IRELAND.
Baron Richards, Mr. Montiford Longfield, and Mr. E. Hargreave, the Commissioners appointed by Royal warrant to carry into execution the pro. visions of the Act for faciliating the Sale of Encumbered Estates in Ireland, took their seats in the Court of Exchequer on Wednesday morning, and proceeded to open the commission. Mr. Baron Richards commenced with a prefatory address. He stated that the Commissioners had framed a code for regulating the course of proceedings under the act, which had been re- vised by the Irish Privy Council and enrolled in the High Court of Chan- cery. He called particular attention to the 16th of those rules, in which the Court precluded itself from opening any sale by reason merely of an ad- vance in the biddings: they had thought the old rule of Equity was calcu- lated to check sales, by the delay and uncertainty it caused. Baron Rich- ards recapitulated the reasons why people desirous of investing money in land need no longer refrain—
'First, they will have a clear and indefeasible title, not depending on the pre- servation of any ancient deeds or charters, on the accuracy of searches, or upon the opinions of counsel, but deriving its validity from the statute under which we are acting. Secondly, they will have a clear possession, free from all claims of tenants save those subject to which the property is expressly sold. But, chiefly, the purchaser under this Court will obtain the benefit of his contract at once, and not be delayed, as is sometimes the case, for years, not knowing almost to the latest moment whether his purchase is to be on or off."
The Freeman's Journal of Monday morning had the following statement- " Mr. Caird, the author of the pamphlet describing the system of husbandry practised on the farm of Auckness, in laqgtonshire, Scotland, and published under the attractive title of HW4 Farming the True Substitute for Protection, is at pre- sent on a tour through Connaught., commissioned by Government. What the pre- cise nature of Mr. Caird's commission is we are not able to state, save that it is connected with the general subject of agriculture, and the tenure of land in Ire- land. Ministers have despatched Mr. Caird on his present tour at the suggestion of Sir Robert Peel, whose attention was attracted by Mr. Caird's pamphlet."
Mr. Sergeant Murphy has retired from the canvass at Cork, and left Mr. M'Carthy in undisputed possession of the Whig-Liberal interest. Mr. M'Carthy's return is therefore thought nearly certain. Mr. M'Carthy has, however, no easy task: he is opposed with remarkable pertinacity by Mr. Kenealy, who vituperates him to his face on the hustings, in a manner, one would think, strange even to Irish experience. At a meeting held in the Chapel-yard of Douglas, on Sunday, Kenealy charged M'Carthy with having dined with Lord Clarendon-
" Lord Clarendon, the man who exiled our beloved countryman, John Mitchel; Lord Clarendon, who persecuted our greatest patriots, O'Brien, Duffy, and Meagher; Lord Clarendon, whose name will be enrolled for ever in the annals of this country with the deepest hatred and infamy. The man who dines with Lord Clarendon cannot be a friend to the liberties of Ireland." (Yells and uproar.) Mr. Kenealy was lavish in charges against Mr. M'Carthy, of subserving to Ministers, &c.; which Mr. M'Carthy retorted with charges of "falsehood"—" he had never heard such a tissue of untruths."
The Reverend Mr. 011egan begged to propose a test to the candidates. He would subscribe a guinea to the new Repeal Association: would the gentlemen present do the same? (Cheers.) Mr. M'Carthy—" Certainly." (Cheers.) Mr. Kenealy—" Of course I shall subscribe with great pleasure to any boa file Repeal Association, for Repeal is the only thing for Ireland." (Cheers.) Mr. Gavan Duffy has secured a Catholic Prelate as an adherent to the grand "National Conference" now in course of active preparation. Dr. Blake, the aged Bishop of Dromore, has replied to Mr. Duffy's circular, that though it would be unseemly in him as a clergyman, and open to repre- hension, if he attended public meetings, it does not appear to him a fault to advise the laity to do their duty: "I therefore take the liberty to affm my name to the requisition."
Mr. Walter Berwick's report on the massacre at Dolly's Brae has at last appeared in the public journals, and claims notice as the official representation of those facts on account of which Lord Roden and his brother Magistrates have been removed from the commission of the peace. The report brings out with clearness the historic train of circumstances which preceded the fatal affray of the 12th of July; the long-lasting fends between the
orangemen and the Roman Catholics of Downshire, exasperated by the Orange recessions and the organized resistance to them. About thirty years ago, circumstances occurred which made the Roman Catholics regard it a point of honour to prevent the passing of the Orange procession through Dolly's Brae on the anniversary of the battle of Aughrim. At that time Mr. William Beers and Mr. Francis Beers obtained the coOperation of Mr. Morgan, the Roman Catholic priest, to prevent disturbance; and, on a promise that the old road through the Brae should not be taken, but a new road round It—half a mile longer, but level and convenient—the Catholic party was pledged to restrain itself from interference with the Orange processionists. Both parties adhered to this bargain ; the new road was taken, and the Orangemen were not molested. After the procession, however, some strangers from the Orange party did fire shots near the Roman Catholic priest's house, much to the exasperation of his parishioners. Unfortunately, the Catholic lower orders regarded the con- cession of the pass as a triumph, and celebrated the event with gross and insult- ing songs, which were printed and sung in Castlewellan town. Bitter feelings were thus roused and perpetuated; and this year the Orange party resolved to go through the pass in spite of the Catholics. Mr. William Beers publicly announced this in- tention. Great alarm was felt, and steps were taken to prevent disturbance, but none to prevent the procession. Lord Roden was cognizant both of the Orange intention and of the alarm. The efforts of the Catholic priesthood to retain their people within peaceable bounds are described, and those of the Orange leaders on the other band: it was promised by each party that neither would fire the first shot. The Orangemen started, and marched safely and peaceably through the Brae ; returned from Tollymore Park, not quite so silently; and some women in the fields cried to them that they would catch it" before they got to Maghermayo Hill. At the arrival of the procession on this hill, the Police who headed it drew up on either side, so as to separate it from the Riband force there strongly posted. The procession had safely passed, when a squib or blank shot was fired ; equally credible testimony states on each side that the shots were fired by the opposite party. Then followed two shots, which the weight of evidence ascribes to the Riband body on the hill. A volley was immediately after fired from the main body on the hill, "indiscriminately directed at Police, Military, and Orangemen; and the firing then became general." The Police charged up the hill, and dis- lodged thoselehind the first intrenchment; who fled; and the Orangemen fired crosswise at the fugitives in such a manner as imminently to endanger the Police. The end of the fray is thus described—" While this was going on above, I la- ment to say that the work of retaliation, both on life and property, by the Orange party, was proceeding lower down the hill and along the side of the road, in a most brutal and wanton manner, reflecting the deepest disgrace on all by whom it was perpetrated or encouraged. One little boy, ten years old, was deliberately fired at, and shot, while running across a field. Mr. Fitzmaurice stopped a man in the act of firing at a girl who was rushing from her father's house; an old woman of seventy was murdered; and the skull of an idiot was beaten in with the butts of their muskets. Another old woman was severely beaten in her house; while another, who was subsequently saved by the Police, was much injured, and left in her house, which had been set on fire; an inoffensive man was taken out of his house, dragged to his garden, and stabbed to death by three men with bayonets, in the sight of some of his family. The Roman Catholic chapel, the house of the Roman Catholic curate, and the National School-house, were fired into, and the windows broken; and a number of the surrounding houses of the Roman Catholic inhabitants were set on fire and burnt, every article of furniture having been first wantonly destroyed therein; and had it not been for the active interference of the Magistrate and the troops, much more loss of life and property would undoubtedly have taken place. It was alleged by the Orange party that shots had been fired at them from the cover of some of these houses. By the exertions of the troops, the Orange body on the road and in the fields was, after some delay, pressed for- ward and removed from the scene of action ; but no prisoners were made of that party,—a matter both of surprise and regret."
The report then alludes to the speech made by Mr. William Beers at a public dinner, in which he alluded to the whole affair as a Protestant triumph. Mr. Ber- wick comments on the conduct of those to whose care the protection of the public peace on that day was committed; the main feature of which was the extraordinary misunderstanding of the nature of their duties by the Magistrates who had to ad- minister the law,—a misunderstanding equally displayed by the local Magistracy and by the Stipendiary Magistrates despatched to the spot to assist by their spe- cial experience and official knowledge. Mr. Berwick clearly explains the law on the subject—" It appears to me that no principle of law is more plain, or ought to be better understood, than that which declares that all bodies or processions of men, whether armed or unarmed, but more particularly if armed, who are assem- bled under such circumstances as are calculated to endanger the public peace and to excite terror and alarm amongst her Majesty's subjects, are thenceforth to be considered and treated by those assigned to keep the public peace as illegal bodies, dangerous to the wellbeing of society, and therefore to be repressed, if necessary, by the strong arm of the law. And it is also an equally plain proposition in law, that any body of private persons combined, even for the most innocent and lawful object, who proceed in numbers to effect that object, with a determination to re- sist by force all who shall oppose them in their design, is dangerous to the public peace; their acts; become thenceforth illegal; and all who lend their assistance or countenance to their proceedings are abettors in and answerable for all the resulting consequences."
Applying these doctrines to the facts, the report deals out appropriate censure on all the authorities whose dereliction had allowed the occurrence of outrages which they might have prevented, but adds an entire acquittal from intentional disregard to the loss of life and property. In conclusion, Mr. Berwick declares that there is amidst the whole one matter for congratulation—" I refer to a strong feeling evinced by all of the necessity of putting an end for the future to all party pro- cessions whatsoever, and thereby terminating the disgraceful occurrences so con- stantly malting therefrom committed often by a few of the lowest and most abandoned characters, and affixing a deep stigma not merely on the body with whom they are identified in name, but the country at large; and I have no doubt that the Government will find, if it should be deemed necessary to introduce a law on this subject, that it will be sanctioned by every well-disposed person, whether Orange or Roman Catholic, in the county of Down."
A second Policeman, James Gleeson, has died from wounds received in the rent- affray at Killoughby. A Coroner's jury has found a verdict implicating John and Joseph Keyes as accessories to his murder. John Keyes, the tenant, who ab sconded, is still at large.
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