FENIANISM IN IRELAND.

West Coast Times, Issue 165, 29 March 1866, Page 3

FENIANISM IN IRELAND.

The Fenian otate trials have been p r °- 1 ceeding all the month ; and if arrests continue to be made as frequently and numerously as of late, there is every proSpeCt of A Commission sitting in permatiftii&fd try the' tfaitbts.. The convi«tion daily, growing deeper that this organised conspiracy is a very s'e'floa'H affair, and t|ie tone of the press is changed accordingly. No one outside the circle of the Broflief:, nocw/ of , course, believes that the fanatical fools will tie able to gain a day's advantage over the might of the British 1 Empire; but they undeniably possess the power, by spine sudden raid or rising, to perpetrate a,,deplorable amount of mischief before the marauders cpuld, be, captured or scattered. Tlie movement certainly is not' arrested by the. judicial interference of . Government, nor, nave the conviction and heavy puniih • xnent of some scores of their fellow-traitors it ajl coyv.ed or intimidated their brethren. Fenianism is as rampant as ever in the large towns',, where it is ■assuming an attitude even of defiance. A rising will, in all probability, be attempted, and Jhe authorities are constantly kept on the strain- by the rumour* that reaoh .them. , . Recent seizures show ttiat, , the „ hoarding of rifles, the casting oi Mime bullets, and the, niauufac-. ture of pikes, still proceed in the capital of the country. A fortnight ago it transpired that twenty-one armed persons landed at Sligo, coming from America, Scotland, and other places within the kingdom nidely separated, thus showing a common purpose, and the wide ramifications of the plot.', The. ,men were, arrested, but as nothing could be proved againift them, they were liberated. Large .depots of arms are suspected to exist in Dublin, and on the streets of that city may every day be seen a number of military looking Americans, having no visible occupation, and who are supposed to be supported by Fenian' money. The activity everywhere itoservable in the Irish section of the treasonable league is* generally referred to the presence or Stephens, who is^ thought to be still on the spot. Meanwhile, as a necessary precaution, the country and city of Dublin, Tipperary, and Waterford have been proclaimed, and extensive searches for concealed arms have been made — not without considerable success. The police and military forces are being everywhere strengthened. A large batch of the sentenced convicts have been brought over to England for safe custody. CONTINENTAL AFFAIRS. The only striking event of the month among the European States has been a military insurrection in Spain— nothing very novel, you will say ; but it has not been attended with even the usual success. O'Donnell revolted, and won power ; but Prim has pronounced, and failed utterly On the 3rd of January the attempted revolution was initiated by the revolt of two cavalry regiments quartered at the royal country residence of Aranjues, and at Ocana, and a town about an hour distant ; and on the 21st Prim, the ringleader, had passed the frontier, and made good his retreat into Portugal, after three weeks of inarching and counter-marching, pursued, dodged and doubled upon by three columns of Spanish troops, under three leading generals ! That 600 harrassed troopers should have been able so long to elude twenty timei their number, and at length escape, if the mystery which no fellow can understand. Some have suggested that Prim and O'Donnell under-, itand each other, and have been playing a preconcerted came in order to force the Queen to abdicate. Others believe that Prim is an accomplice both of Isabella and the Queen mother in an attempt to deliver them from the power of O'Donnell. However that may be, the conspiracy has collapsed. The army did not respond to the signal, and the Progressistat, upon whom the leader relied, failed to riie nt hi»

, j The Emperor Napoleon opened the sest sion of the French Legislature on the i 22nd inst.- by a speech highly reassuring in > character. He was fraternal towards , England, conciliatory towards the United I States, loyal towards Italy, sympathetic • towards Belgium, neutral towards GfefI many, and profuse in " soft sawder" towards his own people. Just a week earlier the Prussian Chambers had been opened by deputy, with a m Wham so" v*;:™*^^™^' Ing Self isuffoW self-will,*^ a hau « htv itwitempi of the tfetipje aadrcs^e^ The King Is made to say that &c Hit toree" Orden had not agreed upon the Budget, he had carried on .without one ; that the revenue is , improving, .that .commerce is flourishing, that tfre military organisation must be maintained with or without Parliamentary sanction, that Government insists in its design of building a strong navy, that it will cut a canal from the Baltic to the North Sea, and that it is determined to settle the fate of the Duchies in a manner corresponding to the national interest of Germany and the just claims of Prussia." In other words, Bismarck insists on doing as he likes in Prussia and out of it, without consulting or conciliating a'n£ one. A rum6r was lately current that King William .ha[d taken fright a.t the reckless , career of his Premier and the anger of Bussia, and was disposed to curb hia audacity; but the insolence of the Royal, speech destroys that hope. The Chamber, uncowed^ has again elected Herr Grabow as its president, who in his first speech announces his intention to maintain the constitution. The reconstrction Ministry of General della Marmora have laid an amended budget before the Italian Parliament, through Signor Scialoja, the Finance Minister, who proposes to n jarly double the reduction of expenditure suggested by his predecessor, by cutting down the army and navy^ estimates. The deficit will still be considerable after increasing old taxes and creating new ones, but it is satisfactory to find that financial exigencies nre obliging the Italian Government t6 diminish the I burdensome armament of the country. The Czar haa finally ended the independence of the Catholic Church in Poland. By a recent depreehe has siezwl the whole of the property, real and personal, of the monasteries and regular clergy, and forbidden the legal collection of arrears of tithe. , ThS object of this last mea>ure is to make the payment of tithe voluntary, and so establish a grievance' between the priests and peasantry. The clergy will henceforward be paid like other State officials, and of course a priest who is refractory will find his salary fall gently into arrear. This last decree will probably complete the breach between. St. Petersburg and Rome, already so marked that at a recent aiulience the Pope ordered the' Russian envoy out of the room, for saying that '• Catholicism in Russia meant revolution."