d open the door
to peculation and jobbery, is to be found in the Local Government Board
Report for 1903, issued on the expiry of the first term of office of the
County Councils. It expressly declares that in no matter have the
Councils been more successful than in their financial administration,
and goes on to say that the introduction of political differences in the
giving of contracts and the appointment of officers has occurred only in
quite exceptional cases, and it concludes by declaring its opinion that
the conduct of their affairs by the various local authorities will
continue to justify the delegation to them of large powers transferred
to their control by the Local Government Acts.

So much for the working of an Act, of which Lord Londonderry spoke as
one "which the Loyalists view with apprehension and dismay." So far as
certain loss of their supremacy was concerned they might indeed do so,
but it is not for Englishmen to throw stones, since events have proved
that it is not in the Irish local bodies, but in some of those of London
itself, that financial scandals have been rife.

The one important respect in which the system of local government in
Ireland differs from that established in England, Scotland, and Wales is
that in the first named country the control of the constabulary is ruled
out of the functions of the local bodies, and is still maintained under
the central executive. The plethora of police in the country is one of
the most striking features that meet the eye of anyone visiting it for
the first time. The observant foreigner who, after travelling in
England, crosses to Ireland and there sees on every wayside station at
least two policemen varying the _ennui_ of their unoccupied days by
watching the few trains that pass through, feels homely pleasure at the
thought that the _octroi_ system which he has missed in England is in
force in Ireland, and supposes that the men in uniform whom he cannot
fail to see are the officials of the municipal customs. The tradition in
Ireland is that half a century ago Smith O'Brien, who was under warrant
for arrest, was detained at the station at Thurles by a railway guard,
and that atonement has been made ever since for the absence of police on
that occasion.

The Royal Irish Constabulary, than whom it would be difficult to find a
physically finer lot of men, is a semi-military force living in
barracks, armed with rifles, bayonets, swords, and revolvers. Well ma