The Statesman.
London, England, 1823-01-07 00:00:00

AFFRAY IN LIMERICK.

(PROM THU DUBLIN /MISSING POST OP SATURDAY.)
0a the authority of a Private Letter, we stated on
Thursday, that a serious affray had occurred in Lime-
rick. The particulars will be found in the following
Extract of a Letter, by which it will he seen that Ike
Corporations all over Ireland are making a desperate,
and, we trust, a dying effort, to prolong their reign
and their profits. The Meeting, it should be remem-
bered, was convened on the 'object of the Local Taxes
of Limerick :—" The Chamberlain of the Corpora-
tion, several of the Common Council, many of
the Staff of the City Militia, (of which Lord (fort is
Colonel) in coloured clothes, and some of them with
concealed arms ; several of the friends and relations of
Lord Gort, and persons from the Country, assembled at
the Commercial Buildings some time before theappoint-
ed hour, and occupied the room, nearly to the exclusion
of every other person. Whilst the Requisitionists were
collecting in order to enter the room in sufficient
numbers to defeat the evident objects of their opponents,
the clock struck one, and in five minutes after,
Lord Gort, the Chamberlain, placed his brother
in the Chair, and with a dispatch, not often
eqnalled in Public Assemblies, proposed, or seemed to
propose, certain Resolutions, which afford the most in-
comestible, internal evidence of their not having been
passed in a popular assembly in Limerick. Thus ma-
nouvre was so much the more watershed for. as at the
Meeting held on Saturday to address the Lord Lieu-
tenant, a full hour's law was given to the Mayor. nor did
the business commence until his Worship and Lord
Gort arrived. The uproar and confusion consequent
upon the Chamberlain's attempt to pass the Resolutions.
bad arrived at an alarming height, when the Members
for the City, and other Requisitionists, entered the room.
Apprehensions being entertained, and informations
baring been sworn to this effect before Captain Drought,
of a very serious disturbance, ha thought it advisable to
interfere, and disperse the Meeting, by requiring Lord
Port and Mr. Spring Rice to withdraw. Upon this,
Mr. Spring Rise, surrounded by a number of the Oen-
4lowson srbo-sisrosik also Reqniaitiors, sad AsHerweil by sit
oramlturoe of Piople proceeded steps 44
Messrs. Harvey's store, and ;Welled the Multitude as
follows:

"Prevented, as we have been, from any possibility
of fair or temperate discussion, it became our dety to
postpone our Meeting to further opportunity. fbe
peace of the City has been endaegetwd—most assuredly
not by us; and the Meeting has bees dispersed by the
Police. We must, therefore, for the present desist, con-
fident that the day will soon arrive when we can show
our opponents that we are not to be the dupes of an ar-
tifice, a preconcerted arrangement. In the meanwhile,
I request that you will all peaceably return to your own
habitations, and show to the world, by your obedience
and respect for the laws, that we have not been the
agents or instigators of the Isle disturbances,"
" Four &Clock, Wednesday Evening.
" The streets are fully crowd,•) with country people,
bat the Police are in motion in several small parties
keeping the peace. All is quiet."

DARING MAIL COACH ROBBERY i IRELAND.

Os Friday night, the Dublin coach for Belfast was at-
tacked seven miles below Ashbourn,i at a place called
Crossmaeore Hill, two miles and a half below Garrets-
town. The banditti consisted of fifteen or twenty per-
sons, who bad arranged themselves at each side of the
road, across which they had laid carts and ladders. The
villains, when the coach arrived at the spot, called on
the guards to stop; this the latter refused, when in-
stantly a fire was opened from both aides of the road.
The horses turned quickly round, and the pole of the
coach was broken. l'he villains continued to discharge
their pieces, and we are grieved to state, that one of the
guards received three slugs in the abdomen and hip;
and the other, after having his forehead lacerated by a
shot, received a ball in the chest. The former is sop-
posed to be mortally wounded—some hopes are enter-
tained of the recovery of the latter. All the passengers,
four in number, were then robbed. There were two
boxes in the coach, one of which contained money, the
other not: the villains carried away the wrong box.
They also :ook the Drogheda mail bags, and all the
arms.—The banditti are supposed to be the remains of
Collier's formidable gang. Mr. Armstrong, Chief Peace
Officer of that District, was ont with his party on duty,
and it ie hoped he fell in with the robbers.—(Dablin
Esainw Post.)

Lady Holland, we are happy to state. is recovering
from her late indisposition.
BRISTOL PRI LOSOPOICA L INSTITUTION.—By way of
beginning, in the formation of a Museum, a beautiful
special of organic remains, cot from the face of the rock
at Lyme, in Dorsetshire, was on Friday presented to
this Institution. It is the skeleton of wonderful fish,
between the porpoise and the dolphin, having paddles
or fins (it is not determined which), instead of feet. It
is about five feet long, and is, perhaps, the best and most
perfect specimen of the kind in the kingdom. We be-
lieve it is that description of fossils which some (leolo.
gists call Proteothentrus—others lethyouurus. It was'
imbedded in blue lyas.—(Hristol Akron., )
thwatmu VOGIARS. —On Christmas ere, the boat
belonging to the Preventive Service, which is sta-
tioned at St. Ives, fell in with a large smuggling
lugger, off the Land's End, and having on board a
cargo of kegs of spirits and a crew of thiity men.
The smugglers readily permitted the boat to came
along side, allowed the officer and men belonging
to her to come on board, gave them a sample of the
cargo, and after furnishing them with a sufficiency
of spirits to make grog, sent them off with hearty
wishes for their safe return and a merry Christmas.
The smugglers were toe numerous to afford the
sliehtest chance of wore in a oont••r. nitil.ll the dive
of the preventive boat very wisely avoided.