View report page

9
are here hidden, will easily explain that which has
so doubtful a signification. In one case, perhaps,
the number of illegitimate births may be the
true exponent of immorality, and that is, when,
all other circumstances being alike, the proportions
vary. There is, for example, no reason for supposing
that there is greater opportunity or desire
for masking the immorality in the Eastern Union
than in the Western, and yet in one the proportion
of illegitimate births is 44 per 1,000, and in the other
35. This accords with our knowledge of the habits
of the people in the two districts, for in the Western
Union, where there is the largest proportion of
illegitimacy, there is also the largest amount of
open immorality. It is there that we encounter
the greatest difficulty in checking that indiscriminate
association of the sexes, which is so common
with the lower classes of the Irish poor. I hope to
examine this fully, and to be able to show you that
it is a matter which requires a strong power to
deal with it.
Lastly, in respect of the births, I have to say
that of the 3,184 children born in the course of the
year 1,643 were males, and 1,541 females—numbers
which are in the proportion of 1,066 males to 1,000
females. In the rest of England the proportions
are as 1,045 males to 1,000 females; but the