been traced to the willful application of irritating substances to the eyes, by the patients themselves, impelled by the miserable motives of escaping from school, and of obtaining a superior diet in the hospital. It ought, moreover, to be mentioned, that of the total number of cases of ophthalmia presented in the workhouses in 1849-50-51,—(viz., 86,959), 2253, or about one in 38 or 39, came into the houses already affected with the disease.

From my own observation and inquiries in the various workhouses visited by me, it would appear that the number of persons afflicted with ophthalmia had greatly declined since the previous year; its prevalence was, however, still great. The following statements show the frightful extent to which the disease has prevailed, and some of its melancholy

Out of this number the following have suffered the under-mentioned mutilations:

4. Religious Statistics.—One of the objects I had constantly in view in my journey throughout Ireland

being to endeavour to ascertain practically, from actual examination and inquiry, the relative numbers of the adherents to the two religions among the great body of the people, I naturally took advantage of the facilities afforded to me on this point by the schools and workhouses. The workhouses, more especially, peopled as they are exclusively by the most destitute members of the community, are calculated to supply the best possible criteria for determining this point in regard to the most numerous class of the people. Those who have taken the trouble to follow me in my visits to the individual Unions, cannot fail to have been struck with the great superiority of the numbers of the Catholic inmates, not merely in the more Catholic parts of Ireland, but even in the most Protestant districts of Ulster itself. In going back over the reports I have given of the individual workhouses, I find the general result is as follows:— In seven of the Unions in the south and west of Ireland, the proportion of Catholics to Protestants is about 42 to 1; in five of the Unions in Ulster, together with that of Sligo (in which the proportion of Protestants is large) the proportion is about five Catholics to one Protestant; taking all the Unions together, the general proportion is about 20 Catholics to one Protestant.

5. Illegitimate Children.-In more than one page in the preceding narrative, I have adverted to opinions generally prevalent in Ireland respecting the very

correct behaviour of the women of the lower classes of society; and I have, in more than one place, avowed my belief in the accuracy of the statements which place the chastity of the unmarried women of Ireland on a much higher level than that of the women of England and Scotland, in the same class of society. A reference to the unquestionable evidence supplied by the records of the workhouses, proves that these statements, when taken in a relative point of view, are strictly true; but the same evidence, when regarded absolutely, likewise proves, that the purity of female life in Ireland falls not a little below the standard which common opinion has set up. While our stern statistics unquestionably show that the proportion of illegitimate children among the workhouse population in Ireland is greatly less than in England and Wales, I fear they will hardly justify the belief formerly expressed by me, as the result of my general inquiries, that "unmarried mothers are quite a rarity in Ireland." Still, I think the statistical details which follow, will be allowed to justify, to a considerable extent, the proud position usually accorded to the young women of the labouring-classes in Ireland.

In both the Irish and English Poor-Law Reports, Tables of Classification are given (not every year), which set forth, to a certain extent, the social and domestic relations of the persons receiving relief. One of the subdivisions contains the number of

children in the houses belonging to inmates, and classed according as their parents are able-bodied or not able-bodied. These children are further classed under the heads of illegitimate and legitimate. We have thus an opportunity of comparing the two countries together, in regard to this point, as far, at least, as regards one class of the community, the lowest, or working class.1

Before proceeding, however, to make this comparison, it will be necessary to notice a difference that exists in the mode of setting forth the same data in the two countries, otherwise erroneous conclusions as to the actual amount of illegitimacy may be deduced from the figures. The difference is this: the Irish Tables give the total number of children in the houses during the whole of each halfyear, while the English Tables merely give the number in the houses on one particular day, viz., the last day of each half-year. Consequently, if we were to compare the total number of any of the classes in the two sets of Tables, one with another, we might be comparing two very different things, viz., a sum total comprehending all the children in the houses at any time during a period of six months, with a sum total comprising only those present in them on a single day. But this circumstance affects, in no way, the accuracy of the proportions of the respective classes,

1 It is singular that the Poor-Law Reports for SCOTLAND do not give this information. I hope my countrymen are not ashamed to publish this portion of their domestic history.

in the Tables of the two countries, which is the only part of the subject now under examination. With this explanation, I shall give the figures exactly as I find them in the Irish and English Reports; and to avoid all chance of partiality, shall give the whole of the Tables to be found in each national series, viz., those for the two halfyears in the Irish Tables ending on the 31st March, 1849 and 1851; and those in the English Tables for the years 1848-9-50-51.

The results even of this proportional collation as already hinted, are certainly far less complimentary to my fair barefooted clients than could have been wished; but " everything by comparison," as the adage says: the darker blot from the eastern side of St. George's channel, which we place beside this stain on Irish chastity, seems to blanch it wonderfully.

Total number of the Children of the Inmates of Workhouses in Ireland, England, and Wales, with the proportion of Illegitimate to Legitimate in each Country.

These numbers give the following as the propor

tions between the two classes of illegitimate and