that, under a reformed method
of procedure in respect of Private Bill Legislation, enterprise would be
freed from the restrictions which at present hinder its free exercise,
and a substantial and a steadily increasing benefit would accrue to
Ireland.

INCREASE AND DECREASE OF POPULATION OF CITIES AND TOWNS
IN IRELAND HAVING IN 1901 A POPULATION EXCEEDING 10,000.

(_Census of Ireland_ 1911.)

Cities, towns, etc. Percentage of increase since 1901.

Rathmines and Rathgar 17.1
Portadown 16.2
Pembroke 13.4
Belfast 10.4
Belfast[A] 10.1
Dublin 6.4
Lisburn 6.2
Ballymena 4.5
Lurgan 3.0
Sligo 2.7
Dublin[A] 2.6
Wexford 2.6
Waterford 2.5
Cork[A] 2.3
Londonderry[A] 2.3
Limerick[A] 1.2
Clonmel 1.1
Cork 0.7
Limerick 0.7
Dundalk 0.4
Newry[A] 5.2
Newry 3.6
Drogheda 2.6
Galway[A] 2.0
Galway 1.3
Kilkenny[A] 1.0
Kingstown 0.9
Kilkenny 0.9
Waterford[A] 0.4

Those marked [A] are Parliamentary Boroughs.

XVIII

IRISH POOR LAW REFORM

By JOHN E. HEALY (Editor of the _Irish Times_)

An article on Irish Poor Law Reform written within the limits assigned
to me can only be constructive in the broadest sense. It is a serious
and tangled problem: the existing system has developed in a haphazard
fashion; there is about it hardly anything that is logical, much that is
anomalous, some things that are tragic. The present conditions of the
Irish Poor Law system are set forth in the reports of various Royal and
Viceregal Commissions. The most important are those of the Viceregal
Commission on Poor Law Reform in Ireland (1906), the Departmental
Commission on Vagrancy, the Royal Commission on the Care and Control of
the Feeble-minded, and the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws (Majority
Report). The study of all these reports is a rather distracting
business. They establish between them an urgent need for reform; on the
methods, and even principles, of reform there ar