IRELAND.
Mr. John Robert Godley, author of a capital book of travels in North America, and more generally known by his plan of colonization for. the relief of Ireland, has addressed the electors of Leitrim county, where his father's estates lie. He does not speak of party politics: his earliest connexions have been " Tory "; but in fact Mr. Godley possesses an intelligence and an elevation of purpose superior to party politics
A. coalition has taken place between the Earl of Wiokiovr and Earl Fitzwilliam to effect the return of Lord Milton and Sir Ralph ELoward fog the county of Wicklow. Mr. Hugh Morgau Tulle retires from the representation of Westmeath.
With the exception of the counties of Limerick and Clare, whore outrage IS rife, thei eocial ncetlitiellof tho country, exhibits a decided imendmrt.
Fever, though still widely spread, is rapidly losing its typhoid character; and the general aspect of the crops is described as encouraging. A doubt still hangs over the soundness of the potatoes; but at present the balance of evidence inclines to the hopeful side.
The less virulent fever has still its victims. One of the Members for the county of Tipperary, Mr. R. A. Fitzgerald, has died of it. The Reverend Robert Noble, in a letter to the Standard, bitterly de- nounces the operation of the New Poor-law on the incomes of clergymen. The Poor-law Guardians strike a rate varying from 58. to 10s. in the pound: the instant the rate is struck, although it may never be collected, the landlords deduct the full amount from the clergyman's yearly income from the half-year's rent charge. Where the rate is 108. in the pound, the effect is to swallow up the whole half-year's income. [Some of the griev- ous effects of this monstrous injustice have been communicated to us on the most respectable authority.]
The weekly meetings at Conciliation Hall have resumed their regular course. On Monday, Mr. John O'Connell read a letter from the Roman Catholic Bishop of Ardagh, Dr. O'Higgins, in which he submits a plan for reorganizing the collecting department of the Association. It is proposed that the priests should preach, for some Sundays consecutively, the "ab- solute necessity of maintaining Conciliation Hall in full activity "; and then, assuming the command of the Repeal Wardens, accompany them on their collecting visits, keep accounts of the proceeds, and see the proper entries made in a parochial Repeal account-book. Mr. John O'Connell foresaw that this letter would be the object of" the ribald jest" of the "felon Times"; but who cared! Rent, including 201. 10s. from Dr. O'Hig- gins and the clergy of his diocese, 37/.
At the last meeting of the Irish Confederation, Mr. Smith O'Brien refer- red with "feelings of no ordinary pain" to the unceremonious rejection of his advances by the O'Connell family. He considered it part of a "pitiful and unworthy" attempt now made "to convert the wailings of a nation into the cry of a faction": but such unworthy, ungenerous, and nefarious devices, will not succeed.
Mr. Barrett, the editor and proprietor of the Pilot, announces his inten- tion to publish memoirs of O'Connell, first as a series of chapters in his journal, subsequently in a collected form as a book. Mr. Barrett was for seventeen years in habits of the closest intimacy with O'Connell; was privy to many things which embarrassed and thwarted the Irish leader; and he intimates that he shall make curious disclosures.
In a long list of atrocities of the usual Irish kind, the following outrage stands out in hideous prorninency, as related by the Limerick Chronicle. "Near Heath- field, in this county, between seven and eight o'clock, on Tuesday night, a party of armed men surrounded the house of a farmer named John Bennis, steward to property in that quarter belonging to Mr. Scanlan. The unfortunate victim of their vengeance was at the time surrounded by his wife and children; but, reck- less of this affectionate family circle, they assailed him without hesitation, felled him to the ground, and while prostrate, one of the miscreants levelled a gun close to his head, and shot him dead. Bennis's son and daughter endeavoured to save their persecuted father from his assailants, but received no mercy at the hands of the bloodthirsty ruffians; who dragged the unoffending woman outside the door, dashed her to the ground, and, with a refinement of barbarity, violently stretching out her arms rolled a heavily-laden car across them, bre-akin„s both wrists ! Not content with this savage outrage' the dmmons again entered the house, where Bennie's wife was lamenting over the dead body of her murdered husband. They struck her with guns on the head, inflicting serious wounds, ad left the son almost a lifeless corpse by his father's side. From the fatal injuries sustained, the youth has since died. The only cause assigned for such diabolical atrocity is, that Bennis had served latitats for non-payment of rent a few days before."
Another murder is reported in the same county. As Murphy and Nunan, both farmers, were walking along the road towards G.dbally, two men jumped out of a field; one fired a pistol at Murphy, and shot him dead; his accomplice twice missed fire with a pietol which he presented at Nunan; the villains then made off. A Coroner's Jury has returned a verdict of "Wilful minder" against the men; who are brothers Andrew Des and Patrick Des. The latter is in custody. The assassins had been ejected from a farm, and they suspected that Nunan and his brother-in-law Murphy were in treaty for the land.
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