Account of Stock transferred to and from England and Ireland,
in the years 1844 to 1853 inclusive.

Balance

England to Ireland. Ireland to England. transfd. to Ireland. transfd. to England.

The business done in the Incumbered Estates Court, from its establishment to the present time, as exhibited in a statement of its transactions, from year to year, with which I have been kindly furnished by the officers of the Court, affords ample proof of the necessity which existed for this summary mode of facilitating the sale of landed property in Ireland. The petitions presented during the two first years were, as might reasonably be expected, much more numerous than they have been since, but they still continue, and amounted during the year ending 31st July last to 414. I need not allude to particulars which are so generally known, further than to state that the gross proceeds of the property sold prior to last vacation was £13,009,293, and the estimated extent was about 2,000,000 acres, being about one-tenth of the whole surface of the country. You must all remember how much used to be said of the want of capital in Ireland; how confidently it was predicted that, unless English purchasers could be found, the property must remain unsold; and how any suggestion of a contrary character was received with incredulity or derision. now we find that there were only 217 purchasers who were not residents in Ireland, and that the amount of purchase money paid by them was only £2,249,040, being about one-sixth of the whole. No second opinion now exists as to the important effects which the sales under this Court have had in promoting the prosperity of Ireland; and it is universally acknowledged that the principles on which its proceedings are based, ought to be perpetuated. The records of the Court shew that one-fourth of the petitions presented were lodged by owners for the sale of their own estates, and it appears that this proportion has been increasing; so that, of the last hundred petitions more than half were lodged by owners. This is a satisfactory evidence that the value of the Incumbered Estates Court is increasingly appreciated, as it results from the fact,

Yet

that many landed proprietors avail themselves of the facilities it affords to free themselves from pecuniary difficulties by the sale of part of their estates. Such men will be really richer as the possessors of smaller but unincumbered properties, than they were when the nominal but embarrassed owners of extensive estates.*

The statistics of crime afford us matter for painful reflection, and also, when duly considered, for congratulation. We see the sad effects of the demoralization produced by the famine, in the great and sudden increase of criminals committed for trial at the assizes and quarter-sessions, the number of commitments rising from 16,696 in 1845 to 41,989 in 1849; but it is gratifying to find that since that year they have been regularly diminishing, and were only 15,144 in 1853. If we analyse these statistics more closely, we find that the great increase of commitments was not for offences of the gravest character. Those for offences against the person remained very much the same from 1844 to 1849; but have since diminished to less than one-half. For offences against property, whether with or without violence, the commitments increased largely during the same period; those for offences with violence having considerably more than doubled, while those for offences without violence were nearly quadrupled. The great destitution which prevailed during 1847, 1848, and 1849, will fully account for this increase. We cannot feel surprised that it should have taken place; but we are gratified by seeing that, during the last four years, there has been a constant diminution in the number of commitments for these offences, so that last year they exceeded those of 1844 by about one-third only, and I trust this reduction of numbers may still continue.

It must, nevertheless, be observed that the greater power for summary conviction, conferred upon magistrates some few years since, has tended to lessen the number of cases committed for trial; and we find, accordingly, that the summary convictions have increased during the last five years, and that they do not as yet exhibit any diminution. This increase does not, however, denote an increase of crime to the same extent, as a considerable portion of it has, undoubtedly, arisen from the more stringent carrying out of the vagrant act, and the increased activity of the contabulary, who have been enabled, by the diminution of serious crimes and outrages, to devote more attention to offences of a lighter character. It appears by the reports of the Inspectors-General of prisons, that the daily average of persons confined in our jails during the year 1847 was nearly double what it had been for the three years ending in 1846; and that in the year 1849 it had increased to nearly three times the average of the earlier period. It is satisfactory to find that last year it was reduced to little more than half what it had been in 1849, although it still remained to be an advance of 50 per cent. over the average number of prisoners for the three years ending 1846; and this notwithstanding the great

reduction which our population has experienced. On this point the Inspectors-General, in their report for last year, remark that "This advance affords a melancholy proof of the demoralization and debasement which necessarily continue to affect the social system, long after the cessation of the calamity by which they were generated."

The great increase which has taken place in the number of youthful criminals is particularly to be deplored. It appears by the Reports already alluded to, that the commitments for trial of persons under sixteen, and between sixteen and twenty-one, although diminished in absolute amount, have yet continued to bear an increasing ratio to the whole number of commitments, having been about one-fifth of the whole in 1846, and almost exactly one-third in 1853. We must recognize this increase as among the most serious effects of the famine; and as calling imperatively for public attention.

It is deserving of notice, as a proof of the more efficient administration of justice, that the proportion of convictions to commitments has increased, during the past ten years, from 41 to 57 per

cent.

When entering on any consideration of criminal statistics, the mind naturally recurs to those cases in which the extreme penalty of the law was suffered. On this point we cannot draw any particular inference from the last ten years. The annual average of executions has been nearly ten, having varied from two in 1851, to fifteen in 1849; and even twenty-eight in the year 1848. But if we refer to still earlier periods we find much cause for congratulation, for taking the four years, 1831 to 1834, we find the average to be thirty-nine; and it becomes still heavier as we carry our enquiries farther back.*

Among the proofs of prosperity most commonly relied on, is the increase in the number of marriages. I have therefore referred to the report of the Registrar-General, which shews an increase of about nine per cent. when comparing the marriages of 1846 with those registered in 1853; but as the marriages which come under his cognizance are only those of a portion of the inhabitants of Ireland, the statistics which he is enabled to furnish are comparatively of little value. On this subject I refer to the opinions expressed by Sir Robert Kane, in his Address to you when opening the session of 1851. He says, "The want of official registration of the marriages of the great mass of the inhabitants of this country I look upon as not merely destroying all value in the returns of our talented Registrar-General, as statistical documents; but also as a great injury and injustice to those classes of her Majesty's subjects, who are thus deprived of an important safeguard to their property, and to the moral position of their families." A general official registration of marriages, births, and deaths, is not merely interesting, as affording statistical information, but is frequently of great importance for facilitating the ends of justice, and for the protection of property and good morals. I should

regret any legislation which would derogate from the sacred character of marriage as a religious contract. It is the most important event in the life of man, and we do well to invest it with all the sacredness which religion can confer. Objections on this account deserve respect, and I trust that, while due respect is paid to them, means will yet be devised to secure the advantages of a general registration of all marriages. As respects births and deaths, there ought not, I think, to be any difficulty.

Number of Marriages registered in Ireland in the years 1845 to 1853, inclusive.

The value of statistical information is now universally recognised, as affording the only certain means of ascertaining the progress of the various interests of the community, and the surest guide in attempting to remedy the defects which may exist. Allow me to recall to your recollection the strikingly apposite expressions made use of by the Earl of Clarendon, when addressing you in this room on a former occasion. He said: "I consider that statistical facts, carefully collected and digested, rank in the highest class of useful knowledge. To those to whom the arduous and responsible labour of government is intrusted, and to those on whom devolves the grave task of making laws, the possession of statistical knowledge is indispensable; it is the key to all that is passing around us; it is the pulse by which the moral, intellectual, and industrial vigour or decline of the community must be judged." Ireland possesses a valuable body of statistics-in the carefully prepared returns of the census, with its minute and comprehensive details on so many points affecting the well-being of the people, and in those annual returns which indicate the condition and progress of her agriculture, the amount and value of each successive harvest, and the number of the flocks and herds pastured in her fields. It is, therefore, the more to be regretted that this information is left incomplete, for want of those statistics which shew the progress of human life from year to year; and which are peculiarly valuable, not only for considerations of property and good morals, but also as indicating the state of health and of disease, and affording data for those sanitary improvements which tend so much to the welfare of the people.

One portion of the Registrar-General's statistics certainly surprised me. I refer to the number of persons who signed the marriage registers

with marks, which amounted to 26 per cent. of the men who were married in 1853, and 45 per cent. of the women; and this per centage of those unable or unwilling to sign their own names on such an occasion appears to have increased pretty regularly since the first registration of marriages in 1845. Can we believe that nearly onehalf of the women whose marriages have been registered were unable to write, and that the proportion of ignorance is increasing instead of diminishing ?*

The returns of the schools connected with the Board of National Education and with the Church Education Society, shew the number of children on their books during the year 1853 to have been 550,631 and 99,234 respectively; but as these returns give merely the number on the rolls, and do not state the actual attendance, I cannot draw any certain conclusions from them.

Number of Schools in connection with the Board of National Education and the Church Education Society respectively, with the number of Children on the rolls, for the years 1844 to 1853 inclusive.

The next subject to which I wish to direct your attention, as an indication of improvement, is the amount of shipping which entered and left the ports of Ireland during the past ten years. In looking at the statistical returns on this subject, we are at once struck by the increase of foreign trade which took place in 1847, consequent on the abolition of the corn and navigation laws, and the necessity of importing corn for our own consumption. This increased trade has not been maintained to quite the same extent, yet the foreign trade of Ireland appears to have been in 1853 more than five times as large as

The proportion in each of the four provinces appears to be as follows:-

As the marriages of Roman Catholics are not included in the above, the excess of signatures with marks in Ulster, when compared with either of the other three provinces, may be accounted for by the fact that there is in that province a larger proportion of Protestants of the working classes. The proportion of signatures with marks in England appears, by the report of the Registrar-General for 1851, to have been 30.76 per cent. of men and 45.27 per cent. of women.