STATE OF CRIME IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND. 



381 



or less facility of procuring evidence. The following table seems to 

 prove the weak point in the administration of justice in Ireland : — 



I 



On an average of ten yeai-s, 1871-80, the percentage of convictions 

 was 78 per cent, in England and Wales, 76 per cent, in Scotland, and 

 55 per cent, in Ireland, the proportion in 1880 in Ireland having been 

 only 50 per cent. The proportion of convictions in diiferent classes of 

 crime in Ireland is, moreover, very dissimilar, the proportion in cases of 

 offences against property being considerably greater than in cases of 

 offences against the person. In England, in 1880, 72 persons were ap- 

 prehended for murder. Of these, 13 were discharged for want of evi- 

 dence or want of prosecution, that being 18 per cent, of the whole, and 

 59 committed for trial, or 82 per cent. In Ireland, in the same year, 53 

 persons were apprehended for murder. And of these 37, or 69 per cent, 

 of the whole, were discharged for want of evidence, and 16, or only 31 

 per cent., committed or bailed for trial. Of 61 committed for trial for 

 murder in England, 28 were convicted, or 46 per cent. Of 35 committed 

 for murder in Ireland, only 3 were convicted, or 8"5 per cent. 



The Committee of the House of Lords on the operation of the Jury 

 Laws in Ireland reported ' that the area in which trial by jury has broken 

 down is not a small one, and that the social disorder, of which this is one 

 of the numerous manifestations, is so deeply seated, that its rapid dis- 

 appearance cannot be looked for.' Mr. Justice Lawson, in referring to 

 the trial of agrarian cases before that Committee, stated that ' to send cases 

 for trial, and to send the Judges round to try them, with a certainty of 

 failure of justice, is not only a useless proceeding, but a great deal worse 

 than useless, because it is the worst public manifestation of the impu- 

 nity with which crime may be committed.' And it was in the spirit of 

 the recommendation of that Committee that the Prevention of Crime 

 (Ireland) Act, passed last session, entrusted the trial of certain agrarian 

 offences to a Special Commission Court, with power to determine issues 

 both of law and fact, special jurors being required in the case of 

 indictable offences, with powers also, when deemed expedient, to change 

 the venue to some county other than that in which the accused would 

 otherwise be tried. 



§ 9. Summary Jurisdiction Offences. 



To obtain a full and complete view of the classes of crime most 

 prevalent in the three United Kingdoms we must add to the statistics of 



