190 . | )). REPORT—1874, « 
intelligence of its most instructed members amongst the whole family of states, 
and bind them together by an identity of mental action and an equal participation 
of discoveries and suggestions abounding in advantage to them all. 
I fear I have already overpassed the limits which should haye been prescribed by my 
undertaking to be brief, and I pursue no further the general considerations on whic 
1 have partially and imperfectly entered. But it seems to me that those who are 
charged with the duty which I have assumed may fairly be expected to make 
some allusion to matters within the sphere of their own special division of scientific 
knowledge, which may have peculiar relations with the localities in which they act. 
The opportunity of concentrating attention upon such matters may be judiciously 
and largely used by the authors of papers in the several sections; but a very 
brief allusion to some of them should be allowed to make the opening addresses 
“‘yacy of the soil,” I shall merely glance at two or three, which will be of interest 
as belonging to Ireland. 
I believe that in no other department of statistical inquiry has such progress been 
made in these countries, within living memory, as in that which comprehends 
“ Judicial Statistics ””—dealing with crime, its motives, its causes, and the means 
of its repression, and with all the various questions of interest which arise in con- 
nexion with the administration of civil and criminal justice. In this department, 
men of high intelligence haye long been labouring throughout the world; and it 
was the subject of sedulous attention at all the international congresses of which 
Ihave spoken. The results haye been already satisfactory and full of practical 
advantage, and they will become still more so when the inquiries which those 
congresses have organized shall have submitted for comparison the judicial systems 
of all lands, described by those who are best mite ti with them. In this good 
work Ireland has done more than her part, under the supervision of Dr. Neilson 
Hancock; and I owe it to that very eminent statistician to quote from a letter 
addressed to me by Mr. Hammick, of whom I have spoken already, and whose 
absence from our Meeting I sincerely lament, the remarkable statement, that “ the 
Trish Judicial Statistics are unequalled in Europe for skilful arrangement and lucid 
exposition.” 
The changes in the social state of Ireland and the legislation of latter years 
have fixed attention on our County Courts, and made some reforms in their pro- 
cedure and some extension of their jurisdiction yery desirable. The Land Act 
creates new exigencies in connexion with our agricultural and commercial life, and 
they must be satisfied by a moderate and carefully considered reform of institutions 
which have worked well and command the confidence of the people, This is one 
of the most important matters which can receive the attention of the Legislature; 
and I am glad to say that a beginning of improvement has been made in the last 
session, by an act which gives the chairman power to adjudicate, in’small cases 
and with certain limits, although bond fide questions of title may have arisen. The 
want of this power has often produced a denial of justice to suitors whose poverty 
has forbidden them to seek it in a superior Court, with the frequent consequences 
of lawless contentions, violent assaults, and sometimes lamentable homicides. The 
humble man who is wronged, in fact or fancy, and has found all available legal 
tribunals closed against him, takes the law into his own hands and becomes his 
own avenger. I hope this great mischief will now exist no more. But the exten- 
sion of jurisdiction in title-cases and the further concession of a limited right to 
deal with transactions of partnership are only, I trust, the heralds of a more com- 
prehensive measure, giving to our local courts, with such modification as may be 
ricpee the equitable jurisdiction already possessed by the county courts of 
ngland. 
You will, I am pleased to say, have the opportunity of hearing a paper on 
Land-Tenure, prepared by Sir George Campbell, the late Lieutenant-Goyernor 
of Bengal, who is eminently qualified to speak with authority on that mo- 
mentous subject, and to whom the people of this country owe serious obligations 
for the counsel and assistance which his great ability and large experience 
enabled him to afford during the discussions which preceded the passing of 
the Irish Land Act. Of that Act, generally, I have no purpose to speak here. 
ft has been in operation for too brief a time, and its provisions haye yet 
been too little interpreted by judicial exposition, to warrant a confident pronounce- 
