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The process of reduction is steadily carried out. A circular has been issued from the Office of Public Works, notifying that on the 24th instant, when a month will have expired since the first reduction of 20 per cent, a further reduction of 10 per cent will be made in the numbers still em- ployed; and that on the let of May the works will cease, unless in cases where special instructions to the contrary may be issued.
The state of the city of Cork is described as appalling. Smallpox has been superadded to the sufferings of the already fever-stricken population. The Police has become reduced by sickness and resignation to half its proper number; and the consequence is that the force is unequal to the duty hitherto performed of burying the dead. Dead bodies, ten at a time, are left with the Police to be buried; and the men are constantly engaged in obtaining coffins.
To exemplify the glutted state of the gun-trade, the Dublin Evening Mail mentions a fact communicated by a Cavan correspondent. "An auc- tioneer, who had been early employed in the sale of arms throughout that county and those adjacent, in which occupation he attended all the mar- kets and fairs for some mouths past, took his stock of arms to Arvagh during the last week, and sold all he had, one with another, at 5s. each. This was dog-cheap, he himself having paid 13s. for the lowest-priced gun he sold. Guns are now more plenty in this country than spade-handles. This re- markable fall in the value of fire-arms took place immediately after the 20 per cent reduction of the road-spoilers. Was there any connexion, as cause and effect, between the fall in guns and dismissal of labourers?"
The Repeal Association met as usual. Mr. John O'Connell stated that the accounts from his father did not indicate any change in the character of his malady; but he was not worse. He spoke at great length on the rejection of his overtures of reunion by the Young Ireland party, and upon the subject of their recent meeting; and while he desired to be per- sonally respectful to Mr. Smith O'Brien, he must designate his assertion of the existence of "a Whig alliance" as "a mischievous and complicated falsehood." Rent 191.
Mr. Charles O'Connell, ex-M.P. for Kerry, and who stands in the double relationship of son-in-law and nephew to the head of that ruling family, was on Saturday sworn in as Stipendiary Magistrate for the county of Roscommon. Mr. O'Connell is tolerably active in providing for his little family, notwithstanding the circumstances of his pilgrimage to the Holy Otly.—Dublin Evening Mail.
Three most atrocious murders are reported, prompted by a desire to rob the victims. Brien, a man of Kiltankin, in Tipperary, had sold some oats: at night, two men, named Culls, called at the house, after Brien and a daughter were in bed; another daughter, a girl of ten, sitting by the fire; the Culls sat down by her. The girl who was in bed had fallen asleep, but was awakened by the crack- ling of fire. She found her sister burnt to death, and was unable to arouse her father; she was obliged to ran out of the burning cottage. Assistance having been obtained, the father was found a corpse. The money was gone. On the head-of Brien there were two severe fractures. The Calls have been committed to prison. The other murder was perpetrated near Kilkenny. Walsh, an hid- fensive man, steward to a gentleman, was found dead on the road, his pockets having been rifled of 41. The body was horribly mangled, and was recognized only by the clothes. The man appeared to have struggled hard with his assail- ants. No trace of the murderers has yet been discovered.
A precocious murderer is in custody at Drogheda. Two boys, one fifteen and the other twelve, were, with others, employed by Sir Alan Bellingham. The elder, it is said, had been in the habit of stealing eggs from his employer's poul- try-yard; this the other knew, and the culprit feared that he would give informa- tion. On Friday sennight the elder boy was seen sharpening a billhook—he would not say for what purpose; and on Saturday the body of the other boy was found in a copse, mutilated, covered with leaves, and beneath it the billhook and a knife. Other circumstances implicate the youth; and he has been committed to prison on the capital charge.
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