There was an amusing debate on Wednesday on Mr. Crilly's
Board of Guardians (Ireland) Bill, of which the second reading was carried without a division ; but not till Mr. Morley had intimated that he had no intention of accepting all its pro- visions, and that he regarded it only as an expression of the opinion that local government in Ireland should be recon- stituted on a popular basis, that ex-officio Guardians and plural voting should be abolished, and that something should be done for labourers' cottages, though that something ought not to be what Mr. Crilly had proposed. The speech of the evening was Colonel Saunderson's, which, though it was not altogether relevant to the special proposals of the Bill, was an extremely amusing illustration of the mode in which the agenda paper is apt to be dealt with in Ireland at meetings where any popular proposal is brought forward. At Tulla, in the County of Clare, there was a meeting of the Board of Guardians to elect a medical officer. According to the Dublin Daily Express, whose account had never been impugned, twelve out of thirteen elected Guardians were present, but only one ex-officio Guardian, who left before the business began. The chairman, who did not take the chair till an hour and a half after the usual hour of meeting, left time for the singing of a series of popular songs by a gentle- man of the name of Kennedy, who was received with rounds of applause. When the chair was taken, the less popular candidate for the position of medical officer was received with a torrent of abuse by one of the "audience," who jumped on the Board table. No effort was made to clear the room, though there were forty policemen in attendance outside ; and when the more popular candidate was declared to be duly elected, it turned out that no one had proposed and no one had seconded him. After this the vice-chairman was mobbed.
Previous page
