IRELAND.

An extra convocation of the Roman Catholic Bishops has been held in Dublin, in pursuance of a summons issued by their Lord Primate. The Bishops met on the 19th, and again on the 23d. instant; when a resolution was unexpectedly proposed for a petition to Parliament, requiring certain modifications in the National Education system. "There was," says a writer on the spot, "a very small attendance of the Pre* lates; and the Primate, Dr. Crolly, objected in tote to the introduction of the topic of national eduction, as contrary to the explicit direction in a rescript from the Holy See, which directed that the subject should not again be opened at the general meeting of the Prelates, and that it discussed at all it should be in a Pro- vincial Synod. The majority of the Prelates present, however, declared their intention to jpersevere. Hereupon the Primate, with the Right Reverend Dr. Denvir, the Right Reverend Dr. M'Gettegan, and others, protested against the course about to be pursued, and withdrew from the meeting: Subsequently, the resolution was adopted by the Prelates who remained, connoting of Archbishop WHale and seven or eight other Bishops. If all the Prelates had been present, there would have been a considerable majority against the resolution." The rescript in question, which has been published in the Freeman's Journal, has been sent from Rome to each of the four Archbishops. It condemns the New Colleges in the most unqualified manner, as detrimen- tal to religion; though it fully acknowledges the purity of the motives of those Prelates who favoured the Government scheme--

"Nevertheless, after a thorough consideration of the subject under every point of view, the Sacred Congregation dares not promise itself such fruits from the. establishment of those Colleges; nay, it fears that they might even be productive of grave danger to the Catholic faith, and judges, in a word, that such an insti- tation is detrimental to religion. The Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland are therefore admonished that they take no part in envying this plan into execution: but as it was deemed desirable, that before applying for the judgment of the Holy See some among them should exert themselves with the Government to procure an alteration of the law relating to the said Colleges, and to obtain one more fa- vonrable, so, by the profound obedience for that See which the Irish Prelates have always professed, it is now expected that those shall retract whatever they may have done to the contrary."

The rescript particularly recommends the foundation of a Catholic Academy similar to the seminary at .Louvain ; and concludes by exhorting the Bishops to preserve union and concord, and not to suffer themselves to be carried away by a spirit of party.

The Lord-Lieutenant granted a private audience, on Monday, to the Roman Catholic Archbishops of Armagh,. Dublin, and Tuam, and the Bishop of Killaloe, who attended as a deputation from the Hierarchy to

recent a memorial to the bead of the Irish Government on the prospect of famine in the ensuing winter in several districts of Ireland. The me-

morial professed to go back to the causes of Irish distress; which were traced by historical references to penal enactments, that deprived the bulk of the people of rights of property, and so discouraged industry. "Hal-

lowed as are the rights of property," says the memorial, "those of life are still more sacred"; and while deploring guilty violences on the part of the peo- ple, the Prelates denounce "those heartrending scenes of the evictions of teuantry:' The only available resource, in such cases, they say, is the Poor- law; but it is totally inadequate to provide for the destitution- " In some of the suffering districts, no out-door relief is allowed to the poor unless the workhouses are filled with inmates beyond the number they were destined to contain ; thus exposing them to the danger of falling victims to con- tagion, from the overcrowded state of those establishments should they enter, or to death from starvation should they stay abroad: and in other districts, from the reluctance of Guardians to impose rates, as well as from the reluctance and inability of the ratepayers to meet those heavy and successive imposts, the houses are left unfilled, and the poor abandoned to starve. A provision thus left at the capricious discretion of those who administer it, without any compulsory enactment in the case of their neglecting such a duty, would not, memorialists submit, be a !sufficient remedy even in ordinary times, much less when the des- titution is so awful as to be far beyond the reach of the local resources of those afflicted and hitherto populous districts." "These remarks on the insufficiency of the Poor-law are not made from any conviction that its further extent or strin- gency would be an adequate remedy for the wants of the people. They look on Bach a legal provision for the poor as quite inadequate."

The Prelates call on Government for "measures of relief commensurate with the magnitude of the cititithity "; and they particularly suggest, restoration of those ancient charities which have been converted to pur- poses of proselytism, "an equitable arrangement of the relations between landlords and tenants founded on commutative justice," cultivation of waste lauds, and encouragement of fisheries.

The Lord-Lieutenant made the following reply; a comprehensive mani- festo of the principles and policy of the present Irish Administration-

_ " My Lords, I trust I need not assure your Lordships of the sorrow and alarm with which I view the condition of the Western and Southern districts in behind; and that, in common with your Lordships, I deeply commiserate the dis- tepees of the people, and fear that in many localities the means indispensable for the maintenance of the destitute are lamentably deficient. • "I entirely concur with your Lordships as to the usefulness of historical refer- emcee; and we should, indeed, study the history of Ireland to little purpose if we failed to draw from past experience lessons for our future guidance, and, by ana- lysing the causes of evils, to learn how their remedies can be most effectually applied. 'The eternal principles of justice and Christian morality can never be violated With impunity; and the unrighteous legislation of bygone times has left traces

which must be long,and severely felt. By penal enactments, doubtless, industry was discouraged, property was unequally distributed, the growth of a middle clue was retarded, the people were demoralized, and the whole fabric of society was hollow and insecure. The remedy for such a state of things has of necessity been slow and difficult; but it is for the Legislature, the tiovernment, and for all those who, living in better times, and exercising authority, have at heart the true

interests of Ireland, to efface the memory of the past, and by equal laws, impartial justice, and forbearing patience, steadily to carry on the work of social regenera- tion, and place the people of this country in the position they are entitled to occupy. "In no country of the world is the strict application of the great Christian axioms cited by your Lordships more necessary than in Ireland. If the labourer was

always worthy of his hire—if all classes of men did to others as they would be done by—much misery and many great evils might have been averted. If the entire crops of the husbandman be appropriated without compensating him for the seed or the labour expended in the cultivation of the soil—that is to say, if an ex- orbitant and disproportionate rent be cruelly exacted—those sacred maxims are unquestionably violated; but, or, the other hand, if the owner of the soil, who

is as much dependant upon it as the occupier, be deprived of his fair and reason- able share of its produce—if he can neither obtain rent nor the surrender of his land, and is in fact dispossessed of his property by a non-fulfilment of the con- ditions upon which he shared his rights with another—then, beyond doubt, a similar infringement of the maxim occurs. "That society should exist without laws for the protection of property, is im- possible; that these laws in Ireland have often been grossly abused, is undeniable; equally true is it that from this have ensued deplorable crimes, and also that they have followed the due and legitimate exercise of rights. I well know that your Lordships always recognize and inculcate the legitimate rights of property— that you deplore and reprobate the guilty outbreaks of violence and revenge; and your precepts and your high authority will, under God's assistance, I venture to hope, impart to society a more wholesome tone, and teach the owners and occu- piers of land that their interests, rightly understood, are identical; that there exists between them a reciprocity of obligation, and that the wellbeing of both classes is inseparably connected. Towards this good work the general character of the people affords facility and encouragement; as no people on earth are more eager for Justice—for kindness none are more grateful than the Irish; and as- sn. edly none have endured the cruelest privations with more exemplary patience and resignation.

The Legislature has deemed it expedient to render property more available than hitherto for the support of destitution. That the law may prove inadequate

for affolding all the relief required in an emergency like the present, is but too

probable; the extent, however, to which it will fall short, has yet to be ascer- tained. No man who has resources of his own should have a legal claim to live upon those of others; upon none but the absolutely destitute should that right be coeferred ; and in order to ascertain the fact, to prevent fraud, and to protect the industrious against the indolent man, the teat of the workhouse has in Ireland, as in England, been deemed indispensable. The workhouses, however, must not be overcrowded ; if they are fall, more accommodation must be provided, or on lief out of the workhouse must be given in the manner which the law prescribes;' if the Guardians are reluctant to enforce rates—if those who are able to pay

them refuse to do so—a gross dereliction of duty is committed by both; but the non-application of the law does not prove its inadequacy. I can, however, assure your Lordships, it shall not be left wholly dependant upon the capricious discre-

tion of those who administer it; but that a close, and constant, and vigilant in- spection will, as far as possible, secure the effectual carrying out of its provisions. It would be unbecoming on my part to contest the judgment of your Lord- ships respecting the abolition of those asylums alluded to by you; nor shall 1 advert to the opposite conclusion to which I have myself arrived after long resi- dence in countries where similar establishments existed; but I fully admit, that with the rapid increase of population the charitable spirit of former times may have fallen into decay, and on that account the necessity of rendering it compul- sory is all the more stringent. Since the failure of the potato, the necessity has increased tenfold of organising the system of charity which existed in Ireland, when in ordinary years more than a million and a half of persons had no regular means of maintenance, and subsisted on the benevolence and characteristic charity of those somewhat less poor than themselves. But this charity was always administered in the shape of food, and ceased with the failure of the potato. The support of the poor was then necessarily thrown upon property in Ireland as hi England; where, although from a million and a half to two million persons are annually supported out of the rate, at a cost of five millions, equal to a tenth part of the whole national revenue, the rights of property are not thought to be unduly invaded; nor do we consider that we should fulfil our moral obliga- tions, nor could we reckon upon the tranquillity of the country, if there was no legal provision for the absolutely destitute: and in the same light I am convinced the law will eventually be viewed by every reasonable and reflecting Cielptian in Ireland.

"Considering that the prospects of the winter were alarming, and foreseeing that scarcity would exist, and the means of procuring food would be insufficient,' have endeavoured through every channel, private as well as official, to obtain ac- curate information as to the .state of the country, and the preparations that were making to meet the crisis; and it is my duty to state, that although in many parts of Ireland: the landowners and the farmers are strenuously and With manly courage exerting themselves, and are proving that they are fully alive, not to their own interests alone, but to the wants and sufferings of those around them, yet that their conduct is painfully contrasted with that of others, where no each sense of obligation appears to exist: and with entire confidence I appeal to the candour of your Lord/ships, whether landowners who have contributed little or nothing towards the support of the poor, and do not avail themselves of the facilities afforded by the Legislature for improving their estates—whether persons in easy circumstances who resist the payment of rates—whether farmers who refaced last season to cultivate their land, unmindful of the will of their Creator that by the sweat of his brow man shall live, while others now, although well able to afford it, absolutely refuse to give employment to a single man, and who after harvest-time have turned away their servants—whether people not really in distress who promote tumultuous assemblages in the vain hope of intimidating the Government to resume the public works which led to so much demoralize- tion,—I will ask whether such men, who will make neither sacrifice nor exertion themselves, are in a condition to insist that those duties which the precepts of re- ligion and the interests of society impose upon them should be performed by others, or rather, that the means for this should be exacted by the Government from classes all struggling with difficulties, and at a moment when in England trade and credit are disastrously low, with the immediate prospect of hundreds of thou- sands being thrown out of employment, and being as destitute of the means of existence as the poorest peasant in Ireland. "I am sure your Lordships will agree with me, that the full amount of exer- tion which duty prescribes has not yet been made here; and that without it, in justice to others, no general claim for assistance can be established. " I am, however, painfully-alive to the fact, that in many districts there exists dreadful misery, which no amount of local exertion can relieve; and there the sacred and paramount duty of Government—the preservation of human life—will be performed. The Legislature has placed a Lange sum wider favourable condi- tions at the disposal of the landowners; and I know that this will afford much employment to the poor in work really reproductive; and I trust that Parliament will see fit to sanction a measure which, while strictly guarding the rights of property, shall at the same time place the relations between the landlord and te- nant upon a footing more sound and satisfactory than at present. "If ever a nation at any time was imperatively called upon by circumstances for united exertion it is Ireland at the present moment. 1111i9ly emerged from a calamity which hits no parallel in the annals of history, we are about to enter upon another crisis of appalling magnitude, which finds us unprepared and weakened by division. If ever there was a time when selfish feelings and party strife should be replaced by Christian charity, it is now, in the presence of a great and com- mon danger. There is no man upon whom some duty does not devolve; and if those classes possessing influence in their respective spheres will meet together and recognize the absolute necessity of those duties being performed, and will to each apportion his share of the burden, the difficulties of all will be diminished to an- extent which now appears impossible; and if the exhortations of religion, never in vain addressed to the Irish people, be heard in behalf of order and self-sacrifice and resignation, then we may humbly hope that the blessing of the Almighty will attend efforts so made to meet the calamity which for purposes to us inscrutable has been permitted to fall upon this country. "In conclusion, my Lords, permit me to say, that although the occasion is a very melancholy one on which I have now the honour of receiving your Lordships, yet that I have great pleasure in conferring with you: for, since my arrival In this country, I have been anxious to communicate personally with those members- of the Catholic Hierarchy who might at any time be in Dublin; feeling convinced that such communications between your Lordships, who exercise the highest of all influences over the great majority of the people of this country, and myself, as representing the Government., could not but conduce to a right understanding of our respective duties: and I assure you that your advice and opinions will always be received by me with respectful deference; and that to myself it will be equally useful and agreeable to consult year Lordships upon the various matters respect- ing which 1 must desire your counsel and cooperation."

Anticipating another scarcity of provisions the Treasury have reap- pointed twenty-three of the 120 naval and Military officers who served under the Relief Commission. in Ireland last year, in superintending the distribution of provisions.

The long-expected monster meeting at Kfimacthomas, to agitate the question of tenant-right, took place on Sunday: it is said to have num- bered from eighteen to twenty thousand persons, (Irish reckoning,) and was held in a large field, in the centre of which an immense platform had been erected, capable of accommodating three or four hundred. Mr. Nicholas Power, M.P., took the chair; surrounded by a num- ber of gentlemen lay and clerical, among whom were Sir Henry Win- ston Barron, Mr. John O'Connell, M.P., Alderman Thomas Meagher, M.P., and Mr. Robert Keating, M.P. Resolutions were adopted unanimously, declaring that the present state of the relations between landlord and tenant is marked by contention, insecurity, injustice, misery, outrage, and blood- shed; that the disastrous competition for land is rendered inevitable by the ruin of Irish trade and mantifacttuos under the blighting Act of Union;

and that the neglect of the just rights of the tenant directly operates to check industry and depress agriculture. In proposing one of the resolutions for a petition to the Legislature, Mr. Joseph M. Rivers gave it as his opi- nion, that while the country was governed by " strangers " they never would have their tenant-right or anything else right in Ireland. On this hint Mr. John O'Connell followed with a long speech, imitating the paternal model, and garnished with such ornamental exclamations as "Hurrah for tenant-right and Ireland's right!" "Let us have Repeal to make all sure —three cheers for the Repeal!" Ruin, disaster, crime, and bloodshed, could only be averted by tenant-right and "our own Parliament." Towards the close of the proceedings, a deputation from Carrick-on-Suir waited on Mr. John with an address from the inhabitants of that town, and (what was more valuable) a large amount of Repeal rent.

The proceedings at Conciliation Hall on Monday presented nothing re- markable. The Pope's rePcript was read, and ordered to be entered on the minutes; and Thursday was fixed on as the day of a special meeting to thank the illustrious Pontiff for all he had done for liberty, religion, and Ireland. Rent 931.

The Ballinasloe Star contains an account of some recent proceedings on the part of Mr. Dudley Persse, of Roxborough, near Loughrea, an exten- sive proprietor of land in Galway. According to this story, he has been scouring the district with a party of twenty men, headed by a bailiff, dis- training cattle for outstanding rents, and evicting at the point of the bayonet those tenants who had nothing on which a distress could be levied, afterwards levelling their houses with the ground. The matter has been judicially noticed: the bailiff has been held to bail; and Mr. Perase has had a reproof from the Bench of Magistrates.

Science has sustained a severe loss in the suicide of Professor James M'Cul- laght of Trinity College, Dublin. Mr. M'Cullagh possessed high literary as well as scientific accomplishments: he had filled the chair of Mathematics in the Uni- versity, and latterly that of Natural Philosophy. He bad been out of health for some time, from over-study; but his illness had assumed no graver character than that of dyspepsia and lowness of spirits. He bad been medically treated by his friend Dr. Stokes, and had derived mach benefit from the advice, as well as from the relaxation of a short country trip. On Saturday last, he attended the Col- lege Chapel in the morning; had Dr. Stokes to breakfast with him; walked after- wards with his friends, apparently in a cheerful frame of mind; and dined alone in his chambers. In the evening, at half-past eight, his servant saw him alive; he was then lying on the bed: in another half-hour, the same servant found him lying behind his bed with his throat cut, and quite dead. The Coroner's Jury re- tuned a verdict of "Temporary insanity."