The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-14 00:00:00

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, Feb. 13.
We had made up our minds in this country
that there was an end to the Fenian alarms, and
that the time had happily arrived when the suspen-
sion of the Habeas Corpus Act might cease without
danger to society. We were confirmed in this
comfortable opinion when we read that the once

formidable and mysterious Stephens was hors de
combat, and had a narrow escape from the wrath of
his followers. What, then, must have been the sur-
prise of the public yesterday on reading the account
of a march of Fenians on the city of C hester,and the ex-
traordinary precautions taken there and in London to
guard against the threatened attack? Of course, we
felt something more than surprise in Dublin when
we learnt that 70 persons had been arrested yester-
day morning on board the Alexandra from Holy-
head, and the St. Columbia, from Liverpool, as part
of the Fenian army of invasion. The first intima-
tion of the danger the public had was from the ap-
pearance of a body of police drawn up on the quay
at the North Wall, armed with cutlasses. This was
the result of telegrams received during the night
about the movements at Chester. It was stated that
when the Fenians found they could do nothing
there they pushed on for Birkenhead and Liverpool,
intending to come to Dublin. When the Alexandra
came alongside soon after 7 o'clock a.m. 31 persons
were arrested, chiefly young men. The steamer
was a considerable time swinging round, and during
that time the supposed Fenians were grouped to-
gether, apparently in earnest consultation. Of course,
they had seen the police with their cutlasses, and
they took the hint, and it is said they threw their
revolvers and ammunition into the river. When
arrested they had no weapons, no documents, nothing
to criminate them, and they pleaded the Habeas
Corpus Act, which they said was in force again. It
is said that some of them are Americans. None of
them gave a satisfactory account of themselves.
They said they belonged to the following classes :
Dock labourers, discharged soldiers, bakers, tailors,
mill workers, &c., and that they came from Liver-
pool, Bolton, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, and
Birkenhead. Later in the morning the Columbia
arrived from Liverpool with about an equal number
of suspected characters on board, and they were
arrested under similar circumstances. The prisoners
were first conveyed to Sackville-place station, and
then lodged iu Richmondßridewell-67 altogether.
Three loaded revolvers were found in the first
steamer, hidden under ropes where the prisoners had
been standing. It is said that the bed of the river
will be dragged in the hope of finding the revolvers.
These arrests have produced great excitement,
and the detectives are everywhere on the alert.
Until this occurrence the interest in Fenianism
seemed to have almost died out, even among
sympathisers, a significant proof of which was the
gradual falling off of voluntary supplies of food from
friends to the inmates in Mountjoy Prison, who
were at last left to depend on the gaol allowance.
The law officers of Lord Derby's Government in
this country are very fortunate, as they get into
Parliament without opposition, trouble, or expense.
Mr. Morris, the Attorney-General, was again re-
elected for the borough of Galway yesterday, this
time without a shadow of opposition. In the course
of a long speech, the learned gentleman dealt with
several topics of local interest, and then passed on to
the consideration of imperial questions. He said the
Government had such confidence in the inherent
loyalty of the great body of the Irish people as to
announce their intention of dispensing with the fur-
ther suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. He dis-
claimed any sympathy with extreme political opinions
and stating that the only hope for Ireland was in the
development of her material resources, quoted cer-
tain speeches .made by Mr. Disraeli and Mr. Glad-
stone, with the view of showing that the former was
anxious, by improvements in the land laws and rail-
way system, to check the tide of emigration, which
he had so powerfully described as " hemorrhage of
the life blood of the nation," while the latter did no
more than make political capital out of sentimental
and theoretical grievances.
Mr. Chatterton, the Solicitor- General, was elected I
in a similar manner for Dublin University. Ile was
proposed by the Rev. Dr. Casson, F.T.C.D., in very
eulogistic terms, and seconded by the lion. and Rev.
W. C. Plunket, who spoke at some length, and ably
on the Irish Church and education. lie expressed
himself in favour of a better distribution of Church
property, without interfering with the parochial sys-
tem, or alienating any portion of it from Church
purposes, which he regarded as spoliation. On the
difficult question of education he thought it was
possible to devise a plan by which the State would
give only secular education, leaving to the several
Churches to give religious education. But that is
the principle for which the national system was
from the first denounced as " godless." Nothing
would satisfy the Church clergy but forcing religious
instruction into the regular school business. They
were forewarned that this would throw the secular
education into the hands of tha priests, and now,
when too late, they would gladly accept the princi-
ple they reprobated as " godless." Mr. Plunket re-
gards the Solicitor-General as the sort of defender
the Irish Church requires in these times. Ile said :
" When they looked about for others to fill the
places of those who had gone before—to tread in the
steps of such men as Whiteside, Napier, Hamilton,
and Shaw—when they looked for one to send to
Parliament who could be worthy of a place beside
their trusty, well-beloved, and honest representa-
tive, Anthony Lefroy—they could point to Mr.
Chatterton as the man best fitted to occupy such a
position." Mr. Plunket did not go back to his own
grandfather, who represented the University when
he was Attorney-General. It was well, perhaps, he
did not remind his audience of tne difference between
his mind and the minds of those he enumerated.
The Solicitor-General returned thanks in a modest
speech. Nobody can blame him for not being a Re-
former, fcr he can see nothing wrong in any of our
institutions. With regard to the University he said
she needed no defender, and asked—" Can any one
say there is anything illiberal iu her arrangements,
her regulations, or her education? Can anyone point
to anything sectarian in this institution ? Can any
one say that there is not the most liberal hand held
out by her to every person, no matter what his re-
ligion or politics may be ? I perceive that Mr.
Lawson, the late Attorney-General for Ireland, has
given notice of bringing forward a bill to open some
of your medical and surgical professorships to
men of all religious denominations. (" hear, hear,"
" No, no," and hisses.) Gentlemen, in the year
1852 a Commission reported on those professor-
ships in reference to the very point that is
now about to be the subject matter of discussion in
Parliament, and reported in favour of the relaxation
of the restrictions upon the occupiers of those chairs,
and what was the consequence? In the following
year a letter was written by the Provost, expressing
the unanimous opinion of the Board in favour of
throwing open those professorships to members of
all religious denominations. I ask you, therefore,
did it require a statutable enactment to be brought
forward by Mr. Lawson to open the doers of this
institution in that respect to persons of different
religious persuasions."

any ground of hostility to her, or that there is any
wrong done to the population by allowing her re-
venues to continue, as they have been for centuries,
appropriated to her use."
This opinion of one of our greatest lawyers that
Church property rests on the same basis as private
property, instead of being intended, as the Dublin
Evening Mail lately observed, to be paid as sala-
ries for the performance of services, will sound
strange to the statesmen of the House of Commons,
particularly to its present leader. There being no
other candidate Mr. Chatterton was declared duly
elected by the Vice-Provost, Dr. Lloyd, who pre-
sided.

After the termination of the election the students
proceeded in a body to the rooms of Dr. Lloyd, in
order to give expression to their esteem for the
popular Vice-Provost by a public ovation. Enthu-
siastic cheers were repeatedly given, and Dr. Lloyd
having been loudly called for was at length obliged
to appear at the window in order to appease their
demonstrative ardour. Having bowed his acknow-
ledgments of the compliment he retired, and the
students were soon induced to disperse.
Mr. Smith Barry has addressed the electors of the
county Cork, " as an independent Irish gentleman,"
pledged to no party. He is for " a frank and
statesmanlike solution of the land question." He
is a firm supporter of the rights of property, but he
counts among the plainest and clearest of those
rights " the right of the tenant to the enjoyment of
the fruits of his own industry." On other points,
also, he goes the length of the Roman Catholic
Bishops.
Colonel White was about to address the electors,
but he has resigned in favour of Mr. M'Carthy
Downing, of Skibbereen, a solicitor—a veteran
tenant-right agitator. He is the popular can-
didate.

This morning about 30 persons were arrested at
the North Wall on their arrival by the steamers
from Liverpool and Holyhead. Seven were able to
account for themselves and were discharged; the
rest are detained, pending inquiries.

At Belfast a body of police went on board the
English steamers yesterday morning as they arrived
and overhauled the luggage of the passengers. No
arrests were made.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

LANCASHIRE AND YORKSHIRE.

The half-yearly general meeting of this company
was held at Manchester yesterday. Mr. G. Wilson,
the deputy chairman, presided.
The report, an abstract of which has appeared in
The Sun, was taken as read.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, reviewed the results of the half-year's work-
ing in this and the other great companies by which
it was surrounded, showing that the Lancashire and
Yorkshire did not suffer by the comparison, not-
withstanding the increase of working expenses. The
development of the company's traffic was justifying
the opinion which was entertained during the cot-
ton famine that on the revival of trade in the manu-
facturing districts this undertaking would for the
moment exceed all other lines in the rapidity of
its progress. Trade had not yet recovered so far as
might reasonably have been expected, nor could it
do so while the price of cotton remained as at pre-
sent. Still the increase must satisfy the shareholders
that the money they had from time to time appro-
priated for augmenting the rolling stock and im-
proving the stations was not laid out a year too soon
for the enlarging requirements of the traffic. The
number of passengers carried during the half-year
by this company was 11,268,877, an increase of
471,391 over the corresponding half of last year.
The distance it had carried them remained pretty
much as before, being rather more than 9.6 miles
per passenger, and the money received had averaged
9.11 d. per passenger as against 9.14 d. The passen-
ger traffic of this company was still omnibus traffic,
and it was fair to infer that the introduction of any
new lines in their district would never affect foun-
dations of a traffic so limited in the distance tra-
velled. According to the Board of Trade returns
for 1865, the last to which he could refer, there was
this contrast in the numbers and receipts of passen-
gers between this and other companies :—Sheffield
Company, 23,877 passengers per mile of line, and
101 d. per passenger ; London and North Western,
18,610 passengers per mile, and ls. 11id. per pas-
senger ; Midland, 15,970 passengers, at ls. sd. ;
Great Northern, 15,370, at 2s. lid ; North-Eastern,
10,770, at ls. 41d.; while tha Lancashire and York-
shire carried 51,386 passengers per mile,aud received
only 91d. per paisenger. The loss] on the Pres-
ton and Wyre was now happily being reduced to
the vanishing point. While the price of labour, ma-
terials, and fuel continued to rule high there was no
prospect of much reduction in working expenses of
railways. Nevertheless, the gross increase of traffic
to this company for the half-year had been £97,551,
whle the expenditure for this increased earning had
been £42,817, or rather less than 44 per cent. Since
1860 the passenger traffic had increased 40 percent.,
the goods traffic 28 per cent., and the coal traffic 83
per cent. In that year he ventured to express the
opinion that this company could not retain its hold
on the district without an outlay of capital of some-
thing like £500,000 per annum on an average. He
adhered to that opinion, and, as a matter of fact, if
to the capital expended in the last six years, or for
which powers were possessed,were added the£933, 000
for which powers were to be sought in the present
session, then in 1870, when the last of this money
would probably have been expended, the total in-
crease of capital in ten years would bo £5,597,000,
or a little over £550,000 a year.
Mr. S. J. ROBERTS (Chester) said he could not
find any fault with the condition of the company's
affairs, and wi shed to bestow credit upon the offi-
cials as well as directors of the company for their
careful attention to the details of management.
The report was unanimously adopted, and'reso-
lutions were passed, including the declaration of a
dividend on the originai stock at the rate of G 4 per
cent. per annum. The directors were authorised to
expend not exceeding £200,000 on capital account
for general purposes of the company during the
half -y ear.
The meeting was then made special, and the direc-
tors were authorised to consolidate the shares created
under the company's Extension of Time, &C., Act,
1866, into orlinary stock, and also to exercise the
borrowing powers contained in the act.
The proceedings concluded with a vote of thanks
to the chairman and directors.

With regard to the Irish Church the new member
for the University will have no sort of difficulty, be-
cause nobody in Ireland has the slightest objection
to the Establishment. Ile said:--"There never was
a more miserable sectarian, partisan cry than that
got up by political demagogues against the Esta-
blished Church. I have lived among and mixed
with men of all religious creeds, and I do most con-
sek'ntiously affirm that I believe in my heart that
there is no antagonism in any creed or any body of
men against the Established Church of this country.
(Oh.) I have mixed with Roman Catholics, and I
believe there is iu reality no hostility to the Esta-
blished Church in this country. And, gentlemen,
there is no ground for that hostility if it did exist.
As to the property of the Established Church we
took it from no one ; we owe it to no one. It is here
as much as the acres of the lord, or the duke, or the
Roman Catholic proprietor, who either inherited his
lands or purchased them in the Landed Estates Court.
The revenues of the Established Church are as
much her property and right as the revenues of any
landed proprietor in the country—(hear, bear)—
and it is an empty complaint to say that there is

THE SUN, LOM/LS, THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 14 1867.