ge from Liverpool to Westport, with a cargo of Indian corn, was
suddenly boarded, seven or eight miles off Broadhaven, by three boats'
crews, who broke up the hatches, and carried away thirty-three bags of
corn. On the following day they again approached, but the circumstance
of the master presenting a gun was sufficient to deter them from any
attempt to board. The men effecting these robberies seem to have been
actuated by distress; they seldom committed violence, and bore all the
aspect of famine and despair.

DEATH OF O'CONNELL.

The political events of the year were much influenced in every way by
the absence of Mr. O'Connell from public life, and by his death. Early
in the year his powers of mind and body became so much enfeebled, that
his physicians insisted upon his leaving London, and upon his excluding
all intelligence concerning Ireland. In obedience to these directions,
he took up his abode at Hastings; but, although some intervals of
apparent recovery occurred, he sank gradually until the imminency of his
danger became evident to his friends and to himself. He had a wish to
live, probably that he might continue the struggle for the great object
of his life--the ascendancy of his religion, and the greater political
power of his country. As the spring advanced, his friends were of
opinion that a journey to Italy might benefit him; he, believing that
his illness was fatal, wished to go to Rome, that he might die there
with the blessing of the pope to sanctify the closing scene. His illness
increased so rapidly that he was not able to reach Rome, and died
at Genoa. A _post mortem_ examination revealed that his brain was
extensively diseased, accounting for the melancholy which pervaded his
illness. Old age, the failure of his hopes, prophecies, and schemes
after the Emancipation Act, and deep mental anxieties about the distress
of his country, the divisions in the repeal party, and the hopelessness
of his agitation, caused his death. He had attained a good old age
(seventy-four), and departed this life on the 15th of May. His latest
anxieties were lest he should be buried alive, and he gave to his
confessor, physician, and servant, constant and peculiar directions
to guard against such a casualty. His heart he bequeathed to Rome! The
tidings of his death reached Dublin on the 25th. Immediately placards
were issued from Conciliation Hall, and were posted in town and country,
announcing the event. The peopl