IRELAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 653, 4 June 1864, Page 8

IRELAND.

The Queen has contributed £50 to the fund for the erection of a statue of Edmund Burke in Dublin.

At Tullamore Assizes, on the 19th, two men were' each sentenced to five years' penal servitude for Whiteboyisra. Colonel Stronge has been elected without opposition for the county of Armagh in the room of Mr Close, who recently resigned his seat.

The precedency contest between Edinburgh and Dublin has cost the latter city £571, including £241 for fees to counsel, £91 for law costs to its solicitor, and £14 for telegrams.

A man named Dower, who had attained to the great age of 107 years, died a few day &0 ago at Limerick. His brother, who war aged 103 years, died at the same place some time since. ,

On the 23rd, a fire broke out on the western wing of the Queen's College, Cork — the same that was previously burned. It is stated that the fire originated from some embers left by the workmen, but great excitement and doubt exists as to the cause. The fire was got out before any great amount of damage had been done.

The extensive oat-mills ot Mr Keating, near Athy, were destroyed by fire on the 19th. The buildings covered a space of 100 ft. by 60ft., were four stories high, fitted with most expensive machinery, and filled with grain. The loss is estimated at L4OOO, which falls entirely upon the proprietor, as the premises were not insured. A DISGBACEFUL AND WANTON OtJTBAGE. — On the night of the 18th, shortly after eleven o'clock, a number of persons in the dress of gentlemen assembled at Jude's Hotel, and soon became so disorderly that the doors had to be shut, and all business suspended. This course was necessary to prevent a number of well-dressed ruffians joining those inside. Chairs, tables, glass, 4tc, were ruthlessly broken, and one of the waiters had his head dangerously cut. A number of the ringleaders were arrested, and taken to College street station. Up to one o'clock the police remained on duty in front of the hotel, to prevent a repetition of the disgraceful conduct, which was nothing short of robbery to Mr Jude, who has suffered most severely.— "Dublin Freeman."

The iatb Lisbubn Election. — At the Antrim assizes, Mr. Robert Barbour was put upon his trial for alleged offences against the Corrupt Practices Prevention Act at the election for Lisburn in February, 1863. The prosecution had been ordered by the House of Commons. In February, 1863, Mr. J. D. Barbour (brother of the defendant) and Mr Verner were candidates for Lisburn, and Mr. Barbour was returned at the head of the poll. The Verner party, however, petitioned against the election, and Mr. Barbour was unseated. It was alleged against the defendant that he treated and bribed in order to secure bis brother's return. After a lengthened trial he was acquitted on all the counts, and the verdict of the Jury was received with loud applause by those present,

Octbagb in Westmeath.— -The failure of justice at the Westmeath Assizes has already been followed by the usual result of impunity for crime. From the account supplied by our correspondent, it appears that on Monday evening, about four o'clock, a party of six men entered a field at the Pass of Kilbride, where a young man named Walsh was at work, and beat him with such merciless brutality that, as they no doubt intended, v his life is likely to be sacrificed to their vengeance. His aged father would have shared his fate if he had happened to be in, the field at the time. They declared their determination t6 return and murder him, and there is too much reason to dread, from past experience in the same county, that they will keep their word. The cause assigned for the murderous outrage is that Walsh's father became tenant of a few acres of land, from which the prior occupant had been evicted for non-payment. — ■ "Dublin Daily Express."

leish Mobdbbs.— A correspondent of the " Dublin Daily Express," commenting on the abortive termination of the trial of Francis Bradley for the murder of Adam Grierson, gives an unfavorable account of the state of popular feeling in the county Donegal. He states that deep anxiety for the prisoner's escape and intense sympathy with him were generally manifested, not only in Derrvveagh, the locality of the murder, but ail through the county. On the two Sundays previous to the assizes the priests addressed their congregations from the altars, and urged them to contribute liberally to the funds being collected for his defence. When the Crown witnesses were being conveyed to Lifford on the 11th inst., escorted by a body of constabulary, as they passed through Letterkenny much excitement prevailed, and women hooted, groaned,' and execrated the witnesses. " The fact is," says the Dublin correspondent of the "Times," , "the murder of Adam Griersoa is adopted by

the Roman Catholics almost in a mass, and the baneful Ribbon conspirators receive unbounded encouragement to carry out their diabolical plans, When a murderer is put on trial, honest conscientious jurors absent themselves even at the risk of heavy fines, knowing the difficulties and dangers that beset them in the discharge of their solemn duties ; and now but too frequently those who espouse the act and sympathise with the perpetrator form a portion of the jury to try the criminal." — A man named Philip Hayes was convicted on Saturday at the Nenagh Assizes of attempting to murder Mr Gore Jones, a stipendiary magistrate of the county Tipperary. The offence was committed on the 3rd of March, 1863, on which day Mr Jones was fired at from behind a hedge as he was riding along the road. He recognised the prisoner and an accomplice named Grady, who was with him ; but the principal evidence was the prisoner's own, confession, voluntarily made before a magistrate about three weeks afterwards. From this it appeared that he had no personal enmity towards Mr Jones, but was hired by Grady to shoot either him or a Mr Trant, or both ; and Grady in his turn was employed by a man named Woodiock, who professed to be only the agent of some one in Thurles. Hayes received Ll from .Grady, and L 5 from Woodiock, who also supplied a gun for the purpose. "We concealed ourselves," states Hayes, " under the briars that were growing over the ditch till we saw Mr Jones riding upon horseback. ' Come near, you thief!' says Grady, 'don't be daunted, for you know we will get plenty of money to send us to any place we like/ Accordingly I put the gun through the briars. Gore Jones was about five or six yards away from me when I covered him and fired. Grady was at the other side of me. He had him covered with a pistol. When I fired the horse leaped and jumped away. Grady said, ' Upon my oath we missed him !' ' Stand,' said he, ' till I put on another cap.' He put his hand in his pocket and could not find any. He said he lost them." To this negligence of the assassin Mr Jones probably owes his life. The prisoner's employers have as yet evaded justice. Sentence has not yet been passed on him.

The Corse op Ibeland. — At the Cork -Assizes, Mr Justice Keogh, in addressing the men committed for illegal drilling at Blarney, in December last, said :—": — " It is manifest that in no other country of Europe could such a thing have been tolerated for a tenth portion of the time. Instantly, the very moment that any persons meet together for any illegal purpose there is none of the long process of our laws — no swearing of informations, no summonses before magistrates, no sending of bills before grand juries, or trials at Assizes or Sessions. There the strong hand of power immediately seizes the parties, and deals with them on the most summary process known. Really it is only through the extraordinary liberality of our lawsone of the fines as it were, that we pay for constitutional government — that such things go on ; and the very men who are complaining of the Government and insti- , tutions under which they live absolutely could not act as they do but that they live under those liberal institutions. The very men who complain thus, who abuse our laws, who misrepresent our laws, who seek to breed disaffection against our laws, know in their own hearts that the language they use, the words they write could not be spoken or published in any other country in Europe, except under the very | laws Which they assail. I have no doubt in the world that there are men there in that dock who are the miserable dupes of other parties, perhaps, even now, while I am addressing you, there are in this court persons who by their writings and speeches have egged you into these proceedings, they well knowing that sooner or later you would come to be in the position in which you now stand ; bat they themselves very wisely, very cunnitigly, and very cowardly, in my opinion, kept themselves always out of difficulty. Here is a country possessed of a fertile soil, of great natural advantages, with a wonderful Harbor, a great port lor foreign trade. The anxiety of every person is that it should be made the seat of great industry— that we should see within its limits vast industrial establishments fostered by the hand of Government ; but the moment any person suggests anything on the subject he is met by— Twont say the satisfactory answer, but by the somewhat justifiable excuse— ' How can you expect establishments, whether public or private, by the Government, or by individuals, to be raised up in a place in which men are marching here and there, hither and thither, in bodies of six hundred at a time, in the noon day? 1 How is anyone to advise another to establish a factory in a place where five hundred men may march by it on any day giving insulting jeers and shouts, or perhaps not shouting at all? Who will set up a building yard for ships if by , night and, day parties of men are marching around the place who by a sudden impulse or ndiehieTOua design might break into

the establishment, and scatter in the course of a few hoars probably the accumulation of years ? Therefore it is that capital flies from the country in which such things are done. Supposing that you imagined or contemplated that a time might come when you might appear not with green sticks or white sticks, but in arms— for drilling in military evolutions is a preparation for arms — do you know what an enterprise you would be entering upon ? Suppose even that an army — I care not of what numbers or from what part of the world, were to land on these shores, do you think that you could enter into an encounter with an empire which stood alone against every nation in the world combined against her, and triumphed over them all? There was a time, and no remote time either, when the Government of these countries stood alone in arms against every nation in Europe — aye, and America besides. She triumphed ever them all, and I don't entertain the shadow of a doubt that if the contingency again arose she would arise as triumphant from the contest as she did before. And do wretched men imagine that they could enter into an enterprise with the hope of overthrowing the Government of this country ? What is the result now ? Instead of following your legitimate occupations, and earning your bread honestly and industriously, in order to gratify the persons who pushed you forward into these unmeaning proceedings, you have been found guilty by a jury of your fellowcountrymen, and are about to receive a severe sentence. I think the Crown would have acted with great pusillanimity if it had allow ed you to walk out of that dock. A great deal too much forbearance has been shown in these transactions — forbearance well calculated to lead you into the opinion that the law was afraid of you. That is as wild a delusion as ever entered into the brain of man. The law is all powerful and will prevail."