Present Irish Questions

by William O'Connor Morris

[173] Ibid., p. 166.

[174] Report of the Childers Commission, p. 11.

[175] Ibid.: Evidence of Mr. Munough O’Brien, pp. 12, 13: ‘The system of Imperial loans for temporary emergencies and charity tends to increase the poverty of Ireland, whose future income is mortgaged to pay interest on expenditure from which there is no return. There is no surer road to ruin for an individual than borrowing money to live upon, and most of these Imperial loans are practically made from time to time to enable the Irish people to live or relieve acute distress and disorder. Loans are almost annually made to keep the people quiet or to keep them alive. Yet this expenditure does not prevent the recurrence of famine, distress, and discontent; it rather tends to cause their recurrence.’

[176] Report of the Childers Commission: Report of Mr. Sexton and others, pp. 102, 103.

[177] Report of the Childers Commission: ‘Evidence,’ vol. ii. p. 18.

[178] Report of the Childers Commission, pp. 194, 195.

[179] 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 116. The works of Messrs. Vanston and Foote on the grand juries of Ireland may be referred to.

[180] The reader may be referred to Mr. Moore’s work on the Irish poor law.

[181] See the Report of a Committee of the House of Lords, and especially of the Evidence, taken in 1884-85, with respect to the administration of the Irish poor law at the time.

[182] For a further account of local government in Ireland, a reader may consult the Report of Mr. W. P. O’Brien on Local Government, 1878, and reports on the towns of Ireland and their taxation about the same date. An excellent tract on the subject was published by Mr. William J. Bailey in 1888, called ‘Local and Centralised Government in Ireland.’ With respect to the system of municipal government in Ireland as it existed before 1840, nothing is so valuable as the Reports of the Commissioners, very able men, charged to inquire into the subject in 1834-35. A useful and well-informed account will also be found in Mr. Barry O’Brien’s ‘Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland,’ vol. i. book v.