lead to the discovery of guilty persons. An in-
former and spy—" a stag," as he is called in Tip-
perary=is held in greater detestation than a mur-
derer. It is not only the informer himself who
suffers; the infamy attaches to his relations of
whatever degree, and his children unto the third
generation. Probably this horror of informers and
of " blood-money" originated in the cruel repres-
sive laws against Catholics, which united all who
were of the old faith against the tyranny of the
ruling class in those days, ar.d made him infamous
who betrayed a co-religionist. The cause exists no
longer, the sentiment lingers still, and avails to Fro-
tectg
u ile,tniinEßtlhCisK Li Isl
tNe.CeTt I. ON
T, rhreu
country
day 11
men who are in no way worthy of protection.
srncoinvger.
Allcovered
with snow, which is still falling heavily.

Evening.
The rebels are said to have been in some force in
the wooded glens on the southern side of the Gal-
tee mountains, between Mitchelstown and Cahir.
There was no attack, as reported, on the police
barracks at Mountmellick, Queen's County. The
facts are that a drunken man fired a revolver at the
barracks, and the police hastily sallied out and fired
a volley down the street, wounding the drunken
man slightly, and unfortunately killing a respect-
able inhabitant.
All quiet here. The weather is exceedingly

stormy.

Thefollowingdespatch
a t
ch :
la t
—Edmird Duffy, the companion of
Stephens at Sandymount, who was released from
Richmond Prison on account of ill-health, but has
since been most active in organising the rebellion.
Ile was arrested yesterday at Boyle with a clerk
named Eagan, of Philbsborough, Dublin,who acted
as his secretary ; Michael Allen, engine-driver,
on the Great Southern and Western Railway, was
arrested this morning at Inchicore, where he is
stated to have acted as a Centre in the Fenian
organisation. John Kelly, a master tailor at Rath-
mince, was taken yesterday on a charge of Fenian-
ism. The Rathfarnham police have captured three
young men, medical students, identified as the ring-
leaders in the attack on the Stepaside station.
Joseph Mularky, a shop-assistant. was arrested
to-day as one of the Fenians wounded by the police
at Tallaght.

The debut of Lady Don before a New York
audience has been completely successful. Her singing
was particularly admired. She appeared in a burlesque of
" Kenilworth," and a dramatic trine, by Mr. Selby, en-
titled " Peggy Green."