ALARMING OUTRAGES IN IRELAND.

Evening Post, Volume XXII, Issue 132, 5 December 1881, Page 2

ALARMING OUTRAGES IN IRELAND.

EXPECTED SUSPENSION OF TRIAL BY JURY. WRECKS AND LOSS OF LIFE. EXTRAORDINARY PLOT AGAINST THE CZAR. TH^ FRENCH ANNEXATION IN THE PACIFIC. [SPEOIAL TO THE MELBOURNE ARGUS.] London, 2Obh November. It is stated here that the French intend to exercise a protectorate over the Austral Islands, the dispersed group of the >outh Sooiety Islands, and over Cook's Islands, in the South Pacific. At a Meeting of the Royal Colonial Institution held to-day, the Duke of Manchester, who as Chairman of the Council presided, remarked that his observations during his recent extended tour through Auatr -lia, had caused him to doubt whether the export of wheat from the colonies would be a success for some years to come. He also questioned whether the policy of free selection, however well meant it might be, could be considered a success, when jad ged by existing reeulta. It oortainly was iujnriona tojsquatters. Atrocious outrages continue to be frequently perpetrated in the disaffected districts of Ireland, and a painful feeling of alarm prevails among the law-abiding portion of tha inhabitants. Meetings in the Liberal interest, which were to have been held at Newcastle and Marvlebone, London, have had to be abandoDed, in consequence of the violence of the Irish residents, who refused to allow them to take place. In consequence of the Irish juries persistently refusing to convict in well-estab-lished cases of outrage, the British Government, it is expected, will shortly suspend the operation of the jury law in Ireland. The Culzean, 1633 tons, belonging to Kerr, of Greenook, haa been wrecked in Jura Sound, among the St. Hebrides. Twenty lives were lost. An attempt has been tnada to murder the President of tho Republic of Venezuela, General Blanco. The assassin, however, failed in his object. A coasting steamer in Columbia has been wrecked, with the loss of 32 livoß. A Nihilist plot to destroy the Emperor's Palace at Gatchina haa been discovered. The plan proposed was to load a balloon with dynamite, and cause it to descend on the palace. Several arrests have been made. Hanlon and Boyd have arranged a sculling match on the Thames, to take place in April next. Russia demands the territory of Armenia and the right to collect the Armenian taxes in lieu of the indemnity payable by Turkey. If these conditions are agreed to she will guarantee the remainder of the Empire. Tha Times, comnvnting on the letter which it recently published apropos of tho reported annexation of Raratonga by Franca, maintains that the treaty between that country and Graat Britain interdicts the former Power f re>m acquiring such possessions. The Times further condemns the annexation by European Powers in the Pacific, and censures the Englisk jealousy of other European States. The Nihilists have attempted to assassinate General Tochervin, the officer in command of the Czar's special body guard. Count Yon Moltke, chief Marshal of the German Empire, has resigned hia command of the German army.