importance, and purple with zeal, are ready to find bills without number; the petit jurors, discreetly selected, are not averse to the contemplated work; the police are at hand with witnesses to swear anything that may be required. Above all and beyond all, the judges--solemn, stately, and severe-are at their posts, and the whole machinery of the law, in its most impressive and awful character, is in readiness for operations. But still the business hangs fire, and business is slow almost beyond precedent. The fact is simply this that the judge can find no one to try, and the jurors discover no one to convict. The bench and the jury-box are full, but the docks are empty. The calendars are blank, and there are no criminals to be had. . . . To the mass of the people, however, the remarkable absence of crime throughout the land, as exemplified by the present assizes, will be a source of unmingled satisfaction. It is a proof that British 'civilization' has not yet triumphed over Irish virtue; and to the labourers in the cause of the country and the people it affords a new cause of encouragement and a new guarantee of success. "'Tis righteous men shall make our land a nation once again,' sings the poet of Irish nationality; and in deserving the character which The Idle Assize' has obtained for them, our countrymen are showing themselves the possessors of the first essential of freedom."

Of the health and sanitary state of Ireland ample details are given by the Registrar-General in his quarterly reports and annual returns. The poverty of the people, and the squalid dwellings, still too common, cause epidemic diseases to prevail. Since the famine the sanitary returns have shown constant improvement, but there have been occasional epidemics which have swelled the per-centage of deaths. During last year small-pox and scarlatina were both very fatal in Dublin and other towns, and fevers are always breaking out in various localities. In the reports of local registrars we find frequent entries, such as the following: "The prevalence of epidemic diseases may well be attributed to the extremely filthy condition of the wretched houses of the people, which have been saturated by the rains and the overflowing cesspools by which they are surrounded." "It is a common occurrence to see pigs in the houses of some families, and the registrar has seen in the kitchen of a house the horse standing in one corner and the family eating in another." Manure heaps are common at the doors of the houses of labourers and farmers. Cattle and people often live and sleep in the same apartment. There was an article last year in an Ulster paper denying, in a tone of virtuous indignation, some statements that had appeared in an English book about the cabins of the peasantry. It is not worth

while quoting either the statements referred to or the northern editor's sturdy denial of the facts. I can only say that in various parts of the south and west, last year, I have been in cabins where cow and pig and dog and bipeds, both feathered and unfeathered, were living in contented company. The open door and the wholesome "peat-reek" made the atmosphere less perilous than it might have been; but the surroundings of some of the houses were even worse than the interiors. While such things are not exceptional but frequent in many parts of Ireland, the wonder is that the registrars' returns are not worse than they are. Too large a per-centage of the deaths are due to "preventible diseases," and we may hope that this excess will be diminished as education increases, and as the general civilization of the people advances.

In regard to the improved dwellings of the labourers, some interesting facts are included in the Report of the Commissioners of Public Works. Mr. J. Poe, the Inspector for Clare and Tipperary, reports: "The applications for loans for farm buildings have increased, and I anticipate a progressive improvement and increase. Loans for building labourers' cottages must become more numerous; the difficulty of getting labourers even at 50 per cent. advance on the rate of wages paid ten or twelve years since,

unless suitable habitations are provided for them, will increase every year, and landowners who reside any distance from towns must provide houses for their workmen on their lands, and even with this inducement they do not find it easy to get good men.” Mr. W. P. Prendergast, the Inspector for the North-Western district, reports: "The applications for new loans have not been numerous, as owners do not, for the most part, feel disposed to expend money on farms in the hands of tenants, and the greater number of resident landlords in these counties had already improved the land in their own occupation; but wherever any ground falls under the immediate control of a proprietor, there is ample proof that drainage and other improvements are far better understood than in former years, and that it is not from any objection to the terms of the Acts, or to the regulations of the Board,* that the fund is not more

The Board of Public Works has been in existence since 1831. During forty years upwards of £11,000,000 have been advanced for public works, of which about £6,000,000 have been repaid, and nearly £5,500,000 remitted, chiefly in times of national distress. In the financial year 1871-72 they made advances amounting to £161,202. Of this sum £85,500 was advanced to proprietors for improving their estates, under the Land Improvements Acts, and £45,830 to tenant-farmers to enable them to purchase their farms, under the provision of the Landlord and Tenant Act of 1870.

frequently resorted to. I find in all quarters more attention paid than hitherto to the question of improved dwelling-houses and offices for farmers and labourers, and the advance of money at 5 per cent., to clear both principal and interest in thirty-five years, has been considered a most useful and liberal provision. The improvement in all newly-constructed country dwellings is accompanied by an equally marked change in dress, furniture, and food among the farming classes; and in the smaller towns, supported altogether by the agricultural population, there are now permanent shops with meat and bread, where such supplies were only to be procured once a week, on market days, when I first acted for the Board in this part of Ireland. The consumption of tea, coffee, and sugar is so much increased in the farming districts that a great portion of labourers' wages is expended on them, and shops with modern imported articles of dress are now well supported in the same towns and villages where no such things were seen prior to the potato failure. New banks have also been established in numerous towns, frequented exclusively by farmers, and which have not increased in size, but derive their business from the agricultural profits brought in. The breed of live stock of all kinds-cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry— has vastly improved. Prices for all farming produce,