The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-05 00:00:00

MISR SOCIAL BURDENS.

On Saturday last iordFermo----y, as Lieutenant of
the county of Cork, presided over a large meeting
of magistrates, ratepayers, and others interested, to
consider the necessity of dividing the county and
holding separate 'Assizes for each division, repre,
sented by a separate grand jury. In the course of
his opening address his Lordship said he had taken
the trouble of looking into the question of Irish
taxation, and had come to the conclusion that Ire-
land for local purposes was the heaviest taxed
country in Europe. To bear out this view the noble
chairman quoted the following facts and figures :
" The Grand Jury cess in Ireland amounted to the
sum of over a but he would put it down at
that figure, and the poor-rate amounted, in round
numbers, to about £500,000, making a total of
£1,500,000. There were also other local burdens.
There was the tithe rent charge. He had
heard the funds of the Established Church. of
Ireland estimated by some as 10-v as £500,000
a-year, and by others at £BOO,OOO, and the truth
might be estimated as between the two, so that
they might put them down at between £600,000
and £700,000. There was also another
Church supported by the people of Ireland
out of the fruits of the land—a Church that never

liked to be ignored, and which, in his mind, ought
not be ignored by anybody wishing to be considered
as a philosopher or statesman as regarded Ireland
—he meant the Roman Catholic Church, the Church
of the great majority of the people of the country.
That was no doubt supported by voluntary contri-
butions, but in considering the burdens the people
had to bear, whether they were voluntary or im-
posed by law made no difference as to the amount.
The only mode he had of ascertaining the amount
contributed for the support of the Catholic Church
was a very simple one. He found there were four
archbishops, and he had put them down at £BOO
year each, making £3.200; 24 bishops, at £6OO a
year each, amounting to £14,400; 2,291 priests,
whom he put down at £2OO a year each on an ave-
rage, made £458,800. Then they had the building
of chapels, subscriptions for the propagation of the
faith in foreign countries, subscriptions for the
Pope and many other objects connected with the
Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, and he did not
think he was under the mark when he put them
down at £200,000 a year, and that would bring up
the expenses of the Roman Catholic Church to
nearly £700,000 a year, somewhere about the same
as those of the Protestant Church. There was also
the Presbyterian Church, the Wesleyan, and other
congregations of Dissenters. The Presbyterians
were partly supported by the Regium Donum, and
partly by voluntary contributions. He did not
think he was over the mark in stating that the
voluntary contributions of the Presbyterian and
other Dissenters amounted to somewhere about
£200,000 a year. Therefore they had about
£lOO,OOO raised for religious purposes in Ireland,
adding to that £1,500,000 of county cess and poor
law taxation, they had a gross sum of £3,000,000
paid by Ireland for local purposes, out of a rental,
according to Griffith's valuation, of £12,000,000 ;
that is they paid 25 per cent. on the gross rental
of the country towards local contributions and taxa-
tion."

.711.4R.111 _G_ES IN IREL.IND.

The report of the Registrar-General of Marriages
in Ireland for 1859, which is confined to the mar-
Hazes of Protestants, states that the number was
9,`a61. The average for the five years 1850-54 was
9,646 ; for the five years 1855.59 only 9,295. The
former series had the advantage of an unusual num-
ber of marriages in 1853, but the numbers do not
indicate an increasing population. It is supposed
that the proportion of early marriages is larger in
Ireland than in England, but it is not so among the
Protestant part of the population. The proportion
of men unable to write their names is about the
same as in England, but there is this difference—
that in England the proportion is decreasing, in Ire-
land. it is not ; of women unable to write the pro-
portion a few years ago was least in Ireland, but
England has now improved, and in 1858 (the latest
account made up) only 37.6 in every 100 women
who married in England had to make their mark ;
while in Ireland, in 1859, the proportion of illite-
rate was 42.70. As in England the marriages are
most numerous in the last quarter of the year, but
the difference is not so great in Ireland. Not very
much more than half the Protestant marriages were
celebrated in churches,, 2,686 were in Presbyterian
chapels, and the large number of 1,498 at the Re-
gistrar's-office-35 par cent. of all which were not
solemnised according to the rites of the Established
Church. Jevis must be scarce in Ireland ; for the
last 15 years the marriages of Jews have barely
averaged one a year. At the close of the year there
were in Ireland 1,424 churches and chapels belong-
ing to the Established Church, 543 Presbyterian
chapels registered for marriages, and 148 other re
gistered buildings belonging to the Wesleyans and
others, in all 2,115 places for the 7,763 marriages
which were not celebrated in the registrars' offices,
so that some at least must have had few enough.
Of the marriages solemnised at churches eight in
every ten were by licence, but marriage licences
are said to be cheaper in Ireland than in England.
The marriage-licence system does not appear a
very wise one ; it may be reasonable to tax persons
who wish to marry without the unpleasant pub-
licity of banns, but in England, at all events, the
chief portion of the payment they have to make
goes, not to the State, but to private individuals.
The Registrar-General regrets that he has to pre-
sent such a meagre report year by year, but so it is
that there is no civil registration of the marriages
of Roman Catholics, nor of the birth or death of any
human being in Ireland. The State collects and
publishes every year statistics of the crops and the
live stock, but not of the people. They thus lose
the benefit of an easy proof of age and descent, and
all the collateral advantages which might result
from an exposure of sanitary defects and the mor-
tality they cause. Ireland, says the Registrar-
General, is the only civilised country in which the
births, deaths, and marriages of the inhabitants are
not systematically recorded.

THIS DAD'S MARKETS.

CORN EXCHANGE. -
Several parcels of new English wheat were on offer here
to-day, in fair average condition; but the supplY ?
- f the
qualities was very limited. The trade was heavYm
extreme, and to have forced sales a further decline of from
Is to 2s per qr must have been submitted heavy request on
Foreign wheat was in large supply and h.ng cargoes was
rather easier terms. The inquirl for floating
a fair demand for barley and
very dull at drooping currencies.
On the whole there was
malt, and prices were fairly supported.
ed hands slowly on former terms.
Oats were a dull inquiry, and.6d per qr lower.
and the best town-made
Beans and peas Chang
The flour trade was very dull,
qualities were, in some instances, offering at 568 per 280Ibs.
American flour was is per barrel cheaper.
i 11ARRIVALSeit THIS 'WEEK.
250 Barley. Malt. Oats. Flour.
English.... •• " 'lO
Irish •-• ****
. *** •• ..... 670 1 540
Foreign .... .. 5,1"
3,220 -- 8,510 I 3,570 sacks.
410 brls.

BOROUGH HOP.
All kinds of hops support the late advance, and the mar.
ket is very firm. Duty, £50,000.

WHITECHAPEL.
Our market is heavy, and prices generally have a drop ••

tendeLcy :
Beef, 2s Bcl to 4s 4d ; mutton, 3s 2d to 4s 8d; lamb, 4s 4d
to 5s 4d ; veal, 4s Od to 4s 6d ; pork, 4s Od to 5s 2d per
81bs. by the carcase.

A 'WEALTHY BEGGAR.—The police were in-
formed a few days back that a blind man, who for several
years had been accustomed to beg on the steps of the church
of the Petits-Peros,had contracted for the purchase of a
furnished lodging-house in the Rue St. Pierre Montmartre,
for a sum exceeding 30,000 f. Having made inquiries, they
learned that the statement was quite true, and that, more-
over, he had paid down 12,0001. of the purchase money.
On this they made a search in his lodgings, and found rail-
way shares, bonds, and other securities to a considerable
amount. As he had only been allowed to beg at the church
in the belief that he was really poor, and as besides he had
long been in the habit of pestering the Emperor and Em-
press with petitions for charity, he was arrested, and is to
be tried for merdicity, 4