IRELAND.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 625, 10 April 1852, Page 3

IRELAND.

The Board of Trinity College, Dublin, had elected their late Vice Chancellor,the Lord Primate of Ireland, to the Chancellorship of the University, vacant by the death of the King of Hanover. Earl Rosse had been spoken of for the office, but was not chosen. The new Chancellor had appointed Chief Justice Blackburne to the office of ViceChancellor, vacated by his own promotion. The Provostship of the University was vacant by the death of the Rev. Dr. Sadlier. The appointment (which in addition to its honours has emoluments of about £4,000 per annum) was at the disposal of Government, and, as may be supposed, was a matter of much interest and speculation. A disagreement, which threatened to be serious, had arisen in the ranks of the Catholic Defence Association. The occasion was the choice of a Secretary. There were sixteen candidates for the office, the salary of which was to be £300 a year. Amongst these were three of the recent seceders from Protestantism, —Mr. Allies, Mr. Butler, and Mr. Wilberforce, brother to the Bishop of Oxford. The Committee fixed on Mr. Wilberforce. But Messrs. Keogh, OBrien, Maher, 0. H. Moore, Scully and .O'Flaherty, leading members of the " Irish Brigade," had put forth a protest against the election, which they denounced as " fatal to the national, and therefore to the Catholic cause." Primate Cullen, who was prevented by sickness from attending at the election, had, written a letter manifestly intended to cast oil on the troubled waters, but still evidently concurring in the result. He says, " From the first formation of the Society I understood the feeling to be universally understood that all Catholics of the United Kingdom were to constitute one body, and be in all respects upon a perfect equality, without distinction of province or country." He argues that, had the Association been formed for political purposes, the exception would be just; but the objects being " religious and Catholic" he " was not prepared for the exception which has been taken to so distinguished a person as Mr. Wilberforce." The " mutineers" however were increasing in number, and correspondingly in vehemence. The Freeman's Journal had published an Encyclical Letter from the Pope, promising a new Jubilee for the benefit of " the faithful throughout the Catholic world." The singular case of Birch, proprietor of the World newspaper, against Sir Wm. Somerville, Chief Secretary for Ireland, had been tried. Our readers may remember that it was an action to recover £8,000 as compensation for writing up the Government, and down its opponents, for three years, —during which period, it appeared, however, that Mr. Birch had actually received £3,700, which the Lord Lieutenant (who was one of the'witnesses) swore that he had paid from his own private resources. The jury found a verdict for the defendant, with costs. We shall make room on another day for an abstract of the proceedings in this trial, which, from its novel and peculiar character, excited uncommon interest in England as well as in Ireland. A murder of more than ordinary atrocity had been committed in the County of Armagh. The victim — Thomas Bateson, Esq., brother of Sir Robert Bateson, — was (as it was expressed in the verdict of the Coroner's Jury) " beaten, battered, and abused" to death, on the high road, between Armagh and Castleblayney. The deceased was agent for Lord Tern pie ton's estate, but no acts of oppression were charged upon him; on the contrary he was always regarded as one who sympathised with the poor, and was a marked promoter of industry Two persons were in custody on suspicion of having been implicated in the crime. The Privy Council had proclaimed a considerable portion of the County of Armagh. The Newrxj Telegraph had placed the murder in a more fearful point of view, by asserting as a fact —and a fact known to the Government — that there actually exists a fund, levied by an assessment, of three-halfpence per acre on almost every estate in the district, wherewith to pay hireling assassins ! The English papers generally quote this statement without doubting its correctness; but surely it should not be received as unquestionable without further evidence. A lady, named Dopping, had obtained a verdict, with £350 damages, against Mr. F. Lucas, proprietor of the Tablet, for a libel in his paper, charging her with being an exterminator of her tenantry. Arrangements were in progress for a gathering of the Protestants of Iceland at a great Meeting-to be held in Dublin on the l«ith of January^ to take steps for procuring a repeal of the, Maynooth Endowment Act. We observe that meetings with the same object had aheady been held in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Active measures were about to be taken for effecting submarine telegraphic communication between England and Ireland. It would require about sixty miles of cable, or three times the length of that between Dover and Calais At the last dates, the Dublin Warder positively stated that the same Company which had executed the work between the French and English shores had submitted to the government a proposal to guarantee the completion within a very limited period of a similar submarine telegraph between Kingstown and Holyhead,—only requirng that the Government shall pay £1000 a year for the exclusive use of two wires to be placed at its disposal The Irish Peat Company had commenced operations, and were manufacturing " paraffine" from turf or the bog of Cloney, near Athy, under the superintendence of Mri Rees Reece,,tli< chemist whose experiments contributed so largely to establish the practicabilitj of a discovery which promises to confei great benefit on Ireland, *