12 JANUARY 1918, Page 13

THE HIGH COURT IN IRELAND.

[To tam Earroa or rue " SPECTATOR."] Sta,—The thanks of the public are due to you for your publica- tion in your last issue of the letter signed " A Loyal Irish Tax- payer" concerning the recent judicial appointment in Ireland. The fact that the majority of the Irish Judges have very little -work to do, and that even that little is rapidly diminishing, is well known to everybody connected with the legal profession. That an appointment should be made in such circumstances is a grave scandal. It amounts almost to a crime that it should be made at a time when people are called on for the safety of the country to lend all they have to a hard-pressed Treasury. The only object of the appointment is to reward services to a political Party at an expense of £3,500 per annum out of public funds. As pointed out by your correspondent, the opposing Party are likely soon to be compensated by similar pilfering in Land Commission appointments. An inquiry should be held to ascertain on whose representation this appointment was made. The silence of the daily Press, when the facts are notorious, is a strange and sinister circumstance. When a deed of this kind can be perpetrated with impunity, what confidence can we have in the administration of other Departments whose condition is less known to the public ?