SECRET SOCIETIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 380, 12 March 1859, Page 2

SECRET SOCIETIES.

From the Times of Friday, 17th December, we extract the following, dated " Dublin, Wednesday morning : — " According to the Cnrh Constitution^ ' the treason is carried much further than any one not engaged in it suspected.' And further : — ' There have been nightly and daily drillings, "pikes have been manufactured, arms have been imported, and the use of them has been taught. All this was not for nothing, and Government was not a minute too early in interfering, but it did wisely in waiting until satisfactory evi-

lence was obtained. The very day after the irrests, however, a party of about sixty men were observed in a field near Durrus. As a person approached in his gig they lay down, but when he had passed, and was supposed not to be observing them, they resumed the attitude out of which they had been frightened, and went on with their manoeuvres. If rumour be correct, shopmen in Bantry and Skibbereen are not the only shopmen who were aware of what was going on, and people who until Thursday last supposed themselves safe, feel very uncomfortable in the prospect of disclosures that may affect them. A hundred militia left yesterday for Bantry, and a body of militia or of military will, for the present, be distributed through the west of the county. But why should this arrangement be temporary ? Would it not be well for the magistrates to memorialize for the permanent location of a military force ? Except at Kinsale, there is not a soldier in that vast tract of country. The police are few, and the coastguard fewer. And, see the consequences ! Arms have, we understand, been securely landed from America, and a few weeks ago a vessel, it is stated, ran into Dunmanway Bay and landed a cargo of tobacco, which was carried off, and the ultimate destination of it has not, we believe, been ascertained. We cannot blame either coastguard or police for this ; for they are too few in number and too far apart i for the duty to be done. Now, however, that preparations for an insurrection have shown Government how little appearances are to be j relied on in Ireland, and that they find a porj tion of the population in treasonous correspondence with brother disaffectionists in America, the country ought not to be left dependent on so feeble a protection.' "