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New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 45, 27 February 1885, Page 3

—The priest in question, moreover, appears to have been in advance of his age as to his speculations concerning what electricity must yet accomplish.

While all the world has been ringing with the outA STRIKING cry made against crime as it was said to exist in contradiction. Ireland, and while it was easily taken for granted that the country in question was infinitely further advanced in the ways of wickedness than either of the other two kingdoms, facts were all the time preparing to prove another state of affairs. Hayter's Year Book, in a word, gives official figures tha. effectually contradict the popular anti-Irish theories, and which, taken in connection with certain facts that have otherwise come to our knowledge, afford a record much in Ireland's favour. The Year Book is that for 1883-4 which has recently been published, and its testimony is very striking. For the year, par excellence, of Irish outrages, for example, when, according to the voice of the accuser «♦ village ruffians " by thousands and midnight marauders in troops' were disporting themselves after their particular fashion, in support of the Land League, the convictions obtained in Ireland per 10,000 of the population were only .9 above those obtained in England and .37 higher than those obtained in Scotland, and the year 1881 moreover was the only year between '76 and '84 in which the percentage of convictions in Ireland was higher than it was in England or Scot' land, with the exception of the year '80 when it was also .07 highe r than that of England, but 1.12 lower than that of Scotland. The full table, for which we are indebted to our contemporary the Melbourne Advocate runs as follows :—: —

It will, of course, be argued that convictions in Ireland are more difficult to obtain than they are in England or Scotland, but this w« very much doubt. Jurymen and magistrates in Ireland stand in a much more hostile position, as a rule, towards the prisoner in Ireland thaa that which they occupy in the sister Kingdoms, the Irish police system, moreover, is much better adapted to the discovery and arrest of criminals and offenders than that of England or Scotland. —The members of the force are far more numerous, and are stationed at short distances apart all over the country. Besides, as our Melbourne contemporary also remarks, many convictions, during the years in question, have been obtained in Ireland of. men known to have been innocent. —And as we know on the testimony of a specialist published some months ago in one of the chief London periodicals, there is an immense amount of crime committed in England whose authors are never brought to justice —partly because the police fail to detect them, and partly because employers often find that it would injure their business were they to prosecute dishonest employes. The percentage of Irish convictions,then, considerably lower at ordin. ary times than that of Eneland and Scotland respectively, and only very slightly higher ab a time of disturbance and agitation, when the whole country is in the hands of the informer, the policeman, and the spy, contradicts in a very striking manner the calumnies so f re' quently and widely circulated —and would put the calumniators to shame —if that were within tho range of humaa possibilities.

Who should have a more intimate acquaintance horrible with the character of the fair sex than the parson ? calumny ? la it not traditional that each is devoted to the other, and have we not abundant records of how faithfully and with what persevering labour lovely woman ministers to the reverend object of her devotion. The writers of the nation sadly belie its better portion, if many hours of woman's time are not occupied with works undertaken for the pleasure or profit, or indeed both combined, of the parson— especially in the earlier stages of his career and when he is the more open to matrimonial arrangements. — But as to lovely woman herself is she not always open to such arrangements, unless she be already bound by the nuptial tie 1 When, therefore, we-find the character of lovely woman explained by the parson we listen attentively, as to one who deals with a subject which he has a right to know and which, moreover, we may expect him to explain as favourably as ably— for shall not the expounder of Holy Writ be able also in explaining that which is only less divine. Here then is a view of woman's character given to us by a parson who in the year 1627— as we learn from a work on popular superstitions recently published — gave certain instructions to grand jurymen as to how they should proceed in the trial of witches. — Let our eaderß ponder the matter well bo that they may decide, as verily it is of

much import for every man to do, as to whether within the last two hundred and fifty years the character of woman may 'seem to have changed for the better or for the worse— Here, at least is what she was in 1627 according to one who should have known—but far be it from us to say what she is in 1885.—" there are more women witches than men," writes our parson, " and it may be for these reasons » First, Satan is Betting upon these rather than on men, since his unhappie outset and prevailing with Eve. Secondly, their more credulous nature, and apt to be misled and deceived. Thirdly, for that they are commonly more impatient and more supeistitious; and being displeased, more malicious, and so more apt to bitter cursing, and far more revengeful according to their power than men, and so herein, more fit instruments of the devill. Fourthly, they are more tongue-ripe and less able to hide what they know from others, and therefore, in this respect, are more ready to be teachers of witchcraft to others, and to leave it to children, servants, or to some others, than men. Fifthly and lastly, because where they think they can command, they are more proud in their rule, and more busy in setting such on worke whom they command, than men ; and, therefore, the devill laboureth most to make them witches ; because they, upon every light displeassure, will set him on worke, which he desiretb, and is sore displeased if he he not set on worke, which woman will be ready enough to do. 1 ' — Still we do not know that our parson has given the devil his due as a just man should. Might he not have accredited even the devil with some degree of gallantry. Milton at least paints him as not having wholly lost the marks of what he once had been and a preference for lovely woman because of her supreme excellence might well be among those marks. Or the devil might reasonably prefer to gain her services knowing her to be the ruler of mankind. We would gladly find Borne flaw in our parson's line of argument, for we dare not admit him to be right.

We need not wonder at the hereditary contempt QUEER for Irishmen which, as the Saturday ReviertvatoTvna CUSTOMS. us, prevails in a hardly veiled condition among the

English working classes. — The contempt in question was no doubt originally implanted in the uninformed British mind by the travellers' wonders of a baser sort narrated without contradiction in England, so that it came to be commonly believed, for example, that Irishmen had tails, and we have with our own ears heard a gentleman who had for sometime resided in a remote part of England— tell how he had been asked by the rustics of his neighbourhood if it was not true that Irishmen were blacks. — The following sketch of Irish customs, quoted also from the book on popular superstitions to which we have referred, gives us, however, a statement or two that perhaps can hardly be equalled, and which are not the less contradictory of everything known in Ireland because they seem to be in some sort of harmony with the new condition of things that prevails more and more in countries of greater pretensions— as for instance, in New England, and in some parts of Germany, and wherever the easy laws of divorce are taken full advantage of by the people. — •• When (in Ireland) a matrimonial compact is agreed, a cow and two sheep are generally the portion of the maid, and a little hut and a potato garden all the riches of the man. Here the woman always retains her maiden name, and never assumes the surname of the husband as is generally practised in other countries. I have been informed that this is owing to a custom they had among them in aatient times of marrying for a year only, at the expiration of which term the couple might lawfully part and engage elsewhere, unless they should chuse to renew their agreement for another year By this means, if there were any mutual liking at meeting, both parties were continually upon their guard to oblige each other that an inclination of living together might still be kept alive on both sides. The woman, therefore, who might if she choseit, have anew husband every year of her life, always retained her own name, because to assume a new one with every husband would create infinite confusion, and this custom, as to the name, is retained to this very day." The " portion of the maid " meantime, did not do much towards the comfort of her future home. The cow indeed remained and let us hope, proved a good milker, but as to the the sheep they were shamefully squandered. The writer continues thus :— " At their weddings they make a great feast, which is the only time of their lives, perhaps, that they can taste meat or any kind of strong liquors."— A sober people, let us remark in passing, if a well starved one.—" Upon these occasions, one of the sheep at least is consumed, and the other is sold to purchase a barrel of a kind of very bad ale, which in their language they call sheebeen, and a corn spirit called asquebaugh or whiskey, which very much in its taste and qualities resembles the worst London gin. With this they for once carouse and make merry with their friends." But since these days in Ireland the English palate also has grown more Irish and less nice, for whiskey is now more grateful to it than the national " Old Tom " itself. — As to the kind of ale called sheebeen, it might form a question for Notes and. Queries to determine whether any such liquor ever existed or whether the writer confounds the name of a place for the eurrepti-

tious sale of liquors with that of the stuff sold there.~With the one— shebeen, shanty, sly-grog-shop, we have had some acquaintance, but of the other we have never heard.— Such food and drink as the poor Irish had they were willing to share, and finding no other guests they called the winds of heaven in to partake of their feast—" They are, indeed, all times great pretenders to hospitality as far as their abilities will permit. Whence they have this universal custom among them that in all kinds of weather, when they sit down to their miserable meal, they constantly throw their doors open as it were tcinvite all strangers to partake of their repast. And in the midst of all their poverty cheerful content so perfectly supplies the want of enjoyments that, I verily believe, they are the happiest people in the world." The picture, then, is not without its better aspects, although, on the whole, it is grotesque and ridiculo js.