The spread of intelligence is shown by the number of newspapers in Ireland, and their circulation. The liberty, or rather licence, of language granted to the newspaper press in Ireland has never been permitted to the British press, or accorded to the newspapers of Europe or America by their respective governments. A provision for the destitute, aged, and infirm-that charter for the poor which was established by Queen Elizabeth for England, and which has saved this part of the United Kingdom from anarchy and revolution for the last 200 years-by means of a rate on property for the maintenance of the poor, has been established within the last few years, after long opposition from the late Mr. O'Connell and others. The progress of the Act is thus shewn. The poor of Ireland are indebted to the Imperial Parliament for this legislative provision for their support. The money sanctioned by the Treasury for each Poor Law Union in Ireland under the Land Improvement Act (10 Vic. c. 32) was up to 13 December, 1847, £1,003,950, and on 1 July, 1847, Parliament granted £600,000, of which £500,000 was applied in donations in aid of rates by the Relief Commissioners, and £100,000 for works of public utility. Mr. Trevelyan, in his valuable narrative of the recent Crisis in Ireland, thus refers to the advances made to Ireland." The following specimens are taken principally from a return to an order of the House of Commons of the 12th February, 1847, made on the motion of Mr. J. O'Connell : "Works for special purposes, under the Act 57 George III. cap. 34 Works for the employment and relief of the poor, under the 1 and 2 Wm. Grants in aid of public works, under various Acts of Parliament 1826 and 1833 £ 496,000 125,000 Improvement of the river Shannon Wide Street Commissioners, Dublin Gaols and bridewells Asylums for lunatic poor Valuation of lands and tenements Royal Dublin Society Farming Society, Dublin Tithe (relief of clergy who did not receive tithes of 1831) Tithe Relief Commissioners (establishing composition for tithes) Tithe relief (Million Act) The grants by the Imperial Parliament to Ireland since the The prompt and full compliance which has been given to applications for money is one of the most striking proofs of the anxious desire of the Imperial Parliament to promote the welfare of Ireland. It is painful to turn from the foregoing statements to an investigation of the recent returns of crime. By Parliamentary Return No. 64, dated 15 February, 1847, it appears that the This is a fearful catalogue of crime. The number of homicides in 1846 was 176; of firing at the person, 158; and of conspiring to murder, 6, 340. There were 100 cases of infanticide, and of maiming the person, 49. aggravated assaults, 604. Assaults endangering life, 290, and Of rape, 105, and of endeavours to perpetrate this unmanly crime, 49. Desertions of children amounted to 147. The incendiary fires in 1846 were 465; firing into dwellings, 167; attacking houses, 536; and injury to places of worship, and sacrilege, 23; burglary, 813; highway robbery, 258; and the mean revenge of killing or maiming cattle numbered 287. Is it possible that they who thus set at nought the laws of God and man should prove possessed of the rare qualities by which alone self-government could prove permanent or beneficial. The greatest amount of crime was in the months of December, November, October, September, January, February, and March. In Ulster the number of crimes was only one-third that of Munster, and only half that of Leinster. The number of women having illegitimate children in 119 workhouses for the half-year ending 29th September, 1846, was 2,091; and the illegitimate children 3,688. A Return laid before the House of Commons, 24th February, 1847, details the name, condition, &c. of each person killed in each county in Ireland during 1846; viz. 176; of these no less than 23 were women, 10 boys and girls, and 1 infant. The men murdered were principally of the class of labourers and small farmers. There are but 4 classed as gentlemen. The b = laws for the preservation of life in Ireland are mainly essential to the poor, who are the chief victims of violence and crime. The rewards offered by Government for the discovery of forty murders amounted to £2,405; and by private individuals to £235, £2,640. Not one shilling of these rewards was claimed ; this was also the case after the murders of Lord Norbury, Mr. Scully, and others, when large sums were vainly offered for the discovery of the perpetrators, who were known to hundreds of the people. NUMBERS who have lost their lives in Affrays with or otherwise by the Constabulary in Ireland since 1st December, 1830. That the law has not been administered with severity is shewn by the capital convictions and executions for a series of years. * Several persons killed and wounded in the county Kilkenny, in the month of November, 1831, and several wounded in the month of October, 1832, whose names cannot be ascertained, are not included in this Return. Capital Capital Years. Convictions. | Executions. Years. Convictions. | Executions. It has not been for want of a well-ordered police that this extent of crime has occurred. In no part of the world is there a better organised force than the constabulary of Ireland, which stood thus, 1st January, 1847:-Total, 10,639 men, reserve force 372. Horses, 318. The charge was £492,881, of which £340,833 was borne by the Consolidated Fund, and only £152,047 by the counties, cities, and towns in Ireland. It may be necessary now to advert to a subject on which there has been much misrepresentation. Ireland is one of the least taxed portions of the British empire. Out of £52,000,000 levied in the United Kingdom, scarcely £4,500,000 is raised in Ireland, from a population equal to half the population of England. The total net revenue of Ireland in 1846 was only £4,333,933-a sum barely more than sufficient to provide the interest of the portion of the national debt assigned to Ireland. £ The capital of the funded debt of Ireland, as it stood 5 January, 1817, was 134,602,769 Deduct debt cancelled previous to 1st February, 1847 4,041,732 Actual amount of the funded debt of Ireland, 1st February, 1847 130,561,037 Taking the annual revenue, in round numbers, of Ireland at present as 4,600,000 |