MAIL NOTES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4396, 22 April 1875, Page 3

MAIL NOTES.

On January 25, an extraordinary scene took place at the Petty, Sessions .-in Galway, to which several persons had been summoned for a riot and affray at the funeral of the lato Sir Thomas Blake, Bart. This course had been taken as the result, of a Government inquiry, which had lasted for several days._ The following are the names of tho parties against whom the * prosecution- was directed ; —Mr. Louis L. Ferdinand (proprietor of the Galway Vindicator), John Franois (Nicholas), Michael Francis (Major), Michael- Francis (Park),, Michael Connell, Patrick Lawless, Michael Duggan, Michael Duggan, jun., Thomas O’Brien (Tom), John Small, John Molohy, and Thomas Francis. Michael Duggan and John Small did not appear, and warrants'were issued for their apprehension. Mr. Monahan, Q.C. (instructed by Mr. J. W. : Blake), appeared for Mr. Ferdinand. Mr. Richard Jennings defended the other parties. Mr. J. B. Concannon, solicitor, watched the proceedings for Sir Valentino Blake, the next of kin. Mr. Thomas D. O’Farrell, Crown solicitor, prosecuted. Mr. Burke took the chair at the sessions, much in opposition to the desire of several of the magistrates, and the first witness stated that Mr. Burke had been among the rioters. He was at once asked to leave the chair, and refused to do so ; several of the other ‘ magistrates then left the room. They afterwards returned, but eventually the sessions were adjourned for a week. The inquiry into the riot was resumed at Galway on February 1. Dr. Browne was examined with respect to the conduct of Mr. Burke, J.P. The other gentlemen examined were the Rov. Mr. O’Sullivan, Mr. Henry Pearse, J.P., Sir Valentine Blake, Bart., Mr. Constantine Sloper, and Mr. Robert Stephens. Their evidence went to show that the mob was riotous and infuriated, and prevented the Protestant clergyman from officiating, and that consequently the lato Sir Thomas Blake was interred without Christian burial. ■ A special correspondent olThc Times has had, he says, a long interview with “ a personage of very high distinction,” whoso name he is not at liberty, and not desirous to make known to tho public, but whose statements are entitled to tho utmost consideration. He relates that Don Alphonse had already retired after his day’s work oh’the evening after’his day’s work on the evening after his arrival at Valencia, when ho was, waited upon by Marshal Cheste • and Cardinal Fernandez, Arch-' bishop of Valencia, two of tho most uncompromising retrogradists of the Moderado party, who pressed upon him the expediency of

breaking' yrith Canovas del. Castillo, separating himself from the Liberal party, and proclaim-. ,iug himself a Roman Catholic and Apostolic Mbparch, bound to establish the unity of the Ghurchi oh the .terms of the-. Concordat signed' by Queen Isabella, and on the principles, developed by the Pope in his Encyclic and Syllabus. , The King-stood firm throughout a conference which lasted more than an hour and a half. He said, he would take care that justice should be done to the Catholic 'clergy, whose temporal interest had suffered grievously during the revolution '; and he was anxious for his own sake, that the clergy should be well paid, in' order to have them more readily amenable to his control ; but that/;for the rest, he intended to be the King of all Spaniards, that he . would make no distinction of religious or political parties, and, that freedom of conscience, of-creed, and worship should-be-enjoyed by the -Spaniards as amply as by the people of any other European State. The Town-Council of Liverpool has accepted an 'offer from' the Kev. J. Miles Moss, of Waterloo, of £IOOO as the nucleus of a fund for-the suppression of street outrages.