The Press.
London, England, 1856-11-15 00:00:00

OFFICIAL PhONIOTIONS IN IRELAND.

THERE is no department of knowledge in which
it is so easy to present fallacious statements as in
statistics. " Cooking " accounts is a regular branch
of art with some sinister arithmeticians of the
Sadleir school ; and when tabular rows of figures are
offered as evidence, it behoves us to be most
cautious in accepting them. An attempt has been
made to appeal to figures against the charge which
we have recently advanced, that too much of the
official patronage of the Crown is bestowed upon the
Roman Catholics, and that most dangerous class,
"the pro-Romanist" Protestants, of Ireland. We
shall expose the fallacy of the reply in a few words.
On last Saturday the following table was circu-
lated under the Irish correspondence of the Times.
It affects to represent the proportions of the legal
dignitaries in Ireland
No. Court. Protest. Cath.

1. Lord Justice of Appeal
1. Lord Chancellor
1. Master of the Rolls . .
5. Masters in Chancery
3. Encumbered EstetesCommissioners ..

1. Prerogative Judge
1. Consistorial Judge
12. Common-Law Judges H 4

2. Bankrupt Court Commissioners ..
1. insolvent ditto 1 ..
3. Taxing Masters
3. Recorders .
$3. Assistant Barristers .. 23 .. JO

S 8 .. 1•)

This table rests on a huge fallacy.

1. It does not meet the case which we advanced,
that a new system of promotion is now being
adopted for the convenience of certain persons. The
promotions of the last five years should have been
taken by the ingenious framers of the table, and they
should not have relied on the Protestant nomina-
tions made during Conservative and Moderate-Whig
Ministries.

2. It artfully enumerates only " Roman Catho-
lics," and swells the list of " Protestants" by inserting
all t'ae " pro Itunanists," who, politically speaking,
are " more Catholic thati the Catholics." Our
charge was that an undue amount of favour was
given to the supporters, eiders, and fosterers of the
Roman catholic interest.

3. Several offices are tabulated which should be
removed from tl'e list. For example, the Lord
Chancellor must be (by statute) of the Established
Church.l The Government dared not pass over
Mr. BLACKBURNE for Judge of Appeal, inasmuch as
the English public and the economists in the House
of Commons (many of whom desire that there should
be only nine instead of twelve Law Judges in Ire-
land) would never hear of a dowager Chancellor like
Mr. BLACSBURNE being passed over, and the country
being saddled with a needless expenditure. Nor
should credit be taken for the three Encumbered
Estates Commissioners being Protestants, since that
circumstance was unavoidable. That court was
calculated to affect powerfully the Protestant pro-
prietary of Ireland. An Englishman (Mr. HAR-
OREAVE) was placed in it, inasmuch as English
capitalists were concerned in tho operations of the
court: and Commissioner LONOFIELD was chosen on
account of his personal connection with the landed
interest, as was stated by Mr. HATCHELL in the
House of Commons. Baron RICHARDS had special
claims on the Whig Government, and was also ex-
perienced in the practice of Irish Equity. So, also,
no credit should be taken for the Prerogative and

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Consistorial Judges. The Insolvent Commissioners
might, also, be removed from the list, as it was not
long since that two Roman Catholics (Messrs.
FARRELL and BALDWIN), besides a pro Catholic
Whig (Mr. CURRAIe„ were in that court. The
Taxing Masters and Recorders are skilfully thrown
in to swell the list, and no notice is taken of the
Roman Catholic Clerks of the Peace, Clerks of the
Crown, Sessions Prosecutors, Crown Circuit Prose-
cutors, &c. &c.

Nor is there any notice taken of the fact, that
only four out of the twelve judges have been selected
from the Conservative Bar. Neither is any atten-
tion paid to the number of " Mulgrave Protestants "
in the list of twenty-three Protestant assistant•
barristers. There are in Ireland a race of Protes-
tants who live and breathe upon the Catholic plat-
form ; and we have the authority of the late Sir
ROBERT PEEL in locking upon such gentlemen as
being " Catholic politicians." We believe that eight
units might, at least, be subtracted from the twenty-
three "Protestants" tabulated in the foregoing
table.

5. Let us therefore subtract the specifications as
indicated (ante 3), and let us decline to credit the
Chancellorship, Judge of Appeal, Prerogative and
Consistorial Judges, and the two Bankrupt Court
Commissioners (who succeeded two Catholics), and
the Encumbered Court Commissioners. We shall
then have to reduce the list by nine. " Taxing
Masters " we shall not count, es if we went into
such calculations we should have to reckon up the
Crown Prosecutorships, and Clerkships of the Crown
and Peace, held by Roman Catholics ; and seeing
that Recorder SHAW was nominated to his office by
the old and exclusively Protestant corporation of
Dublin, it is scarcely right to give Lord CARLISLE
credit for the nomination. We shall, therefore,
exclude " Recorders " and " Taxing Masters," and
the list of Assistant Barristers might stand as
fifteen Protestant Conservatives, against eighteen
Roman Catholics and pro-Romanist Protestants.
So that the fallacy of the table, wherein credit is
taken for offices that could not, except with out-
rageous audacity, be given to Roman Catholics, is
seen at a glance. The artful manner in which tho
pro-Catholics are put along with the " Protestants "
is a very masterly stroke.
But let us supply another table, which shall indi-
cate how things are going now at Dublin Castle.
The Chancellorship must (as stated) be filled by a
Protestant of the Established Church, and there has
been no vacancy in the Mastership of the Rolls.
Let us fix our eyes on those great State otfices in
which the policy of a Government may clearly be
read. We believe that the ingenious compilers of
the table to which we have referred would concur
with us in thinking that it out to be enough to look
to the departments in which there have been recent
vacancies, and which bring their holders into great
prominence before the public eye. Take the
twelve judges, the Attorney-Generalship, the Solici-
tor-Generalship, the Sergeants-at-Law, and the
Counsel to the Castle, and let us see how the account
will stand :

No. Offices Protest. Cath.
12. The Twelve Judges 8 .. 4
1. Attorney-General
1. Solicitor-General
3. Crown Sergeants-at-Law 1 .. 2
1. Couusel to the Castle

18 10 .. 8
We think that this table will fully justify the remarks
which have appeared in our columns, and we request
particular notice to the fact that only four out of the
twelve judges have been taken from the Conservative
Bar.

The latter circumstance is of mora striking and
ominous significance, when we see five Roman
Catholic Queen's Counsel returned to Parliament
mainly by the influence of the priesthood. The
representation of the great county of Cork is
handed over to two Roman Catholic Queen's Counsel,
a course against which the Whig aristocracy and
Liberal Protestants of that county remonstrated in
vain. But we have said enough to substantiate our
former statements.

The mysterious death of Mr. Brettell in Paris has
excited a great sensation. Mr. Brettell was a gentle-
man of fortune, and enjoyed excellent health. A few
days since he fell dead from his dog-cart while driving
in the Bois de Boulogne :
I do not wish (says a Paris correspondent of a contem-
porary) to repeat all the idle rumours that are current, for
a few days will decide the question of foul pla: But in
the meanwhile I may state that parties who saw the de-
ceased gentleman a short time before his death assert that
he was not in the slightest degree inebriated, as I have
seen stated. There cannot be any doubt that Mr. Brettell
tell from his carriage in a tit, but with regard to the subse-
quent events I can give no information. The carriage
from which the deceased fell was driven by Mr. Robert
Burdett, brother of Mrs. Cuningham, to whom it is
stated the fortune of the deceased has been bequeathed.
The whole subject is, however, too much mixed up with
scandal to warrant for the moment any further notice.
A post-mortem examination is now being earned out.

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