The procedure of the county courts was improved, and in places where crime was rampant, and the local magistrates did not appear efficient, stipendiary magistrates were appointed. This gave offence to many, and he drew down on himself a storm of opprobrium by dismissing Colonel Verner from the magistracy for publicly toasting "The Battle of the Diamond." Taking the mean of the years 1826-'8, and 1836-'8, the various classes of crime in Ireland were reduced under his administration—10 per cent, in the more serious cases, and as much as 86 per cent. in house-breaking. On the other hand, minor offences, such as misdemeanours and larceny apparently increased, owing to their being taken cognizance of by the police. In 1838 the Poor-law system was established in Ireland, and it was within the next few years carried into practical operation mainly through his exertions. In April 1838 a communication was received by the Irish Government from Lords Glengall and Lismore and thirty other Tipperary magistrates, relative to the murder of a Mr. Cooper, giving a dreadful account of the state of the country, and calling upon the Government for more stringent measures for the suppression of crime. Drummond replied in a long letter, dated Dublin Castle, 22nd May 1838, pointing out the gross exaggerations that characterized their communication, and taking the opportunity of expressing his condemnation of the manner in which Irish landlords generally neglected their duties towards their tenants. It contained the words: "Property has its duties as well as its rights; to the neglect of those duties in times past is mainly to be ascribed that diseased state of society in which such crimes take their rise." The enunciation of this apparently simple aphorism raised a perfect storm of rage and indignation, and in both Houses of Parliament Drummond's policy was called in question. His leading scheme for the benefit of Ireland was the development of the resources of the country by the construction of a system of railways in whole or in part by Government. An Irish Railway Commission was appointed in October 1836 (the Dublin and Kingstown Railway being then the only one in course of construction). Drummond, appointed at his own solicitation one of the commission, became in truth its mainspring. It reported in July 1838. "Its labours were most arduous; their report on the general condition of the country and its trade, with the evidence on which it was founded, and the explanatory maps and plans which accompanied it, is one of the ablest ever submitted to Parliament." Its main recommendation was the construction by Government of trunk lines from Dublin to Cork, with branches to Kilkenny, Limerick, and Waterford, and from Dublin north to Navan, branching to Belfast and Enniskillen. Owing to political and private jealousies this well-planned scheme was defeated—one that would doubtless ultimately have expanded into an efficient system of Government railways all through Ireland, and have saved the construction of many needless lines. Drummond's calculations as to the paying capabilities of the different routes have been singularly verified. Other services in the cause of Ireland followed—the Municipal Boundaries Commission, the abolition of the hulks at Cork and Dublin, the suppression of the disgraceful Sunday driinking booths in the Phoenix Park. But the failure of his railway scheme preyed upon his mind, and his health never recovered the arduous labours undertaken in connexion with it. About this period he was urged to enter Parliament, but declined, saying that he felt he could serve Ireland better in his official position of Under-Secretary. In the winter of 1839 his health became visibly impaired; he sank rapidly, and died of internal erysipelas, on 15th April 1840, aged 42. When asked whether he desired to be buried in Ireland or Scotland, he whispered; "In Ireland, the land of my adoption; I have loved her well and served her faithfully, and lost my life in her service." He was buried at Mount Jerome. His biographer, Mr. M'Lennan, says: "In Ireland his death was bewailed as a national calamity. The simplicity of his devotion to her, before known to many, and now believed by all on the evidence of his dying words, combined Irishmen of all classes and parties in a common lamentation." Hogan's fine statue of Thomas Drummond, in the City Hall, Dublin, erected by public subscription, attests the estimation with which his memory was regarded. 109
Drummond, William Hamilton, D.D., a distinguished Unitarian divine, was born probably in the north of Ireland in 1778. His poetical talents were displayed in his Battle of Trafalgar, the Giant's Causeway, and his Translation of Lucretius; yet his best known work is, perhaps, his edition of Hamilton Rowan's Autobiography (Dublin, 1840). Most of his life was passed in Dublin as pastor of the Strand-street Unitarian Congregation, and he was for many years Librarian of the
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