The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-08
SPIRIT OF TEE PRESS.
EdE oriaI Opinions Of the Lending ,, Sonr"''''
Upon Current TOpics-Compiled EteFS
nav for the Evening Telegraph.
CONCERNING THE Glow IRISH.

md bewildering things IN the worlu; ie"
rolumns of dry, prosy, ana barren looAin8
eoa,roe and n few bald official facts some
si9oes knock on the head the most popular
81 Widely accepted beliefs, and scatter
a. tbo Winds the most dearly cherished pre-
iudices The last British mail, Tor instance,
brought to us q summary OF Inc EirsO
ANIMAL Report of the Registrar OF Mar
S;nIos Rirtbs and Deaths in Ireland
SrbGcb is the first complete and authentic
statement ever made by official authority
concerning these evidences OF the social
habits the morals, and the health OF the
people of that portion of the British dom-
Mons Now. we can imagine the avldlty
1yitb which the hater of the slow Irish would
seize upon this report with the expecta-
4ion Of finding in it ample justitca-
Jion for and proof of the opinions
which he entertains and expresses concerning
The thriftlessness the immortality, and the
Ignorance of this despised race. Now we
have it |" such a one would exclalm IN the Joy
of his heart 'Here are the figures, prepared
by the officers of the British Government,
according to law, and therefore unquestion-
ably correct Now, let us see what sort OF
Deople these wild Irishmen are at home, where
fhey are not elevated and refined by the ex-
ample and precept of a superior peoples where
fhey are wholly under the control of their
priests; and where they do not inhale the
air of this blessed land of freedom !" Natu-
rally the first page to which our anti-Irish
friend would turn would be that on which
was recorded the number of lllegitmate
births. ''An ignorant, degraded, reckless,
and immoral people"-and these are the cpl
ihets most in use among radical politicians
and cler6ymen in the United States when
speaking of Irishmen-will be sure to care
little for the sanctity of marriage and to give
full rein to their passion and lust. Well, what
are the facts The proportion of illegitimate
births to the total number of births in Ire
land is 3S to each 1000. More than there
ought to be, of course; but in England-en-
lightened and Protestant England-the pro-
portion is GA to each 1000; and in Scotland
Bible-loving and God-fearing Scotland-it is
80 to each 1000! Here is a fearful dsappoint-
Ment. The figures, according to all the ideas
and beliefs of those who sneer at the 'loH
Irish, ought to be reversed; Scotland the
land of Knox and the stronghold of Pres1y-
terianism, should be the most virtuous of the
three kingdoms; England, the bulwark of the
blessed Reformation, should not be far be-
hind; and priest-ridden Ireland should, by all
the rules of logic be stepped to the lips in
vice. But these illogical figures will not
square with the theories, and persist in show
ing that England is nearly twice and Scotland
nearly three times as depraved in this matter
rs Ireland.
But this is not the worst of it. There is
one portion of Ireland, the province of Con
naught which is almost exclusively peoplet
by Celts and Roman Catholics, the proper
tions being ninety-fve of the former to five
of all other races and creeds; and there il
another portion, the province of Ulster, wher
the population is about equally divided be
tween Protestants and Roman Catholics, tn
Protestants being almost wholly of Scotcl
blood and of the Presbyterian faith. And il
the province of Connaught the proportion o
illegitimate births is only 10 in each 1000
while in the province Of Ulster 1t is 62 to eacl
bnIa ic OH thra
times as immoral as Ireland, a whole; bu
the province in Ireland which has one-hal
of its population people of Scotch blood
more than three times as immoral as the ad
jacent province which is peopled almos
wholly by full-blooded Irishmen and blinde
Papists. What has the Evangelical Allianc
in New York to say to this There is nothin
to show that all of the illegitimate births i
Ulster are to be charged to the Scotch popula
tion of that district for all that appears t
the contrary, the Irish half of the population
may be responsible for part of them; but ma
it not be concluded that if population hal
Irish and half Scotch, half Catholic and ha
Protestant is three times as immoral as on
which is almost wholly Irish and Catholic, th
Scotch are the most in fault, and that the
have probably led their Irish neighbors int
temptation And is not this conclusio
greatly strengthened by the fact that SEQ
land, in which there is q very small Iris
DODulatlOn, mas Inre0 UllneS us IluCu WlckeU
ness of this nature as Ireland, in which ther
is a very small Scotch population
At this stage of his investigations, our ant
Celtic friend would probably throw away th
Registrars report in disgust; but, should b
do so, he would deprive himself of the consC
lation which he might derive from certai
tables which seem to sh ow that, although I'll
Irish are twice as virtuous as the English an
three times as virtuous as the Scotch, the
are twice as ignorant as the English and foT
times as ignorant as the Scotch, and thi
nearly one-half of the Irish in Ireland are
sunken in darkness that they are unable t
write their own names 1t seems that 100
every 259 of the Irish bridegrooms, and 1C
in every 100 of the Irish brides, sign the ma
riage register with mark, as being III
able to write their names; while
England the proportion is 100 in Al
of the men and 100 in 300 of I'll
women, and in Scotland only 100 in 81
males and 100 in 419 females. This seen
all the more inexphcable since, for the la
twenty-five years. Ireland has enjoyed muC
better and more general supply Of the meal
OF education than England, and almost
good as that of Scotland 1t has been il
geniously suggested that this apparent pr
Valence of ignorance among the Irish is mo,
apparent than real, and that Paddy an
Bridget abstained from signing their name
not because they could not, but because tn,
would not, by reason of a certain superstitic
which exists among them, and which lea
them to ''attach some sort of dread signi
pance to the signing of their names, and
Imagine that there is greater caution al
prudence in only making their mark" The
may he SOmethinO in this. but In pursua tb