The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-03-20

CRIME IN IRELANp.-The following take
from q correspondent of the Pail Mall Gazette
As that journal is known for its extreme anti
patty to Irishmen and Catholicity, the extort
ed praise is the more noteworthy:
The criminal statistics of ireland admit of n
good deal of curious speculation, but one
who has not studied the character of the peo-
pie on the spot realize how these figures
are affected by the religious faith of the couu-
try. The machinery and organization of the
Roman Catholic Church are almost perfect AS a
repressive agent upon certain classes of crimes
which are treated, of course, under the head of
sins. The system of confession works wonders
in this way. 1t must be borne in mind that
the Irish peasant and the Irish artisan are in
variably practical worshipers. In this they
differ from their English fellows. They have
a constant active faith in the supernatural !;
the creed they hold is brought close to them by
sleep in their watches, and above all they are
made to attend to what they have learned to
call their duty" in which they are directly
placed beneath an influence that they are
taught to consider divine id its origin as if
it manated from o visible God To say that
the priests are the sort of creatures described
in the filthy work some time ago strewn about
the streets by the Protestant Association, would
be to display an entire Ignorance of the ipsti-
tuition to which they belong There is no
doubt that they preach virtue, law and order
to their focks, not only in the chapels from the
pulpits, but in the vestries or aisles in which
the penitentinl box is set up. And they have
TINS check upon the growth of mischief, that
their patients are obliged to disclose to them
the premonitory symptoms. Apart altogether
from the truth or falsehood of such an estab-
lishment as this, it will be at once apparent
that Its consequences upon affairs of police
will be strongly marked
Crimes against chastity are less frequent in
ireland than in, perhaps, any other country in
the world. The woman who falls into trouble
amongst the people meets with n more cruel
fate than is even the lot, of her sister in Eng
land Wife-beating in the agricultural dis
tricts is ALMOST unknown; wife murder is most
unusual The parish priest sits hearing matri-
monial causes that may be brought before him
and they often are--and constantly effects a
reconciliation before matters have come to the
crisis of the poker or the blucher boot so much
in vogue in England. Concubinage, common
among navves, miners, 1aborers i'll England, is
regarded with the greatest horror and detesta-
tion in Ireland by tie poorer section of the
population. scandal of the kind occurring
in parish is exposed at once from the altar
and the offendars must either be made 'honest"
or betake themselves to America. This will
account in measure for the exceedingly high
position Ireland claims on the score of chastity
You must have observed the favorable con
trast that Ireland makes with England on the
subject of suicide. An Irishman never can
feel himself SO beaten in the battle of life as
to swallow poison or blow out his brains Hell