160 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



succeed as well as Protestants when they have an 

 equally good teacher. 



11. Whatever appointments, high or low, are 

 made for party reasons are often grievously jobbed ; 

 and there is no difference in that respect in my ex- 

 perience between the two parties ; one is as bad as 

 the other. Thus, the appointments to the magistracy 

 are often very bad. Men are not seldom appointed 

 who are wholly unfit, without education, knowledge, 

 character, or even property. Eeligion or politics are 

 the only motive. The queer thing is that some of 

 the worst appointments are those of men of a differ- 

 ent religion from that supposed to be allied with the 

 party by whom the appointment is made. We have 

 men nominated of whom it is doubtful if they can 

 read and wiite, and others who, unless direly maligned, 

 have themselves been guilty of all sorts of offences. 

 No one can believe the harm such appointments 

 do. The Stipendiary magistrates, too, are appointed 

 for party reasons, and many of them are very in- 

 ferior, and of no value ; in no way men of the high 

 character that well-paid Government officials ought 

 to be. Of course, some are fit men, but others are 

 such as a magistrate who knows his business would 

 prefer not to have with him, if there was any diffi- 

 culty. 



The same evil is visible, though in a less degree, 

 in the Chairmen of Quarter Sessions. Having at- 

 tended Quarter Sessions for nearly forty years in 



