IRELAND.

Lord Carew has declined to act on the Land Tenures Commission ; but Sir Robert Ferguson, the Whig Member for Derry City, has ac- cepted the appointment. The Commission is now complete : and it consists of the Earl of Devon, Chairman ; Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Wynne, Conservatives ; Mr. Redington and Sir Robert Ferguson, Libe- rals. It is expected to begin its laboars forthwith.

The Evening Post defends Lord Eliot, who had been attacked by the Evening Mail, for being absent from Dublin at such a juncture-

" We may venture to affirm that he is by no means in love with his office ; and, perhaps we might add, with the mode of executing the public business. We may state further, that he would resign long since had be not been specially and repeatedly entreated by Sir Robert Peel to remain for a few months longer. * • * At the same time, it cannot be expected that a man of high honour should ostentatiously lend his countenance to a system of policy of which he disapproves."

The course of law in the Irish State prosecutions has this week ex- hibited as much delay as ever. On Wednesday the Sib, the Attorney- General stated in court, that new bills of indictment would be preferred against some of the prisoners ; and these bills have been the source of much mystification. It was supposed that they were new bil's to patch up the defect in the other indictment occasioned by Mr. Bond Hughes's error ; then, that they conveyed a heavier charge, no less than high treason ; but as they did not appear, day after day, it was assumed by the journals of both parties, Whig and Tory, that they had been aban- doned. , The Dublin Monitor asserts positively that the bills have not been abandoned ; and that they charge Mr. O'Connell, Mr. Steele, Dr, Gray, and Mr. Ray, with being members of "an illegal association,"— thus bringing the legality of the Repeal Association to trial.

The arguments of the defendants' counsel, in support of an application for a copy of the caption as a necessary part of the indictment, began on Saturday add closed on Monday. It was contended, that in analo- SETAirstat of treason, a copy of the caption was always delivered to the idrtalt of the indictment ; and that as the indictment might be defect in the caption, it became necessary that the de- /A,' fen4ant'shon12, ave it before be pleaded. For the Crown, it was ad- r. mitted, that py of the caption was delivered when an indictment was removed f an inferior to a superior court ; because the caption Contained thefl le and title of the inferior court, and therefore it was

necessary for the information of the superior court : bat when the in. dictment came at once before the Queen's Bench, the case was quite different. The arguments on the other side went to show that the word " indictment might mean the piece of parchment as it came down from the Grand Jury, or the record when regularly made up ; but the very distinction upset the claim, for the defendants never could be entitled to a copy of tbe record. And the practice of the Queen's Bench established a marked distinction between cases of treason and other eri ninal cases. The Lord Chief Justice observed, that no spe- cific ground had been shown why the defendants needed the use of the caption, though valid grounds were conceivable. The words in the Statute of Treasons, ordering a " true copy of the whole indictment" to be given to the defendants, were not very different from the words in the staaite under which the present indictment was laid, the 60th George III.—" with a copy of the indictment " : but the construction which interpreted the former words to include the caption was not a regular judgment, but only an opinion delivered at a meeting of Judges, that to be " safe " a copy of the caption had better be given. That, too, applied only to English statute-law : at common-law the defendant had no title to the caption ; the practice of the Irish courts was quite against the claim ; and he feared the dangers and consequences of making a precedent. In this opinion Mr. Justice Burton and Mr. Justice Cramp- ton agreed; Mr. Justice Perrin dissented, mainly on the ground that a sight of the caption was necessary to enable the defendant to plead. The motion was refused.

That disposed of, Mr. Whiteside virtually renewed a motion made on the previous Thursday for a return of the witnesses' names indorsed on the original indictment. He handed to the Bench a case, the King versus Burton, wherein the Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench ex- pressed the opinion that the prisoner was entitled as a matter of course to a copy of the indorsement on the back of the indictment ; and he called upon the Court to direct its officer to do that which was matter of course. The Attorney-General objected, that the Crown -lawyers had had no notice of the motion ; and the Court decided that notice must be given. Subsequently, Mr. Justice Crampton remarked, that the case cited appeared to be one removed by certiorari to the King's Bench, in which the Court had nothing but the indictment and the captit a before it ; and the application seemed merely to be one to know who the pro. secutor in the case was.

Tuesday was the last day for pleading; and it was understood that

the defendants would claim an extension of time for that purpose. They all appeared in person, and handed in what are called "pleas in abatement. Mr. O'Connell's plea was first read. He protested that he was not guilty of any part of the indictment ; but declared that he ought not to be compelled to answer it, and that it might to be quashed ; because the Grand Jury had found a true bill upon the evidence of ad- verse persons who bad not been sworn in open court, in accordance with the provisions of the act to regulate the proceedings of Grand Juries in Ireland. This assertion he undertook to verify ; and he prayed the judg- ment of the Court on the indiciment. All the other pleas were in the same form. The Crown lawyers seemed to be taken by surprise ; and the Attorney-General begged the Court to allow him until the next morning to look into the plea more fully. Counsel for the prisoners demanded to have the plea filed at once ; bat, declaring that the matter lay within the discretion of the Court, the Judges adjourned without any further step being taken.

On Wednesday, the question was argued as an application of the

Attorney -General that the pleas in abatement should not be received. The counsel for the Crown insisted, that the plea in abatement must be made when the accused is arraigned, before pleading the general issue ; the arraignment of the prisoner taking place when his name is called by the clerk. Moreover, in civil cases four days are allowed to plead in abatement, and the time of the defendants began to run on the 9th,— expiring on Sunday, or, adding a day's grace, on Monday ; so that, by analogy, they were bound to plead on Monday. The statute of the 60th George HI , framed to prevent delays, enacted that the defendant should be compelled to plead within four days, in the same way as before the passing of the act; the object evidently being to oblige the defendant to enter upon his full defence at the expiration of the four days ; judgment, unless he did so, to go by default On the other side, counsel contended that the defendant was entitled to four clear days, not counting Sunday ; that no distinction was contemplated in the dif- ferent kinds of plea ; and that the act in question applied equally to all pleas, whether in bar or abatement. As to the practice of the Court, the attornies for the defendants had written to Mr. Bourne, the Clerk of the Crown, [who has filled the office for many years, and is a person of great age and experience,] to ask whether Monday or Tuesday would be the last day for pleading under the rule issued on the 9th ; and he replied thus- " Gentlemen—Relative to the effect of the rule of the 9th, the parties have the whole of Tuesday to plead or demur in. So says the Clerk of the Crown. " WALTER BOURNE, Clerk of the Crown."

Mr. Brewster declared that the letter to Mr. Bourne was a trap to cause delay, and that he had been "imposed upon " : an assertion that elicited an angry disclaimer from one of the attornies, Mr. Mahony, who was with difficulty called to order by the Bench. The Chief Jus- tice, in delivering judgment, deprecated the terms used by Mr. Brew- ster; remarking, "Perhaps all parties were in error and mistake ; per- haps none were in either : I do not decide that." ChiefJustice Penne- father went on to express his opinion, that the distinction as to the kinds of plea, and the limitation of time, were no longer open to the Law- officer of the Crown, after Mr. Bourne's letter; that as the statute of the 60th George IlL, which was in some degree penal, and must there- fore not be coustrued narrowly, deprived the defendant of the right of traversing in prox , and gave him in lieu four days to plead in, the time must not be further contracted, but four clear days must be allowed ; and that as no reservation was made in regard to the several kinds of plea, it must be understood to apply equally to all, including pleas in abate- menL The pleas therefore were admitted.

The Attorney-General then stated that he intended to demur to every

one of the pleas ; and he called on the defendants to appear instanter and join in demur. The Chief Justice thought the defendants were bound to join in demur instanter. Mr. Moore hastily rose, said that he was taken by surprise, and argued that the defendants were at least en-

titled to have a rule served upon them. After conferring with Mr. Bourne, the Chief Justice said, he found on inquiry that the practice was to give a four-days rule ; and—not without opposition from the Attorney-General, who declared that the Bench were masters of the rules of the Court—the four-days rule issued.

The Pilot gives this succinct description of the enormous indict- Ment, the mere abstract of which occupies four or five columns in the Well-

" The first count contains the following charges against all the traversers-

1st, That they unlawfully, maliciously, and seditiously devised to create dis- content among her Majesty's subjects, and hatred and contempt of the govern- ment and constitution established by law. 2d, That they intended to create disaffection in the Army. 311, That they sought to bring into disrepute, and diminish the confidence of the people in, the lawful tribunals of the country. 4th, That they contrived, by intimidation and physical force to effect changes in the laws and constitution. The first place mentioned is the meeting in the parish of St. Mark's, on the 13th February last. 5th, This charge is a general one, and refers generally to the various meetings held in all parts of Ireland, and the appointment of the several Arbitration Courts, 'to induce her Majesty's subjects to withdraw the adjudication of their differences with and claims on each other from the cognizance of the courts of law, and submit them to the cognizance of other tribunals, to be constituted for that purpose.' In support of these several allegations, forty-three overt acts are set forth at great length ; comprehending public meetings, reports of speeches, letters read at the Repeal Association, resolutions, contributions, and editorial articles in the Pilot, Free- man, and Nation newspapers. It is not very easy to reduce them to a proper classification ; but we shall endeavour to simplify what the Law. officers of the crown have rendered exceedingly complex. We take the traversers separately, with the overt acts alleged to have been committed by each. "Mr. O'Connell. Mr. O'Connell is alleged to have been guilty of twenty- nine overt acts : of these, sixteen are for having been present at meetings and dinners at Trim, Alullingar, Cork, Longford, Drogheda, Kilkenny, Mallow, Dundalk, Donnybrook, Baltinglass, Tara, Louglirea, Clifden, Lismore, Mul- lsghmast, and for having endeavoured to collect a meeting at Clontarf. At all these places, it is alleged that be had spoken seditious language. The re- maining thirteen overt acts relate to meetings at the Corn Exchange, in some of which it is generally stated that he uttered seditious language, while in others the charges are more specific—namely, the receipt of and reading certain letters and statements of the receipts of the Association for the two corre- sponding quarters of two successive years. One of the letters is from a Mr. John Corry, enclosing one hundred pounds. The following documents are also

among the overt acts Plan for the renewed action of the Irish Parliament,' and Address to the inhabitants of countries subject to the British Crown.' Such, as accurately as we could gather, is the substance of the charges alleged against Mr. O'Connell.

"Mr. Steele. Almost all the overt acts charged against Mr. O'Connell are also charged against Mr. Steele, save the use of seditious language, which is limited to the Behemoth' speech ; which, it appears, the Crown, through the agency of Mr. Bond Hughes, will endeavour to establish from that gentleman's notes.

"Mr. John O'Connell. The overt acts charged against Mr. John O'Con- nell are sixteen : for having attended public meetings at Longford, Kilkenny, Donnybrook, Tara, Mullaghmast, and the 'endeavour' at Clontarf. Of his speeches those at Longford and Mullaghmast are particularized. The remain- ing overt acts apply generally to his attendance at the Association. Mr. Gray. He is charged with having attended at several public meetings throughout the country, and at the Corn Exchange. The 23d overt act charges 'that John Gray made a statement of such Magistrates as possessed the confidence of the people ; and that he read a certain document purporting to be a report from a sub-committee on the adoption of a general system of arbi• tratinn, and signed by him as chairman.' He is also charged with having spoken malicious and seditious words' at the meeting of the 3d October; and generally, with having published the speeches of Mr. O'Connell, and other documents alleged to have been seditious.

" The Reverend Mr. Tierney has been charged with having attended a meet- ing at Clontibret on the 15th August last, and two meetings at the Corn Exchange; at one of which be made a speech, which is set forth. "The Reverend Mr. Tyrrell, for having attended the meetings at Tara and Drogheda, and the intended one at Clontarf, with two at the Corn Exchange, and one at Abbey Street; where he is said to have made is seditious speech, and proposed certain resolutions of a dangerous tendency. "Mr. T. Itif. Bay is charged with attendance at meetings, and the receipt of money for the Repeal Association.

"Mr. Richard Barrett runs through a great number of the overt acts. He is charged with having been at some of the monster meetings, and delivered wean% at the same ; also at the Corn Exchange, and for the publication of Mr. O'Connell's speeches and certain Repeal documents. He is, besides, charged with having published certain 'seditious' matter in the Pilot—' Repeal in America,' 'Speech of R. Tyler,' 'The Duty of a Soldier,' Letter by the Reverend Mr. Power, 'The Irish in the English Army,' 'The Army—People and Government,' 'Rumoured Death of General Jackson," The Battleof Clontarf—The Repeal Year.' Mr. C. G. Duffy. None of the monster meetings are allegi d to have been attended by Mr. Duffy, but he is charged with several at the Corn Exchange. lie is also charged with the publication of all Mr. O'Connell's speeches. and the documents of the Corn Exchange ; among which are specially mentioned an advertisement, headed 'Repeal Cavalry,' and the speech of the Reverend Mr. Tierney. He is besides charged with having published in the Nation newspaper the following editorial articles and contributions—. The Memory of the Dead,' an Ods, Something is Coming,' 'Our Nationality,' 'Morality of War,' 'The Crisis is upon us,' 'A Dalcassuin,' a Letter.

"Such is an abstract of the first count, with the overt acts ; an immense agglomeration of words, and which does vast credit to the prolific powers of the Law-officers of the Crown.

"The second count differs little from the first ; omitting the residences of the traversers in the commencement, and adding some formal words at the dose. In all the other counts, the general charge of confederation, intimida- tion, and the publication of seditious letters and compositions, is slightly varied ; the counts growing thinner and less pregnant as they draw to a close."

The Notion sarcastically contrasts the conduct of the Irish Attorney- General with that of the English Attorney-General in Wales— "Nothing could be in better spirit than the prosecutions in Wales. The csimes committed against the people there were serious. Burdens of weight were put upon the aching bones of industrious poverty. The toll-gatherer arrested the poor man's profits and swallowed up his gains ; the landlord had something more than his pound of flesh—a little blood or so; and the parson diminished the food of the peasant and the peasant's family. The people rose up in might against their griefs. They were wrong : for violence ended in murder, and the murder of helpless age and innocence. The people sinned, and grievously, against the law ; and the law vindicated itself: but how ? In Strength and mercy. It punished ; but justice seemed to sigh whilst she struck. Her officers did not forget their duty—nor themselves. And peace lotordiaiily will revisit the places she was driven from. A ringleader of Re- beccaism, Hughes, a young man and a resolute one, was found guilty ; some few pleaded guilty ; and as to the rest, there was a contest between the At- torney-General and the Court, which would be the first to suggest leniency. It almost amounted to squeamish benevolence; and had such a thing ever oc- curred in Ireland, it would be considered even beyond a miracle. There was no haste—there was no fretful impatience—no savage hurry. The prisoners must have been puzzled enough at their reception. And Hughes himself, who was sentenced to a long term of transportation, received some broad hints that there was 'store of mercy' round the Crown if the Government saw reason to recommend its use. Altogether, public punishment never looked so amiable. Now, we applaud this to the skies ; and we mention it just at this moment purely for the benefit of Mr. Smith,—only fearing that, from his natural amenity and obvious suavity, he may overdo the business and go too far."

The usual weekly meeting of the Repeal Association was held on Monday ; and Mr. O'Connell transacted a variety of business. In the first place, however, Mr. Stritch, the Chairman, read a letter from Mr. John O'Brien, the Member for Limerick city, enclosing 5/. as his first subscription to the Association ; and Mr. O'Brien was forthwith ad- mitted a member. Mr. O'Connell then moved an " Address to the People of Ireland ; " which be prefaced by some remarks on his own consistency in pursuing a pacific policy throughout the struggle for Catholic Emancipation, and up to the present time. He was the apos- tle of that new sect of politicians who condemned all changes effected by force ; which, although they might destroy one grievance, were sure to create many— Since he had entered the Hall, he heard that a man who bad been in America was last night preaching sedition in the streets, and that a Policeman in co- loured clothes who first encouraged him took him into custody. He was obliged to that Policeman, and he sincerely hoped the prisoner would be punished for the crime laid to his charge. Sedition or violence of any kind was injurious to every person at present included in the Government prosecutions; for nothing would tend more to prejudice the minds of the Jury who would try them.

The address to the People was like a mass of similar matter issued by Mr. O'Connell, novel only in its laboured reiteration of the entreaty that the said people would be quiet, in order not to injure the cause of the accused nor that of Repeal, and also in the hint of a threat-

" But—attend to me—if there be during the trials the slightest outbreak of violence in any parish, it will be my duty immediately to abandon the Repeal cause, and to forsake a people who at such a critical period as the present would not follow the advice I so earnestly give them."

The address was carried, as of course. So was another motion by Mr. O'Connell, declaring the opinion of the Association that every assistance should be given to the Land Tenures Commission.

Mr. O'Connell alluded to a proposition from one of the leading organs of the Government for pensioning the Roman Catholic clergy of Ire- land, at the expense of 600,000/. a year. It would require an addi- tional sum of 400,000/. to render the amount sufficient for its object ; but even that the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland would refuse, as they had always done. He did not think John Bull would be satisfied to pay even 600,0001. to Popish priests, who were asking for nothing, particu- larly when he had plenty of people, asking for something, to satisfy. There was one alteration in the existing system which he would like to see made as regarded the clergymen of every persuasion ; and that was, that a certain piece of land in the shape of a glebe, and a house situated within each parish, should be handed down from one pastor to another. The next thing was a letter from Mr. Joseph Sturge to the Secretary, read by Mr. O'Connell : in which the writer, before replying to the resolutions passed on the 30th October, said, " I would respectfully submit, that the advocates of Repeal should clearly define who is to advise the Sovereign in the exercise of that power "—the Royal prero- gative, by which Mr. O'Connell proposes that a separate Irish Parlia- ment should be summoned. Mr. Sturge calls to mind that "the Sove- reign can do no wrong " ; that Ministers sustain the responsibility of the Executive ; and that they are responsible to the whole nation. Mr. O'Connell said, that he only required that persons having the adminis- tration of Irish affairs should be responsible to the Irish Parliament, leaving to the British Parliament the general administration of the country and the selection of the Ministers of the Crown.

The rent for the week was 1,071/.

Mr. Smith O'Brien has sent Si. as his first contribution to the "O'Con- nell Compensation Fund "; remarking- " I am induced to deviate from the course hitherto adopted by me with reference to this fund, chiefly because Mr. O'Connell has been made the &lett of a prosecution, which, so far as I can judge from the evidence already before the public, is not justified by his individual conduct, and which, to use no harsher term, wears the appearance of a deliberate design against the liberties of the people of Ireland."

A correspondent of the Carlow Sentinel (a Tory paper) who had sojourned for a month in the counties of Limerick and Tipperary, to ascertain from personal observation the feelings of the peasantry, reports the result of his experiences-

" In these counties there is not the least mystification in the declarations of

the lower orders. They told me confidently that the time had come for the total downfall of Protestantism and English rule, and for the consequent res-

toration of the forfeited estates ; and in these expectations they are fortified by

old legendary prophecies of the most wild and sanguinary description. ,The restoration of the forfeited estates is their darling theme on every occasion;

and the final expulsion of all the Protestant sects, without distinction, is looked upon by them as a necessary step to the full and quiet enjoyment of Ireland by the Irish.' There cannot he a doubt that an ultimate appeal to rebellion is cherished as a certainty by the peasantry; that they are regularly made up for it, and speak of it, without the least disguise, as 'only a question of time.' In several instances they regretted deeply that O'Connell should have cried

peace' after the suppression of the Clontarf meeting, and say they only wanted a hint to turn out at a moment's notice. Even the children who can do

little more than lisp a few words are imbued with the same sanguinary feelings."

Other evidences of an extremely disordered state of the popular mind are put forward. It is stated by the Nenagh Guardian that Mr. Kemp- ston, its proprietor, has received a significant notice, that unless his political views should undergo a complete modification, he might cal- culate on his brain's being perforated by six ballets. The Guardian adds, that Mr. Kempston had been previously denounced from the altar of Killeen Chapel, and mentions the name of his denouncer.

Signal-fires have been observed at Fermanagh, in the North ; and in the same quarter the houses of Roman Catholics had been marked out by two white marks. The Ballyshannon Herald asserts that Government have been put in possession of "some frightful information respecting Ireland," by "a few leading Repealers, alarmed at the height to which the conspiracy had arrived."

The Commissioners of the Dublin Metropolitan Police have, we learn, dismissed a sergeant of the force for attending at the Reverend Tresham Gregg's soiree, at the Rotunda, on Monday night, for the purpose of celebrating the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot.—Dublin Mercantile Advertiser.

Several murderous outrages have been committed recently ; but the worst was an attack on a party in the house of Mr. Thomas Waller, of Finnoe, near Borrisokane, in the county of Tipperary. There are many accounts, almost all alike ; and we select the version in the local paper, the Nenagh Guardian- " On Sunday evening last, the family circle at dinner consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Waller, a young boy their grandson, son to Mr. John Francis Waller, Miss Vereker, sister to Mrs. Waller, and Mr. John A. Braddell, brother-in-law of Mr. Waller. The dining-parlour had two entrance-doors, one from the hall and the other leading to the stairs in connexion with the kitchen. Mr. Brad- dell sat at the head, and Mr. Waller at the foot of the table ; and just as the last dish of the first course was being removed, Mr. Braddell perceived a man, armed with a pistol, in the door-way which was near to Mr. Waller, and who presented it at his head. Mr. Braddell cried out, ' Waller, you are murdered ! ' and, immediately starting to his feet, was about to rush against the fellow with the chair he sat upon, when be perceived himself covered by a blunderbuss in the arms of another villain, who was in the door-way which entered from the hall. Mr. Braddell rushed then upon this fellow, and with the chair forced him into the hall; when the shock struck the flint out of his deadly weapon. The old butler, a venerable and worthy servant, pushed the young boy under a side- board, and with a garden-tool used for plucking up weeds, he Inflicted many severe blows on the ruffian who levelled the weapon at his master. There were in this murderous attack seven persons; and as desperate and sanguinary a battle then ensued as ever we have heard of in a private dwelling. The villains succeeded in wresting the garden-tool from the butler ; and with it, the butt of their fire-arms, a bar of iron they found in the hall, and the coulter of a plough, they beat to an unmerciful extent the two gentlemen, the two ladies, and the aged butler ; who was only able to crawl to the alarm-bell, which be rang violently ; on which the party made off, leaving, as they supposed, their victims tutchered. The alarm-bell brought some of the neighbouring gentry ; who found the dining-room and hall more like a slaughterhouse than those belonging to the mansion of a gentleman. The entire family were in a com- plete state of insensibility."

Mr. Waller's arm was broken in two places, and his bead bad eleven cuts ; the heads of the two ladies were cut behind from ear to ear ; and Miss Vereker is not expected to recover. Of course there are some reasons for the outrage, mad as it is ; and they may be gathered from a passage in a letter on the subject-

" Mr. Wailer is a Justice of the Peace for the county, and an extensive land- proprietor. He has, it is said, resorted pretty freely to the clearance 'system, and he would rather any day stumble over a tree than a cottage on his pro- perty. He is father of Mr. John Francis Waller, the late Assessor for the city of Dublin. Mr. Braddell is agent on Mr. Cole Bowen's estates, near Too- mavara ; on which at least a couple of murders are perpetrated annually. It was for one of these murders that a young peasant from near the Silver-mines, named Quilty, was tried and executed at the recent Commission held at Clon- met. He died declaring in the most solemn manner his innocence. Although the leading members of the Roman Catholic priesthood in North Tipperary signed a memorial got up by the Rev. Edward Magrath, parish-priest of Silver- mines, in favour of the condemned peasant, still the Government was inexora- ble that the law should have its course; and Quilty paid the penalty of his life for a murder of which many supposed him guiltless."

The Gazette offers rewards to discover the murderers of Patrick Ma- guire, at Legamar, in the county of Leitrim, and John Lochead, the driver of Mr. Whyte of Kilburn, in the county of Cork.