English and Foreign.

Lyttelton Times, Volume X, Issue 591, 3 July 1858, Page 4

English and Foreign.

IRELAND.

Tub College Riots.—On the entry of Lord Eglington, the new Lord-Lieutenant, the students of Trinity College, who had mustered to receive him in their old wild way, indulged to an unusual extent the student's propensity of chaffing, and irritating the powers that be. The police, after enduring any quantity of squibbing and rotten eggs, at last became exasperated., The following somewhat tragic conclusion of the affair is recounted in the 'Times':—"Colonel Browne,-who had not been present at the earlier proceedings, now arrived, and was loudly cheered and most favorably received by the students, with some of whom he conversed in a friendly manner, and advised them to retire within the inner gate. This they declined to do, but requested that the horse police might be moved back, as they were the original cause of the bad feeling. The negotiations terminated without any definite result, and the pelting recommenced. Colonel Browne was struck more than once, but the missiles certainly were not intended for him. All at once, and seemingly without any altered position or circumstance, that gentleman rode forward, and, taking off his hat, repeated the substance of the Riot Act from memory, which Was only heard by those immediately surrounding him. He further recalled the troops of Scots Greys, which had just left for their barracks, and it is by many positively asserted and believed, that the commanding officer was requested to order his men to assist the police in charging the parties within the railings, and that he prudently and humanely declined to permit his troops to engage in such an unsoldierly and barbarous onslaught, asking him with a smile, ' What am I to charge? Is it a parcel of lads like these?' At the request of Colonel Browne, however, he drew up his men immediately fronting the gate, and then took place the unparalleled and unwarrantable outrage which has filled the public mind with burning indignation. Colonel Browne gave orders to the horse police, who, to all intents and purposes, were, in this instance, dragoons, to clear the space inside the railings, but ' only to use the flat of their swords.' Whatever may have been the motive which induced a man so generally and deservedly respected as the Commissioner of Police to give this direction, the ruthless mode in which it was executed, must reflect unutterable disgrace upon the men to whom it was addressed. With a too evident willingness to obey, they dashed into the space, which, as it was within the college limits, they had clearly no right to enter, and cut about them mercilessly with their drawn sabres, inflicting wounds which were in two many instances followed up by the only less cruel baton in the hands of the other branch of the force. Not merely was the 'sharp edge' applied with sweeping force in too many instances but persons who were endeavouring to escape by withdrawing into crevices, and some even who were lying already injured upon the ground,

■were made the victims of a relentless fury. The -area, filled but a moment before with the eager -and excited faces of the youths, many of them "but fifteen years of age, was in an instant transformed into a place of blood and wounds. Several of the students were carried in in a state of ■unconsciousness, bleeding from the ears and nose from the effects of blows upon the head, and three or* four of them were dangerously if not mortally -wounded. All who could be caught were maltreated and hunted from place to place :as in a game battue; and were it not for the admirable conduct of two or three college porters, ■and the protection afforded by the inner gate, ■doubtless many lives would have been sacrificed. The mounted police rode up and down the area, driving the unarmed students before them, laying about them with their swords, and acting ■with violence which, according to the testimony of observers wholly unconnected with the University, was brutal and inexcusable."

Mr. Leeson, the young gentleman who suffered so severely in the riots of Friday, is somewhat "better, but he is by no means out of danger. It is reported that Colonel Browne is suspended, pending the result of an official investigation. Yesterday, by order of the Chief Secretary, the men of the horse police, 16 in number, were paraded in the commissioner's yard, in the castle, for the purpose of identification by a body of the College students. Five of the police were identified, two of whom took a most conspicuous part in the attack on the students. Three of the students were in turn identified by the police as the most active among the rioters. Lord Naas and several officials connected with the Government were present on the occasion. At 3 o'clock to-day the foot, police were drawn up in the same quarter, and for a like object, but, :as the proceeding was private, the result is not yet known. Last night a large body of the students paraded the city, and there was every disposition evinced to renew the riot. The •authorities, however, issued strict orders to the police to remain in their several stations, in •order to avoid a fresh collision. It is said that 12 of the police have been ao injured as to be returned unfit for duty. We understand from other English journals that the trial of the police who had taken most active part in the affray, was postponed until June.

Donegal.—Appalling Distress.—The Irish papers contain appalling accounts of the distress in Gwedpre and Cloughaneely, "thousands and thousands of human beings, made after the image and likeness of .God, are perishing, or next to perishing, amidst squalidness andan misery, for want of food and clothing, far away from liuman aid and pity." This is the language of the appeal of the committee appointed. They further state that there are at this moment 6000 families subsisting on sea weed, crabs, cockles, or any other edible matter they can pick up along the sea shore, or scrape off the rocks. There .are about 600 adults, of both sexes, who through sheer poverty, are now going barefooted, amidst the inclemency of the season, on this bleak northern coast. There are about 700 families that have neither bed nor bed clothes, but are forced to lie on the cold damp earth in the rags worn by them during the day. There are about 800 families without a second bed, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters being huddled together as best they can. Thousands of the male population have only one cotton shirt, and wear none while it is being washed, while thousands have not even one. The females are still in a worse con r dition. There are about 400 families, in which there may be half-a-dozen full-grown females, who have only one dress among them, in which they can appear in public; mothers and daughters alternately using this common wardrobe when they go out of doors. There are about 600 families who have now neither cow, sheep, nor goat, and who from the beginning of the year to its close hardly know the taste of milk nor butter. There are thousands of youths, of both sexes, verging on the age of puberty, who are so partially and scantily clothed that modesty forbids one to look at them —they are objects for the eye of charity.