Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 18, 17 February 1893, Page 21

Dublin Notes.

(From our exchanges.) Tkb Sight Hon Henry Bryoe, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, is the son of a North of Ireland clergyman. He is a profound constitutional lawyer, and to him, it is stated, Mr Gladstone entrusted the drafting of the more important clauses of the Home Bale Bill. Mr Bryee does not apeak often in the House of Commons, bat whenever he does his utterances are listened to with the attention which is due to th« words of a man who has studied deeply the subject on which he speaks. Mr Bryce has great admiration for America, and his great work on the American Constitution is regarded both in England and in the United States as the profoundest and molt important book on the subject that has ever been produced. Mr Justin M'Cartoy (says a London paper, December 7) has not given up his connection with journalism. He pathetically complains of hit lack of time, but the laws of political life are inexorable. Mr M'Oarthy writes leaders for the Daily News during the Parliamentary ■Msion. His constructive historical work is, however, greatly impeded since he became leader of the Nationalist forces. Despite rumours to the contrary, Mr M'Carthy is in excellent health, We are apt to forget that Mr M'Oarthy is no longer a young man, So great has the development of provincial journalism become that it reads like an anachronism to state that Mr M'Cartby was employed on the first daily newspaper established in the province. This happened in Liverpool, and although Mr M'Carthy did not know the difference between a mangel wurzel and a Swedish turnip, some of his agricultural articles were highly appreciated by Lancashire farmers. The death of Sir Bernard Burke, observes the Irish Catholic, removal from our midst a learned, a pious, and a true-hearted Catholic gentleman. Of the dead Ulster King-at-Arms no man can ■peak ill, while to his merits many of his fellows will gladly testify. Holding, as be did, an important position in the Viceregal Court and

the Order of St Patrick, Sir Bernard's was a well-known figure at every State or Castle function. Although he took no public part in political matttrs, it had somehow come to be known that " Ulster " was a sincere and earnest Irishman and a warm believer in the right of hia conntry to self-government. Sir Bernard Burke'a writings were numerous, amongst them being the following :—": — " History of Landed Gentry," " Dormant and Extinct Peerage," "Dormant and Extinct Baronetage," " General Armory," " Visitation of Seats and Anns," "Heraldic Illustrations," "The Roll of Battle Abbey," 11 Beport of the French Record System," " The Patrician," " The History of the Boyal Families," " Royal Descents and Pedigrees of Founder's Kin," " Romance of the Aristocracy," " Family Romance," " Romantic Records," "History of the Different Orders of Knighthood," " The Historic Lords of England," togethir with six volumes on " The Patrician." In the year 1856 Sir Bernard Burke married Barbara Frances, daughter of the late Mr James MEvoy, of Tobertynan, Meath, and sister of Mr M'Evoy, late M.P. for County Heath. He received the honour of knighthood in 1854, in 1862 was made Doctor of Laws by the University of Dublin, and in 1868 was raised to the dignity of a Companion of the Bath. It is stated Sir Bernard will be succeeded by his eldest son, who is Deputy Ulster King-at-Arms, and there can be no doubt that such an appointment is that which would best accord with public desire. The appointment of the Bishop of Baphoe to a seat on the Congested Districts Board, to fill the vacancy created by the death of the Rev Charles Davis, P.P., is evidenca of a wise desire on the part of the present Government to do something towards making that body in at least some degrees practically effective towards the ends which it was designed to fulfil . In the history of Castle Boards probably there is no more forcible instance of inability to nerve tne main original purpose of its creation than that presented in the case of the one which Dr O'Donnell has now been called upon tj join. We do not question or asperse the willingness of its members to takt practical steps towards the ending of the deplorable state of things existing in the portions of tha country with which they were called npon to deal, but the fact remains that absolutely nothing has been dona towards the adoption of the only real and permanent remedies

— namely, the carrying out of reasonably »nd well- considered migra* tion schemes, and the acquisition by the State of waste lands capable of reclamation through the labour of the people and eventually intended for their tenancy or purchase. It is safe to assert that even the worst of the congested districts would, in the reclamation of its waste lands alone, provide employment for what is now their surplus and often starving population. We admit, of course, that to undertake such work as this some additional Parliamentary powers may be needed ; that they should be is, however, an overwhelming commentary on the stupidity of the legislation which constituted the Congested Districts Boards without giving it powers which the slightest consideration would have shown to be absolutely necessary if it vras to accomplish anything useful. We have every hope that the addition of the energetic and earnest young Bishop of Baphoe, thoroughly conversant as he is with the needß and requirements of the most distressed portions of the country, will have the effect cf infusing that spirit of'activity and practicability the absence of which has been the moßt characteristic feature in the working of the Board up to the present time.

Mr Balfoui has received another slap in the face. Despite his Sheffield misrepresentations, Mr Courtney, M.P., repeats his tribute to the Evicted Tenants' Commission and Sir James Mathew. Speaking to his constituents on Thursday, Mr Courtney said that some of his friends had been astonished at the satisfaction he recently expressed at the appointment of the Evicted Tenants' Commission, and had written asking him if he really desired to replace tenant! who had joined the Plan of Campaign. His reply was that if there were any means of restoring peace in Ireland, and of the means of restoring peace was the restoration of the evicted tenants, he should be delighted to see that process carried out It was with that feeling that he approved of the Evicted Tenants' Commission, and he rtjoiced also that a judge was selected as chief of the Commission, and he thought that Mr Justice Mathew realised the qualifications that were necessary in the head of a Commission. Mr Balfour is evidently reaching his level. On the Opposition benches his descent will be fast from the altitude to which puffery and quackery raised him.

We are not surprised to discover that the composition of the Irish magisterial bench is as objectionable to the Protestant artisjins of Belfast ac to the Nationalists of Ireland generally. The bench is filled in accordance with the dictates and prejudice of class, as well as of party and creed, and it is as difficult to discover on the list of Irish magistrates a Protestant who is a workiDgmao or a Democrat as it is to find a Catholic who is a Nationalist. We welcome the resolution of the Belfast Trades Council, therefore, as the completion of the case tor the reform of the Irish magistracy. The reform proceeds slowly. But whatever the obstruction it must be overcome. It is satisfactory to know that in the advocacy of the reform we shall have the cooperation of what some politicians delight to call " the Orange democracy."