A PROUD RECORD FOR IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 93, 6 February 1875, Page 15

A PROUD RECORD FOR IRELAND.

3S '^ don A 0A 0 ? 10 ' ° f , Oct ' 2 K sa y s =-" Every Irishman should, without loss of tune inform himself of the contents of Dr. Han' cock a report on the criminal statistics of the sister island. He will be able to boast of nothing more to the honor of his country than what is mentioned by this eminent authority. He will there W that the number of indictable offences is diminishing in fceland steadily and marvellously. There were in 1873, 9642 luch offences -that i 5 ,,774 fewer than the year before, 1789 fewer than the average of the last five years, and 3923 fewer than the nnS ten ?i£SS nn g ™ TifL^ 68 mdicates 32 P^ cent, fewer crimes than those committed by an equal population in England, and 16 per cent, below the average for Great Britain during five js2b , aad further it is to be observed that the excess in the English average Mpja the more serious sort of crimes. Dr. Hancock compares the SS*?** 01 !?* Sc ° tland ' ™*>*™c admits^hatthl murders and attempts to murder preponderate in the former, he shows that the preponderance exists in the latter if culpable homi-

cide and manslaughter be taken into account, the Ulster offences being 74 and the Scotch 94. Dr. Hancock is able to record the tact that treasonable offences have almost disappeared, that agrarian outrages have declined from 356 in 1862 to 858. and th»t wnilethetotal decline of indictable offences withincountieanot subject to the Peace Preservation Act is 21 per cent., in the counties subject to it the decline is 56 per cent. It is true there are more prosecutions for drunkenness in Ireland than here, but Dr. Hancock seeks to prove from these statistics that there are more habitual drunkards on our side of the Channel. Startling as the figures are we have not given them their full importance until we hare stated that there exists a system of public prosecution in Ireland which ensures the detection and punishment of offenders, and that the Irish employ more than twice as many police as -we do, so that the probabilities of escape are rendered still smaller than where the prosecution of offenders is left to chance."

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