The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-07-15 00:00:00

IRELAND

THE NEW POPISH LEAGUE.—Accessions to the
" Catholic Defence Association," which is to emanate
from the approaching aggregate meeting, pour in daily to
the Committee, and there is little noubt that in a short
time Dublin will again be the seat of a most exciting and
mischievous agitation.
A sad scene was exhibited at Dundalk a few days ago.
A poor youth, while bathing, was drowned, and after the
the body was recovered it was brought to the gaol, where
the mother of the boy is confined, that she might take a
last look, through the bars, at the remains of her unfor-
tunate child.

LUNACY IN IRELAND.—It appears by the fifth general
report on the district criminal and private lunatic asylums
in Ireland, just presented to parliament, that there are in
that country 15,000 persons affected, to a greater or less
degree, with lunacy. They are distributed in the follow-
ing manner public and local asylums, 2,913 ; in
gaols, committed as dangerous, 280; in central asylums,
91 ; in poor-houses, 2,398 ; in private asylums, 436 ;
abroad, unprovided for in public institutions, but some
supported by their friends, 8,985.
OFFICIAL APPOINTMENTS.—The Order of St. Patrick
has been conferred upon Lord Massareene and Ferrard.—
Mr. Richard Wilson Greene, Q.C. has received a patent
of precedence next after the Solicitor-Generai. Mr.
Greene was for several years fist Serjeant-at-Law in
Ireland, and subsequently filled the offices of Solicitor-
General and Attorney-General under the Government of
the late Sir Robert Peel.—The Lord Chancellor has been
elected Vice Chancellor of the new University, and eleven
Examiners have been appointed, at a cost to the country
of £l,lOO per ahnurn, those duties.for the present year are
stated to be the examination of ten students, and the sign-
ing of their receipts for their salary.

CRIME IN IRELAND.—The criminal tables for the year
1850 have just been presented to both houses of parlia-
ment. It appears that in the year 1847 the committals
increased by 12,717, or upwards of 68 per cent. as com-
pared with the previous year. In the years 1848 and
1849 a further considerable increase appeared, hut in 1850
a considerable decrease occurred. The returns for the
past year show a decrease of 10,663 committals, or 25.90
per cent, as compared with the preceding year. The com-
mittals in 1847 were 31,209; in 1848, 38,522; in 1849,
41,989; and in 1850, 31,326. The committals in 1850
were thus distributed :—ln Ulster, 5,260; in Munster,
12,773 ; in Leinster, 9,198 ; and in Connaught, 4,095.
The description of offences were—against the person, with
violence, 4,292; against property, with violence, 2,224;
without violence, 16,737; malicious offences against pro-
perty, 462; forgeries and offences against the currency,
250 ; miscellaneous offences, 7,451. The committals for
murder within the year were 115; of these, 97 were
acquitted by juries. Of the 17 capital sentences passed
in 1850, eight were executed, and nine commuted to
transportation.

THE POTATO CROP.—lttimour is already rife that the
potatoes are blighted. Certain scientific calamity-hunters
declare they have discovered unmistakeable signs of the
old disease. On the other hand the practical farmers are
revelling in the blooming pictures of their crop—point to
the rich and odorous blossoms, and snap their fingers at
the alarmists. They say that since the first appearance of
the potato disease the plants have not until this year
thrown out a good show of blossoms—and that it is only
now the stalks give out that rich odour which has been at
all times so sweet to the agriculturists of all grades in
Ireland. Cases of failure here and there of course can
be pointed out, for local failures are incident to every
crop, but from all the accounts received here it is as mis-
chievous as it is untrue to pronounce that the blight has
again appeared in the potato crop. The Tenant League
will give as general circulation as in its power lies to the
report for its own purposes. Tenants who would force
their landlords to make further reductions in their rents,
and intended purchasers in the Encumbered Estates
CJurt, will all give circulation to the rumours of another
potato disease. Again we say—don't mind them until
something like evidence of the fact shall be adduced.—
Dublin Advocate.

" METAPHORICAL" SPEAKING.—PRIEST MALONE.—
The following instance of this new mode of speaking, of
which Mr. Keogh, M.P., is the founder, is too good to
be lost. Priest Malone—a pious son of the Pope's church,
who has gained an unenviable notoriety by his horsewhip-
ping propensities—thus spoke at a public meeting held on
the Sabbath day, in the Popish " Cathedral" of Ballina,
upon which occasion Dr. Feeny, the sham " Lori Bishop
of Killaloe," was the first speaker. Father Malone is
thus reported, in the Tablet, to have spoken :—" Let the
minister carry his iniquitous measure into law, and let
there be a community of religious ladies in this town to-
morrow, and let him appoint the day of visitation for his
official, I, too, would be there on that occasion, and I
would expect that, if necessary, there would be there also
five hundred of the good, and virtuous, and the brave
young men of this parish. (Loud cheering.) I would
take my stand upon the very threshold of the door, and
del}, the Russell beadle to enter. (Immense cheering.)
I would put him to the necessity of bringing one hundred
w(lt7ieni
daysens sensation.)
Depend of her Majesty's forces to effect his entrance; and. should
he demand access to the innocent victims. of his wanton
barbarity, I solemnly say, before this august assembly,
would stand between him and them, and only give him
Daoc'ecie:nsiedbnyuanpthodents hwietoßirhdae:lV: agirhaeerybnuaoffltlea4ir, neither is the occasion
now such as it was then." One would think that this
was " open and advised speaking," having sufficient phy-
sical force in it to satisfy the most fiery rebel against the
law. When the reverend and loyal orator terminated his
harangue, the aforenamed Dr. Feeny stated that, for
the benefit of persons unacquainted with the use of tropes
and figures, he had to say, that'when Mr. Malone made
referance to the sword and spear, he did so not in a lite-
ral, but a spiritual sense /1 !" And of course, when he
wanted " five hundred brave young men," it was only in
spirit that he wanted them ; and when lie spoke of " the
sword and the bullet," he selected the most remarkable
and appropriate words to convey the meaning that he ab-
horred physical force, and would carry on the Popish
warfare standing on the threshold of some Popish con-
ent, not with steel apil lead, bvt vvitb the spiritual wee-
YOnf of the Vatican,