Widnes Examiner. — 1881-12-24 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

THE STATE OF IRELAND.  A man named D wyer having gone to serve writs at Youghal was attacked by men with blackened faces, who took the writs from him and made him promise not to serve them in future  A special meeting on Tuesday of the Dublin Town Council, convened to -decide on presenting the freedom of the city to Messrs. Parnell and Dillon, was postponed on account of informality of notice, after an exciting discussion. At the Cork Assizes, three men, named Foley, Shea, and Lynch, were convicted of tho manslaughter of a farmer, named Sulliyan, in November. 1880. Shea was sentenced to 20 years' and the others to 15 years' penal servitude. The Right Hon. Sir Stafford Northcote spoke at a meeting held at Exeter, on Tuesday, to raise funds for the lady proprietors of land in Ireland iv ho are suffering distress through the " no-rent " policy inaugurated by the Land League. In anticipation of an arrest of lady Land Leaguers and break up of their society, Miss Parnell writes to the Dublin papers to state that all correspondence relating to evictions or the-prisoners' families can be sent to the care of Miss Helen Taylor. At the Munster Winter Assizes, Joseph Southwick, manager, Kelfinane • branch of the Munster Bank, was sentenced to penal servitude for five yearefor etnbezzlement and forgery. Thomas Netterfield, accountant, Mallow branch Provincial Bank, Ireland, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for embezzlement. Mr. Donough O'Brien went on Tuesday to Glandure, a mountain district near Tulla, to value farms on Sir Robert Keene's estates. Sir Robert is a very liberal landlord, and Mr. O'Brien, as the son of Smith O'Brien, was well received. On returning to Ennis, an armed party on the hillside fired at him, fortunately without injury. It has been rumoured for some time past that the Irish Executive contemplated taking action against the Lady Land Leaguers. An official circular has just been issued to the constabulary declaring that the proclamation pronouncing the League an illegal and criminal association extends to females. The police are instructed to see that the law is enforced, and that the meetirgs of the ladies' branches are broken up. Preparations have been made for the incarceration of a number of lady suspects. News reached Dublin on Monday night that Patrick Down, a tenarit farmer, had been murdered atßoley, Queen's County, it is supposed by a returned American, with whom he had bad a dispute about his farm. In County Limerick a farmer, who was sitting at his fireside, was shot at on Sunday night and dangerously wounded. The two men Timothy O'Keefe and James Jeseph Hennessy, who were convicted at Cork, on Saturday, of " whiteboyism," were sentenced to eighteen months each. His Lordship intimated that but for the recommendation to mercy by the jury, he would have sent the prisoners into penal servitude. The Dublin police made an important seizure last Saturday night in a district notorious for its Fenian proclivities. They forced an entrance into a house in Brabazon-street, and there after arrestingfour men they seized a regular magazine and a number of Fenian documents. The seizure in this house included the following, found in the front room i-22 breechloading rifles, one carbine, two sword bayonets, 400 rounds of revolver cartridges in a bag, 6,000 rounds of revolver cartridges under the bed, 100 rounds of cartridges, three flasks of gunpowder, one cannister of ehot, and a pike. In another room the police found a six-barrelled revolver, three rifle bayonets, some muzzle-loading cartridges, 12 band grenades, a ladle, a gun handle, and a box containing suspicious documents. At a. house in Cross Kevin-street the police seized 17 sword bayonets, 1,500 ball cartridges, two pistols, two small packages with the inscriptfon " explosives " upon them, which, it is believed, contain dynamite, a second six-chambered revolver in a case, and several cartridges. In a box, the lid of which was nailed down was found a package containing 381 b. of powdel and a large quantity of blank cartridges. In a desk were 90 rounds of rifle cartridges and also 1,500 bullets. On Monday the four prisoners were charged before the newly a ppointed•magistrate (Mr. Curran) with conspiracy. After the evidence of the police the case was remanded until to-day (Saturday), and an application for bail was refused.