Queen's County returns three members to the Imperial Parliament, two for the county and one for the borough of Portarlington. The county jail is at Maryborough, where the assizes are held. The county infirmary is at Maryborough, as also the district lunatic asylum, to which the county is entitled to send 50 patients. There are fever hospitals at Mountrath, Mountmellick, Abbeyleix, and Mary borough; and dispensaries in 21 places. Savings backs are established at Abbeyleix, Portarlington, and Stradbally; and loan funds at Abbey leix, Aghaboe, Crettyard, Durrow, Monntrath, Portarlingtou, and Timahoe. In September 1852 there were 82 National schools in operation, attended by 3935 male and 4407 female children.
History and Antiquities.—The county was anciently comprehended in the districts of Leix and Ossory. The King of Ossory, after the invasion, made peace with the English, and managed to retain his independence. In the reign of Edward IL, O'More, an Irish chief tain, to whom Mortimer had intrusted the administration of his domain, the ancient district of Leix, became so powerful as to hold it for himself, and the district was the seat of almost incessant war between the 011ores and the English. In Edward VI.'s reign the 011ores were defeated by Sir Edward Bellingham, the lord deputy, who re-annexed their territories to the English pale. A new rebellion in the reign of Mary was quelled with a severity which threatened to extirpate the inhabitants; and two shires were formed, one being name' after the queen, and the other after her consort, Philip of Spain. In the latter part of the reign of Elizabeth the O'Mores were again iu rebellion, and the county was invaded by the lord deputy, the Earl of Essex (1599), who broko the power of the rebellious clan: their ruin was completed by Lord Mountjoy, the successor of Essex.
In 1641 Ro?er More, head of the now reduced Sept of the (Mores, was the mainspring of the rebellion. Several castles fell into the hands of the insurgents. In 1646 the insurgent force from Mater, under Owen Roe O'Neale, occupied Maryborough and several other strongholds; but the Parliamentarians maintained a strong garrison in the castle of Borris-in.Ossory, by a party of which, in 1647, the neighbouring fort of Ballaghmoro was taken. In 1649 DIaryborough and some other places were taken from the insurgents under Owen Roo O'Neal; by the Royalists under Ormond, and shortly afterwards they were taken from the Royalists by the Parliamentarians under colonels Ilawson and Reynolds. In the war of the revolution some fighting took place in the county, in which tho Jacobites were defeated by William's army.
Danish raths and other ancient tumuli occur in the parishes of Lea, Killeahin, and Agbaboe, and other parts of the county. At Timahoo there is a round tower, nearly perfect ; and at Killesbin and Rose nallis are the remains of two others. The principal ecclesiastical remains are the ruins of an abbey at Aghaboe, of a priory at Aglima cart, and of a monastery at Rathaspeck. Of numerous feudal anti quities, the most remarkable are the remains of the castles of the Fitzpatrick. at Castletown and 13orria-in-Ossory, of Lea Castle near Portarlington, and those of a castle of Earl Strongbow, on the rock of Dunsmase, a few miles cast from Maryborough.