the disregard of this claim would provoke well-informed Irishmen, and weaken the Union perhaps greatly; and, after all, is it a seemly sight, is it becoming in the eyes of the world, that the richest country in Europe should practically impose an iniquitous burden upon the poorest? 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 failure--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.