The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1911-12-16
Ireland Practically Crimeless as
Compared With England, Scot
land and Wales.
Only % Prisons in Entire Country
Scotland With Equal Popu-
lation has So.
Offences Against Morals in Eng
land 1898 as Compared With
III in Ireland.

A faVorite SANDER made use of at
every possible opportunity by those
who oppose Irish Home Rule is to rep
resent the country as a seething hot
bed Of crime and to draw the conclu-
sion that the people are unfit to gov
ern themselves. No statement could
be farther from the truth. Official
figures not only disprove the assertion
but show that Ireland is crimeless as
compared with England, Scotland and
Wales
At meeting III London which was
largely made up of Tories Mr..
Redmond took occasion to call
the attention of his auditors
to the false and misleading state
ments which the enemies of the Irish
cause were circulating throughout
England on leaflets, one of which fell
into his hands. Mr.. Redmond said:
This leaflet goes on to say, as you
have hearJ; that the loyalists number
more than a million persons, that their
farms today are burnt, their machin-
cry and crops destroyed, their cattle
injured that they are shot at and
stoned, that they cannot buy and SELL
that, NO man. dare supply them, with
the necessities of life, and it goes on
to say that if they suffered SO much
today under weak British Govern
ment, how much worse would they be
under Home Rule? Well, ladies and
gentlemen, I say that that statement
is in every sentence and every line, an
Infamous falsehood. I assert here be-
fore you that Ireland is freer from all
these serious kinds of crime mentioned
i'll that leafet than England or Scot
land or Wales. 1 have here the official
criminal statistics which were last
published. They are:
Indictable offences (men tried)-
England, 67,149 (7s murders above av-
erage for Is years.; Ireland, $50.
And the Report says: 1.-THE high figure
for crime in England, which was the
marked feature in the statistics for
to the increase of crime generally since
1899, the figures leave no room for
doubt. There has been an increase in
cases of murder, attempted murder,
sexual and unnatural offences. The
number of persons tried for offences
against property with violence ex-
burglary and house breaking is spe-
cially notable
And the Report goes on to say that
there is steady decrease in all forms
of serious crime, but that in England
all classes of offences, large and small,
against persons and property, are 65,-
gentlemen, 1 were to pursue this mat
ter further, I could go on and point out
that SO far as offences against morals
are concerned, the figures are-Eng-
land, 1898; Ireland, Ill. And, further
what do we find? We find that pris-
ons in Ireland are being shut up. There
have been ia prisons shut up, and at
the present moment we have only one
convict prison in the whole Of Ireland
and including prisons and bridewells
in n-operation now in the whole coun-
try there are only %, whereas in Scot
land, which has population about the
same as Ireland, there are SO. Ireland
therefore, compare lively speaking. is
crimeless, and 1 say that for any man
or set of men to send out such leaflet
as this is disgraceful and crime
asking as it does the people of Eng
land to accept a whole series Of in
famous falsehoods like this. Some Of
you may have thought that it was 60
ing too far to institute comparison
at all; there Is no necessity to talk
about statistics Of crime when the!
are SO very unfavorable. But in thai
respect you must make some allow.
ance for us. We are being held up tc
public odium and represented as Grim
inals.
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Death Of Irish Peer.
Lord Dunsandle died at Brighton or