CHAPTER II. SOME STATISTICS OF PROGRESS. Dr. Hancock's Judicial Statistics The "Idle Assize of 1872". Sanitary and Economic Progress-Outward Civilization. UNW - NWILLING to repel at the outset by too many statistics, I select only a few facts as authority for the general statement in the opening chapter as to the hopeful progress of the country. If any one is inclined to take too sanguine a view, he will soon. meet enough to check his hopes and modify his opinions. The recent progress has been great-for Ireland. The present prosperity is promising-for Ireland. It was a country so long stationary, if not retrogressive, and, as some thought, relapsing into barbarism, that the onward movement is the more surprising. What we now see is not so much a proof of national health as of recovery from a condition which seemed without remedy. And the questions still recur, Is the improvement general or local? Is it seen in all parts of the country, or in some parts only? Is it due to internal changes, or external influences? Is it permanent or temporary? But let us have the bright side of the subject first. Dr. W. Neilson Hancock's annual report on criminal and judicial statistics is the most authentic record of the social and political state of Ireland. In 1864 this statistical department was organized, and Dr. Hancock appointed as its superintendent. He has official apartments in the building of the Four Courts, where the returns for every part of the country are deposited and tabulated. The reports contain a mass of valuable information as to the condition of the people and the administration of the law. Year by year, with the exception of some extraordinary periods of special disturbance, the progress has been marked and satisfactory. The register of crime for 1871, the latest I have seen, is more favourable than for any year since these records commenced. As compared with the previous year it shows a decrease of 14 per cent. in the number of indictable offences. This improvement was marked in those classes of crime which are dealt with summarily, drunkenness, theft, and wilful or malicious destruction of property. A large per-centage of criminals in Ireland, as elsewhere, are habitual drunkards. The record. of treasonable offences is scanty, showing the disappearance of Fenianism as a dangerous influence. In 1866 and 1867 these offences exceeded 500 in number; in 1870 they had fallen to thirty-seven; and in 1871 there were only seven cases. Treason is for the present almost extinct, for the Home Rule agitation is a peaceful strife. Agrarian crime, the most inveterate disorder of the Irish body politic, is also declining. In 1867 there were 767 cases reported by the constabulary; in 1870 the number had increased to 1,329. In 1871 there were only 368 cases. The improvement has been still more marked in the first half of 1872. The numbers then were 116 as compared with 1,219 in the first six months of 1870. A few years previously, the whole number in the year 1866 had been only eighty-seven cases of agrarian outrages. The increase subsequently was no doubt due to the agitation that preceded the public discussion of the Land Act, and the remarkable decrease now exhibited attests the beneficial result of recent legislation. Of the offences classed as agrarian outrages, a large number originated in disputes about rights of way, rights of pasturage or fishing, questions of title and holding of property between families or tenants and small proprietors, questions with which the Courts under the Land Act are not empowered to deal. The offences arising out of disputes about improvements, or compensations, or disturbance of holding, have diminished in marked proportion, showing the confidence in the equitable administration of the law. The Peace Preservation Act has worked successfully, there being seventy-two proceedings less in 1871 than in 1870 in the proclaimed counties. In Mayo alone there is a slight increase, ten more in 1871 than in the previous year. A detailed examination of the returns gives even more satisfactory results as to the condition of the country. While the total average of serious crime is only fifteen per 10,000 of population, in the Dublin police district it is 130 per 10,000, or nearly nine times the average. The amount of crime in the towns, as compared with the rural districts, is remarkable. In Dublin it is 89 per cent. more than in the adjacent country, in Cork 72 per cent., in Waterford 55, in Belfast 49, in Limerick 42 more than in the surrounding country districts. Of 8,155 indictable offences, not disposed of summarily, 4,401, or more than one-half, were committed in the Dublin metropolitan police district. The most orderly counties and most free from serious crime are the parts of Down and Antrim outside of Belfast. The proportion of criminals in these counties was only three in 10,000, and Carrickfergus had the distinction of presenting only one in 10,000. Even in the places giving the worst returns in In previous years the improvement is observable. Dublin the decline has been twenty-three in the 10,000, and in Westmeath eleven decrease in the 10,000, falling from twenty-six in 1870 to fifteen, the average of the whole island, in 1871. The returns afford many interesting points of comparison with the criminal statistics of England, Scotland, and other countries, showing what classes of offences prevail, and so throwing light on national or local habits and social condition. But to these comparisons it is not necessary to advert here. The general conclusion from Dr. Hancock's important Blue Book is that, in regard to crime of every form, Ireland can compare favourably with any portion of the empire, and that the condition of the country in this respect is steadily progressive. The comparative absence of ordinary crime throughout the island was never more conspicuous than in the records of the circuits for 1872. In a characteristic article of the Nation, headed "The Idle Assize," this was referred to with justifiable pride. "From county to county, from province to province, the Irish judges dart in rushing trains to appal the evil-doers by the vision of avenging justice, and the number and severity of their sentences. In all respects the performance has been provided for-in all respects save one. The grand jurors, bursting with inflated |