Chapter VIII

THE QUESTIONS OF IRISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND EDUCATION--OTHER
QUESTIONS--CONCLUSION

Irish county government--The grand jury system in the
eighteenth century--Its merits and defects--The grand jury
system in the nineteenth century, and especially since
1836--The Irish poor law system--Elected and _ex-officio_
guardians--The local government of cities and towns in
Ireland--Municipal institutions founded in Ireland by the
Norman kings--Why they did not prosper--Boroughs and
municipalities founded by James I. and the Stuarts--Their
condition in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries--The
Municipal Reform Act of 1840--The Towns Commissioners
Acts--Attempts to reform the municipal system of local
government in Ireland--The Local Government of Ireland Act,
1898--Complete change in Irish local government--The County
Councils--The County Borough Councils--The District, Rural,
and the Urban District Councils--Their functions, rights,
and duties--All these bodies placed on a democratic basis--
Attitude of the County Councils in the southern provinces--
Education in Ireland--History of primary education--The
National system of education--The principles on which it is
founded--How it has worked, and what its results have
been--Secondary education in Ireland--Its history--Its
present condition very imperfect--The Intermediate
Education Act--University education in Ireland--Its
history--Trinity College--The Queen's Colleges and the
Queen's University founded by Peel--Their comparative
failure--Mr. Gladstone's Bill to reform University education
in Ireland--Its glaring errors and failures--Trinity College
thrown open in 1873--The Royal University founded in 1879--
Present state of University education in Ireland--The true
principles of reform--Other Irish questions--Conclusion 309-360

APPENDIX 361-428

INDEX 429

Present Irish Questions