The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-02-06 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANTJARD.

IRELAND.

The topics connected with Ireland, alluded to in the
speech from the throne, are—
First,— The late insurrection, and the spirit of disaffec-
tion admitted to prevail sufficiently still to demand a
"continuance for a limited time of those powers which,
in the last session, were deemed necessary for the pre-
servation of the public tranquillity."
Second,—The failure of the potato crop, which is la-
mented as having " caused very severe distress in some
parts of Ireland."

Third,—The operation of the poor-laws are commended
to the inquiry of parliament, with a view to their benefi-
cial amendment, and to the improvement of the condition

of the people.
It is well that there is candour enough to admit that
though the rebellion has been put down, the spirit which
led to it is still rife and rampant as before. That, not-
withstanding the cost to this country of filling Ireland
with troops, &c., &c., nothing has been done towards the
pacification or amelioration of the country. The blun-
dering mismanagement of the law officers of the crown
throughout the tedious state trials has only succeeded in
making justice a mockery, and in stripping the law of all
sanction and solemnity in the eyes of the populace. For
this the government is wholly to blame for passing over
men of talent and experience, in order to place their
own creatures—members of the favoured Romish creed
—in places of honour and emolument, with manifest

injury to the entire legal profession in that country,
and to the equally manifest detriment of the public ser-
vice. There is no hint, however, about the endowment of
the Romish priesthood, as the grand panacea for the
spirit of discontent. The public feeling of this country
was manifested too palpably. England has pronounced
(to borrow an expression suggested by the subject,) too
decidedly at the recent elections against that. Every
intelligence that has oozed out, from time to time, in the
shape of either anecdote of the escape of the rebel leaders,
or news about their safety or whereabout show, and has
proved that the Romish priesthood, heartily in the secret
of the rebellion, were only kept back from being overt
rebels by the sagacity that at once foresaw the result.
and that secured their own safety by that double perfidy,
which, leaving them still traitors to their sovereign, ren-
dered them the betrayers of the wild enthusiasts who,
trusting in their plighted fidelity, set their " lives upon a
cast," and then fled from " the hazard of the die." The
public mind of this country is coming to a more thorough
knowledge of all this, and we have better hopes in conse-
quence that this fatal measure of endowing the priests of
sedition and falsehood may be averted.
The desire for an alteration in the poor law is as intense
as ever, A meeting, with that intention, of the magis-
trates of the County Dublin, was held last week at Kil-
mainham, Lord Brabazon in the chair. Also, another
meeting of the County Clare, at Ennis, for the same ob-
ject.

The flax-mill of Mr. Ledlie, at Mullaglass, near Newry,
was destroyed by fire last week. It was the work of an
incendiary.

The Clare Examiner says that at least twenty landed
proprietors in that county are about to sell their estates,
and seek a home in another clime.
INCREASE OF PAUPERISM.—On Tuesday. the 30th of
January, there were 6,262 paupers in the Cork Union
Workhouse, being an increase of 3,108 within the past six
months.

On Monday, as the captain of a schooner lying in the
roads at Galway, was putting off in a boat from that town,
with two of his • men, to the vessel, the boat upset in a
squall, and the whole three were drowned.
Orders have reached Duslin from the Horse Guards,
suspending all recruiting, the recruiting parties to be im-
mediately called in. It is supposed that in future the
duties will be discharged by the enrolled pensioners.
On. Friday evening, as Mr. M`Fadden, solicitor, Dublin,
was leaving the court, in that city, in a car, a man
rushed up and discharged a pistol at his head. He was
severely but not dangerously wounded. The assassin has
been taken into custody.
On Tuesday evening there was a meeting at Kilmain-
ham, convened by Lord Brabazon, at which forty magis-
trates of the county of Dublin were present, for the
purpose of considering the present poor law. With one
exception the whole body condemned the system root and
branch.

The Anti-Poor Law movement is spreading far and
wide. The High Sheriff of Meath has convened a meet.
ing of that county for Monday next, to petition for such
comprehensive changes in the details of the act as may
convert it from a national evil into the great benefit it is
susceptible of being made.
INCAUTIOUS USE OF FIRE ARMS.—OR Friday three
young men proceeded on a car from Tramore to the
neighbourhood of Annstown, for the purpose of fowling.
Having stopped for a few minutes on the road near the
latter place, one of the young men, Mr. John O'Neil, of
Tramore, whilst getting upon the car, incautiously held
his gun pointed in the direction of the driver, when, me-
lancholy to relate, the gun exploded, and the contents,
large swan shot, struck him in the head, and blew the
upper part of the skull off, scattering his brains about the
car. Instant death was the result.— Waterford Mail.
MORALS IN MAYO.—The peasantry of Mayo consigned
to the spiritual care of Archbishop MlHale give very low
ideas of the result of the teaching of their spiritual in-
structors. The judges and the bar have often spoken bit-
ter truths on this subject, and at the recent quarter
sessions there a Roman Catholic barrister said it was
melancholy to witness the deliberate perjury which oc-
curred there. Day by day they saw parties swearing to
an opposite statement of facts which both parties actually
saw. He did not believe there was a nation in the world,
pagan, heathen, or infidel, which had so little regard for
truth as the great bulk of the persons who frequented that
court."

A POTATO STEALER KILLED IN TIPPERARY.—On
Wednesday night week an affray took place between some
persons who had been stealing potatoes and those who
were watching them, by which a man named Lalor lost
his life. The unfortunate deceased and two or three
others were detected stealing potatoes from a farmer re-
siding at Coolville, near Fethard. When detected, they
immediately ran off; and Lalor, after running some dis-
tance, was overtaken, and to prevent his being made a
prisoner, offered a most vigorous resistance. During the
scuffle one of the party hit him a blow on the head with
either a spade or shovel, from the effects of which he im-
mediately expired.—Dublin Mail.
MURDERS IN ROSCOMMON.—A woman, named Mar-
garet Kelly, was found murdered, on Saturday, in her
house, in Rusky, four miles from Athlone. Some money
belonging to the deceased, and also to her servant girl,
was plundered. It is stated that the deceased was in the
habit of lending out small sums of money at interest. The
jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against Pat and
James Kelly, the brother-in-law and nephew of the de-
ceased.—On Sunday week an inquest was held, near Bal-
lyforan, on the body of James Kelly, who was murdered
on the previous Friday, and a verdict of wilful murder
against some person or persons unknown was returned.
It is stated that the cause of the murder was the posses-
sion of a small quantity of oatmeal.
THE ALLEGED HEROINES OF ULSTER.—The Belfast

Chronicle states that there was a second investigation on
Saturday, at Newtownbreda, for the purpose of hearing
additional evidence respecting the alleged fabrication of
the statement put forth by the MissesM Neigh ; and that
another butcher, who alleged that he had sold blood to
one of the girls, being asked to identify her amongst a
number of young females, pitched upon another girl who
resides in the neighbourhood. It is said to be a common
thing for the country people to purchase blood to be used
as food. "As a proof that the magistrates believe the
story," says the Chronicle, "we can state that a guard
of constabulary is still nightly kept upon Mr. M`Veigh's
premises. In the entire history of falsification there never
has been recorded a more base conspiracy than that con-
cocted to destroy the character of those two poor girls,
and throw discredit upon their statements." The Belfast
Northern Whig of Tuesday takes up the cudgels stoutly
in defence of the genuineness of the heroines. It says—
" Anything more extraordinary or disgraceful, in its way,
than the indecent and fierce character of the attack upon
those girls we have never heard of." And, again, he de-
clares the object of a lone article to be "to protect two
girls from as heartless, base, and malicious a course of
slanderous attack as ever was committed or endured."