IRELAND.

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 234, 26 August 1848, Page 3

IRELAND.

" Armed Clubs. " An United Irishman (Cork) wishes to be informed of ' some plnn for the formation of a Rifle Club, to be composed of persons of limited means, to enable the members of such a club to purchase und learn the use of arms.' " Minute thereon — ' A good strong serviceable rifle, 3 feet in the barrel, 11 grooves, patent breech, sound back action lock, plain steel mounting, without strap or trap, and ot any calibre, can be made in Dublin for j£3 ; or the same, with brass mountings, for £2 Ids. Suppoße a hundred persons form a club, eacli of whom will xubacribe 2s. fid. per week. Let 6d. of each contribution be set apart for the general expemes of the club, and for the payment of a person competent to train and instruct in lifle practice, or drill, or the use of arms t'enerally. The remaining 2s. of each sub« scription is carried to the stock fund of the club ; and thus each week amasses i>10 ; by which four rides (at £2 10s. each) can be each week supplied to the club, or 10 rifles (at £3 each) every three weeks. Each week's, or thice weeks' supply, should be diktributed by lot, or alphabetical order, amongf the members — with the understanding that if they fail to pay up their subscriptions for three or four weeks (or oilier definite number of weeks) successively, until all are armed, then they forfeit all right to their riflos. The weapons purchased should be lestored every day after practice into the hands of the treasurer, or other peison selected by the club, until all are armed, unless — always unless —it be necessary, in the me.in time, to bung into action whatever .urns may have been obtained. 13y this means the whole hundred members can practice, and receive instruction from the first week ; and at the end of 25 weeks all will be supplied with lifles of iheir own, at £2 10s each, or at X' 3 at the end of 30 weeks. Of coun>e, if the members can afford to pay double the subscription above mentioned, they will be armed in less than half the time ; if they can only afford to pay half that subscription , it will require (something more than double the time to arm them. But, whether the time be long or short, they can still, from the beginning, practise the use of arm*.' " We shall be happy to make arrangements in Dublin for the supply ot any such club ; but we recommend cubs in the provinces to employ, as a matter of justice and economy, local artificers, where possible, in the making of stocks and locki, and the finishing of the barrels — the latter, we believe, can be bored in Dublin only. A slight addition to the cobt will provide a short sword, or long; dirk, which should be fixed on the end of the barrel in the place of a bayonet. '• If a rifle club were established on the plan we have described, part of its funds might be expended h\ the purchase ot pikes ; thus, a fund of jCIO a-week would provide three niles of the superior kind, and ten lirst-rate pikes, tea feet long, steel heads. We recommend this distribution, wherever it can be practised. When the wealthy members are araied with rifles, they can bestow their pikes on the less wealthy — theie is no charitable donation like pike for the poor. '' Or, in a large city like Cork, or Limerick, or Dublin, clubs might be easily formed for the general armament and drilling ot all, and the armament of each with weapons suitable to his means. Arranging the members of this club in three classes, thus :— Per week Ist. Riflemen— subscription for rifles .. .. 2s. Od. 2nd. Musketeers — ditto for mubkets and bayonets .. .. Is. Od. 3rd. Pikemen— ditto for pikes os. 3d. " These classes become armed contemporaneously' each class within a definite time, proportioned to the cost of the weapon, and the amount of weekly subscription ; while all the classes and members, by an additional subscription of Cd. or 3d. each, weekly, can learn drill, and exercise, and practise the vie of all arms, from the rifle to the pike. " We do not propose these clubs as a movement to supersede or interfere with, in the slightest degree, the National Guard to which the Confederation is pledged. On the contrary, when the Confederation shall have matured its plans, and laid <a programme of organiza*tion before the people, it will be for these clubs to ca^ry that organization at once into effect. To be en» abled to do so, they should at once organize for their individual armament." This is followed by directions for the accoutrements of the rebel army, as thus — " For musketeers, the belts and pouches should be the same construction as for riflemen— ammunition in cartridges and pouch larger, For small sword, bayI onet. Calibre of muskets same as the British army, ' in order that should the Royal troops run short of ammunition, we may be enabled to supply them, and vice versa. " For pikeraen, the accoutrements are greaßed brogues, and a stout heart. " Every endeavour should be made to obtain ammunition of all kinds, and every care should be taken to know where it can be had when wanted. " The stores of food are the sinews of war. Care should be taken of them too. 11 Not alone should lilies, muskets, aud pikes be

procured, hut every gun anil weapon in the island should be put into immediate order." And lie adds— " Where bayonets cannot be had, we brg to remind all tenant-right-less farmers and able-bodied paupers, that a strong English reaping- hook stiaightened, with the saw edge ground sharp, mid rounded, and a socket hilt welded to the tang, makes a weapon which, when attached to a duck-gun or long fowling-piece, is as deadly as the pike, and ns complete as the bayonet. You can make it any length convenient to your purpose, and the length of your barrel from one foot to three. " A scythe blade, fixed by a welded socket hilt on a half pike, or fcbaft of six feet, heroines a weapon equally deadly. Such are the glorious fanchcur^ by which Poland avenged her slavery, when she failed to win her freedom. " Mean' ime ' the viituesof the hour are patience and perseverance,' to get guns and run bullets." These suggestions are eugerly acted on both in the metropolis and provinces, and at the ptesent moment there is a far more successful " physical force" organization than that which consigned Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Robert Emmett to early graves. The slrangeßt circumstance is, that everything iB done in the most open manner, and publicity is courted more than avoided. The Limerick Reporter thus announces the ripening of disaffection amongst the troops : — " We have been given to understand that there is a serious disaffection among the troops in Limerick, Kilrush, and other stations. We have learned that an order has been issued not to allow ten of them ever together without an officer. We rather think this espionuge would only increase fraternization." The following extract from the Cork Southern Reporter, an Old. Ireland journal of much influence, cool temper, and large circulation, is significant : — •' We see elements at work in this country which we know can only be prevented from tffecting ruin by the course which we have advised. That course is, for all who do not court insurrection to combine in one great united body to demand a restitution of Ireland's independence — a constitution which will give the Queen, Lords, and Commons of Ireland the sole authority over Irish affairs. That constitution cannot be denied, in ; the present state of Europe, if ao demanded. It would ! now he received by the great body of the nation with delight, by nearly all with entire satisfaction. The public mind has not yet gone beyond thin— though some enthusiasts have preached more extreme doctrines — but it is impossible to say how soon even this limy be rejected. The curient of national opinion in Ireland, we repeat once more, cannot be checked, it may still be guided. Men of peace, if they join even now, will not join too lato to render the impending revolution bloodless; but they have little time left them, and have no power but this. We tell them this calmly, and with a real anxiety that they should turn to account the warning which we gire. We are averse to social convulsions by our natures, and have nothing to gain by its occurrence. We are, perhaps, amongst those on whom the miseries and the misru'e which afflict the country press lightest, and have no interest in misrepresenting the state of feeling that exists around us. We have ample and peculiar means of knowing the natuie and the intensity of that feeling, and we again say that it is the bounilen duty of every Itishman, whatever his creed, his politics, or his position, to come forward at once and demand a restoration of her Parliament for Ireland — unless he prefer sacrifice of property and baenfice of life. If any man preftr tue latter alternative, then of course he will hold back. This is hia own affair. While time is lelt v-, we fahall reiterate what we think and believe in this matter, and, t>o far as w« are concerned, if any man in the community be not ' fore»armed,' it shall not result from his not being • forewarned.' " Many rumours of cmcutes were in circulation, but not entitled to credence. Matters of tins kind hove become quite notorious, and people are not much alarmed, because they cannot presuudc themselves that any portion of the population would be so insane as to attempt an outbreak. In some of the countiy districts the arming is quite as general amongst some portion of tho peasantry. Quantities of guns have been sent down to sonic of the midland countries for sale; but there is a still more alarming feature in the statements circulated, and which I hear from various quarters, that the manufacture of pikes has commenced on a rather extensive scale, especially in the county of Meatli. A gentleman connected with that county has assured me that many of the black-smiths are actively employed in making pike-heads ; and I have heard of one instance where a contract has beeu made for five hundred of those formidable weapons. Such are the practical effects of the treasonable in« incentives so constantly., addressed to the deluded people.

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