IRELAND.

The clergy of the Established Church in the diocese of Limerick met on the 21st January and adopted an echo of the Bishops' protest against the National System of Education. The Reverend Dr. Higgin, Dean of Limerick, refused the use of the Chapter-room for the meeting; as he did not concur in its object, and would do nothing detrimental to the system. Dr. Higgin, a well-known supporter of the system, was appointed to the Deanery by Lord Heytesbury. The Dublin Evening Mail, angered at his obstruction of a movement favoured by that paper, complains that he is an Englishman, to appoint whom Irishmen were neglected; the Orange jour- nal borrowing for the nonce the ultra-nationalism of the Repealers.

The clergy of Ardagh have adopted a similar manifesto.

4/E IVNV • t the deputation to the Holy See is likely to consist of

- Ask . John O'Connell, M.P., and the following Roman Catho- Reverend Dr. MacHale, Archbishop of Turn; Right

Reverend Dr. Keating, Bishop of Ferns; and Right Reverend Dr. Bishop of Ardagh. It is further stated that two of' the Roman Catholic Prelates have already forwarded communications to Rome, in reference to the reseript from the Propaganda recently published by Archbishop Coolly. —Times.

The Prelates in Ireland continue to exhibit their epistolary fertility. One letter is from Dr. Kennedy, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Malec; who accepted office under the Bequests Act, but afterwards withdrew his acceptance. The Bishop had been invited to attend a public meeting at Cork against the Act; and he writes to account for some accidental cir- cumstances which prevented his receiving the invitation until too late. He declares that he is not indifferent to the important and praiseworthy ob- ject of the mecting,"—namely, the relief of his respected brethren the regular clergy of Ireland " from those grievously unjust and intolerant clauses of the Relief Bill, which, whatever may have been the motive for their introduction into it, are a manifest disgrace to the statute-book." " I hasten, therefore, Sir, as much as I may, to assure you and the very respectable gentlemen who composed that meeting, that you shall have my most cordial codperation in your religious and constitutional endeavours to rescue that meritorious body from the perilous situation in which those clauses have placed them." " I most heartily approve of the course determined on by you and your fellow-citizens in their behalf, and I sincerely regret it was not long since determinedly adopted by all Ireland. " I am aware that in Cork as elsewhere the opinion prevails that there are very strong reasons now for adopting this course, which did not exist pre- viously to the passing of the Charitable Bequests Act. For I find it confidently asserted in the first resolution adopted at your meeting, that the provisions of the Charitable Bequests Act stimulate into action certain clauses of the 10th of George IV., c. 7, which provide, under grievous penalties, for the extinction of re- ligious orders in Ireland. But, Sir, from this opinion, however inoffensively put, I beg most respectfully but most decidedly to dissent. I do not believe, notwith- standing all that has been written and spoken to that effect, that the Charitable Bequests Act has in anything rendered the condition of the regular clergy in Ireland worse than it was before the passing of that act"; which he proceeds to show more in detail.

Another letter is from Dr. Higgins, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Ardagh, to the Dublin Pilot; deprecating the recommendation of that journal that he should be sent as part of the deputation to Rome. He cannot believe that others of the Irish Prelates are not better qualified; and if a deputation be sent out, it should by no means be confined to any one Bishop. "In the present political posture of our affairs, some effectual means should be at once adopted for the purpose of enlightening the Pope as to the constitutional, legal, and charitable nature of our peaceful agitation for common justice in maligned and injured Ireland. The Irish clergy who have taken an active part in advancing the cause of Repeal are represented at every soiree and political coterie in Rome as turbulent, disloyal, neglectful of their spiritual dotes, &c.; whereas it is notorious that affectionate loyalty for our beloved Qaeen, good order, and religion, mark in a preeminent degree all those districts of the nation where the question of Repeal has been most actively agitated. Though the calumnies just mentioned are chiefly propagated by Englishmen, I am grieved to be obliged to say that certain servile and mercenary Catholics of this country are zealously labouring to support this infamous and systematic slander. It is somewhat consoling, however, to reflect, that with all their combined and wicked efforts, they have been able to extort nothing from Rome save the very harmless re- script. We receive that document with the profoundest respect, as coming from the Propaganda with the consent of our venerated Holy Father; but being purely hypothetical, it leaves matters precisely as they stood before, and gives us, more- over, the benefit of knowing that intrigue and misrepresentation were the only difficulties we had to encounter at the court of Rome. These difficulties can, as a mere matter of course, be most easily removed by making his Holiness ac- quainted with the real conduct and condition of the clergy and people of Ireland, and leaving him to deal with our profligate slanderers as his own wisdom may suggest."

A third letter is from the Archbishop of Tuam to Sir Robert Peel, against the Charitable Bequests Act. We cannot attempt to abridge it, for con- sistent structure or argument it has none; it is a declamatory tirade, of which some specimens will convey the animus: we begin with the begin- ning.

"Sir—Whilst you survey with singular satisfaction the wide extent of spiritual bondage over Great Britain, you are doubtless mortified by the painful contrast of the spiritual freedom of Ireland; and, anxious for the diffusion of this religious thraldom you fear that its reign cannot be permanent or secure until the light of its Catholic faith is extinguished in a country so contiguous as to be likely to be- come contagious. It is not the first time that Ireland, an exception to the sur- rounding servitude, roused the envy of the despots who doomed its liberty to de- struction. Such was the policy which, we are told by Tacitns Agrippa had in contemplation." "Hence the untiring exertions of that Protestant Ascendancy, still so hostile, to extinguish a religion which is a living reproach to the revolting errors that disfigure the face of England. Witness the lamentable fruit of those errors in the entire disorganization of what is termed the Church of England, and in the hideous intestine discord by which its crazy frame is falling asunder. Wit-, ness, too, the dreadful immorality which is their offspring, and the prevalence of those unprovoked and gratuitous crimes which, in despite of the insolence of its journalists and the homage which wealthy nations are sure to extol even unto the palliation of their vices, have made the moral condition of England a word of warning over the civilized world. Are you ambitions to sink Ireland to the level of the same degrading social materialism? Should you succeed, instead of the occasional outbreaks of revenge which humanity abhors, and which would have been frequent were it not for the incessant influence of religion and its priesthood, you would witness a fierce spirit of national indignation, which not two nor all the spare legions within your command could i repress." "The lamentable state of social disorganization to which I have alluded s felt and deplored by many of the English Prelates, who confess they are unable to apply a remedy: witness, for example, the ludicrous embarrassment of his Lordship of Exeter—today issuing his episcopal mandates for ecclesiastical uniformity, and revoking them again, it is said at the imperious requisition of the Minister of the Crown." "Instead of the holy vigour of an .Ambrose or an Anselm, who arraigned the cruel delinquencies of royalty itself, they are silent on the crimes of the nation, because they must regulate by the nod of a political Minister the nature of their pastoral instructions. "With the attempt to injure and degrade, you, and a few hollow economists, take credit to yourselves for acknowledging, for the first time, the rights and titles of the Episcopacy in Ireland I Yes, you acknowledge to in- sult them, and even the honour you show has in it all the bitterness of scornful derision. How do you honour even those venerable Prelates whom you have made members of your Ministerial Board? By giving them the titles of Bishops, without sees, and emblazoning over their heath the sole and exclusively legitimate titles of others to the same sees; which their sainted and heroic predecessors would never have consented to acknowledge. There cannot be two lawful Bishops of the same see." Mr. Anthony Blake is attacked as "the old advocate of the veto and of every measure for fettering the freedom of the Catholic Church; the plisse and dexterous follower of every successive Administration, whether Whig orTory the self-appointed patron of Maynooth College, in order to project, I suppose, wit

Mr. Thomas Wyse, how far it may be feasible, by a little domestic concordat, to effect some change in the system of the teaching of its faith, for an increase in its finances." Finally, Dr. MacHale exhorts Sir Robert Peel to let his "first re- commendation to Parliament be the repeal of an act which the mischief already produced should be a warning of the more awful calamities with which it is fraught."

Meetings continue to be held against the Charitable Bequests Act. The clergy of Londonderry county met last week, and passed some strongly- worded resolutions against any concordat with the Holy See, against con- nexion with the State, and against the Act; expressing belief that no con- fidence would be put by Catholics in any commission under the Act. They also adopted an address to the three Roman Catholic Prelates on the Com- mission, begging them to retire from an office of which their acceptance had been "a scandal to the pious"!

• The Dublin Evening Mail has discovered a new constitutional difficulty in the way of the Bequests Act. The oath of supremacy binds the oath- taker not to recognize the authority of the Pope or to hold fellowship with the See of Rome; whereas the Bequests Act not only recognizes the authority of the Roman Catholic Prelates, but Ministers have formally acknowledged their ecclesiastical offices' in appointing the Commission, and have given them precedence of Temporal Peers. Thus, contends the Mail, "the oath of supremacy is virtually abrogated, if not formally repealed."

The following resolutions have been passed at a meeting of the Dublin Protestestant Operative Association: they are too precious to abridge a single line-

" 1. Resolved, That having heard read a letter from the Bishop of Rome, ad- dressed to William Crony, Whom the said Bishop addresses as 'Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland,' we record it publicly as the opinion of this Association, that the said letter is a piece of insufferable arrogance; that it is calculated to prove to all thinking Roman Catholics that Popery is incompatible with constitutional freedom,—for if the Pope, at the wink of a Government which he accounts heretical, presume to rebuke those who in a distant kingdom are, according to law, seeking what they consider to be political privileges, would he not, at the bidding of a Popish Monarch, sanction against those opposed to his sway, the edge of the sword? and that if our Roman Catholic countrymen con- tinue to submit to any dictation whatsoever from the said usurper, they will show themselves to be just the slaves they proclaim themselves, and that they desire to be no better.

• "2. Resolved, That if the people of Ireland all hold to the truths of primitive Christianity, neither England nor the world could oppress them: if the Repeal of the Union were in such a case desirable, six months would not pass until it were ejected; and that if England desired the degradation of our country, she could in nowise so easily secure it as by promoting and encouraging a superstition which puts into the hands of an Italian tyrant the hearts and the understandings of the Romish priesthood in Ireland; and that we call upon our countrymen to come out of Babylon. [Vulgo "Come out o' that."] "3. Resolved, That as Protestants we owe no thanks to the Pope for inter- fering to put down the Repeal cry; and that we abhor Pope and Popery just as much when pretending to favour loyalty and order as when in reality fomenting factious rebellion; that, moreover, if a British Minister have interfered to pro- cure rules or rescaipts to assist him to preserve peace in the United Kingdom, he has betrayed his mistress, and ought to sujfir condign punishment for his treachery.

The proceedings at the weekly meeting of the Repeal Association, on Monday, were not remarkable. Mr. J. Kelly, M.P., who was called to the chair, delivered a long speech on the sacrifices made by the leading Re- Peelers, &e. He denounced the Riband system, and expressed a belief that the spread of outrage and illegal combination might be traced to the dismissal by the Lord Chancellor of those Magistrates upon whom the people were accustomed to rely as impartial dispensers of justice. Mr. O'Connell's speech was destitute of interest; and he concluded by moving that another week be allowed to the "Parliamentary Committee" to make the report on the question whether the Irish Members ought to attend in Parliament during the session; which was of course agreed to. Among the contributions was IL from a Catholic priest, who asked permission of his "revered Liberator" to call him "Defender of the Faith." [Why not Pope ?] The rent for the week was 257/.

The Dublin correspondent of the Times makes a further report of what has passed in the " Retrenching Committee" of the Repeal Association— "The expenses of the monster trial,' it is now ascertained, raitged between 24,000/. and 28,000L; nearly one-half of which was swallowed up by the costs of the agents for the traversers. Some unpleasant controversy took: place in Com- mittee upon the claim of Dr. Nagle to be retained at his salary of two guineas a-week as one of the drawers-up' of those voluminous productions digmfied by the title of reports.' The claim was resisted by one of the leaders of the Young Ire- land party; who strongly insisted upon the necessity of gentlemen discharging such duties gratuitously. Dr. Nagle, who is a member of the Committee, was actually present, fighting in person his own battle, until reminded by Mr. (YConnell of the propriety, to say the least, of his withdrawing pending the discussion of a ques- tion altogether milling to himself. A letter was read from a priest in the North, strongly condemnatory of the practice of withholding all accounts of the disburse- ments of the Repeal funds; a proceeding which he stated to be most mischievous in its results, and to have caused great dissatisfaction among the contributors. A fair balance-sheet, he thought, would have the effect of doubling the subscrip- tions in the district where the writer resided. The reverend gentleman's sugges- tion is to be taken into consideration ; several of the Committee being highly favourable to the plan of publishing either monthly or quarterly abstracts of the revenue, setting forth the sums of money received, how much expended, and for what purpose, the balance in hand, &c. Better late than never.' Still this threatened measure of future precaution forcibly brings to mind another old- fashioned proverb respecting the folly of shutting the stable when the steed is stolen.'"

At a meeting in St. Jude's Tavern, in Dublin, on Thursday last week, Mr. O'Connell, who presided, uttered some of his most racy strictures on men and things.

Introducing the first toast, he made some complimentary allusions to the Queen' not altogether of the most exalting kind. It was true, he said, that she signed her name to documents prepared by her Ministers; but it was a mere me- chanical operation, that might as well be performed by means of a stamp, as in the days of Henry the Eighth and George the Fourth. That, however, was not the fashion in the present age. The Sovereign wrote her own signature with her own hand;,but political power she had none. She could drive about in her chariot wherever she- .pleased, sure of a hearty welcome from her people wherever she went; she might go visits to the Duke of Buckingham or to the Iron Duke, and when she was tired of wandering she could come back to her pleasant little castle 4 Windsor; but that was all. She could exercise no power over the political for- tunes of her realm, and was a mere puppet in the hands of her worthless and un - principled Ministers. But the people loved her notwithstanding: thee reverenced her private virtues, and felt confidently assured that if she had political power she would make a becoming use of it. Ile had much pleasure, therefore, in pro- posing Health, long life, and happiness to their Queen." [According to the Dublin correspondent of the Times, these "covert hits" had such effect, that "on the national anthem being sung by an amateur present, the singer gave due expression to what was uppermost in his thoughts, at least, by the substitution of the word 'her' for 'their'; as thus— 'Confound her polities, Frustrate her knavish tucks,' Ste.") Mr. O'Connell touched upon the characteristics of parting Secretary for Ire- land. It appeared they were going to lose Lord Eliot. They of course grieved at the cause which led to Lord Eliot's being removed—the death of his father; but he (Mr. O'Connell) would walk twenty miles any day to look at the man who would regret the abstract fact of his remeval There never was a man who rea- lized more completely the idea of a chip in porridge than that same Lord Eliot. There was nothing else earthly that he could with truth be compared to but a chip in porridge, floating uselessly upon the surface, but not enriching its quality In any respect, nor altering in any degree its colour or its taste. Such was Lord Eliot, Secretary of State for Ireland! They gave him to be sure' the name of being goodnatured: but the statesman who had nothing but his good nature to recommend him might be described very briefly; you might write him down hi four letters,—f-.-o---o--L He was the smartest-looking little man in the world, and no fool at buying a horse; yet anything more egregiously foolish than hie reign in this country was never recorded in historic page. He came over here one day and gave a dinner-party—his lady gave a ball next day; he went to the Castle, looked about him, said very little to anybody, and then went back to Eng. land. There was the full and particular history of Lord Eliot's career as Secre- tary in this country. To be sure, we had a Lord-Lieutenant, who was much fonder of talking and made yet finer promises than Lord Eliot. The Viceroy came in for a share ot notice. Lord Heytesbury was a diploma- tist, and had spent the greater portion of his life in discharging the duties of an ambassador. If they wished to know what an ambassador was, they were to understand that in the most approved signification it meant a man who was sent to foreign countries to tell lies for the benefit of his own. This was the proper signification of the phrase "ambassador"; and Lord Heytesbury, having been engaged for many years in the duties of the office, appeared to think that he waS still in a foreign nation, and that it was his duty to benefit his own country ac-' cording to his old fashion. There was not a man in the empire who had at lu command a more abundant assortment of fine words and fair promises; but when he came to make his appointments it was amazing to think what a discrepancy. there was between his words and his deeds. "And yet I'm to be told that Lord Heytesbury is a very good kind of man. I do in my conscience believe that he.ia the primest humbug that ever humbugged, this unfortunate humbugged country. But what care we after all 1'— Hereditary bondsmen, know ye not,

Who would be free, himself must strike the blew?'

The Nenagh Guardian reports proceedings in the Quarter-Sessions of Nenagh on the 23d January, which illustrate the practical working of the Arms Act. By "the Court" is to be understood Mr. Sergeant Howley.

"Martin Cleary sought the registry of a gun. On being asked what be wanted with it, he replied that his landlord, Mr. Killkelly, was going to law with him. Refused. Mr. Dwyer—Never mind, Cleary; we'll beat Mr. Ki/lkelly with

legal weapons. (Laughter.) John Donohoe (brother to a KUM named Rudy Donohoe, murdered near Toom- aware) was allowed a gun and pistol.

" — Doherty applied for a gun. Court= What do you want it for?' Mr. Faulkner—' He anticipates an election.' The Magistrates allowed him a gun. '

" Michael Gleason, of Laharasha, sought for a gun. Court= What do yott want it for ? ' Gleeson= To shoot crows, your worship, or any thing that comes across me.' (Laughter.) Yon may go down.'

"Mr. P. Gleeson, of Nenagh, apphed for two pistols; which the Magistrates at first refused; but, on Mr. Gleason stating he had a valuable case of pistols which were made a present to him by his father, the Court allowed him to retain them.

"Pat Ryan asked for a gun and two pistols; which were granted, owing to an able defence made by him some time time ago when his house was attacked. • - "John Vaughan applied for leave to register a gun. Mr. Lee stated that there was a man named Dean hanged some years ago for a horrid act of barbarity com- mitted on Vaughan. It appeared that Dean, for a pint of whisky and 7s. 6d:, went to Vaug_han's house, cut off both his ears, and also cut off the calves of his legs; leaving him ahnost lifeless. The Court granted the request."

We hear that the cause of disturbance in Roscommon is the refusal of many of the landowners to let con-acre at less than from nine to thirteen pounds per acre ; this sum the con-acre tenants consider too high; and on the landlord refusing to set it less, two or three hundred men assemble with spades, and in the course of a night turn up several acres of pas- ture-land.—Longford Journal.

Three attempts at murder are reported in Tipperary. In one case the guns of the assassins missed fire. Carty, a labouring man in his seventy-second year, has been shot with a pistol, and his life is in danger. Mr. James' a Protestant school- master, has been assailed by four men in his own house, and dangerously hurt by fire-arms: in defending himself with a dirk he is supposed to have killed one of the ruffians.

Two men have been arrested for the murder of a Mr. Smith, near Moneygall A soldier saw them knock the old man off his horse, and then beat him to death with stones.

A party of four soldiers of the Fifteenth Regiment, stationed at Killaloe, with some of the townspeople, went on a boating-excursion one night last week, to sup on a small island a short distance from the town. Being rather intoxicated, they purloined two geese from a farmer on their way thither. The owner got two Policemen, and went in a boat to the island to recover his property; and here a dreadful affray took place. The soldiers and their friends were cooking supper when the Police arrived; and when the officers began to search for the geese, the soldiers seized a bayonet from one of the carbines of the Policemen, and stabbed both of them—one, Callaghan, so badly that he appeared to be dead; the other was not so much injured. Writhing with pain, the wounded man fired his gun, and shot one of his opponents, a townsman, dead. He then reloaded and fired again, it is believed with fatal effect; as a man is supposed to have been struck and to have fallen into the river. Meanwhile the farmer had fled, and soon re- turned with a strong party of Police; who arrested the four soldiers and two other men. The soldiers are wounded; and the life of Policeman Callaghan is despaired of. It is feared that some of the men have been drowned in attempting to escape by swimming from the island. Ten persons have been killed, and seventeen more or less injured, by the failing of the floors of an old house at Limerick. A party were performing a " w -e " over the corpse of a woman in the attic story, where a large number of people had assembled; when the floor gave way, and in falling carried downtime other floors of the house. One man and-a boy were among the sufferers; the net

Were Women.

lined. Chancellor &Idea delivered a judgment last week, in the case of O'Con- nell 110r8t48 Callaghan, which- excited much Interest, abolishing as it does the last trace of the disabilities- which the Emancipation Act aimed at removing. A bill had been filed by the plaintiff, to recover one-third of freehold land in the county of Cork, claimed by him in right of his wife, and derived by her from her fattier, Timothy Sullivan, who died in 1796. The defence set up was, that the plaintiff had not taken the oaths prescribed for Roman Catholics by the 3d. of George !IL, and the 13th and 14th of George ELL; that therefore the settlement by the wife was inoperative, and that she never parted with her right in such a way as to give a valid title to him. The Lord Chancellor said, that he was very much surprised when it was first stated that the Relief Act did not obviate the difficulty its the case. The policy of the Roman Catholic Relief Act, from the moment that it.passed, was to place Roman Catholics in the same situation as Protestants with regard to acquiring and enjoying property. After the passing of the Relief Act it watt renderred absolutely illegal to tender to a Roman Catholic any other oath than Might have been tendered to a Protestants He was asked, then, to put a singular ceestruction uponehe Relief Act,—namely, that up to that time a man having an estate. devised to him, might by taking the caths make good time, title; whereas the Relief Act rendered it illegal to tender those oaths; therefore he could not have the slightest doubt as to what was intended by the Relief Act: but the words °tithe act had in the clearest and plainest manner executed that intention; and kikenan Catholic who at the time of the passing of the act had title to pro- petty, which would have been unimpeachable had he taken the oaths, and being ofeapacity to take the oaths if he thought proper to do it, so as to render his title valid_ wrest all the world, was relieved from the objection to take the oaths by the.ftaef Act; because it was an objection which was not imposed upon any other subject, and became it was intended by the act that Roman Catholics should be

upon the same footing as Protestants. Judgment therefore was given for the ,plaintiff.