The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-29 00:00:00

DINNER TO MR. O'CONNELL.

The dinner list already presents a noble spectacle—not
so much for the vast number of names it comprises, as
for the many counties and remote districts which those
names represent. The counties of Kerry, Limerick,
Clare, Waterford, and Tipperary, are each represented.
So are the following separate cities and towns :—Lime-
rick, Waterford, 'l'ralee, Clonmel, Newcastle, Charle-
ville, Mallow, Mitchelstown, Lismore, Youghal, Kinsale,
Fethard (county Tipperary), Bantry, Clonakilty, Ne-
nagh, Millstreet, Castlelyons, Newmarket, Tipperary,
Macroom, Cove, Passage, Midleton, Fermoy, Bandon,
Castlemartyr ; besides an immense variety of districts
not immediately belonging to town, but yet comprising
exclusive populations. A letter has been received, an-
nouncing that the Corporation of Waterford—the most
repeal city in all Ireland—are to attend the dinner in
their robes of office. This single circumstance tells well
for the- popular feeling, and affords strong evidence of
the influence of the " Convicted Conspirator."
Mr. O'Connell has prudently declined the intended
honour of a public entry, for many reasons ; but his
prudent determination can scarcely heal the disappoint-
ment of the people of the province, who had resolved,
from the first intimation received through the public
press, to brave every risk and inconvenience in order to
hail the man who had dared the vengeance of a Govern-
ment in their cause—the cause of mercy and of freedom.
Never had Cork, since its first foundation, contained so
vast a multitude, as it would have contained next Easter
Monday, were the original intention carried out.

We ;hall not attempt to speculate on the probable
numbers that would have hailed the Liberator with a
" monster welcome ;" but we leave our readers to form
an opinion for themselves, when we first premise the
irresistible motive that would have led the people of the
Province to Cork, as to a holy city—a Mecca of the
West—and next inform them that a vast body of the
people were to have marched into Cork Irons the most
northern bounds of the extensive county of Tipperary !
These facts are of mighty indication.
A word or two as to the progressing preparations.
The chrpenters commence their operations, this day, to
render the dining place as commodious and com-
fortable as possible. When all shall be completed, the
room will be capable of accommodating about 1,000
persons, not more. It will be floored with timber for
the occasion ;
,and every precaution taken to exclude
the danger and annoyance of draughts of air, so
destructive to all comfort, and so perilous to
human life. A long table will run parallel with the
length of the room, and will, of course, be placed near
the side wall. The chair will be stationed at the centre
of this immense table ; and 12 short tables are to be
ranged down from the top table. This arrangement has
been resolved on to enable all present to hear the
speakers, which they could not do were the speakers to
speak from one end of the vast room. A light gallery
will be erected all round, or rather at each side ; and
this will afford accommodation but to 300 ladies. The
whole will be splendidly decorated.— Cor k Examiner.

The wood-paving in Cheapside, upon Perry's
safety principle, was this morning thrown open to the traffic
from St. Paul's Churchyard, being a week earlier than was
anticipated. This is very creditable to the contractors, and
should be regarded as a precedent on all similar occasions in
the metropolis, where every interruption to free passage, how-
ever temporary, is so extremely inconvenient.
In Scotland the weather still continues very severe.
Such a snow-storm has never been known before at this sea-
son. The Highland road between Perth and Inverness has
been impassable for five or six weeks, and is not open yet,
there being in many places snow to the depth of eighteen and
twenty feet.
FATAL ACCIDENT FROM MACHINERY.--011 Tues-
day morning last a fatal accident occurred at Kingston-mill,
near Hyde, a few miles from Manchester. It appears that
just as the steam-engine was starting, one of the workers,
Elizabeth Inman, discovered that the strap which turned the
machine on which she was employed was off the pulley. She
went to it, as is supposed, for the purpose of putting it on,
when by some means it caught her clothes, dragged her
round the horizontal shaft several times, dashing her at each
revolution violently against the ceiling. Being early, all the
hands had not arrived, and some seconds elapsed before her
situation was discovered. A young man in another part of
the room, discovering something on the shaft, ran imme-
diately and threw it out of gear, but unfortunately too late to
save the young woman's life; she was found to be quite
dead, and her limbs shockingly mangled. It was some time
before she could be got off the shaft, and not until her clothes
had been almost entirely cut to pieces.
There are many individuals, we learn, whose
annual income is beneath 1501, and who for the last year's
stoppages under the Income-tax Act are yet out of pocket,
though they have made the required application for return of
the duty deducted long ago.
MYSTERIOUS CASE.—Shortly after twelve o'clock
yesterday, a fine young woman, most respectably attired,
about twenty years of age, was taken out of the City-road-
basin ; there is a very severe wound over the forehead, but
whether it has arisen from violence, or by coming into con-
tact with the barges, is at present unknown. The body ap-
pears to have been in the water about twelve (lays. At a
later period of the day her name was ascertained to be Eliza
Inks,.

LITERATURE.
CONFESSIONS OF A IVHITEFOOT.
Bentley, London, 1544.
These " Confessions," which are dedicated to the
Earl of Devon and the other members of the Irish
Landlord and Tenant Commission, purport to be
• the revelations of a convict who has escaped
from his thraldom, and who here relates
all the circumstances that induced him to
connect himself with one of the Captain Rock con-
spiracies in Ireland, together with the atrocities -he
witnessed during the period of his association with
these lawless men. The volume is ushered into the
world, under the auspices of a gentleman who de.
scribes himself as being a barrister, and who, in his
introductory notice, intimates pretty plainly that the
" Confessions" may justly be regarded as genuine.
It is by no means unlikely that they are
founded in fact, and that several of the occurrences
related actually took place ; but they are much
too highly coloured, the language, too, is exagge-
rated and stilted throughout, and there is an utter
want of that simplicity and unaffected earnestness
which is usually the language of truth. Were
the" Confessions" of a Whitefoot to be written down
just as they were made by him, the style, though
coarse and homely, as a matter of course, would
be terribly impressive, and the work would, possess a
most enchaining interest ; but it is otherwise
when all the foppery and finery of language
is had recourse to, and exaggeration, both as
regards description and incident, - are substi-
tuted for the simple, forcible, utterances of
nature. Who could suppose for an instant that
a rude, untaught Irish \Vhitefoot would express
himself in this inflated, metaphorical style ? " That
distortion which had obliterated the very impress of
humanity from his brow, denoted how truly in that
moment's agony, memory had fulfilled her task,
marshalling her spectre forms, and compelling heart-
stricken Guilt to scan the future by her lurid light."
The volume abounds in similar specimens of tawdry,
tinsel eloquence.