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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/14342-0.txt b/14342-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5a03c2f --- /dev/null +++ b/14342-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8206 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14342 *** + +IRELAND + +IN THE NEW CENTURY + + +BY THE RIGHT HON. + +SIR HORACE PLUNKETT, K.C.V.O., F.R.S. + + +LONDON + +JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. + +1904 + +_Printed by_ BROWNE AND NOLAN, LTD., _Dublin_ + + + +TO THE MEMORY OF + +W.E.H. LECKY, + + +I DEDICATE ALL IN THIS BOOK +THAT IS WORTHY OF THE FRIENDSHIP +WITH WHICH HE HONOURED ME, +AND OF THE COUNSEL WHICH HE GAVE ME +FOR MY GUIDANCE IN IRISH PUBLIC LIFE. + + + + +PREFACE + +Those who have known Ireland for the last dozen years cannot have failed +to notice the advent of a wholly new spirit, clearly based upon +constructive thought, and expressing itself in a wide range of fresh +practical activities. The movement for the organisation of agriculture +and rural credit on co-operative lines, efforts of various kinds to +revive old or initiate new industries, and, lastly, the creation of a +department of Government to foster all that was healthy in the voluntary +effort of the people to build up the economic side of their life, are +each interesting in themselves. When taken together, and in conjunction +with the literary and artistic movements, and viewed in their relation +to history, politics, religion, education, and the other past and +present influences operating upon the Irish mind and character, these +movements appear to me to be worthy of the most thoughtful consideration +by all who are responsible for, or desire the well-being of the Irish +people. + +I should not, however, in days when my whole time and energies belong to +the public service, have undertaken the task of writing a book on a +subject so complex and apparently so inseparable from heated +controversy, were I not convinced that the expression of certain +thoughts which have come to me from practical contact with Irish +problems, was the best contribution I could make to the work on which I +was engaged. I wished, if I could, to bring into clearer light the +essential unity of the various progressive movements in Ireland, and to +do something towards promoting a greater definiteness of aim and method, +and a better understanding of each other's work, among those who are in +various ways striving for the upbuilding of a worthy national life in +Ireland. + +So far the task, if difficult, was congenial and free from +embarrassment. Unhappily, it had been borne in upon me, in the course of +a long study of Irish life, that our failure to rise to our +opportunities and to give practical evidence of the intellectual +qualities with which the race is admittedly gifted, was due to certain +defects of character, not ethically grave, but economically paralysing. +I need hardly say I refer to the lack of moral courage, initiative, +independence and self-reliance--defects which, however they may be +accounted for, it is the first duty of modern Ireland to recognise and +overcome. I believe in the new movements in Ireland, principally because +they seem to me to exert a stimulating influence upon our moral fibre. + +Holding such an opinion, I had to decide between preserving a discreet +silence and speaking my full mind. The former course would, it appeared +to me, be a poor example of the moral courage which I hold to be +Ireland's sorest need. Moreover, while I am full of hope for the future +of my country, its present condition does not, in my view, admit of any +delay in arriving at the truth as to the essential principles which +should guide all who wish to take a part, however humble, in the work of +national regeneration. + +I desire to state definitely that I have not written in any +representative capacity except where I say so explicitly. I write on my +own responsibility, with the full knowledge that there is much in the +book with which many of those with whom I work do not agree. + +_December_, 1903. + + + + +CONTENTS + +PART I. + +_THEORETICAL._ + +CHAPTER I + +THE ENGLISH MISUNDERSTANDING. + + Fidelity of the Irish to the National Ideal + Disregard of Material Advantage in its Pursuit + Home Rule Movement under Gladstone + The Anti-Climax under Lord Rosebery + The Logic of Events and the Dawn of the Practical + The Mutual Misunderstanding of England and Ireland + The Dunraven Conference produces a Revolution in English Thought + about Ireland + The Actual Change Examined + Future Misunderstanding best averted by considering Nature of + Anti-English Feeling + Illustration from Irish-American Life + Importance of Sentiment in Ireland--English Habit of Ignoring + Historical Grievances Still Operative + The Commercial Restrictions--Remaining Effects of + Irish Land Tenure--Lord Dufferin on + Defects of Land Laws--Their Effect on Agriculture + Right Attitude towards Historic Grievances + Plea for Broader and more Philosophic View of Irish Question + Simple Explanations and Panaceas Deprecated + A Many-Sided Human Problem + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE IRISH QUESTION IN IRELAND. + + Misunderstanding of the Irish People by the English and by Themselves + Anomalies of Irish Life + The New Movement--Position of Nationalists and Unionists in it + North and South + The Question of Rural Life + Economic Side of the Question + Grazing versus Tillage + Peasant Organisation to be Supplemented by State-Aid + Uneconomic Holdings too Prevalent + Remedies Proposed + Salvation not by Agriculture Alone + Rural Industries and the Irish Home + Reasons for Arrested Development of Home Life + Inter-Dependence of the Sentimental and Practical in Ireland + Outlines of Succeeding Chapters + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE INFLUENCE OF POLITICS UPON THE IRISH MIND. + + Legislation as a Substitute for Work + Political Shortcomings of Unionism and Nationalism Compared + Action of the Unionist Party Reviewed + Two Main Causes of its Lack of Success + The Contribution of Ulster + The Nationalist Party + Are Irishmen Good Politicians? + The Irish and the Scotch-Irish in America + America's Interest in the Problem + Part Played by English Government in Producing Modern Irish Disabilities + Causes of the Growth of National Feeling + Retardation of Political Education by the One-Man System + And by Politicians of To-Day + Defence of Nationalist Policy on Ground of Tactics Considered + The Forces opposed to Home Rule--How Dealt with + Local Government--How it might have been utilised + After Home Rule? + Beginnings of Political Education + The Irish Parliamentary Party + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION UPON SECULAR LIFE IN IRELAND. + + Influences of Religion in Ireland + What is Toleration? + Protestantism in Irish Life + Roman Catholicism and Economics + Power of the Roman Catholic Clergy + Has it been Abused? + Church Building and Monastic Establishments + Clerical Education + Responsibility of the Clergy for Irish Character + The Church and Temperance + The Inculcation of Chastity + The Priest in Politics + New Movement among the Roman Catholic Clergy + Duty and Interest of Protestantism + What each Creed has to Learn from the other + + +CHAPTER V. + +A PRACTICAL VIEW OF IRISH EDUCATION. + + English Government and Education + The Kildare Street Society + Scheme of Thomas Wyse + Early Attempts at Practical Education + Recent Reports on Irish Systems + The Policy of the Department of Agriculture + The Example of Denmark + University Education for Roman Catholics + Maynooth and its Limitations + Trinity College + Its Lack of Influence on the Irish Mind + A Democratic University Called for + National and Economic in its Aims + Views of Roman Catholic Ecclesiastics + The Two Irelands + Lord Chesterfield on Education and Character + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THROUGH THOUGHT TO ACTION. + + A Word to my Critics + The Gaelic League + Compared with the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society + Objects and Constitution of the League + Filling the Gap in Irish Education + Patriotism and Industry + Nationality and Nationalism + A Possible Danger + Extravagances in the Movement + The Gaelic League and the Rural Home + Meeting with Harold Frederic + His Pessimistic Views on the Celt + A New Solution of the Problem--Organised Self-Help + English and Irish Industrial Qualities + Special Value of the Associative Qualities + Conclusion of Part I. + + * * * * * + +PART II. + +_PRACTICAL._ + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE NEW MOVEMENT; ITS FOUNDATION ON SELF-HELP. + + Distrust of Novel Schemes often well justified + The Story of the New Movement + Necessitated by Foreign Competition + Production and Distribution + Causes of Continental Superiority + Objects for which Combination is Desirable + How to Organise the Industrial Army + Help from England + Doubts and Difficulties + Some Favouring Conditions + The Beginning of the Work--Co-operative Creameries + The Social Problem + Early Efforts and Experiences + Foundation of the I.A.O.S. + Its Present Position + Agricultural Banks + The Brightening of Home Life + Staff of the Society + Philanthropy and Business + Enquiries from Abroad + Moral and Social Effects of the New Movement + Unknown Leaders + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE RECESS COMMITTEE. + + After Six Years + Opportunity for State-Aid + Combination of Political and Industrial Leadership + A Letter to the Press + Mr. Justin McCarthy's Reply + Mr. Redmond's Reply + Formation of the Committee + Investigations on the Continent + Recommendations of the Committee + Position of the Nationalist Members of the Committee + Chief Reliance on Local Effort + Public Opinion on the New Proposals + Adoption of the Bill to give effect to them + Mr. Gerald Balfour's Policy + Industrial Home Rule + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A NEW DEPARTURE IN IRISH ADMINISTRATION. + + Functions and Constitution of the New Department + How it is Financed + The Representative Element in its Constitution + The Right to Vote Supplies + Consultative Committee on Education + The Department Linked with the Local Government System + Successful Co-operation with Local Government Bodies + And with Voluntary Societies + The New Department and the Congested Districts Board + The Reception of the Department by the Country + Some Typical Callers + A Wrong Impression Anticipated + + +CHAPTER X. + +GOVERNMENT WITH THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED. + + Summary of Previous Chapter + The Attitude of the People towards the Department + Method of Co-operation with Local Bodies + State-Aid, Direct and Indirect + The Department and the Large Towns + The Department's Plans for Developing Agriculture + The Industrial Problem and Education + The Difficulty of Finding Trained Teachers + How Surmounted + Difficulties of Agricultural Education + Decision to Adopt Itinerant Instruction + Double Purpose of this Instruction + Relation of the Department with Secondary Schools + Importance of Domestic Economy Teaching + Provision of Teachers in Domestic Economy + Miscellaneous Industries + Competition of the Factory + The Department's Fabian Policy Justified + Its Support by the Country + Improvement of Live-Stock + Best Method of giving Object Lessons in Agriculture + Sea Fisheries + Continental Tours for Irish Teachers + Cork Exhibition of 1902 + Things and Ideas + Concluding Words + + +INDEX + + + + +PART I. + +_THEORETICAL_. + + + "It is hard to say where history ends, and where religion and + politics begin; for history, religion and politics grow on one stem + in Ireland, an eternal trefoil."--_Lady Gregory_. + + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE ENGLISH MISUNDERSTANDING. + + +Whatever may be the ultimate verdict of history upon the long struggle +of the majority of the Irish people for self-government, the picture of +a small country with large aspirations giving of its best unstintingly +to the world, while gaining for itself little beyond sympathy, will +appeal to the imagination of future ages long after the Irish Question, +as we know it, has been buried. It may then, perhaps, be seen that the +aspirations came to nought because they were opposed to the manifest +destiny of the race, and that it should never have been expected or +desired that the Dark Rosaleen should 'reign and reign alone.' +Nevertheless, the fidelity and fortitude with which the national ideal +had been pursued would command admiration, even if the ideal itself were +to be altogether abandoned, or if it were to be ultimately realised in a +manner which showed that the methods by which its attainment had been +sought were the cause of its long postponement. Whatever the future may +have in store for the remnant of the Irish people at home, the continued +pursuit of a separate national existence by a nation which is rapidly +disappearing from the land of all its hopes, and the cherishing of +these hopes, not only by those who stay but also by those who go, will +stand as a monument to human constancy. + +The picture will be all the more remarkable when emphasised by a +contrast which the historian will not fail to draw. Across a narrow +streak of sea another people, during the same period, increased and +multiplied and prospered mightily, spread their laws and institutions, +and achieved in every portion of the globe material success which they +can call their own. Yet, although Irishmen have done much to win that +success for the English people to enjoy, and are to-day foremost in +maintaining the great empire which their brain and muscle were ever +ready to augment, Ireland makes no claim for herself in respect of the +achievement. It is to her but a proof of what her sons will do for her +in the coming time; it does not bring her nearer to her heart's desire. + +Although the nineteenth century, with all its marvellous contributions +to human progress, left Ireland with her hopes unfulfilled; although its +sun went down upon the British people with their greatest failure still +staring them in the face, its last decade witnessed at first a change in +the attitude of England towards Ireland, and afterwards a profound +revolution in the thoughts of Ireland about herself. The strangest and +most interesting feature of these developments was that in practical +England the Irish Question became the great political issue, while in +sentimental Ireland there set in a reaction from politics and an +inclination to the practical. The twentieth century has already brought +to birth the new Ireland upon whose problems I shall write. If the human +interest of these problems is to be realized, if their significance is +not to be as wholly misunderstood as that of every other Irish movement +which has perplexed the statesmen who have managed our affairs, they +must be studied in their relation to the English and Irish events of the +period in which the new Ireland was conceived. + +In 1885 Gladstone, appealing to an electorate with a large accession of +newly enfranchised voters, transferred the struggle over the Irish +Question from Ireland to Great Britain. The position taken up by the +average English Home Ruler was, it will be remembered, simple and +intelligible. The Irish had stated in the proper constitutional way what +they wanted, and that, in the first flush of a victorious democracy, +when counting heads irrespective of contents was the popular method of +arriving at political truth, was assumed to be precisely what they ought +to have. A long but inconclusive contest ensued. At times it looked as +if the Liberal-Irish alliance might snatch a victory for their policy. +But when Gladstone was forced to break with the Irish Leader, and +Parnellism without Parnell became obviously impossible, the English +realised that the working of representative institutions in Ireland had +produced not a democracy but a dictatorship, and they began to attach a +lesser significance to the verdict of the Irish polls. Their faith in +democracy was unimpaired, but, in their opinion, the Irish had not yet +risen to its dignity. So most English Radicals came round to a view +which they had always reprobated when advanced by the English +Conservatives, and political inferiority was added to the other moral +and intellectual defects which made the Irish an inferior race! + +The anti-climax to the Gladstone crusade was reached when Lord Rosebery +in 1894 took over the premiership from the greatest English advocate of +the Irish cause. The position of the new leader was very simple. In +effect, he told the Irish Nationalists that the English party he was +about to lead had done its best for them. They must now regard +themselves as partners in the United Kingdom, with the British as the +predominant partner. Until the predominant partner could be brought to +take the Irish view of the partnership, the relations between them must +remain substantially as they were. And not only must the concession of +Home Rule await the conversion of the British electorate, but before the +demand could be effectively preferred, another leader must rise up among +the Irish; and he, for all Lord Rosebery knew, was at the moment being +wheeled in a perambulator. This apparently cynical avowal of the new +premier's own attitude towards Home Rule accurately stated the facts of +the situation, and fairly reflected the mind of the British electorate, +after Irish obstruction had given them an opportunity of studying the +bearing of the Irish Question on English politics. + +If the logic of events was thus making for the removal of Home Rule from +the region of practical politics in England, an even more momentous +change was taking place in Ireland. Whilst the Home Rule controversy was +at its height in the 'eighties and early 'nineties, some Irish +grievances were incidentally dealt with--not always under the best +impulses or in the best way. The concentration of all the available +thought and energy of Irish public men upon an appeal to the passions +and prejudices of English parties had led to the further postponement of +all Irish endeavour to deal rationally and practically with her own +problems at home. But during the welter of contention which prevailed +after the fall of Parnell, there grew up in Ireland a wholly new spirit, +born of the bitter lesson which was at last being learned. The Irish +still clung undaunted to their political ideal, but its pursuit to the +exclusion of all other national aims had received a wholesome check. +Thought upon the problems of national progress broadened and deepened, +in a manner little understood by those who knew Ireland from without, +and, indeed, by many of those accounted wise among the observers from +within. Was the realisation of a distinctive national existence, many +began to ask themselves, to be for ever dependent upon the fortunes of a +political campaign? In any scheme of a reconstructed national life to +which the Irish would give of their best, there must be +distinctiveness--that much every man who is in touch with Irish life is +fully aware of--but the question of existence must not be altogether +ignored. At the rate the people were leaving the sinking ship, the Irish +Question would be settled in the not distant future by the disappearance +of the Irish. Had we not better look around and see how other countries +with more or less analogous conditions fared? Could we not--Unionists +and Nationalists alike--do something towards material progress without +abandoning our ideals? Could we not learn something from a study of what +our people were doing abroad? One seemed to hear the voice of Bishop +Berkeley, the biting pertinence of whose _Queries_ is ever fresh, asking +from the grave in which he had been laid to rest nearly a century and a +half ago 'whether it would not be more reasonable to mend our state than +complain of it; and how far this may be in our own power?' + +These questionings, though not generally heard on the platform or even +in the street, were none the less working in the depths of the Irish +mind, and found expression not so much in words as in deeds. Yet though +the downfall of Parnell released many minds from the obsession of +politics, the influence of that event was of a negative character, and +it took time to produce a beneficial effect. That fruitful last decade +of the nineteenth century saw the foundation of what will some day be +recognised as a new philosophy of Irish progress. Certain new principles +were then promulgated in Ireland, and gradually found acceptance; and +upon those principles a new movement was built. It is partly, indeed, to +expound and justify some, at any rate, of the principles and to give an +intelligible account of the practical achievement and future +possibilities of this movement that I write these pages. + +For English readers, to whom this introductory chapter is chiefly +addressed, I may here reiterate the opinion, which I have always held +and often expressed, that there is no real conflict of interest between +the two peoples and the two countries, and that the mutual +misunderstanding which we may now hope to see removed is due to a wide +difference of temperament and mental outlook. The English mind has never +understood the Irish mind--least of all during the period of the 'Union +of Hearts.' It is equally true that the Irish have largely misunderstood +both the English character and their own responsibility. The result has +been that their leaders, despite the brilliant capacity they have shown +in presenting the unhappy case of their country to the rest of the +world, have rarely presented it in the right way to the English people. +There have been many occasions during the last quarter of a century when +a calm, well-reasoned statement of the economic disadvantages under +which Ireland labours would, I am convinced, have successfully appealed +to British public opinion. It could have been shown that the development +of Ireland--the development not only of the resources of her soil but of +the far greater wealth which lies in the latent capacities of her +people--was demanded quite as much in the interest of one country as in +that of the other. + +Here, indeed, is an untilled field for those to whom the Irish Question +is yet a living one. If I could think that each country fully realised +its own responsibility in the matter, if I could think that the +long-continued misunderstanding was at an end, nothing would induce me +to trouble the waters at this auspicious hour, when a better feeling +towards Ireland prevails in Great Britain, and when the Irish people are +fully appreciative of the obviously sincere desire of England to be +generous to Ireland. But an examination of the events upon which the +prevailing optimism is based will show that, unhappily, +misunderstanding, though of another sort, still exists, and that Ireland +is as much as ever a riddle to the English mind. + +Now this new optimism in the English view of Ireland seems to be based, +not upon a recognition of the development of what I have ventured to +dignify with the title of a new philosophy of Irish progress, but upon a +belief that the spirit of moderation and conciliation displayed by so +many Irishmen in connection with the Land Act is due to the fact that my +incomprehensible countrymen have, under a sudden emotion, put away +childish things and learned to behave like grown-up Englishmen. +Throughout the press comments upon the Dunraven Conference and in public +speeches both inside and outside Parliament there has run a sense that a +sort of portent, a transformation scene, a sudden and magical +alteration in the whole spirit and outlook of the Irish people, has come +to pass. + +I feel some hesitation in asking the reader to believe that a great and +lasting revolution in Irish thought has been brought about in such a +moment in the life of a people as twelve short years. But a lesser +number of months seemed to the English mind adequate for the +accomplishment of the change. And what a change it was that they +conceived! To them, less than a year ago, the Irish Question was not +merely unsolved, but in its essential features appeared unaltered. After +seven centuries of experimental statecraft--so varied that the English +could not believe any expedient had yet to be tried--the vast majority +of the Irish people regarded the Government as alien, disputed the +validity of its laws, and felt no responsibility for administration, no +respect for the legislature, or for those who executed its decrees. And +this in a country forming an integral part of the United Kingdom, where +the fundamental basis of government is assumed to be the consent of the +governed! Nor were any hopes entertained that the cloud would quickly +pass. During the Boer war the prophets of evil, in predicting the +calamity which was to fall upon the British Empire, took as their text +the failure of English government in Ireland. When they wanted to paint +in the darkest colours the coming heritage of woe, they wrote upon the +wall, 'Another Ireland in South Africa'; and if any exception was taken +to the appropriateness of the phrase, it was certainly not on the +ground that Ireland had ceased to be a warning to British statesmen. + +I believe, quite as strongly as the most optimistic Englishman, that +there has been a great change from this state of things in Irish +sentiment, and my explanation of that change, if less dramatic than the +transformation theory, affords more solid ground for optimism. This +change in the sentiment of Irishmen towards England is due, not to a +sudden emotion of the incomprehensible Celt, but really to the +opinion--rapidly growing for the last dozen years--that great as is the +responsibility of England for the state of Ireland, still greater is the +responsibility of Irishmen. The conviction has been more and more borne +in upon the Irish mind that the most important part of the work of +regenerating Ireland must necessarily be done by Irishmen in Ireland. +The result has been that many Irishmen, both Unionists and Nationalists, +without in any way abandoning their opposition to, or support of, the +attempt to solve the political problem from without, have been +trying--not without success--to solve some part of the Irish Question +from within. The Report of the Recess Committee, on which I shall dwell +later, was the first great fruit of this movement, and the Dunraven +Treaty, which paved the way for Mr. Wyndham's Land Act, was a further +fruit, and not the result of an inexplicable transformation scene. + +The reason why I dwell on the true nature of the undoubted change in +the Irish situation is not in order to exaggerate the importance of the +part played by the new movement in bringing it about, nor to detract +from the importance of Parliamentary action, but because a mistaken view +of the change would inevitably postpone the firm establishment of an +improved mutual understanding between the two countries, which I regard +as an essential of Irish progress. I confess that my apprehension of a +new misunderstanding was aroused by the debates on the Land Bill in the +House of Commons. As regards the spirit of conciliation and moderation +displayed by the Irish, and the sincere desire exhibited by the British +to heal the chief Irish economic sore, the speeches were, if not +epoch-making, at any rate epoch-marking; but they showed little sense of +perspective or proportion in viewing the Irish Question, and little +grasp or appreciation of the large social and economic problems which +the Land Act will bring to the front. Temporary phenomena and +legislative machinery have been endowed with an importance they do not +possess, and miracles, it is supposed, are about to be worked in Ireland +by processes which, whatever rich good may be in them, have never worked +miracles, though they have not seldom excited very similar enthusiasms +in the economic history of other European lands. + +I agree, then, with most Englishmen in thinking, though for a different +reason, that the passing of the Land Act marked a new era in Ireland. +They regard it as productive of, or co-incident in time with, the dawn +of the practical in Ireland. I antedate that event by some dozen years, +and regard the Land Act rather as marking a new era, because it removes +the great obstacle which obscured the dawn of the practical for so many, +and hindered it for all. + +Whatever may have been the expectations upon which this great measure +was based, I, in common with most Irish observers, watched its progress +with unfeigned delight. The vast majority regarded the hundred millions +of credit and the twelve millions of 'bonus' as a generous concession to +Ireland; and I sympathised with those who deprecated the mischievous +suggestion, not infrequently heard in English political circles, that +this munificence was the 'price of peace.' On one point all were agreed: +the Bill could never have become law had not Mr. Wyndham handled the +Parliamentary situation with masterly tact, temper, and ability. To him +is chiefly due the credit for the fact that the Land Question, in its +old form at any rate, no longer blocks the way, and that the large +problems which remain to be solved, and, above all, the spirit in which +they will have to be approached by those who wish the existing peace to +be the forerunner of material and social progress, can be freely and +frankly discussed. + +It is true, as I have said, that Ireland is becoming more and more +practical, and that England is becoming more anxious than ever to do her +substantial justice. But still the manner of the doing will continue to +be as important as the thing which is done. Of the Irish qualities none +is stronger than the craving to be understood. If the English had only +known this secret we should have been the most easily governed people in +the world. For it is characteristic of the conduct of our most important +affairs that we care too little about the substance and too much about +the shadow. It is for this reason that I have discussed the real nature +of one phase of Irish sentiment which has been largely misunderstood, +and it is for the same reason that I propose to preface my examination +of the Irish Question with some reference to the cause and nature of the +anti-English sentiment, for the long continuance of which I can find no +other explanation than the failure of the English to see into the Irish +mind. + +I am well acquainted with this sentiment because, in my practical work +in Ireland, it has ever been the main current of the stream against +which I have had to swim. Years spent in the United States had made me +familiar with its full and true significance, for there it can be +studied in an atmosphere not dominated by any present Irish +controversies or struggles. I have found this sentiment of hatred deeply +rooted in the minds of Irishmen who had themselves never known Ireland, +who had no connection, other than a sentimental one, with that country, +who were living quiet business lives in the United States, but who were +ever ready to testify with their dollars, and genuinely believed that +they only lacked opportunity to demonstrate in a more enterprising way, +their "undying hatred of the English name."[1] + +With such men I have reasoned, and sometimes not in vain, upon the +injustice and unreason of their attitude. I have not attempted to +controvert the main facts of Ireland's grievances, which they frequently +told me they had gleaned from Froude and Lecky. I used to deprecate the +unqualified application of modern standards to the policies of other +days, and to protest against the injustice of punishing one set of +persons for the misdoings of another set of persons, who have long since +passed beyond the reach of any earthly tribunal. I have given them my +reasons for believing that, even if such a course were morally +admissible, the wit of man could not devise any means of inflicting a +blow upon England which would not react injuriously with tenfold force +upon Ireland. I have gone on to show that the sentiment itself, largely +the accident of untoward circumstances, is alien to the character and +temperament of the Irish people. In short, I have urged that the policy +of revenge is un-Christian and unintelligent, and, that, as the Irish +people are neither irreligious nor stupid, it is un-Irish. I well +remember taking up this position in conversation with some very advanced +Irish-Americans in the Far West and the reply which one of them made. +"Wal," said my half-persuaded friend, "mebbe you're right. I have two +sons, whom I have raised in the expectation that they will one day +strike a blow for old Ireland. Mebbe they won't. I'm too old to change." + +I have chosen this incident from a long series of similar reminiscences +of my study of Irish life, to illustrate an attitude of mind, the +historical explanation of which would seem to the practical Englishman +as academic as a psychological exposition of the effect of a red rag +upon a bull. The English are not much to be blamed for resenting the +survival of the feeling, but it appears to me to argue a singular lack +of political imagination that they should still fail to appreciate the +reality, the significance, and the abiding force of a sentiment which +has so far successfully resisted the influence of those governing +qualities which have played a foremost part in the civilisation of the +modern world. The _Spectator_ some time ago came out bluntly with a +truth which an Irishman may, I presume, quote without offence from so +high an English authority:--"The one blunder of average Englishmen in +considering foreign questions is that with white men they make too +little allowance for sentiment, and with coloured men they make none at +all."[2] I am afraid it must be added that 'average Englishmen' make +exactly the same blunder in under-estimating the force of sentiment when +considering Irish questions, with the not unnatural consequence that +the Irish regard them as foreigners, and that, as those foreigners +happen to govern them, the sentiment of nationality becomes political +and anti-English. + +There is one reason why this sentiment is not allowed to die which +should always be remembered by those who wish to grasp the inner +workings of the Irish mind. Briefly stated, the view prevails in Ireland +that in dealing with questions affecting our material well-being, the +government of our country by the English was, in the past, characterised +by an unenlightened self-interest. Thoughtful Englishmen admit this +charge, but they say that the past referred to is beyond living memory +and should now be buried. The Irish mind replies that the life of a +nation is not to be measured by the life of individuals, and that a +wrong inflicted by a Government upon a community entitles those who +inherit the consequences of the injury to claim reparation at the hands +of those who inherit the government. With this attitude on the part of +the Irish mind I am not only most heartily in sympathy, but I find every +Englishman who understands the situation equally so. In the later +portions of this book it will be shown that practical recognition, in no +small measure, has been given by England to the righteousness of this +part of the Irish case, and that if the effect thus produced has not +found as full an outward expression as might have been expected, the +Irish people have at any rate responded to the new treatment in a manner +which must, in no distant future, bring about a better understanding. + +The only historical causes of our present discontents to which I need +now particularly refer, are the commercial restrictions and the land +system of the past, which stand out from the long list of Irish +grievances as those for which their victims were the least responsible. +No one can be more anxious than I am that we should cease to be for ever +seeking in the past excuses for our present failures. But it is +essential to a correct estimation of Irish agricultural and industrial +possibilities that we should notice the true bearings of these +historical grievances upon existing conditions. + +In this connection there arises a question which is very pertinent to +the present inquiry and which must therefore be considered. I have seen +it argued by English economists that the industrial revolution which +took place at the end of the eighteenth and commencement of the +nineteenth century would in any case have destroyed, by force of open +competition, industries which, it is admitted, were previously +legislated away. They point out that the change from the order of small +scattered home industries to the factory system would have suited +neither the temperament nor the industrial habits of the Irish. They +tell us that with the industrial revolution the juxtaposition of coal +and iron became an all-important factor in the problem, and they recall +how the north and west of England captured the industrial supremacy from +the south and east. Incidentally they point out that the people of the +English counties which suffered by these economic causes braced +themselves to meet the changes, and it is suggested that if the people +of Ireland had shown the same resourcefulness, they, too, might have +weathered the storm. And, finally, we are reminded that England, by her +stupid Irish policy, punished her own supporters, and even herself, +quite as much as the 'mere Irish.' + +Much of this may be true, but this line of argument only shows that +these English economists do not thoroughly understand the real grievance +which the Irish people still harbour against the English for past +misgovernment. The commercial restraints sapped the industrial instinct +of the people--an evil which was intensified in the case of the +Catholics by the working of the penal laws. When these legislative +restrictions upon industry had been removed, the Irish, not being +trained in industrial habits, were unable to adapt themselves to the +altered conditions produced by the Industrial Revolution, as did the +people in England. And as for commerce, the restrictions, which had as +little moral sanction as the penal laws, and which invested smuggling +with a halo of patriotism, had prevented the development of commercial +morality, without which there can be no commercial success. It is not, +therefore, the destruction of specific industries, or even the sweeping +of our commerce from the seas, about which most complaint is now made. +The real grievance lies in the fact that something had been taken from +our industrial character which could not be remedied by the mere removal +of the restrictions. Not only had the tree been stripped, but the roots +had been destroyed. If ever there was a case where President Kruger's +'moral and intellectual damages' might fairly be claimed by an injured +nation, it is to be found in the industrial and commercial history of +Ireland during the period of the building up of England's commercial +supremacy. + +The English mind quite failed, until the very end of the nineteenth +century, to grasp the real needs of the situation which had thus been +created in Ireland The industrial revolution, as I have indicated, found +the Irish people fettered by an industrial past for which they +themselves were not chiefly responsible. They needed exceptional +treatment of a kind which was not conceded. They were, instead, still +further handicapped, towards the middle of the century, by the adoption +of Free Trade, which was imposed upon them when they were not only +unable to take advantage of its benefits, but were so situated as to +suffer to the utmost from its inconveniences. + +I am convinced that the long-continued misunderstanding of the +conditions and needs of this country, the withholding, for so long, of +necessary concessions, was due not to heartlessness or contempt so much +as to a lack of imagination, a defect for which the English cannot be +blamed. They had, to use a modern term, 'standardised' their qualities, +and it was impossible to get out of their minds the belief that a +divergence, in another race, from their standard of character was +synonymous with inferiority. This attitude is not yet a thing of the +past, but it is fast disappearing; and thoughtful Englishmen now +recognise the righteousness of the claim for reparation, and are willing +liberally to apply any stimulus to our industrial life which may place +us, so far as this is possible, on the level we might have occupied had +we been left to work out our own economic salvation. Unfortunately, all +Englishmen are not thoughtful, and hence I emphasise the fact that +England is largely responsible for our industrial defects, and must not +hesitate to face the financial results of that responsibility. + +When we pass from the domain of commerce, where we have seen that +circumstances reduced to the minimum Ireland's participation in the +industrial supremacy of England, and come to examine the historical +development of Irish agrarian life, we find a situation closely related +to, and indeed, largely created by, that which we have been discussing. +'Debarred from every other trade and industry,' wrote the late Lord +Dufferin, 'the entire nation flung itself back upon the land, with as +fatal an impulse as when a river, whose current is suddenly impeded, +rolls back and drowns the valley which it once fertilised.' The +energies, the hopes, nay, the very existence of the race, became thus +intimately bound up with agriculture. This industry, their last resort +and sole dependence, had to be conducted by a people who in every other +avocation had been unfitted for material success. And this industry, +too, was crippled from without, for a system of land tenure had been +imposed upon Ireland that was probably the most effective that could +have been devised for the purpose of perpetuating and accentuating every +disability to which other causes had given rise. + +The Irish land system suffered from the same ills as we all know the +political institutions to have suffered from--a partial and intermittent +conquest. Land holding in Ireland remained largely based on the tribal +system of open fields and common tillage for nearly eight hundred years +after collective ownership had begun to pass away in England. The sudden +imposition upon the Irish, early in the seventeenth century, of a land +system which was no part of the natural development of the country, +ignored, though it could not destroy, the old feeling of communistic +ownership, and, when this vanished, it did not vanish as it did in +countries where more normal conditions prevailed. It did not perish like +a piece of outworn tissue pushed off by a new growth from within: on the +contrary, it was arbitrarily cut away while yet fresh and vital, with +the result that where a bud should have been there was a scar. + +This sudden change in the system of land-holding was followed by a +century of reprisals and confiscations, and what war began the law +continued. The Celtic race, for the most part impoverished in mind and +estate by the penal laws, became rooted to the soil, for, as we have +seen, they had, on account of the repression of industries, no +alternative occupation, and so became, in fact, if not in law, +_adscripti glebae_. Upon the productiveness of their labour the +landlord depended for his revenues, but he did little to develop that +productiveness, and the system which was introduced did everything to +lessen it.[3] The wound produced by the original confiscation of the +land was kept from healing by the way in which the tenants' improvements +were somewhat similarly treated. I do not mean that they were +systematically confiscated--the Devon and Bessborough Commissions, as +well as Gladstone, bore witness to the contrary--but the right and the +occasional exercise of the right to confiscate operated in the same way. +In the Irish tenant's mind dispossession was nine-tenths of the law. + +An enlightened system of land tenure might have made prosperity and +contentment the lot of the native race, and, perhaps, have rendered +possible such a solution of the Irish problem as was effected between +England and Scotland two centuries ago. What was chiefly required for +agrarian peace was a recognition of that sense of partnership in the +land--a relic of the tribal days--to which the Irish mind tenaciously +adhered. But, like most English concessions, it was not granted until +too late, and then granted in the wrong way. The natural result was +that, when at last the recognition of partnership was enacted, it became +a lever for a demand for complete ownership. But this was the aftermath, +for in the meantime, from the seed sown by English blundering, +Ireland--native population and English garrison alike--had reaped the +awful harvest of the Irish famine, which was followed by a long dark +winter of discontent. Upon the England that sowed the wind there was +visited a whirlwind of hostility from the Irish race scattered +throughout the globe. + +It would be altogether outside the scope or purpose of this chapter to +present a complete history of the remedial legislation applied to Irish +land tenure. That history, however, illustrates so vividly the English +misunderstanding, that a short survey of one phase of it may help to +point the moral. The English intellect at long last began to grasp the +agrarian, though not the industrial side of the wrong that had been done +to Ireland, and the English conscience was moved; there came the era of +concessions to which I have alluded, and for over a quarter of a century +attempts, often generous, if not very discriminating, were made to deal +with the situation. In 1870, dispossession was made very costly to the +landlord. In 1881, it became impossible, except on the tenant's default, +and the partnership was fully recognised, the tenant's share being made +his own to sell, and being preserved for his profitable use by a right +to have the rent payable to his sleeping partner, the landlord, fixed by +a judicial tribunal. These rights were the famous three F's--fixity of +tenure, free sale, and fair rent--of the Magna Charta of the Irish +peasant. If these concessions had only been made in time, they would +probably have led to a strengthening of the economic position and +character of the Irish tenantry, which would have enabled them to take +full advantage of their new status, and meet any condition which might +arise; and it is just possible that the system might have worked well, +even at the eleventh hour, had it been launched on a rising market. +Unhappily, it fell upon evil days. The prosperous times of Irish +agriculture, which culminated a few years before the passing of the +'Tenants' Charter,' were followed by a serious reaction, the result of +causes which, though long operative, were only then beginning to make +themselves felt, and some of which, though the fact was not then +generally recognised, were destined to be of no temporary character. The +agricultural depression which has continued ever since was due, as is +now well known, to foreign competition, or, in other words, to the +opening up of vast areas in the Far West to the plough and herd, and the +bringing of the products of distant countries into the home markets in +ever-increasing quantity, in ever fresher condition, and at an +ever-decreasing cost of transportation. Great changes were taking place +in the market which the Irish farmer supplied, and no two men could +agree as to the relative influence of the new factors of the problem, or +as to their probable duration. + +Whatever may be said in disparagement of the great experiment commenced +in 1881, there can be no doubt that it enormously improved the legal +position of the Irish tenantry, and I, for one, regard it as a +necessary contribution to the events whose logic was finally to bring +about the abolition of dual ownership. But what a curious instance of +the irony of fate is afforded by this genuine attempt to heal an Irish +sore, what a commentary it is upon the English misunderstanding of the +Irish mind! Mr. Gladstone found the land system intolerable to one +party; he made it intolerable to the other also. For half a century +_laissez-faire_ was pedantically applied to Irish agriculture, then +suddenly the other extreme was adopted; nothing was left alone, and +political economy was sent on its famous planetary excursion. + +When Mr. Gladstone was attempting to settle the land question on the +basis of dual ownership, the seed of a new kind of single +ownership--peasant proprietorship--was sown through the influence of +John Bright. The operations of the land purchase clauses in the Church +Disestablishment Act of 1869, and the Land Acts of 1870 and 1881, were +enormously extended by the Land Purchase Acts introduced by the +Conservative Party in 1885 and in 1891, and the success which attended +these Acts accentuated the defects and sealed the fate of dual +ownership, which all parties recently united to destroy. In other words, +Parliament has been undoing a generation's legislative work upon the +Irish land question. + +This is all I need say about that stage of the Irish agrarian situation +at which we have now arrived. What I wish my readers to bear in mind is +that the effect of a bad system of land tenure upon the other aspects of +the Irish Question reaches much further back than the struggles, +agitations, and reforms in connection with Irish land which this +generation has witnessed. The same may be said with regard to the other +economic grievances. No one can be more anxious than I am to fasten the +mind of my countrymen upon the practical things of to-day, and to wean +their sad souls from idle regrets over the sorrows of the past. If I +revive these dead issues, it is because I have learned that no man can +move the Irish mind to action unless he can see its point of view, which +is largely retrospective. I cannot ignore the fact that the attitude of +mind which causes the Irish people to put too much faith in legislative +cures for economic ills is mainly due to the belief that their ancestors +were the victims of a long series of laws by which every industry that +might have made the country prosperous was jealously repressed or +ruthlessly destroyed. Those who are not too much appalled by the +quantity to examine into the quality of popular oratory in Ireland are +familiar with the subordination of present economic issues to the dreary +reiteration of this old tale of woe. Personally I have always held that +to foster resentment in respect of these old wrongs is as stupid as was +the policy which gave them birth; and, even if it were possible to +distribute the blame among our ancestors, I am sure we should do +ourselves much harm, and no living soul any good, in the reckoning. In +my view, Anglo-Irish history is for Englishmen to remember, for Irishmen +to forget. + +I may now conclude my appeal to outside observers for a broader and more +philosophic view of my country and my countrymen with a suggestion born +of my own early mistakes, and with a word of warning which is called for +by my later observation of the mistakes of others. The difficulty of the +outside observer in understanding the Irish Question is, no doubt, +largely due to the fact that those in intimate touch with the actual +conditions are so dominated by vehement and passionate conviction that +reason is not only at a discount but is fatal to the acquisition of +popular influence. Of course the power of knowledge and thought, though +kept in the background, is not really eliminated. But it is in the +circumstances not unnatural that most of us should fall into the error +of attributing to the influence of prominent individuals or +organisations the events and conditions which the superficial observer +regards as the creation of the hour, but which are in reality the +outcome of a slow and continuous process of evolution. I remember as a +boy being captivated by that charming corrective to this view of +historical development, Buckle's _History of Civilization_, which in +recent years has often recurred to my mind, despite the fact that many +of his theories are now somewhat discredited. Buckle, if I remember +right, almost eliminates the personal factor in the life of nations. +According to his theory, it would not have made much difference to +modern civilisation if Napoleon had happened, as was so near being the +case, to be born a British instead of a French subject. It would also +have followed that if O'Connell had limited his activities to his +professional work, or if Parnell had chanced to hate Ireland as bitterly +as he hated England, we should have been, politically, very much where +we are to-day. The student of Irish affairs should, of course, avoid the +extreme views of historical causation; but in the search for the truth +he will, I think, be well advised to attach less significance to the +influence of prominent personality than is the practice of the ordinary +observer in Ireland. + +The warning I have to offer, I think, will be justified by a reflection +upon the history of the panaceas which we have been offered, and upon +our present state. To those of my British readers who honestly desire to +understand the Irish Question, I would say, let them eschew the sweeping +generalisations by which Irish intelligence is commonly outraged. I may +pass by the explanation which rests upon the cheap attribution of racial +inferiority with the simple reply that our inferior race has much of the +superior blood in its veins; yet the Irish problem is just as acute in +districts where the English blood predominates as where the people are +'mere Irish.' If this view be disputed, the matter is not worth arguing +about, because we cannot be born again. But there are three other common +explanations of the Irish difficulty, any one of which taken by itself +only leads away from the truth. I refer, I need hardly say, to the +familiar assertions that the origin of the evil is political, that it is +religious, or that it is neither one nor the other, but economic. In +Irish history, no doubt, we may find, under any of these heads, cause +enough for much of our present wrong-goings. But I am profoundly +convinced that each of the simple explanations to which I have just +alluded--the racial, the political, the religious, the economic--is +based upon reasoning from imperfect knowledge of the facts of Irish +life. The cause and cure of Irish ills are not chiefly political, +broaden or narrow our conception of politics as we will; they are not +chiefly religious, whatever be the effect of Roman Catholic influence +upon the practical side of the people's life; they are not chiefly +economic, be the actual poverty of the people and the potential wealth +of the country what they may. The Irish Question is a broad and deeply +interesting human problem which has baffled generation after generation +of a great and virile race, who complacently attribute their incapacity +to master it to Irish perversity, and pass on, leaving it unsolved by +Anglo-Saxons, and therefore insoluble! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] My own experience confirms Mr. Lecky's view of the chief cause of +this extraordinary feeling. "It is probable," he writes, "that the true +source of the savage hatred of England that animates great bodies of +Irishmen on either side of the Atlantic has very little real connection +with the penal laws, or the rebellion, or the Union. It is far more due +to the great clearances and the vast unaided emigrations that followed +the famine."--_Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland_, Vol. II., p, 177. + +[2] _Spectator_, 6th September, 1902. + +[3] The title to the greater part of Irish land is based on +confiscation. This is true of many other countries, but what was +exceptional in the Irish confiscations was that the grantees for the +most part did not settle on the lands themselves, drive away the +dispossessed, or come to any rational working agreement with them. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE IRISH QUESTION IN IRELAND. + + +Whilst attributing the long continued failure of English rule in Ireland +largely to a misunderstanding of the Irish mind, I have given +England--at least modern England--credit for good intentions towards us. +I now come to the case of the misunderstood, and shall from henceforth +be concerned with the immeasurably greater responsibility of the Irish +people themselves for their own welfare. The most characteristic, and by +far the most hopeful feature of the change in the Anglo-Irish situation +which took place in the last decade of the nineteenth century, and upon +the meaning of which I dwelt in the preceding chapter, is the growing +sense amongst us that the English misunderstanding of Ireland is of far +less importance, and perhaps less inexcusable, than our own +misunderstanding of ourselves. + +When I first came into practical touch with the extraordinarily complex +problems of Irish life, nothing impressed me so much as the universal +belief among my countrymen that Providence had endowed them with +capacities of a high order, and their country with resources of +unbounded richness, but that both the capacities and the resources +remained undeveloped owing to the stupidity--or worse--of British rule. +It was asserted, and generally taken for granted, that the exiles of +Erin sprang to the front in every walk of life throughout the world, in +every country but their own--though I notice that in quite recent times +endeavours have been made to cool the emigration fever by painting the +fortunes of the Irish in America in the darkest colours. To suggest that +there was any use in trying at home to make the best of things as they +were was indicative of a leaning towards British rule; and to attempt to +give practical effect to such a heresy was to draw a red herring across +the path of true Nationalism. + +It is not easy to account for the long continuance of this attitude of +the Irish mind towards Irish problems, which seems unworthy of the +native intelligence of the people. The truth probably is that while we +have not allowed our intellectual gifts to decay, they have been of +little use to us because we have neglected the second part of the old +Scholastic rule of life, and have failed to develop the moral qualities +in which we are deficient. Hence we have developed our critical +faculties, not, unhappily, along constructive lines. We have been +throughout alive to the muddling of our affairs by the English, and have +accurately gauged the incapacity of our governors to appreciate our +needs and possibilities. But we recognised their incapacity more readily +than our own deficiencies, and we estimated the failure of the English +far more justly than we apportioned the responsibility between our +rulers and ourselves. The sense of the duty and dignity of labour has +been lost in the contemplation of circumstances over which it was +assumed that we have no control. + +It is a peculiarity of destructive criticism that, unlike charity, it +generally begins and ends abroad; and those who cultivate the gentle art +are seldom given to morbid introspection. Our prodigious ignorance about +ourselves has not been blissful. Mistaking self-assertion for +self-knowledge, we have presented the pathetic spectacle of a people +casting the blame for their shortcomings on another people, yet bearing +the consequences themselves. The national habit of living in the past +seems to give us a present without achievement, a future without hope. +The conclusion was long ago forced upon me that whatever may have been +true of the past, the chief responsibility for the remoulding of our +national life rests now with ourselves, and that in the last analysis +the problem of Irish ineffectiveness at home is in the main a problem of +character--and of Irish character. + +I am quite aware that such a diagnosis of our mind disease--from which +Ireland is, in my belief, slowly but surely recovering--will not pass +unchallenged, but I would ask any reader who dissents from this view to +take a glance at the picture of our national life as it might unfold +itself to an unprejudiced but sympathetic outsider who came to Ireland +not on a political tour but with a sincere desire to get at the truth of +the Irish Question, and to inquire into the conditions about which all +the controversy continues to rage. + +This hypothetical traveller would discover that our resources are but +half developed, and yet hundreds of thousands of our workers have gone, +and are still going, to produce wealth where it is less urgently needed. +The remnant of the race who still cling to the old country are not only +numerically weak, but in many other ways they show the physical and +moral effects of the drain which emigration has made on the youth, +strength, and energy of the community. Our four and a quarter millions +of people, mainly agricultural, have, speaking generally, a very low +standard of comfort, which they like to attribute to some five or six +millions sterling paid as agricultural rent, and three millions of +alleged over-taxation. They face the situation bravely--and, +incidentally, swell the over-taxation--with the help of the thirteen or +fourteen millions worth of alcoholic stimulants which they annually +consume. The still larger consumption in Great Britain may seem to lend +at least a respectability to this apparent over-indulgence, but it looks +odd. The people are endowed with intellectual capacities of a high +order. They have literary gifts and an artistic sense. Yet, with a few +brilliant exceptions, they contribute nothing to invention and create +nothing in literature or in art. One would say that there must be +something wrong with the education of the country; and most people +declare that it is too literary, though the Census returns show that +there are still large numbers who escape the tyranny of books. The +people have an extraordinary belief in political remedies for economic +ills; and their political leaders, who are not as a rule themselves +actively engaged in business life, tell the people, pointing to ruined +mills and unused water power, that the country once had diversified +industries, and that if they were allowed to apply their panacea, +Ireland would quickly rebuild her industrial life. If our hypothetical +traveller were to ask whether there are no other leaders in the country +besides the eloquent gentlemen who proclaim her helplessness, he would +be told that among the professional classes, the landlords, and the +captains of industry, are to be found as competent popular advisers as +are possessed by any other country of similar economic standing. But +these men take only a dilettante part in politics, and no value is set +on industrial, commercial or professional success in the choice of +public men. Can it be that to the Irish mind politics are, what Bulwer +Lytton declared love to be, "the business of the idle, and the idleness +of the busy"? + +These, though only a few of the strange ironies of Irish life, are so +paradoxical and so anomalous that they are not unnaturally attributed to +the intrusion of an alien and unfriendly power; and this furnishes the +reason why everything which goes wrong is used to nourish the +anti-English sentiment. At the same time they give emphasis to the +growing doubt as to the wisdom of those to whom the Irish Question +presents itself only as a single and simple issue--namely, whether the +laws which are to put all these things right shall be made at St. +Stephen's by the collective wisdom of the United Kingdom, aided by the +voice of Ireland--which is adequately represented--or whether these laws +shall be made by Irishmen alone in a Parliament in College Green. + +It is obviously necessary that, in presenting a comprehensive scheme for +dealing with the conditions I have roughly indicated. I should make some +reference to the attitude towards Home Rule of both the Nationalists and +the Unionists who have joined in work which, whatever be its +irregularity from the standpoint of party discipline as enforced in +Ireland, has succeeded in some degree in directing the energies of our +countrymen to the development of the resources of our country. Many of +my fellow-workers were Nationalists who, while stoutly adhering to the +prime necessity for constitutional changes, took the broad view, which +was unpopular among the Irish Party, that much could be done, even under +present conditions, to build up our national life on its social, +intellectual, and economic sides. The well-known constitutional changes +which were advocated in the political party to which they belonged would +then, they believed, be more effectively demanded by Ireland, and more +readily conceded by England. Unionists who worked with me were similarly +affected by the changing mental outlook of the country. They, too, had +to break loose from the traditions of an Irish party, for they felt that +the exclusively political opposition to Home Rule was not less +demoralising than the exclusively political pursuit of Home Rule. Just +as the Nationalists who joined the movement believed that all progress +must make for self-government, so my Unionist fellow-workers believed +it would ultimately strengthen the Union. Each view was thoroughly sound +from the standpoint of those who held it, and could be regarded with +respect by those who did not. We were all convinced that the way to +achieve what is best for Ireland was to develop what is best in +Irishmen. And it was the conviction that this can be done by Irishmen in +Ireland that brought together those whose thought and work supplies +whatever there may be of interest in this book. + +If I have fairly stated the attitude towards each other of the workers +to whose coming together must be attributed as much of the change in the +Irish situation as is due to Irish initiation, it will be seen that what +had so long kept them apart in public affairs, outside politics, was a +difference of opinion, not so much as to the conditions to be dealt +with, nor, indeed, as to the end to be sought, but rather as to the +means most effective for the attainment of that end. I naturally regard +the view which I am putting forward as being broader than that which has +hitherto prevailed. Some Nationalists may, however, contend that it is +essential to progress that the thoughts and energies of the nation +should be focussed upon a single movement, and not dissipated in the +pursuit of a multiplicity of ideals. I quite admit the importance of +concentration. But I strongly hold that any movement which is closely +related to the main currents of the people's life and subservient to +their urgent economic necessities, and which gives free play to the +intellectual qualities, while strengthening the moral or industrial +character, cannot be held to conflict with any national programme of +work, without raising a strong presumption that there is something wrong +with the programme. The exclusively political remedy I shall discuss in +the next chapter, but here I propose to consider some of the problems +which the new movement seeks to solve without waiting for the political +millenium. + +It is a commonplace that there are two Irelands, differing in race, in +creed, in political aspiration, and in what I regard as a more potent +factor than all the others put together--economic interest and +industrial pursuit. In the mutual misunderstanding of these two +Irelands, still more than in the misunderstanding of Ireland by England, +is to be found the chief cause of the still unsettled state of the Irish +Question. I shall not seek to apportion the blame between the two +sections of the population; but as the mists clear away and we can begin +to construct a united and contented Ireland, it is not only legitimate, +but helpful in the extreme, to assign to the two sections of our +wealth-producers their respective parts in repairing the fortunes of +their country. In such a discussion of future developments chief +prominence must necessarily be given to the problems affecting the life +of the majority of the people, who depend directly on the land, and +conduct the industry which produces by far the greater portion of the +wealth of the country. It is, of course, essential to the prosperity of +the whole community that the North should pursue and further develop +its own industrial and commercial life. That section of the community +has also, no doubt, economic and educational problems to face, but these +are much the same problems as those of industrial communities in other +parts of the United Kingdom[4]; and if they do not receive, vitally +important as is their solution to the welfare of Ireland, any large +share of attention in this book, it is because they are no part of what +is ordinarily understood by the Irish Question. + +Nevertheless, the interest of the manufacturing population of Ulster in +the welfare of the Roman Catholic agricultural majority is not merely +that of an onlooker, nor even that of the other parts of the United +Kingdom, but something more. It is obvious that the internal trade of +the country depends mainly upon the demand of the rural population for +the output of the manufacturing towns, and that this demand must depend +on the volume of agricultural production. I think the importance of +developing the home market has not been sufficiently appreciated, even +by Belfast. The best contribution the Ulster Protestant population can +make to the solution of this question is to do what they can to bring +about cordial co-operation between the two great sections of the +wealth-producers of Ireland. They should, I would suggest, learn to take +a broader and more patriotic view of the problems of the Roman Catholic +and agricultural majority, upon the true nature of which I hope to be +able to throw some new light. My purpose will be doubly served if I +have, to some extent, brought home to the minds of my Northern friends +that there is in Ireland an unsettled question in which they are largely +concerned, a rightly unsatisfied people by helping whom they can best +help themselves. + +The Irish Question is, then, in that aspect which must be to Irishmen of +paramount importance, the problem of a national existence, chiefly an +agricultural existence, in Ireland. To outside observers it is the +question of rural life, a question which is assuming a social and +economic importance and interest of the most intense character, not only +for Ireland North and South, but for almost the whole civilised world. +It is becoming increasingly difficult in many parts of the world to keep +the people on the land, owing to the enormously improved industrial +opportunities and enhanced social and intellectual advantages of urban +life. The problem can be better examined in Ireland than elsewhere, for +with us it can, to a large extent, be isolated, since we have little +highly developed town life. Our rural exodus takes our people, for the +most part, not into Irish or even into British towns, but into those of +the United States. What is migration in other countries is emigration +with us, and the mind of the country, brooding over the dreary +statistics of this perennial drain, naturally and longingly turns to +schemes for the rehabilitation of rural life--the only life it knows. + +We cannot exercise much direct influence upon the desire to emigrate +beyond spreading knowledge as to the real conditions of life in America, +for which home life in Ireland is often ignorantly bartered.[5] We +cannot isolate the phenomenon of emigration and find a cure for it apart +from the rest of the Irish Question. We must recognise that emigration +is but the chief symptom of a low national vitality, and that the first +result of our efforts to stay the tide may increase the outflow. We +cannot fit the people to stay without fitting them to go. Before we can +keep the people at home we have got to construct a national life with, +in the first place, a secure basis of physical comfort and decency. This +life must have a character, a dignity, an outlook of its own. A +comfortable Boeotia will never develop into a real Hibernia Pacata. The +standard of living may in some ways be lower than the English standard: +in some ways it may be higher. But even if statesmanship and all the +forces of philanthropy and patriotism combined can construct a contented +rural Ireland for the people, it can only be maintained by the people. +It will have to accord with the national sentiment and be distinctively +Irish. It is this national aspiration, and the remarkable promise of the +movements making for its fruition, which give to the work of Irish +social and economic reform the fascination which those who do not know +the Ireland of to-day cannot understand. This work of reform must, of +course, be primarily economic, but economic remedies cannot be applied +to Irish ills without the spiritual aids which are required to move to +action the latent forces of Irish reason and emotion. + + * * * * * + +The task which we have to face is, then, a two-sided one, but its +economic and its purely practical aspects first demand consideration. +Many even of the agrarian aspects of the question have, so far, been +somewhat neglected in Ireland owing to a cause which is not far to seek. +It has often been asserted that the Irish Question is, at bottom, the +Land Question. There is a great deal of truth in this view, but almost +all those who hold it have fallen into the grave error of tacitly +identifying the land question with the tenure question--an error which +vitiates a great deal of current theorising about Ireland. It was, +indeed, inevitable that Irish agriculturists, with such an economic +history behind them as I have outlined in the previous chapter, should +have concentrated their attention during the latter half of the +nineteenth century upon obtaining a legislative cure for the ills +produced by legislation, to the comparative neglect of those equally +difficult, if less obvious economic questions, which have been brought +into special prominence by the agricultural depression of the last +quarter of a century. Now, however, that the Land Act of 1903 has been +passed and the solution of the tenure question is in sight, we in +Ireland are more free to direct our attention to what is at present the +most important aspect of the agrarian situation--the necessity for +determining the social and economic conditions essential to the +well-being of the peasant proprietary, which, though it is to be started +with as bright an outlook as the law can give, must stand or fall by its +own inherent merits or defects. Not only are we now free to give +adequate consideration to this question, but it is also imperative that +we should do so, for whilst I am hopeful that the Land Act will settle +the question of tenure, it will obviously not merely leave the other +problems of agricultural existence--problems some of which are not +unknown in other parts of the United Kingdom--still unsolved, but will +also increase the necessity for their solution, and will, moreover, +bring in its train complex difficulties of its own. + +The main features of the depressing outlook of rural life in the United +Kingdom are well known. The land steadily passes from under the plough +and is given over to stock raising. As the kine increase the men decay. +In Ireland the rural exodus takes, as I have already said, the shape, +mainly, not of migration to Irish urban centres, but rather the uglier +form of an emigration which not only depletes our population but drains +it of the very elements which can least be spared. + +The reason generally given for the widespread resort to the lotus-eating +occupation of opening and shutting gates, in preference to tilling the +soil, is that in the existing state of agricultural organisation, and +while urban life is ever drawing away labour from the fields, the +substitution of pasturage for tillage is the readiest way to meet the +ruinous competition of Eastern Europe, the Western Hemisphere, and +Australasia. Yet upon the economic merits of this process I have heard +the most diverse opinions stated with equal conviction by men thoroughly +well informed as to the conditions. One of the largest graziers in +Ireland recently gave me a picture of what he considered to be an ideal +economic state for the country. If two more Belfasts could be +established on the east coast, and the rest of the country divided into +five hundred acre farms, grazing being adopted wherever permanent grass +would grow, the limits of Irish productivity would be reached. On the +other hand, Dr. O'Donnell, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Raphoe, who may +be taken as an authoritative exponent of the trend of popular thought in +the country, not long ago advocated ploughing the grazing lands of +Leinster right up to the slopes of Tara.[6] Moreover, many theories have +been advanced to show that the decline of tillage, whatever be its +cause, involves an enormous waste of national resources. But of +practical suggestion, making for a remedy, there is very little +forthcoming. + +The solution of all such problems largely depends upon certain +developments which, for many reasons, I regard as absolutely essential +to the success of the new agrarian order. One of these developments is +the spread of agricultural co-operation through voluntary associations. +Without this agency of social and economic progress, small landholders +in Ireland will be but a body of isolated units, having all the +drawbacks of individualism, and none of its virtues, unorganised and +singularly ill-equipped for that great international struggle of our +time, which we know as agricultural competition. Moreover, there is +another equally important, if less obvious, consideration which renders +urgent the organisation of our rural communities. From Russia, with its +half-communistic Mir to France with its modern village commune, there is +no country in Europe except the United Kingdom where the peasant +land-holders have not some form of corporate existence. In Ireland the +transition from landlordism to a peasant proprietary not only does not +create any corporate existence among the occupying peasantry but rather +deprives them of the slight social coherence which they formerly +possessed as tenants of the same landlord. The estate office has its +uses as well as its disadvantages, and the landlord or agent is by no +means without his value as a business adviser to those from whom he +collects the rent. + +The organisation of the peasantry by an extension of voluntary +associations, which is a condition precedent of social and economic +progress, will not, however, suffice to enable them to face and solve +the problems with which they are confronted, and whose solution has now +become a matter of very serious concern to the British taxpayer. The +condition of our agrarian life clearly indicates the necessity for +supplementing voluntary effort with a sound system of State aid to +agriculture and industry--a necessity fully recognised by the +governments of every progressive continental country and of our own +colonies. An altogether hopeful beginning of combined self-help and +State assistance has been already made. Those who have been studying +these problems, and practically preparing the way for the proper care of +a peasant proprietary, have overcome the chief obstacles which lay in +their path. They have gained popular acceptance for the principle that +State aid should not be resorted to until organised voluntary effort has +first been set in motion, and that any departure from this principle +would be an unwarrantable interference with the business of the people, +a fatal blow to private enterprise.[7] + +The task before the people, and before the State, of placing the new +agrarian order upon a permanent basis of decency and comfort is no light +one. Indeed, I doubt whether Parliament realises one-tenth of the +problems which the latest land legislation--by far the best we have yet +had--leaves unsolved. This becomes only too clear the moment we consider +seriously the fundamental question of the relation of population to area +in rural Ireland, or, in other words, when we inquire how many people +the agricultural land will support under existing circumstances, or +under any attainable improvement of the conditions in our rural life. +Roughly speaking, the surface area of the island is 20,000,000 acres, of +which 5,000,000 are described in the official returns as 'barren +mountain, bog and waste.' This leaves us with some 15,000,000 acres +available for agriculture and grazing, which area is now divided into +some 500,000 holdings. Thus we have an average of thirty acres in extent +for the Irish agricultural holding. But, unhappily, the returns show +that some 200,000 of these holdings are from one to fifteen acres in +extent. Nor do the mere figures show the case at its worst. For it +happens that the small holdings in Ireland, unlike those on the +Continent, are generally on the poorest land, and the majority of them +cannot come within any of the definitions of an 'economic holding.' + +These 200,000 holdings, the homes of nearly a million persons, threaten +to prove the greatest danger to the future of agricultural Ireland. As +the majority of them, as at present constituted, do not provide the +physical basis of a decent standard of living, the question arises, how +are they to be improved? Putting aside emigration, which at one period +was necessary and ought to have been aided and controlled by the State, +but which is now no longer a statesman's remedy, there is obviously no +solution except by the migration of a portion of the occupiers, and the +utilisation of the vacated holdings in order to enable the peasants who +remain to prosper--much as a forest is thinned to promote the growth of +trees. In typical congested districts this operation will have to be +carried out on a much larger scale than is generally realised, for a +considerable majority of families will have to be removed, in order to +allow a sufficient margin for the provision of adequate holdings for +those who remain. In some cases, there are large grazing tracts in close +proximity to the congested area which might be utilised for the +re-settlement, but where this is not so and the occupiers of the vacated +holdings have to migrate a considerable distance, the problem becomes +far more difficult. I need not dwell upon the administrative +difficulties of the operation, which are not light. I may assume, also, +that there will be no difficulty in obtaining suitable land somewhere. I +do not myself attach much weight to the unwillingness of the people to +leave their old holdings for better ones, or to the alleged objection of +the clergy to allow their parishioners to go to another parish. More +serious is the possible opposition of those who live in the vicinity of +the unoccupied land about to be distributed, and who feel that they have +the first claim upon the State in any scheme for its redistribution with +the help of public credit. Mr. Parnell promoted a company with the sole +object of practically demonstrating how this problem could be solved. A +large capital was raised, and a large estate purchased; but the company +did not effect the migration of a single family. Still these are minor +considerations compared with the larger one, to which I must briefly +refer. + +Under the Land Act of 1903 much has been done to facilitate the transfer +of peasants to new farms, but it is obvious that land cannot be handed +over as a gift from the State to the families which migrate. They will +become debtors for the value of the land itself, less perhaps a small +sum which may be credited to them in respect of the tenant's interest in +the holdings they have abandoned. This deduction will, however, be lost +in the expenditure required upon houses, buildings, fences, and other +improvements which would have to be effected before the land could be +profitably occupied. Speaking generally they will have no money or +agricultural implements, and their live stock will in many cases be +mortgaged to the local shopkeeper who has always financed them. It will +be necessary for the future welfare of the country to give them land +which admits of cultivation upon the ordinary principles of modern +agriculture; but without working capital, and bringing with them neither +the skill nor the habits necessary for the successful conduct of their +industry under the new conditions, it will be no easy task to place them +in a position to discharge their obligations to the State. It is all +very easy to talk about the obvious necessity of giving more land to +cultivators who have not enough to live upon; and there is, no doubt, a +poetic justice in the Utopian agrarianism which dangles before the eyes +of the Connaught peasantry the alternative of Heaven or Leinster. But +when we come down to practical economics, and face the task of giving to +a certain number of human beings, in an extremely backward industrial +condition, the opportunity of placing themselves and their families on a +basis of permanent well-being, it will be evident that, so far, at any +rate, as this particular community is concerned, the mere provision of +an economic holding is after all but a part of an economic existence. + +I have touched upon this question of migration from uneconomic to +economic holdings because it signally illustrates the importance of the +human, in contradistinction to the merely material considerations +involved in the solution of the many-sided Irish Question. I must now +return to the wider question of the relation of population to area in +rural Ireland, as it affects the general scheme of agricultural and +industrial development. + +It is obvious that there must be a limit to the number of individuals +that the land can support. Allowing an average of five members for each +family, and allowing for a considerable number of landless labourers, it +seems that the land at present directly supports about 2,500,000 +persons--a view which, I may add, is fully borne out by the figures of +the recent census; and it is hard to see how a population living by +agriculture can be much increased beyond this number. Even if all the +land in Ireland were available for re-distribution in equal shares, the +higher standard of comfort to which it is essential that the condition +of our people should be raised would forbid the existence of much more +than half a million peasant proprietors.[8] Hence the evergreen query, +'What shall we do with our boys?' remains to be answered; for while the +abolition of dual ownership will enable the present generation to bring +up their children according to a higher standard of living, the change +will not of itself provide a career for the children when they have been +brought up. The next generation will have to face this problem:--the +average farm can support only one of the children and his family, what +is to become of the others? The law forbids sub-division for two +generations, and after that, _ex hypothesi_, the then prevailing +conditions of life will also prevent such partition. A few of the next +generation may become agricultural labourers, but this involves +descending to the lowest standard of living of to-day, and in any case +the demand for agricultural labourers is not capable of much extension +in a country of small peasant proprietors. + +Against this view I know it is pointed out that in the earlier part of +the nineteenth century the agricultural population of Ireland was as +large as is the total population of to-day; but we know the sequel. +Instances are also cited of peasant proprietaries in foreign countries +which maintain a high standard of living upon small, sometimes +diminutive, and highly-rented holdings. We must remember, however, that +in these foreign countries State intervention has undoubtedly done much +to render possible a prosperous peasant proprietary by, for example, the +dissemination of useful information, admirable systems of technical +education in agriculture, cheap and expeditious transport, and even +State attention to the distribution of agricultural produce in distant +markets. Again, in many of these countries rural life is balanced by a +highly industrial town life, as, for instance, in the case of Belgium; +or is itself highly industrialised by the existence of rural industries, +as in the case of Switzerland; while in one notable instance--that of +Württemberg--both these conditions prevail. + +The true lesson to be drawn from these foreign analogies is that not by +agriculture alone is Ireland to be saved. The solution of the rural +problem embraces many spheres of national activity. It involves, as I +have already said, the further development of manufactures in Irish +towns. One of the best ways to stimulate our industries is to develop +the home market by means of an increased agricultural production, and a +higher standard of comfort among the peasant producers. We shall thus +be, so to speak, operating on consumption as well as on production, and +so increasing the home demand for Irish manufactures. Perhaps more +urgent than the creation or extension of manufactures on a larger scale +is the development of industries subsidiary to agriculture in the +country. This is generally admitted, and most people have a fair +knowledge of the wide and varied range of peasant industries in all +European countries where a prosperous peasantry exists. Nor is there +much difficulty in agreeing upon the main conditions to be satisfied in +the selection of the industries to meet the requirements of our case. +The men and boys require employment in the winter months, or they will +not stay, and the rural industries promoted should, as far as possible, +be those which allow of intermittent attention. The female members of +the family must have profitable and congenial employment. The +handicrafts to be promoted must be those which will give scope to the +native genius and aesthetic sense. But unless we can thus supply the +demand of the peasant-industry market with products of merit or +distinctiveness, we shall fail in competition with the hereditary skill +and old established trade of peasant proprietors which have solved this +part of the problem generations ago. This involves the vigorous +application of a class of instruction of which something will be said +in the proper place. + +So far the rural industry problem, and the direction in which its +solution is to be found, are fairly clear. But there is one disadvantage +with which we have to reckon, and which for many other reasons besides +the one I am now immediately concerned with, we must seek to remove. A +community does not naturally or easily produce for export that for which +it has itself no use, taste, or desire. Whatever latent capacity for +artistic handicrafts the Irish peasant may possess, it is very rarely +that one finds any spontaneous attempt to give outward expression to the +inward aesthetic sense. And this brings me to a strange aspect of Irish +life to which I have often wished, on the proper occasion, to draw +public attention. The matter arises now in the form of a peculiar +difficulty which lies in the path of those who endeavour to solve the +problem of rural life in Ireland, and which, in my belief, has +profoundly affected the fortunes of the race both at home and abroad. + +To a sympathetic insight there is a singular and significant void in the +Irish conception of a home--I mean the lack of appreciation for the +comforts of a home, which might never have been apparent to me had it +not obtruded itself in the form of a hindrance to social and economic +progress.[9] In the Irish love of home, as in the larger national +aspirations, the ideal has but a meagre material basis, its appeal being +essentially to the social and intellectual instincts. It is not the +physical environment and comfort of an orderly home that enchain and +attract minds still dominated, more or less unconsciously, by the +associations and common interests of the primitive clan, but rather the +sense of human neighbourhood and kinship which the individual finds in +the community. Indeed the Irish peasant scarcely seems to have a home in +the sense in which an Englishman understands the word. If he love the +place of his habitation he does not endeavour to improve or to adorn it, +or indeed to make it in any sense a reflection of his own mind and +taste. He treats life as if he were a mere sojourner upon earth whose +true home is somewhere else, a fact often attributed to his intense +faith in the unseen, but which I regard as not merely due to this cause, +but also, and in a large measure, as the natural outcome of historical +conditions, to which I shall presently refer. + +What the Irishman is really attached to in Ireland is not a home but a +social order. The pleasant amenities, the courtesies, the leisureliness, +the associations of religion, and the familiar faces of the neighbours, +whose ways and minds are like his and very unlike those of any other +people; these are the things to which he clings in Ireland and which he +remembers in exile. And the rawness and eagerness of America, the lust +of the eye and the pride of life that meet him, though with no welcoming +aspect, at every turn, the sense of being harshly appraised by new +standards of the nature of which he has but the dimmest conception, his +helplessness in the fierce current of industrial life in which he is +plunged, the climatic extremes of heat and cold, the early hours and few +holidays: all these experiences act as a rude shock upon the +ill-balanced refinement of the Irish immigrant. Not seldom, he or she +loses heart and hope and returns to Ireland mentally and physically a +wreck, a sad disillusionment to those who had been comforted in the +agony of the leave-taking by the assurance that to emigrate was to +succeed. + +The peculiar Irish conception of a home has probably a good deal to do +with the history of the Irish in the United States. It is well known +that whatever measure of success the Irish emigrant has there achieved +is pre-eminently in the American city, and not where, according to all +the usual commonplaces about the Irish race, they ought to have +succeeded, in American rural life. There they were afforded, and there +they missed, the greatest opportunity which ever fell to the lot of a +people agriculturally inclined. During the days of the great emigrations +from Ireland, a veritable Promised Land, rich beyond the dreams of +agricultural avarice, was gradually opened up between the Alleghanies +and the Rocky Mountains, which the Irish had only to occupy in order to +possess. Making all allowances for the depressing influences which had +been brought to bear upon the spirit of enterprise, and for their +impoverished condition, I am convinced that a prime cause of the failure +of almost every effort to settle them upon the land was the fact that +the tenement house, with all its domestic abominations, provided the +social order which they brought with them from Ireland, and the lack of +which on the western prairie no immediate or prospective physical +comfort could make good. + +Recently a daughter of a small farmer in County Galway with a family too +'long' for the means of subsistence available, was offered a comfortable +home on a farm owned by some better-off relatives, only thirty miles +away, though probably twenty miles beyond the limits of her utmost +peregrinations. She elected in preference to go to New York, and being +asked her reason by a friend of mine, replied in so many words, 'because +it is nearer.' She felt she would be less of a stranger in a New York +tenement house, among her relatives and friends who had already +emigrated, than in another part of County Galway. Educational science in +Ireland has always ignored the life history of the subject with which it +dealt. In no respect has this neglect been so unconsciously cruel as in +its failure to implant in the Irish mind that appreciation of the +material aspects of the home which the people so badly need both in +Ireland and in America If the Irishman abroad became 'a rootless +colonist of alien earth,' the lot of the Irishman in Ireland has been +not less melancholy. Sadness there is, indeed, in the story of 'the +sea-divided Gael,' but, to me, it is incomparably less pathetic than +their homelessness at home. + +There are, as I have said, historic reasons for the Celtic view of home +to which my personal observation and experience has induced me to devote +so much space. The Irish people have never had the opportunity of +developing that strong and salutary individualism which, amongst other +things, imperiously demands, as a condition of its growth, a home that +shall be a man's castle as well as his abiding place. In this, as in so +much else, a healthy evolution was constantly thwarted by the clash of +two peoples and two civilisations. The Irish had hardly emerged from the +nomad pastoral stage, when the first of that series of invasions, which +had all the ferocity, without the finality of conquest, made settled +life impossible over the greater part of the island. An old chronicle +throws some vivid light upon the way in which the idea of home life +presented itself to the mind of the clan chiefs as late as the days of +the Tudors. "Con O'Neal," we are told, "was so right Irish that he +cursed all his posterity in case they either learnt English, sowed wheat +or built them houses; lest the first should breed conversation, the +second commerce, and with the last they should speed as the crow that +buildeth her nest to be beaten out by the hawk."[10] The penal laws, +again, acted as a disintegrant of the home and the family; and, +finally, the paralysing effect of the abuses of a system of land tenure, +under which evidences of thrift and comfort might at any time become +determining factors in the calculation of rent, completed a series of +causes which, in unison or isolation, were calculated to destroy at its +source the growth of a wholesome domesticity. These causes happily, no +longer exist, and powerful forces are arising to overcome the defects +and disadvantages which they have bequeathed to us; and I have little +doubt that it will be possible to deal successfully with this obstacle +which adds so peculiar a feature to the problem of rural life in +Ireland. + +If I have dwelt at what may appear to be a disproportionate length upon +the Irishman's peculiar conception of a home, it is because this +difficulty, which Irish social and economic reformers still encounter, +and with which they must deal sympathetically if they are to succeed in +the work of national regeneration, strikingly illustrates the two-sided +character of the Irish Question and the never-to-be-forgotten +inter-dependence of the sentimental and the practical in Ireland. I +admit that this condition which adds to the interest of the problem, and +perhaps makes it more amenable to rapid solution, is an indication of a +weakness of moral fibre to which must be largely attributed our failure +to be master of our circumstances. Indeed, as I come into closer touch +with the efforts which are now being made to raise the material +condition of the people, the more convinced I become, much as my +practical training has made me resist the conviction, that the Irish +Question is, in its most difficult and most important aspects, the +problem of the Irish mind, and that the solution of this problem is to +be found in the strengthening of Irish character. + +With this enunciation of the main proposition of my book, I may now +indicate the order in which I shall endeavour to establish its truth. I +have said enough to show that I do not ignore the historical causes of +our present state; but with so many facts with which we can deal +confronting us, I propose to review the chief living influences to which +the Irish mind and character are still subjected. These influences fall +naturally into three distinct categories and will be treated in the +three succeeding chapters. The first will show the effect upon the Irish +mind of its obsession by politics. The next will deal with the influence +of religious systems upon the secular life of the people. I shall then +show how education, which should not only have been the most potent of +all the three influences in bringing our national life into line with +the progress of the age, but should also have modified the operation of +the other two causes, has aggravated rather than cured the malady. + +Whatever impression I may succeed in making upon others, I may here +state that, as the result of observation and reflection, the conclusion +has been forced upon me that the Irish mind is suffering from +considerable functional derangement, but not, so far as I can discern, +from any organic disease. This is the basis of my optimism. I shall +submit in another chapter, which will conclude the first, the critical +part of my book, certain new principles of treatment which are indicated +by the diagnosis; and I would ask the reader, before he rejects the +opinions which are there expressed, to persevere through the narrative +contained in the second part of the book. There he will find in process +of solution some of the problems which I have indicated, and the +principles for which a theoretical approval has been asked, in practical +operation, and already passing out of the experimental stage. The story +of the Self-help Movement will strike the note of Ireland's economic +hopes. The action of the Recess Committee will be explained, and the +concession of their demand by the establishment of a 'Department of +Agriculture and other rural industries and for Technical Instruction for +Ireland,' will be described. This will complete the story of a quiet, +unostentatious movement which will some day be seen to have made the +last decade of the nineteenth century a fit prelude to a future +commensurate with the potentialities of the Irish people. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] I speak from personal knowledge when I say that the leaders of Irish +industry and commerce are fully alive to the practical consideration +which they have now to devote to the new conditions by which they are +surrounded. They recognise that the intensified foreign competition +which harasses them is due chiefly to German education and American +enterprise. They are deep in the consideration of the form which +technical education should take to meet their peculiar needs; and I am +confident that Ulster will make a sound and useful contribution to the +solution of the commercial and industrial problems which confront the +manufacturers of the United Kingdom. + +[5] That such a knowledge is still required, though the need is becoming +less urgent, is shown by an incident which illustrates the pathos of the +Irish exodus. A poor woman once asked me to help her son to emigrate to +America, and I agreed to pay his passage. Early in the negotiations, +finding that she was somewhat vague as to her boy's prospects, I asked +her whether he wanted to go to North or South America. This detail she +seemed to consider immaterial. "Ach, glory be to God, I lave that to yer +honner. Why wouldn't I?" Had I shipped him to Peru she would have been +quite satisfied. Why wouldn't she? + +[6] Yet another view which seems to uproot most agrarian ideas in +Ireland has been put forward by Dr. O'Gara in _The Green Republic_ +(Fisher Unwin, 1902). His main conclusion is that the present disastrous +state of our rural economy is due to our treating land as an object of +property and not of industry. He advocates the cultivation of the land +by syndicates holding farms of 20,000 acres and tilling them by the +lavish application of modern machinery as the only way to meet American +competition. His book is able and suggestive, but it is perhaps, a work +of supererogation to discuss a theory the whole moral of which is the +expediency of absolutely divorcing the functions of the proprietor and +the manager of land at a time when the consensus of opinion in Ireland +is in favour of uniting them, and in view of the fact that under the new +Land Act the future of the country seems inevitably to lie for a long +time in the hands of a peasant proprietary. + +[7] The reader may wonder why I touch so lightly upon a fact of such +profound significance as the Irishman's acceptance of self-help as a +condition precedent of State aid in the development of agriculture and +industry. But such a cursory treatment, in the early chapters, of this +and of other equally important aspects of the Irish situation is +necessitated by the plan I have adopted. I am attempting to give in the +first part of the book a philosophic insight into the chief Irish +problems, and then, in the second part of the book, to present the facts +which appear to me to illustrate these problems in process of solution. + +[8] The best expert agricultural opinion tells me that under present +conditions a family cannot live in any decent standard of comfort--such +as I hope to see prevail in Ireland--on less than 30 acres of Irish +land, taking the bad land with the good. + +[9] It is, of course, unnecessary for me to dwell upon the part played +by the home in the standard of living, especially amongst a rural +community. But it may not be irrelevant to note that M. Desmolins, who, +in his remarkable book, _A quoi tient la superiorité des Anglo-saxons_? +hands over the future of civilisation to the Anglo-Saxons, ascribes to +the English rural home much of the success of the race. + +[10] Speed's Chronicle, quoted in _Calendar of State Papers, Ireland,_ +1611-14, p. xix. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE INFLUENCE OF POLITICS UPON THE IRISH MIND. + + +Among the humours of the Home Rule struggle, the story was current in +England that a peasant in Connemara ceased planting his potatoes when +the news of the introduction of the Home Rule Bill in 1886 seemed to +bring the millenium into the region of practical politics. Those who +used the story were not slow to suggest that, had the Bill become law, +the failure of spontaneous generation in the Connemara potato patch +might have been typical of much analogous disillusionment elsewhere. +Even to those who are familiar with our history, the faith of the Irish +people in the potentialities of government, which this little tale +illustrates by caricature, will give cause for reflection of another and +more serious kind. The moral to be drawn by Irish politicians is that we +in Ireland have yet to free ourselves from one of the worst legacies of +past misgovernment, the belief that any legislation or any legislature +can provide an escape from the physical and mental toil imposed through +our first parents upon all nations for all time. + +'The more business in politics, and the less politics in business, the +better for both,' is a maxim which I brought home from the Far West and +ventured to advocate publicly some years ago. Being still of the same +mind, I regret that I am compelled to introduce a whole chapter of +politics into this book, which is a study of Irish affairs mainly from a +social and economic point of view. But to ignore, either in the +diagnosis or in the treatment of the 'mind diseased,' the political +obsession of our national life would be about as wise as to discuss and +plan a Polar expedition without taking account of the climatic +conditions to be encountered. + +In such an examination of Irish politics as thus becomes necessary I +shall have to devote the greater part of my criticism to the influence +of the Nationalist party upon the Irish mind. But it will be seen that +this course is not taken with a view to making party capital for my own +side. As I read Irish history, neither party need expect very much +credit for more than good intentions. Whichever proves to be right in +its main contention, each will have to bear its share of the +responsibility for the long continuance of the barren controversy. Each +has neglected to concern itself with the settlement of vitally important +questions the consideration of which need not have been postponed +because the constitutional question still remained in dispute. +Therefore, though I seem to throw upon the Nationalist party the chief +blame for our present political backwardness, and, so far as politics +affect other spheres of national activity, for our industrial +depression, candour compels me to admit that Irish Unionism has failed +to recognise its obligation--an obligation recognised by the Unionist +party in Great Britain--to supplement opposition to Home Rule with a +positive and progressive policy which could have been expected to +commend itself to the majority of the Irish people--the Irish of the +Irish Question. + +To my own party in Ireland then, I would first direct the reader's +attention. I have already referred to the deplorable effects produced +upon national life by the exclusion of representatives of the landlord +and the industrial classes from positions of leadership and trust over +four-fifths of the country. I cannot conceive of a prosperous Ireland in +which the influence of these leaders is restricted within its present +bounds. It has been so restricted because the Irish Unionist party has +failed to produce a policy which could attract, at any rate, moderate +men from the other side, and we have, therefore, to consider why we have +so failed. Until this is done, we shall continue to share the blame for +the miserable state of our political life which, at the end of the +nineteenth century, appeared to have made but little advance from the +time when Bishop Berkeley asked 'Whether our parties are not a burlesque +upon politics.' + +The Irish Unionist party is supposed to unite all who, like the author, +are opposed to the plunge into what is called Home Rule. But its +propagandist activities in Ireland are confined to preaching the +doctrine of the _status quo_, and preaching it only to its own side. +From the beginning the party has been intimately connected with the +landlord class; yet even upon the land question it has thrown but few +gleams of the constructive thought which that question so urgently +demanded, and which it might have been expected to apply to it. Now and +again an individual tries to broaden the basis of Irish Unionism and to +bring himself into touch with the life of the people. But the nearer he +gets to the people the farther he gets from the Irish Unionist leaders. +The lot of such an individual is not a happy one: he is regarded as a +mere intruder who does not know the rules of the game, and he is treated +by the leading players on both sides like a dog in a tennis court. + +Two main causes appear to me to account for the failure of the Irish +Unionist party to make itself an effective force in Irish national life. +The great misunderstanding to which I have attributed the unhappy state +of Anglo-Irish relations kept the country in a condition of turmoil +which enabled the Unionist party to declare itself the party of law and +order. Adopting Lord Salisbury's famous prescription, 'twenty years of +resolute government,' they made it what its author would have been the +last man to consider it, a sufficient justification for a purely +negative and repressive policy. Such an attitude was open to somewhat +obvious objections. No one will dispute the proposition that the +government of Ireland, or of any other country, should be resolute, but +twenty years of resolute government, in the narrow sense in which it +came to be interpreted, needed for its success, what cannot be had under +party government, twenty years of consistency. It may be better to be +feared than to be loved, but Machiavelli would have been the first to +admit that his principle did not apply where the Government which sought +to establish fear had to reckon with an Opposition which was making +capital out of love. Moreover, the suggestion that the Irish Question is +not a matter of policy but of police, while by no means without +influential adherents, is altogether vicious. You cannot physically +intimidate Irishmen, and the last thing you want to do is morally to +intimidate a people whose greatest need at the moment is moral courage. + +The second cause which determined the character of Irish Unionism was +the linking of the agrarian with the political question; the one being, +in effect, a practical, the other a sentimental issue. The same thing +happened in the Nationalist party; but on their side it was intentional +and led to an immense accession of strength, while on the Unionist side +it made for weakness. If the influence of Irish Unionists was to be even +maintained, it was of vital importance that the interest of a class +should not be allowed to dominate the policy of the party. But the +organisation which ought to have rallied every force that Ireland could +contribute to the cause of imperial unity came to be too closely +identified with the landlord class. That class is admittedly essential +to the construction of any real national life. But there is another +element equally essential, to which the political leaders of Irish +Unionism have not given the prominence which is its due. The Irish +Question has been so successfully narrowed down to two simple policies, +one positive but vague, the other negative but definite, that to suggest +that there are three distinct forces--three distinct interests--to be +taken into account seems like confusing the issue. It is a fact, +nevertheless, that a very important element on the Unionist side, the +industrial element, has been practically left out of the calculation by +both sides. Yet the only expression of real political thought which I +have observed in Ireland, since I have been in touch with Irish life, +has emanated from the Ulster Liberal-Unionist Association, whose weighty +pronouncements, published from time to time, are worthy of deep +consideration by all interested in the welfare of Ireland. + +It will be remembered that when the Home Rule controversy was at its +height, the chief strength of the Irish opposition to Mr. Gladstone's +policy, and the consideration which most weighed with the British +electorate, lay in the business objection of the industrial population +of Ulster; though on the platform religious and political arguments were +more often heard. The intensely practical nature of the objection which +came from the commercial and industrial classes of the North who opposed +Home Rule was never properly recognised in Ireland. It was, and is still +unanswered. Briefly stated, the position taken up by their spokesmen was +as follows:--'We have come,' they said in effect, 'into Ireland, and not +the richest portion of the island, and have gradually built up an +industry and commerce with which we are able to hold our own in +competition with the most progressive nations in the world. Our success +has been achieved under a system and a polity in which we believe. Its +non-interference with the business of the people gave play to that +self-reliance with which we strove to emulate the industrial qualities +of the people of Great Britain. It is now proposed to place the +manufactures and commerce of the country at the mercy of a majority +which will have no real concern in the interests vitally affected, and +who have no knowledge of the science of government. The mere shadow of +these changes has so depressed the stocks which represent the +accumulations of our past enterprise and labour that we are already +commercially poorer than we were.'[11] + +My sole criticism of those leaders of commerce and industry in Belfast, +who, whenever they turn their attention from their various +pre-occupations, import into Irish politics the valuable qualities which +they display in the conduct of their private affairs, is that they do +not go further and take the necessary steps to give practical effect to +their views outside the ranks of their immediate associates and +followers. Had the industrial section made its voice heard in the +councils of the Irish Unionist party, the Government which that party +supports might have had less advice and assistance in the maintenance of +law and order, but it would have had invaluable aid in its constructive +policy. For the lack of the wise guidance which our captains of industry +should have provided, Irish Unionism has, by too close adherence to the +traditions of the landlord section, been the creed of a social caste +rather than a policy in Ireland. The result has been injurious alike for +the landlords, the leaders of industry, and the people. The policy of +the Unionist party in Ireland has been to uphold the Union by force +rather than by a reconciliation of the people to it. It has held aloof +from the masses, who, bereft of the guidance of their natural leaders, +have clung the more closely to the chiefs of the Nationalist party; and +these in their turn have not, as I shall show presently, risen to their +responsibility, but have retarded rather than advanced the march of +democracy in Ireland. If there is to be any future for Unionism in +Ireland, there must be a combination of the best thought of the country +aristocracy and that of the captains of industry. Then, and not till +then, shall we Unionists as a party exercise a healthful and stimulating +influence on the thought and action of the people. + +I cannot, therefore, escape from the conclusion that whilst the Irish +section of the party to which I belong is, in my opinion, right on the +main political question, its influence is now for the most part +negative. Hence I direct attention mainly to the Home Rule party, as the +more forceful element in Irish political life; and if it receives the +more criticism it is because it is more closely in touch with the +people, and because any reform in its principles or methods would more +generally and more rapidly prove beneficial to the country than would +any change in Unionist policy. + +In examining the policy of the Nationalist party my chief concern will +be to arrive at a correct estimate of the effect which is produced upon +the thought and action of the Irish people by the methods employed for +the attainment of Home Rule. I propose to show that these methods have +been in the past, and must, so long as they are employed, continue to be +injurious to the political and industrial character of the people, and +consequently a barrier to progress. I know that most of the Nationalist +leaders justify the employment of these methods on the ground that, in +their opinion, the constitutional reforms they advocate are a condition +precedent to industrial progress. I believe, on the contrary, and I +shall give my reasons for believing, that their tactics have been not +only a hindrance to industrial progress, but destructive even to the +ulterior purpose they were intended to fulfil. + +It is commonly believed--a belief very naturally fostered by their +leaders--that, if there is one thing the Irish do understand, it is +politics. Politics is a term obviously capable of wide interpretation, +and I fear that those who say that my countrymen are pre-eminently +politicians use the term in a sense more applicable to the conceptions +of Mr. Richard Croker than of Aristotle. In intellectual capacity for +discrimination upon political issues the average Irish elector is, I +believe, far superior to the average English elector. But there is as +yet something wanting in the character of our people which seems to +prohibit the exercise by them of any independent political thought and, +consequently, of any effective or permanent political influence. + +The assumption that Irishmen are singularly good politicians seems to +stand seriously in the way of their becoming so; and yet it is a matter +of the greatest importance that they should become good politicians in a +real sense, for in no country would sound political thought exercise a +more beneficial influence upon the life of the people than in Ireland. +Indeed I would go further and give it as my strong conviction that, +properly developed and freed from the narrowing influences of the party +squabbles by which it has been warped and sterilised, the political +thought of the Irish people would contribute a factor of vital +importance to the life of the British empire. But at the moment I am +dealing only with the influence of politics on Irish social and economic +life. + +I am aware that any political deficiencies which the Irish may display +at home, are commonly attributed to the political system which has been +imposed upon Ireland from without. If you want to see Irish genius in +its highest political manifestation, it must be studied, we are told, in +the United States, the widest and freest arena which has ever been +offered to the race. This view is not in accordance with the facts as I +have observed them. These facts are somewhat obscured by the natural, +but misleading habit of reckoning to the account of Ireland at large +achievements really due to the Scotch-Irish, who helped to colonise +Pennsylvania, and who undoubtedly played a dominant part in developing +the characteristic features of the American political system. The +Scotch-Irish, however, do not belong to the Ireland of the Irish +Question Descended, largely, as their names so often testify, from the +early Irish colonists of western Scotland, they came back as a distinct +race, dissociating themselves from the Irish Celts by refusing to adopt +their national traditions, or intermarry with them, and both here and in +America disclaiming the appellation of Irish.[12] + +Leaving, then, out of consideration the political achievements of the +Scotch-Irish, it appears to me that the part played in politics by the +Irish in America does not testify to any high political genius. They +have shown there an extraordinary aptitude for political organisation, +which, if it had been guided by anything approaching to political +thought, would have placed them in a far higher position in American +public life than that which they now occupy. But the fact is that it +would be much easier to find evidence of high political capacity and +success in the history of the Irish in British colonies; and the reason +for this fact is not only very germane to the purpose of this book, but +has a strong practical interest for Americans as well. Irishmen when +they go to America find themselves united by a bond which does not and +could not exist in the Colonies--though it does exist in Ireland--the +bond of anti-English feeling, and by the hope of giving practical effect +to this feeling through the policy of their adopted country. Imbued with +this common sentiment, and influenced by their inherited clannishness, +the Irish in America readily lend themselves to the system of political +groups, a system which the 'boss' for his own ends seeks to perpetuate. +The result is a sort of political paradox--it has made the Irish in +America both stronger and weaker than they ought to be. They suffer +politically from the defects of their political qualities: they are +strong as a voting machine, but the secret of their collective strength +is also the secret of their individual weakness. This organisation into +groups is much commoner among the Irish than among other American +immigrants, for the anti-English feeling with which so many of the Irish +land in America is carefully kept alive by the 'boss,' whose sedulous +fostering of the instinctive clannishness and inherited leader-following +habits of the Irish saps their independence of thought and prevents them +from ceasing to be mere political agents and developing a citizenship +which would furnish its due quota of statesmen to the service of the +Republic. They lack in the United States just what they lack at home, +the capacity, or at any rate the inclination, to use their undoubted +abilities in a large and foreseeing manner, and so are becoming less and +less powerful as a force in American politics. + +The fallacious views about the nature and sphere of politics, which the +Irish bring with them from Ireland, and which are perpetuated in +America, have the effect not only of debarring the Irish from real +political progress, but also, as at home, from gaining success in +industrial pursuits which their talents would otherwise win for them. +They succeed as journalists owing to their quick intelligence and +versatility, and as contractors mainly owing to their capacity for +organising gangs of workmen--a faculty which seems to be the only good +thing resulting from their political education. They are as brilliant +soldiers in the service of the United States as they are in that of +Britain--more it would be impossible to say--and they have produced +types of daring, endurance, and shrewdness like the 'Silver Kings' of +Nevada which testify to the exceptional powers always developed by the +Irish in exceptional circumstances. But in the humdrum business of +everyday life in the United States they suffer from defects which are +the outcome of their devotion to mistaken political ideals and of their +subordination of industry to politics, which are not always purely +American, but are often influenced by considerations of the country of +their birth. On the whole, a quarter of a century of not unsympathetic +observation of the Irish in the United States has convinced me that the +position they occupy there is not one which either they or the American +people can look on with entire satisfaction. The Irish immigrants are +felt to belong to a kind of _imperium in imperio_, and to carry into +American politics ideas which are not American, and which might easily +become an embarrassment if not a danger to America. Hence the powerful +interest which America shares with England, though of course in a less +degree, in understanding and helping to settle the complex difficulty +called the Irish Question. The Irish remember Ireland long after they +have left it. They are not in the same position as the German or English +immigrants who have no cause at home which they wish to forward. Every +echo in the States of political or social disturbance in Ireland rouses +the immigrant and he becomes an Irishman once more, and not a citizen of +the country of his adoption. His views and votes on international +questions, in so far as they affect these Islands, are thus often +dictated more by a passionate sympathy for and remembrance of the land +he no longer lives in, than by any right understanding of the interests +of the new country in which he and his children must live. + +The only reason why I have examined the assumption that Irishmen display +marked political capacity in the United States is to make it clear that +the political deficiencies they manifest at home are to be attributed +mainly to defects of character, and to a conception of politics for +which modern English government is very slightly responsible. I admit +that English government in the past had no small share in producing the +results we deplore to-day, but the motives and manner of its action +have, it seems to me, been very imperfectly understood. + +The fact is that the difficulties of English government in Ireland, +until a complete military conquest had been effected, were of a +peculiarly complex character. Before the English could impose upon +Ireland their own political organisation--and the idea that any other +system could work better among the Irish never entered the English +mind--it was obviously necessary that the very antithesis of that +organisation, the clan system, should be abolished. But there were +military and financial objections to carrying out this policy. Irish +campaigns were very costly, and England was in those days by no means +wealthy. English armies in Ireland, after a short period spent in +desultory warfare with light armed kernes in the fever-stricken Munster +forests, began to melt away. For many generations, therefore, England, +adopting a policy of _divide et impera_, set clan against clan. Later +on, statecraft may be said to have supervened upon military tactics. It +consisted of attempts made by alternate threats and bribes to induce the +chiefs to transform the clan organisation by the acceptance of English +institutions. But any systematic endeavours to complete the +transformation were soon rendered abortive by being coupled with huge +confiscations of land. The policy of converting the members of the clans +into freeholders was subordinated to the policy of planting British +colonists. After this there was no question of fusion of races or +institutions. Plantations on a large scale, self-supporting, +self-protecting, became the policy alike of the soldier and the +statesman. + +The inevitable result of these methods was that it was not until a +comparatively late date that a political conception of an Irish nation +first began to emerge out of the congeries of clans. In the State Papers +of the sixteenth century the clans are frequently spoken of as +'nations.' Even as late as the eighteenth century a Gaelic poet, in a +typical lament, thus identifies his country with the fortunes of her +great families:-- + + The O'Doherty is not holding sway, nor his noble race; + The O'Moores are not strong, that once were brave-- + O'Flaherty is not in power, nor his kinsfolk; + And sooth to say, the O'Briens have long since become English. + + Of O'Rourke there is no mention--my sharp wounding! + Nor yet of O'Donnell in Erin; + The Geraldines they are without vigour--without a nod, + And the Burkes, the Barrys, the Walshes of the slender ships.[13] + +The modern political idea of Irish nationality at length asserted itself +as the result of three main causes. The bond of a common grievance +against the English foe was created by the gradual abandonment of the +policy of setting clan against clan in favour of impartial confiscation +of land from friendly as well as from hostile chiefs. Secondly, when the +English had destroyed the natural leaders, the clan chiefs, and +attempted to proselytise their adherents, the political leadership +largely passed to the Roman Catholic Church, which very naturally +defended the religion common to the members of all the clans, by trying +to unite them against the English enemy. Nationality, in this sense, of +course applied only to Celtic Roman Catholic Ireland. The first real +idea of a United Ireland arose out of the third cause, the religious +grievances of the Protestant dissenters and the commercial grievances of +the Protestant manufacturers and artisans in the eighteenth century, who +suffered under a common disability with the Roman Catholics, and many of +whom came in the end to make common cause with them. But even long after +this conception had become firmly established, the local representative +institutions corresponding to those which formed the political training +of the English in law and administration either did not exist in Ireland +or were altogether in the hands of a small aristocracy, mostly of +non-Irish origin, and wholly non-Catholic. O'Connell's great work in +freeing Roman Catholic Ireland from the domination of the Protestant +oligarchy showed the people the power of combination, but his methods +can hardly be said to have fostered political thought. The efforts in +this direction of men like Gavan Duffy, Davis, and Lucas were +neutralised by the Famine, the after effects of which also did much to +thwart Butt's attempts to develop serious public opinion amongst a +people whose political education had been so long delayed. The prospect +of any early fruition of such efforts vanished with the revolutionary +agrarian propaganda, and independent thinking--so necessary in the +modern democratic state--never replaced the old leader-following habit +which continued until the climax was reached under Parnell. + +The political backwardness of the Irish people revealed itself +characteristically when, in 1884, the English and Irish democracies were +simultaneously endowed with a greatly extended franchise. In theory this +concession should have developed political thought in the people and +should have enhanced their sense of political responsibility. In England +no doubt this theory was proved by the event to be based on fact; but in +Ireland it was otherwise. Parnell was at the zenith of his power. The +Irish had the man, what mattered the principles? The new suffrages +simply became the figures upon the cheques handed over to the Chief by +each constituency, with the request that he would fill in the name of +the payee. On one or two occasions a constituency did protest against +the payee, but all that was required to settle the matter was a personal +visit from the Chief. Generally speaking, the electorate were quite +docile, and instances were not wanting of men discovering that they had +found favour with electors to whom their faces and even their names were +previously unknown. + +No doubt, the one-man system had a tactical value, of which the English +themselves were ever ready to make use. "If all Ireland cannot rule this +man, then let this man rule all Ireland," said Henry VII. of the Earl of +Kildare; and the echo of these words was heard when the Kilmainham +Treaty was negotiated with the last man who wore the mantle of the +chief. But whatever may be said for the one-man system as a means of +political organisation, it lacked every element of political education. +It left the people weaker, if possible, and less capable than it found +them; and assuredly it was no fit training for Home Rule. While +Parnell's genius was in the ascendant, all was well--outwardly. When a +tragic and painful disclosure brought about a crisis in his fate, it +will hardly be contended by the most devoted admirer of the Irish people +that the situation was met with even moderate ability and foresight. But +the logic of events began to take effect. The decade of dissension which +followed the fall of Parnell will, perhaps, some day be recognised as a +most fruitful epoch in modern Irish history. The reaction from the +one-man system set in as soon as the one man had passed away. The +independence which Parnell's former lieutenants began to assert when the +laurels faded upon the brow of the uncrowned King communicated itself to +some extent to the rank and file. The mere weighing of the merits of +several possible successors led to some wholesome questioning as to the +merits of the policies, such as they were, which they respectively +represented The critical spirit which was now called forth, did not, at +first, go very far; but it was at least constructive and marked a +distinct advance towards real political thought. I believe the day will +come, and come soon, when Nationalist leaders themselves will recognise +that while bemoaning faction and dissension and preaching the cause of +'unity' they often mistook the wheat for the tares. They will, I feel +sure, come to realise that the passing of the dictatorship, which to +outward appearances left the people as "sheep without a shepherd, when +the snow shuts out the sky," in fact turned the thoughts of Ireland in +some measure away from England into her own bosom, and gave birth there +to the idea of a national life to which the Irish people of all classes, +creeds, and politics could contribute of their best. + +I sometimes wonder whether the leaders of the Nationalist party really +understand the full effect of their tactics upon the political character +of the Irish people, and whether their vision is not as much obscured by +a too near, as is the vision of the Unionist leaders by a too distant, +view of the people's life. Everyone who seeks to provide practical +opportunities for Irish intellect to express-itself worthily in active +life--and this, I take it, is part of what the Nationalist leaders wish +to achieve--meets with the same difficulty. The lack of initiative and +shrinking from responsibility, the moral timidity in glaring contrast +with the physical courage--which has its worst manifestation in the +intense dread of public opinion, especially when the unknown terrors of +editorial power lurk behind an unfavourable mention 'on the paper,' +are, no doubt, qualities inherited from a primitive social state in +which the individual was nothing and the community everything. These +defects were intensified in past generations by British statecraft, +which seemed unable to appreciate or use the higher instincts of the +race; they remain to-day a prominent factor in the great human problem +known as the Irish Question--a factor to which, in my belief, may be +attributed the greatest of its difficulties. + +It is quite clear that education should have been the remedy for the +defects of character upon which I am forced to dwell so much; and I +cannot absolve any body of Irishmen, possessed of actual or potential +influence, of failure to recognise this truth. But here I am dealing +only with the political leaders, and trying to bring home to them the +responsibility which their power imposes upon them, not only for the +political development but also for the industrial progress of their +followers. They ought to have known that the weakness of character which +renders the task of political leadership in Ireland comparatively easy +is in reality the quicksand of Irish life, and that neither +self-government nor any other institution can be enduringly built upon +it. + +The leaders of the Nationalist party are, of course, entitled to hold +that, in existing political conditions, any non-political movement +towards national advancement, which in its nature cannot be linked, as +the land question was linked, to the Home Rule movement constitutes an +unwarrantable sacrifice of ends to means. And so holding, they are +further entitled to subject any proposal to elevate popular thought, or +to direct popular activities, to a strict censorship as to its remote as +well as to its immediate effect upon the electorate. I know, too, that +it is held by some thinking Nationalists who take no active part in +politics that the politicians are justified on tactical grounds in this +exclusive pursuit of their political aims, and in the methods by which +they pursue them. They consider the present system of government too +radically wrong to mend, and they can undoubtedly point to agrarian +legislation as evidence of the effectiveness of the means they employ to +gain their end. + +This view of things has sunk very deep into the Irish mind. The policy +of 'giving trouble' to the Government is looked upon as the one road to +reform and is believed in so fervently that, except for religion, which +sometimes conflicts with it, there is scarcely any capacity left for +belief in anything else. I am far from denying that the past offers much +justification for the belief that nothing can be gained by Ireland from +England except through violent agitation. Until recently, I admit, +Ireland's opportunity had to wait for England's difficulty. But, as +practised in the present day, I believe this doctrine to be mischievous +and false. For one thing, there is a new England to deal with. The +England which, certainly not in deference to violent agitation, +established the Congested Districts Board, gave Local Government to +Ireland, and accepted the recommendations of the Recess Committee for +far-reaching administrative changes, as well as those of the Land +Conference which involved great financial concessions, is not the +England of fifty years ago, still less the England of the eighteenth +century. Moreover, in riveting the mind of the country on what is to be +obtained from England, this doctrine of 'giving trouble,' the whole +gospel of the agitator, has blinded the Irish people to the many things +which Ireland can do for herself. Whatever may be said of what is called +'agitation' in Ireland as an engine for extorting legislation from the +Imperial Parliament, it is unquestionably bad for the much greater end +of building up Irish character and developing Irish industry and +commerce. 'Agitation,' as Thomas Davis said, 'is one means of redress, +but it leads to much disorganisation, great unhappiness, wounds upon the +soul of a country which sometimes are worse than the thinning of a +people by war.'[14] If Irish politicians had at all realised this truth, +it is difficult to believe that the popular movement of the last quarter +of a century would not have been conducted in a manner far less +injurious to the soul of Ireland and equally or more effective for +legislative reform as well as all other material interests. + +Now, modern Nationalism in Ireland is open to damaging criticism not +only from my Unionist point of view, which was also, in many respects, +the view of so strong a Nationalist as Thomas Davis; it is also open to +grave objection from the point of view of the effectiveness of the +tactics employed for the attainment of its end--the winning of Home +Rule. + +Before examining the effect of these tactics I may point out that this +conception of Nationalist policy, even if justifiable from a practical +point of view, does not relieve the leaders from the obligation of +giving some assurance that they are ready with a consistent scheme of +re-construction, and are prepared to build when the ground has been +cleared. In this connection I might make a good deal of Unionist +capital, and some points in support of my condemnation of the political +absorption of the Irish mind, out of the total failure of the +Nationalist party to solve certain all-important constitutional and +financial problems which months of Parliamentary debate in 1893 tended +rather to obscure than to elucidate. I am, however, willing for +argument's sake to postpone all such questions, vital as they are, to +the time when they can be practically dealt with. I am ready to assume +that the wit of man can devise a settlement of many points which seemed +insoluble in Mr. Gladstone's day. But even granting all this, I think it +can easily be shown that the means which the political thought +available on the Nationalist side has evolved for the attainment of +their end, and which _ex hypothesi_ are only to be justified on tactical +grounds, are the least likely to succeed; and that, consequently, they +should be abandoned in favour of a constructive policy which, to say the +least, would not be less effective towards advancing the Home Rule +cause, if that cause be sound, and which would at the same time help the +advancement of Ireland in other than political directions. + +Tactics form but a part of generalship, and half the success of +generalship lies in making a correct estimate of the opposing forces. +This is as true of political as it is of military operations. Now, of +what do the forces opposed to Home Rule consist? The Unionists, it may +be admitted, are numerically but a small minority of the population of +Ireland--probably not more than one-fourth. But what do they represent? +First, there are the landed gentry. Let us again make a concession for +the sake of argument and accept the view that this class so wantonly +kept itself aloof from the life of the majority of the people that the +Nationalists could not be expected to count them among the elements of a +Home Rule Ireland. I note, in passing, with extreme gratification that +at the recent Land Conference it was declared by the tenants' +representatives that it was desirable, in the interests of Ireland, that +the present owners of land should not be expatriated, and that +inducements should be afforded to selling owners to continue to reside +in the country. + +But I may ignore this as I wish here to recall attention to that other +element, which was, as I have already said, the real force which turned +the British democracy against Home Rule--I mean the commercial and +industrial community in Belfast and other hives of industry in the +north-east corner of the country, and in scattered localities elsewhere. +I have already admitted that the political importance of the industrial +element was not appreciated in Irish Unionist circles. No less +remarkable is the way in which it has been ignored by the Nationalists. +The question which the Nationalists had to answer in 1886 and 1893, and +which they have to answer to-day, is this:--In the Ireland of their +conception is the Unionist part of Ulster to be coerced or persuaded to +come under the new regime? To those who adopt the former alternative my +reply is simply that, if England is to do the coercion, the idea is +politically absurd. If we were left to fight it out among ourselves, it +is physically absurd. The task of the Empire in South Africa was light +compared with that which the Nationalists would have on hands. I am +aware that, at the time when we were all talking at concert pitch on the +Irish Question, a good deal was said about dying in the last ditch by +men who at the threat of any real trouble would be found more discreetly +perched upon the first fence. But those who know the temper and fighting +qualities of the working-men opponents of Home Rule in the North are +under no illusion as to the account they would give of themselves if +called upon to defend the cause of Protestantism, liberty, and imperial +unity as they understand it. Let us, however, dismiss this alternative +and give Nationalists credit for the desire to persuade the industrial +North to come in by showing it that it will be to its advantage to join +cordially in the building up of a united Ireland under a separate +legislature. + +The difficulties in the way of producing this conviction are very +obvious. The North has prospered under the Act of Union--why should it +be ready to enter upon a new 'variety of untried being'? What that state +of being will be like, it naturally gauges from the forces which are +working for Home Rule at present. Looking at these simply from the +industrial standpoint and leaving out of account all the powerful +elements of religious and race prejudice, the man of the North sees two +salient facts which have dominated all the political activity of the +Nationalist campaign. One is a voluble and aggressive disloyalty, not +merely to 'England' and to the present system of government, but to the +Crown which represents the unity of the three kingdoms, and the other is +the introduction of politics into business in the very virulent and +destructive form known as boycotting. + +Now, hostility to the Crown, if it means anything, means a struggle for +separation as soon as Home Rule has given to the Irish people the power +to organise and arm. And (still keeping to the sternly practical point +of view) that would, for the time being at least, spell absolute ruin to +the industrial North. The practice of boycotting, again, is the very +antithesis of industry--it creates an atmosphere in which industry and +enterprise simply cannot live. The North has seen this practice condoned +as a desperate remedy for a desperate ill, but it has seen it continued +long after the ill had passed away, used as a weapon by one Nationalist +section against another, and revived when anything like a really +oppressive or arbitrary eviction had become impossible. There seems to +have been in Nationalist circles, since the time of O'Connell, but +little appreciation of the deadly character of this social curse; and +the prospect of a Government which would tolerate it naturally fills the +mind of the Northern commercial man with alarm and aversion. + +Again, the democratisation of local government which gave the +Nationalist leaders a unique opportunity of showing the value, has but +served to demonstrate the ineffectiveness, of their political tactics. +North of Ireland opinion was deeply interested in this reform, and +appreciated its far-reaching importance. Elsewhere, I think it will be +safe to say, people generally were indifferent to it until it came, and +the leaders seemed to see in it only a weapon to be used for political +purposes. To the great vista of useful and patriotic work opened out by +the Act of 1898, to the impression that a proper use of that Act might +make on Northern opinion, they were blind. It is true that the Councils +when left to themselves did admirably, and fully justified the trust +reposed in them. But at the inauguration of local government it was +naturally not the work of the Councils but the attitude of the party +leaders which appeared to stamp the reception of the Act by the Irish +people. + +It is true, of course, that many thoughtful men among the Nationalist +party repudiate the idea that the methods of to-day would be continued +in a self-governed Ireland. I fail to see any reason why they should +not. Under any system of limited Home Rule questions would arise which +would afford much the same sort of justification for the employment of +such methods, and they could hardly be worse for the welfare of the +country then than they are now. There is abundant need and abundant work +in the present day for thoughtful and far-seeing men in a party +constitutionally so strong as that of the Irish Nationalists. If those +among them who possess, or at any rate can make effective use of +qualities of constructive statesmanship are as few as the history of +recent years would lead us to suppose, what assurance can Ulster +Unionists feel that such men would spring up spontaneously in an Ireland +under Home Rule? I admit, indeed, that a considerable measure of such +assurance might be derived from the attitude of the leaders of the party +at and since the Land Conference. But this adoption of statesmanlike +methods which cannot be too widely understood or too warmly commended is +a matter of very recent history; and though we may hope that the success +attending it will help materially in the political education of the +Irish people, that will not, by itself, undo the effect of a quarter of +a century of political agitation governed by ideas the very reverse of +those which are now happily beginning to find favour. + +I have thought it necessary to examine at some length the defence on the +ground of tactics which is often made for Nationalist politics, because +it is the only defence ever made by those apologists who admit the +disturbing influence upon our economic and social life of Nationalist +methods. A broader and saner view of political tactics than prevailed +ten years ago is now possible, for circumstances are becoming friendly +and helpful to the development of political thought. Though the United +Irish League apparently restored 'unity' to the ranks of the +Nationalists, the country is, I believe, getting restless under the +political bondage, and is seething with a wholesome discontent. In this +very matter of political education, the stir of corporate life, the +sense of corporate responsibility which in every parish of Ireland are +now being fostered by the reformed system of local government, must make +their influence felt in wider spheres. Even now I believe that the field +is ready for the work of those who would bid the old leader-following +habit, the product partly of the dead clan system, partly of dying +national animosities, depart as a thing that has had its day, and who +would endeavour to train up a race of free, self-reliant, and +independent citizens in a free state. + +In this work the very men whose mistaken conception of a united Ireland +I have criticised will, I doubt not, take a leading part. In many +respects, and these not the least important, no one could desire a +better instrument for the achievement of great reforms than the Irish +party. They are far beyond any similar group of English members in +rhetorical skill and quickness of intelligence and decision, qualities +which no doubt belong to the mechanism rather than the soul of politics, +but which the practical worker in public life will not despise. But even +when tried by a higher standard the Irish members need not fear the +judgment of history. They have often, in my opinion, misconceived the +true interests of their country, but they have been faithful to those +interests as they understood them, and have proved themselves notably +superior to sordid personal aims. These gifts and virtues are not +common, but still rarer is it to see such gifts and virtues cursed with +the doom of futility. The influence of the Irish political leaders has +neither advanced the nation's march through the wilderness nor taught +the people how they are to dispense with manna from above when they +reach the Promised Land. With all their brilliancy, they have thrown but +little helpful light on any Irish problem. In this want of political and +economic foresight Irish Nationalist politicians, with some exceptions +whom it would be invidious to name, have fallen lamentably short of what +might be expected of Irish intellect. For the eight years during which I +represented an Irish constituency I always felt that an Irish night in +the House of Commons was one of the strangest and most pathetic of +spectacles. There were the veterans of the Irish party hardened by a +hundred fights, ranging from Venezuela to the Soudan in search of +battlefields, making allies of every kind of foreign potentate, from +President Cleveland to the Mahdi, from Mr. Kruger to the Akhoom of Swat, +but looking with suspicion on every symptom of an independent national +movement in Ireland; masters of the language of hate and scorn, yet +mocked by inevitable and eternal failure; winners of victories that turn +to dust and ashes; devoted to their country, yet, from ignorance of the +real source of its malady, ever widening the gaping wound through which +its life-blood flows. While I recall these scenes, there rises before my +mind the picture vividly drawn by Miss Lawless of their prototypes, the +'Wild Geese,' who carried their swords into foreign service after the +final defeat of the Stuarts:-- + + War-battered dogs are we, + Fighters in every clime, + Fillers of trench and of grave, + Mockers, bemocked by Time; + War-dogs, hungry and grey, + Gnawing a naked bone, + Fighting in every clime + Every cause but our own.[15] + +Irishmen have been long in realising that the days of the 'Wild Geese' +are over, and that there are battles for Ireland to be fought and won in +Ireland--battles in which England is not the enemy she was in the days +of Fontenoy, but a friend and helper. But there will be little gain in +replacing the traditional conception of England as the inexorable foe by +the more modern conception, which threatened to become traditional in +its turn, of England as the source of all prosperity and her favour as +the condition of all progress in Ireland. In the recent Land Conference +I recognise something more valuable even than the financial and +legislative results which flowed from it, for it showed that the +conception of reliance upon Irishmen in Ireland, not under some future +and problematical conditions, but here and now, for the solution of +Irish questions, is gaining ground among us. If this conception once +takes firm hold, as I think it is beginning to do, of the Nationalist +party in Ireland, much of the criticism of this chapter will lose its +meaning. The mere substitution of a positive Irish policy for a negative +anti-English policy will elevate the whole range of Nationalist +political activity in and out of Ireland. And I am certain that if the +ultimate goal of Nationalist politics be desirable, and continue to be +desired, it will not be rendered more difficult, but on the contrary +very much easier of attainment if those who seek it take possession of +the great field of work which, without waiting for any concessions from +Westminster, is offered by the Ireland of to-day. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[11] This view of the case was powerfully stated by the deputation from +the Belfast Chamber of Commerce which waited on Mr. Gladstone in the +spring of 1893. They pointed out _inter alia_ that the members of the +deputation were poorer by thousands of pounds owing to the fall in Irish +stocks consequent upon the introduction of the Home Rule Bill in that +year. + +[12] The term 'Scotch-Irish' does not mean an amalgam of Scotch and +Irish, but a race of Scottish immigrants who settled in north-east +Ireland. I may point out that in these criticisms of Irish-American +politics I refer, of course, mainly to the Irish-born immigrants and not +to the Irish, Scotch-Irish or other, who are American-born. Nobody can +have a higher appreciation than I of the great part played by the +American-Irish once they have assimilated the full spirit of American +institutions. + +[13] _Poems of Egan O'Rahilly._ Edited, with translation, by the Rev. +P.S. Dinneen, M.A., for the Irish Texts Society, p. 11. O'Rahilly's +charge against Cromwell is that he "gave plenty to the man with the +flail," but beggared the great lords, p. 167. + +[14] _Prose Writings of Thomas Davis_, p. 284. 'The writers of _The +Nation_,' wrote Davis in another place, 'have never concealed the +defects or flattered the good qualities of their countrymen. They have +told them in good faith that they wanted many an attribute of a free +people, _and that the true way to command happiness and liberty was by +learning the arts and practising the culture that fitted men for their +enjoyment'_ (p. 176). The thing that especially distinguished Davis +among Nationalist politicians was the essentially constructive mind +which he brought to bear on Irish questions, as illustrated in the +passage I have italicised. It is, I am afraid, the part of his legacy of +thought which has been least regarded by his admirers. + +[15] _With the Wild Geese_. Poems by the Hon. Emily Lawless. I have +never read a better portrayal of the historic Irish sentiment than is +set forth in this little volume. By the way, there is a preface by Mr. +Stopford Brooke, which is singularly interesting and informing. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION UPON SECULAR LIFE IN IRELAND. + + +In the preceding chapter I attempted to estimate the influence of our +political leaders as a potential and as an actual force. I come now to +the second great influence upon the thought and action of the Irish +people, the influence of religion, especially the power exercised by the +priests and by the unrivalled organisation of the Roman Catholic Church. +I do not share the pessimism which sees in this potent influence nothing +but the shackles of mediævalism restraining its adherents from falling +into line with the progress of the age. I shall, indeed, have to admit +much of what is charged against the clerical leaders of popular thought +in Ireland, but I shall be able to show, I hope, that these leaders are +largely the product of a situation which they themselves did not create, +and that not only are they as susceptible as are the political leaders +to the influences of progressive movements, but that they can be more +readily induced to take part in their promotion. In no other country in +the world, probably, is religion so dominant an element in the daily +life of the people as in Ireland, and certainly nowhere else has the +minister of religion so wide and undisputed an authority. It is obvious, +therefore, that, however foreign such a theme may _prima facie_ appear +to the scope and aim of the present volume, I have no choice but to +analyse frankly and as fully as my personal experience justifies, what I +conceive to be the true nature, the salutary limits, and the actual +scope of clerical influence in this country. + +But before I can discuss what I may call the religious situation, there +is one fundamental question--a question which will appear somewhat +strange to anyone not in touch with Irish life--which I must, with a +view to a general agreement on essentials, submit to some of my +co-religionists. In all seriousness I would ask, whether in their +opinion the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland is to be tolerated. If the +answer be in the negative, I can only reply that any efforts to stamp +out the Roman Catholic faith would fail as they did in the past; and the +practical minds among those I am now addressing must admit that in +toleration alone is to be found the solution of that part of the Irish +difficulty which is due to sectarian animosities. + +This brings us face to face with the question, What is religious +toleration--I do not mean as a pious sentiment which we are all +conscious of ourselves possessing in a truer sense than that in which it +is possessed by others, but rather toleration as an essential of the +liberty which we Protestants enjoy under the British Constitution, and +boast that all other creeds equally enjoy? Perhaps I had better state +simply how I answer this question in my own mind. Toleration by the +Irish minority, in regard to the religious faith and ecclesiastical +system of the Irish majority, implies that we admit the right of Rome to +say what Roman Catholics shall believe and what outward forms they shall +observe, and that they shall not suffer before the State for these +beliefs and observances. I do not think exception can be taken to the +statement that toleration in this narrow sense cannot be refused +consistently with the fundamental principles of British government. + +Now, however, comes a less obvious, but, as I think, no less essential +condition of toleration in the sense above indicated. The Roman Catholic +Hierarchy claim the right to exercise such supervision and control over +the education of their flock as will enable them to safe-guard faith and +morals as preached and practised by their Church. I concede this second +claim as a necessary corollary of the first. Having lived most of my +life among Roman Catholics--two branches of my own family belonging to +that religion--I am aware that this control is an essential part of the +whole fabric of Roman Catholicism. Whether the basis of authority upon +which that system is founded be in its origin divine or human is beside +the point. If we profess to tolerate the faith and religious system of +the majority of our countrymen we must at least concede the conditions +essential to the maintenance of both the one and the other, unless our +tolerance is to be a sham. + +So far all liberal-minded Protestants, who know what Roman Catholicism +is, will be with me; and for the main purposes of the argument contained +in this chapter it is not necessary to interpret toleration in any wider +sense than that which I have indicated. Many Protestants, among whom I +am one, do, it is true, make a further concession to the claim of our +Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen. We would give them in Ireland +facilities for higher education which we would not give them in England, +and we would advocate liberal endowment by the State to this end. But +this attitude is, I admit, based upon something more than tolerance, and +those who would withhold this concession need not be accused of bigotry +or intolerance for so doing. They may be, and often are, actuated by the +most liberal motives, by a perfectly legitimate conception of +educational principles, or by other considerations which are neither of +a narrow nor sectarian character. + +I need hardly say that in criticising religious systems and their +ministers I have not the faintest intention of entering on the +discussion of doctrinal issues. I am, of course, here concerned with +only those aspects of the religious situation which bear directly on +secular life. I am endeavouring, it must be remembered, to arrive at a +comprehensive and accurate appreciation of the chief influences which +mould the character, guide the thought, and, therefore, direct the +action of the Irish people as citizens of this world and of their own +country. From this standpoint let us try to make a dispassionate survey +of Protestantism and Roman Catholicism in Ireland, and see wherein +their votaries fulfil, or fail to fulfil, their mission in advancing our +common civilisation. Let us examine, in a word, not merely the direct +influence which the creed of each of the two sections of Irishmen +produces on the industrial character of its adherents, but also its +indirect effects upon the mutual relations and regard for each other of +Protestants and Roman Catholics. + +Protestantism has its stronghold in the great industrial centres of the +North and among the Presbyterian farmers of five or six Ulster counties. +These communities, it is significant to note, have developed the +essentially strenuous qualities which, no doubt, they brought from +England and Scotland. In city life their thrift, industry, and +enterprise, unsurpassed in the United Kingdom, have built up a +world-wide commerce. In rural life they have drawn the largest yield +from relatively infertile soil. Such, in brief, is the achievement of +Ulster Protestantism in the realm of industry. It is a story of which, +when a united Ireland becomes more than a dream, all Irishmen will be +proud. + +But there is, unhappily, another side to the picture. This industrial +life, otherwise so worthily cultivated, is disturbed by manifestations +of religious bigotry which sadly tarnish the glory of the really heroic +deeds they are intended to commemorate. It is impossible for any close +observer of these deplorable exhibitions to avoid the conclusion that +the embers of the old fires are too often fanned by men who are +actuated by motives, which, when not other than religious, are certainly +based upon an unworthy conception of religion. I am quite aware that it +is only a small and decreasing minority of my co-religionists who are +open to the charge of intolerance, and that the geographical limits of +the July orgy are now strictly circumscribed. But this bigotry is so +notorious, as for instance in the exclusion of Roman Catholics from many +responsible positions, that it unquestionably reacts most unfavourably +upon the general relations between the two creeds throughout the whole +of Ireland. The existence of such a spirit of suspicion and hatred, from +whatever motive it emanates, is bound to retard our progress as a people +towards the development of a healthy and balanced national life. + +Many causes have recently contributed to the unhappy continuance of +sectarian animosities in Ireland. The Ritualistic movement and the +struggle over the Education Bill in England, the renewed controversy on +the University Question in Ireland, instances of bigotry towards +Protestants displayed by County, District, and Urban Councils in the +three southern provinces of Ireland, the formation of the Catholic +Association, the question of the form of the King's oath, and, more +remotely, the protest against clericalism in such Roman Catholic +countries as France and Austria, have one and all helped to keep alive +the flame of anti-Roman feeling among Irish Protestants.[16] + +There are, happily, other influences now at work in a contrary +direction. Among the industrial leaders a better spirit prevails. A +well-known Ulster manufacturer told me recently that only a few years +ago, when an applicant for employment appeared at certain Northern +factories, which my friend named, the first question always put was, +'Are you a Protestant or Roman Catholic?' Now, he said, it is not what a +man believes, but what he can do, which is considered when engaging +workers. And outside the cities there are most gratifying signs of +better relations between the two creeds. We are on the eve of the +creation of a peasant proprietary, involving the rehabilitation of rural +life, and one essential condition of the successful inauguration of the +new agrarian order is the elimination of anything approaching to +sectarian bitterness in communities which will require every advantage +derivable from joint deliberation and common effort to enable them to +hold their own against foreign competition. I recall a trivial but +significant incident in the course of my Irish work which left a deep +impression on my mind. After attending a meeting of farmers in a very +backward district in the extreme west of Mayo, I arrived one winter's +evening at the Roman Catholic priest's house. Before the meeting I had +been promised a cup of tea, which, after a long, cold drive, was more +than acceptable. When I presented myself at the priest's house, what was +my astonishment at finding the Protestant clergyman presiding over a +steaming urn and a plate of home-made cakes, having been requested to do +the honours by his fellow-minister, who had been called away to a sick +bed. A cycle of homilies on the virtue of tolerance could add nothing to +the simple lesson which these two clergymen gave to the adherents of +both their creeds. I felt as I went on my way that night that I had had +a glimpse into the kind of future for Ireland towards which my +fellow-workers are striving. + +It is, however, with the religion of the majority of the Irish people +and with its influence upon the industrial character of its adherents +that I am chiefly concerned. Roman Catholicism strikes an outsider as +being in some of its tendencies non-economic, if not actually +anti-economic. These tendencies have, of course, much fuller play when +they act on a people whose education has (through no fault of their own) +been retarded or stunted. The fact is not in dispute, but the difficulty +arises when we come to apportion the blame between ignorance on the part +of the people and a somewhat one-sided religious zeal on the part of +large numbers of their clergy. I do not seek to do so with any precision +here. I am simply adverting to what has appeared to me, in the course of +my experience in Ireland, to be a defect in the industrial character of +Roman Catholics which, however caused, seems to me to have been +intensified by their religion. The reliance of that religion on +authority, its repression of individuality, and its complete shifting of +what I may call the moral centre of gravity to a future existence--to +mention no other characteristics--appear to me calculated, unless +supplemented by other influences, to check the growth of the qualities +of initiative and self-reliance, especially amongst a people whose lack +of education unfits them for resisting the influence of what may present +itself to such minds as a kind of fatalism with resignation as its +paramount virtue. + +It is true that one cannot expect of any church or religion, as a +condition of its acceptance, that it will furnish an economic theory; +and it is also true that Roman Catholicism has, at different periods of +history, advantageously affected economic conditions, even if it did not +act from distinctively economic motives--for example, by its direct +influence in the suppression of slavery[17] and its creation of the +mediæval craft guilds. It may, too, be admitted that during the Middle +Ages, when Roman Catholicism was freer than now to manifest its +influence in many directions, owing to its practically unchallenged +supremacy, it favoured, when it did not originate, many forms of sound +economic activity, and was, to say the least, abreast of the time in its +conception of the working of economic causes. But from the time when +the Reformation, by its demand for what we Protestants conceive to be a +simpler Christianity, drove Roman Catholicism back, if I may use the +expression, on its first line of defence, and constrained it to look to +its distinctively spiritual heritage, down to the present day, it has +seemed to stand strangely aloof from any contact with industrial and +economic issues. When we consider that in this period Adam Smith lived +and died, the industrial revolution was effected, and the world-market +opened, it is not surprising that we do not find Roman Catholic +countries in the van of economic progress, or even the Roman Catholic +element in Protestant countries, as a rule, abreast of their +fellow-countrymen. It would, however, be an error to ignore some notable +exceptions to this generalisation. In Belgium, in France, in parts of +Germany and Austria, and in the north of Italy economic thought is +making headway amongst Roman Catholics, and the solution of social +problems is being advanced by Roman Catholic laymen and clergymen. Even +in these countries, however, much remains to be done. The revolution in +the industrial order, and its consequences, such as the concentration of +immense populations within restricted areas, have brought with them +social and moral evils that must be met with new weapons. In the +interests of religion itself, principles first expounded to a Syrian +community with the most elementary physical needs and the simplest of +avocations, have to be taught in their application to the conditions of +the most complex social organisation and economic life. Taking people +as we find them, it may be said with truth that their lives must be +wholesome before they can be holy, and while a voluntary asceticism may +have its justification, it behoves a Church to see that its members, +while fully acknowledging the claims of another life, should develop the +qualities which make for well-being in this life. In fact, I believe +that the influence of Christianity upon social progress will be best +maintained by co-ordinating these spiritual and economic ideals in a +philosophy of life broader and truer than any to which the nations have +yet attained. + +What I have just been saying with regard to Roman Catholicism generally, +in relation to economic doctrines and industrial progress, applies, of +course, with a hundred fold pertinence to the case of Ireland. Between +the enactment of the first Penal Laws and the date of Roman Catholic +Emancipation, Irish Roman Catholics were, to put it mildly, afforded +scant opportunity, in their own country, of developing economic virtues +or achieving industrial success. Ruthlessly deprived of education, are +they to be blamed if they did not use the newly acquired facilities to +the best advantage? With their religion looked on as the badge of legal +and social inferiority, was it any wonder that priests and people alike, +while clinging with unexampled fidelity to their creed, remained +altogether cut off from the current of material prosperity? Excluded, as +they were, not merely from social and political privileges, but from the +most ordinary civil rights, denied altogether the right of ownership of +real property, and restricted in the possession of personalty, is it +any wonder that they are not to-day in the van of industrial and +commercial progress? Nay, more, was it to have been expected that the +character of a people so persecuted and ostracised should have come out +of the ordeal of centuries with its adaptability and elasticity +unimpaired? That would have been impossible. Those who are intimate with +the Roman Catholic people of Ireland, and at the same time familiar with +their history, will recognise in their character and mental outlook many +an inheritance of that epoch of serfdom. I speak, of course, of the +mass, for I am not unmindful of many exceptions to this generalisation. + +But I must now pass on to a more definite consideration of the present +action and attitude of the Irish Roman Catholic clergy towards the +economic, educational, and other issues discussed in this book. The +reasons which render such a consideration necessary are obvious. Even if +we include Ulster, three quarters of the Irish people are Roman +Catholics, while, excluding the Northern province, quite nine-tenths of +the population belong to that religion. Again, the three thousand +clergymen of that denomination exercise an influence over their flocks +not merely in regard to religious matters, but in almost every phase of +their lives and conduct, which is, in its extent and character, quite +unique, even, I should say, amongst Roman Catholic communities. To a +Protestant, this authority seems to be carried very far beyond what the +legitimate influence of any clergy over the lay members of their +congregation should be. We are, however, dealing with a national life +explicable only by reference to a very exceptional and gloomy history of +religious persecution. What I may call the secular shortcomings of the +Roman Catholics in Ireland cannot be fairly judged except as the results +of a series of enactments by which they were successively denied almost +all means of succeeding as citizens of this world. + +From such study as I have been able to give to the history of their +Church, I have come to the conclusion that the immense power of the +Irish Roman Catholic clergy has been singularly little abused. I think +it must be admitted that they have not exhibited in any marked degree +bigotry towards Protestants. They have not put obstacles in the way of +the Roman Catholic majority choosing Protestants for political leaders, +and it is significant that refugees, such as the Palatines, from +Catholic persecutions in Europe, found at different times a home amongst +the Roman Catholic people of Ireland. My own experience, too, if I may +again refer to that, distinctly proves that it is no disadvantage to a +man to be a Protestant in Irish political life, and that where +opposition is shown to him by Roman Catholics it is almost invariably on +political, social, or agrarian, but not on religious grounds. + +A charge of another kind has of late been often brought against the +Roman Catholic clergy, which has a direct bearing upon the economic +aspect of this question. Although, as I read Irish history, the Roman +Catholic priesthood have, in the main, used their authority with +personal disinterestedness, if not always with prudence or discretion, +their undoubted zeal for religion has, on occasion, assumed forms which +enlightened Roman Catholics, including high dignitaries of that Church, +think unjustifiable on economic grounds, and discourage even from a +religious standpoint. Excessive and extravagant church-building in the +heart and at the expense of poor communities is a recent and notorious +example of this misdirected zeal. It has been, I believe, too often +forgotten that the best monument of any clergyman's influence and +earnestness must always be found in the moral character and the +spiritual fibre of his flock, and not in the marbles and mosaics of a +gaudy edifice. And without doubt a good many motives which have but a +remote connection with religion are, unfortunately, at work in the +church-building movement. It may, however, to some extent, be regarded +as an extreme re-action from the penal times, when the hunted _soggarth_ +had to celebrate the Mass in cabins and caves on the mountain side--a +re-action the converse of which was witnessed in Protestant England when +Puritanism rose up against Anglicanism in the seventeenth century. This +expenditure, however, has been incurred; and, no one, I take it, would +advocate the demolition of existing religious edifices on the ground +that their erection had been unduly costly! The moral is for the present +and the future, and applies not merely to economy in new buildings, but +also in the decoration of existing churches.[18] + +But it is not alone extravagant church building which in a country so +backward as Ireland, shocks the economic sense. The multiplication--in +inverse ratio to a declining population--of costly and elaborate +monastic and conventual institutions, involving what in the aggregate +must be an enormous annual expenditure for maintenance, is difficult to +reconcile with the known conditions of the country. Most of these +institutions, it is true, carry on educational work, often, as in the +case of the Christian Brothers and some colleges and convents, of an +excellent kind. Many of them render great services to the poor, and +especially to the sick poor. But, none the less, it seems to me, their +growth in number and size is anomalous. I cannot believe that so large +an addition to the 'unproductive' classes is economically sound, and I +have no doubt at all that the competition with lay teachers of celibates +'living in community' is excessive and educationally injurious. Strongly +as I hold the importance of religion in education, I personally do not +think that teachers who have renounced the world and withdrawn from +contact with its stress and strain are the best moulders of the +characters of youths who will have to come into direct conflict with the +trials and temptations of life. But here again we must accept the +situation and work with the instruments ready to hand. The practical and +statesmanlike action for all those concerned is to endeavour to render +these institutions as efficient educational agencies as may be possible. +They owe their existence largely to the gaps in the educational system +of this country which religious and political strife have produced and +maintained, and they deserve the utmost credit for endeavouring to +supply missing steps in our educational ladder.[19] If they now fully +respond to the spirit of the new movements and meet the demand for +technical education by the employment of the most approved methods and +equipment, and by the thorough training on sound lines of their staffs, +it is impossible that their influence on the young generation should not +be as salutary as it will be wide-reaching. + +But, after all, these criticisms are, for the purposes of my argument, +of minor relevance and importance. The real matter in which the direct +and personal responsibility of the Roman Catholic clergy seems to me to +be involved, is the character and _morale_ of the people of this +country. No reader of this book will accuse me of attaching too little +weight to the influence of historical causes on the present state, +social, economic and political, of Ireland, but even when I have given +full consideration to all such influences I still think that, with their +unquestioned authority in religion, and their almost equally undisputed +influence in education, the Roman Catholic clergy cannot be exonerated +from some responsibility in regard to Irish character as we find it +to-day. Are they, I would ask, satisfied with that character? I cannot +think so. The impartial observer will, I fear, find amongst a majority +of our people a striking absence of self-reliance and moral courage; an +entire lack of serious thought on public questions; a listlessness and +apathy in regard to economic improvement which amount to a form of +fatalism; and, in backward districts, a survival of superstition, which +saps all strength of will and purpose--and all this, too, amongst a +people singularly gifted by nature with good qualities of mind and +heart. + +Nor can the Roman Catholic clergy altogether console themselves with the +thought that religious faith, even when free from superstition, is +strong in the breasts of the people. So long, no doubt, as Irish Roman +Catholics remain at home, in a country of sharply defined religious +classes, and with a social environment and a public opinion so +preponderatingly stamped with their creed, open defections from Roman +Catholicism are rare. But we have only to look at the extent of the +'leakage' from Roman Catholicism amongst the Irish emigrants in the +United States and in Great Britain, to realise how largely emotional and +formal must be the religion of those who lapse so quickly in a +non-Catholic atmosphere.[20] + +It is not, of course, to the causes of the defections from a creed to +which I do not subscribe that my criticism is directed. I refer to the +matter only in order to emphasise the large share of responsibility +which belongs to the Roman Catholic clergy for what I strongly believe +to be the chief part in the work of national regeneration, the part +compared with which all legislative, administrative, educational or +industrial achievements are of minor importance. Holding, as I do, that +the building of character is the condition precedent to material, social +and intellectual advancement, indeed to all national progress, I may, +perhaps, as a lay citizen, more properly criticise, from this point of +view, what I conceive to be the great defect in the methods of clerical +influence. For this purpose no better illustration could be afforded +than a brief analysis of the results of the efforts made by the Roman +Catholic clergy to inculcate temperance. + +Among temperance advocates--the most earnest of all reformers--the Roman +Catholic clergy have an honourable record. An Irish priest was the +greatest, and, for a brief spell, the most successful temperance apostle +of the last century, and statistics, it is only fair to say, show that +we Irish drink rather less than people in other parts of the United +Kingdom. But the real question is whether we more often drink to +intoxication, and police statistics as well as common experience seem to +disclose that we do. Many a temperate man drinks more in his life than +many a village drunkard. Again, the test of the average consumption of +man, woman and child is somewhat misleading, especially in Ireland +where, owing to the excessive emigration of adults, there is a +disproportionately large number of very young and old. Moreover, we +Irish drink more in proportion to our means than the English, Scotch, +and Welsh, whose consumption is absolutely larger. Anyone who attempts +to deal practically with the problems of industrial development in +Ireland realises what a terribly depressing influence the drink evil +exercises upon the industrial capacity of the people. 'Ireland sober is +Ireland free,' is nearer the truth, than much that is thought and most +of what is said about liberty in this country. + +Now, the drink habit in Ireland differs from that of the other parts of +the United Kingdom. The Irishman is, in my belief, physiologically less +subject to the craving for alcohol than the Englishman, a fact which is +partially attributable, I should say, to the less animal dietary to +which he is accustomed. By far the greater proportion of the drinking +which retards our progress is of a festive character. It takes place at +fairs and markets, sometimes, even yet, at 'wakes,' those ghastly +parodies on the blessed consolation of religion in bereavement. It is +intensified by the almost universal sale of liquor in the country shops +'for consumption on the premises,' an evil the demoralising effects of +which are an hundredfold greater than those of the 'grocer's licences' +which temperance reformers so strenuously denounce. It is an evil in +defence of which nothing can be said, but it has somehow escaped the +effective censure of the Church. + +The indiscriminate granting of licences in Ireland, which has resulted +in the provision of liquor shops in a proportion to the population +larger than is found in any other country, is in itself due mainly to +the moral cowardice of magistrates, who do not care to incur local +unpopularity by refusing licences for which there is no pretence of any +need beyond that of the applicant and his relatives. Not long ago the +magistrates of Ireland met in Dublin in order to inaugurate common +action in dealing with this scandal. Appropriate resolutions were +passed, and much good has already resulted from the meeting, but had the +unvarnished truth been admissible, the first and indeed the only +necessary resolution should have run, "Resolved that in future we be +collectively as brave as we have been individually timid, and that we +take heart of grace and carry away from this meeting sufficient strength +to do, in the exercise of our functions as the licensing authority, what +we have always known to be our plain duty to our country and our God." +No such resolution was proposed, for though patriotism is becoming real +in Ireland, it is not yet very robust. + +I do not think it unfair to insist upon the large responsibility of the +clergy for the state of public opinion in this matter, to which the few +facts I have cited bear testimony. But I attribute their failure to deal +with a moral evil of which they are fully cognisant to the fact that +they do not recognise the chief defect in the character of the people, +and to a misunderstanding of the means by which that character can be +strengthened. There are, however, exceptions to this general statement. +It is of happy augury for the future of Ireland that many of the clergy +are now leading a temperance movement which shows a real knowledge of +the _causa causans_ of Irish intemperance. The Anti-Treating League, as +it is called, administers a novel pledge which must have been conceived +in a very understanding mind. Those enlisted undertake neither to treat +nor to be treated. They may drink, so far as the pledge is concerned, as +much as they like; but they must drink at their own expense; and others +must not drink at their expense. The good nature and sociability of +Irishmen, too often the mere result of inability to say 'no,' need not +be sacrificed. But even if they were, the loss of these social graces +would be far more than compensated by a self-respect and seriousness of +life out of which something permanent might be built. Still, even this +League makes no direct appeal to character, and so acts rather as a cure +for than as a preventive of our moral weakness. + +The methods by which clerical influence is wielded in the inculcation of +chastity may be criticised from exactly the same standpoint as that from +which I have found it necessary to deal with the question of temperance. +Here the success of the Irish priesthood is, considering the conditions +of peasant life, and the fire of the Celtic temperament, absolutely +unique. No one can deny that almost the entire credit of this moral +achievement belongs to the Roman Catholic clergy. It may be said that +the practice of a virtue, even if the motive be of an emotional kind, +becomes a habit, and that habit proverbially develops into a second +nature. With this view of moral evolution I am in entire accord; but I +would ask whether the evolution has not reached a stage where a gradual +relaxation of the disciplinary measures by which chastity is insured +might be safely allowed without any danger of lowering the high standard +of continence which is general in Ireland and which of course it is of +supreme importance to maintain. + +There are, however, many parishes where in this matter the strictest +discipline is rigorously enforced Amusements, not necessarily or even +often vicious, are objected to as being fraught with dangers which would +never occur to any but the rigidly ascetic or the puritanical mind. In +many parishes the Sunday cyclist will observe the strange phenomenon of +a normally light-hearted peasantry marshalled in male and female groups +along the road, eyeing one another in dull wonderment across the +forbidden space through the long summer day. This kind of discipline, +unless when really necessary, is open to the objection that it +eliminates from the education of life, especially during the formative +years, an essential of culture--the mutual understanding of the sexes. +The evil of grafting upon secular life a quasi-monasticism which, not +being voluntary, has no real effect upon the character, may perhaps +involve moral consequences little dreamed of by the spiritual guardians +of the people. A study of the pathology of the emotions might throw +doubt upon the safety of enforced asceticism when unaccompanied by the +training which the Church wisely prescribes for those who take the vow +of celibacy. But of my own knowledge I can speak only of another aspect +of the effect upon our national life of the restrictions to which I +refer. No Irishmen are more sincerely desirous of staying the tide of +emigration than the Roman Catholic clergy, and while, wisely as I think, +they do not dream of a wealthy Ireland, they earnestly work for the +physical and material as well as the spiritual well-being of their +flocks. And yet no man can get into the confidence of the emigrating +classes without being told by them that the exodus is largely due to a +feeling that the clergy are, no doubt from an excellent motive, taking +joy--innocent joy--from the social side of the home life. + +To go more fully into these subjects might carry me beyond the proper +limits of lay criticism. But, clearly, large questions of clerical +training must suggest themselves to those to whom their discussion +properly belongs--whether, for example, there is not in the instances +which I have cited evidence of a failure to understand that mere +authority in the regions of moral conduct cannot have any abiding +effect, except in the rarest combination of circumstances, and with a +very primitive people. Do not many of these clergy ignore the vast +difference between the ephemeral nature of moral compulsion and the +enduring force of a real moral training? + +I have dealt with the exercise of clerical influence in these matters as +being, at any rate in relation to the subject matter of this book, far +more important than the evil commonly described as "The Priest in +Politics." That evil is, in my opinion, greatly misrepresented. The +cases of priests who take an improper part in politics are cited without +reference to the vastly greater number who take no part at all, except +when genuinely assured that a definite moral issue is at stake. I also +have in my mind the question of how we should have fared if the control +of the different Irish agitations had been confined to laymen, and if +the clergy had not consistently condemned secret associations. But +whatever may be said in defence of the priest in politics in the past, +there are the strongest grounds for deprecating a continuance of their +political activity in the future. As I gauge the several forces now +operating in Ireland, I am convinced that if an anti-clerical movement +similar to that which other Roman Catholic countries have witnessed, +were to succeed in discrediting the priesthood and lowering them in +public estimation, it would be followed by a moral, social, and +political degradation which would blight, or at least postpone, our +hopes of a national regeneration. From this point of view I hold that +those clergymen who are predominantly politicians endanger the moral +influence which it is their solemn duty to uphold. I believe however, +that the over-active part hitherto taken in politics by the priests is +largely the outcome of the way in which Roman Catholics were treated in +the past, and that this undesirable feature in Irish life will yield, +and is already yielding to the removal of the evils to which it owed its +origin and in some measure its justification.[21] + +One has only to turn to the spirit and temper of such representative +Roman Catholics as Archbishop Healy and Dr. Kelly, Bishop of Ross--to +their words and to their deeds--in order to catch the inspiration of a +new movement amongst our Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen at once +religious and patriotic. And if my optimism ever wavers, I have but to +think of the noble work that many priests are to my own knowledge +doing, often in remote and obscure parishes, in the teeth of innumerable +obstacles. I call to mind at such times, as pioneers in a great +awakening, men like the eminent Jesuit, Father Thomas Finlay, Father +Hegarty of Erris, Father O'Donovan of Loughrea, and many others--men +with whom I have worked and taken counsel, and who represent, I believe, +an ever increasing number of their fellow priests.[22] + +My position, then, towards the influence of the Roman Catholic +clergy--and this influence is a matter of vital importance to the +understanding of Irish problems--- may now be clearly defined. While +recognising to the full that large numbers of the Irish Roman Catholic +clergy have in the past exercised undue influence in purely political +questions, and, in many other matters, social, educational, and +economic, have not, as I see things, been on the side of progress, I +hold that their influence is now, more than ever before, essential for +improving the condition of the most backward section of the population. +Therefore I feel it to be both the duty and the strong interest of my +Protestant fellow-countrymen to think much less of the religious +differences which divide them from Roman Catholics, and much more of +their common citizenship and their common cause. I also hold with equal +strength and sincerity to the belief, which I have already expressed, +that the shortcomings of the Roman Catholic clergy are largely to be +accounted for, not by any innate tendency on their part towards +obscurantism, but by the sad history of Ireland in the past. I would +appeal to those of my co-religionists who think otherwise to suspend +their judgment for a time. That Roman Catholicism is firmly established +in Ireland is a fact of the situation which they must admit, and as this +involves the continued powerful influence of the priesthood upon the +character of the people, it is surely good policy by liberality and fair +dealing, especially in the matter of education, to turn this influence +towards the upbuilding of our national life. + +To sum up the influence of religion and religious controversy in +Ireland, as it presents itself from the only standpoint from which I +have approached the matter in this chapter, namely, that of material, +social, and intellectual progress, I find that while the Protestants +have given, and continue to give, a fine example of thrift and industry +to the rest of the nation, the attitude of a section of them towards the +majority of their fellow-countrymen has been a bigoted and unintelligent +one. On the other hand, I have learned from practical experience amongst +the Roman Catholic people of Ireland that, while more free from bigotry, +in the sense in which that word is usually applied, they are apathetic, +thriftless, and almost non-industrial, and that they especially require +the exercise of strengthening influences on their moral fibre. I have +dealt with their shortcomings at much greater length than with those of +Protestants, because they have much more bearing on the subject matter +of this book. North and South have each virtues which the other lacks; +each has much to learn from the other; but the home of the strictly +civic virtues and efficiencies is in Protestant Ireland. The work of the +future in Ireland will be to break down in social intercourse the +barriers of creed as well as those of race, politics, and class, and +thus to promote the fruitful contact of North and South, and the +concentration of both on the welfare of their common country. In the +case of those of us, of whatever religious belief, who look to a future +for our country commensurate with the promise of her undeveloped +resources both of intellect and soil, it is of the essence of our hope +that the qualities which are in great measure accountable for the actual +economic and educational backwardness of so many of our +fellow-countrymen, and for the intolerance of too many who are not +backward in either respect, are not purely racial or sectarian, but are +the transitory growth of days and deeds which we must all try to forget +if our work for Ireland is to endure. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[16] The reproach which is brought upon Irish Christianity mainly by the +extravagances of a section of my co-religionists, to which I have been +obliged to refer, came home to me not long ago in a very forcible way. I +happened to remark to a friend that it was a disgrace to Christianity +that Mussulman soldiery were employed at the Holy Sepulchre to keep the +peace between the Latin and Greek Christians. He reminded me that the +prosperous and progressive municipality of Belfast, with a population +eminently industrious, and predominantly Protestant, has to be policed +by an Imperial force in order to restrain two sections of Irish +Christians from assaulting each other in the name of religion. + +[17] '_Pro salute animae meae_' was, I am reminded, the consideration +usually expressed in the old charters of manumission. + +[18] One of the unfortunate effects of this passion for building costly +churches is the importation of quantities of foreign art-work in the +shape of woodcarvings, stained glass, mosaics, and metal work. To good +foreign art, indeed, one could not, within certain limits, object. It +might prove a valuable example and stimulus. But the articles which have +actually been imported, in the impulse to get everything finished as +soon as possible, generally consist of the stock pieces produced in a +spirit of mere commercialism in the workshops of Continental firms which +make it their business to cater for a public who do not know the +difference between good art and bad. Much of the decoration of +ecclesiastical buildings, whether Roman Catholic or Protestant, might +fittingly be postponed until religion in Ireland has got into closer +relation with the native artistic sense and industrial spirit now +beginning to seek creative expression. + +[19] The following extract from a statement of the Most Rev. Dr. O'Dea, +the newly elected Bishop of Clonfert, is pertinent:--'There is another +cause also--i.e. in addition to the absence of university education for +Roman Catholic laymen--which has hindered the employment of the laity in +the past. Till very recently, the secondary Catholic schools received no +assistance whatever from the State, and their endowment from private +sources was utterly inadequate to supply suitable remuneration for lay +teachers. It is evident that a celibate clergy _can_ live on a lower +wage than the laity, and they are now charged with having monopolized +the schools, because they chose to work for a minimum allowance rather +than suffer the country to remain without any secondary education +whatever. Two causes, then, operated in the past, and in a large measure +still operate, to exclude the laity from the secondary schools,--first, +these schools were so poverty-stricken that they could not afford to pay +lay teachers at such a rate as would attract them to the teaching +profession, and, next, the Catholic laity as a body were uneducated, +and, therefore, unfit to teach in the schools.'--_Maynooth and the +University Question_, p. 109 (footnote). + +[20] See, _inter alia_, an article "Ireland and America," by Rev. Mr. +Shinnors, O.M., in the _Irish Ecclesiastical Record_, February, 1902. +'Has the Church,' asks Father Shinnors, 'increased her membership in the +ratio that the population of the United States has increased? No. There +are many converts, but there are many more apostates. Large numbers +lapse into indifferentism and irreligion. There should be in America +about 20,000,000 Catholics; there are scarcely 10,000,000. There are +reasons to fear that the great majority of the apostates are of Irish +extraction, and not a few of them of Irish birth.' + +[21] This view seems to be taken by the most influential spokesmen of +the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. See Evidence, _Royal Commission on +University Education in Ireland_, vol. iii., p. 238, Questions 8702-6. + +[22] I may mention that of the co-operative societies organised by the +Irish Agricultural Organisation Society there are no fewer than 331 +societies of which the local priests are the Chairmen, while to my own +knowledge during the summer and autumn of 1902, as many as 50,000 +persons from all parts of Ireland were personally conducted over the +exhibit of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction at +the Cork Exhibition by their local clergy. The educational purpose of +these visits is explained in Chap. x. Again, in a great number of cases +the village libraries which have been recently started in Ireland with +the assistance of the Department (the books consisting largely of +industrial, economic, and technical works on agriculture), have been +organised and assisted by the Roman Catholic clergy. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +A PRACTICAL VIEW OF IRISH EDUCATION. + + +A little learning, we are told, is a dangerous thing; and in their +dealings with Irish education the English should have discovered that +this danger is accentuated when the little learning is combined with +much native wit. In the days when religious persecution was +universal--only, be it remembered, a few generations ago--it was the +policy of England to avert this danger by prohibiting, as far as +possible, the acquisition by Irish Roman Catholics of any learning at +all. After the Union, Englishmen began to feel their responsibility for +the state of Ireland, a state of poverty and distress which culminated +in the Famine. Knowledge was then no longer withheld: indeed the English +sincerely desired to dispel our darkness and enable us to share in the +wisdom, and so in the prosperity, of the predominant partner. In their +attempts to educate us they dealt with what they saw on the surface, and +moulded their educational principles upon what they knew; but they did +not know Ireland. Even if we excuse them for paying scant attention to +what they were told by Irishmen, they should have given more heed to the +reports of their own Royal Commissions. + +We have so far seen that the Irish mind has been in regard to +economics, politics, and even some phases of religious influence, a mind +warped and diseased, deprived of good nutrition and fed on fancies or +fictions, out of which no genuine growth, industrial or other, was +possible. The one thing that might have strengthened and saved a people +with such a political, social, and religious history, and such racial +characteristics, was an educational system which would have had special +regard to that history, and which would have been a just expression of +the better mind of the people whom it was intended to serve. + +Now this is exactly what was denied to Ireland. Not merely has all +educational legislation come from England, in the sense of being based +on English models and thought out by Englishmen largely out of touch and +sympathy with the peculiar needs of Ireland, but whenever there has been +genuine native thought on Irish educational problems, it has been either +ignored altogether or distorted till its value and significance were +lost. And in this matter we can claim for Ireland that there was in the +country during the first half of the nineteenth century, when England +was trying her best to provide us with a sound English education, a +comparatively advanced stage of home-grown Irish thought upon the +educational needs of the people. Take, for example, the Society for +Promoting Elementary Education among the Irish Poor, know as the Kildare +Street Society, which was founded as early as the year 1811. The first +resolution passed by this body, which was composed of prominent Dublin +citizens of all religious beliefs, was set out as follows:-- + + (1.) Resolved--That promoting the education of the poor of Ireland + is a grand object which every Irishman anxious for the welfare and + prosperity of his country ought to have in view as the basis upon + which the morals and true happiness of the country can be best + secured. + +This Society, it is true, did not see or foresee that any system of +mixed religious education was doomed to failure in Ireland, but they +took a wide view of the place of education in a nation's development, +and the character of the education which their schools actually +dispensed was admirable. This hopeful and enterprising educational +movement is described by Mr. Lecky in a passage from which I take a few +extracts:-- + + The "Kildare Street Society" which received an endowment from + Government, and directed National education from 1812 to 1831, was + not proselytising, and it was for some time largely patronized by + Roman Catholics. It is certainly by no means deserving of the + contempt which some writers have bestowed on it, and if measured by + the spirit of the time in which it was founded it will appear both + liberal and useful.... The object of the schools was stated to be + united education, "taking common Christian ground for the + foundation, and excluding all sectarian distinctions from every + part of the arrangement;" "drawing the attention of both + denominations to the many leading truths of Christianity in which + they agree." To carry out this principle it was a fundamental rule + that the Bible must be read without note or comment in all the + schools. It might be read either in the Authorized or in the Douay + version.... In 1825 there were 1,490 schools connected with the + Society, containing about 100,000 pupils. The improvements + introduced into education by Bell, Lancaster, and Pestalozzi were + largely adopted. Great attention was paid to needlework.... A great + number of useful publications were printed by the Society, and we + have the high authority of Dr. Doyle for stating that he never + found anything objectionable [to Catholics] in them.[23] + +Take, again, as an evidence of the progressive spirit of the Irish +thinkers on education, the remarkable scheme of national education +which, after the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act, was +formulated by Mr. Thomas Wyse, of Waterford. In addition to elementary +schools, Mr. Wyse proposed to establish in every county, 'an academy for +the education of the middle class of society in those departments of +knowledge most necessary to those classes, and over those a College in +each of the four provinces, managed by a Committee representative of the +interests of the several counties of the provinces.' 'It is a matter of +importance,' wrote Mr. Wyse, 'for the simple and efficient working of +the whole system of national education, that each part should as much as +possible be brought into co-operation and accord with the others.' He +foresaw, too, that one of the needs of the Irish temperament was a +training in science which would cultivate the habits of 'education, +observation, and reasoning,' and he pointed out that the peculiar +manufactures, trades, and occupations of the several localities would +determine the course of studies. Mr. Wyse's memorandum on education led, +as is well known, to the creation of the Board of National Education, +but, to quote Dr. Starkie,[24] the present Resident Commissioner of the +Board, 'the more important part of the scheme, dealing with a university +and secondary education, was shelved, in spite of Mr. Wyse's warnings +that it was imprudent, dangerous, and pernicious to the social condition +of the country, and to its future tranquillity, that so much +encouragement should be given to the education of the lower classes, +without at the same time due provision being made for the education of +the middle and upper classes.' + +As still another evidence of the sound thought on educational problems +which came from Irishmen who knew the actual conditions of their own +country and people, the case of the agricultural instruction +administered by the National Board is pertinent. The late Sir Patrick +Keenan has told us that landlords and others who on political and +religious grounds distrusted the National system, turned to this feature +of the operations of the National Board with the greatest fervour. A +scheme of itinerant instruction in agriculture, which had a curious +resemblance to that which the Department of Agriculture is now +organising, was developed, and was likely to have worked with the +greatest advantage to the country at large. Sir Patrick Keenan, who +knew Ireland and the Irish people well, speaks of this part of the +scheme as 'the most fruitful experiment in the material interests of the +country that was ever attempted. It was,' he adds, 'through the agency +of this corps of practical instructors that green cropping as a +systematic feature in farming was introduced into the South and West, +and even into the central parts of Ireland.' But all the hopes thus +raised went down, not before any intrinsic difficulties in the scheme +itself, or before any adverse opinion to it in Ireland, but before the +opposition of the Liverpool Financial Reform Association, who had their +own views as to the limits of State interference with agriculture. These +examples, drawn from different stages of Irish educational history, +might easily be multiplied, but they will serve as typical instances of +that want of recognition by English statesmen of Irish thought on Irish +problems, and that ignoring of Irish sentiment--as distinguished from +Irish sentimentality--which I insist is the basal element in the +misunderstandings of Irish problems. + +I now come to a brief consideration of some facts of the present +educational situation, and I shall indicate, for those readers who are +not familiar with current events in Ireland, the significant evolution, +or revolution, through which Irish education is passing. Within the last +eight years we have had in Ireland three very remarkable reports--in +themselves symptoms of a widespread unrest and dissatisfaction--on the +educational systems of the country. I allude to the reports of two +Viceregal Commissions, one on Manual and Practical Instruction in our +Primary Schools, and the other on our Intermediate Education; and to the +recent report by a Royal Commission on University Education. These +reports cover the three grades of our educational system, and each of +them contains a strong denunciation and a scathing criticism of the +existing provision and methods of instruction in elementary, secondary, +and university education (outside Dublin University), respectively. One +and all showed that the education to be had in our primary and secondary +schools, as well as in the examining body known as the Royal University, +had little regard to the industrial or economic conditions of the +country. We find, for example, agriculture taught out of a text book in +the primary schools, with the result that the _gamins_ of the Belfast +streets secured the highest marks in the subject. In the Intermediate +system are to be found anomalies of a similar kind, which could not long +have survived if there had been a living opinion on educational matters +in Ireland. No careful reader of the evidence given before the +Commissions can fail to see that under our educational system the +schools were practically bribed to fall in with a stereotyped course of +studies which left scant room for elasticity and adaptation to local +needs; that the teacher was, to all intents and purposes, deprived of +healthy initiative; and that the Irish parents must as a body have been +in the dark as to the bearing of their children's studies on their +probable careers in life. A deep and wholesome impression was made in +Ireland by the exposure of the intrinsic evils of a system calculated in +my opinion to turn our youth into a generation of second-rate clerks, +with a distinct distaste for any industrial or productive occupation in +which such qualities as initiative, self-reliance, or judgment were +called for. + +I am told by competent authorities that there is not a single +educational principle laid down in either the report on Manual +Instruction or on Intermediate Education, which was not known and +applied at least half a century ago in continental countries. In fact, +in the Recess Committee investigations, as any reader of the report of +that body can see for himself, the Committee, guided by foreign +experience, foreshadowed practically every reform now being put into +operation. It is better, of course, that we should reform late than +never, but it is well to bear in mind also, so far as the problems of +this book are concerned, how far the education of the country has fallen +short of any sound standard, and how little could have been expected +from the working of our system. The curve of Irish illiteracy has indeed +fallen continuously with each succeeding census, but true education as +opposed to mere instruction has languished sadly. + +Together with my friends and fellow-workers in the self-help movement, I +believe that the problem of Irish education, like all other Irish +problems, must be reconsidered from the standpoint of its relation to +the practical affairs and everyday life of the people of Ireland. The +needs and opportunities of the industrial struggle must, in fact, mould +into shape our educational policy and programmes. We are convinced that +there is little hope of any real solution of the more general problem of +national education, unless and until those in direct contact with the +specific industries of the country succeed in bringing to the notice of +those engaged in the framing of our educational system the kind and +degree of the defects in the industrial character of our people which +debar them from successful competition with other countries. Education +in Ireland has been too long a thing apart from the economic realities +of the country--with what result we know. In the work of the Department +of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, an attempt is +being made to establish a vital relation between industrial education +and industrial life. It is desired to try, at this critical stage of our +development, the experiment--I call it an experiment only because it +does not seem to have been tried before in Ireland--of directing our +instruction with a conscious and careful regard to the probable future +careers of those we are educating. + +This attempt touches, of course, only one department of the whole +educational problem, much of which it would be quite outside my present +purpose to discuss. But I must guard against the supposition that in our +insistence upon the importance of the practical side of education we +are under any doubt as to the great importance of the literary side. My +friends and I have been deeply impressed by the educational experience +of Denmark, where the people, who are as much dependent on agriculture +as are the Irish, have brought it by means of organisation to a more +genuine success than it has attained anywhere else in Europe. Yet an +inquirer will at once discover that it is to the "High Schools" founded +by Bishop Grundtvig, and not to the agricultural schools, which are also +excellent, that the extraordinary national progress is mainly due. A +friend of mine who was studying the Danish system of State aid to +agriculture, found this to be the opinion of the Danes of all classes, +and was astounded at the achievements of the associations of farmers, +not only in the manufacture of butter, but in a far more difficult +undertaking, the manufacture of bacon in large factories equipped with +all the most modern machinery and appliances which science had devised +for the production of the finished article. He at first concluded that +this success in a highly technical industry by bodies of farmers +indicated a very perfect system of technical education. But he soon +found another cause. As one of the leading educators and agriculturists +of the country put it to him: 'It's not technical instruction, it's the +humanities.' I would like to add that it is also, if I may coin a term, +the 'nationalities,' for nothing is more evident to the student of +Danish education or, I might add, of the excellent system of the +Christian Brothers in Ireland, than that one of the secrets of their +success is to be found in their national basis and their foundation +upon the history and literature of the country. + +To sum up the educational situation in Ireland, it is not too much to +say that all our forms of education, technical and general, hang loose. +We lack a body of trained teachers; we have no alert and informed public +opinion on education and its function in regard to life; and there is no +proper provision for research work in all branches, a deficiency, which, +I am told by those who have given deep thought and long study to these +problems, inevitably reacts most disastrously on the general educational +system of the country. This state of things appears not unnatural when +we remember that the Penal Laws were not repealed till almost the close +of the eighteenth century, and that a large majority of the Irish people +had not full and free access to even primary and secondary education +until the passing of the Emancipation Act in 1829. At the present day, +the absence of any provision for higher education of which Roman +Catholics will avail themselves is not merely an enormous loss in +itself, but it reacts most adversely upon the whole educational +machinery, and consequently upon the whole public life and thought of +that section of the nation. + +One of the very first things I had to learn when I came into direct +touch with educational problems, was that the education of a country +cannot be divided into water-tight compartments, and each part +legislated for or discussed solely on its merits and without reference +to the other parts. I see now very clearly that the educational system +of a country is an organic whole, the working of any part of which +necessarily has an influence on the working of the rest. I had always +looked upon the lower, secondary, and higher grades as the first, +second, and third storeys of the educational house, and I am not quite +sure that I attached sufficient importance to the staircase. My view has +now changed, and I find myself regarding the University as a foundation +and support of the primary and secondary school. + +It was not on purely pedagogic grounds that I added to my other +political irregularities the earnest advocacy of such a provision for +higher education as Roman Catholics will avail themselves of. This great +need was revealed to me in my study of the Irish mind and of the +direction in which it could look for its higher development. My belief +is based on practical experience; my point of view is that of the +economist. When the new economic mission in Ireland began now fourteen +years ago, we had to undertake, in addition to our practical programme, +a kind of University extension work with the important omission of the +University. We had to bring home to adult farmers whose general +education was singularly poor, though their native intelligence was keen +and receptive, a large number of general ideas bearing on the productive +and distributive side of their industry. Our chief obstacles arose from +the lack of trained economic thought among all classes, and especially +among those to whom the majority looked for guidance. The air was thick +with economic fallacies or half-truths. We were, it is true, successful +beyond our expectations in planting in apparently uncongenial soil sound +economic principles. But our success was mainly due, as I shall show +later, to our having used the associative instincts of the Irish peasant +to help out the working of our theories; and we became convinced that if +a tithe of our priests, public men, national school teachers, and +members of our local bodies had received a university education, we +should have made much more rapid progress. + +I hardly know how to describe the mental atmosphere in which we were +working. It would be no libel upon the public opinion upon which we +sought to make an impression to say that it really allowed no question +to be discussed on its merits. Public opinion on social and economic +questions is changing now, but I cannot associate the change with any +influence emanating from institutions of higher education. In other +countries, so far as my investigations have extended, the universities +do guide economic thought and have a distinct though wholly unofficial +function as a court of appeal upon questions relating to the material +progress of the communities amongst which they are situated. Of such +institutions there are in Ireland only two which could be expected to +direct in any large way the thought of the country upon economic and +other important national questions--Maynooth, and Trinity College, +Dublin. Whether in their widely different spheres of influence these two +institutions could, under conditions other than those prevailing, have +so met the requirements of the country as to have obviated what is at +present an urgent necessity for a complete reorganisation of higher +education need not be discussed; but it is essential to my argument that +I should set forth clearly the results of my own observation upon their +influence, or rather lack of influence, upon the people among whom I +have worked. + +The influence of Maynooth, actual and potential, can hardly be +exaggerated, but it is exercised indirectly upon the secular thought of +the country. It is not its function to make a direct impression. It is +in fact only a professional--I had almost said a technical--school. It +trains its students, most admirably I am told, in theology, philosophy, +and the studies subsidiary to these sciences, but always, for the vast +majority of its students, with a distinctly practical and definite +missionary end in view. There is, I believe, an arts course of modest +scope, designed rather to meet the deficiencies of students whose +general education has been neglected than to serve as anything in the +nature of a university arts course. I am quite aware of the value of a +sound training in mental science if given in connection with a full +university course, but I am equally convinced that the Maynooth +education, on the whole, is no substitute for a university course, and +that while its chief end of turning out a large number of trained +priests has been fulfilled, it has not given, and could not be expected +to have given, that broader and more humane culture which only a +university, as distinguished from a professional school, can adequately +provide. + +Moreover, under the Maynooth system young clerics are constantly called +upon to take a part in the life of a lay community, towards which, when +they entered college, they were in no position of responsibility, and +upon which, so far as secular matters are concerned, when they emerge +from their theological training, they are no better adapted to exercise +a helpful influence. In my experience of priests I have met with many in +whom I recognised a sincere desire to attend to the material and social +well-being of their flocks, but who certainly had not that breadth of +view and understanding of human nature which perhaps contact with the +laity during the years in which they were passing from discipline to +authority might have given to them. However this may be, it is clear and +it is admitted that education as opposed to professional training of a +high order is still, generally speaking, a want among the priests of +Ireland, and I look forward to no greater boon from a University or +University College for Roman Catholics than its influence, direct and +indirect, on a body of men whose prestige and authority are necessarily +so unique. + +It is, therefore, to Trinity College, or the University of Dublin, that +one would naturally turn as to a great centre of thought in Ireland for +help in the theoretic aspects, at least, of the practical problems upon +whose successful solution our national well-being depends. Judged by +the not unimportant test of the men it has supplied to the service of +the State and country during its three centuries of educational +activity, by the part it took in one of the brightest epochs of these +three centuries--the days when it gave Grattan to Grattan's Parliament, +by the work and reputation of the _alumni_ it could muster to-day within +and without its walls, our venerable seat of learning need not fear +comparison with any similar institutions in Great Britain. It may also, +of course, be said that many men who have passed through Trinity College +have impressed the thought of Ireland, and, indeed, of the world, in one +way or another--such men as, to take two very different examples, Burke +and Thomas Davis--but on some of the very best spirits amongst these men +Trinity College and its atmosphere have exerted influence rather by +repulsion than by attraction; and certainly their characteristics of +temper or thought have not been of a kind which those best acquainted +with the atmosphere of Trinity College associate with that institution. +Still nothing can detract from the credit of having educated such men. +But these tests and standards are, for my present purpose, irrelevant. I +am not writing a book on Irish educational history, or even a record of +present-day Irish educational achievement. I am rather trying, from the +standpoint of a practical worker for national progress, to measure the +reality and strength of the educational and other influences which are +actually and actively operating on the character and intellect of the +majority of the Irish people, moulding their thought and directing +their action towards the upbuilding of our national life. + +From this point of view I am bound to say that Trinity College, so far +as I have seen, has had but little influence upon the minds or the lives +of the people. Nor can I find that at any period of the extraordinarily +interesting economic and social revolution, which has been in progress +in Ireland since the great catastrophe of the Famine period, Dublin +University has departed from its academic isolation and its aloofness +from the great national problems that were being worked out. The more +one thinks of it, indeed, and the more one realises the opportunities of +an institution like Trinity College in a country like Ireland, the more +one must recognise how small, in recent times, has been its positive +influence on the mind of the country, and how little it has contributed +towards the solution of any of those problems, educational, economic, or +social, that were clamant for solution, and which in any other country +would have naturally secured the attention of men who ought to have been +leaders of thought. + +Whatever the causes, and many may be assigned, this unfortunate lack of +influence on the part of Trinity College, has always seemed to me a +strong supplementary argument for the creation of another University or +University College on a more popular basis, to which the Roman Catholic +people of Ireland would have recourse. From the fact that Maynooth by +its constitution could never have developed into a great national +University,[25] and that Trinity College has never, as a matter of fact, +done so, and has thus, in my opinion, missed a unique opportunity, it +has come about that Ireland has been without any great centre of thought +whose influence would have tended to leaven the mass of mental +inactivity or random-thinking so prevalent in Ireland, and would have +created a body of educated public opinion sufficiently informed and +potent to secure the study and discussion on their merits of questions +of vital interest to the country. The demoralising atmosphere of +partisanship which hangs over Ireland would, I am convinced, gradually +give way before an organised system of education with a thoroughly +democratic University at its head, which would diffuse amongst the +people at large a sense of the value of a balanced judgment on, and a +true appreciation of, the real forces with which Ireland has to deal in +building up her fortunes. + +To discuss the merits of the different solutions which have been +proposed for the vexed problem of higher education in Ireland would be +beyond the scope of this book. The question will have to be faced, and +all I need do here is to state the conditions which the solution will +have to fulfil if it is to deal with the aspects of the Irish Question +with which the new movement is practically concerned. What is most +needed is a University that will reach down to the rural population, +much in the same way as the Scottish Universities do, and a lower scale +of fees will be required than Trinity College, with its diminished +revenues, could establish. Already I can see that the work of the new +Department, acting in conjunction with local bodies, urban and rural, +throughout the country, will provide a considerable number of +scholarships, bursaries, and exhibitions for young men who are being +prepared to take part in the very real, but rather hazily understood, +industrial revival which is imminent. Leaving sectarian controversies +out of the question, the type of institution which is required in order +to provide adequately for the classes now left outside the influence of +higher education is an institution pre-eminently national in its aims, +and one intimately associated with the new movements making for the +development of our national resources. + +Unfortunately, however, in Ireland, and indeed in England too, there is +a tendency to regard educational institutions almost solely as they will +affect religion. At least it is difficult to arouse any serious interest +in them except from this point of view. I welcome, therefore, the +striking answers given to the queries of Lord Robertson, Chairman of the +University Commission, by Dr. O'Dwyer, the Roman Catholic Bishop of +Limerick, who boldly and wisely placed the question before the country +in the light in which cleric and layman should alike regard it:-- + + _The Chairman_.--(413): "I suppose you believe a Catholic + University, such as you propose, will strengthen Roman Catholicism + in Ireland?"--"It is not easy to answer that; not so easy as it + looks." (414):--"But it won't weaken it, or you would not be + here?"--"It would educate Catholics in Ireland very largely, and, + of course, a religious denomination composed of a body of educated + men is stronger than a religious denomination composed of ignorant + men. In that sense it would strengthen Roman Catholicism." + (415):--"Is there any sense in which it won't?"--"As far as + religion is concerned, I do not know how a University would work + out. If you ask me now whether I think that that University in a + certain number of years would become a centre of thought, + strengthening the Catholic faith in Ireland, I cannot tell you. It + is a leap in the dark." (416):--"But it is in the hope that it will + strengthen your own Church that you propose it?"--"No, it is not, + by any means. We are Bishops, but we are Irishmen, also, and we + want to serve our country."[26] + +Equally significant were the statements of Dr. O'Dea, the official +spokesman of Maynooth, when he said, + + I regard the interest of the laity in the settlement of the + University Question as supreme. The clergy are but a small, however + important, part of the nation, and the laity have never had an + institution of higher education comparable to Maynooth in magnitude + or resources. I recognise, therefore, that the educational + grievances of the laity are much more pressing than those of the + clergy ... It is generally admitted that Irish priests hold a + position of exceptional influence, due to historical causes, the + intensely religious character of the people, and the want of + Catholic laymen qualified by education and position for social and + political leadership. What Bishop Berkeley said of them in 1749, in + his letter, _A Word to the Wise_, still holds true, 'That no set of + men on earth have it in their power to do good on easier terms, + with more advantage to others, and less pains or loss to + themselves.' It would be folly to expect that in a mixed community + the State should do anything to strengthen or perpetuate this + power; but this result will certainly not follow from the more + liberal education of the clergy, provided equal advantages are + extended to the laity. On the contrary, I am convinced that if the + void in the lay leadership of the country be filled up by higher + education of the better classes among the Catholic laity, the power + of the priests, so far as it is abnormal or unnecessary will pass + away; and, further, if I believed, with many who are opposed to the + better education of the priesthood, that their power is based on + falsehood or superstition, I would unhesitatingly advocate the + spread of higher education among the laity and clergy alike, as the + best means of effectually sapping and disintegrating it.[27] + +I had for long indulged a hope that a university of the type which +Ireland requires would have been the outcome of a great national +educational movement emanating from Trinity College, which might, at +this auspicious hour, have surpassed all the proud achievements of its +three hundred years. That hope was dispelled when the cry of 'Hands off +Trinity' was applied to the profane hands of the Royal Commission. +Perhaps that attitude may be reconsidered yet. There is one hopeful +sentiment which is often heard coming from that institution. An opinion +has been strongly expressed that nothing ought to be done to separate in +secular life two sections of Irishmen who happen to belong to different +creeds. Whatever may be the logical outcome of the position taken up +towards the University problem by those who give expression to this +pious opinion, I do not for a moment doubt their sincerity. But I often +think that too much importance is attached to the danger of building new +walls, and that there is too little appreciation of the wide and deep +foundation of the already existing walls between the two sections of +Irishmen who are so unhappily kept apart. In dealing with this, as with +all large Irish problems, it had better be frankly recognised that there +are in the country two races, two creeds, and, what is too little +considered, two separate spheres of economic interest and pursuit. +Socially two separate classes have naturally, nay inevitably, arisen out +of these distinctions. One class has superior advantages in many ways of +great importance. The other class is far more numerous, produces far the +greater proportion of the nation's wealth, and is, therefore, from the +national point of view, of greater importance. But both are necessary. +Both must be adequately provided for in the supreme matter of higher +education. Above all, the two classes must be educated to regard +themselves as united by the bond of a common country--a sentiment which, +if genuine, would treat differences arising from whatever cause, not as +a difficulty in the way of national progress, but rather as affording a +variety of opportunities for national expansion. + +I do not concern myself as to the exact form which the new institution +or institutions which are to give us the absolutely essential advantage +of higher education should take. If in view of the difference in the +requirements to which I have alluded, and the complicated pedagogic and +administrative considerations which have to be taken into account, +schemes of co-education of Protestants and Roman Catholics are difficult +of immediate accomplishment, let that ideal be postponed. The two creeds +can meet in the playground now: they can meet everywhere in after life. +Ireland will bring them together soon enough if Ireland is given a +chance, and when the time is ripe for their coming together in higher +education they will come together. If the time is not now ripe for this +ideal there is no justification for postponing educational reform until +the relations between the two creeds have been elevated to a plane +which, in my opinion, they will never reach except through the aid of +that culture which a widely diffused higher education alone can afford. + + * * * * * + +When I was beginning to write this chapter I chanced to pick up the +_Chesterfield Letters_. I opened the book at the two hundredth epistle, +and, curiously enough, almost the first sentence which caught my eye +ran: 'Education more than nature is the cause of that difference you see +in the character of men.' I felt myself at first in strong disagreement +with this aphorism. But when I came to reflect how much the nature of +one generation must be the outcome of the education of those which went +before it, I gradually came to see the truth in Lord Chesterfield's +words. I must leave it to experts to define the exact steps which ought +to be taken to make the general education of this country capable of +cultivating the judgment, strengthening the will, and so of building up +the character. But every day, every thought, I give to the problems of +Irish progress convinces me more firmly that this is the real task of +educational reform, a task that must be accomplished before we can prove +to those who brand us with racial inferiority that, in Ireland, it was +not nature that has been unkind in causing the difference we find in the +character of men. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[23] _Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland_, II., 122-4. + +[24] _Recent Reforms in Irish Education_, p. 7. + +[25] It was not authorised to give degrees to lay students; and even the +admission of lay students to an Arts course was prohibited by +Government, lest Catholic students should be drawn away from Trinity +College. See Cornwallis Correspondence, III., 366-8. + +[26] Appendix to First Report, p. 37. + +[27] Appendix to Third Report, pp. 283, 296. + + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THROUGH THOUGHT TO ACTION. + + +I have now completed my survey of the main conditions which, in my +opinion, must be taken into account by anyone who would understand the +Irish mind, and still more by those who seek to work with it in +rebuilding the fortunes of the country. The task has been one of great +difficulty, as it was necessary to tell, not only the truth--for that +even an official person may be excused--but also the whole truth, which, +unless made compulsory by the kissing of the book, is regarded as a +gratuitous kissing of the rod. From the frying pan of political dispute, +I have passed into the fire of sectarian controversy. I have not +hesitated to poach on the preserves of historians and economists, and +have even bearded the pedagogues in their dens. Before my stock of +metaphors is exhausted, let me say that I have one hope of escape from +the cross-fire of denunciation which independent speaking about Ireland +is apt to provoke. I once witnessed a football match between two +villages, one of which favoured a political party called by the name of +a leader, with an 'ism' added to indicate a policy, the other adopting +the same name, still further elongated by the prefix 'anti.' When I +arrived on the scene the game had begun in deadly earnest, but I noticed +the ball lying unmolested in another quarter of the field. In Irish +public life I have often had reason to envy that ball, and perhaps now +its lot may be mine, while the game goes on and the critics pay +attention to each other. + +To my friendly critics a word of explanation is due. The opinions to +which I have given expression are based upon personal observation and +experience extending over a quarter of a century during which I have +been in close touch with Irish life at home, and not unfamiliar with it +abroad. I have referred to history only when I could not otherwise +account for social and economic conditions with which I came into +contact, or with which I desired practically to deal. Whether looking +back over the dreary wastes of Anglo-Irish history, or studying the men +and things of to-day, I came to conclusions which differed widely from +what I had been taught to believe by those whose theories of Irish +development had not been subjected to any practical test. Deeply as I +have felt for the past sufferings of the Irish people and their heritage +of disability and distress, I could not bring myself to believe that, +where misgovernment had continued so long, and in such an immense +variety of circumstances and conditions, the governors could have been +alone to blame. I envied those leaders of popular thought whose +confidence in themselves and in their followers was shaken by no such +reflections. But the more I listened to them the more the conviction was +borne in upon me that they were seeking to build an impossible future +upon an imaginary past. + +Those who know Ireland from within are aware that Irish thought upon +Irish problems has been undergoing a silent, and therefore too lightly +regarded revolution. The surface of Irish life, often so inexplicably +ruffled, and sometimes so inexplicably calm, has just now become smooth +to a degree which has led to hasty conclusions as to the real cause and +the inward significance of the change. To chime in with the thoughtless +optimism of the hour will do no good; but a real understanding of the +forces which have created the existing situation will reveal an +unprecedented opportunity for those who would give to the Irish mind +that full and free development which has been so long and, as I have +tried to show, so unnaturally delayed. + +Among these new forces in Irish life there is one which has been greatly +misunderstood; and yet to its influence during the last few years much +of the 'transformation scene' in the drama of the Irish Question is +really due. It deserves more than a passing notice here, because, while +its aims as formulated appear somewhat restricted, it unquestionably +tends in practice towards that national object of paramount importance, +the strengthening of character. I refer to the movement known as the +Gaelic Revival. Of this movement I am myself but an outside observer, +having been forced to devote nearly all my time and energies to a +variety of attempts which aim at the doing in the industrial sphere of +very much the same work as that which the Gaelic movement attempts in +the intellectual sphere--the rehabilitation of Ireland from within. But +in the course of my work of agricultural and industrial development I +naturally came across this new intellectual force and found that when it +began to take effect, so far from diverting the minds of the peasantry +from the practical affairs of life, it made them distinctly more +amenable to the teaching of the dry economic doctrine of which I was an +apostle. The reason for this is plain enough to me now, though, like all +my theories about Ireland, the truth came to me from observation and +practical experience rather than as the result of philosophic +speculation. For the co-operative movement depended for its success upon +a two-fold achievement. In order to get it started at all, its +principles and working details had to be grasped by the Irish peasant +mind and commended to his intelligence. Its further development and its +hopes of permanence depend upon the strengthening of character, which, I +must repeat, is the foundation of all Irish progress. + +The Irish Agricultural Organisation Society[28] exerts its influence--a +now established and rapidly-growing influence--mainly through the medium +of associations. The Gaelic movement, on the other hand, acts more +directly upon the individual, and the two forces are therefore in a +sense complementary to each other. Both will be seen to be playing an +important part--I should say a necessary part--in the reconstruction of +our national life. At any rate, I feel that it is necessary to my +argument that I should explain to those who are as ill-informed about +the Gaelic revival as I was myself until its practical usefulness was +demonstrated to me, what exactly seems to be the most important outcome +of the work of that movement. + +The Gaelic League, which defines its objects as 'The preservation of +Irish as the national language of Ireland and the extension of its use +as a spoken tongue; the study and publication of existing Irish +literature and the cultivation of a modern literature in Irish,' was +formed in 1893. Like the Agricultural Organisation Society, the Gaelic +League is declared by its constitution to be 'strictly non-political and +non-sectarian,' and, like it, has been the object of much suspicion, +because severance from politics in Ireland has always seemed to the +politician the most active form of enmity. Its constitution, too, is +somewhat similar, being democratically guided in its policy by the +elected representatives of its affiliated branches. It is interesting to +note that the funds with which it carries on an extensive propaganda are +mainly supplied from the small contributions of the poor. It publishes +two periodicals, one weekly and another monthly. It administers an +income of some £6,000 a year, not reckoning what is spent by local +branches, and has a paid staff of eleven officers, a secretary, +treasurer, and nine organisers, together with a large number of +voluntary workers. It resembled the agricultural movement also in the +fact that it made very little headway during the first few years of its +existence. But it had a nucleus of workers with new ideas for the +intellectual regeneration of Ireland. In face of much apathy they +persisted with their propaganda, and they have at last succeeded in +making their ideas understood. So much is evident from the +rapidly-increasing number of affiliated branches of the League, which in +March, 1903, amounted to 600, almost treble the number registered two +years before. But even this does not convey any idea of the influence +which the movement exerts. Within the past year the teaching of the +Irish language has been introduced into no less than 1,300 National +Schools. In 1900 the number of schools in which Irish was taught was +only about 140. The statement that our people do not read books is +generally accepted as true, yet the sale of the League publications +during one year reached nearly a quarter of a million copies. These +results cannot be left unconsidered by anybody who wishes to understand +the psychology of the Irish mind. The movement can truly claim to have +effected the conversion of a large amount of intellectual apathy into +genuine intellectual activity. + +The declared objects of the League--- the popularising of the national +language and literature--do not convey, perhaps, an adequate conception +of its actual work, or of the causes of its popularity. It seeks to +develop the intellectual, moral, and social life of the Irish people +from within, and it is doing excellent work in the cause of temperance. +Its president, Dr. Douglas Hyde, in his evidence given before the +University Commission,[29] pointed out that the success of the League +was due to its meeting the people half way; that it educated them by +giving them something which they could appreciate and assimilate; and +that it afforded a proof that people who would not respond to alien +educational systems, will respond with eagerness to something they can +call their own. The national factor in Ireland has been studiously +eliminated from national education, and Ireland is perhaps the only +country in Europe where it was part of the settled policy of those, who +had the guidance of education to ignore the literature, history, arts, +and traditions of the people. It was a fatal policy, for it obviously +tended to stamp their native country in the eyes of Irishmen with the +badge of inferiority and to extinguish the sense of healthy self-respect +which comes from the consciousness of high national ancestry and +traditions. This policy, rigidly adhered to for many years, almost +extinguished native culture among Irishmen, but it did not succeed in +making another form of culture acceptable to them. It dulled the +intelligence of the people, impaired their interest in their own +surroundings, stimulated emigration by teaching them to look on other +countries as more agreeable places to live in, and made Ireland almost a +social desert. Men and women without culture or knowledge of literature +or of music have succeeded a former generation who were passionately +interested in these things, an interest which extended down even to the +wayside cabin. The loss of these elevating influences in Irish society +probably accounts for much of the arid nature of Irish controversies, +while the reaction against their suppression has given rise to those +displays of rhetorical patriotism for which the Irish language has found +the expressive term _raimeis_, and which (thanks largely to the Gaelic +movement) most people now listen to with a painful and half-ashamed +sense of their unreality. + +The Gaelic movement has brought to the surface sentiments and thoughts +which had been developed in Gaelic Ireland through hundreds of years, +and which no repression had been able to obliterate altogether, but +which still remained as a latent spiritual inheritance in the mind. And +now this stream, which has long run underground, has again emerged even +stronger than before, because an element of national self-consciousness +has been added at its re-emergence. A passionate conviction is gaining +ground that if Irish traditions, literature, language, art, music, and +culture are allowed to disappear, it will mean the disappearance of the +race; and that the education of the country must be nationalised if our +social, intellectual, or even our economic position is to be permanently +improved. + +With this view of the Gaelic movement my own thoughts are in complete +accord. It is undeniable that the pride in country justly felt by +Englishmen, a pride developed by education and a knowledge of their +history, has had much to do with the industrial pre-eminence of England; +for the pioneers of its commerce have been often actuated as much by +patriotic motives as by the desire for gain. The education of the Irish +people has ignored the need for any such historical basis for pride or +love of country, and, for my part, I feel sure that the Gaelic League is +acting wisely in seeking to arouse such a sentiment, and to found it +mainly upon the ages of Ireland's story when Ireland was most Irish. + +It is this expansion of the sentiment of nationality outside the domain +of party politics--the distinction, so to speak, between nationality and +nationalism--which is the chief characteristic of the Gaelic movement. +Nationality had come to have no meaning other than a political one, any +broader national sentiment having had little or nothing to feed upon. +During the last century the spirit of nationality has found no unworthy +expression in literature, in the writings of Ferguson, Standish O'Grady +and Yeats, which, however, have not been even remotely comparable in +popularity with the political journalism in prose and rhyme in which the +age has been so fruitful. It has never expressed itself in the arts, and +not only has Ireland no representative names in the higher regions of +art, but the national deficiency has been felt in every department of +industry into which design enters, and where national +art-characteristics have a commercial value. The national customs, +culture, and recreations which made the country a pleasant place to live +in, have almost disappeared, and with them one of the strongest ties +which bind people to the country of their birth. The Gaelic revival, as +I understand it, is an attempt to supply these deficiencies, to give to +Irish people a culture of their own; and I believe that by awakening the +feelings of pride, self-respect, and love of country, based on +knowledge, every department of Irish life will be invigorated. + +Thus it is that the elevating influence upon the individual is exerted. +Politics have never awakened initiative among the mass of the people, +because there was no programme of action for the individual. Perhaps it +is as well for Ireland that such should have been the case, for, as it +has been shown, we have had little of the political thought which should +be at the back of political action. Political action under present +conditions must necessarily be deputed to a few representatives, and +after the vote is given or the cheering at a meeting has ceased, the +individual can do nothing but wait, and his lethargy tends to become +still deeper. In the Gaelic revival there is a programme of work for the +individual; his mind is engaged, thought begets energy, and this energy +vitalises every part of his nature. This makes for the strengthening of +character, and so far from any harm being done to the practical +movement, to which I have so often referred, the testimony of my +fellow-workers, as well as my own observation, is unanimous in affirming +that the influence of the branches of the Gaelic League is distinctly +useful whenever it is sought to move the people to industrial or +commercial activity. + +Many of my political friends cannot believe--and I am afraid that +nothing that I can say will make them believe--that the movement is not +necessarily, in the political sense, separatist in its sentiment. This +impression is, in my opinion, founded on a complete misunderstanding of +Anglo-Irish history. Those who look askance at the rise of the Gaelic +movement ignore the important fact that there has never been any +essential opposition between the English connection and Irish +nationality. The Elizabethan chiefs of the sixteenth and the Gaelic +poets of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the relations +between the two countries were far worse than they are to-day, knew +nothing of this opposition. The true sentiment of nationality is a +priceless heritage of every small nation which has done great things, +and had it not largely perished in Ireland, separatist sentiment, the +offspring, not of Irish nationality, but of Irish political nationalism, +could hardly have survived until to-day. + +But undoubtedly we strike here on a danger to the Gaelic movement, so +far at least as that movement is bound up with the future of the Gaelic +League; a danger which cannot be left out of account in any estimate of +this new force in Irish life. The continuance of the League as a +beneficent force, or indeed a force at all, seems to me, as in the case +of the co-operative organisation to which I have compared it, to be +vitally dependent on a scrupulous observance of that part of its +constitution which keeps the door open to Irishmen of every creed or +political party. Only thus can the League remain a truly national body, +and attract from all classes Irishmen who are capable of forwarding its +true policy. I do not think there is much danger of a spirit of +sectarian exclusiveness developing itself in a body mainly composed of +Roman Catholics whose President is a Protestant. But it cannot be denied +that there has been an occasional tendency to interpret the 'no +politics' clause of the constitution in a manner which seems hardly fair +to Unionists or even to constitutional Home Rulers who may have joined +the organisation on the strength of its declaration of political +neutrality. If this is not a mere transitory phenomenon its effect will +be serious. As a political body the League would immediately sink into +insignificance and probably disappear amid a crowd of contending +factions. It would certainly cease to fulfil its great function of +creating a nationality of the thought and spirit, in which all Irishmen +who wish to be anything else than English colonists might aspire to +share. Its early successes in bringing together men of different +political views were remarkable. At the very outset of its career it +enlisted the support of so militant a politician as the late Rev. R.R. +Kane, who declared that though a Unionist and an Orangeman he had no +desire to forget that he was an O'Cahan. On this basis it is difficult +to set a limit to the fruitfulness of the work which this organisation +might do for Ireland, and I cannot regard any who would depart from the +letter and spirit of its constitution as sincere, or if sincere as wise, +friends of the movement with which they are associated. + +Of minor importance are certain extravagances in the conduct of the +movement which time and practical experience can hardly fail to correct. +I have borne witness to the value of the cultivation of the language +even from my own practical standpoint, but I cannot think that to sign +cheques in Irish, and get angry when those who cannot understand will +not honour them, is a good way of demonstrating that value. I should, +speaking generally, regard it as a mistake, supposing it were +practicable, to substitute Irish for English in the conduct of business. +If any large development of the trade in pampooties, turf and potheen +between the Aran Islands and the mainland were in contemplation, this +attempt might be justified. But on behalf of those Philistines who +attach paramount importance to the development of Irish industry, trade +and commerce on a large and comprehensive scale, I should regret a +course which, from a business point of view, would be about as wise as +the advocacy of distinctive Irish currency, weights and measures. And I +protest more strongly against the reasons which have been given to me +for this policy. I have been told that, in order to generate sufficient +enthusiasm, a young movement of the kind must adopt a rigorous +discipline and an aggressive policy. Not only are we thus confronted +with a false issue, but by giving countenance to the outward acceptance +of what the better sense rejects, these over-zealous leaguers are +administering to the Irish character the very poison which all Irish +movements should combine to eliminate from the national life. + +The position which I have given to the Gaelic Revival among the new +influences at work and making for progress in Ireland will hardly be +understood by those who have never embraced the idea of combining all +such forces in a constructive and comprehensive scheme of national +advancement. One instance of the potential utility of the Gaelic League +will appeal to those of my readers who attach as much importance as I do +to the improvement of the peasant home. Concerted action to this end is +being planned while I write. It is proposed to take a few districts +where the peasants are members of one of the new co-operative societies, +and where the clergy have taken a keen interest in the economic and +social advancement of the members of the Society, but where the cottages +are in the normal condition. The new Department will lend the services +of its domestic economy teachers. The Organisation Society, the clergy, +and the Department thus working together will, I hope, be able to get +the people of the selected districts to effect an improvement in their +domestic surroundings which will act as an invaluable example for other +districts to follow. But in order that this much needed contribution to +the well-being of the peasant proprietary, upon which all our thoughts +are just now concentrated, may be assisted with the enthusiasm which +belongs in Ireland to a consciously national effort, it is hoped that +common action with the Gaelic League may be possible, so that this force +also may be enlisted in the solution of this part of our central +problem, the rehabilitation of rural life in Ireland. + +It is, however, on more general grounds that I have, albeit as an +outside observer, watched with some anxiety and much gratification the +progress of the Gaelic Revival. In the historical evolution of the Irish +mind we find certain qualities atrophied, so to speak, by disuse; and to +this cause I attribute the past failures of the race in practical life +at home. I have shown how politics, religion, and our systems of +education have all, in their respective influences upon the people, +missed to a large extent, the effect upon character which they should +have made it their paramount duty to produce. Nevertheless, whenever the +intellect of the people is appealed to by those who know its past, a +recuperative power is manifested which shows that its vitality has not +been irredeemably impaired. It is because I believe that, on the whole, +a right appeal has been made by the Gaelic League that I have borne +testimony to its patriotic endeavours. + +The question of the Gaelic Revival seems to be really a form of the +eternal question of the interdependence of the practical and the ideal +in Ireland. Their true relation to each other is one of the hardest +lessons the student of our problems has to learn. I recall an incident +in the course of my own studies which I will here recount, as it appears +to me to furnish an admirable illustration of this difficulty as it +presented itself to a very interesting mind. During the years covering +the rise and fall of Parnell, when interest in the Irish Question was at +its zenith, the newspapers of the United States kept in London a corps +of very able correspondents, who watched and reported to their +transatlantic readers every move in the Home Rule campaign. An American +public, by no means limited to the American-Irish, devoured every morsel +of this intelligence with an avidity which could not have been surpassed +if the United States had been engaged in a war with Great Britain. Among +these correspondents perhaps the most brilliant was the late Harold +Frederic. Not many months before he died I received a letter from him, +in which he said that, although we were unknown to each other, he +thought, from some public utterances of mine, that we must have many +views in common. He had often intended to get an introduction to me, and +now suggested that we should 'waive things and meet.' We met and spent +an evening together, which left some deep impressions on my mind. He +told me that the Irish Question possessed for him a fascination for +which he could give no rational explanation. He had absolutely no tie of +blood or material interest with Ireland, and his friendship for it had +brought him the only quarrels in which he had ever been engaged. + +What chiefly interested me in Harold Frederic's philosophy of the Irish +Question was that he had arrived at a diagnosis of the Irish mind not +substantially different from my own. Since that evening I have come +across a passage in one of his novels, which clothes in delightful +language his view of the chaotic psychology of the Celt: + + There, in Ireland, you get a strange mixture of elementary early + peoples, walled off from the outer world by the four seas, and + free to work out their own racial amalgam on their own lines. They + brought with them at the outset a great inheritance of Eastern + mysticism. Others lost it, but the Irish, all alone on their + island, kept it alive and brooded on it, and rooted their whole + spiritual side in it. Their religion is full of it; their blood is + full of it.... The Ireland of two thousand years ago is incarnated + in her. They are the merriest people and the saddest, the most + turbulent and the most docile, the most talented and the most + unproductive, the most practical and the most visionary, the most + devout and the most pagan. These impossible contradictions war + ceaselessly in their blood.[30] + +In our conversation what struck me most was the influence which politics +had exercised even on his philosophic mind, notwithstanding a low +estimate of our political leaders. In one of a series of three notable +articles upon the Irish Question, which appeared anonymously in the +_Fortnightly Review_[31] in the winter of 1893-4, and of which he told +me he was the writer, he had given a character sketch of what he called +'The Rhetoricians.' Their performances since the Union were summarised +in the phrase 'a century of unremitting gabble,' and he regarded it as a +sad commentary on Irish life that such brilliant talents so largely ran +to waste in destructive criticism. + +I naturally turned the conversation on to my own line of thought, and +discussed the practical conclusions to which his studies had led him. I +tried to elicit from him exactly what he had in his mind when, in one of +the articles to which I have referred, he advocated 'a reconstruction of +Ireland on distinctive national lines.' I hoped to find that his +psychological study of my countrymen would enable him to throw some +light upon the means by which play could be given at home to the latent +capacities of the race. I found that he was in entire accord with my +view, that the chief difficulty in the way of constructive statesmanship +was the defect in the Irish character about which I have said so much. I +was prepared for that conclusion, for I had already seen the lack of +initiative admirably appreciated in the following illuminating sentence +of his:--'The Celt will help someone else to do the thing that other has +in mind, and will help him with great zeal and devotion; but he will not +start to do the thing he himself has thought of.'[32] But I was +disappointed when he bade me his first and last good-bye that I had not +convinced him that there was any way out of the Irish difficulty other +than political changes, for which, at the same time, he appeared to +think the people singularly unfitted. + +The fact is we had arrived at the point where the student of Irish life +usually finds himself in a _cul de sac_. If he has accurately observed +the conditions, he is face to face with a problem which appears to be in +its nature insoluble. For at every turn he finds things being done wrong +which might so easily be done right, only that nobody is concerned that +they should be done right. And what is worse, when he has learned, in +the course of his investigations, to discount the picturesque +explanation of our unsuccess in practical life which in Ireland veils +the unpleasant truth, he will find that the people are quite aware of +their defects, although they attribute them to causes beyond their power +to remove. Then, too, the sympathetic inquirer is shocked by the lack of +seriousness in it all. With all their past griefs and their high +aspirations, the Irish people seem to be play-acting before the world. +The inquirer does not, perhaps, reflect that, if play-acting be +inconsistent with the deepest emotions, and with the pursuit of high +ideals, then he condemns a little over one half of the human race.[33] +He probably comes to the main conclusion adopted in these pages, and +realises that the Irish Question is a problem of character. And as Irish +character is the product of Irish history, which cannot be re-enacted, +he leaves the problem there. Harold Frederic left it there, and there it +has been taken up by those whose endeavour forms the story which I have +to tell. + +I now come to the principles which, it appears to me, must underlie the +solution of this problem. The narrative contained in the second part of +this book is a record of the efforts made during the last decade of the +nineteenth and the first two years of the twentieth century by a small, +but now rapidly augmenting group of Irishmen, to pluck the brand of +Irish intellect from the burning of the Irish Question. The problem +before us was, my readers will now understand, how to make headway in +view of the weakness of character to which I have had to attribute the +paralysis of our activities in the past. We were quite aware that our +progress would at first be slow. But as we were satisfied that the +defects of character which stood in the way of economic advancement were +due to causes which need no longer be operative, and that the intellect +of the people was unimpaired, we faced the problem with confidence. + +The practical form which our work took was the launching upon Irish life +of a movement of organised self-help, and the subsequent grafting upon +this movement of a system of State-aid to the agriculture and industries +of the country. I need not here further elaborate this programme, for +the steps by which it has been and is being adopted will be presently +described in detail. But there is one aspect of the new movement in +Ireland which must be understood by those who would grasp the true +significance and the human interest of an evolution in our national +life, the only recent parallel for which, as far as I am aware, is to be +found in Japan: though to my mind the conscious attempt of the Irish +people to develop a civilisation of their own is far more interesting +than the recent efforts of the Japanese to westernise their +institutions. + +The problem of mind and character with which we had to deal in Ireland +presented this central and somewhat discouraging fact. In practical life +the Irish had failed where the English had succeeded, and this was +attributed to the lack of certain English qualities which have been +undoubtedly essential to success in commerce and in industry from the +days of the industrial revolution until a comparatively recent date. It +was the individualism of the English economic system during this period +which made these qualities indispensable. The lack of these qualities in +Irishmen to-day may be admitted, and the cause of the deficiency has +been adequately explained. But those who regard the Irish situation as +industrially hopeless probably ignore the fact that there are other +qualities, of great and growing importance under modern economic +conditions, which can be developed in Irishmen and may form the basis of +an industrial system. I refer to the range of qualities which come into +play rather in association than in the individual, and to which the term +'associative' is applied.[34] So that although much disparaging +criticism of Irish character is based upon the survival in the Celt of +the tribal instincts, it is gratifying to be able to show that even from +the practical English point of view, our preference for thinking and +working in groups may not be altogether a _damnosa hereditas_. If, owing +to our deficiency in the individualistic qualities of the English, we +cannot at this stage hope to produce many types of the 'economic man' of +the economists, we think we see our way to provide, as a substitute, the +economic association. If the association succeeds, and by virtue of its +financial success becomes permanent, a great change will, in our +opinion, be produced on the character of its members. The reflex action +upon the individual mind of the habit of doing, in association with +others, things which were formerly left undone, or badly done, may be +relied upon to have a tonic effect upon the character of the individual. +This is, I suppose, the secret of discipline, which, though apparently +eliminating volition, seems in weak characters to strengthen the will. + +There is, too, as we have learned, in the association a strange +influence which develops qualities and capacities that one would not +expect on a mere consideration of the character of its members. This +psychological phenomenon has been admirably and most entertainingly +discussed by the French psychologist, Le Bon,[35] who, in the attractive +pursuit of paradox, almost goes to the length of the proposition that +the association inherently possesses qualities the opposite of those +possessed by its members. My own experience--and I have had +opportunities of observing hundreds of associations formed by my friends +upon the principles above laid down--does not carry me quite so far. +But, unquestionably, the association in Ireland does often become an +entity as distinct from the individualities of which it is composed, as +is a new chemical compound from its constituent elements. + +Associations of the kind we had in our minds, which were to be primarily +for purely business purposes, were bound to have many collateral +effects. They would open up outside of politics and religion, but not in +conflict with either, a sphere of action where an independence new to +the country would have to be exercised. In Ireland public opinion is +under an obsession which, whether political, religious, historical, or +all three combined, is probably unique among civilised peoples. Until +the last few years, for example, it was our habit--one which immensely +weakened the influence of Ireland in the Imperial Parliament--to form +extravagant estimates of men, exalting and abasing them with irrational +caprice, not according to their qualities so much as by their attitude +towards the passion of the hour. The ups and downs of the reputations of +Lord Spencer and Mr. Arthur Balfour in Ireland are a sufficient +illustration of our disregard of the old Latin proverb which tells us +that no man ever became suddenly altogether bad. Even now public opinion +is too prone to attach excessive value to projects of vague and +visionary development, and to underrate the importance of serious +thought and quiet work, which can be the only solid foundation of our +national progress. In these new associations--humble indeed in their +origin, but destined to play a large part in the people's +lives--projects, professing to be fraught with economic benefit, have to +be judged by the cruel precision of audited balance sheets, and the +worth of men is measured by the solid contribution they have made to the +welfare of the community. + + * * * * * + +I have now accomplished one long stage of my journey towards the +conclusion of this discussion of the needs of modern Ireland. Were I to +stop here, probably most of those who had been induced to open yet +another book upon the Irish Question would accuse me, and not without +justice, of being responsible for a barren graft upon a barren +controversy. I fear no such criticism, whatever other shortcomings may +be detected, from those who have the patience to read on. For when I +pass from my own reflections to record the work to which many thousands +of my countrymen have addressed themselves in building up the Ireland of +the twentieth century, I shall have a story to tell which must inspire +hope in all who can be persuaded that Ireland in the past has not often +been treated fairly and has never been understood. I have shown--and it +was necessary to show, if a repetition of misunderstanding was to be +avoided--that the Irish people themselves are gravely responsible for +the ills of their country, and that the forces which have mainly +governed their action hitherto are rapidly bringing about their +disappearance as a distinct nationality. But I shall now have to tell of +the widespread and growing adoption of certain new principles of action +which I believe to be consonant with the genius and traditions of the +race, and the acceptance of which seems to me vitally necessary if the +Irish people are to play a worthy part in the future history of the +world. That part is a far greater one than they could ever hope to play +as an independent and separate State, yet their success in playing it +must closely depend upon their remaining a distinct nationality, in the +sense so clearly and wisely indicated by his Majesty when, in his reply +to the address of the Belfast Corporation, he spoke of the 'national +characteristics and ideals' which he desired his kingdoms to cherish in +the midst of their imperial unity.[36] The great experiment which I am +about to relate is, in its own province, one of the many applications +which we see around us of the conception here put forward. And I believe +that a few more years of quiet work by those who are taking part in this +movement, with its appeal to Irish intellect, and its reliance upon +Irish patriotism, is all that is needed to prove that by developing the +industrial qualities of the Celt on associative lines we can in politics +as well as in economics, add strength to the Irish character without +making it less Irish or less attractive than of old. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[28] This body is fully described in the next chapter. + +[29] See Appendix to Third Report, p. 311. + +[30] _The Damnation of Theron Ware_. This was the title of the book I +read in the United States. I am told he published it in England under +the title of _Illuminations_--a nice discrimination! + +[31] They appeared under the signature of 'X.' in Nov. and Dec., 1893, +and Jan., 1894. + +[32] _Fortnightly Review_, Jan. 1894, pp. 11, 12. + +[33] The difficulties of the writer who is not a writer are great. I +sent this chapter to two literary friends, one of whom, with the help of +a globe, disputed my accuracy in a learned ethnological disquisition +with which he favoured me. The other warned me to be even more obscure +and sent me the following verses, addressed by 'Cynicus' (J.K. Stephen) +to Shakespeare, + +"You wrote a line too much, my sage, Of seers the first, the first of +sayers; For only half the world's a stage, And only all the women +players." + + + +[34] These qualities, as will be explained later, happen to have a +special economic value in the farming industry, and so are available for +the elevation of rural life, with whose problems we are now so deeply +concerned in Ireland. Their applicability to urban life need not be +discussed here. But my study of the co-operative movement in England has +convinced me that, if the English had the associative instincts of the +Irish, that movement would play a part in English life more commensurate +with its numerical strength and the volume of its commercial +transactions, than can be claimed for it so far. + +[35] _La Psychologie de la Foule_. + +[36] July 27th, 1903,--His Majesty thus confirmed the striking utterance +of imperial policy contained in Lord Dudley's speech to the Incorporated +Law Society, on the 20th of November, 1902. His Excellency, after +protesting against the conception of empire as a 'huge regiment' in +which each nation was to lose its individuality, said--"Lasting +strength, lasting loyalty, are not to be secured by any attempt to force +into one system or to remould into one type those special +characteristics which are the outcome of a nation's history and of her +religious and social conditions, but rather by a full recognition of the +fact that these very characteristics form an essential part of a +nation's life; and that under wise guidance and under sympathetic +treatment they will enable her to provide her own contribution and to +play her own special part in the life of the empire to which she +belongs." + + + + +PART II. + +_PRACTICAL_. + + +"For a country so attractive and a people so gifted we cherish the +warmest regard, and it is, therefore, with supreme satisfaction that I +have during our stay so often heard the hope expressed that a brighter +day is dawning upon Ireland. I shall eagerly await the fulfilment of +this hope. Its realisation will, under Divine Providence, depend largely +upon the steady development of self-reliance and co-operation, upon +better and more practical education, upon the growth of industrial and +commercial enterprise, and upon that increase of mutual toleration and +respect which the responsibility my Irish people now enjoy in the public +administration of their local affairs is well-fitted to +teach."--_Message of the King to the Irish People_, 1st August, 1903. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE NEW MOVEMENT: ITS FOUNDATION ON SELF-HELP. + + +The movement for the reorganisation of Irish agricultural and industrial +life, to which I have already frequently referred, must now be described +in practical operation. Before I do this, however, there are two lines +of criticism which the very mention of a new movement may suggest, and +which I must anticipate. Every year has its tale of new movements, +launched by estimable persons whose philanthropic zeal is not balanced +by the judgment required to discriminate between schemes which possess +the elements of permanence, and those which depend upon the enthusiasm +or financial support of their promoters, and are in their nature +ephemeral. There is, consequently, a widespread and well justified +mistrust of novel schemes for the industrial regeneration of Ireland. I +confess to having had my ingenuity severely taxed on some occasions to +find a sympathetic circumlocution wherewith to show cause for declining +to join a new movement, my real reason being an inward conviction that +nothing except resolutions would be moved. In the complex problem of +building up the economic and social life of a people with such a +history as ours, we must resist the temptation to multiply schemes +which, however well intended, are but devices for enabling individuals +to devolve their responsibilities upon the community or upon the +Government, and which owe their bubble reputation and brief popularity +to this unconscious humouring of our chief national defect. On the +contrary, we must seek to instil into the mind of each individual the +too little recognised importance of his own contribution to the sum of +national achievement. The building of character must be our paramount +object, as it is the condition precedent of all social and economic +reform in Ireland. To explain the principles by the observance of which +the agency of the association may be utilised as an economic force, +while at the same time the industrial character of the individual may be +developed, was one of the chief aims I had in view in the foregoing +analysis of the Irish mind and character, as they have emerged from +history and are stunted in their growth by present influences. The facts +about to be recited will, I hope, suffice to prove that the reformer in +Ireland, if he has a true insight into the great human problem with +which he is dealing, may find in the association not only a healthy +stimulus to national activities, but also a means whereby the assistance +of the State may be so invoked and applied that it will concentrate, and +not dissipate, the energies of the people. + +The other criticism which I think it necessary to anticipate would, if +ignored, leave room for a wrong impression as to much of the work which +is being done both on the self-help and on the State-aid sides of the +new movement. Education, it will be said, is the only real solvent to +the range of problems discussed in this book, most other agencies of +social and economic reform being of doubtful efficacy and, if they tend +to postpone educational effort, positively harmful. There is much truth +in this view. But it must be remembered that the backward condition of +our economic life is due mainly to the fact that our educational systems +have had little regard to our history or economic circumstances. We +must, therefore, at this stage in our national development give to +education a much wider interpretation than that which is usually applied +to the term. We cannot wait for a generation to grow up which has been +given an education calculated to fit it for the modern economic +struggle, even if there were any probability that the necessary reforms +would soon be carried against the prejudices which are aroused by any +proposal to train the minds, or even the hands and eyes, of the rising +generation. In the meantime much of the work, both voluntary and +State-aided, now initiated in Ireland, must consist of educating adults +to introduce into their business concerns the more advanced economic and +scientific methods which the superior education of our rivals in +agriculture and industry abroad has enabled them to adopt, and which my +experience of Irish work convinces me our people would have adopted long +ago if they had had similar educational advantages. And I would further +point out that there is no better way of promoting the reform of +education in the ordinary, the pedagogic, sense, than by bringing to +bear upon the minds of parents those educational influences which are +calculated to convince them of the advantage of improved practical +education for their children. So to the economist and to the +educationist alike I would submit that the new work of economic and +social reform should be judged as a whole, and not prejudged by that +hypercriticism of details which ignores the fact that the conditions +with which it is attempted to deal are wholly unprecedented. I am quite +content that the movement which I am about to describe should be +ultimately known and judged by its fruits. Meanwhile, I think that to +the intelligent critic it will sufficiently justify its existence if it +continues to exist. + + * * * * * + +The story of the new movement, which must now be told, begins in the +year 1889, when a few Irishmen, the writer of these pages among them, +set themselves the task of bringing home to the rural population of +Ireland the fact that their prosperity was in their own hands much more +than they were generally led to believe. I have already pointed out that +in order to direct the Irish mind towards practical affairs and in order +effectively to arouse and apply the latent capacities of the Irish +people to their chief industry, agriculture, we must rely upon +associative, as distinct from individual effort; or, in other words, we +must get the people to do their business together rather than +separately as the English do. Fortunately for us, it happened that this +course, which was clearly indicated by the character and temperament of +the people, was equally prescribed by economic considerations. The +population and wealth of Ireland are, I need hardly say, so +predominantly agricultural that the welfare of the country must depend +upon the welfare of the farming classes. It is notorious that the +industry by which these classes live has for the last quarter of a +century become less and less profitable. It is also recognised that the +prime cause of agricultural depression, foreign competition, is not +likely to be removed, while that from the colonies is likely to +increase. The extraordinary development of rapid and cheap transit, +together with recently invented processes of preservation, have enabled +the more favoured producers in the newly developed countries of both +hemispheres successfully to enter into competition in the British +markets with the farmers of these islands. The agricultural producers in +other European countries, although to some extent protected by tariffs, +have had to face similar conditions; but in most of these countries, +though not in the United Kingdom, the farmers have so changed their +methods, to meet the altered circumstances, that they seem to have +gained by improvement at home as much as they have lost by competition +from abroad Thus our farmers find themselves harassed first by the +cheaper production from vast tracts of virgin soil in the uttermost +parts of the earth, and secondly by a nearer and keener competition +from the better organised and better educated producers of the +Continent. + +While the opening up of what the economists call the 'world market,' has +necessitated, as a condition of successful competition, improved methods +of production for, and carriage to, the market, a third and less obvious +force has effected an important change in the method of distribution in +the market. The swarming populations, which the factory system has +brought together in industrial centres, have to be supplied with food by +a system of distribution which must above all things be expeditious. +This requirement can only be met by the regular consignment of food in +large quantities, of such uniform quality that the sample can be relied +upon to be truly indicative of the quality of the bulk. Thus the rapid +distribution of produce in the markets becomes as important a factor in +agricultural economy as improved methods of production or cheap and +expeditious carriage. + +Now this new market condition is being met in two ways. In the United +States, and, in a less marked degree, at home, an army of middlemen +between the producer and the consumer attends to this business for a +share of the profits accruing from it, whilst in many parts of the +Continent the farmers themselves attend, partially at any rate, to the +business side of their industry instead of paying others to do it all +for them. I say all, for middlemen are necessary at the distributive +end: but it is absolutely essential, in a country like Ireland, that at +the producing end the farmers should be so organised that they +themselves can manage the first stages of distribution, and exercise +some control over the middlemen who do the rest. The foreign +agricultural producers have long been alive to this necessity, for their +superior education enabled them to grasp the economic situation and even +to realise that the matter is not one of acute political controversy. + +Here, then, was a definite practical problem to the solution of which +the promoters of the new movement could apply their principle of +co-operative effort. The more we studied the question the more apparent +it became that the enormous advantage which the Continental farmers had +over the Irish farmers, both in production and in distribution, was due +to superior organisation combined with better education. State-aid had +no doubt done a great deal abroad, but in every case it was manifest +that it had been preceded, or at least accompanied, by the organised +voluntary effort without which the interference of the Government with +the business of the people is simply demoralising. + +Generally speaking, the task before us in Ireland was the adaptation to +the special circumstances of our country of methods successfully pursued +by communities similarly situated in foreign countries. We had to urge +upon farmers that combination was just as necessary to their economic +salvation as it was recognised to be by their own class, and by those +engaged in other industries, elsewhere. They must combine, so we urged +on them, for example, to buy their agricultural requirements at the +cheapest rate and of the best quality in order to produce more +efficiently and more economically; they must combine to avail themselves +of improved appliances beyond the reach of individual producers, whether +it be by the erection of creameries, for which there was urgent need, or +of cheese factories and jam factories which might come later; or in +ordinary farm operations, to secure the use of the latest agricultural +machinery and the most suitable pure-bred stock; they must combine--not +to abolish middle profits in distribution, whether those of the carrying +companies or those of the dealers in agricultural produce--but to keep +those profits within reasonable limits, and to collect in bulk and +regularise consignments so that they could be carried and marketed at a +moderate cost; they must combine, as we afterwards learned, for the +purpose of creating, by mutual support, the credit required to bring in +the fresh working capital which each new development of their industry +would demand and justify. In short, whenever and wherever the +individuals in a farming community could be brought to see that they +might advantageously substitute associated for isolated production or +distribution, they must be taught to form themselves into associations +in order to reap the anticipated advantages. + +This brief statement of our general aims will furnish a rough idea of +the economic propaganda which we initiated, and if I give a few +illustrations of the practical application of the new principle to the +farming industry, I shall have done all that will be required to leave +on the reader's mind a true though perhaps an incomplete impression of +the character and scope of the self-help side of the new movement. I +shall first give a sketch of the unrecorded struggles of its pioneers, +because these struggles prove to those engaged in social and economic +work in Ireland that, in the wholly abnormal condition of our national +life, no project which is theoretically sound need be rejected because +everybody says it is impracticable. The work of the morrow will largely +consist of the impossible of to-day. If this adds to the difficulty, it +also adds to the fun. + +When we arrived at the conclusion that the introduction of the principle +of agricultural co-operation was a vital necessity, the first practical +question which had to be decided was how the industrial army, which was +to do battle for Ireland's position in the world market, should be +organised and disciplined for the task. It is evident that before a body +of men who have never worked together can form a successful commercial +combination, they must be provided with a constitution and set of rules +and regulations for the conduct of their business. These must be so +skilfully contrived that they will harmonise all the interests involved. +And when an arrangement has been come to which is, not only in fact but +also obviously, equitable, it remains as part of the process of +organisation to teach the participants in the new project the meaning, +and to imbue them with the spirit, of the joint enterprise into which +they have been persuaded to enter with perhaps no very clear +understanding of all that is involved. There were in Ireland no +precedents to guide us and no examples to follow, but the co-operative +movement in England appeared to furnish most of the principles involved +and a perfect machinery for their application.[37] So Lord Monteagle and +Mr. R.A. Anderson, my first two associates in the New Movement, joined +me as regular attendants at the annual Co-operative congresses. We were +assiduous seekers after information at the head-quarters of the +Co-operative Union in Manchester. We had the good fortune to fall in +with Vansittart Neale, and Tom Hughes, both of whom have passed away, +and with Mr. Holyoake, who, with the exception of Mr. Ludlow, is now the +sole survivor of that noble group of practical philanthropists, the +Christian Socialists. Mr. J.C. Gray, who succeeded Mr. Vansittart Neale +as the General Secretary of the Co-operative Union, gave us invaluable +help and continues to do so to this day. The leaders of the English +movement sympathised with our efforts. The Union paid us the compliment +of constituting our first converts its Irish Section. Liberal support +was given out of the central English funds towards the cost of the +missionary work which was to spread co-operative light in the sister +isle. We can never forget the generosity of the workingmen in England in +giving their aid to the Irish farmers, especially when it is remembered +that they had no sanguine anticipations for the success of our efforts +and no prospect of advantages to themselves if we did succeed. + +It must be admitted that the outlook was not altogether rosy. +Agricultural co-operation had never succeeded in England, where it +seemed to be accepted as one of the disappointing limitations of the +co-operative movement that it did not apply to rural communities in +these islands. There were also in Ireland the peculiar difficulties +arising from ceaseless political and agrarian agitation. It was +naturally asked--did Irish farmers possess the qualities out of which +co-operators are made? Had they commercial experience or business +education? Had they business capacity? Would they display that +confidence in each other which is essential to successful association, +or indeed that confidence in themselves without which there can be no +business enterprise? Could they ever be induced to form themselves into +societies, and to adopt, and loyally adhere to those rules and +regulations by which alone equitable distribution of the responsibility +and profit among the participants in the joint undertaking can be +assured, and harmony and successful working be rendered possible? Then, +our best-informed Irish critics assured us that voluntary association +for humdrum business purposes, devoid of some religious or political +incentive, was alien to the Celtic temperament and that we should wear +ourselves out crying in the wilderness. We were told that Irishmen can +conspire but cannot combine. Economists assured us that even if we +succeeded in getting farmers to embark on the projected enterprises, +financial disaster would be the inevitable result of our attempts to +substitute in industrial undertakings, ever becoming more technical and +requiring more and more commercial knowledge and experience, democratic +management for one-man control. + +On the other hand there were some favouring conditions, the importance +of which our studies of the human problems already discussed will have +made my readers realise. Isolated, the Irish farmer is conservative, +sceptical of innovations, a believer in routine and tradition. In union +with his fellows, he is progressive, open to ideas, and wonderfully keen +at grasping the essential features of any new proposal for his +advancement. He was, then, himself eminently a subject for co-operative +treatment, and his circumstances were equally so. The smallness of his +holding, the lack of capital, and the backwardness of his methods made +him helpless in competition with his rivals abroad. The process of +organisation was also, to some extent, facilitated by the insight the +people had been given by the Land League into the power of combination, +and by the education they had received in the conduct of meetings. It +was a great advantage that there was a machinery ready at hand for +getting people together, and a procedure fully understood for giving +expression to the sense of the meeting. On the other hand, the +domination of a powerful central body, which was held to be essential to +the success of the political and agrarian movement, had exercised an +influence which added enormously to the difficulty of getting the people +to act on their own initiative. + +Though the economic conditions of the Irish farmer clearly indicated a +need for the application of co-operative effort to all branches of his +industry, it was necessary at the beginning to embrace a more limited +aim. It happened at the time we commenced our Irish work that one branch +of farming, the dairying industry, presented features admirably adapted +to our methods. This industry was, so to speak, ripe for its industrial +development, for its change from a home to a factory industry. New +machinery, costly but highly efficient, had enabled the factory product, +notably that of Denmark and Sweden, to compete successfully with the +home-made article, both in quality and cost of production. Here, it will +be observed, was an opportunity for an experiment in co-operative +production, under modern industrial conditions, which would put the +associative qualities of the Irish farmer to a test which the British +artisan had not stood quite as well as the founders of the co-operative +movement had anticipated. To add to the interest of the situation, +capitalists had seized upon the material advantages which the abundant +supply of Irish milk afforded, and the green pastures of the "Golden +Vein" were studded with snow white creameries which proclaimed the +transfer of this great Irish industry from the tiller of the soil to the +man of commerce. The new-comers secured the milk of the district by +giving the farmer much more for his milk than it was worth to him, so +long as he pursued the old methods of home manufacture. This induced +farmers to go out of the butter-making business. After a while the price +was reduced, and the proprietor, finding it necessary to give the +suppliers only what they could make out of their milk without his modern +equipment, realised profits altogether out of proportion to his share of +the capital embarked or the labour involved in the production of the +butter. + +The economic position was ideal for our purpose, and we had no +difficulty in explaining it to the farmers themselves. The social +problem was the real difficulty. To all suggestions of co-operative +action they at first opposed a hopeless _non possumus_. Their objections +may be summed up thus:--They had never combined for any business +purpose. How could they trust the Committee they were asked to elect +from amongst themselves to expend their money and conduct their +business? It was all very well for the proprietor with his ample +capital, free hand, and business experience, to work with complicated +machinery and to consign his butter out of the reach of the local butter +buyer, and to save the waste and delay of the local butter market. But +they knew nothing of the business and would only make fools of +themselves. The promoters--they were not putting anything into the +scheme--how much did they intend to take out?[38] + +There was nothing in this attitude of mind which we had not fully +anticipated. We were confident that, as we were on sound economic +ground, no matter what difficulties might confront us it was only a +question of time for the attainment of our ends. All that was required +was that we should keep pegging away. My own experience was not +encouraging at first. I was, and am, a poor speaker, and in Ireland a +man who cannot express his thoughts with facility, whether he has got +them or not, accentuates the difficulties under which a prophet labours +in his own country. I made up for my deficiencies in the first essential +of Irish public life by engaging a very eloquent political speaker, the +late Mr. Mulhallen Marum, M.P., to stump the country. He gave to the +propaganda a relish which my prosaic economics altogether lacked. The +nationalist band sometimes came out to meet him. We all know the +efficiency of the drum in politics and religion, but it seemed to me a +little out of place in economics. However, he created an excellent +impression, but unhappily he died of heart disease before he had +attended more than three or four meetings. This was a severe blow to us, +and we toiled away under some temporary discouragement. My own diary +records attendance at fifty meetings before a single society had +resulted therefrom. It was weary work for a long time. These gatherings +were miserable affairs compared with those which greeted our political +speakers. On one occasion the agricultural community was represented by +the Dispensary Doctor, the Schoolmaster, and the Sergeant of Police. +Sometimes, in spite of copious advertising of the meeting, the prosaic +nature of the objects had got abroad, and nobody met. + +Mr. Anderson, who sometimes accompanied me and sometimes went his rounds +alone, had similar experiences. I may quote a passage from some of his +reminiscences, recently published in the _Irish Homestead_, the organ of +the co-operative movement in Ireland. + + It was hard and thankless work. There was the apathy of the people + and the active opposition of the Press and the politicians. It + would be hard to say now whether the abuse of the Conservative + _Cork Constitution_ or that of the Nationalist _Eagle_, of + Skibbereen, was the louder. We were "killing the calves," we were + "forcing the young women to emigrate," we were "destroying the + industry." Mr. Plunkett was described as a "monster in human + shape," and was adjured to "cease his hellish work." I was + described as his "Man Friday" and as "Rough-rider Anderson." Once, + when I thought I had planted a Creamery within the precincts of the + town of Rathkeale, my co-operative apple-cart was upset by a local + solicitor who, having elicited the fact that our movement + recognised neither political nor religious differences--that the + Unionist-Protestant cow was as dear to us as her + Nationalist-Catholic sister--gravely informed me that our programme + would not suit Rathkeale. "Rathkeale," said he, pompously, "is a + Nationalist town--Nationalist to the backbone--and every pound of + butter made in this Creamery must be made on Nationalist + principles, or it shan't be made at all." This sentiment was + applauded loudly, and the proceedings terminated. + +On another occasion a similar project was abandoned because the flow of +water to the disused mill which it was proposed to convert into a +creamery, passed through a conduit lined with cement originally +purchased from a man who now occupied a farm from which another had been +evicted. To some minds these little complications would have spelled +failure. To my associates they but accentuated the need for the movement +which they had so laboriously thought out, and the very nature of the +difficulties confirmed them in their belief that the economic doctrine +they were preaching was adapted to meet the requirements of the case. +And so the event proved. + +In the year 1894 the movement had gathered volume to such an +extent--although the societies then numbered but one for every twenty +that are in existence to-day--that it became beyond the power of a few +individuals to direct its further progress. In April of that year a +meeting was held in Dublin to inaugurate the Irish Agricultural +Organisation Society, Ltd. (now commonly known as the I.A.O.S.), which +was to be the analogue of the Co-operative Union in England. In the +first instance it was to consist of philanthropic persons, but its +constitution provided for the inclusion in its membership of the +societies which had already been created and those which it would itself +create as time went on. It had, and has to-day, a thoroughly +representative Committee. I was elected the first President, a position +which I held until I entered official life, when Lord Monteagle, a +practical philanthropist if ever there was one, became my successor. +Father Finlay, who joined the movement in 1892, and who has devoted the +extraordinary influence which he possesses over the rural population of +Ireland to the dissemination of our economic principles, became +Vice-President. Both he and Lord Monteagle have been annually re-elected +ever since. + +The growth of the movement in the last nine years under the fostering +care of the I.A.O.S. is highly satisfactory. By the autumn of this year +(1903) considerably over eight hundred societies had been established, +and the number is ever growing; of these 360 were dairy, and 140 +agricultural societies, nearly 200 agricultural banks, 50 home +industries societies, 40 poultry societies, while there were 40 others +with miscellaneous objects. The membership may be estimated--I am +writing towards the end of the Society's statistical year--at about +80,000, representing some 400,000 persons. The combined trade turnover +of these societies during the present year will reach approximately +£2,000,000, a figure the meaning of which can only be appreciated when +it is remembered that the great majority of the associated farmers are +in so small a way of business that in England they would hardly be +classed as farmers at all. + +These societies consist, as has been explained, of groups of farmers who +have been taught by organisers that certain branches of their business +can be more profitably conducted in association than by individuals +acting separately. The principle of agricultural co-operation with its +economic advantages will, as time goes on, be further extended by the +combined action of societies. With this end in view federations are +constantly being formed with a constitution similar to that of the +societies, the only difference being that the members of the federation +are not individuals but societies, the government of the central body +being carried on by delegates from its constituent associations. The two +largest of these federations, one for the sale of butter, and another +for the combined purchase by societies of their agricultural +requirements, have been working successfully for several years. +Federations, too, are being formed, as societies find that their +business can be conducted more economically, for example, in dairying by +centralising the manufacture of butter, or in the egg export trade by +the alliance of many districts to enable large contracts to be +undertaken. In the near future a further development of federation will +be required to complete a scheme now under consideration for the mutual +insurance of live stock. Such a scheme involves the existence of two +prime conditions, a local organisation for the purpose of effective +supervision, and the spreading of the risk over a large area. + +In all such enterprises and economic changes the Organisation Society is +either the initiator, or is called in for advice, and its continued +existence in a purely advisory capacity as a link between the societies +where concerted action is required, will be necessary even when the +organisation of farmers into societies is completed. The economic life +of rural communities is in continual need of adjustment. Now it is an +invention like a steam separator which revolutionises an industry. At +another time the crisis created by a change in the tariff of a foreign +country forces the producer either to find a new outlet for his wares, +or to abandon a hitherto profitable employment. A striking instance of +the value of organisation and connection with a central advisory body +occurred in 1887, when swine fever broke out in Denmark, and the exports +of live swine fell from 230,000 in one year to 16,000 in the next. The +organisation of the farmers, however, enabled them easily to consult +together how best to meet the emergency, and their decision to start +co-operative bacon-curing factories was the foundation of their present +great export trade in manufactured bacon. + +I must not overburden with details a narrative intended for readers to +whom I merely wish to give a deeper and wider understanding of Irish +life than most of them probably possess. But there is just one form of +agricultural co-operation to which I can usefully devote a few +paragraphs, because it throws much light upon the associative qualities +of the people and also upon the educational and social value of the +movement. I refer to the Agricultural Banks, more properly called Credit +Associations, which have been organised upon the Raiffeisen system. +Before the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society was formed we had +read of these institutions, and of the marvellously beneficial effect +they had produced upon the most depressed rural communities abroad. But +only in the last few years have we fully realised that they are even +more required and are likely to do more good in Ireland than in any +other country; for on the psychological side of our work we formerly but +dimly saw things which we now see clearly. + +The exact purpose of these organisations is to create credit as a means +of introducing capital into the agricultural industry. They perform the +apparent miracle of giving solvency to a community composed almost +entirely of insolvent individuals. The constitution of these bodies, +which can, of course, be described only in broad outline here, is +somewhat startling. They have no subscribed capital, but every member is +liable for the entire debts of the association. Consequently the +association takes good care to admit men of approved character and +capacity only. It starts by borrowing a sum of money on the joint and +several security of its members. A member wishing to borrow from the +association is not required to give tangible security, but must bring +two sureties. He fills up an application form which states, among other +things, what he wants the money for. The rules provide--and this is the +salient feature of the system--that a loan shall be made for a +productive purpose only, that is, a purpose which, in the judgment of +the other members of the association as represented by a committee +democratically elected from among themselves, will enable the borrower +to repay the loan out of the results of the use made of the money lent. + +Raiffeisen held, and our experience in Ireland has fully confirmed his +opinion, that in the poorest communities there is a perfectly safe basis +of security in the honesty and industry of its members. This security is +not valuable to the ordinary commercial lender, such as the local joint +stock bank. Even if such lenders had the intimate knowledge possessed by +the committee of one of these associations as to the character and +capacity of the borrower, they would not be able to satisfy themselves +that the loan was required for a really productive purpose, nor would +they be able to see that it was properly applied to the stipulated +object. One of the rules of the co-operative banks provides for the +expulsion of a member who does not apply the money to the agreed +productive purpose. But although these "Banks" are almost invariably +situated in very poor districts, there has been no necessity to put this +rule in force in a single instance. Social influences seem to be quite +sufficient to secure obedience to the association's laws. + +Another advantage conferred by the association is that the term for +which money is advanced is a matter of agreement between the borrower +and the bank. The hard and fast term of three months which prevails in +Ireland for small loans is unsuited to the requirements of the +agricultural industry--as for instance, when a man borrows money to sow +a crop, and has to repay it before harvest. The society borrows at four +or five per cent, and lends at five or six per cent. In some cases the +Congested Districts Board or the Department of Agriculture have made +loans to these banks at three per cent. This enables the societies to +lend at the popular rate of one penny for the use of one pound for a +month. The expenses of administration are very small. As the credit of +these associations develops, they will become a depository for the +savings of the community, to the great advantage of both lender and +borrower. The latter generally makes an enormous profit out of these +loans, which have accordingly gained the name of 'the lucky money,' and +we find, in practice, that he always repays the association and almost +invariably with punctuality. + +The sketch I have given of the agricultural banks will, perhaps, be +sufficient to show what an immense educational and economic benefit they +are likely to confer when they are widely extended throughout Ireland, +as I hope they will be in the near future. Under this system, which, to +quote the report of the Indian Famine Commission, 1901, 'separates the +working bees from the drones,' the industrious men of the community who +had no clear idea before of the meaning or functions of capital or +credit, and who were generally unable to get capital into their industry +except at exorbitant rates of interest and upon unsuitable terms, are +now able to get, not always, indeed, all the money they want, but all +the money they can well employ for the improvement of their industry. +There is no fear of rash investment of capital in enterprises believed +to be, but not in reality productive--the committee take good care of +that. The whole community is taught the difference between borrowing to +spend and borrowing to make. You have the collective wisdom of the best +men in the association helping the borrower to decide whether he ought +to borrow or not, and then assisting him, if only from motives of +self-interest, to make the loan fulfil the purpose for which it was +made. I was delighted to find when I was making an enquiry into the +working of the system that, whereas the debt-laden peasants had formerly +concealed their indebtedness, of which they were ashamed, those who were +in debt to the new banks were proud of the fact, as it was the best +testimonial to their character for honesty and industry.[39] + +One other sphere of activity worked by the co-operative associations +needs a passing notice. The desire that, together with material +amelioration, there should be a corresponding intellectual advancement +and a greater beauty in life has prompted many of the farmers' societies +to use their organisation for higher ends. A considerable number of them +have started Village Libraries, and by an admirable selection of books +have brought to their members, not only the means of educating +themselves in the more difficult technical problems of their industry, +but also a means of access to that enchanted world of Irish thought +which inspires the Gaelic Revival to which I have already referred. +Social gatherings of every kind, dances, lectures, concerts, and such +like entertainments, which have the two-fold effect of brightening rural +life and increasing the attachment of the members to their society, are +becoming a common feature in the movement, and this more human aspect +has attracted to it the attention of many who do not understand its +economic side. We have gratifying evidence from many of the clergy that +the movement thus developed has kept at home young people who would +otherwise have fled from the continued hardship and intellectual +emptiness of rural life at home. + +These results are in no small measure due to the zeal and devotion of +the governing body and staff of the I.A.O.S. The general policy of the +society is guided by a committee of twenty-four members, one-half of +whom are elected by the individual subscribers and the other half by the +affiliated societies. It is representative in the best sense and +influential accordingly. The success of the Committee is no doubt mainly +due to the wisdom which they have displayed in the selection of the +staff. In the most important post, that of Secretary, they have kept on +my chief fellow-worker in the early struggle, Mr. R.A. Anderson, who has +devoted himself to the cause with all the energy of a nature at once +enthusiastic, unselfish, and practical, and who has succeeded in +inspiring his staff of organisers and experts with his own spirit. Among +these, two deserve special mention, Mr. George W. Russell, one of the +Assistant Secretaries, who has, under the _nom de plume_ "A.E.," +attained fame for a poetry of rare distinction of thought and diction, +and Mr. P.J. Hannon, the other Assistant Secretary, who has proved +himself a splendid propagandist. Each of these gentlemen has brought to +the movement a zeal and ability which could only come of a devotion to +high ideals of patriotism, curiously combined with a shrewd practical +instinct for carrying on varied and responsible business undertakings. + +With the growing work the staff has been repeatedly augmented to enable +the central society to keep pace with the demand made by groups of +farmers to be initiated into the principles of co-operative +organisation and the details of its application to the particular +branches of farming carried on in their several districts. At the same +time the societies which have been established need, during their +earlier years, and with each extension of their operations, constant +advice and supervision. Hence skilled organisers have to be kept to form +co-operative dairy societies, inspect creameries, and give technical +advice upon the manufacture and sale of butter, the care of machinery, +the adequacy of the water supply, the drainage system, and many similar +technical questions. Others are employed to start poultry societies, +which when organised have still to be instructed by a Danish expert in +the proper method of packing, selecting, and grading the eggs for +export. In tillage districts there is a constant demand for organisers +of purely agricultural societies, which aim at the joint purchase of +seeds and manures, of implements and other farm requisites, and at the +better disposal of produce; while the growing importance of an improved +system of agricultural credit keeps four organisers of agricultural +banks constantly at work Home industries, bee-keeping, and horticulture, +may be added to the objects for which societies have been formed and +which require separate expert organisers. And in addition to all this +work, the central association has found it necessary to keep a staff of +accountants, versed in the principles of co-operative organisation, to +instruct these miscellaneous societies in simple and efficient systems +of bookkeeping, and in the general principles of conducting business. +To complete the description of the propagandist activities of the +central body, there is a ceaseless flow of leaflets and circulars +containing advice and direction to bodies of farmers who, for the first +time in their lives, have combined for business purposes; while a little +weekly paper, the _Irish Homestead_, acts as the organ of the movement, +promotes the exchange of ideas between societies scattered throughout +the country, furnishes useful information upon all matters connected +with their business operations, and keeps constantly before the +associated farmers the economic principles which must be observed, and, +above all, the spirit in which the work must be approached, if the +movement is to fulfil its mission.[40] + +One of the difficulties incidental to a movement of this kind, which, +for the reasons already set forth, had to be rapidly and widely +extended, was the enormous cost to its supporters. It is needless to say +that such a staff as I have described could not be kept continuously +travelling by rail and road for so many years without the provision of a +large fund. These officers must obviously be men with exceptional +qualifications, if they are not only to impress the thought of their +agricultural audiences, but also to move them to action, and to sustain +the newly organised societies through the initial difficulties of their +unfamiliar enterprise. Such men are not to be found idle, and if they +preach this gospel, they are entitled to live by it. They are not by any +means overpaid, but their salaries in the aggregate amount to a large +annual sum. Before the creation of the Department of Agriculture and +Technical Instruction in 1900 large sums were spent by the I.A.O.S. not +only in its proper work of organisation, but also in giving technical +instruction, which was found to be essential to commercial success. When +the Society was relieved of this educational work many of its supporters +withdrew their subscriptions under the impression that there was now no +longer any need for its continued existence. But so far from the +Society's usefulness having ceased, it has now become more important +than ever that the doctrine of organised self-help, which must be the +foundation of any sound Irish economic policy, should be insisted upon +and put into practical operation as widely as possible. All those who +are devoting their lives to the firm establishment of this self-help +movement among the chief wealth-producers of the country are agreed that +no better educational work can be done at the moment than that which is +bringing about so salutary a change in the economic attitude of the +Irish mind. + +It is not to be wondered at that the greater part of the necessary funds +should have been drawn from a very limited circle of public-spirited men +capable of grasping the significance of a movement the practical effect +of which would appear to be permanent only to those who had a deep +insight into Irish problems.[41] The difficulty of a successful appeal +to a wider public has been the impossibility of giving in brief form an +adequate explanation, such as that which it is hoped these pages will +afford, of the part the movement was to play in Irish life. We were +asked whether our scheme was business or philanthropy. If philanthropy, +it would probably do more harm than good. If business, why was it not +self-supporting? I remember hearing the movement ridiculed in the House +of Commons by a prominent Irish member on the ground that the accounts +of the I.A.O.S. showed that £20,000 (£40,000 would be nearer the mark +now) had been put into the 'business,' and that this large capital had +been entirely lost! When we proved that agricultural co-operation +brought a large profit to the members of the societies we formed, it was +suggested that a small part of this profit would give us all we required +for our organising work. So it will in time, but if instead of merely +refusing financial assistance to our converts, we were, on the other +hand, to demand it from them, we certainly should not lessen the +difficulty of launching our movement among the farmers of Ireland. Some +of our critics denounced the expenditure of so much money for which, in +their opinion, there was nothing to show, and said that the time had +come to stop this 'spoon-feeding.' When those for whose exclusive +benefit the costly work had been undertaken learned that all we had to +offer was the cold advice that they should help themselves, they not +infrequently raised a wholly different objection to our economic +doctrine. Spoonfeeding they might have tolerated, but there was nothing +in the spoon! The movement has survived all these criticisms. The lack +of moral and of financial support which retarded its progress in the +early years, has been so far surmounted The movement may now, I think, +appeal for further help as one that has justified its existence. The +opinion that it has done so is not held only by those who are engaged in +promoting it, nor by Irish observers alone. The efforts of the Irish +farmers so to reorganise their industry that they may hopefully approach +the solution of the problems of rural life are being watched by +economists and administrators abroad. Enquirers have come to Ireland +during the last two years from Germany, France, Canada, the United +States, India, South Africa, Cyprus and the West Indies, having been +drawn here by the desire to understand the combination of economic and +human reform. It was not alone the economic advantages of the movement +which interested them, but the way in which the organisation at the same +time acted upon the character and awoke those forces of self-help and +comradeship in which lies the surety of any enduring national +prosperity. A native governor from a famine district in the Madras +Presidency, who, perhaps, better than any one realised the importance +of these human factors, because the lethargy of his own people had +forced it on his notice, said, when he was referred to the Department of +Agriculture and Technical Instruction for information, "Oh, don't speak +to me about Government Departments. They are the same all over the +world. I come here to learn what the Irish people are doing to help +themselves and how you awaken the will and the initiative." I hope to +show later that State assistance properly applied is not necessarily +demoralising but very much the reverse. It is consoling, too, to our +national pride, long wounded by contemptuous references to our +industrial incapacity as compared with our neighbours, to find that our +latest efforts are regarded by them as worthy of imitation. From the +other side of the Channel no less than five County Councils have sent +deputations of farmers to Ireland to study the progress of the movement, +and already an English Organisation Society, expressly modelled upon its +Irish namesake, has been established and is endeavouring to carry out +the same work. + +It is not surprising that the facts which I have cited should be +interesting to the honest inquirer. A summary of actual achievement will +show that this movement has spread all over Ireland, that its principle +of organised self-help has been universally accepted, and that nothing +but time and the necessary funds are required by its promoters to give +it, within the range of its applicability, general effect. It is no +exaggeration to say that there has been set in motion and carried +beyond the experimental stage a revolution in agricultural methods which +will enable our farmers to compete with their rivals abroad, both in +production and in distribution, under far more favourable conditions +than before. Alike in its material and in its moral achievements this +movement has provided an effective means whereby the peasant proprietary +about to be created will be able to face and solve the vital problems +before it, problems for which no improvement in land tenure, no rent +reductions actual or prospective, could otherwise provide an adequate +solution. Furthermore, nothing could be more evident to any close +observer of Irish life than the fact that had it not been for the new +spirit which the workers in this movement, mostly humble unknown men, +had generated, the attitude of the Irish democracy towards England's +latest concession to Ireland would have been very different from what it +is. In the last dozen years hundreds and thousands of meetings have been +held to discuss matters of business importance to our rural communities. +At these meetings landlord and tenant-farmer have often met each other +for the first time on a footing of friendly equality, as fellow-members +of co-operative societies. It is significant that all through the +negotiations which culminated in the Dunraven Treaty, landlords who had +come into the life of the people in connection with the co-operative +movement took a prominent part in favour of conciliation. + +I would further give it as my opinion, whatever it may be worth, that +the movement has exercised a profound influence in those departments of +our national life where, as I have shown in previous chapters, new +forces must be not only recognised but accepted as essential to national +well-being, if we are to cherish what is good and free ourselves from +what is bad in the historical evolution of our national life. In the +domain of politics it is hard to estimate even the political value of +the exclusion of politics from deliberations and activities where they +have no proper place. In our religious life, where intolerance has +perpetuated anti-industrial tendencies, the new movement is seen to be +bringing together for business purposes men who had previously no +dealings with each other, but who have now learned that the doctrine of +self-help by mutual help involves no danger to faith and no sacrifice of +hope, while it engenders a genuinely Christian interpretation of +charity.[42] + +I cannot conclude the story of this movement without paying a brief +tribute of respect and gratitude to those true patriots who have borne +the daily burden of the work. I hope the picture I have given of their +aims and achievements will lead to a just appreciation of their services +to their country. By these men and women applause or even recognition +was not expected or desired: they knew that it was to those who had the +advantages of leisure, and what the world calls position, that the +credit for their work would be given. But it is of national importance +that altruistic service should be understood and given freedom of +expansion. I have, therefore, presented as faithfully as I could the +origin and development of one of the least understood, but in my +opinion, most fruitful movements which has ever been undertaken by a +body of social and economic reformers. As Irish leaders they have +preferred to remain obscure, conscious that the most damaging criticism +which could be applied to their work would be that it depended on their +own personal qualities or acts for its permanent utility. But most +assuredly the real conquerors of the world are those who found upon +human character their hopes of human progress. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[37] The story of the conversion of some of the tenants on the Vandeleur +estate into a co-operative community in 1831 by Mr. E.T. Craig, a +Scotchman who took up the agency of the property, told in the _History +of Ralahine_ (London, Trübner & Co., 1893) is worth reading. The +experiment, most hopeful as far as it went, was only two years in +existence when the landlord gambled away his property at cards in a +Dublin club and the Utopia was sold up. But in the co-operative world +Mr. Craig, who died as recently as 1894, is revered as the author of the +most advanced experiment in the realisation of co-operative ideals. The +economic significance of the narrative is obviously not important, and I +doubt whether joint ownership of land, except for the purpose of common +grazing, is a practical ideal. The ready response, however, of the Irish +peasants to Mr. Craig's enthusiasm and the way in which they took up the +idea form an interesting study of the Irish character. + +[38] The late Canon Bagot had done good service in explaining the value +of the new machinery; but unhappily the vital importance of co-operative +organisation was not then understood. He formed some joint stock +companies with the result that, having no co-operative spirit to offset +their commercial inexperience, they all proved, instead of co-operative +successes, competitive failures. This fact added to our early +difficulties. + +[39] It should be noted that this form of association for credit +purposes, owing to its peculiar constitution, applies only to a grade of +the community whose members all live on about the same scale and that a +fairly low one. It is obvious that unlimited liability would lose its +efficacy in developing the sense of responsibility if some members of +the association were so substantial that its creditors would make them +primarily responsible in the event of failure. The fact, however, that +the scheme has worked with unvarying success among the poorest of the +poor, and the most Irish of the Irish, renders it as good an +illustration as can be found of what may be done by sympathetic and +intelligent treatment of Irish economic problems. Mr. Henry W. Wolff, +the foremost authority on People's Banks in these islands, and Mr. R.A. +Yerburgh, M.P., a generous subscriber to the Irish Agricultural +Organisation Society, have taken great interest in this part of the +movement and have rendered much assistance. + +[40] Those who wish to go more fully into the details of the +co-operative agricultural movement in Ireland should write to the +Secretary Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, 22 Lincoln-place, +Dublin. The publications of the Society are somewhat voluminous, and the +inquirer should intimate any particular branches of the subject in which +he is especially interested. Those wishing to keep _au courant_ with the +further development of the movement would do well to take in the _Irish +Homestead_, post free _6s. 6d._ per annum. + +[41] The chief donors belong to the class of philanthropists who do not +care to advertise their beneficence. I, therefore, respect their wishes +and withhold their names. + +[42] I recall an occasion when the Vice-President of the I.A.O.S. (a +Nationalist in politics and a Jesuit priest), who has been ever ready to +lend a hand as volunteer organiser when the prior claims of his +religious and educational duties allowed, found himself before an +audience which he was informed, when he came to the meeting, consisted +mainly of Orangemen. He began his address by referring to the new and +somewhat strange environment into which he had drifted. He did not, +however, see why this circumstance should lead to any misunderstanding +between himself and his audience. He had never been able to understand +what a battle fought upon a famous Irish river two centuries ago had got +to do with the practical issues of to-day which he had come to discuss. +The dispute in question was, after all, between a Scotchman and a +Dutchman, and if it had not yet been decided, they might be left to +settle it themselves--that is if too great a gulf did not separate them. + + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE RECESS COMMITTEE. + + +The new movement, six years after its initiation, had succeeded beyond +the most sanguine expectations of its promoters. All over the country +the idea of self-help was taking firm hold of the imagination of the +people. + +Co-operation had got, so to speak, into the air to such an extent that, +whereas at the beginning, as I well remember, our chief difficulty had +been to popularise a principle to which one section of the community was +strongly opposed, and in which no section believed, it was now no longer +necessary to explain or support the theory, but only to show how it +could be advantageously applied to some branch of the farmer's industry. +It was not, strange to say, the economic advantage which had chiefly +appealed to the quick intelligence of the Irish farmer, but rather the +novel sensation that he was thinking for himself, and that while +improving his own condition he was working for others. This attitude was +essential to the success of the movement, because had it not been for a +vein of altruism, the "strong" farmers would have held aloof, and the +small men would have been discouraged by the abstention of the +better-off and presumably more enlightened of their class. + +Perhaps, too, we owed something to the recognition on the part of the +working farmers of Ireland that they were showing a capacity to grasp an +idea which had so far failed to penetrate the bucolic intelligence of +the predominant partner. Whatever the causes to which the success of the +movement was attributable, those who were responsible for its promotion +felt in the year 1895 that it had reached a stage in its development +when it was but a question of time to complete the projected revolution +in the farming industry, the substitution of combined for isolated +methods of production and distribution. It was then further brought home +to them that the principle of self-help was destined to obtain general +acceptance in rural Ireland, and that the time had come when a sound +system of State aid to agriculture might be fruitfully grafted on to +this native growth of local effort and self-reliance. + +From time to time our public men had included in the list of Irish +grievances the fact that England enjoyed a Board of Agriculture while +Ireland had no similar institution. As a matter of fact a mere replica +of the English Board would not have fulfilled a tithe of the objects we +had in view. That much at least we knew, but beyond that our information +was vague. What, having regard to Irish rural conditions, should be the +character and constitution of any Department called into being to +administer the aid required? Here indeed was a vital and difficult +problem. Even those of us who had given the closest thought to the +matter did not know exactly what was wanted; nor, if we had known our +own minds, could we have formulated our demand in such a way as to have +obtained a backing from representative public bodies, associations, and +individuals sufficient to secure its concession. Instead, therefore, of +agitating in the conventional manner we determined to try to direct the +best thought of the country to the problem in hand, with a view to +satisfying the Government, and also ourselves, as to what was wanted. We +had confidence that a demand presented to Parliament, based upon calm +and deliberate debate among the most competent of Irishmen, would be +conceded. The story of this agitation, its initiation, its conduct, and +its final success will, I am sure, be of interest to all who feel any +concern for the welfare of Ireland. + +I have accepted the common characterisation of the Irish as a +leader-following people. When we come to analyse the human material out +of which a strong national life may be constructed, we find that there +are in Ireland--in this connection I exclude the influence of the +clergy, with which I have dealt specifically in another chapter--two +elements of leadership, the political and the industrial. The political +leaders are seen to enjoy an influence over the great majority of the +people which is probably as powerful as that of any political leaders in +ancient or modern times; but as a class they certainly do not take a +prominent, or even an active part in business life. This fact is not +introduced with any controversial purpose, and I freely acknowledge can +be interpreted in a sense altogether creditable to the Nationalist +members. The other element of leadership contains all that is prominent +in industrial and commercial life, and few countries could produce +better types of such leaders than can be found in the northern capital +of the country. But, unhappily, these men are debarred from all +influence upon the thought and action of the great majority of the +people, who are under the domination of the political leaders. This is +one of the strange anomalies of Irish life to which I have already +referred. Its recognition, and the desire to utilise the knowledge of +business men as well as politicians, took practical effect in the +formation of the Recess Committee. + +The idea underlying this project was the combination of these two forces +of leadership--the force with political influence and that of proved +industrial and commercial capacity--in order to concentrate public +opinion, which was believed to be inclining in this direction, on the +material needs of the country. The General Election of 1895 had, by +universal admission, postponed, for some years at any rate, any +possibility of Home Rule, and the cessation of the bitter feelings +aroused when Home Rule seemed imminent provided the opportunity for an +appeal to the Irish people in behalf of the views which I have +adumbrated. The appeal took the form of a letter, dated August 27th, +1895, by the author to the Irish Press, under the quite sincere, if +somewhat grandiloquent, title, "A proposal affecting the general welfare +of Ireland." + +The letter set out the general scope and purpose of the scheme. After a +confession of the writer's continued opposition to Home Rule, the +admission was made that if the average Irish elector, who is more +intelligent than the average British elector, were also as prosperous, +as industrious, and as well educated, his continued demand, in the +proper constitutional way, for Home Rule would very likely result in the +experiment being one day tried. On the other hand, the opinion was +expressed that if the material conditions of the great body of our +countrymen were advanced, if they were encouraged in industrial +enterprise, and were provided with practical education in proportion to +their natural intelligence, they would see that a political development +on lines similar to those adopted in England was, considering the +necessary relations between the two countries, best for Ireland; and +then they would cease to desire what is ordinarily understood as Home +Rule. A basis for united action between politicians on both sides of the +Irish controversy was then suggested. Finding ourselves still opposed +upon the main question, but all anxious to promote the welfare of the +country, and confident that, as this was advanced, our respective +policies would be confirmed, it would appear, it was suggested, to be +alike good patriotism and good policy to work for the material and +social advancement of the people. Why then, it was asked, should any +Irishman hesitate to enter at once upon that united action between men +of both parties which alone, under existing conditions, could enable +either party to do any real and lasting good to the country? + +The letter proceeded to indicate economic legislation which, though +sorely needed by Ireland, was hopelessly unattainable unless it could be +removed from the region of controversy. The _modus co-operandi_ +suggested was as follows:--a committee sitting in the Parliamentary +recess, whence it came to be known as the Recess Committee, was to be +formed, consisting in the first instance, of Irish Members of Parliament +nominated by the leaders of the different sections. These nominees were +to invite to join them any Irishmen whose capacity, knowledge, or +experience might be of service to the Committee, irrespective of the +political party or religious persuasion to which they might belong. The +day had come, the letter went on to say, when "we Unionists, without +abating one jot of our Unionism, and Nationalists, without abating one +jot of their Nationalism, can each show our faith in the cause for which +we have fought so bitterly and so long, by sinking our party differences +for our country's good, and leaving our respective policies for the +justification of time." + +Needless to say, few were sanguine enough to hope that such a committee +would ever be brought together. If that were accomplished some +prophesied that its members would but emulate the fame of the Kilkenny +cats. A severe blow was dealt to the project at the outset by the +refusal of Mr. Justin McCarthy, who then spoke for the largest section +of the Nationalist representatives, to have anything to do with it. His +reply to the letter must be given in full:-- + + MY DEAR MR. PLUNKETT, + + I am sure I need not say that any effort to promote the general + welfare of Ireland has my fullest sympathy. I readily acknowledge + and entirely believe in the sincerity and good purpose of your + effort, but I cannot see my way to associate myself with it. Your + frank avowal in your letter of August 27th is the expression of a + belief that if your policy could be successfully carried out the + Irish people "would cease to desire Home Rule." Now, I do not + believe that anything in the way of material improvement conferred + by the Parliament at Westminster, or by Dublin Castle, could + extinguish the national desire for Home Rule. Still, I do not feel + that I could possibly take part in any organisation which had for + its object the seeking of a substitute for that which I believe to + be Ireland's greatest need--Home Rule. + + Yours very truly, + + JUSTIN MCCARTHY. + + 73, Eaton-terrace, S.W., October 22nd, 1895. + +I had not much hope that I could influence Mr. McCarthy's decision; but +it was so serious an obstacle to further action that I made one more +appeal. I wrote to my respected and courteous correspondent, pointing +out the misconception of my proposal, which had arisen from the use made +of the six words quoted by him, which were hardly intelligible without +the context. I asked him to reconsider his refusal to join in the +proposal for promoting the material improvement of our country, on +account of a contingency which he confidently declared could not arise. +But in those days economic seed fell upon stony political ground. + +The position was rendered still more difficult by the action of Colonel +Saunderson, the leader of the Irish Unionist party, who wrote to the +newspapers declaring that he would not sit on a Committee with Mr. John +Redmond. On the other hand, Mr. Redmond, speaking then for the +"Independent" party, consisting of less than a dozen members, but +containing some men who agreed with Mr. Field's admission in the House +of Commons that "man cannot live on politics alone," joined the +Committee and acted throughout in a manner which was broad, +statesmanlike, conciliatory, and as generous as it was courageous. His +letter of acceptance ran as follows:-- + + DEAR MR. PLUNKETT, + + I received your letter, in which you ask me to co-operate with you + in bringing together a small Committee of Members of Parliament to + discuss certain measures to be proposed next Session for the + benefit of Ireland. While I cannot take as sanguine a view as you + do of the benefits likely to flow from such a proceeding, I am + unwilling to take the responsibility of declining to aid in any + effort to promote useful legislation for Ireland. + + I will, under the circumstances, co-operate with you in bringing + such a Committee as you suggest together. Very truly yours, + + J.E. REDMOND. + + October 21st, 1895. + +Before these decisions were officially announced the idea had "caught +on." Public bodies throughout the country endorsed the scheme. The +parliamentarians, who formed the nucleus of the Committee, came +together and invited prominent men from all quarters to join them. A +committee which, though informal and self-appointed, might fairly claim +to be representative in every material respect, was thus constituted on +the lines laid down. + +Truly, it was a strange council over which I had the honour to preside. +All shades of politics were there--Lords Mayo and Monteagle, Mr. Dane +and Sir Thomas Lea (Tories and Liberal Unionist Peers and Members of +Parliament) sitting down beside Mr. John Redmond and his parliamentary +followers. It was found possible, in framing proposals fraught with +moral, social, and educational results, to secure the cordial agreement +of the late Rev. Dr. Kane, Grand Master of the Belfast Orangemen, and of +the eminent Jesuit educationist, Father Thomas Finlay, of the Royal +University. The O'Conor Don, the able Chairman of the Financial +Relations Commission, and Mr. John Ross, M.P., now one of His Majesty's +Judges, both Unionists, were balanced by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and +Mr. T.C. Harrington, M.P., who now occupies that post, both +Nationalists. The late Sir John Arnott fitly represented the commercial +enterprise of the South, while such men as Mr. Thomas Sinclair, +universally regarded as one of the wisest of Irish public men, Sir +William Ewart, head of the leading linen concern in the North, Sir +Daniel Dixon, now Lord Mayor of Belfast, Sir James Musgrave, Chairman of +the Belfast Harbour Board, and Mr. Thomas Andrews, a well-known +flax-spinner and Chairman of the Belfast and County Down Railway, would +be universally accepted as the highest authorities upon the needs of the +business community which has made Ulster famous in the industrial world. +Mr. T.P. Gill, besides undertaking investigation of the utmost value +into State aid to agriculture in France and Denmark, acted as Hon. +Secretary to the Committee, of which he was a member. + +The story of our deliberations and ultimate conclusions cannot be set +forth here except in the barest outline. We instituted an inquiry into +the means by which the Government could best promote the development of +our agricultural and industrial resources, and despatched commissioners +to countries of Europe whose conditions and progress might afford some +lessons for Ireland. Most of this work was done for us by the late +eminent statistician, Mr. Michael Mulhall. Our funds did not admit of an +inquiry in the United States or the Colonies. However, we obtained +invaluable information as to the methods by which countries which were +our chief rivals in agricultural and industrial production have been +enabled to compete successfully with our producers even in our own +markets. Our commissioners were instructed in each case to collect the +facts necessary to enable us to differentiate between the parts played +respectively by State aid and the efforts of the people themselves in +producing these results. With this information before us, after long and +earnest deliberation we came to a unanimous agreement upon the main +facts of the situation with which we had to deal, and upon the +recommendations for remedial legislation which we should make to the +Government. + +The substance of our recommendations was that a Department of Government +should be specially created, with a minister directly responsible to +Parliament at its head. The central body was to be assisted by a +Consultative Council representative of the interests concerned. The +Department was to be adequately endowed from the Imperial Treasury, and +was to administer State aid to agriculture and industries in Ireland +upon principles which were fully described. The proposal to amalgamate +agriculture and industries under one Department was adopted largely on +account of the opinion expressed by M. Tisserand, late Director-General +of Agriculture in France, one of the highest authorities in Europe upon +the administration of State aid to agriculture.[43] The creation of a +new minister directly responsible to Parliament was considered a +necessary provision. Ireland is governed by a number of Boards, all, +with the exception of the Board of Works (which is really a branch of +the Treasury), responsible to the Chief Secretary--practically a whole +cabinet under one hat--who is supposed to be responsible for them to +Parliament and to the Lord Lieutenant. The bearers of this burden are +generally men of great ability. But no Chief Secretary could possibly +take under his wing yet another department with the entirely new and +important functions now to be discharged. What these functions were to +be need not here be described, as the Department thus 'agitated' for has +now been three years at work and will form the subject of the next two +chapters. + +On August 1st, 1896, less than a year from the issue of the invitation +to the political leaders, the Report was forwarded to the Chief +Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant for Ireland, with a covering letter, +setting out the considerations upon which the Committee relied for the +justification of its course of action. Attention was drawn to the terms +of the original proposal, its exceptional nature and essential +informality, the political conditions which appeared to make it +opportune, the spirit in which it was responded to by those who were +invited to join, and the degree of public approval which had been +accorded to our action. We were able to claim for the Committee that it +was thoroughly representative of those agricultural and industrial +interests, North and South, with which the Report was concerned. + +There were two special features in the brief history of this unique +coming together of Irishmen which will strike any man familiar with the +conditions of Irish public life. The first was the way in which the +business element, consisting of men already deeply engaged in their +various callings--and, indeed, selected for that very reason--devoted +time and labour to the service of their country. Still more significant +was the fact that the political element on the Committee should have +come to an absolutely unanimous agreement upon a policy which, though +not intended to influence the trend of politics, was yet bound to have +far-reaching consequences upon the political thought of the country, and +upon the positions of parties and leaders. It was thought only fair to +the Nationalist members of the Committee that every precaution should be +taken to prevent their being placed in a false position. 'To avoid any +possible misconception,' the covering letter ran, 'as to the attitude of +those members of the Committee who are not supporters of the present +Government, it is right here to state that, while under existing +political conditions they agreed in recommending a certain course to the +Government, they wish it to be understood that their political +principles remain unaltered, and that, were it immediately possible, +they would prefer that the suggested reforms should be preceded by the +constitutional changes of which they are the well-known advocates.' + +It is interesting to note that the Committee claimed favourable +consideration for their proposals on the ground that they sought to act +as 'a channel of communication between the Irish Government and Irish +public opinion.' Little interest, they pointed out, had been hitherto +aroused in those economic problems for which the Report suggested some +solution. They expressed the hope that their action would do something +to remedy this defect, especially in view of the importance which +foreign Governments had found it necessary to attach to public opinion +in working out their various systems of State aid to agriculture and +industries. At the same time the Committee emphasised, in the covering +letter, their reliance on individual and combined effort rather than on +State aid. They were able to point out that, in asking for the latter, +they had throughout attached the utmost importance to its being granted +in such a manner as to evoke and supplement, and in no way be a +substitute for self-help. If they appeared to give undue prominence to +the capabilities of State initiation, it was to be remembered that they +were dealing with economic conditions which had been artificially +produced, and which, therefore, might require exceptional treatment of a +temporary nature to bring about a permanent remedy. + +I fear those most intimately connected with the above occurrences will +regard this chapter as a very inadequate description of events so +unprecedented and so full of hope for the future. My purpose is, +however, to limit myself, in dealing with the past, to such details as +are necessary to enable the reader to understand the present facts of +Irish life, and to build upon them his own conclusions as to the most +hopeful line of future development. I shall, therefore, pass rapidly in +review the events which led to the fruition of the labours of the Recess +Committee. + +Public opinion in favour of the new proposals grew rapidly. Before the +end of the year (1896) a deputation, representing all the leading +agricultural and industrial interests of the country, waited upon the +Irish Government, in order to press upon them the urgent need for the +new department. The Lord Lieutenant, after describing the gathering as +'one of the most notable deputations which had ever come to lay its case +before the Irish Government,' and noting the 'remarkable growth of +public opinion' in favour of the policy they were advocating, expressed +his heartfelt sympathy with the case which had been presented, and his +earnest desire--which was well known--to proceed with legislation for +the agricultural and industrial development of the country at the +earliest moment. The demand made upon the Government was, +argumentatively, already irresistible. But economic agitation of this +kind takes time to acquire dynamic force. Mr. Gerald Balfour introduced +a Bill the following year, but it had to be withdrawn to leave the way +clear for the other great Irish measure which revolutionised local +government. The unconventional agitation went on upon the original +lines, appealing to that latent public opinion which we were striving to +develop. In 1899 another Bill was introduced, and, owing to its masterly +handling by the Chief Secretary in the House of Commons, ably seconded +by the strong support given by Lord Cadogan, who was in the Cabinet, it +became law. + +I cannot conclude this chapter without a word upon the extraordinary +misunderstanding of Mr. Gerald Balfour's policy to which the obscuring +atmosphere surrounding all Irish questions gave rise. In one respect +that policy was a new departure of the utmost importance. He proved +himself ready to take a measure from Ireland and carry it through, +instead of insisting upon a purely English scheme which he could call +his own. These pre-digested foods had already done much to destroy our +political digestion, and it was time we were given something to grow, to +cook, and to assimilate for ourselves. It will be seen, too, in the next +chapter, that he had realised the potentiality for good of the new +forces in Irish life to which he gave play in his two great linked +Acts--one of them popularising local government, and the other creating +a new Department which was to bring the government and the people +together in an attempt to develop the resources of the country. Yet his +eminently sane and far-seeing policy was regarded in many quarters as a +sacrifice of Unionist interests in Ireland. Its real effect was to endow +Unionism with a positive as well as a negative policy. But all reformers +know that the further ahead they look, the longer they have to wait for +their justification. Meanwhile, we may leave out of consideration the +division of honour or of blame for what has been done. The only matter +of historic interest is to arrive at a correct measure of the progress +made. + +The new movement had thus completed the first and second stages of its +mission. The idea of self-help had become a growing reality, and upon +this foundation an edifice of State aid had been erected. When a +Nationalist member met a Tory member of the Recess Committee he laughed +over the success with which they had wheedled a measure of industrial +Home Rule out of a Unionist Government. None the less they cordially +agreed that the people would rise to their economic responsibility. The +promoters of the movement had faith that this new departure in English +government would be more than justified by the English test, and that in +the new sphere of administration the government would be accorded, +without prejudice, of course, to the ultimate views either of Unionists +or Home Rulers, not only the consent, but the whole-hearted co-operation +of the governed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[43] The memorandum which he kindly contributed to the Recess Committee +was copied into the Annual Report of the United States Department of +Agriculture for 1896. + + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A NEW DEPARTURE IN IRISH ADMINISTRATION. + + +To the average English Member of Parliament, the passing of an Act "for +establishing a Department of Agriculture and other Industries and +Technical Instruction in Ireland and for other purposes connected +therewith," probably signified little more than the removal of another +Irish grievance, which might not be imaginary, by the concession to +Ireland of an equivalent to the Board of Agriculture in England. In +reality the difference between the two institutions is as wide as the +difference between the two islands. The chief interest of the new +Department consists in the free play which it gives to the pent-up +forces of a re-awakening life. A new institution is at best but a new +opportunity, but the Department starts with the unique advantage that, +unlike most Irish institutions, it is one which we Irishmen planned +ourselves and for which we have worked. For this reason the opportunity +is one to which we may hope to rise. + +Before I can convey any clear impression of the part which the +Department is, I believe, destined to play on the stage of Irish public +life, it will be necessary for me to give a somewhat detailed +description of its functions and constitution. The subject is perhaps +dull and technical; but readers cannot understand the Ireland of to-day +unless they have in their minds not only an accurate conception of the +new moral forces in Irish life and of the movements to which these +forces have given rise, but also a knowledge of the administrative +machinery and methods by which the people and the Government are now, +for the first time since the Union, working together towards the +building up of the Ireland of to-morrow. + +The Department consists of the President (who is the Chief Secretary for +the time being) and the Vice-President. The staff is composed of a +Secretary, two Assistant Secretaries (one in respect of Agriculture and +one in respect of Technical Instruction), as well as certain heads of +Branches and a number of inspectors, instructors, officers and servants. +The Recess Committee, it will be remembered, had laid stress upon the +importance of having at the head of the Department a new Minister who +should be directly responsible to Parliament; and, accordingly, it was +arranged that the Vice-President should be its direct Ministerial head. +The Act provided that the Department should be assisted in its work by a +Council of Agriculture and two Boards, and also by a Consultative +Committee to advise upon educational questions. But before discussing +the constitution of these bodies, it is necessary to explain the nature +of the task assigned to the new Department which began work in April, +1900. It was created to fulfil two main purposes. In the first place, +it was to consolidate in one authority certain inter-related functions +of government in connection with the business concerns of the people +which, until the creation of the Department, were scattered over some +half-dozen Boards, and to place these functions under the direct control +and responsibility of the new Minister. The second purpose was to +provide means by which the Government and the people might work together +in developing the resources of the country so far as State intervention +could be legitimately applied to this end. + +To accomplish the first object, two distinct Government departments, the +Veterinary Department of the Privy Council and the Office of the +Inspectors of Irish Fisheries, were merged in the new Department. The +importance to the economic life of the country of having the laws for +safeguarding our flocks and herds from disease, our crops from insect +pests, our farmers from fraud in the supply of fertilisers and feeding +stuffs and in the adulteration of foods (which compete with their +products), administered by a Department generally concerned for the +farming industry need not be laboured. Similarly, it was well that the +laws for the protection of both sea and inland fisheries should be +administered by the authority whose function it was to develop these +industries. There was also transferred from South Kensington the +administration of the Science and Arts grants and the grant in aid of +technical instruction, together with the control of several national +institutions, the most important being the Royal College of Science and +the Metropolitan School of Art; for they, in a sense, would stand at the +head of much of the new work which would be required for the +contemplated agricultural and industrial developments. The Albert +Institute at Glasnevin and the Munster Institute in Cork, both +institutions for teaching practical agriculture, were, as a matter of +course, handed over from the Board of National Education. + +The desirability of bringing order and simplicity into these branches of +administration, where co-related action was not provided for before, was +obvious. A few years ago, to take a somewhat extreme case, when a +virulent attack of potato disease broke out which demanded prompt and +active Governmental intervention, the task of instructing farmers how to +spray their potatoes was shared by no fewer than six official or +semi-official bodies. The consolidation of administration effected by +the Act, in addition to being a real step towards efficiency and +economy, relieved the Chief Secretary of an immense amount of detailed +work to which he could not possibly give adequate personal attention, +and made it possible for him to devote a greater share of his time to +the larger problems of general Irish legislation and finance. + +The newly created powers of the Department, which were added to and +co-ordinated with the various pre-existing functions of the several +departments whose consolidation I have mentioned above, fairly fulfilled +the recommendation of the Recess Committee that the Department should +have 'a wide reference and a free hand.' These powers include the +aiding, improving, and developing of agriculture in all its branches; +horticulture, forestry, home and cottage industries; sea and inland +fisheries; the aiding and facilitating of the transit of produce; and +the organisation of a system of education in science and art, and in +technology as applied to these various subjects. The provision of +technical instruction suitable to the needs of the few manufacturing +centres in Ireland was included, but need not be dealt with in any +detail in these pages, since, as I have said before, the questions +connected therewith are more or less common to all such centres and have +no specially Irish significance. + +For all the administrative functions transferred to the new Department +moneys are, as before, annually voted by Parliament. Towards the +fulfilment of the second purpose mentioned above--the development of the +resources of the country upon the principles of the Recess Committee--an +annual income of £166,000, which was derived in about equal parts from +Irish and imperial sources, and is called the Department's Endowment, +together with a capital sum of about £200,000, were provided. + +It will be seen that a very wide sphere of usefulness was thus opened +out for the new Department in two distinct ways. The consolidation, +under one authority, of many scattered but co-related functions was +clearly a move in the right direction. Upon this part of its +recommendations the Recess Committee had no difficulty in coming to a +quick decision. But the real importance of their Report lay in the +direction of the new work which was to be assigned to the Department. +Under the new order of things, if the Department, acting with as well as +for the people, succeeds in doing well what legitimately may and ought +to be done by the Government towards the development of the resources of +the country, and, at the same time, as far as possible confines its +interference to helping the Irish people to help themselves, a wholly +new spirit will be imported into the industrial life of the nation. + +The very nature of the work which the Department was called into +existence to accomplish made it absolutely essential that it should keep +in touch with the classes whom its work would most immediately affect, +and without whose active co-operation no lasting good could be achieved. +The machinery for this purpose was provided by the establishment of a +Council of Agriculture and two Boards, one of the latter being concerned +with agriculture, rural industries, and inland fisheries, the other with +technical instruction. These representative bodies, whose constitution +is interesting as a new departure in administration, were adapted from +similar continental councils which have been found by experience, in +those foreign countries which are Ireland's economic rivals, to be the +most valuable of all means whereby the administration keeps in touch +with the agricultural and industrial classes, and becomes truly +responsive to their needs and wishes. + +The Council of Agriculture consists of two members appointed by each +County Council (Cork being regarded as two counties and returning four +members), making in all sixty-eight persons. The Department also appoint +one half this number of persons, observing in their nomination the same +provincial proportions as obtained in the appointments by the popular +bodies. This adds thirty-four members, and makes in all one hundred and +two Councillors, in addition to the President and Vice-President of the +Department, who are _ex-officio_ members. Thus, if all the members +attended a Council meeting, the Vice-President would find himself +presiding over a body as truly representative of the interests concerned +as could be brought together, consisting, by a strange coincidence, of +exactly the same number as the Irish representatives in Parliament. + +The Council, which is appointed for a term of three years, the first +term dating from the 1st April, 1900, has a two-fold function. It is, in +the first place, a deliberative assembly which must be convened by the +Department at least once a year. The domain over which its deliberations +may travel is certainly not restricted, as the Act defines its function +as that of "discussing matters of public interest in connection with any +of the purposes of this Act." The view Mr. Gerald Balfour took was that +nothing but the new spirit he laboured to evoke would make his machine +work. Although he gave the Vice-President statutory powers to make +rules for the proper ordering of the Council debates, I have been well +content to rely upon the usual privileges of a chairman. I have +estimated beforehand the time required for the discussion of matters of +inquiry: the speakers have condensed their speeches accordingly, the +business has been expeditiously transacted, and in the mere exchange of +ideas invaluable assistance has been given to the Department. + +The second function of the Council is exercised only at its first +meeting, and consequently but once in three years. At this first +triennial meeting it becomes an Electoral College. It divides itself +into four Provincial Committees, each of which elects two members to +represent its province on the Agricultural Board and one member to +represent it on the Board of Technical Instruction. The Agricultural +Board, which controls a sum of over £100,000 a year, consists of twelve +members, and as eight out of the twelve are elected by the four +Provincial Committees--the remaining four being appointed by the +Department, one from each province--it will be seen that the Council of +Agriculture exercises an influence upon the administration commensurate +with its own representative character. The Board of Technical +Instruction, consisting of twenty-one members, together with the +President and Vice-President of the Department, has a less simple +constitution, owing to the fact that it is concerned with the more +complex life of the urban districts of the country. As I have said, the +Council of Agriculture elects only four members--one for each province. +The Department appoints four others; each of the County Boroughs of +Dublin and Belfast appoints three members; the remaining four County +Boroughs appoint one member each; a joint Committee of the Councils of +the large urban districts surrounding Dublin appoint one member; one +member is appointed by the Commissioners of National Education, and one +member by the Intermediate Board of Education. + +The two Boards have to advise upon all matters submitted to them by the +Department in connection, in the one case, with agriculture and other +rural industries and inland fisheries, and, in the other case, in +connection with Technical Instruction. The advisory powers of the Boards +are very real, for the expenditure of all moneys out of the Endowment +funds is subject to their concurrence. Hence, while they have not +specific administrative powers and apparently have only the right of +veto, it is obvious that, if they wished, they might largely force their +own views upon the Department by refusing to sanction the expenditure of +money upon any of the Department's proposals, until these were so +modified as practically to be their own proposals. It is, therefore, +clear that the machinery can only work harmoniously and efficiently so +long as it is moved by a right spirit. Above all it is necessary that +the central administrative body should gain such a measure of popular +confidence as to enable it, without loss of influence, to resist +proposals for expenditure upon schemes which might ensure great +popularity at the moment, but would do permanent harm to the industrial +character we are all trying to build up. I need not fear contradiction +at the hands of a single member of either Board when I say that up to +the present perfect harmony has reigned throughout. The utmost +consideration has been shown by the Boards for the difficulties which +the Department have to overcome; and I think I may add that due regard +has been paid by the administrative authority to the representative +character and the legitimate wishes of the bodies which advise and +largely control it. + +The other statutory body attached to the Department has a significance +and potential importance in strange contrast to the humble place it +occupies in the statute book. The Agriculture and Technical Instruction +(Ireland) Act, 1899, has, like many other Acts, a part entitled +'Miscellaneous,' in which the draughtsman's skill has attended to +multifarious practical details, and made provision for all manner of +contingencies, many of which the layman might never have thought of or +foreseen. Travelling expenses for Council, Boards, and Committees, +casual vacancies thereon, a short title for the Act, and a seal for the +Department, definitions, which show how little we know of our own +language, and a host of kindred matters are included. In this miscellany +appears the following little clause:-- + + For the purpose of co-ordinating educational administration there + shall be established a Consultative Committee consisting of the + following members:-- + + (a.) The Vice-President of the Department, who shall be chairman + thereof; + + (b.) One person to be appointed by the Commissioners of National + Education; + + (c.) One person to be appointed by the Intermediate Education + Board; + + (d.) One person to be appointed by the Agricultural Board; and + + (e.) One person to be appointed by the Board of Technical + Instruction. + +Now the real value of this clause, and in this I think it shows a +consumate statesmanship, lies not in what it says, but in what it +suggests. The Committee, it will be observed, has an immensely important +function, but no power beyond such authority as its representative +character may afford. Any attempt to deal with a large educational +problem by a clause in a measure of this kind would have alarmed the +whole force of unco-ordinated pedagogy, and perhaps have wrecked the +Bill. The clause as it stands is in harmony with the whole spirit of the +new movement and of the legislation provided for its advancement. The +Committee may be very useful in suggesting improvements in educational +administration which will prevent unnecessary overlapping and lead to +co-operation between the systems concerned. Indeed it has already made +suggestions of far-reaching importance, which have been acted upon by +the educational authorities represented upon it. As I have said in an +earlier chapter when discussing Irish education from the practical +point of view, I have great faith in the efficacy of the economic factor +in educational controversy, and this Committee is certainly in a +position to watch and pronounce on any defects in our educational system +which the new efforts to deal practically with our industrial and +commercial problems may disclose. + +There remains to be explained only one feature of the new administrative +machinery, and it is a very important one. The Recess Committee had +recommended the adaptation to Ireland of a type of central institution +which it had found in successful operation on the Continent wherever it +had pursued its investigations. So far as schemes applicable to the +whole country were concerned, the central Department, assuming that it +gained the confidence of the Council and Boards, might easily justify +its existence. But the greater part of its work, the Recess Committee +saw, would relate to special localities, and could not succeed without +the cordial co-operation of the people immediately concerned. This fact +brought Mr. Gerald Balfour face to face with a problem which the Recess +Committee could not solve in its day, because, when it sat, there still +existed the old grand jury system, though its early abolition had been +promised. It was extremely fortunate that to the same minister fell the +task of framing both the Act of 1898, which revolutionised local +government, and the Act of 1899, now under review. The success with +which these two Acts were linked together by the provisions of the +latter forms an interesting lesson in constructive statesmanship. Time +will, I believe, thoroughly discredit the hostile criticism which +withheld its due mead of praise from the most fruitful policy which any +administration had up to that time ever devised for the better +government of Ireland. + +The local authorities created by the Act of 1898 provided the machinery +for enabling the representatives of the people to decide themselves, to +a large extent, upon the nature of the particular measures to be adopted +in each locality and to carry out the schemes when formulated. The Act +creating the new Department empowered the council of any county or of +any urban district, or any two or more public bodies jointly, to appoint +committees, composed partly of members of the local bodies and partly of +co-opted persons, for the purpose of carrying out such of the +Department's schemes as are of local, and not of general importance. +True to the underlying principle of the new movement--the principle of +self-reliance and local effort--the Act lays it down that 'the +Department shall not, in the absence of any special considerations, +apply or approve of the application of money ... to schemes in respect +of which aid is not given out of money provided by local authorities or +from other local sources.' To meet this requirement the local +authorities are given the power of raising a limited rate for the +purposes of the Act. By these two simple provisions for local +administration and local combination, the people of each district were +made voluntarily contributory both in effort and in money, towards the +new practical developments, and given an interest in, and +responsibility for their success. It was of the utmost importance that +these new local authorities should be practically interested in the +business concerns of the country which the Department was to serve. Mr. +Gerald Balfour himself, in introducing the Local Government Bill, had +shown that he was under no illusion as to the possible disappointment to +which his great democratic experiment might at first give rise. He +anticipated that it would "work through failure to success." To put it +plainly, the new bodies might devote a great deal of attention to +politics and very little to business. I am told by those best qualified +to form an opinion (some of my informants having been, to say the least, +sceptical as to the wisdom of the experiment), that notwithstanding some +extravagances in particular instances, it can already be stated +positively that local government in Ireland, taken as a whole, has not +suffered in efficiency by the revolution which it has undergone. This is +the opinion of officials of the Local Government Board,[44] and refers +mainly to the transaction of the fiscal business of the new local +authorities. From a different point of observation I shall presently +bear witness to a display of administrative capacity on the part of the +many statutory committees, appointed by County, Borough, and District +Councils to co-operate with the Department, which is most creditable to +the thought and feeling of the people. + +It would be quite unfair to a large body of farmers in Ireland if, in +describing the administrative machinery for carrying out an economic +policy based upon self-help and dependent for its success upon the +conciliatory spirit abroad in the country, I were to ignore the part +played by the large number of co-operative associations, the +organisation, work and multiplication of which have been described in a +former chapter. The Recess Committee, in their enquiries, found that, in +the countries whose competition Ireland feels most keenly, Departments +of Agriculture had come to recognise it as an axiom of their policy that +without organisation for economic purposes amongst the agricultural +classes, State aid to agriculture must be largely ineffectual, and even +mischievous. Such Departments devote a considerable part of their +efforts to promoting agricultural organisation. Short a time as this +Department has been in existence it has had some striking evidence of +the justice of these views. As will be seen from the First Annual Report +of the Department, it was only where the farmers were organised in +properly representative societies that many of the lessons the +Department had to teach could effectually reach the farming classes, or +that many of the agricultural experiments intended for their guidance +could be profitably carried out. Although these experiment schemes were +issued to the County Councils and the agricultural public generally, it +was only the farmers organised in societies who were really in a +position to take part in them. Some of these experiments, indeed, could +not be carried out at all except through such societies. + +Both for the sake of efficiency in its educational work, and of economy +in administration, the Department would be obliged to lay stress on the +value of organisation.[45] But there are other reasons for its doing so: +industrial, moral, and social. In an able critique upon Bodley's +_France_ Madame Darmesteter, writing in the _Contemporary Review_, July, +1898, points out that even so well informed an observer of French life +as the author of that remarkable book failed to appreciate the steadying +influence exercised upon the French body politic by the network of +voluntary associations, the _syndicats agricoles_, which are the +analogues and, to some extent, the prototypes, in France of our +agricultural societies in Ireland. The late Mr. Hanbury, during his too +brief career as President of the Board of Agriculture, frequently dwelt +upon the importance of organising similar associations in England as a +necessary step in the development of the new agricultural policy which +he foreshadowed. His successor, Lord Onslow, has fully endorsed his +views, and in his speeches is to be found the same appreciation of the +exemplary self-reliance of the Irish farmers. I have already referred to +the keen interest which both agricultural reformers and English and +Welsh County Councils have been taking in the unexpectedly progressive +efforts of the Irish farmers to reorganise their industry and place +themselves in a position to take advantage of State assistance. I +believe that our farmers are going to the root of things, and that due +weight should be given to the silent force of organised self-help by +those who would estimate the degree in which the aims and sanguine +anticipations of the new movement in Ireland are likely to be realised. + +And it is not only for its foundation upon self-reliance that the latest +development of Irish Government will have a living interest for +economists and students of political philosophy. They will see in the +facts under review a rapid and altogether healthy evolution of the Irish +policy so honourably associated with the name of Mr. Arthur Balfour. His +Chief Secretaryship, when all its storm and stress have been forgotten, +will be remembered for the opening up of the desolate, poverty-stricken +western seaboard by light railways, and for the creation of the +Congested Districts Board. The latter institution has gained so wide +and, as I think, well merited popularity, that many thought its +extension to other parts of Ireland would have been a simpler and safer +method of procedure than that actually recommended by the Recess +Committee, and adopted by Mr. Gerald Balfour. The Land Act of 1891 +applied a treatment to the problem of the congested districts--a problem +of economic depression and industrial backwardness, differing rather in +degree than in kind from the economic problem of the greater part of +rural Ireland--as simple as it was new. A large capital sum of Irish +moneys was handed over to an unpaid commission consisting of Irishmen +who were acquainted with the local circumstances, and who were in a +position to give their services to a public philanthropic purpose. They +were given the widest discretion in the expenditure of the interest of +this capital sum, and from time to time their income has been augmented +from annually voted moneys. They were restricted only to measures +calculated permanently to improve the condition of the people, as +distinct from measures affording temporary relief. + +I agree with those who hold that Mr. Arthur Balfour's plan was the best +that could be adopted at the moment. But events have marched rapidly +since 1891, and wholly new possibilities in the sphere of Irish economic +legislation and administration have been revealed. A new Irish mind has +now to be taken into account, and to be made part of any ameliorative +Irish policy. Hence it was not only possible, but desirable, to +administer State help more democratically in 1899 than in 1891. The +policy of the Congested Districts Board was a notable advance upon the +inaction of the State in the pre-famine times, and upon the system of +doles and somewhat objectless relief works of the latter half of the +nineteenth century; but the policy of the new departure now under review +was no less notable a departure from the paternalism of the Congested +Districts Board. When that body was called into existence it was thought +necessary to rely on persons nominated by the Government. When the +Department was created eight years later it was found possible, owing to +the broadening of the basis of local government and to the moral and +social effect of the new movement, to rely largely on the advice and +assistance of persons selected by the people themselves. + +The two departments are in constant consultation as to the co-ordination +of their work, so as to avoid conflict of administrative system and +sociological principle in adjoining districts; and much has already been +done in this direction. My own experience has not only made me a firm +believer in the principle of self-help, but I carry my belief to the +extreme length of holding that the poorer a community is the more +essential is it to throw it as much as possible on its own resources, in +order to develop self-reliance. I recognise, however, the undesirability +of too sudden changes of system in these matters. Meanwhile, I may add +in this connection that the Wyndham Land Act enormously increases the +importance of the Congested Districts Board in regard to its main +function--that of dealing directly with congestion, by the purchase and +resettlement of estates, the migration of families, and the enlargement +of holdings.[46] + +I have now said enough about the aims and objects, the constitution and +powers, and the relations with other Governmental institutions, of the +new Department, to enable the reader to form a fairly accurate estimate +of its general character, scope and purpose. From what it is I shall +pass in the next chapter to what it does, and there I must describe its +everyday work in some detail. But I wish I could also give the reader an +adequate picture of the surge of activities raised by the first plunge +of the Department into Irish life and thought. After a time the torrent +of business made channels for itself and went on in a more orderly +fashion; practical ideas and promising openings were sifted out at an +early stage of their approach to the Department from those which were +neither one nor the other; time was economised, work distributed, and +the functions of demand and supply in relation to the Department's work +throughout Ireland were brought into proper adjustment with each other. +Yet, even at first, to a sympathetic and understanding view, the waste +of time and thought involved in dealing with impossible projects and +dispelling false hopes was compensated for by the evidence forced upon +us that the Irish people had no notion of regarding the Department as an +alien institution with which they need concern themselves but little, +however much it might concern itself with them. They were never for a +moment in doubt as to its real meaning and purpose. They meant to make +it their own and to utilise it in the uplifting of their country. No +description of the machinery of the institution could explain the real +place which it took in the life of the country from the very beginning. +But perhaps it may give the reader a more living interest in this part +of the story, and a more living picture of the situation, if I try to +convey to his mind some of the impressions left on my own, by my +experiences during the period immediately following the projection of +this new phenomenon into Irish consciousness. + +When in Upper Merrion-street, Dublin, opposite to the Land Commission, +big brass plates appeared upon the doors of a row of houses announcing +that there was domiciled the Department of Agriculture and Technical +Instruction, the average man in the street might have been expected to +murmur, 'Another Castle Board,' and pass on. It was not long, however, +before our visiting list became somewhat embarrassing. We have since got +down, as I have said, to a more humdrum, though no less interesting, +official life inside the Department. But let the reader imagine himself +to have been concealed behind a screen in my office on a day when some +event, like the Dublin Horse Show, brought crowds in from the country to +the Irish capital. Such an experience would certainly have given him a +new understanding of some then neglected men and things. While I was +opening the morning's letters and dealing with "Files" marked "urgent," +he would see nothing to distinguish my day's work from that of other +ministers, who act as a link between the permanent officials of a +spending Department and the Government of the day. But presently a +stream of callers would set in, and he would begin to realise that the +minister is, in this case, a human link of another kind--a link between +the people and the Government. A courteous and discreet Private +Secretary, having attended to those who have come to the wrong +department, and to those who are satisfied with an interview with him or +with the officer who would have to attend to their particular business, +brings into my not august presence a procession of all sorts and +conditions of men. Some know me personally, some bring letters of +introduction or want to see me on questions of policy. Others--for these +the human link is most needed--must see the ultimate source of +responsibility, which, in Ireland, whether it be head of a family or of +a Department, is reduced from the abstract to the concrete by the +pregnant pronoun 'himself.' I cannot reveal confidences, but I may give +a few typical instances of, let us say, callers who might have called. + +First comes a visitor, who turns out to be a 'man with an idea,' just +home from an unpronounceable address in Scandinavia. He has come to tell +me that we have in Ireland a perfect gold mine, if we only knew it--in +extent never was there such a gold field--no illusory pockets--good +payable stuff in sight for centuries to come--and so on for five +precious minutes, which seem like half a day, during which I have +realised that he is an inventor, and that it is no good asking him to +come to the point. But I keep my eye riveted on his leather bag which is +filled to bursting point, and manifest an intelligent interest and +burning curiosity. The suggestion works, and out of the bag come black +bars and balls, samples of fabrics ranging from sack-cloth to fine +linen, buttons, combs, papers for packing and for polite correspondence, +bottles of queer black fluid, and a host of other miscellaneous wares. I +realise that the particular solution of the Irish Question which is +about to be unfolded is the utilisation of our bogs. Well, this _is_ +one of the problems with which we have to deal. It is physically +possible to make almost anything out of this Irish asset, from moss +litter to billiard balls, and though one would not think it, aeons of +energy have been stored in these inert looking wastes by the apparently +unsympathetic sun, energy which some think may, before long, be +converted into electricity to work all the smokeless factories which the +rising generation are to see. Indeed, the vista of possibilities is +endless, the only serious problem that remains to be solved being 'how +to make it pay,' and upon that aspect of the question, unhappily, my +visitor had no light to throw. + +The next visitor, who brings with him a son and a daughter, is himself +the product of an Irish bog in the wildest of the wilds. His Parish +Priest had sent him to me. A little awkwardness, which is soon +dispelled, and the point is reached. This fine specimen of the 'bone and +sinew' has had a hard struggle to bring up his 'long family'; but, with +a capable wife, who makes the most of the _res angusta domi_--of the +pig, the poultry, and even of the butter from the little black cows on +the mountain--he has risen to the extent of his opportunities. The +children are all doing something. Lace and crochet come out of the +cabin, the yarn from the wool of the 'mountainy' sheep, carded and spun +at home, is feeding the latest type of hosiery knitting machine and the +hereditary handloom. The story of this man's life which was written to +me by the priest cannot find space here. The immediate object of his +visit is to get his eldest daughter trained as a poultry instructress to +take part in some of the 'County Schemes' under the Department, and to +obtain for his eldest son, who has distinguished himself under the +tuition of the Christian Brothers, a travelling scholarship. For this he +has been recommended by his teachers. They had marked this bright boy +out as an ideal agricultural instructor, and if I could give the reader +all the particulars of the case it would be a rare illustration of the +latent human resources we mean to develop in the Ireland that is to be. +I explain that the young man must pass a qualifying examination, but am +glad to be able to admit that the circumstances of his life, which would +have to be taken into account in deciding between the qualified, are in +his case of a kind likely to secure favourable consideration. + +And now enters a sporting friend of mine, a 'practical angler,' who +comes with a very familiar tale of woe. The state of the salmon +fisheries is deplorable: if the Department does not fulfil its obvious +duties there will not be a salmon in Ireland outside a museum in ten +years more. He has lived for forty-five years on the banks of a salmon +river, and he knows that I don't fish. But this much the conversation +reveals: his own knowledge of the subject is confined to the piece of +river he happens to own, the gossip he hears at his club, and the ideas +of the particular poacher he employs as his gillie. His suggested remedy +is the abolition of all netting. But I have to tell him that only the +day before I had a deputation from the net fishermen in the estuary of +this very river, whose bitter complaint was that this 'poor man's +industry' was being destroyed by the mackerel and herring nets round the +coast, and--I thought my friend would have a fit--by the way in which +the gentlemen on the upper waters neglect their duty of protecting the +spawning fish! Some belonging to the lower water interest carried their +scepticism as to the efficacy of artificial propagation to the length of +believing that hatcheries are partially responsible for the decrease. As +so often happens, the opposing interests, disagreeing on all else, find +that best of peacemakers, a common enemy, in the Government. The +Department is responsible--for two opposite reasons, it is true, but +somehow they seem to confirm each other. We must labour to find some +other common ground, starting from the recognition that the salmon +fisheries are a national asset which must be made to subserve the +general public interest. I assure my friend that when all parties make +their proper contribution in effort and in cash, the Department will not +be backward in doing their part. + +At the end of this interview a messenger brings a telegram for 'himself' +from a stockowner in a remote district.[47] 'My pigs,' runs one of the +most businesslike communications I ever received, 'are all spotted. +What shall I do?' I send it to the Veterinary Branch, which, with the +Board of Agriculture in England, is engaged in a scheme for staying the +ravages of swine fever, a scheme into which the late Mr. Hanbury threw +himself with his characteristic energy. The problem is of immense +importance, and the difficulty is not mainly quadrupedal. Unless the +police 'spot' the spotted pigs, we too often hear nothing about them. I +am sure it must be daily brought home to the English Board, as it is to +the Irish Department, that an enormous addition might be made to the +wealth of the country if our veterinary officers were intelligently and +actively aided, in their difficult duties for the protection of our +flocks and herds, by those most immediately concerned. + +So far it has been an interesting morning bright with the activities out +of which the future is to be made. The element of hope has predominated, +but now comes a visitor who wishes to see me upon the one part of my +duties and responsibilities which is distasteful to me--the exercise of +patronage. He has been unloaded upon me by an influential person, upon +whom he has more legitimate claims than upon the Department. He has +prepared the way for a favourable reception by getting his friends to +write to my friends, many of whom have already fulfilled a promise to +interview me in his behalf. His mother and two maiden aunts have written +letters which have drawn from my poor Private Secretary, who has to read +them all, the dry quotation, 'there's such a thing as being so good as +to be good for nothing.' The young hopeful quickly puts an end to my +speculations as to the exact capacity in which he means to serve the +Department by applying for an inspectorship. I ask him what he proposes +to inspect, and the sum and substance of his reply is that he is not +particular, but would not mind beginning at a moderate salary, say £200 +a year. As for his qualifications, they are a sadly minus quantity, his +blighted career having included failure for the army, and a clerkship in +a bank, which only lasted a week when he proved to be deficient in the +second and dangerous in the third of the three R's. His case reminds me +of a story of my ranching days, which the exercise of patronage has so +often recalled to my mind that I must out with it. Riding into camp one +evening, I turned my horse loose and got some supper, which was a vilely +cooked meal even for a cow camp. Recognising in the cook a cowboy I had +formerly employed, I said to him, 'You were a way up cow hand, but as +cook you are no account. Why did you give up riding and take to cooking? +What are your qualifications as a cook any way?' 'Qualifications!' he +replied, 'why, don't you know I've got varicose veins?' My caller's +qualifications are of an equally negative description, though not of a +physical kind. He is one of the young Micawbers, to whom the Department +from its first inception has been the something which was to turn up. He +had, of course, testimonials which in any other country would have +commanded success by their terms and the position of the signatories, +but which in Ireland only illustrate the charity with which we condone +our moral cowardice under the name of good nature. I am glad when this +interview closes. + +One more type--a Nationalist Member of Parliament! He does not often +darken the door of a Government office--they all have the same +structural defect, no front stairs--he never has asked and never thought +he would ask anything from the Government. But he is interested in some +poor fishermen of County Clare who pursue their calling under cruel +disadvantages for want of the protection from the Atlantic rollers which +a small breakwater would afford. It is true that they were the worst +constituents he had--- went against him in 'The Split,'--but if I saw +how they lived, and so on. I knew all about the case. A breakwater to be +of any use would cost a very large sum, and the local authority, though +sympathetic, did not see their way to contribute their proportion, and +without a local contribution, I explained, the Department could not, +consistently with its principles, unless in most exceptional--Here he +breaks in: 'Oh! that red tape. You're as bad as the rest--exceptional, +indeed! Why, everything is exceptional in my constituency. I am a bit +that way myself. But, seriously, the condition of these poor people +would move even a Government official. Besides, you remember the night I +made thirteen speeches on the Naval Estimates--the Government wanted a +little matter of twenty millions--and you met me in the Lobby and told +me you wished to go to bed, and asked me what I really wanted, and--I +am always reasonable--I said I would pass the whole Naval Programme if I +got the Government to give them a boat-slip at Ballyduck.--"Done!" you +said, and we both went home.--I believe you knew that I had got +constituency matters mixed up, that Ballyduck was inland, and that it +was Ballycrow that I meant to say.--But you won't deny that you are +under a moral obligation.' + +Well, I would go into the matter again very carefully--for I thought we +might help these fishermen in some other way--and write to him. He +leaves me; and, while outside the door he travels over the main points +with my Private Secretary, the lights and shades in the picture which +this strange personality has left on my mind throw me back behind the +practical things of to-day. In Parliament facing the Sassanach, in +Ireland facing their police, he has for years--the best years of his +life--displayed the same love of fighting for fighting's sake. In the +riots he has provoked, and they are not a few, he is ever regardless of +his own skin, and would be truly miserable if he inflicted any serious +bodily harm on a human being--even a landlord. It is impossible not to +like this very human anachronism, who, within the limitations imposed by +the convenience of a citizenship to which he unwillingly belongs, does +battle + + For Faith, and Fame, and Honour, and the ruined hearths of Clare. + +The reader may take all this as fiction. I am sure no one will annoy me +by trying on any of the caps I have displayed on the counter of my +shop. What I do fear is that the picture of some of my duties which I +have given may have made a wrong impression of the Department's work +upon the reader's mind. He may have come to the conclusion that, +contrary to all the principles laid down, an attempt was being made to +do for the people things which the new movement was to induce the people +to do for themselves. The Department may appear to be using its official +position and Government funds to constitute itself a sort of Universal +Providence, exercising an authority and a discretion over matters upon +which in any progressive community the people must decide for +themselves. However near to the appearances such an impression might be, +nothing could be further from the facts. If I have helped the reader to +unravel the tangled skein of our national life, if I have sufficiently +revealed the mind of the new movement to show that there is in it 'a +scheme of things entire,' it should be quite clear that the deliberate +intentions both of Mr. Gerald Balfour and of those Irishmen whom he took +into his confidence are being fulfilled in letter and in spirit. It only +remains for me to attempt an adequate description of the work of the +Department created by that Chief Secretary, and, above all, of the way +in which the people themselves are playing the part which his +statesmanship assigned to them. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[44] See Report of the Local Government Board, 1901-2. + +[45] See Annual General Report of the Department 1900-1901, pp. 25-27. + +[46] _Cf. ante_, pp. 46-49. + +[47] No fiction about this, nor about the following letter to the +Secretary:-- + +'The Scratatory, Vitny Dept. + +'Honord Sir, + +'I want to let ye know the terible state we're in now. Al the pigs about +here is dyin in showers. Send down a Vit at oncet.' + + + + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +GOVERNMENT WITH THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED. + + +In the preceding chapter I attempted to give to the reader a rough +impression of the general purpose and miscellaneous functions of the new +Department. I described in some detail the constitution and powers of +the Council of Agriculture--a sort of Business Parliament--which +criticises our doings and elects representatives on our Boards; and of +the two Boards which, in addition to their advisory functions, possess +the power of the purse. I laid special stress upon the important part +these instruments of the popular will were intended to play as a link +between the people and the Department. I gave a similar description and +explanation of the Committees of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, +appointed by local representative bodies, by means of which the people +were brought into touch with the local as distinct from the central +work, and made responsible for its success. The details were necessarily +dull; and so also must be those which will now be required in order to +indicate the general nature and scope of the work for the accomplishment +of which all this machinery was designed. Yet I am not without hope +that even the general reader may find a deep human interest in the +practical endeavour of the humbler classes of my fellow-countrymen to +reconstruct their national life upon the solid foundation of honest +work. + +The Department has at the time of writing been in existence for three +years, the term of office, it will be remembered, of the Council of +Agriculture and of the two Boards. It would be unreasonable to expect in +so short a time any great achievement; but the understanding critic will +attach importance rather to the spirit in which the work was approached +than to the actual amount of work which was accomplished. He may say +that no true estimate of its value can be formed until the enthusiasm +aroused by its novelty has had time to wear off. Those of us who know +the real character of the work are quite satisfied that the interest +which it aroused during the period in which the people had yet to grasp +its meaning and utility is not likely to become less real as the blossom +fades and the fruit begins to swell. The attitude of the Irish people +towards the Department and its work has not been that of a child towards +a new toy, but of a full-grown man towards a piece of his life's work, +upon which he feels that he entered all too late. Indeed, so quickly +have the people grasped the significance of the new opportunities for +material advancement now placed within their reach, that the Department +has had to carry out, and to assist the statutory local committees in +carrying out, a number and variety of schemes which, at any rate, proved +that public opinion did not regard it as a transitory experiment; but +as a much-needed institution which, if properly utilised, might do much +to make up for lost time, and which, in any case, had come to stay. The +amount of the work which we were thus constrained to undertake was +somewhat embarrassing; but so general and so genuine was the desire to +make a start that we have done our best to keep pace with the local +demands for immediate action. The staff of the Department caught the +spirit in which the task had been set by the country, and showed a keen +anxiety to get to work; and I am glad to have an opportunity of +acknowledging that both the indoor and outdoor support it has received +leaves the Department without excuse if it has not already justified its +existence. + +I shall deal as mercifully as I can with my readers in helping them +towards an understanding of what has been actually done in the three +years under review. I am aware that if I were to attempt a description +of all the schemes which the variety of local needs suggested, and in +the execution of which the assistance of the many-sided Department was +sought and obtained, I should lose the patient readers, who have not +already fainted by the way, in a jungle where they could not see the +wood for the trees. These things can be studied by those +interested,--and they I hope, in Ireland at any rate, are not few--in +the Annual Reports and other official publications of the Department. +For the general reader I must try to indicate in broad outline the +nature and scope of that side of the new movement which seeks to +supplement organised self-help and open the way for individual +enterprise by a well considered measure of State assistance. I shall be +more than satisfied if I succeed in giving him a clear insight into the +manner in which the delicate task of making State interference with the +business of the people not only harmless but beneficial has been set +about. It is obvious that the fulfilment of this object must depend upon +the soundness of the economic policy pursued, and upon the establishment +and maintenance of mutual confidence between the central authority and +the popular representative bodies through which the people utilise the +new facilities afforded by the State. + +I think the best way of giving the information which is required for an +understanding of our somewhat complicated scheme for agricultural and +industrial development under democratic control is first to explain the +line of demarcation which we have drawn between the respective functions +of the Department and the people's committees throughout the country; +and then I must give a rapid description of some of the most important +features of the Department's policy and programme. I shall add a +sufficiency of detail from the actual work accomplished in these +organising and experimental years, to illustrate both the difficulties +which are incidental to such a policy, and the manner in which these +difficulties may be surmounted. + +When it became manifest that both the country and the Department were +anxious to drive ahead, the first thing to do was to lay down a _modus +operandi_ which would assign to the local and central bodies their +proper shares in the work and responsibilities and secure some degree of +order and uniformity in administration. This was quickly done, and the +plan adopted works smoothly. The Department gives the local committee +general information as to the kind of purpose to which it can legally +and properly apply the funds jointly contributed from the rates and the +central exchequer. The committee, after full consideration of the +conditions, needs and industrial environment of the community for which +it acts, selects certain definite projects which it considers most +applicable to its district, allocates the amount required to each +project, and sends the scheme to the Department for its approval. When +the scheme is formally approved, it becomes the official scheme in the +locality for the current year; and the local committee has to carry it +out. + +Although harmony now usually exists between the local and central +authorities to the advantage and comfort of both, a considerable amount +of friction was inevitable until they got to understand each other. The +occasional over-riding of local desires by the 'autocratic' Department, +which in the first rush of its work had to act in a somewhat peremptory +fashion, was, no doubt, irritating. Now, however, it is generally +recognised that the central body, having not only the advice of its +experts and access to information from similar Departments in other +countries to guide it, but also being in a position to profit by the +exchange of ideas which is constantly going on between it and all the +local committees in Ireland, is in a position of special advantage for +deciding as to the bearing of local schemes upon national interests, and +sometimes even as to their soundness from a purely local point of view. + +Passing now from the conditions under which the Department's work is +done, we come to review some typical portions of the work itself so far +as it has proceeded. This falls naturally, both as regards that which is +done by the central authority for the country at large and that which is +locally administered, into two divisions. The first consists of direct +aid to agriculture and other rural industries, and to sea and inland +fisheries. The second consists of indirect aid given to these objects, +and also to town manufactures and commerce, through education--a term +which must be interpreted in its widest sense. Needless to say, direct +aids, being tangible and immediately beneficial, are the more popular: a +bull, a boat, or a hand-loom is more readily appreciated than a lecture, +a leaflet, or an idea. Yet in the Department we all realise--and, what +is more important, the people are coming to realise--that by far the +most important work we have to do is that which belongs to the sphere of +education, especially education which has a distinctly practical aim. To +this branch of the subject I shall, therefore, first direct the reader's +attention. + +It must be remembered that, for reasons fully set out in the earlier +portions of the book, I am treating the Irish Question as being, in its +most important economic and social aspects, the problem of rural life. +The Department's scheme of technical instruction, therefore, need not +here be detailed in its application to the needs of our few +manufacturing towns, but only in its application to agriculture and the +subsidiary industries. I do not suggest that the questions relating to +the revival of industry in our large manufacturing centres and +provincial towns are not of the first importance. The local authorities +in these places have eagerly come into the movement, and the Department +has already taken part in founding, in our cities and larger towns, +comprehensive schemes of technical education, as to the outcome of which +we have every reason to be hopeful. Not only that, but it is highly +necessary for the Department to consider these schemes in close relation +to its work upon the more specially rural problems, for, as I have said +elsewhere,[48] the interdependence of town and country, and the +establishment of proper relations between their systems of industry and +education, is a prime factor in Irish prosperity. But the rural problem, +as I have so often reiterated, is the core of the Irish Question; and to +deal at all adequately with technical education, so far as we carry it +on upon lines common both to Great Britain and Ireland, would lead us +too far afield on the present occasion. I must, therefore, content +myself with indicating my reasons for leaving it rather on one side, and +pass on to a brief description of the Department's educational work in +respect of its two-fold aim of developing agriculture and the subsidiary +industries. + +In the case of agriculture our task is perfectly plain. We know pretty +well what we want to do, for we are dealing with an existing industry, +and with known conditions. The productivity of the soil, the demand of +the market, the means of transport from the one to the other, are all +easily ascertainable. What most needs to be provided in Ireland is a +much higher technical skill, a more advanced scientific and commercial +knowledge, as applied to agricultural production and distribution.[49] +This, in our belief, depends, more than upon any other agency, upon the +soundness of the education which is provided to develop the capacities +of those in charge of these operations. Our chief difficulty is that of +co-ordinating our teaching of technical agriculture with the general +educational systems of the country--a difficulty which the other +educational authorities are all united with us in seeking to remove. + +When, on the other hand, education--again, I believe, the chief agency +for the purpose--is considered as a means for the creation of new +industries, we come face to face with a wholly different problem. We +have no longer an industry which we are seeking to foster and develop +going on under our eyes, steadying us in our theorising, and in our +experimenting upon the mind of the worker, by bringing us into close +touch with the actual conditions of his work. Our chief aim must be to +develop his adaptability for the ever-changing and, we hope, improving +economic industrial conditions amidst which he will have to work. But +unless we can satisfy parents that the schemes of development in which +their children are being educated to take their place have an assured +prospect of practical realisation, they will naturally prefer an +inferior teaching which seems to them to offer a better prospect of an +immediate wage or salary. The teachers in the secondary schools of the +country, who, so far, have shown a desire to assist us in giving an +industrial and commercial direction to our educational policy, would +also in that event have to meet the wishes of the parents; and thus +education would fall back into the old rut with its cramming, its +examinations and result fees--all leading to the multiplication of +clerks and professional men, and preventing us from turning the thoughts +and energies of the people towards productive occupations. + +The natural trend of our educational policy will now be clear. Leaving +out of account large towns, where our problem is, as I have said, the +same as that which confronts the industrial classes in the manufacturing +centres of Great Britain, we are chiefly concerned with the application +of science to the cultivation of the soil and the improvement of live +stock, and of business principles to the commercial side of farming; +with the teaching of dairying, horticulture, apiculture, and what has +been called farm-yard lore, outside the rural home, and with domestic +economy inside. On the industrial as distinct from the agricultural side +of the work in rural localities, technical instruction must be directed +towards the development of subsidiary rural industries. + +We early came to the conclusion that we could not expect to find a +system which we could simply transplant from some other country. The +system adopted in Great Britain, where each county or group of counties +maintains an agricultural college and an experimental farm, and many +more elaborate systems on the continent, were all found on examination +to be inapplicable to our own rural conditions, unsuitable to the +national character, and unrelated to the history of our agriculture. +Many of these schemes might have turned out a few highly qualified +authorities on the theory of agriculture, and even good practical +directors for those who farm on a large scale. But we are dealing with a +country with great possibilities from an agricultural point of view, but +where, nevertheless, agriculture in many parts is in a very backward +condition, and where it is probably safe to say that three-fifths of the +farms are crowded on one-fourth of the land. We are dealing with a +community with whom the systems of elementary, secondary and higher +education have not tended to prepare the student for agricultural +pursuits. A system of agricultural and domestic education suited to the +wants of those who are to farm the land must recognise and foster the +new spirit of self-help and hope which is springing up in the country, +and must be made so interesting as to become a serious rival to the race +meeting and the public-house. The daily drudgery of farm work must be +counteracted by the ambition to possess the best stock, the neatest +homestead and fences, the cleanest and the best tilled fields. The +unsolved problem of agricultural education is to devise a system which +will reach down to the small working farmers who form the great bulk of +the wealth producers of Ireland, to give them new hope, a new interest, +new knowledge and, I might add, a new industrial character. + +We were met at the outset by the difficulty which would apply to any +system--that of finding trained teachers. This deficiency was felt in +two directions--first, in the secondary school, in which the preliminary +scientific studies should be undertaken, which are necessary to enable a +lad to profit by more advanced instruction later on; and, secondly, in +the special training of technical agriculture. It would not have been +desirable to overcome these difficulties by any very extensive +importation of teachers from without. I certainly hold the occasional +importation of teachers with outside experience to be most desirable, +but these should not form more than a leaven of the pedagogic lump; for +it is a serious hindrance when to the task of familiarising students +with a new system of education there is added that of familiarising a +large body of teachers with the intellectual, social and economic +conditions of the people among whom they are to work. + +The manner in which the teacher difficulty was surmounted may be briefly +stated, first, as regards the school, and, secondly, as regards the +teaching of agriculture. Those already engaged in the teaching +profession could not be relegated again to the _status pupillaris_. +There was only one way in which they could assist us to overcome the +difficulty, and that involved a great sacrifice on their part, the +sacrifice of their well-earned vacation, but a sacrifice which they +willingly made. The teachers most urgently needed were those of +practical science, with knowledge of experimental work; and about five +hundred teachers from secondary schools, in order to qualify themselves, +have attended summer courses specially organised by the Department at +several centres in Ireland, while about four hundred have availed +themselves of special summer courses in such subjects as drawing, manual +instruction, domestic economy, building construction, wood-carving and +modelling. + +For the provision of a future supply of thoroughly trained teachers of +science and of technology, including agriculture, the Royal College of +Science has been re-organised. Although this institution was brought +under the new conditions little more than three years ago, it will be +seen that no time has been lost when I state that the first batch of men +who have received a three years' course of training under the new +programme are already at work under County Committees. For the training +of these teachers, scholarships had to be provided, and new professors +and teachers, particularly in agriculture, had to be appointed. + +In regard to agricultural instruction we had to begin by carefully +considering what, among many alternative plans, should be our immediate +as well as our more remote aims. The Department's officers had studied +Continental systems, and some of them had taken part in establishing +systems of agricultural education in Great Britain. But it was not until +the summer of 1901 that we had sufficiently studied the question in +Ireland itself, with direct reference to the history, the environment, +and the ideals of the people, to justify us in initiating a policy or +formulating a definite programme for its execution.[50] The main object +was to secure for the youth of the present generation who will later be +concerned with agriculture, sound and thorough instruction in its +principles and practice. Everyone who has given any thought to the +subject knows how difficult it is to teach technical agriculture unless +provision has been made in the general education of the country for +instruction in those fundamental principles of science which, recognised +or unrecognised, lie at the root of, and profoundly influence +agricultural practice. This foundation, as I have shown, is now being +laid in Ireland. In our scheme the boy who has managed to avail himself +of a two or three years' course of practical science in one of the +secondary schools is then prepared to take full advantage of courses of +technology, and will have to make up his mind as to the career he is to +follow. We are now considering the case of a boy who is going to become +a farmer, the class to which we chiefly look for the future well-being +of Ireland. It is necessary that he should be taught the practical as +well as the technical side of agriculture. The practical work he can +learn upon his father's farm during spring and summer, and the technical +by continuing his studies during the winter months in a school of +agriculture. The establishment of such winter schools is in +contemplation. But, in the meanwhile, to bring home to farmers the +advantages of a first-class agricultural education for their sons, and +at the same time to teach these farmers the more practical application +of science to agriculture, the Department decided on a preliminary +period of Itinerant Instruction. + +The teacher difficulty, experienced on all sides of our work, was +probably felt more acutely in regard to the specialised teachers of +agriculture than in any other connection. Here it was necessary to take +the young men brought up upon farms and possessed of the normal +qualifications of the Irish practical farmer. We then had to make them +into teachers by adding to their inherited and home-manufactured +capacities a scientific training. In the training of agricultural +teachers the Albert Institute, Glasnevin, has been utilised by the +Department. This school has also been re-organised to meet the new +programme, and it will probably form in future a link between the winter +schools of agriculture and the Royal College of Science in the training +of our agricultural teachers. + +Partly by these methods, partly by the temporary engagement of lecturers +on special subjects, and partly by the appointment of trained teachers +from England or Scotland, the system of itinerant instruction has been +brought into operation as fully as could be expected in the time. +Already half the County Committees have been provided with County +instructors, while the remainder have nearly all drafted schemes and +allocated funds for a similar purpose, ready to go to work as soon as +more teachers have been trained. + +The Itinerant Instruction scheme, it may be pointed out, besides one +obvious, has another less immediately recognisable purpose. The direct +business of the itinerant instructor is, by the aid of experimental +plots, simple lectures, and demonstrations, to teach the farmers of his +district as much as they can take in without the scientific preparation +in which, as adults who have grown up under the old system of education, +they are still lacking. But he does more than that. He not only conducts +a school for adults, but in the very process of instruction he +necessarily makes them aware of the vital necessity of a school for the +young; and they begin, as parents, to understand and to desire the kind +of instruction in the schools of the country which will prepare their +children to take more advantage of the advanced teaching in agriculture +than they themselves can ever hope to do. + +This preparation is provided for as follows. To the Department, as has +already been explained, was handed over the administration of the +Science and Art Grants formerly administered by South Kensington. The +Department accordingly drew up a programme of experimental science and +drawing, carrying capitation grants, for day secondary schools. The +Intermediate Education Board, acting on the suggestion of the +Consultative Committee for Co-ordinating Education,[51] adopted this +programme and at the same time undertook to accept the reports of the +Department's inspectors as the basis of their awards in the new +"subject." These steps insured the rapid and general introduction of +this practical teaching in secondary schools, and, owing particularly to +the spirit in which their authorities and teaching staffs accepted the +innovation, the work has been carried out with the happiest results. + +I now come to the subjects grouped together under the classification of +'domestic economy.' These differ only in detail in their application to +town and country. To these subjects the Department attaches great +importance. In the industrial life of manufacturing towns I am persuaded +that far too little thought has been given to this element of industrial +efficiency. From a purely economic point of view a saving in the +worker's income due to superior housewifery is equivalent to an increase +in his earnings; but, morally, the superior thrift is, of course, +immensely more important. "Without economy," says Dr. Johnson, "none can +be rich, and with it few can be poor," and the education which only +increases the productiveness of labour and neglects the principles of +wise spending will place us at a disadvantage in the great industrial +struggle. When we come to consider domestic economy as an agency for +improving the conditions of the peasant home, not only by thrift, but by +increasing the general attractiveness of home life, the introduction of +a sound system of domestic economy teaching becomes not only important, +but vital. + +The establishment of such a system and the task of making it operative +and effective in the country is beset with difficulties. The teacher +difficulty confronts us again, and also that of making pupils and their +parents understand that there are other objects in domestic training +than that of qualifying for domestic service. A corps of instructresses +in domestic economy is, however, already abroad throughout the country, +nearly all the County Councils having already appointed them. Some of +these teachers, who have made the best contributions towards the as yet +only partially determined question of the ultimate aim and present +possibilities of a course of instruction in hygiene, laundry work, +cookery, the management of children, sewing, and so forth, have told me +that the demand in rural districts seems to be chiefly for the class of +instruction which may lead to success in town life. I have heard of a +class of girls in a Connaught village who would not be content with +knowing the accomplishments of a farmer's wife until they had learned +how to make asparagus soup and cook sweetbreads. No doubt they had read +of the way things are done in the kitchens of the great. This tendency +should never be encouraged, but neither can it always be inflexibly +repressed without endangering the main objects of the class. + +Women teachers of poultry-keeping, dairying, domestic science and +kindred subjects are trained at the Munster Institute, Cork, and the +School of Domestic Economy, Kildare Street, Dublin, both of which have +been equipped to meet the needs of the new programme. The want of +teachers, and not any lack of interest on the part of the country, has +alone prevented all the counties from adopting schemes for encouraging +improvement in all these branches of work. I may add that more than one +hundred and fifty of these qualified teachers are now at work under +County Committees. + +I have already, in this chapter, indicated that outside large industrial +centres, our educational policy is, broadly speaking, twofold. We seek, +in the first place, through our programme in Experimental Science and +its allied subjects, now so generally adopted by secondary schools in +Ireland, to give that fundamental training in science and scientific +method which, most thinkers are agreed, constitutes a condition +precedent to sound specialised teaching of agriculture as well as other +forms of industry. We seek further, by methods less academic in +character--for example, by itinerant instruction which is of value +chiefly to those with whom 'school' is a thing of the past--to teach not +only improved agricultural methods but also simple industries, and to +promote the cultivation of industrial habits which are as essential to +the success of farming as to that of every other occupation. Classes in +manual work of various kinds--woodwork, carpentry, applied drawing and +building construction, lace and crochet making, needlework, dressmaking +and embroidery, sprigging, hosiery and other such subjects, have been +numerously and steadily attended. + +I do not ignore the argument that such home industries must in time give +way before the competition of highly-organised factory industries. The +simple answer is that it is desirable, and indeed necessary, to employ +the energy now running to waste in our rural districts--energy which +cannot in the nature of things be employed in highly-organised +industries. To the small farmer and his family, time is a realisable, +though too often unrealised, asset, and it is part of our aim to aid the +family income by employing their waste time. Even if we can only cause +them to do at home what they now pay someone else to do, we shall not +only have improved their budget but shall have contributed to the +elevation of the standard of home life, and thus, in no small measure, +to the solution of the difficult problem of rural life in Ireland. + +I think the reader will now understand the general character of the +problem with which we were confronted and the means by which its +solution is being sought. Our policy was not one which was likely to +commend itself to the "man in the street." Indeed, to be quite candid, +it was a little disappointing even to myself that I could not +immortalise my appointment by erecting monuments both to my constructive +ability and to my educational zeal in the shape of stately edifices at +convenient railway centres, preferably along the tourist routes. We have +had to stand the fire of the critic fresh from his holiday on the +Continent where he had seen agricultural and technological institutions, +magnificently housed and lavishly equipped, fitting generations of young +men and young women for competition with our less fortunate countrymen. +It is hard to prevail in argument against the man who has gone and seen +for himself. It is useless to point out to the man with a kodak that the +Corinthian façade and the marble columns of the _aula maxima_ which +aroused his patriotic envy are but a small part of the educational +structure which he saw and thought he understood. If he would read the +history of the systems and trace the successive stages by which the need +for these great institutions was established, he would have a little +more sympathy with the difficulties of the Department, a little more +patience with its Fabian policy. + +I must not, however, utter a word which suggests that the Department has +any ground of complaint against the country for the spirit in which it +has been met; especially as there was one factor to be taken into +account which made it difficult for public opinion to approve of our +policy. As I have already explained, a large capital sum of a little +over £200,000 was handed over to the Department at its creation. During +the first year, what with the organisation of the staff, the thinking +out of a policy on every side of the Department's work, the constitution +of the statutory committees to administer its local schemes in town and +country, the agreement, after long discussion, between the central body +and these committees upon the local schemes, and all the other +preparatory steps which had to be taken before money could wisely be +applied, it is obvious that the Department could not have spent its +income. In the second year, and even the third year, savings were +effected, and the original capital sum has been largely increased. What +more natural than that in a poor country a spending Department which was +backward in spending should appear to be lacking in enterprise, if not +in administrative capacity? But whether the policy was right or wrong it +has unquestionably been approved by the best thought in the country, a +fact which throws a very interesting light upon the constitutional +aspects of the Department. At each successive stage the policy was +discussed at the Council of Agriculture and its practical operation was +dependent upon the consent of the Boards which have the power of the +purse. A Vice-President who had not these bodies at his back would be +powerless, in fact would have to resign. Thoughtless criticism has now +and again condemned not only the parsimonious action of the Department, +but the invertebrate conduct of the Council of Agriculture and the +Boards in tolerating it. The time will soon come when the service +rendered to their country by the members of the first Council and +Boards, who gave their representative backing to a slow but sure +educational policy, and scorned to seek popularity in showy projects and +local doles, will be gratefully remembered to them. + +Already we have had some gratifying evidences that the country is with +us in the paramount importance we attach to education as the real need +of the hour. Most readers will be surprised to hear that in the short +time the Department has been at work it has aided in the equipment of +nearly two hundred science laboratories and of about fifty manual +instruction workshops, while the many-sided programme involved in the +movement as a whole is in operation in some four hundred schools +attended by thirty-six thousand pupils. + +Nothing can be more gratifying than the unanimous testimony of the +officers of the Department to the increasing practical intelligence and +reasonableness of the numerous Committees responsible for the local +administration of the schemes which the Department has to approve of and +supervise. The demand for visible money's worth has largely given place +to a genuine desire for schemes having a practical educational value for +the industry of the district. County Clare is not generally considered +the most advanced part of Ireland, nor can Kilrush be very far distant +from 'the back of Godspeed'; yet even from that storm-battered outpost +of Irish ideas I was memorialised a year ago to induce the County +Council to pay less attention to the improvement of cattle and more to +the technical education of the peasantry. + +Under the heading of direct aids to agriculture, rural industries, and +sea and inland fisheries, there is much important and useful work which +the Department has set in motion, partly by the use of its funds and +partly by suggestion and the organisation of local effort. The most +obvious, popular and easily understood schemes were those directed to +the improvement of live stock. The Department exercised its supervision +and control with the help of advisory committees composed of the best +experts it could get to volunteer advice upon the various classes of +live stock. It is unnecessary to give any details of these schemes. The +Department profited by the experience of, and received considerable +assistance from the Royal Dublin Society, which had for many years +administered a Government grant for the improvement of horses and +cattle. The broad principle adopted by the Department was that its +efforts and its available resources should be devoted rather to +improving the quality, than to increasing the quantity, of the stock in +the country, the latter function being regarded as belonging to the +region of private enterprise. + +It is impossible to over-estimate the importance to the country of +having a widespread interest aroused and discussion stimulated on +problems of breeding which affect a trade of vast importance to the +economic standing of the country--a trade which now reaches in horned +cattle alone an annual export of nearly three quarters of a million +animals. All manner of practical discussions were set on foot, ranging +from the production of the ideal, the general purposes cow, to that +controversy which competes, in the virulence with which it is waged, +with the political, the educational, and the fiscal questions--the +question whether the hackney strain will bring a new era of prosperity +to Ireland, or whether it will irretrievably destroy the reputation of +the Irish hunter. The discussion of these problems has been accompanied +by much practical work which, in due time, cannot fail to produce a +considerable improvement upon the breed of different classes of live +stock. In one year over one thousand sires have been selected by the +experts of the Department for admission to the stock improvement +schemes. Probably an equal number of breeding animals offered for +inspection have been rejected. Many a _cause celèbre_ has not +unnaturally arisen over the decisions of the equestrian tribunal, and +there have not been wanting threats that the attention of Parliament +should be called to the gross partiality of the Department which has +cast a reflection upon the form of stallion A or upon the constitutional +soundness of stallion B. On the whole, as far as I can gather, the best +authorities in the country are agreed that since the Department has +been at work there has been established a higher standard of excellence +in the bucolic mind as regards that vastly important national asset, our +flocks and herds. + +Again for details I must refer the reader to official documents. There +he will find as much information as he can digest about the vast variety +of agricultural activities which originate sometimes with the +Department's officers or with its _Journal_ and leaflets, the +circulation of which has no longer to be stimulated from our Statistics +and Intelligence bureau, and sometimes emanate from the local +committees, whose growing interest in the work naturally leads to the +discovery of fresh needs and hitherto unthought of possibilities of +agricultural and industrial improvement. I may, however, indicate a few +of the subjects which have been gone into even in these years while the +new Department has been trying so far as it might, without sacrifice of +efficiency and sound economic principle, to keep pace with the feverish +anxiety of a genuinely interested people to get to work upon schemes +which they believe to be practical, sound, and of permanent utility. + +A question which has troubled administrators of State aid to every +progressive agricultural community, and which each country must settle +for itself, is by what form of object lesson in ordinary agriculture +intelligent local interest can best be aroused We have advocated widely +diffused small experimental plots, and they have done much good. +Probably the most useful of our crop improvement schemes have been +those which have demonstrated the profitableness of artificial manures, +the use of which has been enormously increased. The profits derivable in +many parts of Ireland from the cultivation of early potatoes has been +demonstrated in the most convincing manner. To what may be called the +industrial crops, notably flax and barley, a great deal of time and +thought has been applied and much information disseminated and +illustrated by practical experiments. In many quarters interest has been +aroused in the possibilities of profitable tobacco culture. Many +negative and some positive results have been attained by the Department +in the as yet incomplete experiments upon this crop. Much has been +learned about the functions of central and local agricultural and small +industry shows, those occasional aids to the year's work which +disseminate knowledge and stimulate interest and friendly rivalry among +the different producers. The reduction in the death-rate among young +stock, due to preventible causes such as white scour and blackleg, is +well worthy of the attention of those who wish to study the more +practical work of the Department. + +The branch of the Department's work which deals with the Sea-fisheries +can only be very briefly touched on. It falls into two main heads which +may roughly be termed the administrative and the scientific; the latter, +of course, having economic developments as its ultimate object. The +issue of loans to fishermen for the purchase of boats and gear, +contributing to the cost of fishery slips and piers, circulating +telegraphic intelligence, the making of by-laws for the regulation of +the fisheries, the patrolling of the Irish fishing grounds to prevent +illegalities, and the attempts which are being made to develop the +valuable Irish oyster fishery by the introduction, with modifications +suited to our own seaboard, of a system of culture comparable to those +which are pursued with success in France and Norway, may be mentioned as +falling under the more directly economic branch of our activities. Irish +oysters are already attaining considerable celebrity, owing to the +distance of our oyster beds from contaminating influences; and it is +hoped that when the Department's experiments are complete the Irish +oyster will be made subject to direct control for all its life, until it +is despatched to market. Attention is also being given to the relative +value of seed oysters, other than native, for relaying on Irish beds. + +On the more directly scientific side, the Department has undertaken the +survey of the trawling grounds around the coast to obtain an exact +knowledge of the movements of the marketable fish at different times of +their life, so that we may be guided in making by-laws and regulations +by a full knowledge of the times and places at which protection is +necessary. The biological and physical conditions of the western seas +are also being studied in special reference to the mackerel fishery, +with the object of correlating certain readily observable phenomena with +the movements of the fish, and so of predicting the probable success of +a fishery in a particular season. The routine observations of the +Department's fishery cruiser have been so arranged as to synchronise +with those of other nations, in order to assist the international scheme +of investigation now in progress, wherever its objects and those of the +Department are the same. While these various practical projects have +been in operation, we have done our best to keep abreast of the times by +sending missions to other countries, consisting of an expert accompanied +by practical Irishmen who would bring home information which was +applicable to the conditions of our own country. The first batch of +itinerant instructors in agriculture, whose training for the important +work of laying the foundations for our whole scheme of agricultural +instruction I have referred to, were taken on a continental tour by the +Professor of Agriculture at the Royal College of Science, in order to +give special advantages to a portion of our outdoor staff upon the +success of whose work the rate of our progress in agricultural +development might largely depend. And not only have we in our first +three years gleaned as much information as possible by sending qualified +Irishmen to study abroad the industries in which we were particularly +interested, but we also took steps to give the mass of our people at +home an opportunity of studying these industries for themselves. With +the somewhat unique experiment carried out for this object, I will +conclude the story of the new Department's activities in its early +years. + +The part we took at the Cork Exhibition of 1902 was well understood in +Ireland, but not perhaps elsewhere. We secured a large space both in the +main Industrial Hall and in the grounds, and gave an illustration not of +what Ireland had done, but of what, in our opinion, the country might +achieve in the way of agricultural and industrial development in the +near future. Exhibiting on the one hand our available resources in the +way of raw material, we gave, on the other hand, demonstrations of a +large number of industries in actual operation. These exhibits, imported +with their workers, machinery and tools, from several European countries +and from Great Britain, all belonged to some class of industry which, in +our belief, was capable of successful development in Ireland. In the +indoor part of the exhibit there was nothing very original, except +perhaps in its close relation to the work of a government department. +But what attracted by far the greatest interest and attention was a +series of object lessons in many phases of farm activities, where, in +our opinion, great and immediate improvements might be made. Here were +to be seen varieties of crops under various systems of treatment, +demonstrations of sheep-dipping, calf-rearing on different foods, +illustrations of the different breeds of fowl and systems of poultry +management, model buildings and gardens for farmer and labourer; while +in separate buildings the drying and pressing of fruit and vegetables, +the manufacture of butter and cheese, and a very comprehensive forestry +exhibit enabled our visitors to combine profitable suggestion with, if I +may judge from my frequent opportunities of observing the sightseers in +whom I was particularly interested, the keenest enjoyment. + +We kept at the Exhibition, for six months, a staff of competent experts, +whose instructions were to give to all-comers this simple lesson. They +were to bring home to our people that, here in Ireland before their very +eyes, there were industries being carried on by foreigners, by +Englishmen, by Scotchmen, and in some instances by Irishmen, but in all +cases by men and women who had no advantage over our workers except that +they had the technical training which it was the desire of the +Department to give to the workers of Ireland. The officials of the +Department entered into the spirit of this scheme enthusiastically and +cheerfully, some of them, in addition to their ordinary work, turning +the office into a tourist agency for these busy months. With the +generous help of the railway companies they organised parties of +farmers, artisans, school teachers, members of the statutory committees, +and, in fact, of all to whom it was of importance to give this object +lesson upon the relations between practical education and the promotion +of industry. Nearly 100,000 persons were thus moved to Cork and back +before the Exhibition closed--an achievement largely due to the +assistance given by the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society and the +clergy throughout the country. + +This experiment, both in its conception and in its results, was perhaps +unique. There were not wanting critics of the new Department who stood +aghast at so large an expenditure upon temporary edifices and a passing +show; but those who are in touch with its educational work know that +this novel application of State assistance fulfilled its purpose. It +helped substantially to generate a belief in, and stimulate a demand +for, technical instruction which it will take us many years adequately +to supply. + +An American visitor who, as I afterwards learned, takes an active part +in the discussion of the rural problems of his own country, disembarked +at Queenstown in order to 'take in' the Cork Exhibition. In his rush +through Dublin he 'took in' the Department and the writer. 'Mr. +Vice-President,' he said, before the hand-shaking was completed, 'I have +visited all the great Expositions held in my time. I have been to the +Cork Exposition. I often saw more things, but never more ideas.' + +With this characteristically rapid appreciation of a movement which +seeks to turn Irish thought to action, my strange visitor vanished as +suddenly as he came. + + * * * * * + +Those whose sympathy with Ireland has induced them to persevere through +the mass of details with which this story of small beginnings is pieced +together may wonder why the bearing of hopeful efforts for bringing +prosperity and contentment to Ireland upon the mental attitude of +millions of Irishmen scattered throughout the British Empire and the +United States, and so upon the lives of the countries in which they have +made their homes, is apparently ignored. I fully recognise the vast +importance of the subject. A book dealing comprehensively with the +actual and potential influence of Irish intellect upon English politics +at home, and upon the politics of the United States, a carefully +reasoned estimate of the part which Irish intellect is qualified, and +which I firmly believe it is destined, to play wherever the civilisation +of the world is to be under the control of the English-speaking +peoples--more especially where these peoples govern races which speak +other tongues and see through other eyes--a clear and striking +exposition of the true relation between the small affairs of the small +island and that greater Ireland which takes its inspiration from the +sorrows, the passions, the endeavours, and the hopes of those who stick +to the old home--such a book would possess a deep human interest, and +would make a high and wide appeal. Nevertheless, I feel that at the +present time the most urgent need, from every point of view on which I +have touched, is to focus the thought available for the Irish Question +upon the definite work of a reconstruction of Irish life. + +Such is the purpose of this book. I do not wish to attach any +exaggerated importance to the scheme of social and economic reform of +which I have attempted to give a faithful account; nor is it in their +practical achievement, be it great or small, that the initiators and +organisers of the new movement take most pride. What these Irishmen are +proud of is the manner in which the people have responded to their +efforts to bring Irish sentiment into an intimate and helpful relation +with Irish economic problems. They had to reckon with that greatest of +hindrances to the spirit of enterprise, a rooted belief in the +potentiality of government to bring material prosperity to our doors. As +I have pointed out, the practical demonstration which Ireland had +received of the power of government to inflict lasting economic injury +gave rise to this belief; and I have noted the present influences to +which it seems to owe its continuance until to-day. I believe that, if +any enduring interest attaches to the story which I have told, it will +consist in the successive steps by which this initial difficulty has +been overcome. + +Let me summarise in a few words what has been, so far, actually +accomplished. Those who did the work of which I have written first +launched upon Irish life a scheme of organised self-help which, perhaps +more by good luck than design, proved to be in accordance with the +inherited instincts of the people, and, therefore, moved them to action. +Next they called for, and in due season obtained, a department of +government with adequate powers and means to aid in developing the +resources of the country, so far as this end could be attained without +transgressing the limits of beneficial State interference with the +business of the people. In its constitution this department was so +linked with the representative institutions of the country that the +people soon began to feel that they largely controlled its policy and +were responsible for its success. Meanwhile, the progress of economic +thought in the country had made such rapid strides that, in the +administration of State assistance, the principle of self-help could be +rigidly insisted upon and was willingly submitted to. The result is that +a situation has been created which is as gratifying as it may appear to +be paradoxical. Within the scope and sphere of the movement the Irish +people are now, without any sacrifice of industrial character, combining +reliance upon government with reliance upon themselves. + +That a movement thus conceived should so rapidly have overcome its +initial difficulties and should, I might almost add, have passed beyond +the experimental stage, will suggest to any thoughtful reader that above +and beyond the removal by legislation of obstacles to progress--and much +has been accomplished in this way of recent years--there must have been +new, positive influences at work upon the national mind. These will be +found in the growing recognition of the fact that the path of progress +lies along distinctively Irish lines, and that otherwise it will not be +trodden by the Irish people. Much good in the same direction has been +done, too, by the generous and authoritative admission by England that +the future development of Ireland should be assisted and promoted 'with +a full and constant regard to the special traditions of the +country.'[52] But after all, while these concessions to Irish +sentiment, vitally important though they be, may speed us on our road to +national regeneration, they will not take us far. It remains for us +Irishmen to realise--and the chief value of all the work I have +described consists in the degree in which it forces us to realise--the +responsibility which now rests with ourselves. We have been too long a +prey to that deep delusion, which, because the ills of the country we +love were in past days largely caused from without, bids us look to the +same source for their cure. The true remedies are to be sought +elsewhere; for, however disastrous may have been the past, the injury +was moral rather than material, and the opportunity has now arrived for +the patient building up again of Irish character in those qualities +which win in the modern struggle for existence. The field for that great +work is clear of at least the worst of its many historic encumbrances. +Ireland must be re-created from within. The main work must be done in +Ireland, and the centre of interest must be Ireland. When Irishmen +realise this truth, the splendid human power of their country, so much +of which now runs idly or disastrously to waste, will be utilised; and +we may then look with confidence for the foundation of a fabric of Irish +prosperity, framed in constructive thought, and laid enduringly in human +character. + +THE END. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[48] Pages 38, 39. + +[49] It must be borne in mind that the Department is not officially +concerned with the question of the economic distribution of land +referred to on pp. 46-49. + +[50] For a full description of the Department's scheme of agricultural +education I may refer to a _Memorandum on Agricultural Education in +Ireland,_ written by the author and published by the Department, July, +1901. + +[51] See _ante_, pp. 236-238. + +[52] Speech of the Lord Lieutenant to the Incorporated Law Society, +November 20th, 1902. See also p. 170. + + + + +INDEX + +A.E. (George W. Russell) 200 +Agitation as a policy, 82, 83 +Agricultural Board, 228, 234, _seq_. 269 +Agriculture:-- + Agricultural Holdings:-- + Improvement of, 46 _seq_. + Transfer of peasants to new farms, 48 _seq_. + Agricultural Organisation: + Denmark, 131 + Department of Agriculture and farmers' societies, 211 + England, Mr. Hanbury's and Lord Onslow's views, 242 + Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (see that title) + Societies 44, 45 + Co-operation (see that title). + Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (see that title) + Depression in, 179 + Education in relation to, 126, 264 _seq_. 269 + Exodus of Rural Population, 39 + State-Aid, 45, 211 + Tillage, decrease of, 42 +Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, 224, 227, 236, 238 +Albert Institute, Glasnevin, 230, 271 +Altruism, appeal to in co-operation, 210 +America, Irish in: 72 + Causes of their success and failure, 55 _seq_. + Irish in American politics, 70 _seq_. + Loss of religion in, 111 +Anderson, R.A.:-- + Co-operative movement, 184, 190 + Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, 200 +Andrews, Mr. Thomas:-- + Recess Committee, 219 +Anti-English Sentiment:-- + Irish in America and, 72 + Nature and cause, 13 +Anti-Treating League, 114 +Arnott, Sir John:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +Art, modern ecclesiastical art in Ireland, 108 +Association, economic, value of, 167 +Associative qualities of the Irish, 166 + +Bacon Curing:-- + Denmark, 131, 194 +Bagot, Canon:-- + Creamery movement, 189 +Balfour, Arthur:--168 + Irish policy, 243, 244 +Balfour, Gerald:--243, 256 + Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, 225, 233 + Local Government Act, 224, 238, 240 + Policy of explained, 225 + Recess Committee Proposals; Bill, 224 +Banks, agricultural credit, 195 _seq._ +Barley Experiments of the Department of Agriculture, 282 +Belfast Chamber of Commerce and Home Rule, 67 +Berkeley, Bishop:-- + Irish priests, 141 + On "Mending our state," 6 + "Parties" and "politics," 63 +Bessborough Commission, tenants improvements, &c. 22 +Board of National Education, 126 +Board of Technical Instruction, 228, 234 _seq_. 257 +Bodley's _France_, Madame Darmesteter's review, 242 +Boer war and the Irish attitude, 9 +Bogs, utilisation of, 249 +Boycotting, 87 +Bright, John:-- + Peasant proprietorship, 25 +Brooke, Stopford, 92 +Buckle, personal factor in history, 27 +Bulwer Lytton, 34 +Burke, 137 +Butt, Isaac, 78 +Butter, Danish, 131 + +Cadogan, Lord, 224 +Catholic Association, 99 +Catholic Emancipation Act, 104, 125, 132 +Catholic University (see University Question). +Celtic Race, Harold Frederic's opinion, 161 _seq_. +Character:-- + Associative qualities of the Irish, 166 + Education and character, 144 + Gaelic Revival, effect of on national character, 148, 155 + Industrial character, 18 + Irish inefficiency a problem of character, 32 + Irish question a problem of character, 32, 59, 164 + Lack of initiative in Irish character, 163 + Moral timidity of Irish character, 64, 65, 80, 81 + Prosperity of Ireland, to be founded on character, 291 + Roman Catholicism and Irish character, 101-105, 110 +Chesterfield, Lord:-- + Education as the cause of difference in the character of men, 144 +Christian Brothers' Schools, 131 +Christian Socialists, 184 +Church-building in Ireland,. 107 +Church Disestablishment Act, 1869,--Land Purchase Clauses, 25 +Clan-System in Ireland, 75 +Clergy, Roman Catholic:-- + Action and attitude towards questions of the day 105 + Authority, 96, 105 _seq_. + Moral influence, 115, 116 + Political influence, 117 + Temperance reform, 112, 114 +College of Science and Department of Agriculture, 229 +Colonies, history of the Irish in, 72 _seq_. +Commercial Restrictions--effect of on Irish industrial character, 17 _seq_. +Con O'Neal forbids his posterity to build houses, etc., 57 +Congested Districts Board:-- + Agricultural banks, loans to 197 + Department of Agriculture and, 245 + Land Act (1903) and, 245 + Success of, 243, 244 +Convents and Monasteries, increase of, 108 +Co-operative Movement:-- + Agricultural Banks, 195 _seq_. + Agricultural depression, cause of, 179 + Altruism, appeal to, 210 + Anderson, R.A., 184, 190, 200 + Associative qualities of Irish, 166, 178, 186 + Beginnings, 178 + Combination, necessity of, 181 + Co-operative Union, Manchester, 184 + Craig, Mr. E.T., and the Vandeleur Estate, 184 + Creameries, 187 _seq_. + Denmark, 131, 194 + Educating adults, 177 + English co-operation, 166, 184 + Finlay, Father Thomas, 119, 192, 218 + Gaelic Revival and, 149 _seq_. + Gray, Mr. T.C., 184 + Holyoake, Mr., 184 + Hughes, Mr. Tom, 184 + Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (see that title). + _Irish Homestead_, 190, 202 + Ludlow, Mr., 184 + Marum, Mr. Mulhallen, 189 + Middlemen, 180 + Monteagle, Lord, 184 + Moral effects, 207, 208 + Neale, Mr. Vansittart, 184 + Necessity of co-operation for small landholders, 44 _seq_. + Production and distribution problems, 179, 180 + Roman Catholic clergy and, 119 + State-aid side, 45, 165 + Success, causes of 210, 211 + Vandeleur estate community, 184 + Village libraries, 199 + Wolff, Mr. Henry W., 199 + Yerburgh, Mr., 199 +Cork:-- + Exhibition, Department's Exhibit, 119, 285 _seq_. +Craig, Mr. E.T.-- + Co-operative Movement 184 +Creameries, co-operative, beginnings, 187 _seq_. +Crop improvement schemes of the Department, 282 +Council of Agriculture, 228, 232 _seq_. 257 + +Dairying Industry--Co-operation and, 187 _seq_. +Dane, Mr.:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +Darmesteter, Madame, _Syndicats agricoles_, 242 +Davis, Thomas:--137 + Political Methods, 77, 83 +Denmark:-- + Co-operation in, 131, 194 + High Schools, 131 +Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction:-- 60 + Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, 224, 227, 236, 238 + Agricultural Board, 228, 234 _seq._ 257 + Agricultural education, 236, 237, 264 _seq._ 269, 272 + Agricultural Organisation, 241 + Albert Institute, Glasnevin, 230, 271 + Balfour, Gerald, 225, 233 + Board of Technical Instruction, 228, 234 _seq._ 257 + College of Science and, 229 + Congested Districts Board and Department, 245 + Consultative Committee for Co-ordinating Education, 236, 237, 272 + Constitution, etc., 228 + Co-operative movement and the benefits of organisation, 241 + Cork Exhibition exhibit, 119, 285 _seq._ + Council of Agriculture, 228, 232 _seq._ 257 + Crop improvement schemes 282 + Domestic economy teaching, 272 + Early days' experiences, 217 _seq._ + Educational policy, 236, 237, 272, 274 + Educational work, 262 + Endowment, etc., 231 + Home Industries, 275 + Industrial education and industrial life, 130 + Intermediate Education Board and, 235, 237 + Itinerant instruction, 126, 270 + Irish Agricultural Organisation Society and, 203 + Live Stock Schemes, 279 + Local Committees, 261 + Local Government Act and work of Department, 239 + Metropolitan School of Art 230 + Munster Institute, Cork, and, 230, 274 + Parliamentary representation, 220, 228 + Powers, 229 _seq._ + Provincial Committees, 234 + Purposes, 228 + Recess Committee's Recommendations, 220 + Royal Dublin Society and, 279 + Rural life improvement, 159 + Sea Fisheries, 282 + Staff, 228 + Teachers, 267 + Technical instruction, 130, 228, 234, _seq._, 257, 263, 267, 279 + Work already accomplished, 278 _seq._ +Desmolins, M.:-- + English love of home, 53 +Devon Commission, tenants' + improvements, 22 +Dineen, Rev. P.S.:-- + Editor O'Rahilly's poems, 76 +Dixon, Sir Daniel:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +Domestic economy teaching, 272 +Drink Evil:-- + Anti-Treating League, 114 + Causes, 112 + Roman Catholic Clergy's influence, 112, 114 +Dudley, Lord, 170, 290 +Dufferin, Lord:-- + Effect of commercial restrictions in Ireland, 20 +Duffy, Sir C.G. 77 +Dunraven Conference, 8, 10, 207 + +Economic system in England, individualism of, 166 +Economic thought:-- + Influence of Roman Catholicism, 101 _seq_. + Lack of in Ireland, 133 _seq_. +Education:-- + Agricultural instruction, 126 264 _seq_. 269 + Board of National Education, 126 + Christian Brothers, 131 + Commissioners of National Education, 235 + Consultative Committee for co-ordinating Education, 236, 237, 272 + Continental methods, 129 + Defects of present system, 128 + Denmark High Schools, 131 + Department of Agriculture's policy and work, 236, 237, 262, 272, 274 + Economic, 130, 133 + Education Bill, 99 + English education in Ireland, 122 + Influence of on national life, 59 + Industrial, 130, 264 + Intermediate Education system, 128, 235, 237 + Irish education schemes, 123 _seq_. + Itinerant instruction, 126, 270 + Keenan, Sir Patrick, 126 + Kildare Street Society, 123 + Literary Education, 131 + Lord Chesterfield on Education 144 + Manual and Practical Instruction in Primary Schools, Commission, 128, 129 + Maynooth, influence of, 134-136, 138, 139 + Monastic and Conventual institutions, 108 + National factor in national education, 152, 153 + Practical, 129 _seq_. + Reports of Commissions, 127 + Roman Catholics, higher education, 97, 132, 133 + Royal University, 128 + Technical instruction, 228, 231 _seq_., 257, 263 + Trinity College, influence of, 134, 136 _seq_. + University:-- + Place of the University in education, 133 + Royal Commission on University Education, 128 + Wyse's Scheme, 125 +Education Bill, 99 +Emigration, causes of, etc., 40, 116 +England:-- + Anti-English sentiment in Ireland, 13, 72 + Co-operation in, 166, 184, 192, 206, 242 + Economic system, individualism of, 166 + Misunderstanding of Irish question, 7 _seq_. +Ewart, Sir William:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +Experimental Plots of the Department, 281 + +Ferguson, Sir Samuel:-- + National sentiment, 154 +Field, Mr. William, 217 +Finlay, Father Thomas:-- 119, 208 + Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, 192 + Recess Committee 218 +Fisheries--Department of Agriculture, development scheme, 282 _seq_ +Flax improvement Schemes, 282 +_Fortnightly Review_:-- + Harold Frederic on Irish Question, 162 +France, _syndicats agricoles_, 242 +Franchise extension in 1885, effects of on Irish political thought, 78 +Frederic, Harold:-- + Views on Irish question, 161 _seq_. +Free Trade, effect of in Ireland, 19 + +Gaelic Revival:-- 148 _seq_. + Appeal to the individual 155 + Co-operative movement and, 149 _seq_. + Gaelic League, aims and objects, 150 + Hyde, Douglas, 151 + Irish language as a commercial medium, 158 + National factor in education, importance of, 153 + Politics and the Gaelic revival, 156, 187 + Rural life, rehabilitation, 159 +Gill, Mr. T.P.:-- + Recess Committee, 219 +Gladstone:-- 85 + Belfast Chamber of Commerce, Home Rule deputation, 67 + Home Rule, attitude towards, 3, 66, 67 + Tenants' improvements, 22 +Glasnevin, Albert Institute, 230, 271 +Grattan, 137 +Gray, Mr. J.C.:-- + Co-operative movement, 181 +Grazing, increase of, 42 +Grundtvig, Bishop, 131 + +Hanbury, Mr.:-- 251 + Agricultural Societies, necessity of, 242 + Suppression of Swine Fever, 252 +Hannon, Mr. P.J.--I.A.O.S. 200 +Harrington, Mr. T.C.:-- + Recess Committee 218 +Healy, Archbishop, work for Ireland, 118 +Hegarty, Father, work for Ireland, 119 +Historical Grievances, 14, 17, 59, 104, _seq_. 120, 147 +Holdings, small, problem of, 46 +Holyoake, Mr.:-- + Co-operative Movement, 184 +Domestic Economy Teaching, 272 +Home: Improvement of, 159 + Irish Conception of, 53 + Irish, "homelessness at home," cause of 57, 58 +Home Industries, 192, 275 +Home Rule:--Bill 1886, 61 + Gladstone's attitude to the question 3 + Nationalist tactics as a means of attaining 84 + Rosebery, Lord, attitude to the question, 4 + Ulster and Home Rule, 66, 86. _seq_. + Unionist attitude towards, 35 +Hughes, Tom, Co-operative Movement, 184 +Hyde, Douglas, 151 + +Individualism of English economic system, 166 +Industrial character of the Irish, effect of commercial restrictions, 18 +Industrial leadership, and political leadership, 212 +Industry:-- + Commercial Restrictions, 16-20 + Education and Industrial Life, 130 + Free Trade, effect of, 19 + Gaelic League and, 135 + Home Rule and, 87 + Peasant Industries 52 + Protestantism and Industry 100 + Roman Catholicism and Industry. 100, 103 _seq_. + State-Aid 45 +Initiative, lack of in Irish character, 163 +Intermediate Education 128, 235, 237 +Irish Agricultural Organisation Society:-- 149 + Agricultural Banks, 195 _seq._ + Agricultural Organisation:-- + Denmark, 131 + Department of Agriculture and Farmers' Societies, 241 + England, Mr. Hanbury's view, 242 + Onslow, Lord, opinion, 242 + Welsh Co. Councils, and, 242 + Anderson, R.A., 200 + Central body, necessity for 194 + Cork Exhibition, tours organised by, 286 + Department of Agriculture and, 203 + Federations, principal, 193 + Finlay, Father Thomas, 119, 192, 208, 218 + Funds, 202 _seq_. + Gaelic revival and the co-operative movement, 149 _seq._ + Hannon, Mr. P.J., 200 + Inauguration, 191 + _Irish, Homestead_, 190, 202 + Monteagle, Lord, 192 + Roman Catholic clergy and the movement, 119 + Rural life social movements, 159, 199 + Russell, George W. (A.E.), 200 + Societies, number, etc. 192 + Staff, &c. 200 + Village libraries, 199 +_Irish Homestead_, 190, 202 +Irish language as a commercial medium, 158 +"Irish night" in House of Commons, 2 +Irish Question:-- + Anomalies, 33 + Character, a problem of, 32, 59, 164 + Emigration, 40 + English misunderstanding, 7 _seq._ + Frederic, Harold, diagnosis by, 161 _seq_. + Gaelic Revival and, 148 + Historical grievances, 16 _seq_. + Home Rule (see that title) + Human problem, 2 + Land Act marks a new era in, 11 + Land system (see that title). + Our ignorance about ourselves 32 + Parnell's death, effect of, 5 + Political remedies, Irish belief in, 33 + Rural life, problem, 39, 57, 263 + Sentiment, force of, 15 + Ulster's attitude important, 38 +Itinerant Instructors, 126, 127, 271, 284 + +Johnson, Dr., on "economy," 278 + +Kane, Rev. R.R.:-- 157 + Recess Committee, 218 +Keenan, Sir Patrick:-- + Itinerant instructors, 126, 127 +Kelly, Dr. (Bishop of Ross):-- + Work for Ireland, 118 +Kildare Street School of Domestic Economy 274 +Kildare Street Society, 123-125 + +Land Acts:-- + 1870, 23; + 1881, 23, 24; + 1891, Congested Districts, 243 + 1903:-- 10, 11, 42, 48, 245 + Marks a new era in Ireland, 11 + Transfer of peasants to new farms, 48 +Land Conference:-- 93 + Landed gentry not to be expatriated, 85 + Nationalist leaders' attitude, 89 +Land Purchase Acts, 25 +Land Question and Tenure Question, 41, 42 +Land system:-- 17 + Causes of failure in Irish land system, 21 + Dual ownership 25 + Land Acts: + 1870, 23; + 1881, 23, 24; + 1891, 243; + 1903, 10, 11, 42, 48, 246. + Land Purchase Acts, 25 + Legislation, 23 _seq_. + Peasant proprietorship, germs of, 25 + Tenure question, 41, 42 +Lawless, Emily:-- + "With the Wild Geese," 92 +Le Bon, "La Psychologie De la Foule," 167 +Lea, Sir Thomas:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +Leadership in Ireland, political and industrial, 212 +Lecky, Mr.:-- + Irish grievances, 14 + Kildare Street Society, 124 +Live stock improvement schemes, 279 +Liverpool Financial Reform Association, 127 +Local Government:-- 83 + Balfour, Mr. Gerald, 224, 238, 240 + Department of Agriculture and local effort, + Educative effect of, 90 + Nationalist leaders' attitude 88 + Success in working, 88, 240 +Lucas, Mr., 77 +Ludlow, Mr.:-- + Co-operative movement, 184 + +McCarthy, Mr. Justin:-- + Recess Committee, 215 +Manchester, Co-operative Union 181 +Manual and Practical Instruction in Primary Schools' Commission, 128, 129 +Manures, Artificial-- + Department of Agriculture's encouragement in the use of, 282 +Marum, Mr. Mulhallen--Co-operative Movement 189 +Maynooth, influence of, 134 136, 138, 139 +Mayo, Lord:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +_Memorandum on Agricultural Education_ 269 +Metropolitan School of Art, 230 +Middlemen, 180 +Monasteries and Convents, increase of, 108 +Monteagle, Lord:-- + Co-operative movement, 184 + I.A.O.S. President, 192 + Recess Committee 218 +Moral timidity of Irish character, 65, 80, 81 +Morals:-- + Roman Catholic Clergy's influence on, 115, 116 +Mulhall, Mr. Michael:-- + Recess Committee, 219 +Munster Institute, Cork, 230, 274 +Musgrave, Sir James:-- + Recess Committee, 219 + +National Education Board, Agricultural Teaching, 126 +Nationalist Party:-- + Home Rule, 35, 84 + Land Conference and, 89 + Local Government and, 88 + Policy, 69 + Qualifications of leaders, 90, 91 + Recess Committee and, 222 + Responsibility of leaders, 81 + Tactics:-- 84 _seq._ + Effect of on Irish political character, 80 +Nationality:-- + Education and nationality, 152 _seq._ + Expansion of, outside party politics, 154 + Modern conception of Irish nationality, 76 +Neale, Vansittart:-- + Co-operative movement, 184 +O'Connell, 77 +O'Conor Don:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +O'Dea, Dr.:-- + University Commission, statements, 109, 141 +O'Donnell, Dr.:-- + Ploughing up of grazing lands, 43 +O'Donovan, Father, 119 +O'Dwyer, Dr.:-- + Evidence before University Commission, 140 +O'Gara, Dr.:-- + On the cultivation of the land, 43 +O'Grady, Standish, 154 +Onslow, Lord:-- + Agricultural organisation, benefit of, 242 +O'Rahilly, Egan:-- + Lament for the Irish clans, 27 +Oyster Culture, 283 + +Parnell:-- 48, 78 + Downfall, effect on national idea and aims, 5, 79, 80 +Peasant industries, necessity for, 52 +Peasant Proprietary:-- + Agricultural organisation, necessity of, 44 _seq_. + Bright, John, and, 25 + Peasant industries, necessity of, 52 + Problem of next generation, 50, 51 +Penal laws, effect of, 104, 132 +Plantation system, 76 +Politics:-- + Agitation as a policy, 82, 83 + America, Irish in politics in, 70 _seq,_ + Gaelic revival and politics, 156, 157 + Irishmen as politicians,. 69 _seq._ + "Irish night" in House of Commons, 92 + Nationalist leaders' effect on Irish political character, 80 + Obsession of the Irish mind by politics, 59, 61 _seq_. + "One-man" system, 79 + Political leadership and industrial leadership, 212 + Political remedies, Irish belief in, 33 + Political "wilderness," 91 + "Priest in politics," 117 + Separation, 87 + Ulster Liberal Unionist Association, 66 + Unionists (Irish):-- + Industrial element and, 67, 68 + Influence in Irish life, 63 _seq._ +Population.-- + Relation of population to area, 49 +Potato culture improvement schemes, 282 +Production and distribution, problems, 179, 180 +Protestantism:-- + Duty of, 119 + Ulster, 98, 99 + +Raiffeisen System of banking, 195-198 +Railways--Light railway system, 243 +_Raimeis_, 153 +Recess Committee:-- 83, 210 _seq._ 238, 241 + Cadogan, Lord, and, 224, 225 + Constitution proposed, 215 + Finlay, Father Thomas, 218 + Gill, Mr. T.P. 219 + Ideas leading to its formation, 213 + M'Carthy, Mr. Justin, letter, 215 + Members, 218 + Mulhall, Mr. Michael, 219 + Nationalist members, 222 + Recommendations, 220 + Redmond, Mr. John, and, 217 + Report, 10, 129, 221 + Results, 223 _seq._ + State-aid question, 223 + Tisserand's memorandum, 220 +Redmond, Mr. John:-- + Recess Committee, 217 +Religion:-- + Influence of on Irish life, 59, 94 _seq._ + Protestantism, 98, 99, 119 + Roman Catholic Church (see that title). + Sectarian animosities, 98, 99 + Toleration, meaning of word, 95 +Ritualistic movement, 99 +Robertson, Lord:-- + University Commission, 140 +Roman Catholic Church:-- + Church-building and increase of monasteries, etc., 107, 108, 109 + Clergy:-- + Action and attitude towards questions of the day, 105 _seq_. + Authority of, 98, 105 _seq._ + Co-operative movement, 119 + Moral influence, 115, 116 + Political influence, 77, 117 + Temperance reform, 112, 114 + Economic conditions, influence on 101 _seq._ + Effect on Irish character, 101-105, 110 + Higher education of Roman Catholics, 97, 132 +Rosebery, Lord:-- + Attitude towards Home Rule, 4 +Ross, Mr. John:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +Royal College of Science, 229, 268, 270 +Royal Commission on University Education, 118, 128, 140 +Royal Dublin Society, Aid to Department of Agriculture, 279 +Royal University education, defects in, 128 +Rural life:-- + Emigration, causes of, 40, 116 + Gaelic revival's influence on, 159 + Industries, 52, 262, 266 + Problem of, 39, 51, 263 + Rehabilitation, 159, 199 +Russell, George W. (A.E.), 200 + +Salisbury, Lord:-- + "Twenty years of resolute government," 61 +Saunderson, Colonel:-- + Recess Committee, 217 +Scotch-Irish in America, 71 +Sea Fisheries--Department of Agriculture's improvement schemes, 282 +Self-help movement (see Co-operative movement). +Sentiment:-- + Anti-English, cause of, 13 _seq_. + Force of in Irish question, 15, 127 +Separation, Home Rule and, 87 +Shinnors, Rev. Mr.:-- + Irish in America, 111 +Sinclair, Thomas:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +Social order, Irish attachment to, 54 +_Spectator_:--English non-allowance for sentiment, 15 +_Speed's Chronicle_:-- + Con O'Neal, etc. 57 +Spencer, Lord, 168 +Starkie, Dr.:-- + Mr. Wyse's education scheme, 126 +State-aid:-- 45, 211, 219, 220, 223 +Stephen, J.K. ("Cynicus") 164 +Stopford Brooke, 92 +Swine fever, 251 + +Technical Instruction, 130, 228, 234 _seq_. 257, 263, 267, 279 +Temperance Reform, 112 _seq_. +Tenure question and land question, 41 +Tillage, decrease of, 42 +Tisserand, M.:-- + Recess Committee memorandum, 220 +Tobacco culture, 282 +Trinity College, influence of, 134, 136 _seq._ +Two Irelands, 37 + +Ulster:-- + Attitude towards the rest of Ireland, 38 + Home Rule, objections to, 66, 86, 87 +Ulster Liberal Unionist Association, political thought in, 66 +Unionist (Irish) Party:-- + Industrial element in Irish life and, 67, 68, 86 + Influence in Irish life, 63_seq._ + Policy, 68 + Ulster and Home Rule, 66,86 _seq._ +United Ireland, first real conception of, 77 +United Irish League, 90 +University Question:-- 99, 109 + Catholic University:-- + O'Dea, Dr., on, 141 + O'Dwyer, Dr., on, 140 + Hyde, Dr., evidence before Commission, 151 + Maynooth, influence of, 134, 136, 138, 139 + Place of the University in education, 133 + Trinity College, influence of, 134, 136 _seq._ + University reform necessary, 138 + +Vandeleur Estate, co-operative community, 184 +Village libraries, 119, 199 + +Wolff, Mr. Henry W.:-- + People's banks, 199 +Wyndham, Mr.:-- + Land Act. 1903, 10, 12 +Wyse, Mr. Thomas:-- + Scheme of Irish education, 125 + +Yeats, W.B. 154 +Yerburgh, Mr. R.A.:-- + Agricultural banks, 199 + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Ireland In The New Century, by Horace Plunkett + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14342 *** diff --git a/14342-h/14342-h.htm b/14342-h/14342-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b1fd6b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/14342-h/14342-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8406 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Ireland In The New Century, by The Right Hon. Sir Horace Plunkett. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + LI {list-style-type: none} + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */ + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14342 ***</div> + +<h1><b>IRELAND</b></h1> + +<h2><b>IN THE NEW CENTURY</b></h2> +<br /> + +<h4>BY THE RIGHT HON.</h4> + +<h3>SIR HORACE PLUNKETT, K.C.V.O., F.R.S. +</h3> +<br /> +<br /> +<h5>LONDON</h5> + +<h5>JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.</h5> + +<h4>1904</h4> +<br /> +<br /> +<h5><i>Printed by</i> BROWNE AND NOLAN, LTD., <i>Dublin</i></h5> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>TO THE MEMORY OF</h4> +<br /> + + +<h4><b>W.E.H. LECKY,</b></h4> +<br /> + +<h4>I DEDICATE ALL IN THIS BOOK</h4> +<h4>THAT IS WORTHY OF THE FRIENDSHIP</h4> +<h4>WITH WHICH HE HONOURED ME,</h4> +<h4>AND OF THE COUNSEL WHICH HE GAVE ME</h4> +<h4>FOR MY GUIDANCE IN IRISH PUBLIC LIFE.</h4> + +<br /> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="PREFACE"></a><h2>PREFACE</h2> + +<p>Those who have known Ireland for the last dozen years cannot have failed +to notice the advent of a wholly new spirit, clearly based upon +constructive thought, and expressing itself in a wide range of fresh +practical activities. The movement for the organisation of agriculture +and rural credit on co-operative lines, efforts of various kinds to +revive old or initiate new industries, and, lastly, the creation of a +department of Government to foster all that was healthy in the voluntary +effort of the people to build up the economic side of their life, are +each interesting in themselves. When taken together, and in conjunction +with the literary and artistic movements, and viewed in their relation +to history, politics, religion, education, and the other past and +present influences operating upon the Irish mind and character, these +movements appear to me to be worthy of the most thoughtful consideration +by all who are responsible for, or desire the well-being of the Irish +people.</p> + +<p>I should not, however, in days when my whole time and energies belong to +the public service, have undertaken the task of writing a book on a +subject so complex and apparently so inseparable from heated +controversy, were I not convinced that the expression of certain +thoughts which have come to me from practical contact with Irish +problems, was the best contribution I could make to the work on which I +was engaged. I wished, if I could, to bring into clearer light the +essential unity of the various progressive movements in Ireland, and to +do something towards promoting a greater definiteness of aim and method, +and a better understanding of each other's work, among those who are in +various ways striving for the upbuilding of a worthy national life in +Ireland.</p> + +<p>So far the task, if difficult, was congenial and free from +embarrassment. Unhappily, it had been borne in upon me, in the course of +a long study of Irish life, that our failure to rise to our +opportunities and to give practical evidence of the intellectual +qualities with which the race is admittedly gifted, was due to certain +defects of character, not ethically grave, but economically paralysing. +I need hardly say I refer to the lack of moral courage, initiative, +independence and self-reliance—defects which, however they may be +accounted for, it is the first duty of modern Ireland to recognise and +overcome. I believe in the new movements in Ireland, principally because +they seem to me to exert a stimulating influence upon our moral fibre.</p> + +<p>Holding such an opinion, I had to decide between preserving a discreet +silence and speaking my full mind. The former course would, it appeared +to me, be a poor example of the moral courage which I hold to be +Ireland's sorest need. Moreover, while I am full of hope for the future +of my country, its present condition does not, in my view, admit of any +delay in arriving at the truth as to the essential principles which +should guide all who wish to take a part, however humble, in the work of +national regeneration.</p> + +<p>I desire to state definitely that I have not written in any +representative capacity except where I say so explicitly. I write on my +own responsibility, with the full knowledge that there is much in the +book with which many of those with whom I work do not agree.</p> + +<p><i>December</i>, 1903.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CONTENTS"></a><h2><b>CONTENTS</b></h2> + +<h3><a href="#PART_I">PART I.</a></h3> + +<h4><i>THEORETICAL.</i></h4> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></h3> + +<h4>THE ENGLISH MISUNDERSTANDING.</h4> + +<ul><li><a href="#Page_1">Fidelity of the Irish to the National Ideal</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_2">Disregard of Material Advantage in its Pursuit</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_3">Home Rule Movement under Gladstone</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_4">The Anti-Climax under Lord Rosebery</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_5">The Logic of Events and the Dawn of the Practical</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_7">The Mutual Misunderstanding of England and Ireland</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_8">The Dunraven Conference produces a Revolution in English Thought +about Ireland</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_10">The Actual Change Examined</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_12">Future Misunderstanding best averted by considering Nature of +Anti-English Feelin</a>g</li> +<li><a href="#Page_13">Illustration from Irish-American Life</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_15">Importance of Sentiment in Ireland—English Habit of Ignoring</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_16">Historical Grievances Still Operative</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_17">The Commercial Restrictions—Remaining Effects of</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_20">Irish Land Tenure—Lord Dufferin on</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_21">Defects of Land Laws—Their Effect on Agriculture</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_25">Right Attitude towards Historic Grievances</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_27">Plea for Broader and more Philosophic View of Irish Question</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_28">Simple Explanations and Panaceas Deprecated</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_29">A Many-Sided Human Problem</a></li></ul> + + + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></h3> + +<h4>THE IRISH QUESTION IN IRELAND.</h4> + +<ul><li><a href="#Page_30">Misunderstanding of the Irish People by the English and by Themselves</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_33">Anomalies of Irish Life</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_35">The New Movement—Position of Nationalists and Unionists in it</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_38">North and South</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_39">The Question of Rural Life</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_41">Economic Side of the Question</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_43">Grazing versus Tillage</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_45">Peasant Organisation to be Supplemented by State-Aid</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_46">Uneconomic Holdings too Prevalent</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_48">Remedies Proposed</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_51">Salvation not by Agriculture Alone</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_53">Rural Industries and the Irish Home</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_57">Reasons for Arrested Development of Home Life</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_58">Inter-Dependence of the Sentimental and Practical in Ireland</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_59">Outlines of Succeeding Chapters</a></li></ul> + + + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></h3> + +<h4>THE INFLUENCE OF POLITICS UPON THE IRISH MIND.</h4> + +<ul><li><a href="#Page_61">Legislation as a Substitute for Work</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_62">Political Shortcomings of Unionism and Nationalism Compared</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_63">Action of the Unionist Party Reviewed</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_64">Two Main Causes of its Lack of Success</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_66">The Contribution of Ulster</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_69">The Nationalist Party</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_70">Are Irishmen Good Politicians?</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_71">The Irish and the Scotch-Irish in America</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_74">America's Interest in the Problem</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_75">Part Played by English Government in Producing Modern Irish Disabilities</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_77">Causes of the Growth of National Feeling</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_78">Retardation of Political Education by the One-Man System</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_81">And by Politicians of To-Day</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_82">Defence of Nationalist Policy on Ground of Tactics Considered</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_86">The Forces opposed to Home Rule—How Dealt with</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_88">Local Government—How it might have been utilised</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_89">After Home Rule?</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_90">Beginnings of Political Education</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_91">The Irish Parliamentary Party</a></li></ul> + + + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></h3> + +<h4>THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION UPON SECULAR LIFE IN IRELAND.</h4> + +<ul><li><a href="#Page_94">Influences of Religion in Ireland</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_95">What is Toleration?</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_98">Protestantism in Irish Life</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_101">Roman Catholicism and Economics</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_105">Power of the Roman Catholic Clergy</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_106">Has it been Abused?</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_107">Church Building and Monastic Establishments</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_109">Clerical Education</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_111">Responsibility of the Clergy for Irish Character</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_112">The Church and Temperance</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_115">The Inculcation of Chastity</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_117">The Priest in Politics</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_118">New Movement among the Roman Catholic Clergy</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_119">Duty and Interest of Protestantism</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_121">What each Creed has to Learn from the other</a></li></ul> + + + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></h3> + +<h4>A PRACTICAL VIEW OF IRISH EDUCATION.</h4> + +<ul><li><a href="#Page_122">English Government and Education</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_123">The Kildare Street Society</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_125">Scheme of Thomas Wyse</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_126">Early Attempts at Practical Education</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_127">Recent Reports on Irish Systems</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_130">The Policy of the Department of Agriculture</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_131">The Example of Denmark</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_132">University Education for Roman Catholics</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_135">Maynooth and its Limitations</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_136">Trinity College</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_138">Its Lack of Influence on the Irish Mind</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_139">A Democratic University Called for</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_140">National and Economic in its Aims</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_141">Views of Roman Catholic Ecclesiastics</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_143">The Two Irelands</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_144">Lord Chesterfield on Education and Character</a></li></ul> + + + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></h3> + +<h4>THROUGH THOUGHT TO ACTION.</h4> + +<ul><li><a href="#Page_146">A Word to my Critics</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_148">The Gaelic League</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_149">Compared with the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_150">Objects and Constitution of the League</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_152">Filling the Gap in Irish Education</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_153">Patriotism and Industry</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_154">Nationality and Nationalism</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_156">A Possible Danger</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_158">Extravagances in the Movement</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_159">The Gaelic League and the Rural Home</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_161">Meeting with Harold Frederic</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_162">His Pessimistic Views on the Celt</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_165">A New Solution of the Problem—Organised Self-Help</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_166">English and Irish Industrial Qualities</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_167">Special Value of the Associative Qualities</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_169">Conclusion of Part I.</a></li></ul> + + + + +<h3><a href="#PART_II">PART II.</a></h3> + +<h4><i>PRACTICAL.</i></h4> + + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></h3> + +<h4>THE NEW MOVEMENT; ITS FOUNDATION ON SELF-HELP.</h4> + +<ul><li><a href="#Page_175">Distrust of Novel Schemes often well justified</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_178">The Story of the New Movement</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_179">Necessitated by Foreign Competition</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_180">Production and Distribution</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_181">Causes of Continental Superiority</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_182">Objects for which Combination is Desirable</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_183">How to Organise the Industrial Army</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_184">Help from England</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_185">Doubts and Difficulties</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_186">Some Favouring Conditions</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_187">The Beginning of the Work—Co-operative Creameries</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_188">The Social Problem</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_189">Early Efforts and Experiences</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_191">Foundation of the I.A.O.S.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_192">Its Present Position</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_195">Agricultural Banks</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_199">The Brightening of Home Life</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_200">Staff of the Society</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_204">Philanthropy and Business</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_205">Enquiries from Abroad</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_207">Moral and Social Effects of the New Movement</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_209">Unknown Leaders</a></li></ul> + + + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h3> + +<h4>THE RECESS COMMITTEE.</h4> + +<ul><li><a href="#Page_210">After Six Years</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_211">Opportunity for State-Aid</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_212">Combination of Political and Industrial Leadership</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_213">A Letter to the Press</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_216">Mr. Justin McCarthy's Reply</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_217">Mr. Redmond's Reply</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_218">Formation of the Committee</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_219">Investigations on the Continent</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_220">Recommendations of the Committee</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_222">Position of the Nationalist Members of the Committee</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_223">Chief Reliance on Local Effort</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_224">Public Opinion on the New Proposals</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_224">Adoption of the Bill to give effect to them</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_225">Mr. Gerald Balfour's Policy</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_226">Industrial Home Rule</a></li></ul> + + + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></h3> + +<h4>A NEW DEPARTURE IN IRISH ADMINISTRATION.</h4> + +<ul><li><a href="#Page_227">Functions and Constitution of the New Department</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_231">How it is Financed</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_232">The Representative Element in its Constitution</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_235">The Right to Vote Supplies</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_236">Consultative Committee on Education</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_238">The Department Linked with the Local Government System</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_240">Successful Co-operation with Local Government Bodies</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_241">And with Voluntary Societies</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_243">The New Department and the Congested Districts Board</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_246">The Reception of the Department by the Country</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_247">Some Typical Callers</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_256">A Wrong Impression Anticipated</a></li></ul> + + + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></h3> + +<h4>GOVERNMENT WITH THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED.</h4> + +<ul><li><a href="#Page_257">Summary of Previous Chapter</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_258">The Attitude of the People towards the Department</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_261">Method of Co-operation with Local Bodies</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_262">State-Aid, Direct and Indirect</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_263">The Department and the Large Towns</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_264">The Department's Plans for Developing Agriculture</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_265">The Industrial Problem and Education</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_267">The Difficulty of Finding Trained Teachers</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_268">How Surmounted</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_269">Difficulties of Agricultural Education</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_270">Decision to Adopt Itinerant Instruction</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_271">Double Purpose of this Instruction</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_272">Relation of the Department with Secondary Schools</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_272">Importance of Domestic Economy Teaching</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_274">Provision of Teachers in Domestic Economy</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_275">Miscellaneous Industries</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_275">Competition of the Factory</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_276">The Department's Fabian Policy Justified</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_278">Its Support by the Country</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_279">Improvement of Live-Stock</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_281">Best Method of giving Object Lessons in Agriculture</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_282">Sea Fisheries</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_284">Continental Tours for Irish Teachers</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_285">Cork Exhibition of 1902</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_287">Things and Ideas</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_287">Concluding Words</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li><a href="#INDEX">INDEX</a></li></ul> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="PART_I"></a><h2>PART I.</h2> + +<h4><i>THEORETICAL</i>.</h4> + + +<blockquote><p>"It is hard to say where history ends, and where religion and + politics begin; for history, religion and politics grow on one stem + in Ireland, an eternal trefoil."—<i>Lady Gregory</i>.</p></blockquote> +<a name="Page_1"></a> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_I"></a><h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h4>THE ENGLISH MISUNDERSTANDING.</h4> + + +<p>Whatever may be the ultimate verdict of history upon the long struggle +of the majority of the Irish people for self-government, the picture of +a small country with large aspirations giving of its best unstintingly +to the world, while gaining for itself little beyond sympathy, will +appeal to the imagination of future ages long after the Irish Question, +as we know it, has been buried. It may then, perhaps, be seen that the +aspirations came to nought because they were opposed to the manifest +destiny of the race, and that it should never have been expected or +desired that the Dark Rosaleen should 'reign and reign alone.' +Nevertheless, the fidelity and fortitude with which the national ideal +had been pursued would command admiration, even if the ideal itself were +to be altogether abandoned, or if it were to be ultimately realised in a +manner which showed that the methods by which its attainment had been +sought were the cause of its long postponement. Whatever the future may +have in store for the remnant of the Irish people at home, the continued +pursuit of a separate national existence by a nation which is rapidly +dis<a name="Page_2"></a>appearing from the land of all its hopes, and the cherishing of +these hopes, not only by those who stay but also by those who go, will +stand as a monument to human constancy.</p> + +<p>The picture will be all the more remarkable when emphasised by a +contrast which the historian will not fail to draw. Across a narrow +streak of sea another people, during the same period, increased and +multiplied and prospered mightily, spread their laws and institutions, +and achieved in every portion of the globe material success which they +can call their own. Yet, although Irishmen have done much to win that +success for the English people to enjoy, and are to-day foremost in +maintaining the great empire which their brain and muscle were ever +ready to augment, Ireland makes no claim for herself in respect of the +achievement. It is to her but a proof of what her sons will do for her +in the coming time; it does not bring her nearer to her heart's desire.</p> + +<p>Although the nineteenth century, with all its marvellous contributions +to human progress, left Ireland with her hopes unfulfilled; although its +sun went down upon the British people with their greatest failure still +staring them in the face, its last decade witnessed at first a change in +the attitude of England towards Ireland, and afterwards a profound +revolution in the thoughts of Ireland about herself. The strangest and +most interesting feature of these developments was that in practical +England the Irish Question became the great political <a name="Page_3"></a>issue, while in +sentimental Ireland there set in a reaction from politics and an +inclination to the practical. The twentieth century has already brought +to birth the new Ireland upon whose problems I shall write. If the human +interest of these problems is to be realized, if their significance is +not to be as wholly misunderstood as that of every other Irish movement +which has perplexed the statesmen who have managed our affairs, they +must be studied in their relation to the English and Irish events of the +period in which the new Ireland was conceived.</p> + +<p>In 1885 Gladstone, appealing to an electorate with a large accession of +newly enfranchised voters, transferred the struggle over the Irish +Question from Ireland to Great Britain. The position taken up by the +average English Home Ruler was, it will be remembered, simple and +intelligible. The Irish had stated in the proper constitutional way what +they wanted, and that, in the first flush of a victorious democracy, +when counting heads irrespective of contents was the popular method of +arriving at political truth, was assumed to be precisely what they ought +to have. A long but inconclusive contest ensued. At times it looked as +if the Liberal-Irish alliance might snatch a victory for their policy. +But when Gladstone was forced to break with the Irish Leader, and +Parnellism without Parnell became obviously impossible, the English +realised that the working of representative institutions in Ireland had +produced not a democracy but a dictatorship, and they <a name="Page_4"></a>began to attach a +lesser significance to the verdict of the Irish polls. Their faith in +democracy was unimpaired, but, in their opinion, the Irish had not yet +risen to its dignity. So most English Radicals came round to a view +which they had always reprobated when advanced by the English +Conservatives, and political inferiority was added to the other moral +and intellectual defects which made the Irish an inferior race!</p> + +<p>The anti-climax to the Gladstone crusade was reached when Lord Rosebery +in 1894 took over the premiership from the greatest English advocate of +the Irish cause. The position of the new leader was very simple. In +effect, he told the Irish Nationalists that the English party he was +about to lead had done its best for them. They must now regard +themselves as partners in the United Kingdom, with the British as the +predominant partner. Until the predominant partner could be brought to +take the Irish view of the partnership, the relations between them must +remain substantially as they were. And not only must the concession of +Home Rule await the conversion of the British electorate, but before the +demand could be effectively preferred, another leader must rise up among +the Irish; and he, for all Lord Rosebery knew, was at the moment being +wheeled in a perambulator. This apparently cynical avowal of the new +premier's own attitude towards Home Rule accurately stated the facts of +the situation, and fairly reflected the mind of the British electorate, +after Irish obstruction had given them an <a name="Page_5"></a>opportunity of studying the +bearing of the Irish Question on English politics.</p> + +<p>If the logic of events was thus making for the removal of Home Rule from +the region of practical politics in England, an even more momentous +change was taking place in Ireland. Whilst the Home Rule controversy was +at its height in the 'eighties and early 'nineties, some Irish +grievances were incidentally dealt with—not always under the best +impulses or in the best way. The concentration of all the available +thought and energy of Irish public men upon an appeal to the passions +and prejudices of English parties had led to the further postponement of +all Irish endeavour to deal rationally and practically with her own +problems at home. But during the welter of contention which prevailed +after the fall of Parnell, there grew up in Ireland a wholly new spirit, +born of the bitter lesson which was at last being learned. The Irish +still clung undaunted to their political ideal, but its pursuit to the +exclusion of all other national aims had received a wholesome check. +Thought upon the problems of national progress broadened and deepened, +in a manner little understood by those who knew Ireland from without, +and, indeed, by many of those accounted wise among the observers from +within. Was the realisation of a distinctive national existence, many +began to ask themselves, to be for ever dependent upon the fortunes of a +political campaign? In any scheme of a reconstructed national life to +which the<a name="Page_6"></a> Irish would give of their best, there must be +distinctiveness—that much every man who is in touch with Irish life is +fully aware of—but the question of existence must not be altogether +ignored. At the rate the people were leaving the sinking ship, the Irish +Question would be settled in the not distant future by the disappearance +of the Irish. Had we not better look around and see how other countries +with more or less analogous conditions fared? Could we not—Unionists +and Nationalists alike—do something towards material progress without +abandoning our ideals? Could we not learn something from a study of what +our people were doing abroad? One seemed to hear the voice of Bishop +Berkeley, the biting pertinence of whose <i>Queries</i> is ever fresh, asking +from the grave in which he had been laid to rest nearly a century and a +half ago 'whether it would not be more reasonable to mend our state than +complain of it; and how far this may be in our own power?'</p> + +<p>These questionings, though not generally heard on the platform or even +in the street, were none the less working in the depths of the Irish +mind, and found expression not so much in words as in deeds. Yet though +the downfall of Parnell released many minds from the obsession of +politics, the influence of that event was of a negative character, and +it took time to produce a beneficial effect. That fruitful last decade +of the nineteenth century saw the foundation of what will some day be +recognised as a new philosophy of Irish progress. Certain new principles +were then promul<a name="Page_7"></a>gated in Ireland, and gradually found acceptance; and +upon those principles a new movement was built. It is partly, indeed, to +expound and justify some, at any rate, of the principles and to give an +intelligible account of the practical achievement and future +possibilities of this movement that I write these pages.</p> + +<p>For English readers, to whom this introductory chapter is chiefly +addressed, I may here reiterate the opinion, which I have always held +and often expressed, that there is no real conflict of interest between +the two peoples and the two countries, and that the mutual +misunderstanding which we may now hope to see removed is due to a wide +difference of temperament and mental outlook. The English mind has never +understood the Irish mind—least of all during the period of the 'Union +of Hearts.' It is equally true that the Irish have largely misunderstood +both the English character and their own responsibility. The result has +been that their leaders, despite the brilliant capacity they have shown +in presenting the unhappy case of their country to the rest of the +world, have rarely presented it in the right way to the English people. +There have been many occasions during the last quarter of a century when +a calm, well-reasoned statement of the economic disadvantages under +which Ireland labours would, I am convinced, have successfully appealed +to British public opinion. It could have been shown that the development +of Ireland—the development not only of the resources of her soil but of +the far greater wealth which lies in the <a name="Page_8"></a>latent capacities of her +people—was demanded quite as much in the interest of one country as in +that of the other.</p> + +<p>Here, indeed, is an untilled field for those to whom the Irish Question +is yet a living one. If I could think that each country fully realised +its own responsibility in the matter, if I could think that the +long-continued misunderstanding was at an end, nothing would induce me +to trouble the waters at this auspicious hour, when a better feeling +towards Ireland prevails in Great Britain, and when the Irish people are +fully appreciative of the obviously sincere desire of England to be +generous to Ireland. But an examination of the events upon which the +prevailing optimism is based will show that, unhappily, +misunderstanding, though of another sort, still exists, and that Ireland +is as much as ever a riddle to the English mind.</p> + +<p>Now this new optimism in the English view of Ireland seems to be based, +not upon a recognition of the development of what I have ventured to +dignify with the title of a new philosophy of Irish progress, but upon a +belief that the spirit of moderation and conciliation displayed by so +many Irishmen in connection with the Land Act is due to the fact that my +incomprehensible countrymen have, under a sudden emotion, put away +childish things and learned to behave like grown-up Englishmen. +Throughout the press comments upon the Dunraven Conference and in public +speeches both inside and outside Parliament there has run a sense that a +sort of <a name="Page_9"></a>portent, a transformation scene, a sudden and magical +alteration in the whole spirit and outlook of the Irish people, has come +to pass.</p> + +<p>I feel some hesitation in asking the reader to believe that a great and +lasting revolution in Irish thought has been brought about in such a +moment in the life of a people as twelve short years. But a lesser +number of months seemed to the English mind adequate for the +accomplishment of the change. And what a change it was that they +conceived! To them, less than a year ago, the Irish Question was not +merely unsolved, but in its essential features appeared unaltered. After +seven centuries of experimental statecraft—so varied that the English +could not believe any expedient had yet to be tried—the vast majority +of the Irish people regarded the Government as alien, disputed the +validity of its laws, and felt no responsibility for administration, no +respect for the legislature, or for those who executed its decrees. And +this in a country forming an integral part of the United Kingdom, where +the fundamental basis of government is assumed to be the consent of the +governed! Nor were any hopes entertained that the cloud would quickly +pass. During the Boer war the prophets of evil, in predicting the +calamity which was to fall upon the British Empire, took as their text +the failure of English government in Ireland. When they wanted to paint +in the darkest colours the coming heritage of woe, they wrote upon the +wall, 'Another Ireland in South Africa'; and if any exception was taken +to the <a name="Page_10"></a>appropriateness of the phrase, it was certainly not on the +ground that Ireland had ceased to be a warning to British statesmen.</p> + +<p>I believe, quite as strongly as the most optimistic Englishman, that +there has been a great change from this state of things in Irish +sentiment, and my explanation of that change, if less dramatic than the +transformation theory, affords more solid ground for optimism. This +change in the sentiment of Irishmen towards England is due, not to a +sudden emotion of the incomprehensible Celt, but really to the +opinion—rapidly growing for the last dozen years—that great as is the +responsibility of England for the state of Ireland, still greater is the +responsibility of Irishmen. The conviction has been more and more borne +in upon the Irish mind that the most important part of the work of +regenerating Ireland must necessarily be done by Irishmen in Ireland. +The result has been that many Irishmen, both Unionists and Nationalists, +without in any way abandoning their opposition to, or support of, the +attempt to solve the political problem from without, have been +trying—not without success—to solve some part of the Irish Question +from within. The Report of the Recess Committee, on which I shall dwell +later, was the first great fruit of this movement, and the Dunraven +Treaty, which paved the way for Mr. Wyndham's Land Act, was a further +fruit, and not the result of an inexplicable transformation scene.</p> + +<p>The reason why I dwell on the true nature of the <a name="Page_11"></a>undoubted change in +the Irish situation is not in order to exaggerate the importance of the +part played by the new movement in bringing it about, nor to detract +from the importance of Parliamentary action, but because a mistaken view +of the change would inevitably postpone the firm establishment of an +improved mutual understanding between the two countries, which I regard +as an essential of Irish progress. I confess that my apprehension of a +new misunderstanding was aroused by the debates on the Land Bill in the +House of Commons. As regards the spirit of conciliation and moderation +displayed by the Irish, and the sincere desire exhibited by the British +to heal the chief Irish economic sore, the speeches were, if not +epoch-making, at any rate epoch-marking; but they showed little sense of +perspective or proportion in viewing the Irish Question, and little +grasp or appreciation of the large social and economic problems which +the Land Act will bring to the front. Temporary phenomena and +legislative machinery have been endowed with an importance they do not +possess, and miracles, it is supposed, are about to be worked in Ireland +by processes which, whatever rich good may be in them, have never worked +miracles, though they have not seldom excited very similar enthusiasms +in the economic history of other European lands.</p> + +<p>I agree, then, with most Englishmen in thinking, though for a different +reason, that the passing of the Land Act marked a new era in Ireland. +They regard it <a name="Page_12"></a>as productive of, or co-incident in time with, the dawn +of the practical in Ireland. I antedate that event by some dozen years, +and regard the Land Act rather as marking a new era, because it removes +the great obstacle which obscured the dawn of the practical for so many, +and hindered it for all.</p> + +<p>Whatever may have been the expectations upon which this great measure +was based, I, in common with most Irish observers, watched its progress +with unfeigned delight. The vast majority regarded the hundred millions +of credit and the twelve millions of 'bonus' as a generous concession to +Ireland; and I sympathised with those who deprecated the mischievous +suggestion, not infrequently heard in English political circles, that +this munificence was the 'price of peace.' On one point all were agreed: +the Bill could never have become law had not Mr. Wyndham handled the +Parliamentary situation with masterly tact, temper, and ability. To him +is chiefly due the credit for the fact that the Land Question, in its +old form at any rate, no longer blocks the way, and that the large +problems which remain to be solved, and, above all, the spirit in which +they will have to be approached by those who wish the existing peace to +be the forerunner of material and social progress, can be freely and +frankly discussed.</p> + +<p>It is true, as I have said, that Ireland is becoming more and more +practical, and that England is becoming more anxious than ever to do her +substantial justice. But still the manner of the doing will continue to +be as important <a name="Page_13"></a>as the thing which is done. Of the Irish qualities none +is stronger than the craving to be understood. If the English had only +known this secret we should have been the most easily governed people in +the world. For it is characteristic of the conduct of our most important +affairs that we care too little about the substance and too much about +the shadow. It is for this reason that I have discussed the real nature +of one phase of Irish sentiment which has been largely misunderstood, +and it is for the same reason that I propose to preface my examination +of the Irish Question with some reference to the cause and nature of the +anti-English sentiment, for the long continuance of which I can find no +other explanation than the failure of the English to see into the Irish +mind.</p> + +<p>I am well acquainted with this sentiment because, in my practical work +in Ireland, it has ever been the main current of the stream against +which I have had to swim. Years spent in the United States had made me +familiar with its full and true significance, for there it can be +studied in an atmosphere not dominated by any present Irish +controversies or struggles. I have found this sentiment of hatred deeply +rooted in the minds of Irishmen who had themselves never known Ireland, +who had no connection, other than a sentimental one, with that country, +who were living quiet business lives in the United States, but who were +ever ready to testify with their dollars, and genuinely believed that +they only lacked opportunity to demonstrate in a more <a name="Page_14"></a>enterprising way, +their "undying hatred of the English name."<a name="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a></p> + +<p>With such men I have reasoned, and sometimes not in vain, upon the +injustice and unreason of their attitude. I have not attempted to +controvert the main facts of Ireland's grievances, which they frequently +told me they had gleaned from Froude and Lecky. I used to deprecate the +unqualified application of modern standards to the policies of other +days, and to protest against the injustice of punishing one set of +persons for the misdoings of another set of persons, who have long since +passed beyond the reach of any earthly tribunal. I have given them my +reasons for believing that, even if such a course were morally +admissible, the wit of man could not devise any means of inflicting a +blow upon England which would not react injuriously with tenfold force +upon Ireland. I have gone on to show that the sentiment itself, largely +the accident of untoward circumstances, is alien to the character and +temperament of the Irish people. In short, I have urged that the policy +of revenge is un-Christian and unintelligent, and, that, as the Irish +people are neither irreligious nor stupid, it is un-Irish. I well +remember taking up this position in conversation with some very advanced +Irish-Americans <a name="Page_15"></a>in the Far West and the reply which one of them made. +"Wal," said my half-persuaded friend, "mebbe you're right. I have two +sons, whom I have raised in the expectation that they will one day +strike a blow for old Ireland. Mebbe they won't. I'm too old to change."</p> + +<p>I have chosen this incident from a long series of similar reminiscences +of my study of Irish life, to illustrate an attitude of mind, the +historical explanation of which would seem to the practical Englishman +as academic as a psychological exposition of the effect of a red rag +upon a bull. The English are not much to be blamed for resenting the +survival of the feeling, but it appears to me to argue a singular lack +of political imagination that they should still fail to appreciate the +reality, the significance, and the abiding force of a sentiment which +has so far successfully resisted the influence of those governing +qualities which have played a foremost part in the civilisation of the +modern world. The <i>Spectator</i> some time ago came out bluntly with a +truth which an Irishman may, I presume, quote without offence from so +high an English authority:—"The one blunder of average Englishmen in +considering foreign questions is that with white men they make too +little allowance for sentiment, and with coloured men they make none at +all."<a name="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> I am afraid it must be added that 'average Englishmen' make +exactly the same blunder in under-estimating the force of sentiment when +considering Irish questions, with the not unnatural consequence <a name="Page_16"></a>that +the Irish regard them as foreigners, and that, as those foreigners +happen to govern them, the sentiment of nationality becomes political +and anti-English.</p> + +<p>There is one reason why this sentiment is not allowed to die which +should always be remembered by those who wish to grasp the inner +workings of the Irish mind. Briefly stated, the view prevails in Ireland +that in dealing with questions affecting our material well-being, the +government of our country by the English was, in the past, characterised +by an unenlightened self-interest. Thoughtful Englishmen admit this +charge, but they say that the past referred to is beyond living memory +and should now be buried. The Irish mind replies that the life of a +nation is not to be measured by the life of individuals, and that a +wrong inflicted by a Government upon a community entitles those who +inherit the consequences of the injury to claim reparation at the hands +of those who inherit the government. With this attitude on the part of +the Irish mind I am not only most heartily in sympathy, but I find every +Englishman who understands the situation equally so. In the later +portions of this book it will be shown that practical recognition, in no +small measure, has been given by England to the righteousness of this +part of the Irish case, and that if the effect thus produced has not +found as full an outward expression as might have been expected, the +Irish people have at any rate responded to the new treatment in a manner +which must, in no distant future, bring about a better understanding.</p><a name="Page_17"></a> + +<p>The only historical causes of our present discontents to which I need +now particularly refer, are the commercial restrictions and the land +system of the past, which stand out from the long list of Irish +grievances as those for which their victims were the least responsible. +No one can be more anxious than I am that we should cease to be for ever +seeking in the past excuses for our present failures. But it is +essential to a correct estimation of Irish agricultural and industrial +possibilities that we should notice the true bearings of these +historical grievances upon existing conditions.</p> + +<p>In this connection there arises a question which is very pertinent to +the present inquiry and which must therefore be considered. I have seen +it argued by English economists that the industrial revolution which +took place at the end of the eighteenth and commencement of the +nineteenth century would in any case have destroyed, by force of open +competition, industries which, it is admitted, were previously +legislated away. They point out that the change from the order of small +scattered home industries to the factory system would have suited +neither the temperament nor the industrial habits of the Irish. They +tell us that with the industrial revolution the juxtaposition of coal +and iron became an all-important factor in the problem, and they recall +how the north and west of England captured the industrial supremacy from +the south and east. Incidentally they point out that the people of the +English counties which suffered by these <a name="Page_18"></a>economic causes braced +themselves to meet the changes, and it is suggested that if the people +of Ireland had shown the same resourcefulness, they, too, might have +weathered the storm. And, finally, we are reminded that England, by her +stupid Irish policy, punished her own supporters, and even herself, +quite as much as the 'mere Irish.'</p> + +<p>Much of this may be true, but this line of argument only shows that +these English economists do not thoroughly understand the real grievance +which the Irish people still harbour against the English for past +misgovernment. The commercial restraints sapped the industrial instinct +of the people—an evil which was intensified in the case of the +Catholics by the working of the penal laws. When these legislative +restrictions upon industry had been removed, the Irish, not being +trained in industrial habits, were unable to adapt themselves to the +altered conditions produced by the Industrial Revolution, as did the +people in England. And as for commerce, the restrictions, which had as +little moral sanction as the penal laws, and which invested smuggling +with a halo of patriotism, had prevented the development of commercial +morality, without which there can be no commercial success. It is not, +therefore, the destruction of specific industries, or even the sweeping +of our commerce from the seas, about which most complaint is now made. +The real grievance lies in the fact that something had been taken from +our industrial character which could not be remedied by the mere removal +of the <a name="Page_19"></a>restrictions. Not only had the tree been stripped, but the roots +had been destroyed. If ever there was a case where President Kruger's +'moral and intellectual damages' might fairly be claimed by an injured +nation, it is to be found in the industrial and commercial history of +Ireland during the period of the building up of England's commercial +supremacy.</p> + +<p>The English mind quite failed, until the very end of the nineteenth +century, to grasp the real needs of the situation which had thus been +created in Ireland The industrial revolution, as I have indicated, found +the Irish people fettered by an industrial past for which they +themselves were not chiefly responsible. They needed exceptional +treatment of a kind which was not conceded. They were, instead, still +further handicapped, towards the middle of the century, by the adoption +of Free Trade, which was imposed upon them when they were not only +unable to take advantage of its benefits, but were so situated as to +suffer to the utmost from its inconveniences.</p> + +<p>I am convinced that the long-continued misunderstanding of the +conditions and needs of this country, the withholding, for so long, of +necessary concessions, was due not to heartlessness or contempt so much +as to a lack of imagination, a defect for which the English cannot be +blamed. They had, to use a modern term, 'standardised' their qualities, +and it was impossible to get out of their minds the belief that a +divergence, in another race, from their standard of character was +synonymous with inferiority. This attitude is not yet <a name="Page_20"></a>a thing of the +past, but it is fast disappearing; and thoughtful Englishmen now +recognise the righteousness of the claim for reparation, and are willing +liberally to apply any stimulus to our industrial life which may place +us, so far as this is possible, on the level we might have occupied had +we been left to work out our own economic salvation. Unfortunately, all +Englishmen are not thoughtful, and hence I emphasise the fact that +England is largely responsible for our industrial defects, and must not +hesitate to face the financial results of that responsibility.</p> + +<p>When we pass from the domain of commerce, where we have seen that +circumstances reduced to the minimum Ireland's participation in the +industrial supremacy of England, and come to examine the historical +development of Irish agrarian life, we find a situation closely related +to, and indeed, largely created by, that which we have been discussing. +'Debarred from every other trade and industry,' wrote the late Lord +Dufferin, 'the entire nation flung itself back upon the land, with as +fatal an impulse as when a river, whose current is suddenly impeded, +rolls back and drowns the valley which it once fertilised.' The +energies, the hopes, nay, the very existence of the race, became thus +intimately bound up with agriculture. This industry, their last resort +and sole dependence, had to be conducted by a people who in every other +avocation had been unfitted for material success. And this industry, +too, was crippled from without, for a system of land tenure had <a name="Page_21"></a>been +imposed upon Ireland that was probably the most effective that could +have been devised for the purpose of perpetuating and accentuating every +disability to which other causes had given rise.</p> + +<p>The Irish land system suffered from the same ills as we all know the +political institutions to have suffered from—a partial and intermittent +conquest. Land holding in Ireland remained largely based on the tribal +system of open fields and common tillage for nearly eight hundred years +after collective ownership had begun to pass away in England. The sudden +imposition upon the Irish, early in the seventeenth century, of a land +system which was no part of the natural development of the country, +ignored, though it could not destroy, the old feeling of communistic +ownership, and, when this vanished, it did not vanish as it did in +countries where more normal conditions prevailed. It did not perish like +a piece of outworn tissue pushed off by a new growth from within: on the +contrary, it was arbitrarily cut away while yet fresh and vital, with +the result that where a bud should have been there was a scar.</p> + +<p>This sudden change in the system of land-holding was followed by a +century of reprisals and confiscations, and what war began the law +continued. The Celtic race, for the most part impoverished in mind and +estate by the penal laws, became rooted to the soil, for, as we have +seen, they had, on account of the repression of industries, no +alternative occupation, and so became, in fact, if not in law, +<i>adscripti glebae</i>. Upon the pro<a name="Page_22"></a>ductiveness of their labour the +landlord depended for his revenues, but he did little to develop that +productiveness, and the system which was introduced did everything to +lessen it.<a name="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> The wound produced by the original confiscation of the +land was kept from healing by the way in which the tenants' improvements +were somewhat similarly treated. I do not mean that they were +systematically confiscated—the Devon and Bessborough Commissions, as +well as Gladstone, bore witness to the contrary—but the right and the +occasional exercise of the right to confiscate operated in the same way. +In the Irish tenant's mind dispossession was nine-tenths of the law.</p> + +<p>An enlightened system of land tenure might have made prosperity and +contentment the lot of the native race, and, perhaps, have rendered +possible such a solution of the Irish problem as was effected between +England and Scotland two centuries ago. What was chiefly required for +agrarian peace was a recognition of that sense of partnership in the +land—a relic of the tribal days—to which the Irish mind tenaciously +adhered. But, like most English concessions, it was not granted until +too late, and then granted in the wrong way. The natural result was +that, when at last the recognition of partnership was enacted, it became +a lever for a demand for complete ownership. But this was the aftermath, +for in the meantime, from the seed <a name="Page_23"></a>sown by English blundering, +Ireland—native population and English garrison alike—had reaped the +awful harvest of the Irish famine, which was followed by a long dark +winter of discontent. Upon the England that sowed the wind there was +visited a whirlwind of hostility from the Irish race scattered +throughout the globe.</p> + +<p>It would be altogether outside the scope or purpose of this chapter to +present a complete history of the remedial legislation applied to Irish +land tenure. That history, however, illustrates so vividly the English +misunderstanding, that a short survey of one phase of it may help to +point the moral. The English intellect at long last began to grasp the +agrarian, though not the industrial side of the wrong that had been done +to Ireland, and the English conscience was moved; there came the era of +concessions to which I have alluded, and for over a quarter of a century +attempts, often generous, if not very discriminating, were made to deal +with the situation. In 1870, dispossession was made very costly to the +landlord. In 1881, it became impossible, except on the tenant's default, +and the partnership was fully recognised, the tenant's share being made +his own to sell, and being preserved for his profitable use by a right +to have the rent payable to his sleeping partner, the landlord, fixed by +a judicial tribunal. These rights were the famous three F's—fixity of +tenure, free sale, and fair rent—of the Magna Charta of the Irish +peasant. If these concessions had only been made in time, <a name="Page_24"></a>they would +probably have led to a strengthening of the economic position and +character of the Irish tenantry, which would have enabled them to take +full advantage of their new status, and meet any condition which might +arise; and it is just possible that the system might have worked well, +even at the eleventh hour, had it been launched on a rising market. +Unhappily, it fell upon evil days. The prosperous times of Irish +agriculture, which culminated a few years before the passing of the +'Tenants' Charter,' were followed by a serious reaction, the result of +causes which, though long operative, were only then beginning to make +themselves felt, and some of which, though the fact was not then +generally recognised, were destined to be of no temporary character. The +agricultural depression which has continued ever since was due, as is +now well known, to foreign competition, or, in other words, to the +opening up of vast areas in the Far West to the plough and herd, and the +bringing of the products of distant countries into the home markets in +ever-increasing quantity, in ever fresher condition, and at an +ever-decreasing cost of transportation. Great changes were taking place +in the market which the Irish farmer supplied, and no two men could +agree as to the relative influence of the new factors of the problem, or +as to their probable duration.</p> + +<p>Whatever may be said in disparagement of the great experiment commenced +in 1881, there can be no doubt that it enormously improved the legal +position of the<a name="Page_25"></a> Irish tenantry, and I, for one, regard it as a +necessary contribution to the events whose logic was finally to bring +about the abolition of dual ownership. But what a curious instance of +the irony of fate is afforded by this genuine attempt to heal an Irish +sore, what a commentary it is upon the English misunderstanding of the +Irish mind! Mr. Gladstone found the land system intolerable to one +party; he made it intolerable to the other also. For half a century +<i>laissez-faire</i> was pedantically applied to Irish agriculture, then +suddenly the other extreme was adopted; nothing was left alone, and +political economy was sent on its famous planetary excursion.</p> + +<p>When Mr. Gladstone was attempting to settle the land question on the +basis of dual ownership, the seed of a new kind of single +ownership—peasant proprietorship—was sown through the influence of +John Bright. The operations of the land purchase clauses in the Church +Disestablishment Act of 1869, and the Land Acts of 1870 and 1881, were +enormously extended by the Land Purchase Acts introduced by the +Conservative Party in 1885 and in 1891, and the success which attended +these Acts accentuated the defects and sealed the fate of dual +ownership, which all parties recently united to destroy. In other words, +Parliament has been undoing a generation's legislative work upon the +Irish land question.</p> + +<p>This is all I need say about that stage of the Irish agrarian situation +at which we have now arrived. What I wish my readers to bear in mind is +that the effect of a bad system of land tenure upon the other aspects of +the<a name="Page_26"></a> Irish Question reaches much further back than the struggles, +agitations, and reforms in connection with Irish land which this +generation has witnessed. The same may be said with regard to the other +economic grievances. No one can be more anxious than I am to fasten the +mind of my countrymen upon the practical things of to-day, and to wean +their sad souls from idle regrets over the sorrows of the past. If I +revive these dead issues, it is because I have learned that no man can +move the Irish mind to action unless he can see its point of view, which +is largely retrospective. I cannot ignore the fact that the attitude of +mind which causes the Irish people to put too much faith in legislative +cures for economic ills is mainly due to the belief that their ancestors +were the victims of a long series of laws by which every industry that +might have made the country prosperous was jealously repressed or +ruthlessly destroyed. Those who are not too much appalled by the +quantity to examine into the quality of popular oratory in Ireland are +familiar with the subordination of present economic issues to the dreary +reiteration of this old tale of woe. Personally I have always held that +to foster resentment in respect of these old wrongs is as stupid as was +the policy which gave them birth; and, even if it were possible to +distribute the blame among our ancestors, I am sure we should do +ourselves much harm, and no living soul any good, in the reckoning. In +my view, Anglo-Irish history is for Englishmen to remember, for Irishmen +to forget.</p><a name="Page_27"></a> + +<p>I may now conclude my appeal to outside observers for a broader and more +philosophic view of my country and my countrymen with a suggestion born +of my own early mistakes, and with a word of warning which is called for +by my later observation of the mistakes of others. The difficulty of the +outside observer in understanding the Irish Question is, no doubt, +largely due to the fact that those in intimate touch with the actual +conditions are so dominated by vehement and passionate conviction that +reason is not only at a discount but is fatal to the acquisition of +popular influence. Of course the power of knowledge and thought, though +kept in the background, is not really eliminated. But it is in the +circumstances not unnatural that most of us should fall into the error +of attributing to the influence of prominent individuals or +organisations the events and conditions which the superficial observer +regards as the creation of the hour, but which are in reality the +outcome of a slow and continuous process of evolution. I remember as a +boy being captivated by that charming corrective to this view of +historical development, Buckle's <i>History of Civilization</i>, which in +recent years has often recurred to my mind, despite the fact that many +of his theories are now somewhat discredited. Buckle, if I remember +right, almost eliminates the personal factor in the life of nations. +According to his theory, it would not have made much difference to +modern civilisation if Napoleon had happened, as was so near being the +case, to be born <a name="Page_28"></a>a British instead of a French subject. It would also +have followed that if O'Connell had limited his activities to his +professional work, or if Parnell had chanced to hate Ireland as bitterly +as he hated England, we should have been, politically, very much where +we are to-day. The student of Irish affairs should, of course, avoid the +extreme views of historical causation; but in the search for the truth +he will, I think, be well advised to attach less significance to the +influence of prominent personality than is the practice of the ordinary +observer in Ireland.</p> + +<p>The warning I have to offer, I think, will be justified by a reflection +upon the history of the panaceas which we have been offered, and upon +our present state. To those of my British readers who honestly desire to +understand the Irish Question, I would say, let them eschew the sweeping +generalisations by which Irish intelligence is commonly outraged. I may +pass by the explanation which rests upon the cheap attribution of racial +inferiority with the simple reply that our inferior race has much of the +superior blood in its veins; yet the Irish problem is just as acute in +districts where the English blood predominates as where the people are +'mere Irish.' If this view be disputed, the matter is not worth arguing +about, because we cannot be born again. But there are three other common +explanations of the Irish difficulty, any one of which taken by itself +only leads away from the truth. I refer, I need hardly say, to the +familiar assertions that the origin of the evil is political, that it is +religious, or that it is neither one nor the <a name="Page_29"></a>other, but economic. In +Irish history, no doubt, we may find, under any of these heads, cause +enough for much of our present wrong-goings. But I am profoundly +convinced that each of the simple explanations to which I have just +alluded—the racial, the political, the religious, the economic—is +based upon reasoning from imperfect knowledge of the facts of Irish +life. The cause and cure of Irish ills are not chiefly political, +broaden or narrow our conception of politics as we will; they are not +chiefly religious, whatever be the effect of Roman Catholic influence +upon the practical side of the people's life; they are not chiefly +economic, be the actual poverty of the people and the potential wealth +of the country what they may. The Irish Question is a broad and deeply +interesting human problem which has baffled generation after generation +of a great and virile race, who complacently attribute their incapacity +to master it to Irish perversity, and pass on, leaving it unsolved by +Anglo-Saxons, and therefore insoluble!</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1">[1]</a><div class="note"><p> My own experience confirms Mr. Lecky's view of the chief +cause of this extraordinary feeling. "It is probable," he writes, "that +the true source of the savage hatred of England that animates great +bodies of Irishmen on either side of the Atlantic has very little real +connection with the penal laws, or the rebellion, or the Union. It is +far more due to the great clearances and the vast unaided emigrations +that followed the famine."—<i>Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland</i>, Vol. +II., p, 177.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2">[2]</a><div class="note"><p> <i>Spectator</i>, 6th September, 1902.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3">[3]</a><div class="note"><p> The title to the greater part of Irish land is based on +confiscation. This is true of many other countries, but what was +exceptional in the Irish confiscations was that the grantees for the +most part did not settle on the lands themselves, drive away the +dispossessed, or come to any rational working agreement with them.</p></div> + +<a name="Page_30"></a> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_II"></a><h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h4>THE IRISH QUESTION IN IRELAND.</h4> + + +<p>Whilst attributing the long continued failure of English rule in Ireland +largely to a misunderstanding of the Irish mind, I have given +England—at least modern England—credit for good intentions towards us. +I now come to the case of the misunderstood, and shall from henceforth +be concerned with the immeasurably greater responsibility of the Irish +people themselves for their own welfare. The most characteristic, and by +far the most hopeful feature of the change in the Anglo-Irish situation +which took place in the last decade of the nineteenth century, and upon +the meaning of which I dwelt in the preceding chapter, is the growing +sense amongst us that the English misunderstanding of Ireland is of far +less importance, and perhaps less inexcusable, than our own +misunderstanding of ourselves.</p> + +<p>When I first came into practical touch with the extraordinarily complex +problems of Irish life, nothing impressed me so much as the universal +belief among my countrymen that Providence had endowed them with +capacities of a high order, and their country with resources of +unbounded richness, but that both the capacities and the resources +remained undeveloped <a name="Page_31"></a>owing to the stupidity—or worse—of British rule. +It was asserted, and generally taken for granted, that the exiles of +Erin sprang to the front in every walk of life throughout the world, in +every country but their own—though I notice that in quite recent times +endeavours have been made to cool the emigration fever by painting the +fortunes of the Irish in America in the darkest colours. To suggest that +there was any use in trying at home to make the best of things as they +were was indicative of a leaning towards British rule; and to attempt to +give practical effect to such a heresy was to draw a red herring across +the path of true Nationalism.</p> + +<p>It is not easy to account for the long continuance of this attitude of +the Irish mind towards Irish problems, which seems unworthy of the +native intelligence of the people. The truth probably is that while we +have not allowed our intellectual gifts to decay, they have been of +little use to us because we have neglected the second part of the old +Scholastic rule of life, and have failed to develop the moral qualities +in which we are deficient. Hence we have developed our critical +faculties, not, unhappily, along constructive lines. We have been +throughout alive to the muddling of our affairs by the English, and have +accurately gauged the incapacity of our governors to appreciate our +needs and possibilities. But we recognised their incapacity more readily +than our own deficiencies, and we estimated the failure of the English +far more justly than we apportioned the responsibility between our +rulers and ourselves. The sense of <a name="Page_32"></a>the duty and dignity of labour has +been lost in the contemplation of circumstances over which it was +assumed that we have no control.</p> + +<p>It is a peculiarity of destructive criticism that, unlike charity, it +generally begins and ends abroad; and those who cultivate the gentle art +are seldom given to morbid introspection. Our prodigious ignorance about +ourselves has not been blissful. Mistaking self-assertion for +self-knowledge, we have presented the pathetic spectacle of a people +casting the blame for their shortcomings on another people, yet bearing +the consequences themselves. The national habit of living in the past +seems to give us a present without achievement, a future without hope. +The conclusion was long ago forced upon me that whatever may have been +true of the past, the chief responsibility for the remoulding of our +national life rests now with ourselves, and that in the last analysis +the problem of Irish ineffectiveness at home is in the main a problem of +character—and of Irish character.</p> + +<p>I am quite aware that such a diagnosis of our mind disease—from which +Ireland is, in my belief, slowly but surely recovering—will not pass +unchallenged, but I would ask any reader who dissents from this view to +take a glance at the picture of our national life as it might unfold +itself to an unprejudiced but sympathetic outsider who came to Ireland +not on a political tour but with a sincere desire to get at the truth of +the Irish Question, and to inquire into the conditions about which all +the controversy continues to rage.</p><a name="Page_33"></a> + +<p>This hypothetical traveller would discover that our resources are but +half developed, and yet hundreds of thousands of our workers have gone, +and are still going, to produce wealth where it is less urgently needed. +The remnant of the race who still cling to the old country are not only +numerically weak, but in many other ways they show the physical and +moral effects of the drain which emigration has made on the youth, +strength, and energy of the community. Our four and a quarter millions +of people, mainly agricultural, have, speaking generally, a very low +standard of comfort, which they like to attribute to some five or six +millions sterling paid as agricultural rent, and three millions of +alleged over-taxation. They face the situation bravely—and, +incidentally, swell the over-taxation—with the help of the thirteen or +fourteen millions worth of alcoholic stimulants which they annually +consume. The still larger consumption in Great Britain may seem to lend +at least a respectability to this apparent over-indulgence, but it looks +odd. The people are endowed with intellectual capacities of a high +order. They have literary gifts and an artistic sense. Yet, with a few +brilliant exceptions, they contribute nothing to invention and create +nothing in literature or in art. One would say that there must be +something wrong with the education of the country; and most people +declare that it is too literary, though the Census returns show that +there are still large numbers who escape the tyranny of books. The +people have an extraordinary belief in political remedies for economic +ills; <a name="Page_34"></a>and their political leaders, who are not as a rule themselves +actively engaged in business life, tell the people, pointing to ruined +mills and unused water power, that the country once had diversified +industries, and that if they were allowed to apply their panacea, +Ireland would quickly rebuild her industrial life. If our hypothetical +traveller were to ask whether there are no other leaders in the country +besides the eloquent gentlemen who proclaim her helplessness, he would +be told that among the professional classes, the landlords, and the +captains of industry, are to be found as competent popular advisers as +are possessed by any other country of similar economic standing. But +these men take only a dilettante part in politics, and no value is set +on industrial, commercial or professional success in the choice of +public men. Can it be that to the Irish mind politics are, what Bulwer +Lytton declared love to be, "the business of the idle, and the idleness +of the busy"?</p> + +<p>These, though only a few of the strange ironies of Irish life, are so +paradoxical and so anomalous that they are not unnaturally attributed to +the intrusion of an alien and unfriendly power; and this furnishes the +reason why everything which goes wrong is used to nourish the +anti-English sentiment. At the same time they give emphasis to the +growing doubt as to the wisdom of those to whom the Irish Question +presents itself only as a single and simple issue—namely, whether the +laws which are to put all these things right shall be made at St. +Stephen's by the collective wisdom of the United Kingdom, aided <a name="Page_35"></a>by the +voice of Ireland—which is adequately represented—or whether these laws +shall be made by Irishmen alone in a Parliament in College Green.</p> + +<p>It is obviously necessary that, in presenting a comprehensive scheme for +dealing with the conditions I have roughly indicated. I should make some +reference to the attitude towards Home Rule of both the Nationalists and +the Unionists who have joined in work which, whatever be its +irregularity from the standpoint of party discipline as enforced in +Ireland, has succeeded in some degree in directing the energies of our +countrymen to the development of the resources of our country. Many of +my fellow-workers were Nationalists who, while stoutly adhering to the +prime necessity for constitutional changes, took the broad view, which +was unpopular among the Irish Party, that much could be done, even under +present conditions, to build up our national life on its social, +intellectual, and economic sides. The well-known constitutional changes +which were advocated in the political party to which they belonged would +then, they believed, be more effectively demanded by Ireland, and more +readily conceded by England. Unionists who worked with me were similarly +affected by the changing mental outlook of the country. They, too, had +to break loose from the traditions of an Irish party, for they felt that +the exclusively political opposition to Home Rule was not less +demoralising than the exclusively political pursuit of Home Rule. Just +as the Nationalists who joined the movement believed that all progress +must make for self-<a name="Page_36"></a>government, so my Unionist fellow-workers believed +it would ultimately strengthen the Union. Each view was thoroughly sound +from the standpoint of those who held it, and could be regarded with +respect by those who did not. We were all convinced that the way to +achieve what is best for Ireland was to develop what is best in +Irishmen. And it was the conviction that this can be done by Irishmen in +Ireland that brought together those whose thought and work supplies +whatever there may be of interest in this book.</p> + +<p>If I have fairly stated the attitude towards each other of the workers +to whose coming together must be attributed as much of the change in the +Irish situation as is due to Irish initiation, it will be seen that what +had so long kept them apart in public affairs, outside politics, was a +difference of opinion, not so much as to the conditions to be dealt +with, nor, indeed, as to the end to be sought, but rather as to the +means most effective for the attainment of that end. I naturally regard +the view which I am putting forward as being broader than that which has +hitherto prevailed. Some Nationalists may, however, contend that it is +essential to progress that the thoughts and energies of the nation +should be focussed upon a single movement, and not dissipated in the +pursuit of a multiplicity of ideals. I quite admit the importance of +concentration. But I strongly hold that any movement which is closely +related to the main currents of the people's life and subservient to +their urgent economic necessities, and which gives free play to <a name="Page_37"></a>the +intellectual qualities, while strengthening the moral or industrial +character, cannot be held to conflict with any national programme of +work, without raising a strong presumption that there is something wrong +with the programme. The exclusively political remedy I shall discuss in +the next chapter, but here I propose to consider some of the problems +which the new movement seeks to solve without waiting for the political +millenium.</p> + +<p>It is a commonplace that there are two Irelands, differing in race, in +creed, in political aspiration, and in what I regard as a more potent +factor than all the others put together—economic interest and +industrial pursuit. In the mutual misunderstanding of these two +Irelands, still more than in the misunderstanding of Ireland by England, +is to be found the chief cause of the still unsettled state of the Irish +Question. I shall not seek to apportion the blame between the two +sections of the population; but as the mists clear away and we can begin +to construct a united and contented Ireland, it is not only legitimate, +but helpful in the extreme, to assign to the two sections of our +wealth-producers their respective parts in repairing the fortunes of +their country. In such a discussion of future developments chief +prominence must necessarily be given to the problems affecting the life +of the majority of the people, who depend directly on the land, and +conduct the industry which produces by far the greater portion of the +wealth of the country. It is, of course, essential to the prosperity of +the whole community that the North should pursue <a name="Page_38"></a>and further develop +its own industrial and commercial life. That section of the community +has also, no doubt, economic and educational problems to face, but these +are much the same problems as those of industrial communities in other +parts of the United Kingdom<a name="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a>; and if they do not receive, vitally +important as is their solution to the welfare of Ireland, any large +share of attention in this book, it is because they are no part of what +is ordinarily understood by the Irish Question.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the interest of the manufacturing population of Ulster in +the welfare of the Roman Catholic agricultural majority is not merely +that of an onlooker, nor even that of the other parts of the United +Kingdom, but something more. It is obvious that the internal trade of +the country depends mainly upon the demand of the rural population for +the output of the manufacturing towns, and that this demand must depend +on the volume of agricultural production. I think the importance of +developing the home market has not been sufficiently appreciated, even +by Belfast. The best contribution the Ulster Protestant population can +make to the solution of this question is to do what they can to bring +about cordial co-operation between the two <a name="Page_39"></a>great sections of the +wealth-producers of Ireland. They should, I would suggest, learn to take +a broader and more patriotic view of the problems of the Roman Catholic +and agricultural majority, upon the true nature of which I hope to be +able to throw some new light. My purpose will be doubly served if I +have, to some extent, brought home to the minds of my Northern friends +that there is in Ireland an unsettled question in which they are largely +concerned, a rightly unsatisfied people by helping whom they can best +help themselves.</p> + +<p>The Irish Question is, then, in that aspect which must be to Irishmen of +paramount importance, the problem of a national existence, chiefly an +agricultural existence, in Ireland. To outside observers it is the +question of rural life, a question which is assuming a social and +economic importance and interest of the most intense character, not only +for Ireland North and South, but for almost the whole civilised world. +It is becoming increasingly difficult in many parts of the world to keep +the people on the land, owing to the enormously improved industrial +opportunities and enhanced social and intellectual advantages of urban +life. The problem can be better examined in Ireland than elsewhere, for +with us it can, to a large extent, be isolated, since we have little +highly developed town life. Our rural exodus takes our people, for the +most part, not into Irish or even into British towns, but into those of +the United States. What is migration in other countries is emigration +with us, and the mind of the country, brooding over <a name="Page_40"></a>the dreary +statistics of this perennial drain, naturally and longingly turns to +schemes for the rehabilitation of rural life—the only life it knows.</p> + +<p>We cannot exercise much direct influence upon the desire to emigrate +beyond spreading knowledge as to the real conditions of life in America, +for which home life in Ireland is often ignorantly bartered.<a name="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> We +cannot isolate the phenomenon of emigration and find a cure for it apart +from the rest of the Irish Question. We must recognise that emigration +is but the chief symptom of a low national vitality, and that the first +result of our efforts to stay the tide may increase the outflow. We +cannot fit the people to stay without fitting them to go. Before we can +keep the people at home we have got to construct a national life with, +in the first place, a secure basis of physical comfort and decency. This +life must have a character, a dignity, an outlook of its own. A +comfortable Boeotia will never develop into a real Hibernia Pacata. The +standard of living may in some ways be lower than the English standard: +in some ways it may be higher. But even if statesmanship and all the +forces of philanthropy and patriotism combined can construct a contented +rural Ireland for the people, it can only be <a name="Page_41"></a>maintained by the people. +It will have to accord with the national sentiment and be distinctively +Irish. It is this national aspiration, and the remarkable promise of the +movements making for its fruition, which give to the work of Irish +social and economic reform the fascination which those who do not know +the Ireland of to-day cannot understand. This work of reform must, of +course, be primarily economic, but economic remedies cannot be applied +to Irish ills without the spiritual aids which are required to move to +action the latent forces of Irish reason and emotion.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The task which we have to face is, then, a two-sided one, but its +economic and its purely practical aspects first demand consideration. +Many even of the agrarian aspects of the question have, so far, been +somewhat neglected in Ireland owing to a cause which is not far to seek. +It has often been asserted that the Irish Question is, at bottom, the +Land Question. There is a great deal of truth in this view, but almost +all those who hold it have fallen into the grave error of tacitly +identifying the land question with the tenure question—an error which +vitiates a great deal of current theorising about Ireland. It was, +indeed, inevitable that Irish agriculturists, with such an economic +history behind them as I have outlined in the previous chapter, should +have concentrated their attention during the latter half of the +nineteenth century upon obtaining a legislative cure for the ills +produced by <a name="Page_42"></a>legislation, to the comparative neglect of those equally +difficult, if less obvious economic questions, which have been brought +into special prominence by the agricultural depression of the last +quarter of a century. Now, however, that the Land Act of 1903 has been +passed and the solution of the tenure question is in sight, we in +Ireland are more free to direct our attention to what is at present the +most important aspect of the agrarian situation—the necessity for +determining the social and economic conditions essential to the +well-being of the peasant proprietary, which, though it is to be started +with as bright an outlook as the law can give, must stand or fall by its +own inherent merits or defects. Not only are we now free to give +adequate consideration to this question, but it is also imperative that +we should do so, for whilst I am hopeful that the Land Act will settle +the question of tenure, it will obviously not merely leave the other +problems of agricultural existence—problems some of which are not +unknown in other parts of the United Kingdom—still unsolved, but will +also increase the necessity for their solution, and will, moreover, +bring in its train complex difficulties of its own.</p> + +<p>The main features of the depressing outlook of rural life in the United +Kingdom are well known. The land steadily passes from under the plough +and is given over to stock raising. As the kine increase the men decay. +In Ireland the rural exodus takes, as I have already said, the shape, +mainly, not of migration to Irish urban centres, but rather the uglier +form of an emigration which not <a name="Page_43"></a>only depletes our population but drains +it of the very elements which can least be spared.</p> + +<p>The reason generally given for the widespread resort to the lotus-eating +occupation of opening and shutting gates, in preference to tilling the +soil, is that in the existing state of agricultural organisation, and +while urban life is ever drawing away labour from the fields, the +substitution of pasturage for tillage is the readiest way to meet the +ruinous competition of Eastern Europe, the Western Hemisphere, and +Australasia. Yet upon the economic merits of this process I have heard +the most diverse opinions stated with equal conviction by men thoroughly +well informed as to the conditions. One of the largest graziers in +Ireland recently gave me a picture of what he considered to be an ideal +economic state for the country. If two more Belfasts could be +established on the east coast, and the rest of the country divided into +five hundred acre farms, grazing being adopted wherever permanent grass +would grow, the limits of Irish productivity would be reached. On the +other hand, Dr. O'Donnell, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Raphoe, who may +be taken as an authoritative exponent of the trend of popular thought in +the country, not long ago advocated ploughing the grazing lands of +Leinster right up to the slopes of Tara.<a name="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> Moreover, many theories have +been <a name="Page_44"></a>advanced to show that the decline of tillage, whatever be its +cause, involves an enormous waste of national resources. But of +practical suggestion, making for a remedy, there is very little +forthcoming.</p> + +<p>The solution of all such problems largely depends upon certain +developments which, for many reasons, I regard as absolutely essential +to the success of the new agrarian order. One of these developments is +the spread of agricultural co-operation through voluntary associations. +Without this agency of social and economic progress, small landholders +in Ireland will be but a body of isolated units, having all the +drawbacks of individualism, and none of its virtues, unorganised and +singularly ill-equipped for that great international struggle of our +time, which we know as agricultural competition. Moreover, there is +another equally important, if less obvious, consideration which renders +urgent the organisation of our rural communities. From Russia, with its +half-communistic Mir to France with its modern village commune, there is +no country in Europe except the United Kingdom where the peasant +land-holders have not some form of corporate existence. In Ireland the +transition from landlordism to a peasant proprietary not only does not +create any corporate existence among the <a name="Page_45"></a>occupying peasantry but rather +deprives them of the slight social coherence which they formerly +possessed as tenants of the same landlord. The estate office has its +uses as well as its disadvantages, and the landlord or agent is by no +means without his value as a business adviser to those from whom he +collects the rent.</p> + +<p>The organisation of the peasantry by an extension of voluntary +associations, which is a condition precedent of social and economic +progress, will not, however, suffice to enable them to face and solve +the problems with which they are confronted, and whose solution has now +become a matter of very serious concern to the British taxpayer. The +condition of our agrarian life clearly indicates the necessity for +supplementing voluntary effort with a sound system of State aid to +agriculture and industry—a necessity fully recognised by the +governments of every progressive continental country and of our own +colonies. An altogether hopeful beginning of combined self-help and +State assistance has been already made. Those who have been studying +these problems, and practically preparing the way for the proper care of +a peasant proprietary, have overcome the chief obstacles which lay in +their path. They have gained popular acceptance for the principle that +State aid should not be resorted to until organised voluntary effort has +first been set in motion, and that any departure from this principle +would be an unwarrantable interference with the business of the people, +a fatal blow to private enterprise.<a name="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a></p> +<a name="Page_46"></a> +<p>The task before the people, and before the State, of placing the new +agrarian order upon a permanent basis of decency and comfort is no light +one. Indeed, I doubt whether Parliament realises one-tenth of the +problems which the latest land legislation—by far the best we have yet +had—leaves unsolved. This becomes only too clear the moment we consider +seriously the fundamental question of the relation of population to area +in rural Ireland, or, in other words, when we inquire how many people +the agricultural land will support under existing circumstances, or +under any attainable improvement of the conditions in our rural life. +Roughly speaking, the surface area of the island is 20,000,000 acres, of +which 5,000,000 are described in the official returns as 'barren +mountain, bog and waste.' This leaves us with some 15,000,000 acres +available for agriculture and grazing, which area is now divided into +some 500,000 holdings. Thus we have an average of thirty acres in extent +for the Irish agricultural holding. But, unhappily, the returns show +that some 200,000 of these holdings are from one to fifteen acres in +extent. Nor do the mere figures show the case at its worst. For it +happens that the small holdings in Ireland, unlike those on the +Continent, are generally on the poorest land, and the majority of them +<a name="Page_47"></a>cannot come within any of the definitions of an 'economic holding.'</p> + +<p>These 200,000 holdings, the homes of nearly a million persons, threaten +to prove the greatest danger to the future of agricultural Ireland. As +the majority of them, as at present constituted, do not provide the +physical basis of a decent standard of living, the question arises, how +are they to be improved? Putting aside emigration, which at one period +was necessary and ought to have been aided and controlled by the State, +but which is now no longer a statesman's remedy, there is obviously no +solution except by the migration of a portion of the occupiers, and the +utilisation of the vacated holdings in order to enable the peasants who +remain to prosper—much as a forest is thinned to promote the growth of +trees. In typical congested districts this operation will have to be +carried out on a much larger scale than is generally realised, for a +considerable majority of families will have to be removed, in order to +allow a sufficient margin for the provision of adequate holdings for +those who remain. In some cases, there are large grazing tracts in close +proximity to the congested area which might be utilised for the +re-settlement, but where this is not so and the occupiers of the vacated +holdings have to migrate a considerable distance, the problem becomes +far more difficult. I need not dwell upon the administrative +difficulties of the operation, which are not light. I may assume, also, +that there will be no difficulty in obtaining suitable land somewhere. I +do <a name="Page_48"></a>not myself attach much weight to the unwillingness of the people to +leave their old holdings for better ones, or to the alleged objection of +the clergy to allow their parishioners to go to another parish. More +serious is the possible opposition of those who live in the vicinity of +the unoccupied land about to be distributed, and who feel that they have +the first claim upon the State in any scheme for its redistribution with +the help of public credit. Mr. Parnell promoted a company with the sole +object of practically demonstrating how this problem could be solved. A +large capital was raised, and a large estate purchased; but the company +did not effect the migration of a single family. Still these are minor +considerations compared with the larger one, to which I must briefly +refer.</p> + +<p>Under the Land Act of 1903 much has been done to facilitate the transfer +of peasants to new farms, but it is obvious that land cannot be handed +over as a gift from the State to the families which migrate. They will +become debtors for the value of the land itself, less perhaps a small +sum which may be credited to them in respect of the tenant's interest in +the holdings they have abandoned. This deduction will, however, be lost +in the expenditure required upon houses, buildings, fences, and other +improvements which would have to be effected before the land could be +profitably occupied. Speaking generally they will have no money or +agricultural implements, and their live stock will in many cases be +mortgaged to the local shopkeeper who has always <a name="Page_49"></a>financed them. It will +be necessary for the future welfare of the country to give them land +which admits of cultivation upon the ordinary principles of modern +agriculture; but without working capital, and bringing with them neither +the skill nor the habits necessary for the successful conduct of their +industry under the new conditions, it will be no easy task to place them +in a position to discharge their obligations to the State. It is all +very easy to talk about the obvious necessity of giving more land to +cultivators who have not enough to live upon; and there is, no doubt, a +poetic justice in the Utopian agrarianism which dangles before the eyes +of the Connaught peasantry the alternative of Heaven or Leinster. But +when we come down to practical economics, and face the task of giving to +a certain number of human beings, in an extremely backward industrial +condition, the opportunity of placing themselves and their families on a +basis of permanent well-being, it will be evident that, so far, at any +rate, as this particular community is concerned, the mere provision of +an economic holding is after all but a part of an economic existence.</p> + +<p>I have touched upon this question of migration from uneconomic to +economic holdings because it signally illustrates the importance of the +human, in contradistinction to the merely material considerations +involved in the solution of the many-sided Irish Question. I must now +return to the wider question of the relation of population to area in +rural Ireland, as it affects the general scheme of agricultural and +industrial development.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_50"></a>It is obvious that there must be a limit to the number of individuals +that the land can support. Allowing an average of five members for each +family, and allowing for a considerable number of landless labourers, it +seems that the land at present directly supports about 2,500,000 +persons—a view which, I may add, is fully borne out by the figures of +the recent census; and it is hard to see how a population living by +agriculture can be much increased beyond this number. Even if all the +land in Ireland were available for re-distribution in equal shares, the +higher standard of comfort to which it is essential that the condition +of our people should be raised would forbid the existence of much more +than half a million peasant proprietors.<a name="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> Hence the evergreen query, +'What shall we do with our boys?' remains to be answered; for while the +abolition of dual ownership will enable the present generation to bring +up their children according to a higher standard of living, the change +will not of itself provide a career for the children when they have been +brought up. The next generation will have to face this problem:—the +average farm can support only one of the children and his family, what +is to become of the others? The law forbids sub-division for two +generations, and after that, <i>ex hypothesi</i>, the then prevailing +conditions of life will also prevent such partition. A few of the next +generation may become <a name="Page_51"></a>agricultural labourers, but this involves +descending to the lowest standard of living of to-day, and in any case +the demand for agricultural labourers is not capable of much extension +in a country of small peasant proprietors.</p> + +<p>Against this view I know it is pointed out that in the earlier part of +the nineteenth century the agricultural population of Ireland was as +large as is the total population of to-day; but we know the sequel. +Instances are also cited of peasant proprietaries in foreign countries +which maintain a high standard of living upon small, sometimes +diminutive, and highly-rented holdings. We must remember, however, that +in these foreign countries State intervention has undoubtedly done much +to render possible a prosperous peasant proprietary by, for example, the +dissemination of useful information, admirable systems of technical +education in agriculture, cheap and expeditious transport, and even +State attention to the distribution of agricultural produce in distant +markets. Again, in many of these countries rural life is balanced by a +highly industrial town life, as, for instance, in the case of Belgium; +or is itself highly industrialised by the existence of rural industries, +as in the case of Switzerland; while in one notable instance—that of +Württemberg—both these conditions prevail.</p> + +<p>The true lesson to be drawn from these foreign analogies is that not by +agriculture alone is Ireland to be saved. The solution of the rural +problem embraces many spheres of national activity. It involves, as I +have already said, the further development of manufactures <a name="Page_52"></a>in Irish +towns. One of the best ways to stimulate our industries is to develop +the home market by means of an increased agricultural production, and a +higher standard of comfort among the peasant producers. We shall thus +be, so to speak, operating on consumption as well as on production, and +so increasing the home demand for Irish manufactures. Perhaps more +urgent than the creation or extension of manufactures on a larger scale +is the development of industries subsidiary to agriculture in the +country. This is generally admitted, and most people have a fair +knowledge of the wide and varied range of peasant industries in all +European countries where a prosperous peasantry exists. Nor is there +much difficulty in agreeing upon the main conditions to be satisfied in +the selection of the industries to meet the requirements of our case. +The men and boys require employment in the winter months, or they will +not stay, and the rural industries promoted should, as far as possible, +be those which allow of intermittent attention. The female members of +the family must have profitable and congenial employment. The +handicrafts to be promoted must be those which will give scope to the +native genius and aesthetic sense. But unless we can thus supply the +demand of the peasant-industry market with products of merit or +distinctiveness, we shall fail in competition with the hereditary skill +and old established trade of peasant proprietors which have solved this +part of the problem generations ago. This involves the vigorous +application of a class of in<a name="Page_53"></a>struction of which something will be said +in the proper place.</p> + +<p>So far the rural industry problem, and the direction in which its +solution is to be found, are fairly clear. But there is one disadvantage +with which we have to reckon, and which for many other reasons besides +the one I am now immediately concerned with, we must seek to remove. A +community does not naturally or easily produce for export that for which +it has itself no use, taste, or desire. Whatever latent capacity for +artistic handicrafts the Irish peasant may possess, it is very rarely +that one finds any spontaneous attempt to give outward expression to the +inward aesthetic sense. And this brings me to a strange aspect of Irish +life to which I have often wished, on the proper occasion, to draw +public attention. The matter arises now in the form of a peculiar +difficulty which lies in the path of those who endeavour to solve the +problem of rural life in Ireland, and which, in my belief, has +profoundly affected the fortunes of the race both at home and abroad.</p> + +<p>To a sympathetic insight there is a singular and significant void in the +Irish conception of a home—I mean the lack of appreciation for the +comforts of a home, which might never have been apparent to me had it +not obtruded itself in the form of a hindrance to social and economic +progress.<a name="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> In the Irish love of home, as in <a name="Page_54"></a>the larger national +aspirations, the ideal has but a meagre material basis, its appeal being +essentially to the social and intellectual instincts. It is not the +physical environment and comfort of an orderly home that enchain and +attract minds still dominated, more or less unconsciously, by the +associations and common interests of the primitive clan, but rather the +sense of human neighbourhood and kinship which the individual finds in +the community. Indeed the Irish peasant scarcely seems to have a home in +the sense in which an Englishman understands the word. If he love the +place of his habitation he does not endeavour to improve or to adorn it, +or indeed to make it in any sense a reflection of his own mind and +taste. He treats life as if he were a mere sojourner upon earth whose +true home is somewhere else, a fact often attributed to his intense +faith in the unseen, but which I regard as not merely due to this cause, +but also, and in a large measure, as the natural outcome of historical +conditions, to which I shall presently refer.</p> + +<p>What the Irishman is really attached to in Ireland is not a home but a +social order. The pleasant amenities, the courtesies, the leisureliness, +the associations of religion, and the familiar faces of the neighbours, +whose ways and minds are like his and very unlike those of any other +people; these are the things to which he clings in Ireland and which he +<a name="Page_55"></a>remembers in exile. And the rawness and eagerness of America, the lust +of the eye and the pride of life that meet him, though with no welcoming +aspect, at every turn, the sense of being harshly appraised by new +standards of the nature of which he has but the dimmest conception, his +helplessness in the fierce current of industrial life in which he is +plunged, the climatic extremes of heat and cold, the early hours and few +holidays: all these experiences act as a rude shock upon the +ill-balanced refinement of the Irish immigrant. Not seldom, he or she +loses heart and hope and returns to Ireland mentally and physically a +wreck, a sad disillusionment to those who had been comforted in the +agony of the leave-taking by the assurance that to emigrate was to +succeed.</p> + +<p>The peculiar Irish conception of a home has probably a good deal to do +with the history of the Irish in the United States. It is well known +that whatever measure of success the Irish emigrant has there achieved +is pre-eminently in the American city, and not where, according to all +the usual commonplaces about the Irish race, they ought to have +succeeded, in American rural life. There they were afforded, and there +they missed, the greatest opportunity which ever fell to the lot of a +people agriculturally inclined. During the days of the great emigrations +from Ireland, a veritable Promised Land, rich beyond the dreams of +agricultural avarice, was gradually opened up between the Alleghanies +and the Rocky Mountains, which the Irish had only to occupy in order to +possess. Making all allowances for <a name="Page_56"></a>the depressing influences which had +been brought to bear upon the spirit of enterprise, and for their +impoverished condition, I am convinced that a prime cause of the failure +of almost every effort to settle them upon the land was the fact that +the tenement house, with all its domestic abominations, provided the +social order which they brought with them from Ireland, and the lack of +which on the western prairie no immediate or prospective physical +comfort could make good.</p> + +<p>Recently a daughter of a small farmer in County Galway with a family too +'long' for the means of subsistence available, was offered a comfortable +home on a farm owned by some better-off relatives, only thirty miles +away, though probably twenty miles beyond the limits of her utmost +peregrinations. She elected in preference to go to New York, and being +asked her reason by a friend of mine, replied in so many words, 'because +it is nearer.' She felt she would be less of a stranger in a New York +tenement house, among her relatives and friends who had already +emigrated, than in another part of County Galway. Educational science in +Ireland has always ignored the life history of the subject with which it +dealt. In no respect has this neglect been so unconsciously cruel as in +its failure to implant in the Irish mind that appreciation of the +material aspects of the home which the people so badly need both in +Ireland and in America If the Irishman abroad became 'a rootless +colonist of alien earth,' the lot of the Irishman <a name="Page_57"></a>in Ireland has been +not less melancholy. Sadness there is, indeed, in the story of 'the +sea-divided Gael,' but, to me, it is incomparably less pathetic than +their homelessness at home.</p> + +<p>There are, as I have said, historic reasons for the Celtic view of home +to which my personal observation and experience has induced me to devote +so much space. The Irish people have never had the opportunity of +developing that strong and salutary individualism which, amongst other +things, imperiously demands, as a condition of its growth, a home that +shall be a man's castle as well as his abiding place. In this, as in so +much else, a healthy evolution was constantly thwarted by the clash of +two peoples and two civilisations. The Irish had hardly emerged from the +nomad pastoral stage, when the first of that series of invasions, which +had all the ferocity, without the finality of conquest, made settled +life impossible over the greater part of the island. An old chronicle +throws some vivid light upon the way in which the idea of home life +presented itself to the mind of the clan chiefs as late as the days of +the Tudors. "Con O'Neal," we are told, "was so right Irish that he +cursed all his posterity in case they either learnt English, sowed wheat +or built them houses; lest the first should breed conversation, the +second commerce, and with the last they should speed as the crow that +buildeth her nest to be beaten out by the hawk."<a name="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> The penal laws, +again, acted as a disin<a name="Page_58"></a>tegrant of the home and the family; and, +finally, the paralysing effect of the abuses of a system of land tenure, +under which evidences of thrift and comfort might at any time become +determining factors in the calculation of rent, completed a series of +causes which, in unison or isolation, were calculated to destroy at its +source the growth of a wholesome domesticity. These causes happily, no +longer exist, and powerful forces are arising to overcome the defects +and disadvantages which they have bequeathed to us; and I have little +doubt that it will be possible to deal successfully with this obstacle +which adds so peculiar a feature to the problem of rural life in +Ireland.</p> + +<p>If I have dwelt at what may appear to be a disproportionate length upon +the Irishman's peculiar conception of a home, it is because this +difficulty, which Irish social and economic reformers still encounter, +and with which they must deal sympathetically if they are to succeed in +the work of national regeneration, strikingly illustrates the two-sided +character of the Irish Question and the never-to-be-forgotten +inter-dependence of the sentimental and the practical in Ireland. I +admit that this condition which adds to the interest of the problem, and +perhaps makes it more amenable to rapid solution, is an indication of a +weakness of moral fibre to which must be largely attributed our failure +to be master of our circumstances. Indeed, as I come into closer touch +with the efforts which are now being made to raise the material +condition of the people, the more convinced I become, much <a name="Page_59"></a>as my +practical training has made me resist the conviction, that the Irish +Question is, in its most difficult and most important aspects, the +problem of the Irish mind, and that the solution of this problem is to +be found in the strengthening of Irish character.</p> + +<p>With this enunciation of the main proposition of my book, I may now +indicate the order in which I shall endeavour to establish its truth. I +have said enough to show that I do not ignore the historical causes of +our present state; but with so many facts with which we can deal +confronting us, I propose to review the chief living influences to which +the Irish mind and character are still subjected. These influences fall +naturally into three distinct categories and will be treated in the +three succeeding chapters. The first will show the effect upon the Irish +mind of its obsession by politics. The next will deal with the influence +of religious systems upon the secular life of the people. I shall then +show how education, which should not only have been the most potent of +all the three influences in bringing our national life into line with +the progress of the age, but should also have modified the operation of +the other two causes, has aggravated rather than cured the malady.</p> + +<p>Whatever impression I may succeed in making upon others, I may here +state that, as the result of observation and reflection, the conclusion +has been forced upon me that the Irish mind is suffering from +considerable functional derangement, but not, so far as I can discern, +from any organic disease. This is the basis of my <a name="Page_60"></a>optimism. I shall +submit in another chapter, which will conclude the first, the critical +part of my book, certain new principles of treatment which are indicated +by the diagnosis; and I would ask the reader, before he rejects the +opinions which are there expressed, to persevere through the narrative +contained in the second part of the book. There he will find in process +of solution some of the problems which I have indicated, and the +principles for which a theoretical approval has been asked, in practical +operation, and already passing out of the experimental stage. The story +of the Self-help Movement will strike the note of Ireland's economic +hopes. The action of the Recess Committee will be explained, and the +concession of their demand by the establishment of a 'Department of +Agriculture and other rural industries and for Technical Instruction for +Ireland,' will be described. This will complete the story of a quiet, +unostentatious movement which will some day be seen to have made the +last decade of the nineteenth century a fit prelude to a future +commensurate with the potentialities of the Irish people.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4">[4]</a><div class="note"><p> I speak from personal knowledge when I say that the leaders +of Irish industry and commerce are fully alive to the practical +consideration which they have now to devote to the new conditions by +which they are surrounded. They recognise that the intensified foreign +competition which harasses them is due chiefly to German education and +American enterprise. They are deep in the consideration of the form +which technical education should take to meet their peculiar needs; and +I am confident that Ulster will make a sound and useful contribution to +the solution of the commercial and industrial problems which confront +the manufacturers of the United Kingdom.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5">[5]</a><div class="note"><p> That such a knowledge is still required, though the need is +becoming less urgent, is shown by an incident which illustrates the +pathos of the Irish exodus. A poor woman once asked me to help her son +to emigrate to America, and I agreed to pay his passage. Early in the +negotiations, finding that she was somewhat vague as to her boy's +prospects, I asked her whether he wanted to go to North or South +America. This detail she seemed to consider immaterial. "Ach, glory be +to God, I lave that to yer honner. Why wouldn't I?" Had I shipped him to +Peru she would have been quite satisfied. Why wouldn't she?</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6">[6]</a><div class="note"><p> Yet another view which seems to uproot most agrarian ideas +in Ireland has been put forward by Dr. O'Gara in <i>The Green Republic</i> +(Fisher Unwin, 1902). His main conclusion is that the present disastrous +state of our rural economy is due to our treating land as an object of +property and not of industry. He advocates the cultivation of the land +by syndicates holding farms of 20,000 acres and tilling them by the +lavish application of modern machinery as the only way to meet American +competition. His book is able and suggestive, but it is perhaps, a work +of supererogation to discuss a theory the whole moral of which is the +expediency of absolutely divorcing the functions of the proprietor and +the manager of land at a time when the consensus of opinion in Ireland +is in favour of uniting them, and in view of the fact that under the new +Land Act the future of the country seems inevitably to lie for a long +time in the hands of a peasant proprietary.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7">[7]</a><div class="note"><p> The reader may wonder why I touch so lightly upon a fact of +such profound significance as the Irishman's acceptance of self-help as +a condition precedent of State aid in the development of agriculture and +industry. But such a cursory treatment, in the early chapters, of this +and of other equally important aspects of the Irish situation is +necessitated by the plan I have adopted. I am attempting to give in the +first part of the book a philosophic insight into the chief Irish +problems, and then, in the second part of the book, to present the facts +which appear to me to illustrate these problems in process of solution.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8">[8]</a><div class="note"><p> The best expert agricultural opinion tells me that under +present conditions a family cannot live in any decent standard of +comfort—such as I hope to see prevail in Ireland—on less than 30 acres +of Irish land, taking the bad land with the good.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9">[9]</a><div class="note"><p> It is, of course, unnecessary for me to dwell upon the part +played by the home in the standard of living, especially amongst a rural +community. But it may not be irrelevant to note that M. Desmolins, who, +in his remarkable book, <i>A quoi tient la superiorité des Anglo-saxons</i>? +hands over the future of civilisation to the Anglo-Saxons, ascribes to +the English rural home much of the success of the race.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10">[10]</a><div class="note"><p> Speed's Chronicle, quoted in <i>Calendar of State Papers, +Ireland, </i> 1611-14, p. xix.</p></div> + +<a name="Page_61"></a> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_III"></a><h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h4>THE INFLUENCE OF POLITICS UPON THE IRISH MIND.</h4> + + +<p>Among the humours of the Home Rule struggle, the story was current in +England that a peasant in Connemara ceased planting his potatoes when +the news of the introduction of the Home Rule Bill in 1886 seemed to +bring the millenium into the region of practical politics. Those who +used the story were not slow to suggest that, had the Bill become law, +the failure of spontaneous generation in the Connemara potato patch +might have been typical of much analogous disillusionment elsewhere. +Even to those who are familiar with our history, the faith of the Irish +people in the potentialities of government, which this little tale +illustrates by caricature, will give cause for reflection of another and +more serious kind. The moral to be drawn by Irish politicians is that we +in Ireland have yet to free ourselves from one of the worst legacies of +past misgovernment, the belief that any legislation or any legislature +can provide an escape from the physical and mental toil imposed through +our first parents upon all nations for all time.</p> + +<p>'The more business in politics, and the less politics in business, the +better for both,' is a maxim which I brought <a name="Page_62"></a>home from the Far West and +ventured to advocate publicly some years ago. Being still of the same +mind, I regret that I am compelled to introduce a whole chapter of +politics into this book, which is a study of Irish affairs mainly from a +social and economic point of view. But to ignore, either in the +diagnosis or in the treatment of the 'mind diseased,' the political +obsession of our national life would be about as wise as to discuss and +plan a Polar expedition without taking account of the climatic +conditions to be encountered.</p> + +<p>In such an examination of Irish politics as thus becomes necessary I +shall have to devote the greater part of my criticism to the influence +of the Nationalist party upon the Irish mind. But it will be seen that +this course is not taken with a view to making party capital for my own +side. As I read Irish history, neither party need expect very much +credit for more than good intentions. Whichever proves to be right in +its main contention, each will have to bear its share of the +responsibility for the long continuance of the barren controversy. Each +has neglected to concern itself with the settlement of vitally important +questions the consideration of which need not have been postponed +because the constitutional question still remained in dispute. +Therefore, though I seem to throw upon the Nationalist party the chief +blame for our present political backwardness, and, so far as politics +affect other spheres of national activity, for our industrial +depression, candour compels me to admit that Irish Unionism has failed +to recognise its obligation—an <a name="Page_63"></a>obligation recognised by the Unionist +party in Great Britain—to supplement opposition to Home Rule with a +positive and progressive policy which could have been expected to +commend itself to the majority of the Irish people—the Irish of the +Irish Question.</p> + +<p>To my own party in Ireland then, I would first direct the reader's +attention. I have already referred to the deplorable effects produced +upon national life by the exclusion of representatives of the landlord +and the industrial classes from positions of leadership and trust over +four-fifths of the country. I cannot conceive of a prosperous Ireland in +which the influence of these leaders is restricted within its present +bounds. It has been so restricted because the Irish Unionist party has +failed to produce a policy which could attract, at any rate, moderate +men from the other side, and we have, therefore, to consider why we have +so failed. Until this is done, we shall continue to share the blame for +the miserable state of our political life which, at the end of the +nineteenth century, appeared to have made but little advance from the +time when Bishop Berkeley asked 'Whether our parties are not a burlesque +upon politics.'</p> + +<p>The Irish Unionist party is supposed to unite all who, like the author, +are opposed to the plunge into what is called Home Rule. But its +propagandist activities in Ireland are confined to preaching the +doctrine of the <i>status quo</i>, and preaching it only to its own side. +From the beginning the party has been intimately connected with the +landlord class; yet even upon <a name="Page_64"></a>the land question it has thrown but few +gleams of the constructive thought which that question so urgently +demanded, and which it might have been expected to apply to it. Now and +again an individual tries to broaden the basis of Irish Unionism and to +bring himself into touch with the life of the people. But the nearer he +gets to the people the farther he gets from the Irish Unionist leaders. +The lot of such an individual is not a happy one: he is regarded as a +mere intruder who does not know the rules of the game, and he is treated +by the leading players on both sides like a dog in a tennis court.</p> + +<p>Two main causes appear to me to account for the failure of the Irish +Unionist party to make itself an effective force in Irish national life. +The great misunderstanding to which I have attributed the unhappy state +of Anglo-Irish relations kept the country in a condition of turmoil +which enabled the Unionist party to declare itself the party of law and +order. Adopting Lord Salisbury's famous prescription, 'twenty years of +resolute government,' they made it what its author would have been the +last man to consider it, a sufficient justification for a purely +negative and repressive policy. Such an attitude was open to somewhat +obvious objections. No one will dispute the proposition that the +government of Ireland, or of any other country, should be resolute, but +twenty years of resolute government, in the narrow sense in which it +came to be interpreted, needed for its success, what cannot be had under +<a name="Page_65"></a>party government, twenty years of consistency. It may be better to be +feared than to be loved, but Machiavelli would have been the first to +admit that his principle did not apply where the Government which sought +to establish fear had to reckon with an Opposition which was making +capital out of love. Moreover, the suggestion that the Irish Question is +not a matter of policy but of police, while by no means without +influential adherents, is altogether vicious. You cannot physically +intimidate Irishmen, and the last thing you want to do is morally to +intimidate a people whose greatest need at the moment is moral courage.</p> + +<p>The second cause which determined the character of Irish Unionism was +the linking of the agrarian with the political question; the one being, +in effect, a practical, the other a sentimental issue. The same thing +happened in the Nationalist party; but on their side it was intentional +and led to an immense accession of strength, while on the Unionist side +it made for weakness. If the influence of Irish Unionists was to be even +maintained, it was of vital importance that the interest of a class +should not be allowed to dominate the policy of the party. But the +organisation which ought to have rallied every force that Ireland could +contribute to the cause of imperial unity came to be too closely +identified with the landlord class. That class is admittedly essential +to the construction of any real national life. But there is another +element equally essential, to which the political leaders of Irish<a name="Page_66"></a> +Unionism have not given the prominence which is its due. The Irish +Question has been so successfully narrowed down to two simple policies, +one positive but vague, the other negative but definite, that to suggest +that there are three distinct forces—three distinct interests—to be +taken into account seems like confusing the issue. It is a fact, +nevertheless, that a very important element on the Unionist side, the +industrial element, has been practically left out of the calculation by +both sides. Yet the only expression of real political thought which I +have observed in Ireland, since I have been in touch with Irish life, +has emanated from the Ulster Liberal-Unionist Association, whose weighty +pronouncements, published from time to time, are worthy of deep +consideration by all interested in the welfare of Ireland.</p> + +<p>It will be remembered that when the Home Rule controversy was at its +height, the chief strength of the Irish opposition to Mr. Gladstone's +policy, and the consideration which most weighed with the British +electorate, lay in the business objection of the industrial population +of Ulster; though on the platform religious and political arguments were +more often heard. The intensely practical nature of the objection which +came from the commercial and industrial classes of the North who opposed +Home Rule was never properly recognised in Ireland. It was, and is still +unanswered. Briefly stated, the position taken up by their spokesmen was +as follows:—'We have come,' they said in effect, 'into Ireland, and not +the richest portion <a name="Page_67"></a>of the island, and have gradually built up an +industry and commerce with which we are able to hold our own in +competition with the most progressive nations in the world. Our success +has been achieved under a system and a polity in which we believe. Its +non-interference with the business of the people gave play to that +self-reliance with which we strove to emulate the industrial qualities +of the people of Great Britain. It is now proposed to place the +manufactures and commerce of the country at the mercy of a majority +which will have no real concern in the interests vitally affected, and +who have no knowledge of the science of government. The mere shadow of +these changes has so depressed the stocks which represent the +accumulations of our past enterprise and labour that we are already +commercially poorer than we were.'<a name="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a></p> + +<p>My sole criticism of those leaders of commerce and industry in Belfast, +who, whenever they turn their attention from their various +pre-occupations, import into Irish politics the valuable qualities which +they display in the conduct of their private affairs, is that they do +not go further and take the necessary steps to give practical effect to +their views outside the ranks of their immediate associates and +followers. Had the industrial section made its voice heard in the +councils of the Irish Unionist <a name="Page_68"></a>party, the Government which that party +supports might have had less advice and assistance in the maintenance of +law and order, but it would have had invaluable aid in its constructive +policy. For the lack of the wise guidance which our captains of industry +should have provided, Irish Unionism has, by too close adherence to the +traditions of the landlord section, been the creed of a social caste +rather than a policy in Ireland. The result has been injurious alike for +the landlords, the leaders of industry, and the people. The policy of +the Unionist party in Ireland has been to uphold the Union by force +rather than by a reconciliation of the people to it. It has held aloof +from the masses, who, bereft of the guidance of their natural leaders, +have clung the more closely to the chiefs of the Nationalist party; and +these in their turn have not, as I shall show presently, risen to their +responsibility, but have retarded rather than advanced the march of +democracy in Ireland. If there is to be any future for Unionism in +Ireland, there must be a combination of the best thought of the country +aristocracy and that of the captains of industry. Then, and not till +then, shall we Unionists as a party exercise a healthful and stimulating +influence on the thought and action of the people.</p> + +<p>I cannot, therefore, escape from the conclusion that whilst the Irish +section of the party to which I belong is, in my opinion, right on the +main political question, its influence is now for the most part +negative. Hence I direct attention mainly to the Home Rule party, as the +<a name="Page_69"></a>more forceful element in Irish political life; and if it receives the +more criticism it is because it is more closely in touch with the +people, and because any reform in its principles or methods would more +generally and more rapidly prove beneficial to the country than would +any change in Unionist policy.</p> + +<p>In examining the policy of the Nationalist party my chief concern will +be to arrive at a correct estimate of the effect which is produced upon +the thought and action of the Irish people by the methods employed for +the attainment of Home Rule. I propose to show that these methods have +been in the past, and must, so long as they are employed, continue to be +injurious to the political and industrial character of the people, and +consequently a barrier to progress. I know that most of the Nationalist +leaders justify the employment of these methods on the ground that, in +their opinion, the constitutional reforms they advocate are a condition +precedent to industrial progress. I believe, on the contrary, and I +shall give my reasons for believing, that their tactics have been not +only a hindrance to industrial progress, but destructive even to the +ulterior purpose they were intended to fulfil.</p> + +<p>It is commonly believed—a belief very naturally fostered by their +leaders—that, if there is one thing the Irish do understand, it is +politics. Politics is a term obviously capable of wide interpretation, +and I fear that those who say that my countrymen are pre-eminently +politicians use the term in a sense more applicable to <a name="Page_70"></a>the conceptions +of Mr. Richard Croker than of Aristotle. In intellectual capacity for +discrimination upon political issues the average Irish elector is, I +believe, far superior to the average English elector. But there is as +yet something wanting in the character of our people which seems to +prohibit the exercise by them of any independent political thought and, +consequently, of any effective or permanent political influence.</p> + +<p>The assumption that Irishmen are singularly good politicians seems to +stand seriously in the way of their becoming so; and yet it is a matter +of the greatest importance that they should become good politicians in a +real sense, for in no country would sound political thought exercise a +more beneficial influence upon the life of the people than in Ireland. +Indeed I would go further and give it as my strong conviction that, +properly developed and freed from the narrowing influences of the party +squabbles by which it has been warped and sterilised, the political +thought of the Irish people would contribute a factor of vital +importance to the life of the British empire. But at the moment I am +dealing only with the influence of politics on Irish social and economic +life.</p> + +<p>I am aware that any political deficiencies which the Irish may display +at home, are commonly attributed to the political system which has been +imposed upon Ireland from without. If you want to see Irish genius in +its highest political manifestation, it must be studied, we are told, in +the United States, the <a name="Page_71"></a>widest and freest arena which has ever been +offered to the race. This view is not in accordance with the facts as I +have observed them. These facts are somewhat obscured by the natural, +but misleading habit of reckoning to the account of Ireland at large +achievements really due to the Scotch-Irish, who helped to colonise +Pennsylvania, and who undoubtedly played a dominant part in developing +the characteristic features of the American political system. The +Scotch-Irish, however, do not belong to the Ireland of the Irish +Question Descended, largely, as their names so often testify, from the +early Irish colonists of western Scotland, they came back as a distinct +race, dissociating themselves from the Irish Celts by refusing to adopt +their national traditions, or intermarry with them, and both here and in +America disclaiming the appellation of Irish.<a name="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Leaving, then, out of consideration the political achievements of the +Scotch-Irish, it appears to me that the part played in politics by the +Irish in America does not testify to any high political genius. They +have shown there an extraordinary aptitude for political organisation, +which, if it had been guided by anything approaching to political +thought, would have placed them in a far higher position in American +public life than that <a name="Page_72"></a>which they now occupy. But the fact is that it +would be much easier to find evidence of high political capacity and +success in the history of the Irish in British colonies; and the reason +for this fact is not only very germane to the purpose of this book, but +has a strong practical interest for Americans as well. Irishmen when +they go to America find themselves united by a bond which does not and +could not exist in the Colonies—though it does exist in Ireland—the +bond of anti-English feeling, and by the hope of giving practical effect +to this feeling through the policy of their adopted country. Imbued with +this common sentiment, and influenced by their inherited clannishness, +the Irish in America readily lend themselves to the system of political +groups, a system which the 'boss' for his own ends seeks to perpetuate. +The result is a sort of political paradox—it has made the Irish in +America both stronger and weaker than they ought to be. They suffer +politically from the defects of their political qualities: they are +strong as a voting machine, but the secret of their collective strength +is also the secret of their individual weakness. This organisation into +groups is much commoner among the Irish than among other American +immigrants, for the anti-English feeling with which so many of the Irish +land in America is carefully kept alive by the 'boss,' whose sedulous +fostering of the instinctive clannishness and inherited leader-following +habits of the Irish saps their independence of thought and prevents them +from <a name="Page_73"></a>ceasing to be mere political agents and developing a citizenship +which would furnish its due quota of statesmen to the service of the +Republic. They lack in the United States just what they lack at home, +the capacity, or at any rate the inclination, to use their undoubted +abilities in a large and foreseeing manner, and so are becoming less and +less powerful as a force in American politics.</p> + +<p>The fallacious views about the nature and sphere of politics, which the +Irish bring with them from Ireland, and which are perpetuated in +America, have the effect not only of debarring the Irish from real +political progress, but also, as at home, from gaining success in +industrial pursuits which their talents would otherwise win for them. +They succeed as journalists owing to their quick intelligence and +versatility, and as contractors mainly owing to their capacity for +organising gangs of workmen—a faculty which seems to be the only good +thing resulting from their political education. They are as brilliant +soldiers in the service of the United States as they are in that of +Britain—more it would be impossible to say—and they have produced +types of daring, endurance, and shrewdness like the 'Silver Kings' of +Nevada which testify to the exceptional powers always developed by the +Irish in exceptional circumstances. But in the humdrum business of +everyday life in the United States they suffer from defects which are +the outcome of their devotion to mistaken political ideals and of their +subordination of industry to politics, which are not always purely<a name="Page_74"></a> +American, but are often influenced by considerations of the country of +their birth. On the whole, a quarter of a century of not unsympathetic +observation of the Irish in the United States has convinced me that the +position they occupy there is not one which either they or the American +people can look on with entire satisfaction. The Irish immigrants are +felt to belong to a kind of <i>imperium in imperio</i>, and to carry into +American politics ideas which are not American, and which might easily +become an embarrassment if not a danger to America. Hence the powerful +interest which America shares with England, though of course in a less +degree, in understanding and helping to settle the complex difficulty +called the Irish Question. The Irish remember Ireland long after they +have left it. They are not in the same position as the German or English +immigrants who have no cause at home which they wish to forward. Every +echo in the States of political or social disturbance in Ireland rouses +the immigrant and he becomes an Irishman once more, and not a citizen of +the country of his adoption. His views and votes on international +questions, in so far as they affect these Islands, are thus often +dictated more by a passionate sympathy for and remembrance of the land +he no longer lives in, than by any right understanding of the interests +of the new country in which he and his children must live.</p> + +<p>The only reason why I have examined the assumption that Irishmen display +marked political capacity in the United States is to make it clear that +the political defi<a name="Page_75"></a>ciencies they manifest at home are to be attributed +mainly to defects of character, and to a conception of politics for +which modern English government is very slightly responsible. I admit +that English government in the past had no small share in producing the +results we deplore to-day, but the motives and manner of its action +have, it seems to me, been very imperfectly understood.</p> + +<p>The fact is that the difficulties of English government in Ireland, +until a complete military conquest had been effected, were of a +peculiarly complex character. Before the English could impose upon +Ireland their own political organisation—and the idea that any other +system could work better among the Irish never entered the English +mind—it was obviously necessary that the very antithesis of that +organisation, the clan system, should be abolished. But there were +military and financial objections to carrying out this policy. Irish +campaigns were very costly, and England was in those days by no means +wealthy. English armies in Ireland, after a short period spent in +desultory warfare with light armed kernes in the fever-stricken Munster +forests, began to melt away. For many generations, therefore, England, +adopting a policy of <i>divide et impera</i>, set clan against clan. Later +on, statecraft may be said to have supervened upon military tactics. It +consisted of attempts made by alternate threats and bribes to induce the +chiefs to transform the clan organisation by the acceptance of English +institutions. But any systematic endeavours to complete the +transformation were soon <a name="Page_76"></a>rendered abortive by being coupled with huge +confiscations of land. The policy of converting the members of the clans +into freeholders was subordinated to the policy of planting British +colonists. After this there was no question of fusion of races or +institutions. Plantations on a large scale, self-supporting, +self-protecting, became the policy alike of the soldier and the +statesman.</p> + +<p>The inevitable result of these methods was that it was not until a +comparatively late date that a political conception of an Irish nation +first began to emerge out of the congeries of clans. In the State Papers +of the sixteenth century the clans are frequently spoken of as +'nations.' Even as late as the eighteenth century a Gaelic poet, in a +typical lament, thus identifies his country with the fortunes of her +great families:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>The O'Doherty is not holding sway, nor his noble race;<br /></span> +<span>The O'Moores are not strong, that once were brave—<br /></span> +<span>O'Flaherty is not in power, nor his kinsfolk;<br /></span> +<span>And sooth to say, the O'Briens have long since become English.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Of O'Rourke there is no mention—my sharp wounding!<br /></span> +<span>Nor yet of O'Donnell in Erin;<br /></span> +<span>The Geraldines they are without vigour—without a nod,<br /></span> +<span>And the Burkes, the Barrys, the Walshes of the slender ships.<a name="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The modern political idea of Irish nationality at length asserted itself +as the result of three main causes. The bond of a common grievance +against the English foe was created by the gradual abandonment of the +policy of setting clan against clan in favour of impartial <a name="Page_77"></a>confiscation +of land from friendly as well as from hostile chiefs. Secondly, when the +English had destroyed the natural leaders, the clan chiefs, and +attempted to proselytise their adherents, the political leadership +largely passed to the Roman Catholic Church, which very naturally +defended the religion common to the members of all the clans, by trying +to unite them against the English enemy. Nationality, in this sense, of +course applied only to Celtic Roman Catholic Ireland. The first real +idea of a United Ireland arose out of the third cause, the religious +grievances of the Protestant dissenters and the commercial grievances of +the Protestant manufacturers and artisans in the eighteenth century, who +suffered under a common disability with the Roman Catholics, and many of +whom came in the end to make common cause with them. But even long after +this conception had become firmly established, the local representative +institutions corresponding to those which formed the political training +of the English in law and administration either did not exist in Ireland +or were altogether in the hands of a small aristocracy, mostly of +non-Irish origin, and wholly non-Catholic. O'Connell's great work in +freeing Roman Catholic Ireland from the domination of the Protestant +oligarchy showed the people the power of combination, but his methods +can hardly be said to have fostered political thought. The efforts in +this direction of men like Gavan Duffy, Davis, and Lucas were +neutralised by the Famine, the after effects of which also did much to +<a name="Page_78"></a>thwart Butt's attempts to develop serious public opinion amongst a +people whose political education had been so long delayed. The prospect +of any early fruition of such efforts vanished with the revolutionary +agrarian propaganda, and independent thinking—so necessary in the +modern democratic state—never replaced the old leader-following habit +which continued until the climax was reached under Parnell.</p> + +<p>The political backwardness of the Irish people revealed itself +characteristically when, in 1884, the English and Irish democracies were +simultaneously endowed with a greatly extended franchise. In theory this +concession should have developed political thought in the people and +should have enhanced their sense of political responsibility. In England +no doubt this theory was proved by the event to be based on fact; but in +Ireland it was otherwise. Parnell was at the zenith of his power. The +Irish had the man, what mattered the principles? The new suffrages +simply became the figures upon the cheques handed over to the Chief by +each constituency, with the request that he would fill in the name of +the payee. On one or two occasions a constituency did protest against +the payee, but all that was required to settle the matter was a personal +visit from the Chief. Generally speaking, the electorate were quite +docile, and instances were not wanting of men discovering that they had +found favour with electors to whom their faces and even their names were +previously unknown.</p> + +<p>No doubt, the one-man system had a tactical <a name="Page_79"></a>value, of which the English +themselves were ever ready to make use. "If all Ireland cannot rule this +man, then let this man rule all Ireland," said Henry VII. of the Earl of +Kildare; and the echo of these words was heard when the Kilmainham +Treaty was negotiated with the last man who wore the mantle of the +chief. But whatever may be said for the one-man system as a means of +political organisation, it lacked every element of political education. +It left the people weaker, if possible, and less capable than it found +them; and assuredly it was no fit training for Home Rule. While +Parnell's genius was in the ascendant, all was well—outwardly. When a +tragic and painful disclosure brought about a crisis in his fate, it +will hardly be contended by the most devoted admirer of the Irish people +that the situation was met with even moderate ability and foresight. But +the logic of events began to take effect. The decade of dissension which +followed the fall of Parnell will, perhaps, some day be recognised as a +most fruitful epoch in modern Irish history. The reaction from the +one-man system set in as soon as the one man had passed away. The +independence which Parnell's former lieutenants began to assert when the +laurels faded upon the brow of the uncrowned King communicated itself to +some extent to the rank and file. The mere weighing of the merits of +several possible successors led to some wholesome questioning as to the +merits of the policies, such as they were, which they respectively +represented The critical spirit which was now called forth, did not, <a name="Page_80"></a>at +first, go very far; but it was at least constructive and marked a +distinct advance towards real political thought. I believe the day will +come, and come soon, when Nationalist leaders themselves will recognise +that while bemoaning faction and dissension and preaching the cause of +'unity' they often mistook the wheat for the tares. They will, I feel +sure, come to realise that the passing of the dictatorship, which to +outward appearances left the people as "sheep without a shepherd, when +the snow shuts out the sky," in fact turned the thoughts of Ireland in +some measure away from England into her own bosom, and gave birth there +to the idea of a national life to which the Irish people of all classes, +creeds, and politics could contribute of their best.</p> + +<p>I sometimes wonder whether the leaders of the Nationalist party really +understand the full effect of their tactics upon the political character +of the Irish people, and whether their vision is not as much obscured by +a too near, as is the vision of the Unionist leaders by a too distant, +view of the people's life. Everyone who seeks to provide practical +opportunities for Irish intellect to express-itself worthily in active +life—and this, I take it, is part of what the Nationalist leaders wish +to achieve—meets with the same difficulty. The lack of initiative and +shrinking from responsibility, the moral timidity in glaring contrast +with the physical courage—which has its worst manifestation in the +intense dread of public opinion, especially when the unknown terrors of +editorial power lurk behind an unfavourable mention 'on the <a name="Page_81"></a>paper,' +are, no doubt, qualities inherited from a primitive social state in +which the individual was nothing and the community everything. These +defects were intensified in past generations by British statecraft, +which seemed unable to appreciate or use the higher instincts of the +race; they remain to-day a prominent factor in the great human problem +known as the Irish Question—a factor to which, in my belief, may be +attributed the greatest of its difficulties.</p> + +<p>It is quite clear that education should have been the remedy for the +defects of character upon which I am forced to dwell so much; and I +cannot absolve any body of Irishmen, possessed of actual or potential +influence, of failure to recognise this truth. But here I am dealing +only with the political leaders, and trying to bring home to them the +responsibility which their power imposes upon them, not only for the +political development but also for the industrial progress of their +followers. They ought to have known that the weakness of character which +renders the task of political leadership in Ireland comparatively easy +is in reality the quicksand of Irish life, and that neither +self-government nor any other institution can be enduringly built upon +it.</p> + +<p>The leaders of the Nationalist party are, of course, entitled to hold +that, in existing political conditions, any non-political movement +towards national advancement, which in its nature cannot be linked, as +the land question was linked, to the Home Rule movement constitutes an +unwarrantable sacrifice of ends to means. And <a name="Page_82"></a>so holding, they are +further entitled to subject any proposal to elevate popular thought, or +to direct popular activities, to a strict censorship as to its remote as +well as to its immediate effect upon the electorate. I know, too, that +it is held by some thinking Nationalists who take no active part in +politics that the politicians are justified on tactical grounds in this +exclusive pursuit of their political aims, and in the methods by which +they pursue them. They consider the present system of government too +radically wrong to mend, and they can undoubtedly point to agrarian +legislation as evidence of the effectiveness of the means they employ to +gain their end.</p> + +<p>This view of things has sunk very deep into the Irish mind. The policy +of 'giving trouble' to the Government is looked upon as the one road to +reform and is believed in so fervently that, except for religion, which +sometimes conflicts with it, there is scarcely any capacity left for +belief in anything else. I am far from denying that the past offers much +justification for the belief that nothing can be gained by Ireland from +England except through violent agitation. Until recently, I admit, +Ireland's opportunity had to wait for England's difficulty. But, as +practised in the present day, I believe this doctrine to be mischievous +and false. For one thing, there is a new England to deal with. The +England which, certainly not in deference to violent agitation, +established the Congested Districts Board, gave Local Government to +Ireland, and accepted the recom<a name="Page_83"></a>mendations of the Recess Committee for +far-reaching administrative changes, as well as those of the Land +Conference which involved great financial concessions, is not the +England of fifty years ago, still less the England of the eighteenth +century. Moreover, in riveting the mind of the country on what is to be +obtained from England, this doctrine of 'giving trouble,' the whole +gospel of the agitator, has blinded the Irish people to the many things +which Ireland can do for herself. Whatever may be said of what is called +'agitation' in Ireland as an engine for extorting legislation from the +Imperial Parliament, it is unquestionably bad for the much greater end +of building up Irish character and developing Irish industry and +commerce. 'Agitation,' as Thomas Davis said, 'is one means of redress, +but it leads to much disorganisation, great unhappiness, wounds upon the +soul of a country which sometimes are worse than the thinning of a +people by war.'<a name="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> If Irish politicians had at all realised this truth, +it is difficult to believe that the popular movement of the last quarter +of a century would not have been conducted in a manner far less +injurious to the soul of <a name="Page_84"></a>Ireland and equally or more effective for +legislative reform as well as all other material interests.</p> + +<p>Now, modern Nationalism in Ireland is open to damaging criticism not +only from my Unionist point of view, which was also, in many respects, +the view of so strong a Nationalist as Thomas Davis; it is also open to +grave objection from the point of view of the effectiveness of the +tactics employed for the attainment of its end—the winning of Home +Rule.</p> + +<p>Before examining the effect of these tactics I may point out that this +conception of Nationalist policy, even if justifiable from a practical +point of view, does not relieve the leaders from the obligation of +giving some assurance that they are ready with a consistent scheme of +re-construction, and are prepared to build when the ground has been +cleared. In this connection I might make a good deal of Unionist +capital, and some points in support of my condemnation of the political +absorption of the Irish mind, out of the total failure of the +Nationalist party to solve certain all-important constitutional and +financial problems which months of Parliamentary debate in 1893 tended +rather to obscure than to elucidate. I am, however, willing for +argument's sake to postpone all such questions, vital as they are, to +the time when they can be practically dealt with. I am ready to assume +that the wit of man can devise a settlement of many points which seemed +insoluble in Mr. Gladstone's day. But even granting all this, I think it +can easily be shown that the means which the political <a name="Page_85"></a>thought +available on the Nationalist side has evolved for the attainment of +their end, and which <i>ex hypothesi</i> are only to be justified on tactical +grounds, are the least likely to succeed; and that, consequently, they +should be abandoned in favour of a constructive policy which, to say the +least, would not be less effective towards advancing the Home Rule +cause, if that cause be sound, and which would at the same time help the +advancement of Ireland in other than political directions.</p> + +<p>Tactics form but a part of generalship, and half the success of +generalship lies in making a correct estimate of the opposing forces. +This is as true of political as it is of military operations. Now, of +what do the forces opposed to Home Rule consist? The Unionists, it may +be admitted, are numerically but a small minority of the population of +Ireland—probably not more than one-fourth. But what do they represent? +First, there are the landed gentry. Let us again make a concession for +the sake of argument and accept the view that this class so wantonly +kept itself aloof from the life of the majority of the people that the +Nationalists could not be expected to count them among the elements of a +Home Rule Ireland. I note, in passing, with extreme gratification that +at the recent Land Conference it was declared by the tenants' +representatives that it was desirable, in the interests of Ireland, that +the present owners of land should not be expatriated, and that +inducements should be afforded to selling owners to continue to reside +in the country.</p><a name="Page_86"></a> + +<p>But I may ignore this as I wish here to recall attention to that other +element, which was, as I have already said, the real force which turned +the British democracy against Home Rule—I mean the commercial and +industrial community in Belfast and other hives of industry in the +north-east corner of the country, and in scattered localities elsewhere. +I have already admitted that the political importance of the industrial +element was not appreciated in Irish Unionist circles. No less +remarkable is the way in which it has been ignored by the Nationalists. +The question which the Nationalists had to answer in 1886 and 1893, and +which they have to answer to-day, is this:—In the Ireland of their +conception is the Unionist part of Ulster to be coerced or persuaded to +come under the new regime? To those who adopt the former alternative my +reply is simply that, if England is to do the coercion, the idea is +politically absurd. If we were left to fight it out among ourselves, it +is physically absurd. The task of the Empire in South Africa was light +compared with that which the Nationalists would have on hands. I am +aware that, at the time when we were all talking at concert pitch on the +Irish Question, a good deal was said about dying in the last ditch by +men who at the threat of any real trouble would be found more discreetly +perched upon the first fence. But those who know the temper and fighting +qualities of the working-men opponents of Home Rule in the North are +under no illusion as to the account they would give of <a name="Page_87"></a>themselves if +called upon to defend the cause of Protestantism, liberty, and imperial +unity as they understand it. Let us, however, dismiss this alternative +and give Nationalists credit for the desire to persuade the industrial +North to come in by showing it that it will be to its advantage to join +cordially in the building up of a united Ireland under a separate +legislature.</p> + +<p>The difficulties in the way of producing this conviction are very +obvious. The North has prospered under the Act of Union—why should it +be ready to enter upon a new 'variety of untried being'? What that state +of being will be like, it naturally gauges from the forces which are +working for Home Rule at present. Looking at these simply from the +industrial standpoint and leaving out of account all the powerful +elements of religious and race prejudice, the man of the North sees two +salient facts which have dominated all the political activity of the +Nationalist campaign. One is a voluble and aggressive disloyalty, not +merely to 'England' and to the present system of government, but to the +Crown which represents the unity of the three kingdoms, and the other is +the introduction of politics into business in the very virulent and +destructive form known as boycotting.</p> + +<p>Now, hostility to the Crown, if it means anything, means a struggle for +separation as soon as Home Rule has given to the Irish people the power +to organise and arm. And (still keeping to the sternly practical point +of view) that would, for the time being at least, spell absolute ruin to +the industrial North. The practice of <a name="Page_88"></a>boycotting, again, is the very +antithesis of industry—it creates an atmosphere in which industry and +enterprise simply cannot live. The North has seen this practice condoned +as a desperate remedy for a desperate ill, but it has seen it continued +long after the ill had passed away, used as a weapon by one Nationalist +section against another, and revived when anything like a really +oppressive or arbitrary eviction had become impossible. There seems to +have been in Nationalist circles, since the time of O'Connell, but +little appreciation of the deadly character of this social curse; and +the prospect of a Government which would tolerate it naturally fills the +mind of the Northern commercial man with alarm and aversion.</p> + +<p>Again, the democratisation of local government which gave the +Nationalist leaders a unique opportunity of showing the value, has but +served to demonstrate the ineffectiveness, of their political tactics. +North of Ireland opinion was deeply interested in this reform, and +appreciated its far-reaching importance. Elsewhere, I think it will be +safe to say, people generally were indifferent to it until it came, and +the leaders seemed to see in it only a weapon to be used for political +purposes. To the great vista of useful and patriotic work opened out by +the Act of 1898, to the impression that a proper use of that Act might +make on Northern opinion, they were blind. It is true that the Councils +when left to themselves did admirably, and fully justified the trust +reposed in them. But at the inauguration of local government <a name="Page_89"></a>it was +naturally not the work of the Councils but the attitude of the party +leaders which appeared to stamp the reception of the Act by the Irish +people.</p> + +<p>It is true, of course, that many thoughtful men among the Nationalist +party repudiate the idea that the methods of to-day would be continued +in a self-governed Ireland. I fail to see any reason why they should +not. Under any system of limited Home Rule questions would arise which +would afford much the same sort of justification for the employment of +such methods, and they could hardly be worse for the welfare of the +country then than they are now. There is abundant need and abundant work +in the present day for thoughtful and far-seeing men in a party +constitutionally so strong as that of the Irish Nationalists. If those +among them who possess, or at any rate can make effective use of +qualities of constructive statesmanship are as few as the history of +recent years would lead us to suppose, what assurance can Ulster +Unionists feel that such men would spring up spontaneously in an Ireland +under Home Rule? I admit, indeed, that a considerable measure of such +assurance might be derived from the attitude of the leaders of the party +at and since the Land Conference. But this adoption of statesmanlike +methods which cannot be too widely understood or too warmly commended is +a matter of very recent history; and though we may hope that the success +attending it will help materially in the political education of the +Irish people, that will not, by itself, undo the effect of a quarter of +a century of <a name="Page_90"></a>political agitation governed by ideas the very reverse of +those which are now happily beginning to find favour.</p> + +<p>I have thought it necessary to examine at some length the defence on the +ground of tactics which is often made for Nationalist politics, because +it is the only defence ever made by those apologists who admit the +disturbing influence upon our economic and social life of Nationalist +methods. A broader and saner view of political tactics than prevailed +ten years ago is now possible, for circumstances are becoming friendly +and helpful to the development of political thought. Though the United +Irish League apparently restored 'unity' to the ranks of the +Nationalists, the country is, I believe, getting restless under the +political bondage, and is seething with a wholesome discontent. In this +very matter of political education, the stir of corporate life, the +sense of corporate responsibility which in every parish of Ireland are +now being fostered by the reformed system of local government, must make +their influence felt in wider spheres. Even now I believe that the field +is ready for the work of those who would bid the old leader-following +habit, the product partly of the dead clan system, partly of dying +national animosities, depart as a thing that has had its day, and who +would endeavour to train up a race of free, self-reliant, and +independent citizens in a free state.</p> + +<p>In this work the very men whose mistaken conception of a united Ireland +I have criticised will, I doubt not, take a leading part. In many +respects, <a name="Page_91"></a>and these not the least important, no one could desire a +better instrument for the achievement of great reforms than the Irish +party. They are far beyond any similar group of English members in +rhetorical skill and quickness of intelligence and decision, qualities +which no doubt belong to the mechanism rather than the soul of politics, +but which the practical worker in public life will not despise. But even +when tried by a higher standard the Irish members need not fear the +judgment of history. They have often, in my opinion, misconceived the +true interests of their country, but they have been faithful to those +interests as they understood them, and have proved themselves notably +superior to sordid personal aims. These gifts and virtues are not +common, but still rarer is it to see such gifts and virtues cursed with +the doom of futility. The influence of the Irish political leaders has +neither advanced the nation's march through the wilderness nor taught +the people how they are to dispense with manna from above when they +reach the Promised Land. With all their brilliancy, they have thrown but +little helpful light on any Irish problem. In this want of political and +economic foresight Irish Nationalist politicians, with some exceptions +whom it would be invidious to name, have fallen lamentably short of what +might be expected of Irish intellect. For the eight years during which I +represented an Irish constituency I always felt that an Irish night in +the House of Commons was one of the strangest and most pathetic of +spectacles. There were <a name="Page_92"></a>the veterans of the Irish party hardened by a +hundred fights, ranging from Venezuela to the Soudan in search of +battlefields, making allies of every kind of foreign potentate, from +President Cleveland to the Mahdi, from Mr. Kruger to the Akhoom of Swat, +but looking with suspicion on every symptom of an independent national +movement in Ireland; masters of the language of hate and scorn, yet +mocked by inevitable and eternal failure; winners of victories that turn +to dust and ashes; devoted to their country, yet, from ignorance of the +real source of its malady, ever widening the gaping wound through which +its life-blood flows. While I recall these scenes, there rises before my +mind the picture vividly drawn by Miss Lawless of their prototypes, the +'Wild Geese,' who carried their swords into foreign service after the +final defeat of the Stuarts:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>War-battered dogs are we,<br /></span> +<span>Fighters in every clime,<br /></span> +<span>Fillers of trench and of grave,<br /></span> +<span>Mockers, bemocked by Time;<br /></span> +<span>War-dogs, hungry and grey,<br /></span> +<span>Gnawing a naked bone,<br /></span> +<span>Fighting in every clime<br /></span> +<span>Every cause but our own.<a name="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Irishmen have been long in realising that the days of the 'Wild Geese' +are over, and that there are battles for Ireland to be fought and won in +Ireland—battles in which England is not the enemy she was in the days +of <a name="Page_93"></a>Fontenoy, but a friend and helper. But there will be little gain in +replacing the traditional conception of England as the inexorable foe by +the more modern conception, which threatened to become traditional in +its turn, of England as the source of all prosperity and her favour as +the condition of all progress in Ireland. In the recent Land Conference +I recognise something more valuable even than the financial and +legislative results which flowed from it, for it showed that the +conception of reliance upon Irishmen in Ireland, not under some future +and problematical conditions, but here and now, for the solution of +Irish questions, is gaining ground among us. If this conception once +takes firm hold, as I think it is beginning to do, of the Nationalist +party in Ireland, much of the criticism of this chapter will lose its +meaning. The mere substitution of a positive Irish policy for a negative +anti-English policy will elevate the whole range of Nationalist +political activity in and out of Ireland. And I am certain that if the +ultimate goal of Nationalist politics be desirable, and continue to be +desired, it will not be rendered more difficult, but on the contrary +very much easier of attainment if those who seek it take possession of +the great field of work which, without waiting for any concessions from +Westminster, is offered by the Ireland of to-day.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11">[11]</a><div class="note"><p> This view of the case was powerfully stated by the +deputation from the Belfast Chamber of Commerce which waited on Mr. +Gladstone in the spring of 1893. They pointed out <i>inter alia</i> that the +members of the deputation were poorer by thousands of pounds owing to +the fall in Irish stocks consequent upon the introduction of the Home +Rule Bill in that year.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12">[12]</a><div class="note"><p> The term 'Scotch-Irish' does not mean an amalgam of Scotch +and Irish, but a race of Scottish immigrants who settled in north-east +Ireland. I may point out that in these criticisms of Irish-American +politics I refer, of course, mainly to the Irish-born immigrants and not +to the Irish, Scotch-Irish or other, who are American-born. Nobody can +have a higher appreciation than I of the great part played by the +American-Irish once they have assimilated the full spirit of American +institutions.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13">[13]</a><div class="note"><p> <i>Poems of Egan O'Rahilly.</i> Edited, with translation, by +the Rev. P.S. Dinneen, M.A., for the Irish Texts Society, p. 11. +O'Rahilly's charge against Cromwell is that he "gave plenty to the man +with the flail," but beggared the great lords, p. 167.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14">[14]</a><div class="note"><p> <i>Prose Writings of Thomas Davis</i>, p. 284. 'The writers of +<i>The Nation</i>,' wrote Davis in another place, 'have never concealed the +defects or flattered the good qualities of their countrymen. They have +told them in good faith that they wanted many an attribute of a free +people, <i>and that the true way to command happiness and liberty was by +learning the arts and practising the culture that fitted men for their +enjoyment'</i> (p. 176). The thing that especially distinguished Davis +among Nationalist politicians was the essentially constructive mind +which he brought to bear on Irish questions, as illustrated in the +passage I have italicised. It is, I am afraid, the part of his legacy of +thought which has been least regarded by his admirers.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15">[15]</a><div class="note"><p> <i>With the Wild Geese</i>. Poems by the Hon. Emily Lawless. I +have never read a better portrayal of the historic Irish sentiment than +is set forth in this little volume. By the way, there is a preface by +Mr. Stopford Brooke, which is singularly interesting and informing.</p></div> + +<a name="Page_94"></a> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_IV"></a><h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h4>THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION UPON SECULAR LIFE IN IRELAND.</h4> + + +<p>In the preceding chapter I attempted to estimate the influence of our +political leaders as a potential and as an actual force. I come now to +the second great influence upon the thought and action of the Irish +people, the influence of religion, especially the power exercised by the +priests and by the unrivalled organisation of the Roman Catholic Church. +I do not share the pessimism which sees in this potent influence nothing +but the shackles of mediævalism restraining its adherents from falling +into line with the progress of the age. I shall, indeed, have to admit +much of what is charged against the clerical leaders of popular thought +in Ireland, but I shall be able to show, I hope, that these leaders are +largely the product of a situation which they themselves did not create, +and that not only are they as susceptible as are the political leaders +to the influences of progressive movements, but that they can be more +readily induced to take part in their promotion. In no other country in +the world, probably, is religion so dominant an element in the daily +life of the people as in Ireland, and certainly <a name="Page_95"></a>nowhere else has the +minister of religion so wide and undisputed an authority. It is obvious, +therefore, that, however foreign such a theme may <i>prima facie</i> appear +to the scope and aim of the present volume, I have no choice but to +analyse frankly and as fully as my personal experience justifies, what I +conceive to be the true nature, the salutary limits, and the actual +scope of clerical influence in this country.</p> + +<p>But before I can discuss what I may call the religious situation, there +is one fundamental question—a question which will appear somewhat +strange to anyone not in touch with Irish life—which I must, with a +view to a general agreement on essentials, submit to some of my +co-religionists. In all seriousness I would ask, whether in their +opinion the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland is to be tolerated. If the +answer be in the negative, I can only reply that any efforts to stamp +out the Roman Catholic faith would fail as they did in the past; and the +practical minds among those I am now addressing must admit that in +toleration alone is to be found the solution of that part of the Irish +difficulty which is due to sectarian animosities.</p> + +<p>This brings us face to face with the question, What is religious +toleration—I do not mean as a pious sentiment which we are all +conscious of ourselves possessing in a truer sense than that in which it +is possessed by others, but rather toleration as an essential of the +liberty which we Protestants enjoy under the British Constitution, and +boast that all other creeds equally <a name="Page_96"></a>enjoy? Perhaps I had better state +simply how I answer this question in my own mind. Toleration by the +Irish minority, in regard to the religious faith and ecclesiastical +system of the Irish majority, implies that we admit the right of Rome to +say what Roman Catholics shall believe and what outward forms they shall +observe, and that they shall not suffer before the State for these +beliefs and observances. I do not think exception can be taken to the +statement that toleration in this narrow sense cannot be refused +consistently with the fundamental principles of British government.</p> + +<p>Now, however, comes a less obvious, but, as I think, no less essential +condition of toleration in the sense above indicated. The Roman Catholic +Hierarchy claim the right to exercise such supervision and control over +the education of their flock as will enable them to safe-guard faith and +morals as preached and practised by their Church. I concede this second +claim as a necessary corollary of the first. Having lived most of my +life among Roman Catholics—two branches of my own family belonging to +that religion—I am aware that this control is an essential part of the +whole fabric of Roman Catholicism. Whether the basis of authority upon +which that system is founded be in its origin divine or human is beside +the point. If we profess to tolerate the faith and religious system of +the majority of our countrymen we must at least concede the conditions +essential to the maintenance of both the one and the other, unless our +tolerance is to be a sham.</p><a name="Page_97"></a> + +<p>So far all liberal-minded Protestants, who know what Roman Catholicism +is, will be with me; and for the main purposes of the argument contained +in this chapter it is not necessary to interpret toleration in any wider +sense than that which I have indicated. Many Protestants, among whom I +am one, do, it is true, make a further concession to the claim of our +Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen. We would give them in Ireland +facilities for higher education which we would not give them in England, +and we would advocate liberal endowment by the State to this end. But +this attitude is, I admit, based upon something more than tolerance, and +those who would withhold this concession need not be accused of bigotry +or intolerance for so doing. They may be, and often are, actuated by the +most liberal motives, by a perfectly legitimate conception of +educational principles, or by other considerations which are neither of +a narrow nor sectarian character.</p> + +<p>I need hardly say that in criticising religious systems and their +ministers I have not the faintest intention of entering on the +discussion of doctrinal issues. I am, of course, here concerned with +only those aspects of the religious situation which bear directly on +secular life. I am endeavouring, it must be remembered, to arrive at a +comprehensive and accurate appreciation of the chief influences which +mould the character, guide the thought, and, therefore, direct the +action of the Irish people as citizens of this world and of their own +country. From this standpoint let us try to make a dispassionate survey +<a name="Page_98"></a>of Protestantism and Roman Catholicism in Ireland, and see wherein +their votaries fulfil, or fail to fulfil, their mission in advancing our +common civilisation. Let us examine, in a word, not merely the direct +influence which the creed of each of the two sections of Irishmen +produces on the industrial character of its adherents, but also its +indirect effects upon the mutual relations and regard for each other of +Protestants and Roman Catholics.</p> + +<p>Protestantism has its stronghold in the great industrial centres of the +North and among the Presbyterian farmers of five or six Ulster counties. +These communities, it is significant to note, have developed the +essentially strenuous qualities which, no doubt, they brought from +England and Scotland. In city life their thrift, industry, and +enterprise, unsurpassed in the United Kingdom, have built up a +world-wide commerce. In rural life they have drawn the largest yield +from relatively infertile soil. Such, in brief, is the achievement of +Ulster Protestantism in the realm of industry. It is a story of which, +when a united Ireland becomes more than a dream, all Irishmen will be +proud.</p> + +<p>But there is, unhappily, another side to the picture. This industrial +life, otherwise so worthily cultivated, is disturbed by manifestations +of religious bigotry which sadly tarnish the glory of the really heroic +deeds they are intended to commemorate. It is impossible for any close +observer of these deplorable exhibitions to avoid the conclusion that +the embers of the old <a name="Page_99"></a>fires are too often fanned by men who are +actuated by motives, which, when not other than religious, are certainly +based upon an unworthy conception of religion. I am quite aware that it +is only a small and decreasing minority of my co-religionists who are +open to the charge of intolerance, and that the geographical limits of +the July orgy are now strictly circumscribed. But this bigotry is so +notorious, as for instance in the exclusion of Roman Catholics from many +responsible positions, that it unquestionably reacts most unfavourably +upon the general relations between the two creeds throughout the whole +of Ireland. The existence of such a spirit of suspicion and hatred, from +whatever motive it emanates, is bound to retard our progress as a people +towards the development of a healthy and balanced national life.</p> + +<p>Many causes have recently contributed to the unhappy continuance of +sectarian animosities in Ireland. The Ritualistic movement and the +struggle over the Education Bill in England, the renewed controversy on +the University Question in Ireland, instances of bigotry towards +Protestants displayed by County, District, and Urban Councils in the +three southern provinces of Ireland, the formation of the Catholic +Association, the question of the form of the King's oath, and, more +remotely, the protest against clericalism in such Roman Catholic +countries as France and Austria, have one and all helped to keep alive +the flame of anti-Roman feeling among Irish Protestants.<a name="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a></p> +<a name="Page_100"></a> +<p>There are, happily, other influences now at work in a contrary +direction. Among the industrial leaders a better spirit prevails. A +well-known Ulster manufacturer told me recently that only a few years +ago, when an applicant for employment appeared at certain Northern +factories, which my friend named, the first question always put was, +'Are you a Protestant or Roman Catholic?' Now, he said, it is not what a +man believes, but what he can do, which is considered when engaging +workers. And outside the cities there are most gratifying signs of +better relations between the two creeds. We are on the eve of the +creation of a peasant proprietary, involving the rehabilitation of rural +life, and one essential condition of the successful inauguration of the +new agrarian order is the elimination of anything approaching to +sectarian bitterness in communities which will require every advantage +derivable from joint deliberation and common effort to enable them to +hold their own against foreign competition. I recall a trivial but +significant incident in the course of my Irish work which left a deep +impression on my mind. After attending a meeting of farmers in a very +backward district in the extreme west of Mayo, I arrived one winter's +<a name="Page_101"></a>evening at the Roman Catholic priest's house. Before the meeting I had +been promised a cup of tea, which, after a long, cold drive, was more +than acceptable. When I presented myself at the priest's house, what was +my astonishment at finding the Protestant clergyman presiding over a +steaming urn and a plate of home-made cakes, having been requested to do +the honours by his fellow-minister, who had been called away to a sick +bed. A cycle of homilies on the virtue of tolerance could add nothing to +the simple lesson which these two clergymen gave to the adherents of +both their creeds. I felt as I went on my way that night that I had had +a glimpse into the kind of future for Ireland towards which my +fellow-workers are striving.</p> + +<p>It is, however, with the religion of the majority of the Irish people +and with its influence upon the industrial character of its adherents +that I am chiefly concerned. Roman Catholicism strikes an outsider as +being in some of its tendencies non-economic, if not actually +anti-economic. These tendencies have, of course, much fuller play when +they act on a people whose education has (through no fault of their own) +been retarded or stunted. The fact is not in dispute, but the difficulty +arises when we come to apportion the blame between ignorance on the part +of the people and a somewhat one-sided religious zeal on the part of +large numbers of their clergy. I do not seek to do so with any precision +here. I am simply adverting to what has appeared to me, in the course of +my experience in Ireland, to be a defect in the industrial <a name="Page_102"></a>character of +Roman Catholics which, however caused, seems to me to have been +intensified by their religion. The reliance of that religion on +authority, its repression of individuality, and its complete shifting of +what I may call the moral centre of gravity to a future existence—to +mention no other characteristics—appear to me calculated, unless +supplemented by other influences, to check the growth of the qualities +of initiative and self-reliance, especially amongst a people whose lack +of education unfits them for resisting the influence of what may present +itself to such minds as a kind of fatalism with resignation as its +paramount virtue.</p> + +<p>It is true that one cannot expect of any church or religion, as a +condition of its acceptance, that it will furnish an economic theory; +and it is also true that Roman Catholicism has, at different periods of +history, advantageously affected economic conditions, even if it did not +act from distinctively economic motives—for example, by its direct +influence in the suppression of slavery<a name="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> and its creation of the +mediæval craft guilds. It may, too, be admitted that during the Middle +Ages, when Roman Catholicism was freer than now to manifest its +influence in many directions, owing to its practically unchallenged +supremacy, it favoured, when it did not originate, many forms of sound +economic activity, and was, to say the least, abreast of the time in its +conception of the working of economic causes. But from the <a name="Page_103"></a>time when +the Reformation, by its demand for what we Protestants conceive to be a +simpler Christianity, drove Roman Catholicism back, if I may use the +expression, on its first line of defence, and constrained it to look to +its distinctively spiritual heritage, down to the present day, it has +seemed to stand strangely aloof from any contact with industrial and +economic issues. When we consider that in this period Adam Smith lived +and died, the industrial revolution was effected, and the world-market +opened, it is not surprising that we do not find Roman Catholic +countries in the van of economic progress, or even the Roman Catholic +element in Protestant countries, as a rule, abreast of their +fellow-countrymen. It would, however, be an error to ignore some notable +exceptions to this generalisation. In Belgium, in France, in parts of +Germany and Austria, and in the north of Italy economic thought is +making headway amongst Roman Catholics, and the solution of social +problems is being advanced by Roman Catholic laymen and clergymen. Even +in these countries, however, much remains to be done. The revolution in +the industrial order, and its consequences, such as the concentration of +immense populations within restricted areas, have brought with them +social and moral evils that must be met with new weapons. In the +interests of religion itself, principles first expounded to a Syrian +community with the most elementary physical needs and the simplest of +avocations, have to be taught in their application to the conditions of +the most complex social organisation and <a name="Page_104"></a>economic life. Taking people +as we find them, it may be said with truth that their lives must be +wholesome before they can be holy, and while a voluntary asceticism may +have its justification, it behoves a Church to see that its members, +while fully acknowledging the claims of another life, should develop the +qualities which make for well-being in this life. In fact, I believe +that the influence of Christianity upon social progress will be best +maintained by co-ordinating these spiritual and economic ideals in a +philosophy of life broader and truer than any to which the nations have +yet attained.</p> + +<p>What I have just been saying with regard to Roman Catholicism generally, +in relation to economic doctrines and industrial progress, applies, of +course, with a hundred fold pertinence to the case of Ireland. Between +the enactment of the first Penal Laws and the date of Roman Catholic +Emancipation, Irish Roman Catholics were, to put it mildly, afforded +scant opportunity, in their own country, of developing economic virtues +or achieving industrial success. Ruthlessly deprived of education, are +they to be blamed if they did not use the newly acquired facilities to +the best advantage? With their religion looked on as the badge of legal +and social inferiority, was it any wonder that priests and people alike, +while clinging with unexampled fidelity to their creed, remained +altogether cut off from the current of material prosperity? Excluded, as +they were, not merely from social and political privileges, but from the +most ordinary civil rights, denied altogether the right of ownership of +<a name="Page_105"></a>real property, and restricted in the possession of personalty, is it +any wonder that they are not to-day in the van of industrial and +commercial progress? Nay, more, was it to have been expected that the +character of a people so persecuted and ostracised should have come out +of the ordeal of centuries with its adaptability and elasticity +unimpaired? That would have been impossible. Those who are intimate with +the Roman Catholic people of Ireland, and at the same time familiar with +their history, will recognise in their character and mental outlook many +an inheritance of that epoch of serfdom. I speak, of course, of the +mass, for I am not unmindful of many exceptions to this generalisation.</p> + +<p>But I must now pass on to a more definite consideration of the present +action and attitude of the Irish Roman Catholic clergy towards the +economic, educational, and other issues discussed in this book. The +reasons which render such a consideration necessary are obvious. Even if +we include Ulster, three quarters of the Irish people are Roman +Catholics, while, excluding the Northern province, quite nine-tenths of +the population belong to that religion. Again, the three thousand +clergymen of that denomination exercise an influence over their flocks +not merely in regard to religious matters, but in almost every phase of +their lives and conduct, which is, in its extent and character, quite +unique, even, I should say, amongst Roman Catholic communities. To a +Protestant, this authority seems to be carried very far beyond what the +legitimate <a name="Page_106"></a>influence of any clergy over the lay members of their +congregation should be. We are, however, dealing with a national life +explicable only by reference to a very exceptional and gloomy history of +religious persecution. What I may call the secular shortcomings of the +Roman Catholics in Ireland cannot be fairly judged except as the results +of a series of enactments by which they were successively denied almost +all means of succeeding as citizens of this world.</p> + +<p>From such study as I have been able to give to the history of their +Church, I have come to the conclusion that the immense power of the +Irish Roman Catholic clergy has been singularly little abused. I think +it must be admitted that they have not exhibited in any marked degree +bigotry towards Protestants. They have not put obstacles in the way of +the Roman Catholic majority choosing Protestants for political leaders, +and it is significant that refugees, such as the Palatines, from +Catholic persecutions in Europe, found at different times a home amongst +the Roman Catholic people of Ireland. My own experience, too, if I may +again refer to that, distinctly proves that it is no disadvantage to a +man to be a Protestant in Irish political life, and that where +opposition is shown to him by Roman Catholics it is almost invariably on +political, social, or agrarian, but not on religious grounds.</p> + +<p>A charge of another kind has of late been often brought against the +Roman Catholic clergy, which has a direct bearing upon the economic +aspect of this question.<a name="Page_107"></a> Although, as I read Irish history, the Roman +Catholic priesthood have, in the main, used their authority with +personal disinterestedness, if not always with prudence or discretion, +their undoubted zeal for religion has, on occasion, assumed forms which +enlightened Roman Catholics, including high dignitaries of that Church, +think unjustifiable on economic grounds, and discourage even from a +religious standpoint. Excessive and extravagant church-building in the +heart and at the expense of poor communities is a recent and notorious +example of this misdirected zeal. It has been, I believe, too often +forgotten that the best monument of any clergyman's influence and +earnestness must always be found in the moral character and the +spiritual fibre of his flock, and not in the marbles and mosaics of a +gaudy edifice. And without doubt a good many motives which have but a +remote connection with religion are, unfortunately, at work in the +church-building movement. It may, however, to some extent, be regarded +as an extreme re-action from the penal times, when the hunted <i>soggarth</i> +had to celebrate the Mass in cabins and caves on the mountain side—a +re-action the converse of which was witnessed in Protestant England when +Puritanism rose up against Anglicanism in the seventeenth century. This +expenditure, however, has been incurred; and, no one, I take it, would +advocate the demolition of existing religious edifices on the ground +that their erection had been unduly costly! The moral is for the present +and the future, and applies not merely to economy in new <a name="Page_108"></a>buildings, but +also in the decoration of existing churches.<a name="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a></p> + +<p>But it is not alone extravagant church building which in a country so +backward as Ireland, shocks the economic sense. The multiplication—in +inverse ratio to a declining population—of costly and elaborate +monastic and conventual institutions, involving what in the aggregate +must be an enormous annual expenditure for maintenance, is difficult to +reconcile with the known conditions of the country. Most of these +institutions, it is true, carry on educational work, often, as in the +case of the Christian Brothers and some colleges and convents, of an +excellent kind. Many of them render great services to the poor, and +especially to the sick poor. But, none the less, it seems to me, their +growth in number and size is anomalous. I cannot believe that so large +an addition to the 'unproductive' classes is economically sound, and I +have no doubt at all that the competition with lay teachers of celibates +'living in community' is excessive and educationally injurious. Strongly +as I hold the importance of religion in education, I per<a name="Page_109"></a>sonally do not +think that teachers who have renounced the world and withdrawn from +contact with its stress and strain are the best moulders of the +characters of youths who will have to come into direct conflict with the +trials and temptations of life. But here again we must accept the +situation and work with the instruments ready to hand. The practical and +statesmanlike action for all those concerned is to endeavour to render +these institutions as efficient educational agencies as may be possible. +They owe their existence largely to the gaps in the educational system +of this country which religious and political strife have produced and +maintained, and they deserve the utmost credit for endeavouring to +supply missing steps in our educational ladder.<a name="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> If they now fully +respond to the spirit of the new movements and meet the demand for +technical education by the employment of the most approved methods and +equipment, and by the thorough training on sound lines of <a name="Page_110"></a>their staffs, +it is impossible that their influence on the young generation should not +be as salutary as it will be wide-reaching.</p> + +<p>But, after all, these criticisms are, for the purposes of my argument, +of minor relevance and importance. The real matter in which the direct +and personal responsibility of the Roman Catholic clergy seems to me to +be involved, is the character and <i>morale</i> of the people of this +country. No reader of this book will accuse me of attaching too little +weight to the influence of historical causes on the present state, +social, economic and political, of Ireland, but even when I have given +full consideration to all such influences I still think that, with their +unquestioned authority in religion, and their almost equally undisputed +influence in education, the Roman Catholic clergy cannot be exonerated +from some responsibility in regard to Irish character as we find it +to-day. Are they, I would ask, satisfied with that character? I cannot +think so. The impartial observer will, I fear, find amongst a majority +of our people a striking absence of self-reliance and moral courage; an +entire lack of serious thought on public questions; a listlessness and +apathy in regard to economic improvement which amount to a form of +fatalism; and, in backward districts, a survival of superstition, which +saps all strength of will and purpose—and all this, too, amongst a +people singularly gifted by nature with good qualities of mind and +heart.</p> + +<p>Nor can the Roman Catholic clergy altogether console themselves with the +thought that religious faith, even <a name="Page_111"></a>when free from superstition, is +strong in the breasts of the people. So long, no doubt, as Irish Roman +Catholics remain at home, in a country of sharply defined religious +classes, and with a social environment and a public opinion so +preponderatingly stamped with their creed, open defections from Roman +Catholicism are rare. But we have only to look at the extent of the +'leakage' from Roman Catholicism amongst the Irish emigrants in the +United States and in Great Britain, to realise how largely emotional and +formal must be the religion of those who lapse so quickly in a +non-Catholic atmosphere.<a name="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a></p> + +<p>It is not, of course, to the causes of the defections from a creed to +which I do not subscribe that my criticism is directed. I refer to the +matter only in order to emphasise the large share of responsibility +which belongs to the Roman Catholic clergy for what I strongly believe +to be the chief part in the work of national regeneration, the part +compared with which all legislative, administrative, educational or +industrial achievements are of minor importance. Holding, as I do, that +the building of character is the condition precedent to material, social +and intellectual advancement, indeed to <a name="Page_112"></a>all national progress, I may, +perhaps, as a lay citizen, more properly criticise, from this point of +view, what I conceive to be the great defect in the methods of clerical +influence. For this purpose no better illustration could be afforded +than a brief analysis of the results of the efforts made by the Roman +Catholic clergy to inculcate temperance.</p> + +<p>Among temperance advocates—the most earnest of all reformers—the Roman +Catholic clergy have an honourable record. An Irish priest was the +greatest, and, for a brief spell, the most successful temperance apostle +of the last century, and statistics, it is only fair to say, show that +we Irish drink rather less than people in other parts of the United +Kingdom. But the real question is whether we more often drink to +intoxication, and police statistics as well as common experience seem to +disclose that we do. Many a temperate man drinks more in his life than +many a village drunkard. Again, the test of the average consumption of +man, woman and child is somewhat misleading, especially in Ireland +where, owing to the excessive emigration of adults, there is a +disproportionately large number of very young and old. Moreover, we +Irish drink more in proportion to our means than the English, Scotch, +and Welsh, whose consumption is absolutely larger. Anyone who attempts +to deal practically with the problems of industrial development in +Ireland realises what a terribly depressing influence the drink evil +exercises upon the industrial capacity of the people. 'Ireland sober is +Ireland free,' is nearer the truth, than <a name="Page_113"></a>much that is thought and most +of what is said about liberty in this country.</p> + +<p>Now, the drink habit in Ireland differs from that of the other parts of +the United Kingdom. The Irishman is, in my belief, physiologically less +subject to the craving for alcohol than the Englishman, a fact which is +partially attributable, I should say, to the less animal dietary to +which he is accustomed. By far the greater proportion of the drinking +which retards our progress is of a festive character. It takes place at +fairs and markets, sometimes, even yet, at 'wakes,' those ghastly +parodies on the blessed consolation of religion in bereavement. It is +intensified by the almost universal sale of liquor in the country shops +'for consumption on the premises,' an evil the demoralising effects of +which are an hundredfold greater than those of the 'grocer's licences' +which temperance reformers so strenuously denounce. It is an evil in +defence of which nothing can be said, but it has somehow escaped the +effective censure of the Church.</p> + +<p>The indiscriminate granting of licences in Ireland, which has resulted +in the provision of liquor shops in a proportion to the population +larger than is found in any other country, is in itself due mainly to +the moral cowardice of magistrates, who do not care to incur local +unpopularity by refusing licences for which there is no pretence of any +need beyond that of the applicant and his relatives. Not long ago the +magistrates of Ireland met in Dublin in order to inaugurate common +action in <a name="Page_114"></a>dealing with this scandal. Appropriate resolutions were +passed, and much good has already resulted from the meeting, but had the +unvarnished truth been admissible, the first and indeed the only +necessary resolution should have run, "Resolved that in future we be +collectively as brave as we have been individually timid, and that we +take heart of grace and carry away from this meeting sufficient strength +to do, in the exercise of our functions as the licensing authority, what +we have always known to be our plain duty to our country and our God." +No such resolution was proposed, for though patriotism is becoming real +in Ireland, it is not yet very robust.</p> + +<p>I do not think it unfair to insist upon the large responsibility of the +clergy for the state of public opinion in this matter, to which the few +facts I have cited bear testimony. But I attribute their failure to deal +with a moral evil of which they are fully cognisant to the fact that +they do not recognise the chief defect in the character of the people, +and to a misunderstanding of the means by which that character can be +strengthened. There are, however, exceptions to this general statement. +It is of happy augury for the future of Ireland that many of the clergy +are now leading a temperance movement which shows a real knowledge of +the <i>causa causans</i> of Irish intemperance. The Anti-Treating League, as +it is called, administers a novel pledge which must have been conceived +in a very understanding mind. Those enlisted undertake neither to treat +nor to be treated. They may drink, so far as the pledge is concerned, as +<a name="Page_115"></a>much as they like; but they must drink at their own expense; and others +must not drink at their expense. The good nature and sociability of +Irishmen, too often the mere result of inability to say 'no,' need not +be sacrificed. But even if they were, the loss of these social graces +would be far more than compensated by a self-respect and seriousness of +life out of which something permanent might be built. Still, even this +League makes no direct appeal to character, and so acts rather as a cure +for than as a preventive of our moral weakness.</p> + +<p>The methods by which clerical influence is wielded in the inculcation of +chastity may be criticised from exactly the same standpoint as that from +which I have found it necessary to deal with the question of temperance. +Here the success of the Irish priesthood is, considering the conditions +of peasant life, and the fire of the Celtic temperament, absolutely +unique. No one can deny that almost the entire credit of this moral +achievement belongs to the Roman Catholic clergy. It may be said that +the practice of a virtue, even if the motive be of an emotional kind, +becomes a habit, and that habit proverbially develops into a second +nature. With this view of moral evolution I am in entire accord; but I +would ask whether the evolution has not reached a stage where a gradual +relaxation of the disciplinary measures by which chastity is insured +might be safely allowed without any danger of lowering the high standard +of continence which is general in Ireland and which of course it is of +supreme importance to maintain.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_116"></a>There are, however, many parishes where in this matter the strictest +discipline is rigorously enforced Amusements, not necessarily or even +often vicious, are objected to as being fraught with dangers which would +never occur to any but the rigidly ascetic or the puritanical mind. In +many parishes the Sunday cyclist will observe the strange phenomenon of +a normally light-hearted peasantry marshalled in male and female groups +along the road, eyeing one another in dull wonderment across the +forbidden space through the long summer day. This kind of discipline, +unless when really necessary, is open to the objection that it +eliminates from the education of life, especially during the formative +years, an essential of culture—the mutual understanding of the sexes. +The evil of grafting upon secular life a quasi-monasticism which, not +being voluntary, has no real effect upon the character, may perhaps +involve moral consequences little dreamed of by the spiritual guardians +of the people. A study of the pathology of the emotions might throw +doubt upon the safety of enforced asceticism when unaccompanied by the +training which the Church wisely prescribes for those who take the vow +of celibacy. But of my own knowledge I can speak only of another aspect +of the effect upon our national life of the restrictions to which I +refer. No Irishmen are more sincerely desirous of staying the tide of +emigration than the Roman Catholic clergy, and while, wisely as I think, +they do not dream of a wealthy Ireland, they earnestly work for the +physical and material as well as the spiritual well-being <a name="Page_117"></a>of their +flocks. And yet no man can get into the confidence of the emigrating +classes without being told by them that the exodus is largely due to a +feeling that the clergy are, no doubt from an excellent motive, taking +joy—innocent joy—from the social side of the home life.</p> + +<p>To go more fully into these subjects might carry me beyond the proper +limits of lay criticism. But, clearly, large questions of clerical +training must suggest themselves to those to whom their discussion +properly belongs—whether, for example, there is not in the instances +which I have cited evidence of a failure to understand that mere +authority in the regions of moral conduct cannot have any abiding +effect, except in the rarest combination of circumstances, and with a +very primitive people. Do not many of these clergy ignore the vast +difference between the ephemeral nature of moral compulsion and the +enduring force of a real moral training?</p> + +<p>I have dealt with the exercise of clerical influence in these matters as +being, at any rate in relation to the subject matter of this book, far +more important than the evil commonly described as "The Priest in +Politics." That evil is, in my opinion, greatly misrepresented. The +cases of priests who take an improper part in politics are cited without +reference to the vastly greater number who take no part at all, except +when genuinely assured that a definite moral issue is at stake. I also +have in my mind the question of how we should have fared if the control +of the different Irish agitations had been confined to laymen, and if +the clergy had not consistently <a name="Page_118"></a>condemned secret associations. But +whatever may be said in defence of the priest in politics in the past, +there are the strongest grounds for deprecating a continuance of their +political activity in the future. As I gauge the several forces now +operating in Ireland, I am convinced that if an anti-clerical movement +similar to that which other Roman Catholic countries have witnessed, +were to succeed in discrediting the priesthood and lowering them in +public estimation, it would be followed by a moral, social, and +political degradation which would blight, or at least postpone, our +hopes of a national regeneration. From this point of view I hold that +those clergymen who are predominantly politicians endanger the moral +influence which it is their solemn duty to uphold. I believe however, +that the over-active part hitherto taken in politics by the priests is +largely the outcome of the way in which Roman Catholics were treated in +the past, and that this undesirable feature in Irish life will yield, +and is already yielding to the removal of the evils to which it owed its +origin and in some measure its justification.<a name="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a></p> + +<p>One has only to turn to the spirit and temper of such representative +Roman Catholics as Archbishop Healy and Dr. Kelly, Bishop of Ross—to +their words and to their deeds—in order to catch the inspiration of a +new movement amongst our Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen at once +religious and patriotic. And if my optimism ever wavers, I have but to +think of the noble work that many <a name="Page_119"></a>priests are to my own knowledge +doing, often in remote and obscure parishes, in the teeth of innumerable +obstacles. I call to mind at such times, as pioneers in a great +awakening, men like the eminent Jesuit, Father Thomas Finlay, Father +Hegarty of Erris, Father O'Donovan of Loughrea, and many others—men +with whom I have worked and taken counsel, and who represent, I believe, +an ever increasing number of their fellow priests.<a name="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a></p> + +<p>My position, then, towards the influence of the Roman Catholic +clergy—and this influence is a matter of vital importance to the +understanding of Irish problems—- may now be clearly defined. While +recognising to the full that large numbers of the Irish Roman Catholic +clergy have in the past exercised undue influence in purely political +questions, and, in many other matters, social, educational, and +economic, have not, as I see things, been on the side of progress, I +hold that their influence is now, more than ever before, essential for +improving the condition of the most backward section of the population. +Therefore I feel it to be both the duty and the strong interest of my +Protestant fellow-country<a name="Page_120"></a>men to think much less of the religious +differences which divide them from Roman Catholics, and much more of +their common citizenship and their common cause. I also hold with equal +strength and sincerity to the belief, which I have already expressed, +that the shortcomings of the Roman Catholic clergy are largely to be +accounted for, not by any innate tendency on their part towards +obscurantism, but by the sad history of Ireland in the past. I would +appeal to those of my co-religionists who think otherwise to suspend +their judgment for a time. That Roman Catholicism is firmly established +in Ireland is a fact of the situation which they must admit, and as this +involves the continued powerful influence of the priesthood upon the +character of the people, it is surely good policy by liberality and fair +dealing, especially in the matter of education, to turn this influence +towards the upbuilding of our national life.</p> + +<p>To sum up the influence of religion and religious controversy in +Ireland, as it presents itself from the only standpoint from which I +have approached the matter in this chapter, namely, that of material, +social, and intellectual progress, I find that while the Protestants +have given, and continue to give, a fine example of thrift and industry +to the rest of the nation, the attitude of a section of them towards the +majority of their fellow-countrymen has been a bigoted and unintelligent +one. On the other hand, I have learned from practical experience amongst +the Roman Catholic people of Ireland that, while more free from bigotry, +in the sense <a name="Page_121"></a>in which that word is usually applied, they are apathetic, +thriftless, and almost non-industrial, and that they especially require +the exercise of strengthening influences on their moral fibre. I have +dealt with their shortcomings at much greater length than with those of +Protestants, because they have much more bearing on the subject matter +of this book. North and South have each virtues which the other lacks; +each has much to learn from the other; but the home of the strictly +civic virtues and efficiencies is in Protestant Ireland. The work of the +future in Ireland will be to break down in social intercourse the +barriers of creed as well as those of race, politics, and class, and +thus to promote the fruitful contact of North and South, and the +concentration of both on the welfare of their common country. In the +case of those of us, of whatever religious belief, who look to a future +for our country commensurate with the promise of her undeveloped +resources both of intellect and soil, it is of the essence of our hope +that the qualities which are in great measure accountable for the actual +economic and educational backwardness of so many of our +fellow-countrymen, and for the intolerance of too many who are not +backward in either respect, are not purely racial or sectarian, but are +the transitory growth of days and deeds which we must all try to forget +if our work for Ireland is to endure.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16">[16]</a><div class="note"><p> The reproach which is brought upon Irish Christianity +mainly by the extravagances of a section of my co-religionists, to which +I have been obliged to refer, came home to me not long ago in a very +forcible way. I happened to remark to a friend that it was a disgrace to +Christianity that Mussulman soldiery were employed at the Holy Sepulchre +to keep the peace between the Latin and Greek Christians. He reminded me +that the prosperous and progressive municipality of Belfast, with a +population eminently industrious, and predominantly Protestant, has to +be policed by an Imperial force in order to restrain two sections of +Irish Christians from assaulting each other in the name of religion.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17">[17]</a><div class="note"><p> '<i>Pro salute animae meae</i>' was, I am reminded, the +consideration usually expressed in the old charters of manumission.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18">[18]</a><div class="note"><p> One of the unfortunate effects of this passion for +building costly churches is the importation of quantities of foreign +art-work in the shape of woodcarvings, stained glass, mosaics, and metal +work. To good foreign art, indeed, one could not, within certain limits, +object. It might prove a valuable example and stimulus. But the articles +which have actually been imported, in the impulse to get everything +finished as soon as possible, generally consist of the stock pieces +produced in a spirit of mere commercialism in the workshops of +Continental firms which make it their business to cater for a public who +do not know the difference between good art and bad. Much of the +decoration of ecclesiastical buildings, whether Roman Catholic or +Protestant, might fittingly be postponed until religion in Ireland has +got into closer relation with the native artistic sense and industrial +spirit now beginning to seek creative expression.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19">[19]</a><div class="note"><p> The following extract from a statement of the Most Rev. +Dr. O'Dea, the newly elected Bishop of Clonfert, is pertinent:—'There +is another cause also—i.e. in addition to the absence of university +education for Roman Catholic laymen—which has hindered the employment +of the laity in the past. Till very recently, the secondary Catholic +schools received no assistance whatever from the State, and their +endowment from private sources was utterly inadequate to supply suitable +remuneration for lay teachers. It is evident that a celibate clergy +<i>can</i> live on a lower wage than the laity, and they are now charged with +having monopolized the schools, because they chose to work for a minimum +allowance rather than suffer the country to remain without any secondary +education whatever. Two causes, then, operated in the past, and in a +large measure still operate, to exclude the laity from the secondary +schools,—first, these schools were so poverty-stricken that they could +not afford to pay lay teachers at such a rate as would attract them to +the teaching profession, and, next, the Catholic laity as a body were +uneducated, and, therefore, unfit to teach in the schools.'—<i>Maynooth +and the University Question</i>, p. 109 (footnote).</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20">[20]</a><div class="note"><p> See, <i>inter alia</i>, an article "Ireland and America," by +Rev. Mr. Shinnors, O.M., in the <i>Irish Ecclesiastical Record</i>, February, +1902. 'Has the Church,' asks Father Shinnors, 'increased her membership +in the ratio that the population of the United States has increased? No. +There are many converts, but there are many more apostates. Large +numbers lapse into indifferentism and irreligion. There should be in +America about 20,000,000 Catholics; there are scarcely 10,000,000. There +are reasons to fear that the great majority of the apostates are of +Irish extraction, and not a few of them of Irish birth.'</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21">[21]</a><div class="note"><p> This view seems to be taken by the most influential +spokesmen of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. See Evidence, <i>Royal +Commission on University Education in Ireland</i>, vol. iii., p. 238, +Questions 8702-6.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22">[22]</a><div class="note"><p> I may mention that of the co-operative societies organised +by the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society there are no fewer than +331 societies of which the local priests are the Chairmen, while to my +own knowledge during the summer and autumn of 1902, as many as 50,000 +persons from all parts of Ireland were personally conducted over the +exhibit of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction at +the Cork Exhibition by their local clergy. The educational purpose of +these visits is explained in Chap. x. Again, in a great number of cases +the village libraries which have been recently started in Ireland with +the assistance of the Department (the books consisting largely of +industrial, economic, and technical works on agriculture), have been +organised and assisted by the Roman Catholic clergy.</p></div> + +<a name="Page_122"></a> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_V"></a><h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h4>A PRACTICAL VIEW OF IRISH EDUCATION.</h4> + + +<p>A little learning, we are told, is a dangerous thing; and in their +dealings with Irish education the English should have discovered that +this danger is accentuated when the little learning is combined with +much native wit. In the days when religious persecution was +universal—only, be it remembered, a few generations ago—it was the +policy of England to avert this danger by prohibiting, as far as +possible, the acquisition by Irish Roman Catholics of any learning at +all. After the Union, Englishmen began to feel their responsibility for +the state of Ireland, a state of poverty and distress which culminated +in the Famine. Knowledge was then no longer withheld: indeed the English +sincerely desired to dispel our darkness and enable us to share in the +wisdom, and so in the prosperity, of the predominant partner. In their +attempts to educate us they dealt with what they saw on the surface, and +moulded their educational principles upon what they knew; but they did +not know Ireland. Even if we excuse them for paying scant attention to +what they were told by Irishmen, they should have given more heed to the +reports of their own Royal Commissions.</p> + +<p>We have so far seen that the Irish mind has been in <a name="Page_123"></a>regard to +economics, politics, and even some phases of religious influence, a mind +warped and diseased, deprived of good nutrition and fed on fancies or +fictions, out of which no genuine growth, industrial or other, was +possible. The one thing that might have strengthened and saved a people +with such a political, social, and religious history, and such racial +characteristics, was an educational system which would have had special +regard to that history, and which would have been a just expression of +the better mind of the people whom it was intended to serve.</p> + +<p>Now this is exactly what was denied to Ireland. Not merely has all +educational legislation come from England, in the sense of being based +on English models and thought out by Englishmen largely out of touch and +sympathy with the peculiar needs of Ireland, but whenever there has been +genuine native thought on Irish educational problems, it has been either +ignored altogether or distorted till its value and significance were +lost. And in this matter we can claim for Ireland that there was in the +country during the first half of the nineteenth century, when England +was trying her best to provide us with a sound English education, a +comparatively advanced stage of home-grown Irish thought upon the +educational needs of the people. Take, for example, the Society for +Promoting Elementary Education among the Irish Poor, know as the Kildare +Street Society, which was founded as early as the year 1811. The first +resolution passed by this body, which was composed of <a name="Page_124"></a>prominent Dublin +citizens of all religious beliefs, was set out as follows:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>(1.) Resolved—That promoting the education of the poor of Ireland + is a grand object which every Irishman anxious for the welfare and + prosperity of his country ought to have in view as the basis upon + which the morals and true happiness of the country can be best + secured.</p></blockquote> + +<p>This Society, it is true, did not see or foresee that any system of +mixed religious education was doomed to failure in Ireland, but they +took a wide view of the place of education in a nation's development, +and the character of the education which their schools actually +dispensed was admirable. This hopeful and enterprising educational +movement is described by Mr. Lecky in a passage from which I take a few +extracts:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>The "Kildare Street Society" which received an endowment from + Government, and directed National education from 1812 to 1831, was + not proselytising, and it was for some time largely patronized by + Roman Catholics. It is certainly by no means deserving of the + contempt which some writers have bestowed on it, and if measured by + the spirit of the time in which it was founded it will appear both + liberal and useful.... The object of the schools was stated to be + united education, "taking common Christian ground for the + foundation, and excluding all sectarian distinctions from every + part of the arrangement;" "drawing the attention of both + denominations to the many leading truths of Christianity in which + they agree." To carry out this principle it was a fundamental rule + that the Bible must be read without note or <a name="Page_125"></a>comment in all the + schools. It might be read either in the Authorized or in the Douay + version.... In 1825 there were 1,490 schools connected with the + Society, containing about 100,000 pupils. The improvements + introduced into education by Bell, Lancaster, and Pestalozzi were + largely adopted. Great attention was paid to needlework.... A great + number of useful publications were printed by the Society, and we + have the high authority of Dr. Doyle for stating that he never + found anything objectionable [to Catholics] in them.<a name="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a></p></blockquote> + +<p>Take, again, as an evidence of the progressive spirit of the Irish +thinkers on education, the remarkable scheme of national education +which, after the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act, was +formulated by Mr. Thomas Wyse, of Waterford. In addition to elementary +schools, Mr. Wyse proposed to establish in every county, 'an academy for +the education of the middle class of society in those departments of +knowledge most necessary to those classes, and over those a College in +each of the four provinces, managed by a Committee representative of the +interests of the several counties of the provinces.' 'It is a matter of +importance,' wrote Mr. Wyse, 'for the simple and efficient working of +the whole system of national education, that each part should as much as +possible be brought into co-operation and accord with the others.' He +foresaw, too, that one of the needs of the Irish temperament was a +training in science which would cultivate the habits of 'education, +observation, and reasoning,' and he pointed <a name="Page_126"></a>out that the peculiar +manufactures, trades, and occupations of the several localities would +determine the course of studies. Mr. Wyse's memorandum on education led, +as is well known, to the creation of the Board of National Education, +but, to quote Dr. Starkie,<a name="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> the present Resident Commissioner of the +Board, 'the more important part of the scheme, dealing with a university +and secondary education, was shelved, in spite of Mr. Wyse's warnings +that it was imprudent, dangerous, and pernicious to the social condition +of the country, and to its future tranquillity, that so much +encouragement should be given to the education of the lower classes, +without at the same time due provision being made for the education of +the middle and upper classes.'</p> + +<p>As still another evidence of the sound thought on educational problems +which came from Irishmen who knew the actual conditions of their own +country and people, the case of the agricultural instruction +administered by the National Board is pertinent. The late Sir Patrick +Keenan has told us that landlords and others who on political and +religious grounds distrusted the National system, turned to this feature +of the operations of the National Board with the greatest fervour. A +scheme of itinerant instruction in agriculture, which had a curious +resemblance to that which the Department of Agriculture is now +organising, was developed, and was likely to have worked with the +<a name="Page_127"></a>greatest advantage to the country at large. Sir Patrick Keenan, who +knew Ireland and the Irish people well, speaks of this part of the +scheme as 'the most fruitful experiment in the material interests of the +country that was ever attempted. It was,' he adds, 'through the agency +of this corps of practical instructors that green cropping as a +systematic feature in farming was introduced into the South and West, +and even into the central parts of Ireland.' But all the hopes thus +raised went down, not before any intrinsic difficulties in the scheme +itself, or before any adverse opinion to it in Ireland, but before the +opposition of the Liverpool Financial Reform Association, who had their +own views as to the limits of State interference with agriculture. These +examples, drawn from different stages of Irish educational history, +might easily be multiplied, but they will serve as typical instances of +that want of recognition by English statesmen of Irish thought on Irish +problems, and that ignoring of Irish sentiment—as distinguished from +Irish sentimentality—which I insist is the basal element in the +misunderstandings of Irish problems.</p> + +<p>I now come to a brief consideration of some facts of the present +educational situation, and I shall indicate, for those readers who are +not familiar with current events in Ireland, the significant evolution, +or revolution, through which Irish education is passing. Within the last +eight years we have had in Ireland three very remarkable reports—in +themselves symptoms of a wide<a name="Page_128"></a>spread unrest and dissatisfaction—on the +educational systems of the country. I allude to the reports of two +Viceregal Commissions, one on Manual and Practical Instruction in our +Primary Schools, and the other on our Intermediate Education; and to the +recent report by a Royal Commission on University Education. These +reports cover the three grades of our educational system, and each of +them contains a strong denunciation and a scathing criticism of the +existing provision and methods of instruction in elementary, secondary, +and university education (outside Dublin University), respectively. One +and all showed that the education to be had in our primary and secondary +schools, as well as in the examining body known as the Royal University, +had little regard to the industrial or economic conditions of the +country. We find, for example, agriculture taught out of a text book in +the primary schools, with the result that the <i>gamins</i> of the Belfast +streets secured the highest marks in the subject. In the Intermediate +system are to be found anomalies of a similar kind, which could not long +have survived if there had been a living opinion on educational matters +in Ireland. No careful reader of the evidence given before the +Commissions can fail to see that under our educational system the +schools were practically bribed to fall in with a stereotyped course of +studies which left scant room for elasticity and adaptation to local +needs; that the teacher was, to all intents and purposes, deprived of +healthy initiative; and that the Irish parents must as a body have been +<a name="Page_129"></a>in the dark as to the bearing of their children's studies on their +probable careers in life. A deep and wholesome impression was made in +Ireland by the exposure of the intrinsic evils of a system calculated in +my opinion to turn our youth into a generation of second-rate clerks, +with a distinct distaste for any industrial or productive occupation in +which such qualities as initiative, self-reliance, or judgment were +called for.</p> + +<p>I am told by competent authorities that there is not a single +educational principle laid down in either the report on Manual +Instruction or on Intermediate Education, which was not known and +applied at least half a century ago in continental countries. In fact, +in the Recess Committee investigations, as any reader of the report of +that body can see for himself, the Committee, guided by foreign +experience, foreshadowed practically every reform now being put into +operation. It is better, of course, that we should reform late than +never, but it is well to bear in mind also, so far as the problems of +this book are concerned, how far the education of the country has fallen +short of any sound standard, and how little could have been expected +from the working of our system. The curve of Irish illiteracy has indeed +fallen continuously with each succeeding census, but true education as +opposed to mere instruction has languished sadly.</p> + +<p>Together with my friends and fellow-workers in the self-help movement, I +believe that the problem of Irish education, like all other Irish +problems, must be recon<a name="Page_130"></a>sidered from the standpoint of its relation to +the practical affairs and everyday life of the people of Ireland. The +needs and opportunities of the industrial struggle must, in fact, mould +into shape our educational policy and programmes. We are convinced that +there is little hope of any real solution of the more general problem of +national education, unless and until those in direct contact with the +specific industries of the country succeed in bringing to the notice of +those engaged in the framing of our educational system the kind and +degree of the defects in the industrial character of our people which +debar them from successful competition with other countries. Education +in Ireland has been too long a thing apart from the economic realities +of the country—with what result we know. In the work of the Department +of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, an attempt is +being made to establish a vital relation between industrial education +and industrial life. It is desired to try, at this critical stage of our +development, the experiment—I call it an experiment only because it +does not seem to have been tried before in Ireland—of directing our +instruction with a conscious and careful regard to the probable future +careers of those we are educating.</p> + +<p>This attempt touches, of course, only one department of the whole +educational problem, much of which it would be quite outside my present +purpose to discuss. But I must guard against the supposition that in our +insistence upon the importance of the practical side of <a name="Page_131"></a>education we +are under any doubt as to the great importance of the literary side. My +friends and I have been deeply impressed by the educational experience +of Denmark, where the people, who are as much dependent on agriculture +as are the Irish, have brought it by means of organisation to a more +genuine success than it has attained anywhere else in Europe. Yet an +inquirer will at once discover that it is to the "High Schools" founded +by Bishop Grundtvig, and not to the agricultural schools, which are also +excellent, that the extraordinary national progress is mainly due. A +friend of mine who was studying the Danish system of State aid to +agriculture, found this to be the opinion of the Danes of all classes, +and was astounded at the achievements of the associations of farmers, +not only in the manufacture of butter, but in a far more difficult +undertaking, the manufacture of bacon in large factories equipped with +all the most modern machinery and appliances which science had devised +for the production of the finished article. He at first concluded that +this success in a highly technical industry by bodies of farmers +indicated a very perfect system of technical education. But he soon +found another cause. As one of the leading educators and agriculturists +of the country put it to him: 'It's not technical instruction, it's the +humanities.' I would like to add that it is also, if I may coin a term, +the 'nationalities,' for nothing is more evident to the student of +Danish education or, I might add, of the excellent system of the +Christian Brothers in Ireland, than that one of the secrets of their +<a name="Page_132"></a>success is to be found in their national basis and their foundation +upon the history and literature of the country.</p> + +<p>To sum up the educational situation in Ireland, it is not too much to +say that all our forms of education, technical and general, hang loose. +We lack a body of trained teachers; we have no alert and informed public +opinion on education and its function in regard to life; and there is no +proper provision for research work in all branches, a deficiency, which, +I am told by those who have given deep thought and long study to these +problems, inevitably reacts most disastrously on the general educational +system of the country. This state of things appears not unnatural when +we remember that the Penal Laws were not repealed till almost the close +of the eighteenth century, and that a large majority of the Irish people +had not full and free access to even primary and secondary education +until the passing of the Emancipation Act in 1829. At the present day, +the absence of any provision for higher education of which Roman +Catholics will avail themselves is not merely an enormous loss in +itself, but it reacts most adversely upon the whole educational +machinery, and consequently upon the whole public life and thought of +that section of the nation.</p> + +<p>One of the very first things I had to learn when I came into direct +touch with educational problems, was that the education of a country +cannot be divided into water-tight compartments, and each part +legislated for or discussed solely on its merits and without reference +to the other parts. I see now very clearly that the <a name="Page_133"></a>educational system +of a country is an organic whole, the working of any part of which +necessarily has an influence on the working of the rest. I had always +looked upon the lower, secondary, and higher grades as the first, +second, and third storeys of the educational house, and I am not quite +sure that I attached sufficient importance to the staircase. My view has +now changed, and I find myself regarding the University as a foundation +and support of the primary and secondary school.</p> + +<p>It was not on purely pedagogic grounds that I added to my other +political irregularities the earnest advocacy of such a provision for +higher education as Roman Catholics will avail themselves of. This great +need was revealed to me in my study of the Irish mind and of the +direction in which it could look for its higher development. My belief +is based on practical experience; my point of view is that of the +economist. When the new economic mission in Ireland began now fourteen +years ago, we had to undertake, in addition to our practical programme, +a kind of University extension work with the important omission of the +University. We had to bring home to adult farmers whose general +education was singularly poor, though their native intelligence was keen +and receptive, a large number of general ideas bearing on the productive +and distributive side of their industry. Our chief obstacles arose from +the lack of trained economic thought among all classes, and especially +among those to whom the majority looked for guidance. The air was thick +with economic fallacies or <a name="Page_134"></a>half-truths. We were, it is true, successful +beyond our expectations in planting in apparently uncongenial soil sound +economic principles. But our success was mainly due, as I shall show +later, to our having used the associative instincts of the Irish peasant +to help out the working of our theories; and we became convinced that if +a tithe of our priests, public men, national school teachers, and +members of our local bodies had received a university education, we +should have made much more rapid progress.</p> + +<p>I hardly know how to describe the mental atmosphere in which we were +working. It would be no libel upon the public opinion upon which we +sought to make an impression to say that it really allowed no question +to be discussed on its merits. Public opinion on social and economic +questions is changing now, but I cannot associate the change with any +influence emanating from institutions of higher education. In other +countries, so far as my investigations have extended, the universities +do guide economic thought and have a distinct though wholly unofficial +function as a court of appeal upon questions relating to the material +progress of the communities amongst which they are situated. Of such +institutions there are in Ireland only two which could be expected to +direct in any large way the thought of the country upon economic and +other important national questions—Maynooth, and Trinity College, +Dublin. Whether in their widely different spheres of influence these two +institutions could, under <a name="Page_135"></a>conditions other than those prevailing, have +so met the requirements of the country as to have obviated what is at +present an urgent necessity for a complete reorganisation of higher +education need not be discussed; but it is essential to my argument that +I should set forth clearly the results of my own observation upon their +influence, or rather lack of influence, upon the people among whom I +have worked.</p> + +<p>The influence of Maynooth, actual and potential, can hardly be +exaggerated, but it is exercised indirectly upon the secular thought of +the country. It is not its function to make a direct impression. It is +in fact only a professional—I had almost said a technical—school. It +trains its students, most admirably I am told, in theology, philosophy, +and the studies subsidiary to these sciences, but always, for the vast +majority of its students, with a distinctly practical and definite +missionary end in view. There is, I believe, an arts course of modest +scope, designed rather to meet the deficiencies of students whose +general education has been neglected than to serve as anything in the +nature of a university arts course. I am quite aware of the value of a +sound training in mental science if given in connection with a full +university course, but I am equally convinced that the Maynooth +education, on the whole, is no substitute for a university course, and +that while its chief end of turning out a large number of trained +priests has been fulfilled, it has not given, and could not be expected +to have given, that broader and more humane culture which only <a name="Page_136"></a>a +university, as distinguished from a professional school, can adequately +provide.</p> + +<p>Moreover, under the Maynooth system young clerics are constantly called +upon to take a part in the life of a lay community, towards which, when +they entered college, they were in no position of responsibility, and +upon which, so far as secular matters are concerned, when they emerge +from their theological training, they are no better adapted to exercise +a helpful influence. In my experience of priests I have met with many in +whom I recognised a sincere desire to attend to the material and social +well-being of their flocks, but who certainly had not that breadth of +view and understanding of human nature which perhaps contact with the +laity during the years in which they were passing from discipline to +authority might have given to them. However this may be, it is clear and +it is admitted that education as opposed to professional training of a +high order is still, generally speaking, a want among the priests of +Ireland, and I look forward to no greater boon from a University or +University College for Roman Catholics than its influence, direct and +indirect, on a body of men whose prestige and authority are necessarily +so unique.</p> + +<p>It is, therefore, to Trinity College, or the University of Dublin, that +one would naturally turn as to a great centre of thought in Ireland for +help in the theoretic aspects, at least, of the practical problems upon +whose successful solution our national well-being depends. Judged <a name="Page_137"></a>by +the not unimportant test of the men it has supplied to the service of +the State and country during its three centuries of educational +activity, by the part it took in one of the brightest epochs of these +three centuries—the days when it gave Grattan to Grattan's Parliament, +by the work and reputation of the <i>alumni</i> it could muster to-day within +and without its walls, our venerable seat of learning need not fear +comparison with any similar institutions in Great Britain. It may also, +of course, be said that many men who have passed through Trinity College +have impressed the thought of Ireland, and, indeed, of the world, in one +way or another—such men as, to take two very different examples, Burke +and Thomas Davis—but on some of the very best spirits amongst these men +Trinity College and its atmosphere have exerted influence rather by +repulsion than by attraction; and certainly their characteristics of +temper or thought have not been of a kind which those best acquainted +with the atmosphere of Trinity College associate with that institution. +Still nothing can detract from the credit of having educated such men. +But these tests and standards are, for my present purpose, irrelevant. I +am not writing a book on Irish educational history, or even a record of +present-day Irish educational achievement. I am rather trying, from the +standpoint of a practical worker for national progress, to measure the +reality and strength of the educational and other influences which are +actually and actively operating on the character and intellect of the +majority of the Irish people, moulding <a name="Page_138"></a>their thought and directing +their action towards the upbuilding of our national life.</p> + +<p>From this point of view I am bound to say that Trinity College, so far +as I have seen, has had but little influence upon the minds or the lives +of the people. Nor can I find that at any period of the extraordinarily +interesting economic and social revolution, which has been in progress +in Ireland since the great catastrophe of the Famine period, Dublin +University has departed from its academic isolation and its aloofness +from the great national problems that were being worked out. The more +one thinks of it, indeed, and the more one realises the opportunities of +an institution like Trinity College in a country like Ireland, the more +one must recognise how small, in recent times, has been its positive +influence on the mind of the country, and how little it has contributed +towards the solution of any of those problems, educational, economic, or +social, that were clamant for solution, and which in any other country +would have naturally secured the attention of men who ought to have been +leaders of thought.</p> + +<p>Whatever the causes, and many may be assigned, this unfortunate lack of +influence on the part of Trinity College, has always seemed to me a +strong supplementary argument for the creation of another University or +University College on a more popular basis, to which the Roman Catholic +people of Ireland would have recourse. From the fact that Maynooth by +its constitution could never have developed into a great national<a name="Page_139"></a> +University,<a name="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> and that Trinity College has never, as a matter of fact, +done so, and has thus, in my opinion, missed a unique opportunity, it +has come about that Ireland has been without any great centre of thought +whose influence would have tended to leaven the mass of mental +inactivity or random-thinking so prevalent in Ireland, and would have +created a body of educated public opinion sufficiently informed and +potent to secure the study and discussion on their merits of questions +of vital interest to the country. The demoralising atmosphere of +partisanship which hangs over Ireland would, I am convinced, gradually +give way before an organised system of education with a thoroughly +democratic University at its head, which would diffuse amongst the +people at large a sense of the value of a balanced judgment on, and a +true appreciation of, the real forces with which Ireland has to deal in +building up her fortunes.</p> + +<p>To discuss the merits of the different solutions which have been +proposed for the vexed problem of higher education in Ireland would be +beyond the scope of this book. The question will have to be faced, and +all I need do here is to state the conditions which the solution will +have to fulfil if it is to deal with the aspects of the Irish Question +with which the new movement is practically concerned. What is most +needed is a University that will <a name="Page_140"></a>reach down to the rural population, +much in the same way as the Scottish Universities do, and a lower scale +of fees will be required than Trinity College, with its diminished +revenues, could establish. Already I can see that the work of the new +Department, acting in conjunction with local bodies, urban and rural, +throughout the country, will provide a considerable number of +scholarships, bursaries, and exhibitions for young men who are being +prepared to take part in the very real, but rather hazily understood, +industrial revival which is imminent. Leaving sectarian controversies +out of the question, the type of institution which is required in order +to provide adequately for the classes now left outside the influence of +higher education is an institution pre-eminently national in its aims, +and one intimately associated with the new movements making for the +development of our national resources.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, however, in Ireland, and indeed in England too, there is +a tendency to regard educational institutions almost solely as they will +affect religion. At least it is difficult to arouse any serious interest +in them except from this point of view. I welcome, therefore, the +striking answers given to the queries of Lord Robertson, Chairman of the +University Commission, by Dr. O'Dwyer, the Roman Catholic Bishop of +Limerick, who boldly and wisely placed the question before the country +in the light in which cleric and layman should alike regard it:—</p> + +<blockquote><p><i>The Chairman</i>.—(413): "I suppose you believe a Catholic<a name="Page_141"></a> + University, such as you propose, will strengthen Roman Catholicism + in Ireland?"—"It is not easy to answer that; not so easy as it + looks." (414):—"But it won't weaken it, or you would not be + here?"—"It would educate Catholics in Ireland very largely, and, + of course, a religious denomination composed of a body of educated + men is stronger than a religious denomination composed of ignorant + men. In that sense it would strengthen Roman Catholicism." + (415):—"Is there any sense in which it won't?"—"As far as + religion is concerned, I do not know how a University would work + out. If you ask me now whether I think that that University in a + certain number of years would become a centre of thought, + strengthening the Catholic faith in Ireland, I cannot tell you. It + is a leap in the dark." (416):—"But it is in the hope that it will + strengthen your own Church that you propose it?"—"No, it is not, + by any means. We are Bishops, but we are Irishmen, also, and we + want to serve our country."<a name="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a></p></blockquote> + +<p>Equally significant were the statements of Dr. O'Dea, the official +spokesman of Maynooth, when he said,</p> + +<blockquote><p>I regard the interest of the laity in the settlement of the + University Question as supreme. The clergy are but a small, however + important, part of the nation, and the laity have never had an + institution of higher education comparable to Maynooth in magnitude + or resources. I recognise, therefore, that the educational + grievances of the laity are much more pressing than those of the + clergy ... It is generally admitted that Irish priests hold a + position of exceptional influence, due to historical causes, the + intensely religious character of the people, and the want of + Catholic laymen qualified by education and position for social and + political leadership. What Bishop Berkeley said of them in 1749, in + his letter, <i>A Word to the Wise</i>, still holds true, 'That no set of + men on earth have it in <a name="Page_142"></a>their power to do good on easier terms, + with more advantage to others, and less pains or loss to + themselves.' It would be folly to expect that in a mixed community + the State should do anything to strengthen or perpetuate this + power; but this result will certainly not follow from the more + liberal education of the clergy, provided equal advantages are + extended to the laity. On the contrary, I am convinced that if the + void in the lay leadership of the country be filled up by higher + education of the better classes among the Catholic laity, the power + of the priests, so far as it is abnormal or unnecessary will pass + away; and, further, if I believed, with many who are opposed to the + better education of the priesthood, that their power is based on + falsehood or superstition, I would unhesitatingly advocate the + spread of higher education among the laity and clergy alike, as the + best means of effectually sapping and disintegrating it.<a name="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a></p></blockquote> + +<p>I had for long indulged a hope that a university of the type which +Ireland requires would have been the outcome of a great national +educational movement emanating from Trinity College, which might, at +this auspicious hour, have surpassed all the proud achievements of its +three hundred years. That hope was dispelled when the cry of 'Hands off +Trinity' was applied to the profane hands of the Royal Commission. +Perhaps that attitude may be reconsidered yet. There is one hopeful +sentiment which is often heard coming from that institution. An opinion +has been strongly expressed that nothing ought to be done to separate in +secular life two sections of Irishmen who happen to belong to different +creeds. Whatever may be the logical outcome of the position taken up +towards the University problem by <a name="Page_143"></a>those who give expression to this +pious opinion, I do not for a moment doubt their sincerity. But I often +think that too much importance is attached to the danger of building new +walls, and that there is too little appreciation of the wide and deep +foundation of the already existing walls between the two sections of +Irishmen who are so unhappily kept apart. In dealing with this, as with +all large Irish problems, it had better be frankly recognised that there +are in the country two races, two creeds, and, what is too little +considered, two separate spheres of economic interest and pursuit. +Socially two separate classes have naturally, nay inevitably, arisen out +of these distinctions. One class has superior advantages in many ways of +great importance. The other class is far more numerous, produces far the +greater proportion of the nation's wealth, and is, therefore, from the +national point of view, of greater importance. But both are necessary. +Both must be adequately provided for in the supreme matter of higher +education. Above all, the two classes must be educated to regard +themselves as united by the bond of a common country—a sentiment which, +if genuine, would treat differences arising from whatever cause, not as +a difficulty in the way of national progress, but rather as affording a +variety of opportunities for national expansion.</p> + +<p>I do not concern myself as to the exact form which the new institution +or institutions which are to give us the absolutely essential advantage +of higher education should <a name="Page_144"></a>take. If in view of the difference in the +requirements to which I have alluded, and the complicated pedagogic and +administrative considerations which have to be taken into account, +schemes of co-education of Protestants and Roman Catholics are difficult +of immediate accomplishment, let that ideal be postponed. The two creeds +can meet in the playground now: they can meet everywhere in after life. +Ireland will bring them together soon enough if Ireland is given a +chance, and when the time is ripe for their coming together in higher +education they will come together. If the time is not now ripe for this +ideal there is no justification for postponing educational reform until +the relations between the two creeds have been elevated to a plane +which, in my opinion, they will never reach except through the aid of +that culture which a widely diffused higher education alone can afford.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>When I was beginning to write this chapter I chanced to pick up the +<i>Chesterfield Letters</i>. I opened the book at the two hundredth epistle, +and, curiously enough, almost the first sentence which caught my eye +ran: 'Education more than nature is the cause of that difference you see +in the character of men.' I felt myself at first in strong disagreement +with this aphorism. But when I came to reflect how much the nature of +one generation must be the outcome of the education of those which went +before it, I gradually came to see the truth in Lord Chesterfield's +words. I must leave it to <a name="Page_145"></a>experts to define the exact steps which ought +to be taken to make the general education of this country capable of +cultivating the judgment, strengthening the will, and so of building up +the character. But every day, every thought, I give to the problems of +Irish progress convinces me more firmly that this is the real task of +educational reform, a task that must be accomplished before we can prove +to those who brand us with racial inferiority that, in Ireland, it was +not nature that has been unkind in causing the difference we find in the +character of men.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23">[23]</a><div class="note"><p> <i>Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland</i>, II., 122-4.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24">[24]</a><div class="note"><p> <i>Recent Reforms in Irish Education</i>, p. 7.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25">[25]</a><div class="note"><p> It was not authorised to give degrees to lay students; and +even the admission of lay students to an Arts course was prohibited by +Government, lest Catholic students should be drawn away from Trinity +College. See Cornwallis Correspondence, III., 366-8.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26">[26]</a><div class="note"><p> Appendix to First Report, p. 37.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27">[27]</a><div class="note"><p> Appendix to Third Report, pp. 283, 296.</p></div> + + +<a name="Page_146"></a> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VI"></a><h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h4>THROUGH THOUGHT TO ACTION.</h4> + + +<p>I have now completed my survey of the main conditions which, in my +opinion, must be taken into account by anyone who would understand the +Irish mind, and still more by those who seek to work with it in +rebuilding the fortunes of the country. The task has been one of great +difficulty, as it was necessary to tell, not only the truth—for that +even an official person may be excused—but also the whole truth, which, +unless made compulsory by the kissing of the book, is regarded as a +gratuitous kissing of the rod. From the frying pan of political dispute, +I have passed into the fire of sectarian controversy. I have not +hesitated to poach on the preserves of historians and economists, and +have even bearded the pedagogues in their dens. Before my stock of +metaphors is exhausted, let me say that I have one hope of escape from +the cross-fire of denunciation which independent speaking about Ireland +is apt to provoke. I once witnessed a football match between two +villages, one of which favoured a political party called by the name of +a leader, with an 'ism' added to indicate a policy, the other adopting +the same name, still further elongated by the prefix 'anti.' When I +arrived on the scene the game had begun in deadly earnest, but I noticed +the ball lying unmolested in another quarter of <a name="Page_147"></a>the field. In Irish +public life I have often had reason to envy that ball, and perhaps now +its lot may be mine, while the game goes on and the critics pay +attention to each other.</p> + +<p>To my friendly critics a word of explanation is due. The opinions to +which I have given expression are based upon personal observation and +experience extending over a quarter of a century during which I have +been in close touch with Irish life at home, and not unfamiliar with it +abroad. I have referred to history only when I could not otherwise +account for social and economic conditions with which I came into +contact, or with which I desired practically to deal. Whether looking +back over the dreary wastes of Anglo-Irish history, or studying the men +and things of to-day, I came to conclusions which differed widely from +what I had been taught to believe by those whose theories of Irish +development had not been subjected to any practical test. Deeply as I +have felt for the past sufferings of the Irish people and their heritage +of disability and distress, I could not bring myself to believe that, +where misgovernment had continued so long, and in such an immense +variety of circumstances and conditions, the governors could have been +alone to blame. I envied those leaders of popular thought whose +confidence in themselves and in their followers was shaken by no such +reflections. But the more I listened to them the more the conviction was +borne in upon me that they were seeking to build an impossible future +upon an imaginary past.</p><a name="Page_148"></a> + +<p>Those who know Ireland from within are aware that Irish thought upon +Irish problems has been undergoing a silent, and therefore too lightly +regarded revolution. The surface of Irish life, often so inexplicably +ruffled, and sometimes so inexplicably calm, has just now become smooth +to a degree which has led to hasty conclusions as to the real cause and +the inward significance of the change. To chime in with the thoughtless +optimism of the hour will do no good; but a real understanding of the +forces which have created the existing situation will reveal an +unprecedented opportunity for those who would give to the Irish mind +that full and free development which has been so long and, as I have +tried to show, so unnaturally delayed.</p> + +<p>Among these new forces in Irish life there is one which has been greatly +misunderstood; and yet to its influence during the last few years much +of the 'transformation scene' in the drama of the Irish Question is +really due. It deserves more than a passing notice here, because, while +its aims as formulated appear somewhat restricted, it unquestionably +tends in practice towards that national object of paramount importance, +the strengthening of character. I refer to the movement known as the +Gaelic Revival. Of this movement I am myself but an outside observer, +having been forced to devote nearly all my time and energies to a +variety of attempts which aim at the doing in the industrial sphere of +very much the same work as that which the Gaelic movement attempts in +the intellectual sphere—the re<a name="Page_149"></a>habilitation of Ireland from within. But +in the course of my work of agricultural and industrial development I +naturally came across this new intellectual force and found that when it +began to take effect, so far from diverting the minds of the peasantry +from the practical affairs of life, it made them distinctly more +amenable to the teaching of the dry economic doctrine of which I was an +apostle. The reason for this is plain enough to me now, though, like all +my theories about Ireland, the truth came to me from observation and +practical experience rather than as the result of philosophic +speculation. For the co-operative movement depended for its success upon +a two-fold achievement. In order to get it started at all, its +principles and working details had to be grasped by the Irish peasant +mind and commended to his intelligence. Its further development and its +hopes of permanence depend upon the strengthening of character, which, I +must repeat, is the foundation of all Irish progress.</p> + +<p>The Irish Agricultural Organisation Society<a name="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a> exerts its influence—a +now established and rapidly-growing influence—mainly through the medium +of associations. The Gaelic movement, on the other hand, acts more +directly upon the individual, and the two forces are therefore in a +sense complementary to each other. Both will be seen to be playing an +important part—I should say a necessary part—in the reconstruction of +our national life. At any rate, I feel that it is necessary to my +argument that I should explain to those who are as ill-informed <a name="Page_150"></a>about +the Gaelic revival as I was myself until its practical usefulness was +demonstrated to me, what exactly seems to be the most important outcome +of the work of that movement.</p> + +<p>The Gaelic League, which defines its objects as 'The preservation of +Irish as the national language of Ireland and the extension of its use +as a spoken tongue; the study and publication of existing Irish +literature and the cultivation of a modern literature in Irish,' was +formed in 1893. Like the Agricultural Organisation Society, the Gaelic +League is declared by its constitution to be 'strictly non-political and +non-sectarian,' and, like it, has been the object of much suspicion, +because severance from politics in Ireland has always seemed to the +politician the most active form of enmity. Its constitution, too, is +somewhat similar, being democratically guided in its policy by the +elected representatives of its affiliated branches. It is interesting to +note that the funds with which it carries on an extensive propaganda are +mainly supplied from the small contributions of the poor. It publishes +two periodicals, one weekly and another monthly. It administers an +income of some £6,000 a year, not reckoning what is spent by local +branches, and has a paid staff of eleven officers, a secretary, +treasurer, and nine organisers, together with a large number of +voluntary workers. It resembled the agricultural movement also in the +fact that it made very little headway during the first few years of its +existence. But it had a nucleus of workers with new ideas for the +intellectual <a name="Page_151"></a>regeneration of Ireland. In face of much apathy they +persisted with their propaganda, and they have at last succeeded in +making their ideas understood. So much is evident from the +rapidly-increasing number of affiliated branches of the League, which in +March, 1903, amounted to 600, almost treble the number registered two +years before. But even this does not convey any idea of the influence +which the movement exerts. Within the past year the teaching of the +Irish language has been introduced into no less than 1,300 National +Schools. In 1900 the number of schools in which Irish was taught was +only about 140. The statement that our people do not read books is +generally accepted as true, yet the sale of the League publications +during one year reached nearly a quarter of a million copies. These +results cannot be left unconsidered by anybody who wishes to understand +the psychology of the Irish mind. The movement can truly claim to have +effected the conversion of a large amount of intellectual apathy into +genuine intellectual activity.</p> + +<p>The declared objects of the League—- the popularising of the national +language and literature—do not convey, perhaps, an adequate conception +of its actual work, or of the causes of its popularity. It seeks to +develop the intellectual, moral, and social life of the Irish people +from within, and it is doing excellent work in the cause of temperance. +Its president, Dr. Douglas Hyde, in his evidence given before the +University Commission,<a name="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a> <a name="Page_152"></a>pointed out that the success of the League +was due to its meeting the people half way; that it educated them by +giving them something which they could appreciate and assimilate; and +that it afforded a proof that people who would not respond to alien +educational systems, will respond with eagerness to something they can +call their own. The national factor in Ireland has been studiously +eliminated from national education, and Ireland is perhaps the only +country in Europe where it was part of the settled policy of those, who +had the guidance of education to ignore the literature, history, arts, +and traditions of the people. It was a fatal policy, for it obviously +tended to stamp their native country in the eyes of Irishmen with the +badge of inferiority and to extinguish the sense of healthy self-respect +which comes from the consciousness of high national ancestry and +traditions. This policy, rigidly adhered to for many years, almost +extinguished native culture among Irishmen, but it did not succeed in +making another form of culture acceptable to them. It dulled the +intelligence of the people, impaired their interest in their own +surroundings, stimulated emigration by teaching them to look on other +countries as more agreeable places to live in, and made Ireland almost a +social desert. Men and women without culture or knowledge of literature +or of music have succeeded a former generation who were passionately +interested in these things, an interest which extended down even to the +wayside cabin. The loss of these elevating influences in Irish society +probably <a name="Page_153"></a>accounts for much of the arid nature of Irish controversies, +while the reaction against their suppression has given rise to those +displays of rhetorical patriotism for which the Irish language has found +the expressive term <i>raimeis</i>, and which (thanks largely to the Gaelic +movement) most people now listen to with a painful and half-ashamed +sense of their unreality.</p> + +<p>The Gaelic movement has brought to the surface sentiments and thoughts +which had been developed in Gaelic Ireland through hundreds of years, +and which no repression had been able to obliterate altogether, but +which still remained as a latent spiritual inheritance in the mind. And +now this stream, which has long run underground, has again emerged even +stronger than before, because an element of national self-consciousness +has been added at its re-emergence. A passionate conviction is gaining +ground that if Irish traditions, literature, language, art, music, and +culture are allowed to disappear, it will mean the disappearance of the +race; and that the education of the country must be nationalised if our +social, intellectual, or even our economic position is to be permanently +improved.</p> + +<p>With this view of the Gaelic movement my own thoughts are in complete +accord. It is undeniable that the pride in country justly felt by +Englishmen, a pride developed by education and a knowledge of their +history, has had much to do with the industrial pre-eminence of England; +for the pioneers of its commerce have been often actuated as much by +patriotic motives as by the <a name="Page_154"></a>desire for gain. The education of the Irish +people has ignored the need for any such historical basis for pride or +love of country, and, for my part, I feel sure that the Gaelic League is +acting wisely in seeking to arouse such a sentiment, and to found it +mainly upon the ages of Ireland's story when Ireland was most Irish.</p> + +<p>It is this expansion of the sentiment of nationality outside the domain +of party politics—the distinction, so to speak, between nationality and +nationalism—which is the chief characteristic of the Gaelic movement. +Nationality had come to have no meaning other than a political one, any +broader national sentiment having had little or nothing to feed upon. +During the last century the spirit of nationality has found no unworthy +expression in literature, in the writings of Ferguson, Standish O'Grady +and Yeats, which, however, have not been even remotely comparable in +popularity with the political journalism in prose and rhyme in which the +age has been so fruitful. It has never expressed itself in the arts, and +not only has Ireland no representative names in the higher regions of +art, but the national deficiency has been felt in every department of +industry into which design enters, and where national +art-characteristics have a commercial value. The national customs, +culture, and recreations which made the country a pleasant place to live +in, have almost disappeared, and with them one of the strongest ties +which bind people to the country of their birth. The Gaelic revival, as +I understand it, is an <a name="Page_155"></a>attempt to supply these deficiencies, to give to +Irish people a culture of their own; and I believe that by awakening the +feelings of pride, self-respect, and love of country, based on +knowledge, every department of Irish life will be invigorated.</p> + +<p>Thus it is that the elevating influence upon the individual is exerted. +Politics have never awakened initiative among the mass of the people, +because there was no programme of action for the individual. Perhaps it +is as well for Ireland that such should have been the case, for, as it +has been shown, we have had little of the political thought which should +be at the back of political action. Political action under present +conditions must necessarily be deputed to a few representatives, and +after the vote is given or the cheering at a meeting has ceased, the +individual can do nothing but wait, and his lethargy tends to become +still deeper. In the Gaelic revival there is a programme of work for the +individual; his mind is engaged, thought begets energy, and this energy +vitalises every part of his nature. This makes for the strengthening of +character, and so far from any harm being done to the practical +movement, to which I have so often referred, the testimony of my +fellow-workers, as well as my own observation, is unanimous in affirming +that the influence of the branches of the Gaelic League is distinctly +useful whenever it is sought to move the people to industrial or +commercial activity.</p> + +<p>Many of my political friends cannot believe—and I am afraid that +nothing that I can say will make them <a name="Page_156"></a>believe—that the movement is not +necessarily, in the political sense, separatist in its sentiment. This +impression is, in my opinion, founded on a complete misunderstanding of +Anglo-Irish history. Those who look askance at the rise of the Gaelic +movement ignore the important fact that there has never been any +essential opposition between the English connection and Irish +nationality. The Elizabethan chiefs of the sixteenth and the Gaelic +poets of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the relations +between the two countries were far worse than they are to-day, knew +nothing of this opposition. The true sentiment of nationality is a +priceless heritage of every small nation which has done great things, +and had it not largely perished in Ireland, separatist sentiment, the +offspring, not of Irish nationality, but of Irish political nationalism, +could hardly have survived until to-day.</p> + +<p>But undoubtedly we strike here on a danger to the Gaelic movement, so +far at least as that movement is bound up with the future of the Gaelic +League; a danger which cannot be left out of account in any estimate of +this new force in Irish life. The continuance of the League as a +beneficent force, or indeed a force at all, seems to me, as in the case +of the co-operative organisation to which I have compared it, to be +vitally dependent on a scrupulous observance of that part of its +constitution which keeps the door open to Irishmen of every creed or +political party. Only thus can the League remain a truly national body, +and attract from all classes Irishmen <a name="Page_157"></a>who are capable of forwarding its +true policy. I do not think there is much danger of a spirit of +sectarian exclusiveness developing itself in a body mainly composed of +Roman Catholics whose President is a Protestant. But it cannot be denied +that there has been an occasional tendency to interpret the 'no +politics' clause of the constitution in a manner which seems hardly fair +to Unionists or even to constitutional Home Rulers who may have joined +the organisation on the strength of its declaration of political +neutrality. If this is not a mere transitory phenomenon its effect will +be serious. As a political body the League would immediately sink into +insignificance and probably disappear amid a crowd of contending +factions. It would certainly cease to fulfil its great function of +creating a nationality of the thought and spirit, in which all Irishmen +who wish to be anything else than English colonists might aspire to +share. Its early successes in bringing together men of different +political views were remarkable. At the very outset of its career it +enlisted the support of so militant a politician as the late Rev. R.R. +Kane, who declared that though a Unionist and an Orangeman he had no +desire to forget that he was an O'Cahan. On this basis it is difficult +to set a limit to the fruitfulness of the work which this organisation +might do for Ireland, and I cannot regard any who would depart from the +letter and spirit of its constitution as sincere, or if sincere as wise, +friends of the movement with which they are associated.</p> + +<p>Of minor importance are certain extravagances in the <a name="Page_158"></a>conduct of the +movement which time and practical experience can hardly fail to correct. +I have borne witness to the value of the cultivation of the language +even from my own practical standpoint, but I cannot think that to sign +cheques in Irish, and get angry when those who cannot understand will +not honour them, is a good way of demonstrating that value. I should, +speaking generally, regard it as a mistake, supposing it were +practicable, to substitute Irish for English in the conduct of business. +If any large development of the trade in pampooties, turf and potheen +between the Aran Islands and the mainland were in contemplation, this +attempt might be justified. But on behalf of those Philistines who +attach paramount importance to the development of Irish industry, trade +and commerce on a large and comprehensive scale, I should regret a +course which, from a business point of view, would be about as wise as +the advocacy of distinctive Irish currency, weights and measures. And I +protest more strongly against the reasons which have been given to me +for this policy. I have been told that, in order to generate sufficient +enthusiasm, a young movement of the kind must adopt a rigorous +discipline and an aggressive policy. Not only are we thus confronted +with a false issue, but by giving countenance to the outward acceptance +of what the better sense rejects, these over-zealous leaguers are +administering to the Irish character the very poison which all Irish +movements should combine to eliminate from the national life.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_159"></a>The position which I have given to the Gaelic Revival among the new +influences at work and making for progress in Ireland will hardly be +understood by those who have never embraced the idea of combining all +such forces in a constructive and comprehensive scheme of national +advancement. One instance of the potential utility of the Gaelic League +will appeal to those of my readers who attach as much importance as I do +to the improvement of the peasant home. Concerted action to this end is +being planned while I write. It is proposed to take a few districts +where the peasants are members of one of the new co-operative societies, +and where the clergy have taken a keen interest in the economic and +social advancement of the members of the Society, but where the cottages +are in the normal condition. The new Department will lend the services +of its domestic economy teachers. The Organisation Society, the clergy, +and the Department thus working together will, I hope, be able to get +the people of the selected districts to effect an improvement in their +domestic surroundings which will act as an invaluable example for other +districts to follow. But in order that this much needed contribution to +the well-being of the peasant proprietary, upon which all our thoughts +are just now concentrated, may be assisted with the enthusiasm which +belongs in Ireland to a consciously national effort, it is hoped that +common action with the Gaelic League may be possible, so that this force +also may be enlisted in the solution of this part of our central +problem, the rehabilitation of rural life in Ireland.</p><a name="Page_160"></a> + +<p>It is, however, on more general grounds that I have, albeit as an +outside observer, watched with some anxiety and much gratification the +progress of the Gaelic Revival. In the historical evolution of the Irish +mind we find certain qualities atrophied, so to speak, by disuse; and to +this cause I attribute the past failures of the race in practical life +at home. I have shown how politics, religion, and our systems of +education have all, in their respective influences upon the people, +missed to a large extent, the effect upon character which they should +have made it their paramount duty to produce. Nevertheless, whenever the +intellect of the people is appealed to by those who know its past, a +recuperative power is manifested which shows that its vitality has not +been irredeemably impaired. It is because I believe that, on the whole, +a right appeal has been made by the Gaelic League that I have borne +testimony to its patriotic endeavours.</p> + +<p>The question of the Gaelic Revival seems to be really a form of the +eternal question of the interdependence of the practical and the ideal +in Ireland. Their true relation to each other is one of the hardest +lessons the student of our problems has to learn. I recall an incident +in the course of my own studies which I will here recount, as it appears +to me to furnish an admirable illustration of this difficulty as it +presented itself to a very interesting mind. During the years covering +the rise and fall of Parnell, when interest in the Irish Question was at +its zenith, the newspapers of the United States kept in<a name="Page_161"></a> London a corps +of very able correspondents, who watched and reported to their +transatlantic readers every move in the Home Rule campaign. An American +public, by no means limited to the American-Irish, devoured every morsel +of this intelligence with an avidity which could not have been surpassed +if the United States had been engaged in a war with Great Britain. Among +these correspondents perhaps the most brilliant was the late Harold +Frederic. Not many months before he died I received a letter from him, +in which he said that, although we were unknown to each other, he +thought, from some public utterances of mine, that we must have many +views in common. He had often intended to get an introduction to me, and +now suggested that we should 'waive things and meet.' We met and spent +an evening together, which left some deep impressions on my mind. He +told me that the Irish Question possessed for him a fascination for +which he could give no rational explanation. He had absolutely no tie of +blood or material interest with Ireland, and his friendship for it had +brought him the only quarrels in which he had ever been engaged.</p> + +<p>What chiefly interested me in Harold Frederic's philosophy of the Irish +Question was that he had arrived at a diagnosis of the Irish mind not +substantially different from my own. Since that evening I have come +across a passage in one of his novels, which clothes in delightful +language his view of the chaotic psychology of the Celt:</p> + +<blockquote><p>There, in Ireland, you get a strange mixture of elementary early + peoples, walled off from the outer world <a name="Page_162"></a>by the four seas, and + free to work out their own racial amalgam on their own lines. They + brought with them at the outset a great inheritance of Eastern + mysticism. Others lost it, but the Irish, all alone on their + island, kept it alive and brooded on it, and rooted their whole + spiritual side in it. Their religion is full of it; their blood is + full of it.... The Ireland of two thousand years ago is incarnated + in her. They are the merriest people and the saddest, the most + turbulent and the most docile, the most talented and the most + unproductive, the most practical and the most visionary, the most + devout and the most pagan. These impossible contradictions war + ceaselessly in their blood.<a name="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a></p></blockquote> + +<p>In our conversation what struck me most was the influence which politics +had exercised even on his philosophic mind, notwithstanding a low +estimate of our political leaders. In one of a series of three notable +articles upon the Irish Question, which appeared anonymously in the +<i>Fortnightly Review</i><a name="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> in the winter of 1893-4, and of which he told +me he was the writer, he had given a character sketch of what he called +'The Rhetoricians.' Their performances since the Union were summarised +in the phrase 'a century of unremitting gabble,' and he regarded it as a +sad commentary on Irish life that such brilliant talents so largely ran +to waste in destructive criticism.</p> + +<p>I naturally turned the conversation on to my own line of thought, and +discussed the practical conclusions to <a name="Page_163"></a>which his studies had led him. I +tried to elicit from him exactly what he had in his mind when, in one of +the articles to which I have referred, he advocated 'a reconstruction of +Ireland on distinctive national lines.' I hoped to find that his +psychological study of my countrymen would enable him to throw some +light upon the means by which play could be given at home to the latent +capacities of the race. I found that he was in entire accord with my +view, that the chief difficulty in the way of constructive statesmanship +was the defect in the Irish character about which I have said so much. I +was prepared for that conclusion, for I had already seen the lack of +initiative admirably appreciated in the following illuminating sentence +of his:—'The Celt will help someone else to do the thing that other has +in mind, and will help him with great zeal and devotion; but he will not +start to do the thing he himself has thought of.'<a name="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a> But I was +disappointed when he bade me his first and last good-bye that I had not +convinced him that there was any way out of the Irish difficulty other +than political changes, for which, at the same time, he appeared to +think the people singularly unfitted.</p> + +<p>The fact is we had arrived at the point where the student of Irish life +usually finds himself in a <i>cul de sac</i>. If he has accurately observed +the conditions, he is face to face with a problem which appears to be in +its nature insoluble. For at every turn he finds things being done wrong +which might so easily be done right, only that <a name="Page_164"></a>nobody is concerned that +they should be done right. And what is worse, when he has learned, in +the course of his investigations, to discount the picturesque +explanation of our unsuccess in practical life which in Ireland veils +the unpleasant truth, he will find that the people are quite aware of +their defects, although they attribute them to causes beyond their power +to remove. Then, too, the sympathetic inquirer is shocked by the lack of +seriousness in it all. With all their past griefs and their high +aspirations, the Irish people seem to be play-acting before the world. +The inquirer does not, perhaps, reflect that, if play-acting be +inconsistent with the deepest emotions, and with the pursuit of high +ideals, then he condemns a little over one half of the human race.<a name="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a> +He probably comes to the main conclusion adopted in these pages, and +realises that the Irish Question is a problem of character. And as Irish +character is the product of Irish history, which cannot be re-enacted, +he leaves the problem there. Harold Frederic left it there, and there it +has been taken up by those whose endeavour forms the story which I have +to tell.</p> + +<p>I now come to the principles which, it appears to me, must underlie the +solution of this problem. The narra<a name="Page_165"></a>tive contained in the second part of +this book is a record of the efforts made during the last decade of the +nineteenth and the first two years of the twentieth century by a small, +but now rapidly augmenting group of Irishmen, to pluck the brand of +Irish intellect from the burning of the Irish Question. The problem +before us was, my readers will now understand, how to make headway in +view of the weakness of character to which I have had to attribute the +paralysis of our activities in the past. We were quite aware that our +progress would at first be slow. But as we were satisfied that the +defects of character which stood in the way of economic advancement were +due to causes which need no longer be operative, and that the intellect +of the people was unimpaired, we faced the problem with confidence.</p> + +<p>The practical form which our work took was the launching upon Irish life +of a movement of organised self-help, and the subsequent grafting upon +this movement of a system of State-aid to the agriculture and industries +of the country. I need not here further elaborate this programme, for +the steps by which it has been and is being adopted will be presently +described in detail. But there is one aspect of the new movement in +Ireland which must be understood by those who would grasp the true +significance and the human interest of an evolution in our national +life, the only recent parallel for which, as far as I am aware, is to be +found in Japan: though to my mind the conscious attempt of the Irish +<a name="Page_166"></a>people to develop a civilisation of their own is far more interesting +than the recent efforts of the Japanese to westernise their +institutions.</p> + +<p>The problem of mind and character with which we had to deal in Ireland +presented this central and somewhat discouraging fact. In practical life +the Irish had failed where the English had succeeded, and this was +attributed to the lack of certain English qualities which have been +undoubtedly essential to success in commerce and in industry from the +days of the industrial revolution until a comparatively recent date. It +was the individualism of the English economic system during this period +which made these qualities indispensable. The lack of these qualities in +Irishmen to-day may be admitted, and the cause of the deficiency has +been adequately explained. But those who regard the Irish situation as +industrially hopeless probably ignore the fact that there are other +qualities, of great and growing importance under modern economic +conditions, which can be developed in Irishmen and may form the basis of +an industrial system. I refer to the range of qualities which come into +play rather in association than in the individual, and to which the term +'associative' is applied.<a name="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> <a name="Page_167"></a>So that although much disparaging +criticism of Irish character is based upon the survival in the Celt of +the tribal instincts, it is gratifying to be able to show that even from +the practical English point of view, our preference for thinking and +working in groups may not be altogether a <i>damnosa hereditas</i>. If, owing +to our deficiency in the individualistic qualities of the English, we +cannot at this stage hope to produce many types of the 'economic man' of +the economists, we think we see our way to provide, as a substitute, the +economic association. If the association succeeds, and by virtue of its +financial success becomes permanent, a great change will, in our +opinion, be produced on the character of its members. The reflex action +upon the individual mind of the habit of doing, in association with +others, things which were formerly left undone, or badly done, may be +relied upon to have a tonic effect upon the character of the individual. +This is, I suppose, the secret of discipline, which, though apparently +eliminating volition, seems in weak characters to strengthen the will.</p> + +<p>There is, too, as we have learned, in the association a strange +influence which develops qualities and capacities that one would not +expect on a mere consideration of the character of its members. This +psychological phenomenon has been admirably and most entertainingly +discussed by the French psychologist, Le Bon,<a name="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35"><sup>[35]</sup></a> who, in the attractive +pursuit of paradox, almost goes to the length of the proposition that +the association inherently <a name="Page_168"></a>possesses qualities the opposite of those +possessed by its members. My own experience—and I have had +opportunities of observing hundreds of associations formed by my friends +upon the principles above laid down—does not carry me quite so far. +But, unquestionably, the association in Ireland does often become an +entity as distinct from the individualities of which it is composed, as +is a new chemical compound from its constituent elements.</p> + +<p>Associations of the kind we had in our minds, which were to be primarily +for purely business purposes, were bound to have many collateral +effects. They would open up outside of politics and religion, but not in +conflict with either, a sphere of action where an independence new to +the country would have to be exercised. In Ireland public opinion is +under an obsession which, whether political, religious, historical, or +all three combined, is probably unique among civilised peoples. Until +the last few years, for example, it was our habit—one which immensely +weakened the influence of Ireland in the Imperial Parliament—to form +extravagant estimates of men, exalting and abasing them with irrational +caprice, not according to their qualities so much as by their attitude +towards the passion of the hour. The ups and downs of the reputations of +Lord Spencer and Mr. Arthur Balfour in Ireland are a sufficient +illustration of our disregard of the old Latin proverb which tells us +that no man ever became suddenly altogether bad. Even now public opinion +is too prone to attach excessive value to projects of vague and +visionary development, and to underrate <a name="Page_169"></a>the importance of serious +thought and quiet work, which can be the only solid foundation of our +national progress. In these new associations—humble indeed in their +origin, but destined to play a large part in the people's +lives—projects, professing to be fraught with economic benefit, have to +be judged by the cruel precision of audited balance sheets, and the +worth of men is measured by the solid contribution they have made to the +welfare of the community.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I have now accomplished one long stage of my journey towards the +conclusion of this discussion of the needs of modern Ireland. Were I to +stop here, probably most of those who had been induced to open yet +another book upon the Irish Question would accuse me, and not without +justice, of being responsible for a barren graft upon a barren +controversy. I fear no such criticism, whatever other shortcomings may +be detected, from those who have the patience to read on. For when I +pass from my own reflections to record the work to which many thousands +of my countrymen have addressed themselves in building up the Ireland of +the twentieth century, I shall have a story to tell which must inspire +hope in all who can be persuaded that Ireland in the past has not often +been treated fairly and has never been understood. I have shown—and it +was necessary to show, if a repetition of misunderstanding was to be +avoided—that the Irish people themselves are gravely responsible for +the ills of their country, and that the forces which have <a name="Page_170"></a>mainly +governed their action hitherto are rapidly bringing about their +disappearance as a distinct nationality. But I shall now have to tell of +the widespread and growing adoption of certain new principles of action +which I believe to be consonant with the genius and traditions of the +race, and the acceptance of which seems to me vitally necessary if the +Irish people are to play a worthy part in the future history of the +world. That part is a far greater one than they could ever hope to play +as an independent and separate State, yet their success in playing it +must closely depend upon their remaining a distinct nationality, in the +sense so clearly and wisely indicated by his Majesty when, in his reply +to the address of the Belfast Corporation, he spoke of the 'national +characteristics and ideals' which he desired his kingdoms to cherish in +the midst of their imperial unity.<a name="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36"><sup>[36]</sup></a> The great experiment which I am +about to relate is, in its own province, one of the many applications +which we see around us of the conception here put forward. And I believe +that a few more years of quiet work by those who are taking part in this +movement, with its appeal to Irish <a name="Page_171"></a>intellect, and its reliance upon +Irish patriotism, is all that is needed to prove that by developing the +industrial qualities of the Celt on associative lines we can in politics +as well as in economics, add strength to the Irish character without +making it less Irish or less attractive than of old.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28">[28]</a><div class="note"><p> This body is fully described in the next chapter.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29">[29]</a><div class="note"><p> See Appendix to Third Report, p. 311.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30">[30]</a><div class="note"><p> <i>The Damnation of Theron Ware</i>. This was the title of the +book I read in the United States. I am told he published it in England +under the title of <i>Illuminations</i>—a nice discrimination!</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31">[31]</a><div class="note"><p> They appeared under the signature of 'X.' in Nov. and +Dec., 1893, and Jan., 1894.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32">[32]</a><div class="note"><p> <i>Fortnightly Review</i>, Jan. 1894, pp. 11, 12.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33">[33]</a><div class="note"><p> The difficulties of the writer who is not a writer are +great. I sent this chapter to two literary friends, one of whom, with +the help of a globe, disputed my accuracy in a learned ethnological +disquisition with which he favoured me. The other warned me to be even +more obscure and sent me the following verses, addressed by 'Cynicus' +(J.K. Stephen) to Shakespeare, +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"You wrote a line too much, my sage,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of seers the first, the first of sayers;<br /></span> +<span>For only half the world's a stage,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And only all the women players."<br /></span> +</div></div> +</div> + +<a name="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34">[34]</a><div class="note"><p> These qualities, as will be explained later, happen to +have a special economic value in the farming industry, and so are +available for the elevation of rural life, with whose problems we are +now so deeply concerned in Ireland. Their applicability to urban life +need not be discussed here. But my study of the co-operative movement in +England has convinced me that, if the English had the associative +instincts of the Irish, that movement would play a part in English life +more commensurate with its numerical strength and the volume of its +commercial transactions, than can be claimed for it so far.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35">[35]</a><div class="note"><p> <i>La Psychologie de la Foule</i>.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36">[36]</a><div class="note"><p> July 27th, 1903,—His Majesty thus confirmed the striking +utterance of imperial policy contained in Lord Dudley's speech to the +Incorporated Law Society, on the 20th of November, 1902. His Excellency, +after protesting against the conception of empire as a 'huge regiment' +in which each nation was to lose its individuality, said—"Lasting +strength, lasting loyalty, are not to be secured by any attempt to force +into one system or to remould into one type those special +characteristics which are the outcome of a nation's history and of her +religious and social conditions, but rather by a full recognition of the +fact that these very characteristics form an essential part of a +nation's life; and that under wise guidance and under sympathetic +treatment they will enable her to provide her own contribution and to +play her own special part in the life of the empire to which she +belongs."</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="PART_II"></a><h2>PART II.</h2> +<a name="Page_174"></a> +<h4><i>PRACTICAL</i>.</h4> + + +<p>"For a country so attractive and a people so gifted we cherish the +warmest regard, and it is, therefore, with supreme satisfaction that I +have during our stay so often heard the hope expressed that a brighter +day is dawning upon Ireland. I shall eagerly await the fulfilment of +this hope. Its realisation will, under Divine Providence, depend largely +upon the steady development of self-reliance and co-operation, upon +better and more practical education, upon the growth of industrial and +commercial enterprise, and upon that increase of mutual toleration and +respect which the responsibility my Irish people now enjoy in the public +administration of their local affairs is well-fitted to +teach."—<i>Message of the King to the Irish People</i>, 1st August, 1903.</p> +<a name="Page_175"></a> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VII"></a><h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h4>THE NEW MOVEMENT: ITS FOUNDATION ON SELF-HELP.</h4> + + +<p>The movement for the reorganisation of Irish agricultural and industrial +life, to which I have already frequently referred, must now be described +in practical operation. Before I do this, however, there are two lines +of criticism which the very mention of a new movement may suggest, and +which I must anticipate. Every year has its tale of new movements, +launched by estimable persons whose philanthropic zeal is not balanced +by the judgment required to discriminate between schemes which possess +the elements of permanence, and those which depend upon the enthusiasm +or financial support of their promoters, and are in their nature +ephemeral. There is, consequently, a widespread and well justified +mistrust of novel schemes for the industrial regeneration of Ireland. I +confess to having had my ingenuity severely taxed on some occasions to +find a sympathetic circumlocution wherewith to show cause for declining +to join a new movement, my real reason being an inward conviction that +nothing except resolutions would be moved. In the complex problem of +building up the economic and social life of a people <a name="Page_176"></a>with such a +history as ours, we must resist the temptation to multiply schemes +which, however well intended, are but devices for enabling individuals +to devolve their responsibilities upon the community or upon the +Government, and which owe their bubble reputation and brief popularity +to this unconscious humouring of our chief national defect. On the +contrary, we must seek to instil into the mind of each individual the +too little recognised importance of his own contribution to the sum of +national achievement. The building of character must be our paramount +object, as it is the condition precedent of all social and economic +reform in Ireland. To explain the principles by the observance of which +the agency of the association may be utilised as an economic force, +while at the same time the industrial character of the individual may be +developed, was one of the chief aims I had in view in the foregoing +analysis of the Irish mind and character, as they have emerged from +history and are stunted in their growth by present influences. The facts +about to be recited will, I hope, suffice to prove that the reformer in +Ireland, if he has a true insight into the great human problem with +which he is dealing, may find in the association not only a healthy +stimulus to national activities, but also a means whereby the assistance +of the State may be so invoked and applied that it will concentrate, and +not dissipate, the energies of the people.</p> + +<p>The other criticism which I think it necessary to anticipate would, if +ignored, leave room for a wrong impres<a name="Page_177"></a>sion as to much of the work which +is being done both on the self-help and on the State-aid sides of the +new movement. Education, it will be said, is the only real solvent to +the range of problems discussed in this book, most other agencies of +social and economic reform being of doubtful efficacy and, if they tend +to postpone educational effort, positively harmful. There is much truth +in this view. But it must be remembered that the backward condition of +our economic life is due mainly to the fact that our educational systems +have had little regard to our history or economic circumstances. We +must, therefore, at this stage in our national development give to +education a much wider interpretation than that which is usually applied +to the term. We cannot wait for a generation to grow up which has been +given an education calculated to fit it for the modern economic +struggle, even if there were any probability that the necessary reforms +would soon be carried against the prejudices which are aroused by any +proposal to train the minds, or even the hands and eyes, of the rising +generation. In the meantime much of the work, both voluntary and +State-aided, now initiated in Ireland, must consist of educating adults +to introduce into their business concerns the more advanced economic and +scientific methods which the superior education of our rivals in +agriculture and industry abroad has enabled them to adopt, and which my +experience of Irish work convinces me our people would have adopted long +ago if they had had similar educational advantages. And I would further +<a name="Page_178"></a>point out that there is no better way of promoting the reform of +education in the ordinary, the pedagogic, sense, than by bringing to +bear upon the minds of parents those educational influences which are +calculated to convince them of the advantage of improved practical +education for their children. So to the economist and to the +educationist alike I would submit that the new work of economic and +social reform should be judged as a whole, and not prejudged by that +hypercriticism of details which ignores the fact that the conditions +with which it is attempted to deal are wholly unprecedented. I am quite +content that the movement which I am about to describe should be +ultimately known and judged by its fruits. Meanwhile, I think that to +the intelligent critic it will sufficiently justify its existence if it +continues to exist.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The story of the new movement, which must now be told, begins in the +year 1889, when a few Irishmen, the writer of these pages among them, +set themselves the task of bringing home to the rural population of +Ireland the fact that their prosperity was in their own hands much more +than they were generally led to believe. I have already pointed out that +in order to direct the Irish mind towards practical affairs and in order +effectively to arouse and apply the latent capacities of the Irish +people to their chief industry, agriculture, we must rely upon +associative, as distinct from individual effort; or, in other words, we +must get the people to do their <a name="Page_179"></a>business together rather than +separately as the English do. Fortunately for us, it happened that this +course, which was clearly indicated by the character and temperament of +the people, was equally prescribed by economic considerations. The +population and wealth of Ireland are, I need hardly say, so +predominantly agricultural that the welfare of the country must depend +upon the welfare of the farming classes. It is notorious that the +industry by which these classes live has for the last quarter of a +century become less and less profitable. It is also recognised that the +prime cause of agricultural depression, foreign competition, is not +likely to be removed, while that from the colonies is likely to +increase. The extraordinary development of rapid and cheap transit, +together with recently invented processes of preservation, have enabled +the more favoured producers in the newly developed countries of both +hemispheres successfully to enter into competition in the British +markets with the farmers of these islands. The agricultural producers in +other European countries, although to some extent protected by tariffs, +have had to face similar conditions; but in most of these countries, +though not in the United Kingdom, the farmers have so changed their +methods, to meet the altered circumstances, that they seem to have +gained by improvement at home as much as they have lost by competition +from abroad Thus our farmers find themselves harassed first by the +cheaper production from vast tracts of virgin soil in the uttermost +parts of the earth, and secondly by a nearer <a name="Page_180"></a>and keener competition +from the better organised and better educated producers of the +Continent.</p> + +<p>While the opening up of what the economists call the 'world market,' has +necessitated, as a condition of successful competition, improved methods +of production for, and carriage to, the market, a third and less obvious +force has effected an important change in the method of distribution in +the market. The swarming populations, which the factory system has +brought together in industrial centres, have to be supplied with food by +a system of distribution which must above all things be expeditious. +This requirement can only be met by the regular consignment of food in +large quantities, of such uniform quality that the sample can be relied +upon to be truly indicative of the quality of the bulk. Thus the rapid +distribution of produce in the markets becomes as important a factor in +agricultural economy as improved methods of production or cheap and +expeditious carriage.</p> + +<p>Now this new market condition is being met in two ways. In the United +States, and, in a less marked degree, at home, an army of middlemen +between the producer and the consumer attends to this business for a +share of the profits accruing from it, whilst in many parts of the +Continent the farmers themselves attend, partially at any rate, to the +business side of their industry instead of paying others to do it all +for them. I say all, for middlemen are necessary at the distributive +end: but it is absolutely essential, in a <a name="Page_181"></a>country like Ireland, that at +the producing end the farmers should be so organised that they +themselves can manage the first stages of distribution, and exercise +some control over the middlemen who do the rest. The foreign +agricultural producers have long been alive to this necessity, for their +superior education enabled them to grasp the economic situation and even +to realise that the matter is not one of acute political controversy.</p> + +<p>Here, then, was a definite practical problem to the solution of which +the promoters of the new movement could apply their principle of +co-operative effort. The more we studied the question the more apparent +it became that the enormous advantage which the Continental farmers had +over the Irish farmers, both in production and in distribution, was due +to superior organisation combined with better education. State-aid had +no doubt done a great deal abroad, but in every case it was manifest +that it had been preceded, or at least accompanied, by the organised +voluntary effort without which the interference of the Government with +the business of the people is simply demoralising.</p> + +<p>Generally speaking, the task before us in Ireland was the adaptation to +the special circumstances of our country of methods successfully pursued +by communities similarly situated in foreign countries. We had to urge +upon farmers that combination was just as necessary to their economic +salvation as it was recognised to be by their own class, and by those +engaged in other industries, elsewhere. They must combine, so we urged +on them, <a name="Page_182"></a>for example, to buy their agricultural requirements at the +cheapest rate and of the best quality in order to produce more +efficiently and more economically; they must combine to avail themselves +of improved appliances beyond the reach of individual producers, whether +it be by the erection of creameries, for which there was urgent need, or +of cheese factories and jam factories which might come later; or in +ordinary farm operations, to secure the use of the latest agricultural +machinery and the most suitable pure-bred stock; they must combine—not +to abolish middle profits in distribution, whether those of the carrying +companies or those of the dealers in agricultural produce—but to keep +those profits within reasonable limits, and to collect in bulk and +regularise consignments so that they could be carried and marketed at a +moderate cost; they must combine, as we afterwards learned, for the +purpose of creating, by mutual support, the credit required to bring in +the fresh working capital which each new development of their industry +would demand and justify. In short, whenever and wherever the +individuals in a farming community could be brought to see that they +might advantageously substitute associated for isolated production or +distribution, they must be taught to form themselves into associations +in order to reap the anticipated advantages.</p> + +<p>This brief statement of our general aims will furnish a rough idea of +the economic propaganda which we initiated, and if I give a few +illustrations of the practical application of the new principle to the +farming industry, I <a name="Page_183"></a>shall have done all that will be required to leave +on the reader's mind a true though perhaps an incomplete impression of +the character and scope of the self-help side of the new movement. I +shall first give a sketch of the unrecorded struggles of its pioneers, +because these struggles prove to those engaged in social and economic +work in Ireland that, in the wholly abnormal condition of our national +life, no project which is theoretically sound need be rejected because +everybody says it is impracticable. The work of the morrow will largely +consist of the impossible of to-day. If this adds to the difficulty, it +also adds to the fun.</p> + +<p>When we arrived at the conclusion that the introduction of the principle +of agricultural co-operation was a vital necessity, the first practical +question which had to be decided was how the industrial army, which was +to do battle for Ireland's position in the world market, should be +organised and disciplined for the task. It is evident that before a body +of men who have never worked together can form a successful commercial +combination, they must be provided with a constitution and set of rules +and regulations for the conduct of their business. These must be so +skilfully contrived that they will harmonise all the interests involved. +And when an arrangement has been come to which is, not only in fact but +also obviously, equitable, it remains as part of the process of +organisation to teach the participants in the new project the meaning, +and to imbue them with the spirit, of the <a name="Page_184"></a>joint enterprise into which +they have been persuaded to enter with perhaps no very clear +understanding of all that is involved. There were in Ireland no +precedents to guide us and no examples to follow, but the co-operative +movement in England appeared to furnish most of the principles involved +and a perfect machinery for their application.<a name="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37"><sup>[37]</sup></a> So Lord Monteagle and +Mr. R.A. Anderson, my first two associates in the New Movement, joined +me as regular attendants at the annual Co-operative congresses. We were +assiduous seekers after information at the head-quarters of the +Co-operative Union in Manchester. We had the good fortune to fall in +with Vansittart Neale, and Tom Hughes, both of whom have passed away, +and with Mr. Holyoake, who, with the exception of Mr. Ludlow, is now the +sole survivor of that noble group of practical philanthropists, the +Christian Socialists. Mr. J.C. Gray, who succeeded Mr. Vansittart Neale +as the General Secretary of the Co-operative Union, gave us invaluable +help and continues to do so to this day. The leaders of the English +movement <a name="Page_185"></a>sympathised with our efforts. The Union paid us the compliment +of constituting our first converts its Irish Section. Liberal support +was given out of the central English funds towards the cost of the +missionary work which was to spread co-operative light in the sister +isle. We can never forget the generosity of the workingmen in England in +giving their aid to the Irish farmers, especially when it is remembered +that they had no sanguine anticipations for the success of our efforts +and no prospect of advantages to themselves if we did succeed.</p> + +<p>It must be admitted that the outlook was not altogether rosy. +Agricultural co-operation had never succeeded in England, where it +seemed to be accepted as one of the disappointing limitations of the +co-operative movement that it did not apply to rural communities in +these islands. There were also in Ireland the peculiar difficulties +arising from ceaseless political and agrarian agitation. It was +naturally asked—did Irish farmers possess the qualities out of which +co-operators are made? Had they commercial experience or business +education? Had they business capacity? Would they display that +confidence in each other which is essential to successful association, +or indeed that confidence in themselves without which there can be no +business enterprise? Could they ever be induced to form themselves into +societies, and to adopt, and loyally adhere to those rules and +regulations by which alone equitable distribution of the responsibility +and profit among the participants in the joint undertaking can be +assured, and harmony and <a name="Page_186"></a>successful working be rendered possible? Then, +our best-informed Irish critics assured us that voluntary association +for humdrum business purposes, devoid of some religious or political +incentive, was alien to the Celtic temperament and that we should wear +ourselves out crying in the wilderness. We were told that Irishmen can +conspire but cannot combine. Economists assured us that even if we +succeeded in getting farmers to embark on the projected enterprises, +financial disaster would be the inevitable result of our attempts to +substitute in industrial undertakings, ever becoming more technical and +requiring more and more commercial knowledge and experience, democratic +management for one-man control.</p> + +<p>On the other hand there were some favouring conditions, the importance +of which our studies of the human problems already discussed will have +made my readers realise. Isolated, the Irish farmer is conservative, +sceptical of innovations, a believer in routine and tradition. In union +with his fellows, he is progressive, open to ideas, and wonderfully keen +at grasping the essential features of any new proposal for his +advancement. He was, then, himself eminently a subject for co-operative +treatment, and his circumstances were equally so. The smallness of his +holding, the lack of capital, and the backwardness of his methods made +him helpless in competition with his rivals abroad. The process of +organisation was also, to some extent, facilitated by the insight the +people had been given by the Land League into the power of combination, +and by the education they had <a name="Page_187"></a>received in the conduct of meetings. It +was a great advantage that there was a machinery ready at hand for +getting people together, and a procedure fully understood for giving +expression to the sense of the meeting. On the other hand, the +domination of a powerful central body, which was held to be essential to +the success of the political and agrarian movement, had exercised an +influence which added enormously to the difficulty of getting the people +to act on their own initiative.</p> + +<p>Though the economic conditions of the Irish farmer clearly indicated a +need for the application of co-operative effort to all branches of his +industry, it was necessary at the beginning to embrace a more limited +aim. It happened at the time we commenced our Irish work that one branch +of farming, the dairying industry, presented features admirably adapted +to our methods. This industry was, so to speak, ripe for its industrial +development, for its change from a home to a factory industry. New +machinery, costly but highly efficient, had enabled the factory product, +notably that of Denmark and Sweden, to compete successfully with the +home-made article, both in quality and cost of production. Here, it will +be observed, was an opportunity for an experiment in co-operative +production, under modern industrial conditions, which would put the +associative qualities of the Irish farmer to a test which the British +artisan had not stood quite as well as the founders of the co-operative +movement had anticipated. To add to the interest of the situation, +capitalists had seized upon <a name="Page_188"></a>the material advantages which the abundant +supply of Irish milk afforded, and the green pastures of the "Golden +Vein" were studded with snow white creameries which proclaimed the +transfer of this great Irish industry from the tiller of the soil to the +man of commerce. The new-comers secured the milk of the district by +giving the farmer much more for his milk than it was worth to him, so +long as he pursued the old methods of home manufacture. This induced +farmers to go out of the butter-making business. After a while the price +was reduced, and the proprietor, finding it necessary to give the +suppliers only what they could make out of their milk without his modern +equipment, realised profits altogether out of proportion to his share of +the capital embarked or the labour involved in the production of the +butter.</p> + +<p>The economic position was ideal for our purpose, and we had no +difficulty in explaining it to the farmers themselves. The social +problem was the real difficulty. To all suggestions of co-operative +action they at first opposed a hopeless <i>non possumus</i>. Their objections +may be summed up thus:—They had never combined for any business +purpose. How could they trust the Committee they were asked to elect +from amongst themselves to expend their money and conduct their +business? It was all very well for the proprietor with his ample +capital, free hand, and business experience, to work with complicated +machinery and to consign his butter out of the reach of the local butter +buyer, and to save <a name="Page_189"></a>the waste and delay of the local butter market. But +they knew nothing of the business and would only make fools of +themselves. The promoters—they were not putting anything into the +scheme—how much did they intend to take out?<a name="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38"><sup>[38]</sup></a></p> + +<p>There was nothing in this attitude of mind which we had not fully +anticipated. We were confident that, as we were on sound economic +ground, no matter what difficulties might confront us it was only a +question of time for the attainment of our ends. All that was required +was that we should keep pegging away. My own experience was not +encouraging at first. I was, and am, a poor speaker, and in Ireland a +man who cannot express his thoughts with facility, whether he has got +them or not, accentuates the difficulties under which a prophet labours +in his own country. I made up for my deficiencies in the first essential +of Irish public life by engaging a very eloquent political speaker, the +late Mr. Mulhallen Marum, M.P., to stump the country. He gave to the +propaganda a relish which my prosaic economics altogether lacked. The +nationalist band sometimes came out to meet him. We all know the +efficiency of the drum in politics and religion, but it seemed to me a +little out of place in economics. However, he created an excellent +impression, but unhappily <a name="Page_190"></a>he died of heart disease before he had +attended more than three or four meetings. This was a severe blow to us, +and we toiled away under some temporary discouragement. My own diary +records attendance at fifty meetings before a single society had +resulted therefrom. It was weary work for a long time. These gatherings +were miserable affairs compared with those which greeted our political +speakers. On one occasion the agricultural community was represented by +the Dispensary Doctor, the Schoolmaster, and the Sergeant of Police. +Sometimes, in spite of copious advertising of the meeting, the prosaic +nature of the objects had got abroad, and nobody met.</p> + +<p>Mr. Anderson, who sometimes accompanied me and sometimes went his rounds +alone, had similar experiences. I may quote a passage from some of his +reminiscences, recently published in the <i>Irish Homestead</i>, the organ of +the co-operative movement in Ireland.</p> + +<blockquote><p>It was hard and thankless work. There was the apathy of the people + and the active opposition of the Press and the politicians. It + would be hard to say now whether the abuse of the Conservative + <i>Cork Constitution</i> or that of the Nationalist <i>Eagle</i>, of + Skibbereen, was the louder. We were "killing the calves," we were + "forcing the young women to emigrate," we were "destroying the + industry." Mr. Plunkett was described as a "monster in human + shape," and was adjured to "cease his hellish work." I was + described as his "Man Friday" and as "Rough-rider Anderson." Once, + when I thought I had planted a Creamery within the precincts of the + town of Rathkeale, my co-operative apple-cart was upset by a local + solicitor <a name="Page_191"></a>who, having elicited the fact that our movement + recognised neither political nor religious differences—that the + Unionist-Protestant cow was as dear to us as her + Nationalist-Catholic sister—gravely informed me that our programme + would not suit Rathkeale. "Rathkeale," said he, pompously, "is a + Nationalist town—Nationalist to the backbone—and every pound of + butter made in this Creamery must be made on Nationalist + principles, or it shan't be made at all." This sentiment was + applauded loudly, and the proceedings terminated.</p></blockquote> + +<p>On another occasion a similar project was abandoned because the flow of +water to the disused mill which it was proposed to convert into a +creamery, passed through a conduit lined with cement originally +purchased from a man who now occupied a farm from which another had been +evicted. To some minds these little complications would have spelled +failure. To my associates they but accentuated the need for the movement +which they had so laboriously thought out, and the very nature of the +difficulties confirmed them in their belief that the economic doctrine +they were preaching was adapted to meet the requirements of the case. +And so the event proved.</p> + +<p>In the year 1894 the movement had gathered volume to such an +extent—although the societies then numbered but one for every twenty +that are in existence to-day—that it became beyond the power of a few +individuals to direct its further progress. In April of that year a +meeting was held in Dublin to inaugurate the Irish Agricultural +Organisation Society, Ltd. (now commonly known as the I.A.O.S.), which +was to be the analogue <a name="Page_192"></a>of the Co-operative Union in England. In the +first instance it was to consist of philanthropic persons, but its +constitution provided for the inclusion in its membership of the +societies which had already been created and those which it would itself +create as time went on. It had, and has to-day, a thoroughly +representative Committee. I was elected the first President, a position +which I held until I entered official life, when Lord Monteagle, a +practical philanthropist if ever there was one, became my successor. +Father Finlay, who joined the movement in 1892, and who has devoted the +extraordinary influence which he possesses over the rural population of +Ireland to the dissemination of our economic principles, became +Vice-President. Both he and Lord Monteagle have been annually re-elected +ever since.</p> + +<p>The growth of the movement in the last nine years under the fostering +care of the I.A.O.S. is highly satisfactory. By the autumn of this year +(1903) considerably over eight hundred societies had been established, +and the number is ever growing; of these 360 were dairy, and 140 +agricultural societies, nearly 200 agricultural banks, 50 home +industries societies, 40 poultry societies, while there were 40 others +with miscellaneous objects. The membership may be estimated—I am +writing towards the end of the Society's statistical year—at about +80,000, representing some 400,000 persons. The combined trade turnover +of these societies during the present year will reach approximately +£2,000,000, a figure the <a name="Page_193"></a>meaning of which can only be appreciated when +it is remembered that the great majority of the associated farmers are +in so small a way of business that in England they would hardly be +classed as farmers at all.</p> + +<p>These societies consist, as has been explained, of groups of farmers who +have been taught by organisers that certain branches of their business +can be more profitably conducted in association than by individuals +acting separately. The principle of agricultural co-operation with its +economic advantages will, as time goes on, be further extended by the +combined action of societies. With this end in view federations are +constantly being formed with a constitution similar to that of the +societies, the only difference being that the members of the federation +are not individuals but societies, the government of the central body +being carried on by delegates from its constituent associations. The two +largest of these federations, one for the sale of butter, and another +for the combined purchase by societies of their agricultural +requirements, have been working successfully for several years. +Federations, too, are being formed, as societies find that their +business can be conducted more economically, for example, in dairying by +centralising the manufacture of butter, or in the egg export trade by +the alliance of many districts to enable large contracts to be +undertaken. In the near future a further development of federation will +be required to complete a scheme now under consideration for the mutual +insurance of live stock. Such a scheme <a name="Page_194"></a>involves the existence of two +prime conditions, a local organisation for the purpose of effective +supervision, and the spreading of the risk over a large area.</p> + +<p>In all such enterprises and economic changes the Organisation Society is +either the initiator, or is called in for advice, and its continued +existence in a purely advisory capacity as a link between the societies +where concerted action is required, will be necessary even when the +organisation of farmers into societies is completed. The economic life +of rural communities is in continual need of adjustment. Now it is an +invention like a steam separator which revolutionises an industry. At +another time the crisis created by a change in the tariff of a foreign +country forces the producer either to find a new outlet for his wares, +or to abandon a hitherto profitable employment. A striking instance of +the value of organisation and connection with a central advisory body +occurred in 1887, when swine fever broke out in Denmark, and the exports +of live swine fell from 230,000 in one year to 16,000 in the next. The +organisation of the farmers, however, enabled them easily to consult +together how best to meet the emergency, and their decision to start +co-operative bacon-curing factories was the foundation of their present +great export trade in manufactured bacon.</p> + +<p>I must not overburden with details a narrative intended for readers to +whom I merely wish to give a deeper and wider understanding of Irish +life than most of them probably possess. But there is just one form of +<a name="Page_195"></a>agricultural co-operation to which I can usefully devote a few +paragraphs, because it throws much light upon the associative qualities +of the people and also upon the educational and social value of the +movement. I refer to the Agricultural Banks, more properly called Credit +Associations, which have been organised upon the Raiffeisen system. +Before the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society was formed we had +read of these institutions, and of the marvellously beneficial effect +they had produced upon the most depressed rural communities abroad. But +only in the last few years have we fully realised that they are even +more required and are likely to do more good in Ireland than in any +other country; for on the psychological side of our work we formerly but +dimly saw things which we now see clearly.</p> + +<p>The exact purpose of these organisations is to create credit as a means +of introducing capital into the agricultural industry. They perform the +apparent miracle of giving solvency to a community composed almost +entirely of insolvent individuals. The constitution of these bodies, +which can, of course, be described only in broad outline here, is +somewhat startling. They have no subscribed capital, but every member is +liable for the entire debts of the association. Consequently the +association takes good care to admit men of approved character and +capacity only. It starts by borrowing a sum of money on the joint and +several security of its members. A member wishing to borrow from the +association is not required to give tangible <a name="Page_196"></a>security, but must bring +two sureties. He fills up an application form which states, among other +things, what he wants the money for. The rules provide—and this is the +salient feature of the system—that a loan shall be made for a +productive purpose only, that is, a purpose which, in the judgment of +the other members of the association as represented by a committee +democratically elected from among themselves, will enable the borrower +to repay the loan out of the results of the use made of the money lent.</p> + +<p>Raiffeisen held, and our experience in Ireland has fully confirmed his +opinion, that in the poorest communities there is a perfectly safe basis +of security in the honesty and industry of its members. This security is +not valuable to the ordinary commercial lender, such as the local joint +stock bank. Even if such lenders had the intimate knowledge possessed by +the committee of one of these associations as to the character and +capacity of the borrower, they would not be able to satisfy themselves +that the loan was required for a really productive purpose, nor would +they be able to see that it was properly applied to the stipulated +object. One of the rules of the co-operative banks provides for the +expulsion of a member who does not apply the money to the agreed +productive purpose. But although these "Banks" are almost invariably +situated in very poor districts, there has been no necessity to put this +rule in force in a single instance. Social influences seem to be quite +sufficient to secure obedience to the association's laws.</p><a name="Page_197"></a> + +<p>Another advantage conferred by the association is that the term for +which money is advanced is a matter of agreement between the borrower +and the bank. The hard and fast term of three months which prevails in +Ireland for small loans is unsuited to the requirements of the +agricultural industry—as for instance, when a man borrows money to sow +a crop, and has to repay it before harvest. The society borrows at four +or five per cent, and lends at five or six per cent. In some cases the +Congested Districts Board or the Department of Agriculture have made +loans to these banks at three per cent. This enables the societies to +lend at the popular rate of one penny for the use of one pound for a +month. The expenses of administration are very small. As the credit of +these associations develops, they will become a depository for the +savings of the community, to the great advantage of both lender and +borrower. The latter generally makes an enormous profit out of these +loans, which have accordingly gained the name of 'the lucky money,' and +we find, in practice, that he always repays the association and almost +invariably with punctuality.</p> + +<p>The sketch I have given of the agricultural banks will, perhaps, be +sufficient to show what an immense educational and economic benefit they +are likely to confer when they are widely extended throughout Ireland, +as I hope they will be in the near future. Under this system, which, to +quote the report of the Indian Famine Commission, 1901, 'separates the +working bees from the <a name="Page_198"></a>drones,' the industrious men of the community who +had no clear idea before of the meaning or functions of capital or +credit, and who were generally unable to get capital into their industry +except at exorbitant rates of interest and upon unsuitable terms, are +now able to get, not always, indeed, all the money they want, but all +the money they can well employ for the improvement of their industry. +There is no fear of rash investment of capital in enterprises believed +to be, but not in reality productive—the committee take good care of +that. The whole community is taught the difference between borrowing to +spend and borrowing to make. You have the collective wisdom of the best +men in the association helping the borrower to decide whether he ought +to borrow or not, and then assisting him, if only from motives of +self-interest, to make the loan fulfil the purpose for which it was +made. I was delighted to find when I was making an enquiry into the +working of the system that, whereas the debt-laden peasants had formerly +concealed their indebtedness, of which they were ashamed, those who were +in debt to the new banks were proud of the fact, as it was the best +testimonial to their character for honesty and industry.<a name="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39"><sup>[39]</sup></a></p> +<a name="Page_199"></a> +<p>One other sphere of activity worked by the co-operative associations +needs a passing notice. The desire that, together with material +amelioration, there should be a corresponding intellectual advancement +and a greater beauty in life has prompted many of the farmers' societies +to use their organisation for higher ends. A considerable number of them +have started Village Libraries, and by an admirable selection of books +have brought to their members, not only the means of educating +themselves in the more difficult technical problems of their industry, +but also a means of access to that enchanted world of Irish thought +which inspires the Gaelic Revival to which I have already referred. +Social gatherings of every kind, dances, lectures, concerts, and such +like entertainments, which have the two-fold effect of brightening rural +life and increasing the attachment of the members to their society, are +becoming a common feature in the movement, and this more human aspect +has attracted to it the attention of many who do not understand its +economic side. We have gratifying evidence from many of the clergy that +the movement thus developed has kept at home young people who would +otherwise have fled from the continued hardship and intellectual +emptiness of rural life at home.</p><a name="Page_200"></a> + +<p>These results are in no small measure due to the zeal and devotion of +the governing body and staff of the I.A.O.S. The general policy of the +society is guided by a committee of twenty-four members, one-half of +whom are elected by the individual subscribers and the other half by the +affiliated societies. It is representative in the best sense and +influential accordingly. The success of the Committee is no doubt mainly +due to the wisdom which they have displayed in the selection of the +staff. In the most important post, that of Secretary, they have kept on +my chief fellow-worker in the early struggle, Mr. R.A. Anderson, who has +devoted himself to the cause with all the energy of a nature at once +enthusiastic, unselfish, and practical, and who has succeeded in +inspiring his staff of organisers and experts with his own spirit. Among +these, two deserve special mention, Mr. George W. Russell, one of the +Assistant Secretaries, who has, under the <i>nom de plume</i> "A.E.," +attained fame for a poetry of rare distinction of thought and diction, +and Mr. P.J. Hannon, the other Assistant Secretary, who has proved +himself a splendid propagandist. Each of these gentlemen has brought to +the movement a zeal and ability which could only come of a devotion to +high ideals of patriotism, curiously combined with a shrewd practical +instinct for carrying on varied and responsible business undertakings.</p> + +<p>With the growing work the staff has been repeatedly augmented to enable +the central society to keep pace with the demand made by groups of +farmers to be <a name="Page_201"></a>initiated into the principles of co-operative +organisation and the details of its application to the particular +branches of farming carried on in their several districts. At the same +time the societies which have been established need, during their +earlier years, and with each extension of their operations, constant +advice and supervision. Hence skilled organisers have to be kept to form +co-operative dairy societies, inspect creameries, and give technical +advice upon the manufacture and sale of butter, the care of machinery, +the adequacy of the water supply, the drainage system, and many similar +technical questions. Others are employed to start poultry societies, +which when organised have still to be instructed by a Danish expert in +the proper method of packing, selecting, and grading the eggs for +export. In tillage districts there is a constant demand for organisers +of purely agricultural societies, which aim at the joint purchase of +seeds and manures, of implements and other farm requisites, and at the +better disposal of produce; while the growing importance of an improved +system of agricultural credit keeps four organisers of agricultural +banks constantly at work Home industries, bee-keeping, and horticulture, +may be added to the objects for which societies have been formed and +which require separate expert organisers. And in addition to all this +work, the central association has found it necessary to keep a staff of +accountants, versed in the principles of co-operative organisation, to +instruct these miscellaneous societies in simple and efficient systems +of bookkeeping, <a name="Page_202"></a>and in the general principles of conducting business. +To complete the description of the propagandist activities of the +central body, there is a ceaseless flow of leaflets and circulars +containing advice and direction to bodies of farmers who, for the first +time in their lives, have combined for business purposes; while a little +weekly paper, the <i>Irish Homestead</i>, acts as the organ of the movement, +promotes the exchange of ideas between societies scattered throughout +the country, furnishes useful information upon all matters connected +with their business operations, and keeps constantly before the +associated farmers the economic principles which must be observed, and, +above all, the spirit in which the work must be approached, if the +movement is to fulfil its mission.<a name="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40"><sup>[40]</sup></a></p> + +<p>One of the difficulties incidental to a movement of this kind, which, +for the reasons already set forth, had to be rapidly and widely +extended, was the enormous cost to its supporters. It is needless to say +that such a staff as I have described could not be kept continuously +travelling by rail and road for so many years without the provision of a +large fund. These officers must obviously be men with exceptional +qualifications, if they are not only to impress the thought of their +agricultural <a name="Page_203"></a>audiences, but also to move them to action, and to sustain +the newly organised societies through the initial difficulties of their +unfamiliar enterprise. Such men are not to be found idle, and if they +preach this gospel, they are entitled to live by it. They are not by any +means overpaid, but their salaries in the aggregate amount to a large +annual sum. Before the creation of the Department of Agriculture and +Technical Instruction in 1900 large sums were spent by the I.A.O.S. not +only in its proper work of organisation, but also in giving technical +instruction, which was found to be essential to commercial success. When +the Society was relieved of this educational work many of its supporters +withdrew their subscriptions under the impression that there was now no +longer any need for its continued existence. But so far from the +Society's usefulness having ceased, it has now become more important +than ever that the doctrine of organised self-help, which must be the +foundation of any sound Irish economic policy, should be insisted upon +and put into practical operation as widely as possible. All those who +are devoting their lives to the firm establishment of this self-help +movement among the chief wealth-producers of the country are agreed that +no better educational work can be done at the moment than that which is +bringing about so salutary a change in the economic attitude of the +Irish mind.</p> + +<p>It is not to be wondered at that the greater part of the necessary funds +should have been drawn from a very limited circle of public-spirited men +capable of grasping <a name="Page_204"></a>the significance of a movement the practical effect +of which would appear to be permanent only to those who had a deep +insight into Irish problems.<a name="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41"><sup>[41]</sup></a> The difficulty of a successful appeal +to a wider public has been the impossibility of giving in brief form an +adequate explanation, such as that which it is hoped these pages will +afford, of the part the movement was to play in Irish life. We were +asked whether our scheme was business or philanthropy. If philanthropy, +it would probably do more harm than good. If business, why was it not +self-supporting? I remember hearing the movement ridiculed in the House +of Commons by a prominent Irish member on the ground that the accounts +of the I.A.O.S. showed that £20,000 (£40,000 would be nearer the mark +now) had been put into the 'business,' and that this large capital had +been entirely lost! When we proved that agricultural co-operation +brought a large profit to the members of the societies we formed, it was +suggested that a small part of this profit would give us all we required +for our organising work. So it will in time, but if instead of merely +refusing financial assistance to our converts, we were, on the other +hand, to demand it from them, we certainly should not lessen the +difficulty of launching our movement among the farmers of Ireland. Some +of our critics denounced the expenditure of so much money for which, in +their opinion, there was nothing to <a name="Page_205"></a>show, and said that the time had +come to stop this 'spoon-feeding.' When those for whose exclusive +benefit the costly work had been undertaken learned that all we had to +offer was the cold advice that they should help themselves, they not +infrequently raised a wholly different objection to our economic +doctrine. Spoonfeeding they might have tolerated, but there was nothing +in the spoon! The movement has survived all these criticisms. The lack +of moral and of financial support which retarded its progress in the +early years, has been so far surmounted The movement may now, I think, +appeal for further help as one that has justified its existence. The +opinion that it has done so is not held only by those who are engaged in +promoting it, nor by Irish observers alone. The efforts of the Irish +farmers so to reorganise their industry that they may hopefully approach +the solution of the problems of rural life are being watched by +economists and administrators abroad. Enquirers have come to Ireland +during the last two years from Germany, France, Canada, the United +States, India, South Africa, Cyprus and the West Indies, having been +drawn here by the desire to understand the combination of economic and +human reform. It was not alone the economic advantages of the movement +which interested them, but the way in which the organisation at the same +time acted upon the character and awoke those forces of self-help and +comradeship in which lies the surety of any enduring national +prosperity. A native governor from a famine district in the Madras +Presidency, who, perhaps, better <a name="Page_206"></a>than any one realised the importance +of these human factors, because the lethargy of his own people had +forced it on his notice, said, when he was referred to the Department of +Agriculture and Technical Instruction for information, "Oh, don't speak +to me about Government Departments. They are the same all over the +world. I come here to learn what the Irish people are doing to help +themselves and how you awaken the will and the initiative." I hope to +show later that State assistance properly applied is not necessarily +demoralising but very much the reverse. It is consoling, too, to our +national pride, long wounded by contemptuous references to our +industrial incapacity as compared with our neighbours, to find that our +latest efforts are regarded by them as worthy of imitation. From the +other side of the Channel no less than five County Councils have sent +deputations of farmers to Ireland to study the progress of the movement, +and already an English Organisation Society, expressly modelled upon its +Irish namesake, has been established and is endeavouring to carry out +the same work.</p> + +<p>It is not surprising that the facts which I have cited should be +interesting to the honest inquirer. A summary of actual achievement will +show that this movement has spread all over Ireland, that its principle +of organised self-help has been universally accepted, and that nothing +but time and the necessary funds are required by its promoters to give +it, within the range of its applicability, general effect. It is no +exaggeration to say that there <a name="Page_207"></a>has been set in motion and carried +beyond the experimental stage a revolution in agricultural methods which +will enable our farmers to compete with their rivals abroad, both in +production and in distribution, under far more favourable conditions +than before. Alike in its material and in its moral achievements this +movement has provided an effective means whereby the peasant proprietary +about to be created will be able to face and solve the vital problems +before it, problems for which no improvement in land tenure, no rent +reductions actual or prospective, could otherwise provide an adequate +solution. Furthermore, nothing could be more evident to any close +observer of Irish life than the fact that had it not been for the new +spirit which the workers in this movement, mostly humble unknown men, +had generated, the attitude of the Irish democracy towards England's +latest concession to Ireland would have been very different from what it +is. In the last dozen years hundreds and thousands of meetings have been +held to discuss matters of business importance to our rural communities. +At these meetings landlord and tenant-farmer have often met each other +for the first time on a footing of friendly equality, as fellow-members +of co-operative societies. It is significant that all through the +negotiations which culminated in the Dunraven Treaty, landlords who had +come into the life of the people in connection with the co-operative +movement took a prominent part in favour of conciliation.</p> + +<p>I would further give it as my opinion, whatever it may <a name="Page_208"></a>be worth, that +the movement has exercised a profound influence in those departments of +our national life where, as I have shown in previous chapters, new +forces must be not only recognised but accepted as essential to national +well-being, if we are to cherish what is good and free ourselves from +what is bad in the historical evolution of our national life. In the +domain of politics it is hard to estimate even the political value of +the exclusion of politics from deliberations and activities where they +have no proper place. In our religious life, where intolerance has +perpetuated anti-industrial tendencies, the new movement is seen to be +bringing together for business purposes men who had previously no +dealings with each other, but who have now learned that the doctrine of +self-help by mutual help involves no danger to faith and no sacrifice of +hope, while it engenders a genuinely Christian interpretation of +charity.<a name="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42"><sup>[42]</sup></a></p> + +<p>I cannot conclude the story of this movement without paying a brief +tribute of respect and gratitude to those true patriots who have borne +the daily burden of the <a name="Page_209"></a>work. I hope the picture I have given of their +aims and achievements will lead to a just appreciation of their services +to their country. By these men and women applause or even recognition +was not expected or desired: they knew that it was to those who had the +advantages of leisure, and what the world calls position, that the +credit for their work would be given. But it is of national importance +that altruistic service should be understood and given freedom of +expansion. I have, therefore, presented as faithfully as I could the +origin and development of one of the least understood, but in my +opinion, most fruitful movements which has ever been undertaken by a +body of social and economic reformers. As Irish leaders they have +preferred to remain obscure, conscious that the most damaging criticism +which could be applied to their work would be that it depended on their +own personal qualities or acts for its permanent utility. But most +assuredly the real conquerors of the world are those who found upon +human character their hopes of human progress.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37">[37]</a><div class="note"><p> The story of the conversion of some of the tenants on the +Vandeleur estate into a co-operative community in 1831 by Mr. E.T. +Craig, a Scotchman who took up the agency of the property, told in the +<i>History of Ralahine</i> (London, Trübner & Co., 1893) is worth reading. +The experiment, most hopeful as far as it went, was only two years in +existence when the landlord gambled away his property at cards in a +Dublin club and the Utopia was sold up. But in the co-operative world +Mr. Craig, who died as recently as 1894, is revered as the author of the +most advanced experiment in the realisation of co-operative ideals. The +economic significance of the narrative is obviously not important, and I +doubt whether joint ownership of land, except for the purpose of common +grazing, is a practical ideal. The ready response, however, of the Irish +peasants to Mr. Craig's enthusiasm and the way in which they took up the +idea form an interesting study of the Irish character.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38">[38]</a><div class="note"><p> The late Canon Bagot had done good service in explaining +the value of the new machinery; but unhappily the vital importance of +co-operative organisation was not then understood. He formed some joint +stock companies with the result that, having no co-operative spirit to +offset their commercial inexperience, they all proved, instead of +co-operative successes, competitive failures. This fact added to our +early difficulties.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39">[39]</a><div class="note"><p> It should be noted that this form of association for +credit purposes, owing to its peculiar constitution, applies only to a +grade of the community whose members all live on about the same scale +and that a fairly low one. It is obvious that unlimited liability would +lose its efficacy in developing the sense of responsibility if some +members of the association were so substantial that its creditors would +make them primarily responsible in the event of failure. The fact, +however, that the scheme has worked with unvarying success among the +poorest of the poor, and the most Irish of the Irish, renders it as good +an illustration as can be found of what may be done by sympathetic and +intelligent treatment of Irish economic problems. Mr. Henry W. Wolff, +the foremost authority on People's Banks in these islands, and Mr. R.A. +Yerburgh, M.P., a generous subscriber to the Irish Agricultural +Organisation Society, have taken great interest in this part of the +movement and have rendered much assistance.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40">[40]</a><div class="note"><p> Those who wish to go more fully into the details of the +co-operative agricultural movement in Ireland should write to the +Secretary Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, 22 Lincoln-place, +Dublin. The publications of the Society are somewhat voluminous, and the +inquirer should intimate any particular branches of the subject in which +he is especially interested. Those wishing to keep <i>au courant</i> with the +further development of the movement would do well to take in the <i>Irish +Homestead</i>, post free <i>6s. 6d.</i> per annum.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41">[41]</a><div class="note"><p> The chief donors belong to the class of philanthropists +who do not care to advertise their beneficence. I, therefore, respect +their wishes and withhold their names.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42">[42]</a><div class="note"><p> I recall an occasion when the Vice-President of the +I.A.O.S. (a Nationalist in politics and a Jesuit priest), who has been +ever ready to lend a hand as volunteer organiser when the prior claims +of his religious and educational duties allowed, found himself before an +audience which he was informed, when he came to the meeting, consisted +mainly of Orangemen. He began his address by referring to the new and +somewhat strange environment into which he had drifted. He did not, +however, see why this circumstance should lead to any misunderstanding +between himself and his audience. He had never been able to understand +what a battle fought upon a famous Irish river two centuries ago had got +to do with the practical issues of to-day which he had come to discuss. +The dispute in question was, after all, between a Scotchman and a +Dutchman, and if it had not yet been decided, they might be left to +settle it themselves—that is if too great a gulf did not separate +them.</p></div> + + +<a name="Page_210"></a> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VIII"></a><h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h4>THE RECESS COMMITTEE.</h4> + + +<p>The new movement, six years after its initiation, had succeeded beyond +the most sanguine expectations of its promoters. All over the country +the idea of self-help was taking firm hold of the imagination of the +people.</p> + +<p>Co-operation had got, so to speak, into the air to such an extent that, +whereas at the beginning, as I well remember, our chief difficulty had +been to popularise a principle to which one section of the community was +strongly opposed, and in which no section believed, it was now no longer +necessary to explain or support the theory, but only to show how it +could be advantageously applied to some branch of the farmer's industry. +It was not, strange to say, the economic advantage which had chiefly +appealed to the quick intelligence of the Irish farmer, but rather the +novel sensation that he was thinking for himself, and that while +improving his own condition he was working for others. This attitude was +essential to the success of the movement, because had it not been for a +vein of altruism, the "strong" farmers would have held aloof, and the +small men would have been discouraged by the abstention of the +better-off and presumably more enlightened of their class.</p><a name="Page_211"></a> + +<p>Perhaps, too, we owed something to the recognition on the part of the +working farmers of Ireland that they were showing a capacity to grasp an +idea which had so far failed to penetrate the bucolic intelligence of +the predominant partner. Whatever the causes to which the success of the +movement was attributable, those who were responsible for its promotion +felt in the year 1895 that it had reached a stage in its development +when it was but a question of time to complete the projected revolution +in the farming industry, the substitution of combined for isolated +methods of production and distribution. It was then further brought home +to them that the principle of self-help was destined to obtain general +acceptance in rural Ireland, and that the time had come when a sound +system of State aid to agriculture might be fruitfully grafted on to +this native growth of local effort and self-reliance.</p> + +<p>From time to time our public men had included in the list of Irish +grievances the fact that England enjoyed a Board of Agriculture while +Ireland had no similar institution. As a matter of fact a mere replica +of the English Board would not have fulfilled a tithe of the objects we +had in view. That much at least we knew, but beyond that our information +was vague. What, having regard to Irish rural conditions, should be the +character and constitution of any Department called into being to +administer the aid required? Here indeed was a vital and difficult +problem. Even those of us who had given the closest thought to the +matter did not know exactly <a name="Page_212"></a>what was wanted; nor, if we had known our +own minds, could we have formulated our demand in such a way as to have +obtained a backing from representative public bodies, associations, and +individuals sufficient to secure its concession. Instead, therefore, of +agitating in the conventional manner we determined to try to direct the +best thought of the country to the problem in hand, with a view to +satisfying the Government, and also ourselves, as to what was wanted. We +had confidence that a demand presented to Parliament, based upon calm +and deliberate debate among the most competent of Irishmen, would be +conceded. The story of this agitation, its initiation, its conduct, and +its final success will, I am sure, be of interest to all who feel any +concern for the welfare of Ireland.</p> + +<p>I have accepted the common characterisation of the Irish as a +leader-following people. When we come to analyse the human material out +of which a strong national life may be constructed, we find that there +are in Ireland—in this connection I exclude the influence of the +clergy, with which I have dealt specifically in another chapter—two +elements of leadership, the political and the industrial. The political +leaders are seen to enjoy an influence over the great majority of the +people which is probably as powerful as that of any political leaders in +ancient or modern times; but as a class they certainly do not take a +prominent, or even an active part in business life. This fact is not +introduced with any controversial purpose, and I freely acknowledge can +be inter<a name="Page_213"></a>preted in a sense altogether creditable to the Nationalist +members. The other element of leadership contains all that is prominent +in industrial and commercial life, and few countries could produce +better types of such leaders than can be found in the northern capital +of the country. But, unhappily, these men are debarred from all +influence upon the thought and action of the great majority of the +people, who are under the domination of the political leaders. This is +one of the strange anomalies of Irish life to which I have already +referred. Its recognition, and the desire to utilise the knowledge of +business men as well as politicians, took practical effect in the +formation of the Recess Committee.</p> + +<p>The idea underlying this project was the combination of these two forces +of leadership—the force with political influence and that of proved +industrial and commercial capacity—in order to concentrate public +opinion, which was believed to be inclining in this direction, on the +material needs of the country. The General Election of 1895 had, by +universal admission, postponed, for some years at any rate, any +possibility of Home Rule, and the cessation of the bitter feelings +aroused when Home Rule seemed imminent provided the opportunity for an +appeal to the Irish people in behalf of the views which I have +adumbrated. The appeal took the form of a letter, dated August 27th, +1895, by the author to the Irish Press, under the quite sincere, if +somewhat grandiloquent, title, "A proposal affecting the general welfare +of Ireland."</p><a name="Page_214"></a> + +<p>The letter set out the general scope and purpose of the scheme. After a +confession of the writer's continued opposition to Home Rule, the +admission was made that if the average Irish elector, who is more +intelligent than the average British elector, were also as prosperous, +as industrious, and as well educated, his continued demand, in the +proper constitutional way, for Home Rule would very likely result in the +experiment being one day tried. On the other hand, the opinion was +expressed that if the material conditions of the great body of our +countrymen were advanced, if they were encouraged in industrial +enterprise, and were provided with practical education in proportion to +their natural intelligence, they would see that a political development +on lines similar to those adopted in England was, considering the +necessary relations between the two countries, best for Ireland; and +then they would cease to desire what is ordinarily understood as Home +Rule. A basis for united action between politicians on both sides of the +Irish controversy was then suggested. Finding ourselves still opposed +upon the main question, but all anxious to promote the welfare of the +country, and confident that, as this was advanced, our respective +policies would be confirmed, it would appear, it was suggested, to be +alike good patriotism and good policy to work for the material and +social advancement of the people. Why then, it was asked, should any +Irishman hesitate to enter at once upon that united action between men +of both parties which alone, under <a name="Page_215"></a>existing conditions, could enable +either party to do any real and lasting good to the country?</p> + +<p>The letter proceeded to indicate economic legislation which, though +sorely needed by Ireland, was hopelessly unattainable unless it could be +removed from the region of controversy. The <i>modus co-operandi</i> +suggested was as follows:—a committee sitting in the Parliamentary +recess, whence it came to be known as the Recess Committee, was to be +formed, consisting in the first instance, of Irish Members of Parliament +nominated by the leaders of the different sections. These nominees were +to invite to join them any Irishmen whose capacity, knowledge, or +experience might be of service to the Committee, irrespective of the +political party or religious persuasion to which they might belong. The +day had come, the letter went on to say, when "we Unionists, without +abating one jot of our Unionism, and Nationalists, without abating one +jot of their Nationalism, can each show our faith in the cause for which +we have fought so bitterly and so long, by sinking our party differences +for our country's good, and leaving our respective policies for the +justification of time."</p> + +<p>Needless to say, few were sanguine enough to hope that such a committee +would ever be brought together. If that were accomplished some +prophesied that its members would but emulate the fame of the Kilkenny +cats. A severe blow was dealt to the project at the outset by the +refusal of Mr. Justin McCarthy, who then spoke for the largest section +of the Nationalist repre<a name="Page_216"></a>sentatives, to have anything to do with it. His +reply to the letter must be given in full:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>MY DEAR MR. PLUNKETT,</p> + +<p> I am sure I need not say that any effort to promote the general + welfare of Ireland has my fullest sympathy. I readily acknowledge + and entirely believe in the sincerity and good purpose of your + effort, but I cannot see my way to associate myself with it. Your + frank avowal in your letter of August 27th is the expression of a + belief that if your policy could be successfully carried out the + Irish people "would cease to desire Home Rule." Now, I do not + believe that anything in the way of material improvement conferred + by the Parliament at Westminster, or by Dublin Castle, could + extinguish the national desire for Home Rule. Still, I do not feel + that I could possibly take part in any organisation which had for + its object the seeking of a substitute for that which I believe to + be Ireland's greatest need—Home Rule.</p> + +<p> Yours very truly,</p> + +<p> JUSTIN MCCARTHY.</p> + +<p> 73, Eaton-terrace, S.W., October 22nd, 1895.</p></blockquote> + +<p>I had not much hope that I could influence Mr. McCarthy's decision; but +it was so serious an obstacle to further action that I made one more +appeal. I wrote to my respected and courteous correspondent, pointing +out the misconception of my proposal, which had arisen from the use made +of the six words quoted by him, which were hardly intelligible without +the context. I asked him to reconsider his refusal to join in the +proposal for promoting the material improvement of our country, on +account of a contingency which he confidently declared could not <a name="Page_217"></a>arise. +But in those days economic seed fell upon stony political ground.</p> + +<p>The position was rendered still more difficult by the action of Colonel +Saunderson, the leader of the Irish Unionist party, who wrote to the +newspapers declaring that he would not sit on a Committee with Mr. John +Redmond. On the other hand, Mr. Redmond, speaking then for the +"Independent" party, consisting of less than a dozen members, but +containing some men who agreed with Mr. Field's admission in the House +of Commons that "man cannot live on politics alone," joined the +Committee and acted throughout in a manner which was broad, +statesmanlike, conciliatory, and as generous as it was courageous. His +letter of acceptance ran as follows:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>DEAR MR. PLUNKETT,</p> + +<p> I received your letter, in which you ask me to co-operate with you + in bringing together a small Committee of Members of Parliament to + discuss certain measures to be proposed next Session for the + benefit of Ireland. While I cannot take as sanguine a view as you + do of the benefits likely to flow from such a proceeding, I am + unwilling to take the responsibility of declining to aid in any + effort to promote useful legislation for Ireland.</p> + +<p> I will, under the circumstances, co-operate with you in bringing + such a Committee as you suggest together. Very truly yours,</p> + +<p> J.E. REDMOND.</p> + +<p> October 21st, 1895.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Before these decisions were officially announced the idea had "caught +on." Public bodies throughout the country endorsed the scheme. The +parliamentarians, <a name="Page_218"></a>who formed the nucleus of the Committee, came +together and invited prominent men from all quarters to join them. A +committee which, though informal and self-appointed, might fairly claim +to be representative in every material respect, was thus constituted on +the lines laid down.</p> + +<p>Truly, it was a strange council over which I had the honour to preside. +All shades of politics were there—Lords Mayo and Monteagle, Mr. Dane +and Sir Thomas Lea (Tories and Liberal Unionist Peers and Members of +Parliament) sitting down beside Mr. John Redmond and his parliamentary +followers. It was found possible, in framing proposals fraught with +moral, social, and educational results, to secure the cordial agreement +of the late Rev. Dr. Kane, Grand Master of the Belfast Orangemen, and of +the eminent Jesuit educationist, Father Thomas Finlay, of the Royal +University. The O'Conor Don, the able Chairman of the Financial +Relations Commission, and Mr. John Ross, M.P., now one of His Majesty's +Judges, both Unionists, were balanced by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and +Mr. T.C. Harrington, M.P., who now occupies that post, both +Nationalists. The late Sir John Arnott fitly represented the commercial +enterprise of the South, while such men as Mr. Thomas Sinclair, +universally regarded as one of the wisest of Irish public men, Sir +William Ewart, head of the leading linen concern in the North, Sir +Daniel Dixon, now Lord Mayor of Belfast, Sir James Musgrave, Chairman of +the Belfast<a name="Page_219"></a> Harbour Board, and Mr. Thomas Andrews, a well-known +flax-spinner and Chairman of the Belfast and County Down Railway, would +be universally accepted as the highest authorities upon the needs of the +business community which has made Ulster famous in the industrial world. +Mr. T.P. Gill, besides undertaking investigation of the utmost value +into State aid to agriculture in France and Denmark, acted as Hon. +Secretary to the Committee, of which he was a member.</p> + +<p>The story of our deliberations and ultimate conclusions cannot be set +forth here except in the barest outline. We instituted an inquiry into +the means by which the Government could best promote the development of +our agricultural and industrial resources, and despatched commissioners +to countries of Europe whose conditions and progress might afford some +lessons for Ireland. Most of this work was done for us by the late +eminent statistician, Mr. Michael Mulhall. Our funds did not admit of an +inquiry in the United States or the Colonies. However, we obtained +invaluable information as to the methods by which countries which were +our chief rivals in agricultural and industrial production have been +enabled to compete successfully with our producers even in our own +markets. Our commissioners were instructed in each case to collect the +facts necessary to enable us to differentiate between the parts played +respectively by State aid and the efforts of the people themselves in +producing these results. With this information before us, after long and +earnest deli<a name="Page_220"></a>beration we came to a unanimous agreement upon the main +facts of the situation with which we had to deal, and upon the +recommendations for remedial legislation which we should make to the +Government.</p> + +<p>The substance of our recommendations was that a Department of Government +should be specially created, with a minister directly responsible to +Parliament at its head. The central body was to be assisted by a +Consultative Council representative of the interests concerned. The +Department was to be adequately endowed from the Imperial Treasury, and +was to administer State aid to agriculture and industries in Ireland +upon principles which were fully described. The proposal to amalgamate +agriculture and industries under one Department was adopted largely on +account of the opinion expressed by M. Tisserand, late Director-General +of Agriculture in France, one of the highest authorities in Europe upon +the administration of State aid to agriculture.<a name="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43"><sup>[43]</sup></a> The creation of a +new minister directly responsible to Parliament was considered a +necessary provision. Ireland is governed by a number of Boards, all, +with the exception of the Board of Works (which is really a branch of +the Treasury), responsible to the Chief Secretary—practically a whole +cabinet under one hat—who is supposed to be responsible for them to +Parliament and to the Lord Lieutenant. The bearers of this burden are +generally men of great ability. But no Chief Secretary could <a name="Page_221"></a>possibly +take under his wing yet another department with the entirely new and +important functions now to be discharged. What these functions were to +be need not here be described, as the Department thus 'agitated' for has +now been three years at work and will form the subject of the next two +chapters.</p> + +<p>On August 1st, 1896, less than a year from the issue of the invitation +to the political leaders, the Report was forwarded to the Chief +Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant for Ireland, with a covering letter, +setting out the considerations upon which the Committee relied for the +justification of its course of action. Attention was drawn to the terms +of the original proposal, its exceptional nature and essential +informality, the political conditions which appeared to make it +opportune, the spirit in which it was responded to by those who were +invited to join, and the degree of public approval which had been +accorded to our action. We were able to claim for the Committee that it +was thoroughly representative of those agricultural and industrial +interests, North and South, with which the Report was concerned.</p> + +<p>There were two special features in the brief history of this unique +coming together of Irishmen which will strike any man familiar with the +conditions of Irish public life. The first was the way in which the +business element, consisting of men already deeply engaged in their +various callings—and, indeed, selected for that very reason—devoted +time and labour to the service of their country. Still more significant +was the <a name="Page_222"></a>fact that the political element on the Committee should have +come to an absolutely unanimous agreement upon a policy which, though +not intended to influence the trend of politics, was yet bound to have +far-reaching consequences upon the political thought of the country, and +upon the positions of parties and leaders. It was thought only fair to +the Nationalist members of the Committee that every precaution should be +taken to prevent their being placed in a false position. 'To avoid any +possible misconception,' the covering letter ran, 'as to the attitude of +those members of the Committee who are not supporters of the present +Government, it is right here to state that, while under existing +political conditions they agreed in recommending a certain course to the +Government, they wish it to be understood that their political +principles remain unaltered, and that, were it immediately possible, +they would prefer that the suggested reforms should be preceded by the +constitutional changes of which they are the well-known advocates.'</p> + +<p>It is interesting to note that the Committee claimed favourable +consideration for their proposals on the ground that they sought to act +as 'a channel of communication between the Irish Government and Irish +public opinion.' Little interest, they pointed out, had been hitherto +aroused in those economic problems for which the Report suggested some +solution. They expressed the hope that their action would do something +to remedy this defect, especially in view of the importance which +foreign Governments had found it necessary to <a name="Page_223"></a>attach to public opinion +in working out their various systems of State aid to agriculture and +industries. At the same time the Committee emphasised, in the covering +letter, their reliance on individual and combined effort rather than on +State aid. They were able to point out that, in asking for the latter, +they had throughout attached the utmost importance to its being granted +in such a manner as to evoke and supplement, and in no way be a +substitute for self-help. If they appeared to give undue prominence to +the capabilities of State initiation, it was to be remembered that they +were dealing with economic conditions which had been artificially +produced, and which, therefore, might require exceptional treatment of a +temporary nature to bring about a permanent remedy.</p> + +<p>I fear those most intimately connected with the above occurrences will +regard this chapter as a very inadequate description of events so +unprecedented and so full of hope for the future. My purpose is, +however, to limit myself, in dealing with the past, to such details as +are necessary to enable the reader to understand the present facts of +Irish life, and to build upon them his own conclusions as to the most +hopeful line of future development. I shall, therefore, pass rapidly in +review the events which led to the fruition of the labours of the Recess +Committee.</p> + +<p>Public opinion in favour of the new proposals grew rapidly. Before the +end of the year (1896) a deputation, representing all the leading +agricul<a name="Page_224"></a>tural and industrial interests of the country, waited upon the +Irish Government, in order to press upon them the urgent need for the +new department. The Lord Lieutenant, after describing the gathering as +'one of the most notable deputations which had ever come to lay its case +before the Irish Government,' and noting the 'remarkable growth of +public opinion' in favour of the policy they were advocating, expressed +his heartfelt sympathy with the case which had been presented, and his +earnest desire—which was well known—to proceed with legislation for +the agricultural and industrial development of the country at the +earliest moment. The demand made upon the Government was, +argumentatively, already irresistible. But economic agitation of this +kind takes time to acquire dynamic force. Mr. Gerald Balfour introduced +a Bill the following year, but it had to be withdrawn to leave the way +clear for the other great Irish measure which revolutionised local +government. The unconventional agitation went on upon the original +lines, appealing to that latent public opinion which we were striving to +develop. In 1899 another Bill was introduced, and, owing to its masterly +handling by the Chief Secretary in the House of Commons, ably seconded +by the strong support given by Lord Cadogan, who was in the Cabinet, it +became law.</p> + +<p>I cannot conclude this chapter without a word upon the extraordinary +misunderstanding of Mr. Gerald Balfour's policy to which the obscuring +atmosphere sur<a name="Page_225"></a>rounding all Irish questions gave rise. In one respect +that policy was a new departure of the utmost importance. He proved +himself ready to take a measure from Ireland and carry it through, +instead of insisting upon a purely English scheme which he could call +his own. These pre-digested foods had already done much to destroy our +political digestion, and it was time we were given something to grow, to +cook, and to assimilate for ourselves. It will be seen, too, in the next +chapter, that he had realised the potentiality for good of the new +forces in Irish life to which he gave play in his two great linked +Acts—one of them popularising local government, and the other creating +a new Department which was to bring the government and the people +together in an attempt to develop the resources of the country. Yet his +eminently sane and far-seeing policy was regarded in many quarters as a +sacrifice of Unionist interests in Ireland. Its real effect was to endow +Unionism with a positive as well as a negative policy. But all reformers +know that the further ahead they look, the longer they have to wait for +their justification. Meanwhile, we may leave out of consideration the +division of honour or of blame for what has been done. The only matter +of historic interest is to arrive at a correct measure of the progress +made.</p> + +<p>The new movement had thus completed the first and second stages of its +mission. The idea of self-help had become a growing reality, and upon +this foundation an edifice of State aid had been erected. When a +Nationalist <a name="Page_226"></a>member met a Tory member of the Recess Committee he laughed +over the success with which they had wheedled a measure of industrial +Home Rule out of a Unionist Government. None the less they cordially +agreed that the people would rise to their economic responsibility. The +promoters of the movement had faith that this new departure in English +government would be more than justified by the English test, and that in +the new sphere of administration the government would be accorded, +without prejudice, of course, to the ultimate views either of Unionists +or Home Rulers, not only the consent, but the whole-hearted co-operation +of the governed.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43">[43]</a><div class="note"><p> The memorandum which he kindly contributed to the Recess +Committee was copied into the Annual Report of the United States +Department of Agriculture for 1896.</p></div> + + + +<a name="Page_227"></a> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_IX"></a><h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h4>A NEW DEPARTURE IN IRISH ADMINISTRATION.</h4> + + +<p>To the average English Member of Parliament, the passing of an Act "for +establishing a Department of Agriculture and other Industries and +Technical Instruction in Ireland and for other purposes connected +therewith," probably signified little more than the removal of another +Irish grievance, which might not be imaginary, by the concession to +Ireland of an equivalent to the Board of Agriculture in England. In +reality the difference between the two institutions is as wide as the +difference between the two islands. The chief interest of the new +Department consists in the free play which it gives to the pent-up +forces of a re-awakening life. A new institution is at best but a new +opportunity, but the Department starts with the unique advantage that, +unlike most Irish institutions, it is one which we Irishmen planned +ourselves and for which we have worked. For this reason the opportunity +is one to which we may hope to rise.</p> + +<p>Before I can convey any clear impression of the part which the +Department is, I believe, destined to play on the stage of Irish public +life, it will be necessary for me to give a somewhat detailed +description of its functions and constitution. The subject is perhaps +dull <a name="Page_228"></a>and technical; but readers cannot understand the Ireland of to-day +unless they have in their minds not only an accurate conception of the +new moral forces in Irish life and of the movements to which these +forces have given rise, but also a knowledge of the administrative +machinery and methods by which the people and the Government are now, +for the first time since the Union, working together towards the +building up of the Ireland of to-morrow.</p> + +<p>The Department consists of the President (who is the Chief Secretary for +the time being) and the Vice-President. The staff is composed of a +Secretary, two Assistant Secretaries (one in respect of Agriculture and +one in respect of Technical Instruction), as well as certain heads of +Branches and a number of inspectors, instructors, officers and servants. +The Recess Committee, it will be remembered, had laid stress upon the +importance of having at the head of the Department a new Minister who +should be directly responsible to Parliament; and, accordingly, it was +arranged that the Vice-President should be its direct Ministerial head. +The Act provided that the Department should be assisted in its work by a +Council of Agriculture and two Boards, and also by a Consultative +Committee to advise upon educational questions. But before discussing +the constitution of these bodies, it is necessary to explain the nature +of the task assigned to the new Department which began work in April, +1900. It was created to fulfil two main purposes.<a name="Page_229"></a> In the first place, +it was to consolidate in one authority certain inter-related functions +of government in connection with the business concerns of the people +which, until the creation of the Department, were scattered over some +half-dozen Boards, and to place these functions under the direct control +and responsibility of the new Minister. The second purpose was to +provide means by which the Government and the people might work together +in developing the resources of the country so far as State intervention +could be legitimately applied to this end.</p> + +<p>To accomplish the first object, two distinct Government departments, the +Veterinary Department of the Privy Council and the Office of the +Inspectors of Irish Fisheries, were merged in the new Department. The +importance to the economic life of the country of having the laws for +safeguarding our flocks and herds from disease, our crops from insect +pests, our farmers from fraud in the supply of fertilisers and feeding +stuffs and in the adulteration of foods (which compete with their +products), administered by a Department generally concerned for the +farming industry need not be laboured. Similarly, it was well that the +laws for the protection of both sea and inland fisheries should be +administered by the authority whose function it was to develop these +industries. There was also transferred from South Kensington the +administration of the Science and Arts grants and the grant in aid of +technical instruction, together with the control of several national +institutions, <a name="Page_230"></a>the most important being the Royal College of Science and +the Metropolitan School of Art; for they, in a sense, would stand at the +head of much of the new work which would be required for the +contemplated agricultural and industrial developments. The Albert +Institute at Glasnevin and the Munster Institute in Cork, both +institutions for teaching practical agriculture, were, as a matter of +course, handed over from the Board of National Education.</p> + +<p>The desirability of bringing order and simplicity into these branches of +administration, where co-related action was not provided for before, was +obvious. A few years ago, to take a somewhat extreme case, when a +virulent attack of potato disease broke out which demanded prompt and +active Governmental intervention, the task of instructing farmers how to +spray their potatoes was shared by no fewer than six official or +semi-official bodies. The consolidation of administration effected by +the Act, in addition to being a real step towards efficiency and +economy, relieved the Chief Secretary of an immense amount of detailed +work to which he could not possibly give adequate personal attention, +and made it possible for him to devote a greater share of his time to +the larger problems of general Irish legislation and finance.</p> + +<p>The newly created powers of the Department, which were added to and +co-ordinated with the various pre-existing functions of the several +departments whose consolidation I have mentioned above, fairly fulfilled +the <a name="Page_231"></a>recommendation of the Recess Committee that the Department should +have 'a wide reference and a free hand.' These powers include the +aiding, improving, and developing of agriculture in all its branches; +horticulture, forestry, home and cottage industries; sea and inland +fisheries; the aiding and facilitating of the transit of produce; and +the organisation of a system of education in science and art, and in +technology as applied to these various subjects. The provision of +technical instruction suitable to the needs of the few manufacturing +centres in Ireland was included, but need not be dealt with in any +detail in these pages, since, as I have said before, the questions +connected therewith are more or less common to all such centres and have +no specially Irish significance.</p> + +<p>For all the administrative functions transferred to the new Department +moneys are, as before, annually voted by Parliament. Towards the +fulfilment of the second purpose mentioned above—the development of the +resources of the country upon the principles of the Recess Committee—an +annual income of £166,000, which was derived in about equal parts from +Irish and imperial sources, and is called the Department's Endowment, +together with a capital sum of about £200,000, were provided.</p> + +<p>It will be seen that a very wide sphere of usefulness was thus opened +out for the new Department in two distinct ways. The consolidation, +under one authority, of many scattered but co-related functions was +clearly <a name="Page_232"></a>a move in the right direction. Upon this part of its +recommendations the Recess Committee had no difficulty in coming to a +quick decision. But the real importance of their Report lay in the +direction of the new work which was to be assigned to the Department. +Under the new order of things, if the Department, acting with as well as +for the people, succeeds in doing well what legitimately may and ought +to be done by the Government towards the development of the resources of +the country, and, at the same time, as far as possible confines its +interference to helping the Irish people to help themselves, a wholly +new spirit will be imported into the industrial life of the nation.</p> + +<p>The very nature of the work which the Department was called into +existence to accomplish made it absolutely essential that it should keep +in touch with the classes whom its work would most immediately affect, +and without whose active co-operation no lasting good could be achieved. +The machinery for this purpose was provided by the establishment of a +Council of Agriculture and two Boards, one of the latter being concerned +with agriculture, rural industries, and inland fisheries, the other with +technical instruction. These representative bodies, whose constitution +is interesting as a new departure in administration, were adapted from +similar continental councils which have been found by experience, in +those foreign countries which are Ireland's economic rivals, to be the +most valuable of all means whereby the administration keeps in touch +with the <a name="Page_233"></a>agricultural and industrial classes, and becomes truly +responsive to their needs and wishes.</p> + +<p>The Council of Agriculture consists of two members appointed by each +County Council (Cork being regarded as two counties and returning four +members), making in all sixty-eight persons. The Department also appoint +one half this number of persons, observing in their nomination the same +provincial proportions as obtained in the appointments by the popular +bodies. This adds thirty-four members, and makes in all one hundred and +two Councillors, in addition to the President and Vice-President of the +Department, who are <i>ex-officio</i> members. Thus, if all the members +attended a Council meeting, the Vice-President would find himself +presiding over a body as truly representative of the interests concerned +as could be brought together, consisting, by a strange coincidence, of +exactly the same number as the Irish representatives in Parliament.</p> + +<p>The Council, which is appointed for a term of three years, the first +term dating from the 1st April, 1900, has a two-fold function. It is, in +the first place, a deliberative assembly which must be convened by the +Department at least once a year. The domain over which its deliberations +may travel is certainly not restricted, as the Act defines its function +as that of "discussing matters of public interest in connection with any +of the purposes of this Act." The view Mr. Gerald Balfour took was that +nothing but the new spirit he laboured to evoke would make his machine +work. Although he <a name="Page_234"></a>gave the Vice-President statutory powers to make +rules for the proper ordering of the Council debates, I have been well +content to rely upon the usual privileges of a chairman. I have +estimated beforehand the time required for the discussion of matters of +inquiry: the speakers have condensed their speeches accordingly, the +business has been expeditiously transacted, and in the mere exchange of +ideas invaluable assistance has been given to the Department.</p> + +<p>The second function of the Council is exercised only at its first +meeting, and consequently but once in three years. At this first +triennial meeting it becomes an Electoral College. It divides itself +into four Provincial Committees, each of which elects two members to +represent its province on the Agricultural Board and one member to +represent it on the Board of Technical Instruction. The Agricultural +Board, which controls a sum of over £100,000 a year, consists of twelve +members, and as eight out of the twelve are elected by the four +Provincial Committees—the remaining four being appointed by the +Department, one from each province—it will be seen that the Council of +Agriculture exercises an influence upon the administration commensurate +with its own representative character. The Board of Technical +Instruction, consisting of twenty-one members, together with the +President and Vice-President of the Department, has a less simple +constitution, owing to the fact that it is concerned with the more +complex life of the urban districts of the country. As I have said, the<a name="Page_235"></a> +Council of Agriculture elects only four members—one for each province. +The Department appoints four others; each of the County Boroughs of +Dublin and Belfast appoints three members; the remaining four County +Boroughs appoint one member each; a joint Committee of the Councils of +the large urban districts surrounding Dublin appoint one member; one +member is appointed by the Commissioners of National Education, and one +member by the Intermediate Board of Education.</p> + +<p>The two Boards have to advise upon all matters submitted to them by the +Department in connection, in the one case, with agriculture and other +rural industries and inland fisheries, and, in the other case, in +connection with Technical Instruction. The advisory powers of the Boards +are very real, for the expenditure of all moneys out of the Endowment +funds is subject to their concurrence. Hence, while they have not +specific administrative powers and apparently have only the right of +veto, it is obvious that, if they wished, they might largely force their +own views upon the Department by refusing to sanction the expenditure of +money upon any of the Department's proposals, until these were so +modified as practically to be their own proposals. It is, therefore, +clear that the machinery can only work harmoniously and efficiently so +long as it is moved by a right spirit. Above all it is necessary that +the central administrative body should gain such a measure of popular +confidence as to enable it, without loss of influence, to resist +pro<a name="Page_236"></a>posals for expenditure upon schemes which might ensure great +popularity at the moment, but would do permanent harm to the industrial +character we are all trying to build up. I need not fear contradiction +at the hands of a single member of either Board when I say that up to +the present perfect harmony has reigned throughout. The utmost +consideration has been shown by the Boards for the difficulties which +the Department have to overcome; and I think I may add that due regard +has been paid by the administrative authority to the representative +character and the legitimate wishes of the bodies which advise and +largely control it.</p> + +<p>The other statutory body attached to the Department has a significance +and potential importance in strange contrast to the humble place it +occupies in the statute book. The Agriculture and Technical Instruction +(Ireland) Act, 1899, has, like many other Acts, a part entitled +'Miscellaneous,' in which the draughtsman's skill has attended to +multifarious practical details, and made provision for all manner of +contingencies, many of which the layman might never have thought of or +foreseen. Travelling expenses for Council, Boards, and Committees, +casual vacancies thereon, a short title for the Act, and a seal for the +Department, definitions, which show how little we know of our own +language, and a host of kindred matters are included. In this miscellany +appears the following little clause:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>For the purpose of co-ordinating educational administration there<a name="Page_237"></a> + shall be established a Consultative Committee consisting of the + following members:—</p> + +<p> (a.) The Vice-President of the Department, who shall be chairman + thereof;</p> + +<p> (b.) One person to be appointed by the Commissioners of National + Education;</p> + +<p> (c.) One person to be appointed by the Intermediate Education + Board;</p> + +<p> (d.) One person to be appointed by the Agricultural Board; and</p> + +<p> (e.) One person to be appointed by the Board of Technical + Instruction.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Now the real value of this clause, and in this I think it shows a +consumate statesmanship, lies not in what it says, but in what it +suggests. The Committee, it will be observed, has an immensely important +function, but no power beyond such authority as its representative +character may afford. Any attempt to deal with a large educational +problem by a clause in a measure of this kind would have alarmed the +whole force of unco-ordinated pedagogy, and perhaps have wrecked the +Bill. The clause as it stands is in harmony with the whole spirit of the +new movement and of the legislation provided for its advancement. The +Committee may be very useful in suggesting improvements in educational +administration which will prevent unnecessary overlapping and lead to +co-operation between the systems concerned. Indeed it has already made +suggestions of far-reaching importance, which have been acted upon by +the educational authorities represented upon it. As I have said in an +earlier <a name="Page_238"></a>chapter when discussing Irish education from the practical +point of view, I have great faith in the efficacy of the economic factor +in educational controversy, and this Committee is certainly in a +position to watch and pronounce on any defects in our educational system +which the new efforts to deal practically with our industrial and +commercial problems may disclose.</p> + +<p>There remains to be explained only one feature of the new administrative +machinery, and it is a very important one. The Recess Committee had +recommended the adaptation to Ireland of a type of central institution +which it had found in successful operation on the Continent wherever it +had pursued its investigations. So far as schemes applicable to the +whole country were concerned, the central Department, assuming that it +gained the confidence of the Council and Boards, might easily justify +its existence. But the greater part of its work, the Recess Committee +saw, would relate to special localities, and could not succeed without +the cordial co-operation of the people immediately concerned. This fact +brought Mr. Gerald Balfour face to face with a problem which the Recess +Committee could not solve in its day, because, when it sat, there still +existed the old grand jury system, though its early abolition had been +promised. It was extremely fortunate that to the same minister fell the +task of framing both the Act of 1898, which revolutionised local +government, and the Act of 1899, now under review. The success with +which these two Acts were linked together by the provisions of the +latter forms an <a name="Page_239"></a>interesting lesson in constructive statesmanship. Time +will, I believe, thoroughly discredit the hostile criticism which +withheld its due mead of praise from the most fruitful policy which any +administration had up to that time ever devised for the better +government of Ireland.</p> + +<p>The local authorities created by the Act of 1898 provided the machinery +for enabling the representatives of the people to decide themselves, to +a large extent, upon the nature of the particular measures to be adopted +in each locality and to carry out the schemes when formulated. The Act +creating the new Department empowered the council of any county or of +any urban district, or any two or more public bodies jointly, to appoint +committees, composed partly of members of the local bodies and partly of +co-opted persons, for the purpose of carrying out such of the +Department's schemes as are of local, and not of general importance. +True to the underlying principle of the new movement—the principle of +self-reliance and local effort—the Act lays it down that 'the +Department shall not, in the absence of any special considerations, +apply or approve of the application of money ... to schemes in respect +of which aid is not given out of money provided by local authorities or +from other local sources.' To meet this requirement the local +authorities are given the power of raising a limited rate for the +purposes of the Act. By these two simple provisions for local +administration and local combination, the people of each district were +made voluntarily contributory both in effort and in money, towards the +new practical <a name="Page_240"></a>developments, and given an interest in, and +responsibility for their success. It was of the utmost importance that +these new local authorities should be practically interested in the +business concerns of the country which the Department was to serve. Mr. +Gerald Balfour himself, in introducing the Local Government Bill, had +shown that he was under no illusion as to the possible disappointment to +which his great democratic experiment might at first give rise. He +anticipated that it would "work through failure to success." To put it +plainly, the new bodies might devote a great deal of attention to +politics and very little to business. I am told by those best qualified +to form an opinion (some of my informants having been, to say the least, +sceptical as to the wisdom of the experiment), that notwithstanding some +extravagances in particular instances, it can already be stated +positively that local government in Ireland, taken as a whole, has not +suffered in efficiency by the revolution which it has undergone. This is +the opinion of officials of the Local Government Board,<a name="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44"><sup>[44]</sup></a> and refers +mainly to the transaction of the fiscal business of the new local +authorities. From a different point of observation I shall presently +bear witness to a display of administrative capacity on the part of the +many statutory committees, appointed by County, Borough, and District +Councils to co-operate with the Department, which is most creditable to +the thought and feeling of the people.</p> + +<p>It would be quite unfair to a large body of farmers in <a name="Page_241"></a>Ireland if, in +describing the administrative machinery for carrying out an economic +policy based upon self-help and dependent for its success upon the +conciliatory spirit abroad in the country, I were to ignore the part +played by the large number of co-operative associations, the +organisation, work and multiplication of which have been described in a +former chapter. The Recess Committee, in their enquiries, found that, in +the countries whose competition Ireland feels most keenly, Departments +of Agriculture had come to recognise it as an axiom of their policy that +without organisation for economic purposes amongst the agricultural +classes, State aid to agriculture must be largely ineffectual, and even +mischievous. Such Departments devote a considerable part of their +efforts to promoting agricultural organisation. Short a time as this +Department has been in existence it has had some striking evidence of +the justice of these views. As will be seen from the First Annual Report +of the Department, it was only where the farmers were organised in +properly representative societies that many of the lessons the +Department had to teach could effectually reach the farming classes, or +that many of the agricultural experiments intended for their guidance +could be profitably carried out. Although these experiment schemes were +issued to the County Councils and the agricultural public generally, it +was only the farmers organised in societies who were really in a +position to take part in them. Some of these experiments, indeed, could +not be carried out at all except through such societies.</p><a name="Page_242"></a> + +<p>Both for the sake of efficiency in its educational work, and of economy +in administration, the Department would be obliged to lay stress on the +value of organisation.<a name="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45"><sup>[45]</sup></a> But there are other reasons for its doing so: +industrial, moral, and social. In an able critique upon Bodley's +<i>France</i> Madame Darmesteter, writing in the <i>Contemporary Review</i>, July, +1898, points out that even so well informed an observer of French life +as the author of that remarkable book failed to appreciate the steadying +influence exercised upon the French body politic by the network of +voluntary associations, the <i>syndicats agricoles</i>, which are the +analogues and, to some extent, the prototypes, in France of our +agricultural societies in Ireland. The late Mr. Hanbury, during his too +brief career as President of the Board of Agriculture, frequently dwelt +upon the importance of organising similar associations in England as a +necessary step in the development of the new agricultural policy which +he foreshadowed. His successor, Lord Onslow, has fully endorsed his +views, and in his speeches is to be found the same appreciation of the +exemplary self-reliance of the Irish farmers. I have already referred to +the keen interest which both agricultural reformers and English and +Welsh County Councils have been taking in the unexpectedly progressive +efforts of the Irish farmers to reorganise their industry and place +themselves in a position to take advantage of State assistance. I +believe that our farmers are going to the <a name="Page_243"></a>root of things, and that due +weight should be given to the silent force of organised self-help by +those who would estimate the degree in which the aims and sanguine +anticipations of the new movement in Ireland are likely to be realised.</p> + +<p>And it is not only for its foundation upon self-reliance that the latest +development of Irish Government will have a living interest for +economists and students of political philosophy. They will see in the +facts under review a rapid and altogether healthy evolution of the Irish +policy so honourably associated with the name of Mr. Arthur Balfour. His +Chief Secretaryship, when all its storm and stress have been forgotten, +will be remembered for the opening up of the desolate, poverty-stricken +western seaboard by light railways, and for the creation of the +Congested Districts Board. The latter institution has gained so wide +and, as I think, well merited popularity, that many thought its +extension to other parts of Ireland would have been a simpler and safer +method of procedure than that actually recommended by the Recess +Committee, and adopted by Mr. Gerald Balfour. The Land Act of 1891 +applied a treatment to the problem of the congested districts—a problem +of economic depression and industrial backwardness, differing rather in +degree than in kind from the economic problem of the greater part of +rural Ireland—as simple as it was new. A large capital sum of Irish +moneys was handed over to an unpaid commission consisting of Irishmen +who were <a name="Page_244"></a>acquainted with the local circumstances, and who were in a +position to give their services to a public philanthropic purpose. They +were given the widest discretion in the expenditure of the interest of +this capital sum, and from time to time their income has been augmented +from annually voted moneys. They were restricted only to measures +calculated permanently to improve the condition of the people, as +distinct from measures affording temporary relief.</p> + +<p>I agree with those who hold that Mr. Arthur Balfour's plan was the best +that could be adopted at the moment. But events have marched rapidly +since 1891, and wholly new possibilities in the sphere of Irish economic +legislation and administration have been revealed. A new Irish mind has +now to be taken into account, and to be made part of any ameliorative +Irish policy. Hence it was not only possible, but desirable, to +administer State help more democratically in 1899 than in 1891. The +policy of the Congested Districts Board was a notable advance upon the +inaction of the State in the pre-famine times, and upon the system of +doles and somewhat objectless relief works of the latter half of the +nineteenth century; but the policy of the new departure now under review +was no less notable a departure from the paternalism of the Congested +Districts Board. When that body was called into existence it was thought +necessary to rely on persons nominated by the Government. When the +Department was created eight years later it was found possible, owing to +the broadening of the basis of local <a name="Page_245"></a>government and to the moral and +social effect of the new movement, to rely largely on the advice and +assistance of persons selected by the people themselves.</p> + +<p>The two departments are in constant consultation as to the co-ordination +of their work, so as to avoid conflict of administrative system and +sociological principle in adjoining districts; and much has already been +done in this direction. My own experience has not only made me a firm +believer in the principle of self-help, but I carry my belief to the +extreme length of holding that the poorer a community is the more +essential is it to throw it as much as possible on its own resources, in +order to develop self-reliance. I recognise, however, the undesirability +of too sudden changes of system in these matters. Meanwhile, I may add +in this connection that the Wyndham Land Act enormously increases the +importance of the Congested Districts Board in regard to its main +function—that of dealing directly with congestion, by the purchase and +resettlement of estates, the migration of families, and the enlargement +of holdings.<a name="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46"><sup>[46]</sup></a></p> + +<p>I have now said enough about the aims and objects, the constitution and +powers, and the relations with other Governmental institutions, of the +new Department, to enable the reader to form a fairly accurate estimate +of its general character, scope and purpose. From what it is I shall +pass in the next chapter to what it does, and there I must describe its +everyday work in some detail. But I wish I could also give the reader an +adequate <a name="Page_246"></a>picture of the surge of activities raised by the first plunge +of the Department into Irish life and thought. After a time the torrent +of business made channels for itself and went on in a more orderly +fashion; practical ideas and promising openings were sifted out at an +early stage of their approach to the Department from those which were +neither one nor the other; time was economised, work distributed, and +the functions of demand and supply in relation to the Department's work +throughout Ireland were brought into proper adjustment with each other. +Yet, even at first, to a sympathetic and understanding view, the waste +of time and thought involved in dealing with impossible projects and +dispelling false hopes was compensated for by the evidence forced upon +us that the Irish people had no notion of regarding the Department as an +alien institution with which they need concern themselves but little, +however much it might concern itself with them. They were never for a +moment in doubt as to its real meaning and purpose. They meant to make +it their own and to utilise it in the uplifting of their country. No +description of the machinery of the institution could explain the real +place which it took in the life of the country from the very beginning. +But perhaps it may give the reader a more living interest in this part +of the story, and a more living picture of the situation, if I try to +convey to his mind some of the impressions left on my own, by my +experiences during the period immediately following the projection of +this new phenomenon into Irish consciousness.</p><a name="Page_247"></a> + +<p>When in Upper Merrion-street, Dublin, opposite to the Land Commission, +big brass plates appeared upon the doors of a row of houses announcing +that there was domiciled the Department of Agriculture and Technical +Instruction, the average man in the street might have been expected to +murmur, 'Another Castle Board,' and pass on. It was not long, however, +before our visiting list became somewhat embarrassing. We have since got +down, as I have said, to a more humdrum, though no less interesting, +official life inside the Department. But let the reader imagine himself +to have been concealed behind a screen in my office on a day when some +event, like the Dublin Horse Show, brought crowds in from the country to +the Irish capital. Such an experience would certainly have given him a +new understanding of some then neglected men and things. While I was +opening the morning's letters and dealing with "Files" marked "urgent," +he would see nothing to distinguish my day's work from that of other +ministers, who act as a link between the permanent officials of a +spending Department and the Government of the day. But presently a +stream of callers would set in, and he would begin to realise that the +minister is, in this case, a human link of another kind—a link between +the people and the Government. A courteous and discreet Private +Secretary, having attended to those who have come to the wrong +department, and to those who are satisfied with an interview with him or +with the officer who would have to attend to their particular business, +<a name="Page_248"></a>brings into my not august presence a procession of all sorts and +conditions of men. Some know me personally, some bring letters of +introduction or want to see me on questions of policy. Others—for these +the human link is most needed—must see the ultimate source of +responsibility, which, in Ireland, whether it be head of a family or of +a Department, is reduced from the abstract to the concrete by the +pregnant pronoun 'himself.' I cannot reveal confidences, but I may give +a few typical instances of, let us say, callers who might have called.</p> + +<p>First comes a visitor, who turns out to be a 'man with an idea,' just +home from an unpronounceable address in Scandinavia. He has come to tell +me that we have in Ireland a perfect gold mine, if we only knew it—in +extent never was there such a gold field—no illusory pockets—good +payable stuff in sight for centuries to come—and so on for five +precious minutes, which seem like half a day, during which I have +realised that he is an inventor, and that it is no good asking him to +come to the point. But I keep my eye riveted on his leather bag which is +filled to bursting point, and manifest an intelligent interest and +burning curiosity. The suggestion works, and out of the bag come black +bars and balls, samples of fabrics ranging from sack-cloth to fine +linen, buttons, combs, papers for packing and for polite correspondence, +bottles of queer black fluid, and a host of other miscellaneous wares. I +realise that the particular solution of the Irish Question which is +about to be un<a name="Page_249"></a>folded is the utilisation of our bogs. Well, this <i>is</i> +one of the problems with which we have to deal. It is physically +possible to make almost anything out of this Irish asset, from moss +litter to billiard balls, and though one would not think it, aeons of +energy have been stored in these inert looking wastes by the apparently +unsympathetic sun, energy which some think may, before long, be +converted into electricity to work all the smokeless factories which the +rising generation are to see. Indeed, the vista of possibilities is +endless, the only serious problem that remains to be solved being 'how +to make it pay,' and upon that aspect of the question, unhappily, my +visitor had no light to throw.</p> + +<p>The next visitor, who brings with him a son and a daughter, is himself +the product of an Irish bog in the wildest of the wilds. His Parish +Priest had sent him to me. A little awkwardness, which is soon +dispelled, and the point is reached. This fine specimen of the 'bone and +sinew' has had a hard struggle to bring up his 'long family'; but, with +a capable wife, who makes the most of the <i>res angusta domi</i>—of the +pig, the poultry, and even of the butter from the little black cows on +the mountain—he has risen to the extent of his opportunities. The +children are all doing something. Lace and crochet come out of the +cabin, the yarn from the wool of the 'mountainy' sheep, carded and spun +at home, is feeding the latest type of hosiery knitting machine and the +hereditary handloom. The story of this man's life which was written to +me by the priest cannot <a name="Page_250"></a>find space here. The immediate object of his +visit is to get his eldest daughter trained as a poultry instructress to +take part in some of the 'County Schemes' under the Department, and to +obtain for his eldest son, who has distinguished himself under the +tuition of the Christian Brothers, a travelling scholarship. For this he +has been recommended by his teachers. They had marked this bright boy +out as an ideal agricultural instructor, and if I could give the reader +all the particulars of the case it would be a rare illustration of the +latent human resources we mean to develop in the Ireland that is to be. +I explain that the young man must pass a qualifying examination, but am +glad to be able to admit that the circumstances of his life, which would +have to be taken into account in deciding between the qualified, are in +his case of a kind likely to secure favourable consideration.</p> + +<p>And now enters a sporting friend of mine, a 'practical angler,' who +comes with a very familiar tale of woe. The state of the salmon +fisheries is deplorable: if the Department does not fulfil its obvious +duties there will not be a salmon in Ireland outside a museum in ten +years more. He has lived for forty-five years on the banks of a salmon +river, and he knows that I don't fish. But this much the conversation +reveals: his own knowledge of the subject is confined to the piece of +river he happens to own, the gossip he hears at his club, and the ideas +of the particular poacher he employs as his gillie. His suggested remedy +is the abolition of all netting. But I have <a name="Page_251"></a>to tell him that only the +day before I had a deputation from the net fishermen in the estuary of +this very river, whose bitter complaint was that this 'poor man's +industry' was being destroyed by the mackerel and herring nets round the +coast, and—I thought my friend would have a fit—by the way in which +the gentlemen on the upper waters neglect their duty of protecting the +spawning fish! Some belonging to the lower water interest carried their +scepticism as to the efficacy of artificial propagation to the length of +believing that hatcheries are partially responsible for the decrease. As +so often happens, the opposing interests, disagreeing on all else, find +that best of peacemakers, a common enemy, in the Government. The +Department is responsible—for two opposite reasons, it is true, but +somehow they seem to confirm each other. We must labour to find some +other common ground, starting from the recognition that the salmon +fisheries are a national asset which must be made to subserve the +general public interest. I assure my friend that when all parties make +their proper contribution in effort and in cash, the Department will not +be backward in doing their part.</p> + +<p>At the end of this interview a messenger brings a telegram for 'himself' +from a stockowner in a remote district.<a name="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47"><sup>[47]</sup></a> 'My pigs,' runs one of the +most businesslike <a name="Page_252"></a>communications I ever received, 'are all spotted. +What shall I do?' I send it to the Veterinary Branch, which, with the +Board of Agriculture in England, is engaged in a scheme for staying the +ravages of swine fever, a scheme into which the late Mr. Hanbury threw +himself with his characteristic energy. The problem is of immense +importance, and the difficulty is not mainly quadrupedal. Unless the +police 'spot' the spotted pigs, we too often hear nothing about them. I +am sure it must be daily brought home to the English Board, as it is to +the Irish Department, that an enormous addition might be made to the +wealth of the country if our veterinary officers were intelligently and +actively aided, in their difficult duties for the protection of our +flocks and herds, by those most immediately concerned.</p> + +<p>So far it has been an interesting morning bright with the activities out +of which the future is to be made. The element of hope has predominated, +but now comes a visitor who wishes to see me upon the one part of my +duties and responsibilities which is distasteful to me—the exercise of +patronage. He has been unloaded upon me by an influential person, upon +whom he has more legitimate claims than upon the Department. He has +prepared the way for a favourable reception by getting his friends to +write to my friends, many of whom have already fulfilled a promise to +interview me in his behalf. His mother and two maiden aunts have written +letters which have drawn from my poor Private Secretary, who has to read +them all, the dry quotation, 'there's such <a name="Page_253"></a>a thing as being so good as +to be good for nothing.' The young hopeful quickly puts an end to my +speculations as to the exact capacity in which he means to serve the +Department by applying for an inspectorship. I ask him what he proposes +to inspect, and the sum and substance of his reply is that he is not +particular, but would not mind beginning at a moderate salary, say £200 +a year. As for his qualifications, they are a sadly minus quantity, his +blighted career having included failure for the army, and a clerkship in +a bank, which only lasted a week when he proved to be deficient in the +second and dangerous in the third of the three R's. His case reminds me +of a story of my ranching days, which the exercise of patronage has so +often recalled to my mind that I must out with it. Riding into camp one +evening, I turned my horse loose and got some supper, which was a vilely +cooked meal even for a cow camp. Recognising in the cook a cowboy I had +formerly employed, I said to him, 'You were a way up cow hand, but as +cook you are no account. Why did you give up riding and take to cooking? +What are your qualifications as a cook any way?' 'Qualifications!' he +replied, 'why, don't you know I've got varicose veins?' My caller's +qualifications are of an equally negative description, though not of a +physical kind. He is one of the young Micawbers, to whom the Department +from its first inception has been the something which was to turn up. He +had, of course, testimonials which in any other country would have +commanded success by their terms and the position of the <a name="Page_254"></a>signatories, +but which in Ireland only illustrate the charity with which we condone +our moral cowardice under the name of good nature. I am glad when this +interview closes.</p> + +<p>One more type—a Nationalist Member of Parliament! He does not often +darken the door of a Government office—they all have the same +structural defect, no front stairs—he never has asked and never thought +he would ask anything from the Government. But he is interested in some +poor fishermen of County Clare who pursue their calling under cruel +disadvantages for want of the protection from the Atlantic rollers which +a small breakwater would afford. It is true that they were the worst +constituents he had—- went against him in 'The Split,'—but if I saw +how they lived, and so on. I knew all about the case. A breakwater to be +of any use would cost a very large sum, and the local authority, though +sympathetic, did not see their way to contribute their proportion, and +without a local contribution, I explained, the Department could not, +consistently with its principles, unless in most exceptional—Here he +breaks in: 'Oh! that red tape. You're as bad as the rest—exceptional, +indeed! Why, everything is exceptional in my constituency. I am a bit +that way myself. But, seriously, the condition of these poor people +would move even a Government official. Besides, you remember the night I +made thirteen speeches on the Naval Estimates—the Government wanted a +little matter of twenty millions—and you met me in the Lobby and told +me you wished to go to bed, <a name="Page_255"></a>and asked me what I really wanted, and—I +am always reasonable—I said I would pass the whole Naval Programme if I +got the Government to give them a boat-slip at Ballyduck.—"Done!" you +said, and we both went home.—I believe you knew that I had got +constituency matters mixed up, that Ballyduck was inland, and that it +was Ballycrow that I meant to say.—But you won't deny that you are +under a moral obligation.'</p> + +<p>Well, I would go into the matter again very carefully—for I thought we +might help these fishermen in some other way—and write to him. He +leaves me; and, while outside the door he travels over the main points +with my Private Secretary, the lights and shades in the picture which +this strange personality has left on my mind throw me back behind the +practical things of to-day. In Parliament facing the Sassanach, in +Ireland facing their police, he has for years—the best years of his +life—displayed the same love of fighting for fighting's sake. In the +riots he has provoked, and they are not a few, he is ever regardless of +his own skin, and would be truly miserable if he inflicted any serious +bodily harm on a human being—even a landlord. It is impossible not to +like this very human anachronism, who, within the limitations imposed by +the convenience of a citizenship to which he unwillingly belongs, does +battle</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>For Faith, and Fame, and Honour, and the ruined hearths of Clare.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The reader may take all this as fiction. I am sure no one will annoy me +by trying on any of the caps I have <a name="Page_256"></a>displayed on the counter of my +shop. What I do fear is that the picture of some of my duties which I +have given may have made a wrong impression of the Department's work +upon the reader's mind. He may have come to the conclusion that, +contrary to all the principles laid down, an attempt was being made to +do for the people things which the new movement was to induce the people +to do for themselves. The Department may appear to be using its official +position and Government funds to constitute itself a sort of Universal +Providence, exercising an authority and a discretion over matters upon +which in any progressive community the people must decide for +themselves. However near to the appearances such an impression might be, +nothing could be further from the facts. If I have helped the reader to +unravel the tangled skein of our national life, if I have sufficiently +revealed the mind of the new movement to show that there is in it 'a +scheme of things entire,' it should be quite clear that the deliberate +intentions both of Mr. Gerald Balfour and of those Irishmen whom he took +into his confidence are being fulfilled in letter and in spirit. It only +remains for me to attempt an adequate description of the work of the +Department created by that Chief Secretary, and, above all, of the way +in which the people themselves are playing the part which his +statesmanship assigned to them.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44">[44]</a><div class="note"><p> See Report of the Local Government Board, 1901-2.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45">[45]</a><div class="note"><p> See Annual General Report of the Department 1900-1901, pp. +25-27.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46">[46]</a><div class="note"><p> <i>Cf. ante</i>, pp. 46-49.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47">[47]</a><div class="note"><p> No fiction about this, nor about the following letter to +the Secretary:— +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">'The Scratatory, Vitny Dept.<br /></span> +<span>'Honord Sir,<br /></span> +<span>'I want to let ye know the terible state we're in now. Al<br /></span> +<span>the pigs about here is dyin in showers. Send down a Vit at<br /></span> +<span>oncet.'<br /></span> +</div></div> +</div> + + + +<a name="Page_257"></a> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_X"></a><h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h4>GOVERNMENT WITH THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED.</h4> + + +<p>In the preceding chapter I attempted to give to the reader a rough +impression of the general purpose and miscellaneous functions of the new +Department. I described in some detail the constitution and powers of +the Council of Agriculture—a sort of Business Parliament—which +criticises our doings and elects representatives on our Boards; and of +the two Boards which, in addition to their advisory functions, possess +the power of the purse. I laid special stress upon the important part +these instruments of the popular will were intended to play as a link +between the people and the Department. I gave a similar description and +explanation of the Committees of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, +appointed by local representative bodies, by means of which the people +were brought into touch with the local as distinct from the central +work, and made responsible for its success. The details were necessarily +dull; and so also must be those which will now be required in order to +indicate the general nature and scope of the work for the accomplishment +of which all this machinery was designed. Yet I am not without <a name="Page_258"></a>hope +that even the general reader may find a deep human interest in the +practical endeavour of the humbler classes of my fellow-countrymen to +reconstruct their national life upon the solid foundation of honest +work.</p> + +<p>The Department has at the time of writing been in existence for three +years, the term of office, it will be remembered, of the Council of +Agriculture and of the two Boards. It would be unreasonable to expect in +so short a time any great achievement; but the understanding critic will +attach importance rather to the spirit in which the work was approached +than to the actual amount of work which was accomplished. He may say +that no true estimate of its value can be formed until the enthusiasm +aroused by its novelty has had time to wear off. Those of us who know +the real character of the work are quite satisfied that the interest +which it aroused during the period in which the people had yet to grasp +its meaning and utility is not likely to become less real as the blossom +fades and the fruit begins to swell. The attitude of the Irish people +towards the Department and its work has not been that of a child towards +a new toy, but of a full-grown man towards a piece of his life's work, +upon which he feels that he entered all too late. Indeed, so quickly +have the people grasped the significance of the new opportunities for +material advancement now placed within their reach, that the Department +has had to carry out, and to assist the statutory local committees in +carrying out, a number and variety of schemes which, at any rate, proved +that <a name="Page_259"></a>public opinion did not regard it as a transitory experiment; but +as a much-needed institution which, if properly utilised, might do much +to make up for lost time, and which, in any case, had come to stay. The +amount of the work which we were thus constrained to undertake was +somewhat embarrassing; but so general and so genuine was the desire to +make a start that we have done our best to keep pace with the local +demands for immediate action. The staff of the Department caught the +spirit in which the task had been set by the country, and showed a keen +anxiety to get to work; and I am glad to have an opportunity of +acknowledging that both the indoor and outdoor support it has received +leaves the Department without excuse if it has not already justified its +existence.</p> + +<p>I shall deal as mercifully as I can with my readers in helping them +towards an understanding of what has been actually done in the three +years under review. I am aware that if I were to attempt a description +of all the schemes which the variety of local needs suggested, and in +the execution of which the assistance of the many-sided Department was +sought and obtained, I should lose the patient readers, who have not +already fainted by the way, in a jungle where they could not see the +wood for the trees. These things can be studied by those +interested,—and they I hope, in Ireland at any rate, are not few—in +the Annual Reports and other official publications of the Department. +For the general reader I must try to indicate in <a name="Page_260"></a>broad outline the +nature and scope of that side of the new movement which seeks to +supplement organised self-help and open the way for individual +enterprise by a well considered measure of State assistance. I shall be +more than satisfied if I succeed in giving him a clear insight into the +manner in which the delicate task of making State interference with the +business of the people not only harmless but beneficial has been set +about. It is obvious that the fulfilment of this object must depend upon +the soundness of the economic policy pursued, and upon the establishment +and maintenance of mutual confidence between the central authority and +the popular representative bodies through which the people utilise the +new facilities afforded by the State.</p> + +<p>I think the best way of giving the information which is required for an +understanding of our somewhat complicated scheme for agricultural and +industrial development under democratic control is first to explain the +line of demarcation which we have drawn between the respective functions +of the Department and the people's committees throughout the country; +and then I must give a rapid description of some of the most important +features of the Department's policy and programme. I shall add a +sufficiency of detail from the actual work accomplished in these +organising and experimental years, to illustrate both the difficulties +which are incidental to such a policy, and the manner in which these +difficulties may be surmounted.</p> + +<p>When it became manifest that both the country <a name="Page_261"></a>and the Department were +anxious to drive ahead, the first thing to do was to lay down a <i>modus +operandi</i> which would assign to the local and central bodies their +proper shares in the work and responsibilities and secure some degree of +order and uniformity in administration. This was quickly done, and the +plan adopted works smoothly. The Department gives the local committee +general information as to the kind of purpose to which it can legally +and properly apply the funds jointly contributed from the rates and the +central exchequer. The committee, after full consideration of the +conditions, needs and industrial environment of the community for which +it acts, selects certain definite projects which it considers most +applicable to its district, allocates the amount required to each +project, and sends the scheme to the Department for its approval. When +the scheme is formally approved, it becomes the official scheme in the +locality for the current year; and the local committee has to carry it +out.</p> + +<p>Although harmony now usually exists between the local and central +authorities to the advantage and comfort of both, a considerable amount +of friction was inevitable until they got to understand each other. The +occasional over-riding of local desires by the 'autocratic' Department, +which in the first rush of its work had to act in a somewhat peremptory +fashion, was, no doubt, irritating. Now, however, it is generally +recognised that the central body, having not only the advice of its +experts and access to information from similar Departments in other +<a name="Page_262"></a>countries to guide it, but also being in a position to profit by the +exchange of ideas which is constantly going on between it and all the +local committees in Ireland, is in a position of special advantage for +deciding as to the bearing of local schemes upon national interests, and +sometimes even as to their soundness from a purely local point of view.</p> + +<p>Passing now from the conditions under which the Department's work is +done, we come to review some typical portions of the work itself so far +as it has proceeded. This falls naturally, both as regards that which is +done by the central authority for the country at large and that which is +locally administered, into two divisions. The first consists of direct +aid to agriculture and other rural industries, and to sea and inland +fisheries. The second consists of indirect aid given to these objects, +and also to town manufactures and commerce, through education—a term +which must be interpreted in its widest sense. Needless to say, direct +aids, being tangible and immediately beneficial, are the more popular: a +bull, a boat, or a hand-loom is more readily appreciated than a lecture, +a leaflet, or an idea. Yet in the Department we all realise—and, what +is more important, the people are coming to realise—that by far the +most important work we have to do is that which belongs to the sphere of +education, especially education which has a distinctly practical aim. To +this branch of the subject I shall, therefore, first direct the reader's +attention.</p><a name="Page_263"></a> + +<p>It must be remembered that, for reasons fully set out in the earlier +portions of the book, I am treating the Irish Question as being, in its +most important economic and social aspects, the problem of rural life. +The Department's scheme of technical instruction, therefore, need not +here be detailed in its application to the needs of our few +manufacturing towns, but only in its application to agriculture and the +subsidiary industries. I do not suggest that the questions relating to +the revival of industry in our large manufacturing centres and +provincial towns are not of the first importance. The local authorities +in these places have eagerly come into the movement, and the Department +has already taken part in founding, in our cities and larger towns, +comprehensive schemes of technical education, as to the outcome of which +we have every reason to be hopeful. Not only that, but it is highly +necessary for the Department to consider these schemes in close relation +to its work upon the more specially rural problems, for, as I have said +elsewhere,<a name="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48"><sup>[48]</sup></a> the interdependence of town and country, and the +establishment of proper relations between their systems of industry and +education, is a prime factor in Irish prosperity. But the rural problem, +as I have so often reiterated, is the core of the Irish Question; and to +deal at all adequately with technical education, so far as we carry it +on upon lines common both to Great Britain and Ireland, would lead us +too far afield on the present occasion. I must, therefore, con<a name="Page_264"></a>tent +myself with indicating my reasons for leaving it rather on one side, and +pass on to a brief description of the Department's educational work in +respect of its two-fold aim of developing agriculture and the subsidiary +industries.</p> + +<p>In the case of agriculture our task is perfectly plain. We know pretty +well what we want to do, for we are dealing with an existing industry, +and with known conditions. The productivity of the soil, the demand of +the market, the means of transport from the one to the other, are all +easily ascertainable. What most needs to be provided in Ireland is a +much higher technical skill, a more advanced scientific and commercial +knowledge, as applied to agricultural production and distribution.<a name="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49"><sup>[49]</sup></a> +This, in our belief, depends, more than upon any other agency, upon the +soundness of the education which is provided to develop the capacities +of those in charge of these operations. Our chief difficulty is that of +co-ordinating our teaching of technical agriculture with the general +educational systems of the country—a difficulty which the other +educational authorities are all united with us in seeking to remove.</p> + +<p>When, on the other hand, education—again, I believe, the chief agency +for the purpose—is considered as a means for the creation of new +industries, we come face to face with a wholly different problem. We +have no <a name="Page_265"></a>longer an industry which we are seeking to foster and develop +going on under our eyes, steadying us in our theorising, and in our +experimenting upon the mind of the worker, by bringing us into close +touch with the actual conditions of his work. Our chief aim must be to +develop his adaptability for the ever-changing and, we hope, improving +economic industrial conditions amidst which he will have to work. But +unless we can satisfy parents that the schemes of development in which +their children are being educated to take their place have an assured +prospect of practical realisation, they will naturally prefer an +inferior teaching which seems to them to offer a better prospect of an +immediate wage or salary. The teachers in the secondary schools of the +country, who, so far, have shown a desire to assist us in giving an +industrial and commercial direction to our educational policy, would +also in that event have to meet the wishes of the parents; and thus +education would fall back into the old rut with its cramming, its +examinations and result fees—all leading to the multiplication of +clerks and professional men, and preventing us from turning the thoughts +and energies of the people towards productive occupations.</p> + +<p>The natural trend of our educational policy will now be clear. Leaving +out of account large towns, where our problem is, as I have said, the +same as that which confronts the industrial classes in the manufacturing +centres of Great Britain, we are chiefly concerned with the application +of science to the cultivation of the soil and <a name="Page_266"></a>the improvement of live +stock, and of business principles to the commercial side of farming; +with the teaching of dairying, horticulture, apiculture, and what has +been called farm-yard lore, outside the rural home, and with domestic +economy inside. On the industrial as distinct from the agricultural side +of the work in rural localities, technical instruction must be directed +towards the development of subsidiary rural industries.</p> + +<p>We early came to the conclusion that we could not expect to find a +system which we could simply transplant from some other country. The +system adopted in Great Britain, where each county or group of counties +maintains an agricultural college and an experimental farm, and many +more elaborate systems on the continent, were all found on examination +to be inapplicable to our own rural conditions, unsuitable to the +national character, and unrelated to the history of our agriculture. +Many of these schemes might have turned out a few highly qualified +authorities on the theory of agriculture, and even good practical +directors for those who farm on a large scale. But we are dealing with a +country with great possibilities from an agricultural point of view, but +where, nevertheless, agriculture in many parts is in a very backward +condition, and where it is probably safe to say that three-fifths of the +farms are crowded on one-fourth of the land. We are dealing with a +community with whom the systems of elementary, secondary and higher +education have not tended to prepare the student for agricultural +pursuits. A system <a name="Page_267"></a>of agricultural and domestic education suited to the +wants of those who are to farm the land must recognise and foster the +new spirit of self-help and hope which is springing up in the country, +and must be made so interesting as to become a serious rival to the race +meeting and the public-house. The daily drudgery of farm work must be +counteracted by the ambition to possess the best stock, the neatest +homestead and fences, the cleanest and the best tilled fields. The +unsolved problem of agricultural education is to devise a system which +will reach down to the small working farmers who form the great bulk of +the wealth producers of Ireland, to give them new hope, a new interest, +new knowledge and, I might add, a new industrial character.</p> + +<p>We were met at the outset by the difficulty which would apply to any +system—that of finding trained teachers. This deficiency was felt in +two directions—first, in the secondary school, in which the preliminary +scientific studies should be undertaken, which are necessary to enable a +lad to profit by more advanced instruction later on; and, secondly, in +the special training of technical agriculture. It would not have been +desirable to overcome these difficulties by any very extensive +importation of teachers from without. I certainly hold the occasional +importation of teachers with outside experience to be most desirable, +but these should not form more than a leaven of the pedagogic lump; for +it is a serious hindrance when to the task of familiarising <a name="Page_268"></a>students +with a new system of education there is added that of familiarising a +large body of teachers with the intellectual, social and economic +conditions of the people among whom they are to work.</p> + +<p>The manner in which the teacher difficulty was surmounted may be briefly +stated, first, as regards the school, and, secondly, as regards the +teaching of agriculture. Those already engaged in the teaching +profession could not be relegated again to the <i>status pupillaris</i>. +There was only one way in which they could assist us to overcome the +difficulty, and that involved a great sacrifice on their part, the +sacrifice of their well-earned vacation, but a sacrifice which they +willingly made. The teachers most urgently needed were those of +practical science, with knowledge of experimental work; and about five +hundred teachers from secondary schools, in order to qualify themselves, +have attended summer courses specially organised by the Department at +several centres in Ireland, while about four hundred have availed +themselves of special summer courses in such subjects as drawing, manual +instruction, domestic economy, building construction, wood-carving and +modelling.</p> + +<p>For the provision of a future supply of thoroughly trained teachers of +science and of technology, including agriculture, the Royal College of +Science has been re-organised. Although this institution was brought +under the new conditions little more than three years ago, it will be +seen that no time has been lost when I state that the first batch of men +who have received a three <a name="Page_269"></a>years' course of training under the new +programme are already at work under County Committees. For the training +of these teachers, scholarships had to be provided, and new professors +and teachers, particularly in agriculture, had to be appointed.</p> + +<p>In regard to agricultural instruction we had to begin by carefully +considering what, among many alternative plans, should be our immediate +as well as our more remote aims. The Department's officers had studied +Continental systems, and some of them had taken part in establishing +systems of agricultural education in Great Britain. But it was not until +the summer of 1901 that we had sufficiently studied the question in +Ireland itself, with direct reference to the history, the environment, +and the ideals of the people, to justify us in initiating a policy or +formulating a definite programme for its execution.<a name="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50"><sup>[50]</sup></a> The main object +was to secure for the youth of the present generation who will later be +concerned with agriculture, sound and thorough instruction in its +principles and practice. Everyone who has given any thought to the +subject knows how difficult it is to teach technical agriculture unless +provision has been made in the general education of the country for +instruction in those fundamental principles of science which, recognised +or unrecognised, lie at the root of, and profoundly influence +agricultural practice. This foundation, as I have shown, is now being +<a name="Page_270"></a>laid in Ireland. In our scheme the boy who has managed to avail himself +of a two or three years' course of practical science in one of the +secondary schools is then prepared to take full advantage of courses of +technology, and will have to make up his mind as to the career he is to +follow. We are now considering the case of a boy who is going to become +a farmer, the class to which we chiefly look for the future well-being +of Ireland. It is necessary that he should be taught the practical as +well as the technical side of agriculture. The practical work he can +learn upon his father's farm during spring and summer, and the technical +by continuing his studies during the winter months in a school of +agriculture. The establishment of such winter schools is in +contemplation. But, in the meanwhile, to bring home to farmers the +advantages of a first-class agricultural education for their sons, and +at the same time to teach these farmers the more practical application +of science to agriculture, the Department decided on a preliminary +period of Itinerant Instruction.</p> + +<p>The teacher difficulty, experienced on all sides of our work, was +probably felt more acutely in regard to the specialised teachers of +agriculture than in any other connection. Here it was necessary to take +the young men brought up upon farms and possessed of the normal +qualifications of the Irish practical farmer. We then had to make them +into teachers by adding to their inherited and home-manufactured +capacities a scientific training. In the training of agricultural +teachers the Albert<a name="Page_271"></a> Institute, Glasnevin, has been utilised by the +Department. This school has also been re-organised to meet the new +programme, and it will probably form in future a link between the winter +schools of agriculture and the Royal College of Science in the training +of our agricultural teachers.</p> + +<p>Partly by these methods, partly by the temporary engagement of lecturers +on special subjects, and partly by the appointment of trained teachers +from England or Scotland, the system of itinerant instruction has been +brought into operation as fully as could be expected in the time. +Already half the County Committees have been provided with County +instructors, while the remainder have nearly all drafted schemes and +allocated funds for a similar purpose, ready to go to work as soon as +more teachers have been trained.</p> + +<p>The Itinerant Instruction scheme, it may be pointed out, besides one +obvious, has another less immediately recognisable purpose. The direct +business of the itinerant instructor is, by the aid of experimental +plots, simple lectures, and demonstrations, to teach the farmers of his +district as much as they can take in without the scientific preparation +in which, as adults who have grown up under the old system of education, +they are still lacking. But he does more than that. He not only conducts +a school for adults, but in the very process of instruction he +necessarily makes them aware of the vital necessity of a school for the +young; and they begin, as parents, to understand and to desire the kind +of instruction in the <a name="Page_272"></a>schools of the country which will prepare their +children to take more advantage of the advanced teaching in agriculture +than they themselves can ever hope to do.</p> + +<p>This preparation is provided for as follows. To the Department, as has +already been explained, was handed over the administration of the +Science and Art Grants formerly administered by South Kensington. The +Department accordingly drew up a programme of experimental science and +drawing, carrying capitation grants, for day secondary schools. The +Intermediate Education Board, acting on the suggestion of the +Consultative Committee for Co-ordinating Education,<a name="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51"><sup>[51]</sup></a> adopted this +programme and at the same time undertook to accept the reports of the +Department's inspectors as the basis of their awards in the new +"subject." These steps insured the rapid and general introduction of +this practical teaching in secondary schools, and, owing particularly to +the spirit in which their authorities and teaching staffs accepted the +innovation, the work has been carried out with the happiest results.</p> + +<p>I now come to the subjects grouped together under the classification of +'domestic economy.' These differ only in detail in their application to +town and country. To these subjects the Department attaches great +importance. In the industrial life of manufacturing towns I am persuaded +that far too little thought has been given to this element of industrial +efficiency. From a purely economic point of view a <a name="Page_273"></a>saving in the +worker's income due to superior housewifery is equivalent to an increase +in his earnings; but, morally, the superior thrift is, of course, +immensely more important. "Without economy," says Dr. Johnson, "none can +be rich, and with it few can be poor," and the education which only +increases the productiveness of labour and neglects the principles of +wise spending will place us at a disadvantage in the great industrial +struggle. When we come to consider domestic economy as an agency for +improving the conditions of the peasant home, not only by thrift, but by +increasing the general attractiveness of home life, the introduction of +a sound system of domestic economy teaching becomes not only important, +but vital.</p> + +<p>The establishment of such a system and the task of making it operative +and effective in the country is beset with difficulties. The teacher +difficulty confronts us again, and also that of making pupils and their +parents understand that there are other objects in domestic training +than that of qualifying for domestic service. A corps of instructresses +in domestic economy is, however, already abroad throughout the country, +nearly all the County Councils having already appointed them. Some of +these teachers, who have made the best contributions towards the as yet +only partially determined question of the ultimate aim and present +possibilities of a course of instruction in hygiene, laundry work, +cookery, the management of children, sewing, and so forth, have told me +that the demand <a name="Page_274"></a>in rural districts seems to be chiefly for the class of +instruction which may lead to success in town life. I have heard of a +class of girls in a Connaught village who would not be content with +knowing the accomplishments of a farmer's wife until they had learned +how to make asparagus soup and cook sweetbreads. No doubt they had read +of the way things are done in the kitchens of the great. This tendency +should never be encouraged, but neither can it always be inflexibly +repressed without endangering the main objects of the class.</p> + +<p>Women teachers of poultry-keeping, dairying, domestic science and +kindred subjects are trained at the Munster Institute, Cork, and the +School of Domestic Economy, Kildare Street, Dublin, both of which have +been equipped to meet the needs of the new programme. The want of +teachers, and not any lack of interest on the part of the country, has +alone prevented all the counties from adopting schemes for encouraging +improvement in all these branches of work. I may add that more than one +hundred and fifty of these qualified teachers are now at work under +County Committees.</p> + +<p>I have already, in this chapter, indicated that outside large industrial +centres, our educational policy is, broadly speaking, twofold. We seek, +in the first place, through our programme in Experimental Science and +its allied subjects, now so generally adopted by secondary schools in +Ireland, to give that fundamental training in science and scientific +method which, most thinkers are agreed, constitutes a condition +precedent to sound specialised <a name="Page_275"></a>teaching of agriculture as well as other +forms of industry. We seek further, by methods less academic in +character—for example, by itinerant instruction which is of value +chiefly to those with whom 'school' is a thing of the past—to teach not +only improved agricultural methods but also simple industries, and to +promote the cultivation of industrial habits which are as essential to +the success of farming as to that of every other occupation. Classes in +manual work of various kinds—woodwork, carpentry, applied drawing and +building construction, lace and crochet making, needlework, dressmaking +and embroidery, sprigging, hosiery and other such subjects, have been +numerously and steadily attended.</p> + +<p>I do not ignore the argument that such home industries must in time give +way before the competition of highly-organised factory industries. The +simple answer is that it is desirable, and indeed necessary, to employ +the energy now running to waste in our rural districts—energy which +cannot in the nature of things be employed in highly-organised +industries. To the small farmer and his family, time is a realisable, +though too often unrealised, asset, and it is part of our aim to aid the +family income by employing their waste time. Even if we can only cause +them to do at home what they now pay someone else to do, we shall not +only have improved their budget but shall have contributed to the +elevation of the standard of home life, and thus, in no small measure, +to the solution of the difficult problem of rural life in Ireland.</p><a name="Page_276"></a> + +<p>I think the reader will now understand the general character of the +problem with which we were confronted and the means by which its +solution is being sought. Our policy was not one which was likely to +commend itself to the "man in the street." Indeed, to be quite candid, +it was a little disappointing even to myself that I could not +immortalise my appointment by erecting monuments both to my constructive +ability and to my educational zeal in the shape of stately edifices at +convenient railway centres, preferably along the tourist routes. We have +had to stand the fire of the critic fresh from his holiday on the +Continent where he had seen agricultural and technological institutions, +magnificently housed and lavishly equipped, fitting generations of young +men and young women for competition with our less fortunate countrymen. +It is hard to prevail in argument against the man who has gone and seen +for himself. It is useless to point out to the man with a kodak that the +Corinthian façade and the marble columns of the <i>aula maxima</i> which +aroused his patriotic envy are but a small part of the educational +structure which he saw and thought he understood. If he would read the +history of the systems and trace the successive stages by which the need +for these great institutions was established, he would have a little +more sympathy with the difficulties of the Department, a little more +patience with its Fabian policy.</p> + +<p>I must not, however, utter a word which suggests that the Department has +any ground of complaint against the <a name="Page_277"></a>country for the spirit in which it +has been met; especially as there was one factor to be taken into +account which made it difficult for public opinion to approve of our +policy. As I have already explained, a large capital sum of a little +over £200,000 was handed over to the Department at its creation. During +the first year, what with the organisation of the staff, the thinking +out of a policy on every side of the Department's work, the constitution +of the statutory committees to administer its local schemes in town and +country, the agreement, after long discussion, between the central body +and these committees upon the local schemes, and all the other +preparatory steps which had to be taken before money could wisely be +applied, it is obvious that the Department could not have spent its +income. In the second year, and even the third year, savings were +effected, and the original capital sum has been largely increased. What +more natural than that in a poor country a spending Department which was +backward in spending should appear to be lacking in enterprise, if not +in administrative capacity? But whether the policy was right or wrong it +has unquestionably been approved by the best thought in the country, a +fact which throws a very interesting light upon the constitutional +aspects of the Department. At each successive stage the policy was +discussed at the Council of Agriculture and its practical operation was +dependent upon the consent of the Boards which have the power of the +purse. A Vice-President who had not these bodies at his back would be +powerless, in fact would have to <a name="Page_278"></a>resign. Thoughtless criticism has now +and again condemned not only the parsimonious action of the Department, +but the invertebrate conduct of the Council of Agriculture and the +Boards in tolerating it. The time will soon come when the service +rendered to their country by the members of the first Council and +Boards, who gave their representative backing to a slow but sure +educational policy, and scorned to seek popularity in showy projects and +local doles, will be gratefully remembered to them.</p> + +<p>Already we have had some gratifying evidences that the country is with +us in the paramount importance we attach to education as the real need +of the hour. Most readers will be surprised to hear that in the short +time the Department has been at work it has aided in the equipment of +nearly two hundred science laboratories and of about fifty manual +instruction workshops, while the many-sided programme involved in the +movement as a whole is in operation in some four hundred schools +attended by thirty-six thousand pupils.</p> + +<p>Nothing can be more gratifying than the unanimous testimony of the +officers of the Department to the increasing practical intelligence and +reasonableness of the numerous Committees responsible for the local +administration of the schemes which the Department has to approve of and +supervise. The demand for visible money's worth has largely given place +to a genuine desire for schemes having a practical educational value for +the industry of the district. County<a name="Page_279"></a> Clare is not generally considered +the most advanced part of Ireland, nor can Kilrush be very far distant +from 'the back of Godspeed'; yet even from that storm-battered outpost +of Irish ideas I was memorialised a year ago to induce the County +Council to pay less attention to the improvement of cattle and more to +the technical education of the peasantry.</p> + +<p>Under the heading of direct aids to agriculture, rural industries, and +sea and inland fisheries, there is much important and useful work which +the Department has set in motion, partly by the use of its funds and +partly by suggestion and the organisation of local effort. The most +obvious, popular and easily understood schemes were those directed to +the improvement of live stock. The Department exercised its supervision +and control with the help of advisory committees composed of the best +experts it could get to volunteer advice upon the various classes of +live stock. It is unnecessary to give any details of these schemes. The +Department profited by the experience of, and received considerable +assistance from the Royal Dublin Society, which had for many years +administered a Government grant for the improvement of horses and +cattle. The broad principle adopted by the Department was that its +efforts and its available resources should be devoted rather to +improving the quality, than to increasing the quantity, of the stock in +the country, the latter function being regarded as belonging to the +region of private enterprise.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_280"></a>It is impossible to over-estimate the importance to the country of +having a widespread interest aroused and discussion stimulated on +problems of breeding which affect a trade of vast importance to the +economic standing of the country—a trade which now reaches in horned +cattle alone an annual export of nearly three quarters of a million +animals. All manner of practical discussions were set on foot, ranging +from the production of the ideal, the general purposes cow, to that +controversy which competes, in the virulence with which it is waged, +with the political, the educational, and the fiscal questions—the +question whether the hackney strain will bring a new era of prosperity +to Ireland, or whether it will irretrievably destroy the reputation of +the Irish hunter. The discussion of these problems has been accompanied +by much practical work which, in due time, cannot fail to produce a +considerable improvement upon the breed of different classes of live +stock. In one year over one thousand sires have been selected by the +experts of the Department for admission to the stock improvement +schemes. Probably an equal number of breeding animals offered for +inspection have been rejected. Many a <i>cause celèbre</i> has not +unnaturally arisen over the decisions of the equestrian tribunal, and +there have not been wanting threats that the attention of Parliament +should be called to the gross partiality of the Department which has +cast a reflection upon the form of stallion A or upon the constitutional +soundness of stallion B. On the whole, as far as I can gather, the best +authorities in the country <a name="Page_281"></a>are agreed that since the Department has +been at work there has been established a higher standard of excellence +in the bucolic mind as regards that vastly important national asset, our +flocks and herds.</p> + +<p>Again for details I must refer the reader to official documents. There +he will find as much information as he can digest about the vast variety +of agricultural activities which originate sometimes with the +Department's officers or with its <i>Journal</i> and leaflets, the +circulation of which has no longer to be stimulated from our Statistics +and Intelligence bureau, and sometimes emanate from the local +committees, whose growing interest in the work naturally leads to the +discovery of fresh needs and hitherto unthought of possibilities of +agricultural and industrial improvement. I may, however, indicate a few +of the subjects which have been gone into even in these years while the +new Department has been trying so far as it might, without sacrifice of +efficiency and sound economic principle, to keep pace with the feverish +anxiety of a genuinely interested people to get to work upon schemes +which they believe to be practical, sound, and of permanent utility.</p> + +<p>A question which has troubled administrators of State aid to every +progressive agricultural community, and which each country must settle +for itself, is by what form of object lesson in ordinary agriculture +intelligent local interest can best be aroused We have advocated widely +diffused small experimental plots, and they have done much good. +Probably the most useful <a name="Page_282"></a>of our crop improvement schemes have been +those which have demonstrated the profitableness of artificial manures, +the use of which has been enormously increased. The profits derivable in +many parts of Ireland from the cultivation of early potatoes has been +demonstrated in the most convincing manner. To what may be called the +industrial crops, notably flax and barley, a great deal of time and +thought has been applied and much information disseminated and +illustrated by practical experiments. In many quarters interest has been +aroused in the possibilities of profitable tobacco culture. Many +negative and some positive results have been attained by the Department +in the as yet incomplete experiments upon this crop. Much has been +learned about the functions of central and local agricultural and small +industry shows, those occasional aids to the year's work which +disseminate knowledge and stimulate interest and friendly rivalry among +the different producers. The reduction in the death-rate among young +stock, due to preventible causes such as white scour and blackleg, is +well worthy of the attention of those who wish to study the more +practical work of the Department.</p> + +<p>The branch of the Department's work which deals with the Sea-fisheries +can only be very briefly touched on. It falls into two main heads which +may roughly be termed the administrative and the scientific; the latter, +of course, having economic developments as its ultimate object. The +issue of loans to fishermen for the purchase of boats and gear, +contributing to the cost of fishery <a name="Page_283"></a>slips and piers, circulating +telegraphic intelligence, the making of by-laws for the regulation of +the fisheries, the patrolling of the Irish fishing grounds to prevent +illegalities, and the attempts which are being made to develop the +valuable Irish oyster fishery by the introduction, with modifications +suited to our own seaboard, of a system of culture comparable to those +which are pursued with success in France and Norway, may be mentioned as +falling under the more directly economic branch of our activities. Irish +oysters are already attaining considerable celebrity, owing to the +distance of our oyster beds from contaminating influences; and it is +hoped that when the Department's experiments are complete the Irish +oyster will be made subject to direct control for all its life, until it +is despatched to market. Attention is also being given to the relative +value of seed oysters, other than native, for relaying on Irish beds.</p> + +<p>On the more directly scientific side, the Department has undertaken the +survey of the trawling grounds around the coast to obtain an exact +knowledge of the movements of the marketable fish at different times of +their life, so that we may be guided in making by-laws and regulations +by a full knowledge of the times and places at which protection is +necessary. The biological and physical conditions of the western seas +are also being studied in special reference to the mackerel fishery, +with the object of correlating certain readily observable phenomena with +the movements of the fish, and so of <a name="Page_284"></a>predicting the probable success of +a fishery in a particular season. The routine observations of the +Department's fishery cruiser have been so arranged as to synchronise +with those of other nations, in order to assist the international scheme +of investigation now in progress, wherever its objects and those of the +Department are the same. While these various practical projects have +been in operation, we have done our best to keep abreast of the times by +sending missions to other countries, consisting of an expert accompanied +by practical Irishmen who would bring home information which was +applicable to the conditions of our own country. The first batch of +itinerant instructors in agriculture, whose training for the important +work of laying the foundations for our whole scheme of agricultural +instruction I have referred to, were taken on a continental tour by the +Professor of Agriculture at the Royal College of Science, in order to +give special advantages to a portion of our outdoor staff upon the +success of whose work the rate of our progress in agricultural +development might largely depend. And not only have we in our first +three years gleaned as much information as possible by sending qualified +Irishmen to study abroad the industries in which we were particularly +interested, but we also took steps to give the mass of our people at +home an opportunity of studying these industries for themselves. With +the somewhat unique experiment carried out for this object, I will +conclude the story of the new Department's activities in its early +years.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_285"></a>The part we took at the Cork Exhibition of 1902 was well understood in +Ireland, but not perhaps elsewhere. We secured a large space both in the +main Industrial Hall and in the grounds, and gave an illustration not of +what Ireland had done, but of what, in our opinion, the country might +achieve in the way of agricultural and industrial development in the +near future. Exhibiting on the one hand our available resources in the +way of raw material, we gave, on the other hand, demonstrations of a +large number of industries in actual operation. These exhibits, imported +with their workers, machinery and tools, from several European countries +and from Great Britain, all belonged to some class of industry which, in +our belief, was capable of successful development in Ireland. In the +indoor part of the exhibit there was nothing very original, except +perhaps in its close relation to the work of a government department. +But what attracted by far the greatest interest and attention was a +series of object lessons in many phases of farm activities, where, in +our opinion, great and immediate improvements might be made. Here were +to be seen varieties of crops under various systems of treatment, +demonstrations of sheep-dipping, calf-rearing on different foods, +illustrations of the different breeds of fowl and systems of poultry +management, model buildings and gardens for farmer and labourer; while +in separate buildings the drying and pressing of fruit and vegetables, +the manufacture of butter and cheese, and a very comprehensive <a name="Page_286"></a>forestry +exhibit enabled our visitors to combine profitable suggestion with, if I +may judge from my frequent opportunities of observing the sightseers in +whom I was particularly interested, the keenest enjoyment.</p> + +<p>We kept at the Exhibition, for six months, a staff of competent experts, +whose instructions were to give to all-comers this simple lesson. They +were to bring home to our people that, here in Ireland before their very +eyes, there were industries being carried on by foreigners, by +Englishmen, by Scotchmen, and in some instances by Irishmen, but in all +cases by men and women who had no advantage over our workers except that +they had the technical training which it was the desire of the +Department to give to the workers of Ireland. The officials of the +Department entered into the spirit of this scheme enthusiastically and +cheerfully, some of them, in addition to their ordinary work, turning +the office into a tourist agency for these busy months. With the +generous help of the railway companies they organised parties of +farmers, artisans, school teachers, members of the statutory committees, +and, in fact, of all to whom it was of importance to give this object +lesson upon the relations between practical education and the promotion +of industry. Nearly 100,000 persons were thus moved to Cork and back +before the Exhibition closed—an achievement largely due to the +assistance given by the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society and the +clergy throughout the country.</p> + +<p>This experiment, both in its conception and in its <a name="Page_287"></a>results, was perhaps +unique. There were not wanting critics of the new Department who stood +aghast at so large an expenditure upon temporary edifices and a passing +show; but those who are in touch with its educational work know that +this novel application of State assistance fulfilled its purpose. It +helped substantially to generate a belief in, and stimulate a demand +for, technical instruction which it will take us many years adequately +to supply.</p> + +<p>An American visitor who, as I afterwards learned, takes an active part +in the discussion of the rural problems of his own country, disembarked +at Queenstown in order to 'take in' the Cork Exhibition. In his rush +through Dublin he 'took in' the Department and the writer. 'Mr. +Vice-President,' he said, before the hand-shaking was completed, 'I have +visited all the great Expositions held in my time. I have been to the +Cork Exposition. I often saw more things, but never more ideas.'</p> + +<p>With this characteristically rapid appreciation of a movement which +seeks to turn Irish thought to action, my strange visitor vanished as +suddenly as he came.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Those whose sympathy with Ireland has induced them to persevere through +the mass of details with which this story of small beginnings is pieced +together may wonder why the bearing of hopeful efforts for bringing +prosperity and contentment to Ireland upon the mental attitude of +millions of Irishmen scattered throughout the British<a name="Page_288"></a> Empire and the +United States, and so upon the lives of the countries in which they have +made their homes, is apparently ignored. I fully recognise the vast +importance of the subject. A book dealing comprehensively with the +actual and potential influence of Irish intellect upon English politics +at home, and upon the politics of the United States, a carefully +reasoned estimate of the part which Irish intellect is qualified, and +which I firmly believe it is destined, to play wherever the civilisation +of the world is to be under the control of the English-speaking +peoples—more especially where these peoples govern races which speak +other tongues and see through other eyes—a clear and striking +exposition of the true relation between the small affairs of the small +island and that greater Ireland which takes its inspiration from the +sorrows, the passions, the endeavours, and the hopes of those who stick +to the old home—such a book would possess a deep human interest, and +would make a high and wide appeal. Nevertheless, I feel that at the +present time the most urgent need, from every point of view on which I +have touched, is to focus the thought available for the Irish Question +upon the definite work of a reconstruction of Irish life.</p> + +<p>Such is the purpose of this book. I do not wish to attach any +exaggerated importance to the scheme of social and economic reform of +which I have attempted to give a faithful account; nor is it in their +practical achievement, be it great or small, that the initiators <a name="Page_289"></a>and +organisers of the new movement take most pride. What these Irishmen are +proud of is the manner in which the people have responded to their +efforts to bring Irish sentiment into an intimate and helpful relation +with Irish economic problems. They had to reckon with that greatest of +hindrances to the spirit of enterprise, a rooted belief in the +potentiality of government to bring material prosperity to our doors. As +I have pointed out, the practical demonstration which Ireland had +received of the power of government to inflict lasting economic injury +gave rise to this belief; and I have noted the present influences to +which it seems to owe its continuance until to-day. I believe that, if +any enduring interest attaches to the story which I have told, it will +consist in the successive steps by which this initial difficulty has +been overcome.</p> + +<p>Let me summarise in a few words what has been, so far, actually +accomplished. Those who did the work of which I have written first +launched upon Irish life a scheme of organised self-help which, perhaps +more by good luck than design, proved to be in accordance with the +inherited instincts of the people, and, therefore, moved them to action. +Next they called for, and in due season obtained, a department of +government with adequate powers and means to aid in developing the +resources of the country, so far as this end could be attained without +transgressing the limits of beneficial State interference with the +business of the people. In its constitution this department was so +linked with the representative insti<a name="Page_290"></a>tutions of the country that the +people soon began to feel that they largely controlled its policy and +were responsible for its success. Meanwhile, the progress of economic +thought in the country had made such rapid strides that, in the +administration of State assistance, the principle of self-help could be +rigidly insisted upon and was willingly submitted to. The result is that +a situation has been created which is as gratifying as it may appear to +be paradoxical. Within the scope and sphere of the movement the Irish +people are now, without any sacrifice of industrial character, combining +reliance upon government with reliance upon themselves.</p> + +<p>That a movement thus conceived should so rapidly have overcome its +initial difficulties and should, I might almost add, have passed beyond +the experimental stage, will suggest to any thoughtful reader that above +and beyond the removal by legislation of obstacles to progress—and much +has been accomplished in this way of recent years—there must have been +new, positive influences at work upon the national mind. These will be +found in the growing recognition of the fact that the path of progress +lies along distinctively Irish lines, and that otherwise it will not be +trodden by the Irish people. Much good in the same direction has been +done, too, by the generous and authoritative admission by England that +the future development of Ireland should be assisted and promoted 'with +a full and constant regard to the special traditions of the +country.'<a name="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52"><sup>[52]</sup></a> But <a name="Page_291"></a>after all, while these concessions to Irish +sentiment, vitally important though they be, may speed us on our road to +national regeneration, they will not take us far. It remains for us +Irishmen to realise—and the chief value of all the work I have +described consists in the degree in which it forces us to realise—the +responsibility which now rests with ourselves. We have been too long a +prey to that deep delusion, which, because the ills of the country we +love were in past days largely caused from without, bids us look to the +same source for their cure. The true remedies are to be sought +elsewhere; for, however disastrous may have been the past, the injury +was moral rather than material, and the opportunity has now arrived for +the patient building up again of Irish character in those qualities +which win in the modern struggle for existence. The field for that great +work is clear of at least the worst of its many historic encumbrances. +Ireland must be re-created from within. The main work must be done in +Ireland, and the centre of interest must be Ireland. When Irishmen +realise this truth, the splendid human power of their country, so much +of which now runs idly or disastrously to waste, will be utilised; and +we may then look with confidence for the foundation of a fabric of Irish +prosperity, framed in constructive thought, and laid enduringly in human +character.</p> + +<p><b>THE END</b>.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48">[48]</a><div class="note"><p> Pages 38, 39.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49">[49]</a><div class="note"><p> It must be borne in mind that the Department is not +officially concerned with the question of the economic distribution of +land referred to on pp. 46-49.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50">[50]</a><div class="note"><p> For a full description of the Department's scheme of +agricultural education I may refer to a <i>Memorandum on Agricultural +Education in Ireland,</i> written by the author and published by the +Department, July, 1901.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51">[51]</a><div class="note"><p> See <i>ante</i>, pp. 236-238.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52">[52]</a><div class="note"><p> Speech of the Lord Lieutenant to the Incorporated Law +Society, November 20th, 1902. See also p. 170.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="INDEX"></a><h2>INDEX</h2> + +<ul><li>A.E. (George W. Russell) <a href='#Page_200'>200</a></li> +<li>Agitation as a policy, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a></li> +<li>Agricultural Board, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>, <i>seq</i>. <a href='#Page_269'>269</a></li> +<li>Agriculture:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Agricultural Holdings:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Improvement of, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Transfer of peasants to new farms, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a> <i>seq</i>.</li></ul></li> + +<li> Agricultural Organisation:</li> +<li><ul><li> Denmark, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a></li> +<li> Department of Agriculture and farmers' societies, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a></li> +<li> England, Mr. Hanbury's and Lord Onslow's views, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li> +<li> Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (see that title)</li> +<li> Societies <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a></li></ul></li> + +<li> Co-operation (see that title).</li> +<li> Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (see that title)</li> +<li> Depression in, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a></li> +<li> Education in relation to, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a> <i>seq</i>. <a href='#Page_269'>269</a></li> +<li> Exodus of Rural Population, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a></li> +<li> State-Aid, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a></li> +<li> Tillage, decrease of, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a></li> +<li>Albert Institute, Glasnevin, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a></li> +<li>Altruism, appeal to in co-operation, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a></li> +<li>America, Irish in: <a href='#Page_72'>72</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Causes of their success and failure, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Irish in American politics, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Loss of religion in, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Anderson, R.A.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Co-operative movement, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a></li> +<li> Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Andrews, Mr. Thomas:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Anti-English Sentiment:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Irish in America and, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a></li> +<li> Nature and cause, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Anti-Treating League, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a></li> +<li>Arnott, Sir John:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Art, modern ecclesiastical art in Ireland, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a></li> +<li>Association, economic, value of, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a></li> +<li>Associative qualities of the Irish, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Bacon Curing:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Denmark, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Bagot, Canon:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Creamery movement, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Balfour, Arthur:--<a href='#Page_168'>168</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Irish policy, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Balfour, Gerald:--<a href='#Page_243'>243</a>, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a></li> +<li> Local Government Act, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a></li> +<li> Policy of explained, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a></li> +<li> Recess Committee Proposals; Bill, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Banks, agricultural credit, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li>Barley Experiments of the Department of Agriculture, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a></li> +<li>Belfast Chamber of Commerce and Home Rule, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a></li> +<li>Berkeley, Bishop:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Irish priests, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a></li> +<li> On "Mending our state," <a href='#Page_6'>6</a></li> +<li> "Parties" and "politics," <a href='#Page_63'>63</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Bessborough Commission, tenants improvements, &c. <a href='#Page_22'>22</a></li> +<li>Board of National Education, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a></li> +<li>Board of Technical Instruction, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a> <i>seq</i>. <a href='#Page_257'>257</a></li> +<li>Bodley's _France_, Madame Darmesteter's review, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li> +<li>Boer war and the Irish attitude, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a></li> +<li>Bogs, utilisation of, <a href='#Page_249'>249</a></li> +<li>Boycotting, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a></li> +<li>Bright, John:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Peasant proprietorship, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Brooke, Stopford, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a></li> +<li>Buckle, personal factor in history, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a></li> +<li>Bulwer Lytton, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a></li> +<li>Burke, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a></li> +<li>Butt, Isaac, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a></li> +<li>Butter, Danish, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Cadogan, Lord, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a></li> +<li>Catholic Association, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a></li> +<li>Catholic Emancipation Act, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a></li> +<li>Catholic University (see University Question).</li> +<li>Celtic Race, Harold Frederic's opinion, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li>Character:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Associative qualities of the Irish, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a></li> +<li> Education and character, <a href='#Page_144'>144</a></li> +<li> Gaelic Revival, effect of on national character, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a></li> +<li> Industrial character, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a></li> +<li> Irish inefficiency a problem of character, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a></li> +<li> Irish question a problem of character, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a></li> +<li> Lack of initiative in Irish character, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a></li> +<li> Moral timidity of Irish character, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a></li> +<li> Prosperity of Ireland, to be founded on character, <a href='#Page_291'>291</a></li> +<li> Roman Catholicism and Irish character, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>-<a href='#Page_105'>105</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Chesterfield, Lord:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Education as the cause of difference in the character of men, <a href='#Page_144'>144</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Christian Brothers' Schools, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a></li> +<li>Christian Socialists, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li>Church-building in Ireland,. <a href='#Page_107'>107</a></li> +<li>Church Disestablishment Act, 1869,--Land Purchase Clauses, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a></li> +<li>Clan-System in Ireland, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a></li> +<li>Clergy, Roman Catholic:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Action and attitude towards questions of the day <a href='#Page_105'>105</a></li> +<li> Authority, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Moral influence, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a></li> +<li> Political influence, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a></li> +<li> Temperance reform, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>College of Science and Department of Agriculture, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a></li> +<li>Colonies, history of the Irish in, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li>Commercial Restrictions--effect of on Irish industrial character, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li>Con O'Neal forbids his posterity to build houses, etc., <a href='#Page_57'>57</a></li> +<li>Congested Districts Board:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Agricultural banks, loans to <a href='#Page_197'>197</a></li> +<li> Department of Agriculture and, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a></li> +<li> Land Act (1903) and, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a></li> +<li> Success of, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Convents and Monasteries, increase of, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a></li> +<li>Co-operative Movement:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Agricultural Banks, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Agricultural depression, cause of, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a></li> +<li> Altruism, appeal to, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a></li> +<li> Anderson, R.A., <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a></li> +<li> Associative qualities of Irish, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a></li> +<li> Beginnings, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a></li> +<li> Combination, necessity of, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a></li> +<li> Co-operative Union, Manchester, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li> Craig, Mr. E.T., and the Vandeleur Estate, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li> Creameries, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Denmark, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a></li> +<li> Educating adults, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a></li> +<li> English co-operation, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li> Finlay, Father Thomas, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li> +<li> Gaelic Revival and, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Gray, Mr. T.C., <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li> Holyoake, Mr., <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li> Hughes, Mr. Tom, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li> Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (see that title).</li> +<li> _Irish Homestead_, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a></li> +<li> Ludlow, Mr., <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li> Marum, Mr. Mulhallen, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a></li> +<li> Middlemen, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a></li> +<li> Monteagle, Lord, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li> Moral effects, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a></li> +<li> Neale, Mr. Vansittart, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li> Necessity of co-operation for small landholders, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Production and distribution problems, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a></li> +<li> Roman Catholic clergy and, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a></li> +<li> State-aid side, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a></li> +<li> Success, causes of <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a></li> +<li> Vandeleur estate community, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li> Village libraries, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a></li> +<li> Wolff, Mr. Henry W., <a href='#Page_199'>199</a></li> +<li> Yerburgh, Mr., <a href='#Page_199'>199</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Cork:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Exhibition, Department's Exhibit, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a> <i>seq</i>.</li></ul></li> + +<li>Craig, Mr. E.T.--</li> +<li><ul><li> Co-operative Movement <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Creameries, co-operative, beginnings, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li>Crop improvement schemes of the Department, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a></li> +<li>Council of Agriculture, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a> <i>seq</i>. <a href='#Page_257'>257</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Dairying Industry--Co-operation and, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li>Dane, Mr.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Darmesteter, Madame, _Syndicats agricoles_, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li> +<li>Davis, Thomas:--<a href='#Page_137'>137</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Political Methods, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Denmark:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Co-operation in, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a></li> +<li> High Schools, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction:-- <a href='#Page_60'>60</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a></li> +<li> Agricultural Board, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a> _seq._ <a href='#Page_257'>257</a></li> +<li> Agricultural education, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a> _seq._ <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a></li> +<li> Agricultural Organisation, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a></li> +<li> Albert Institute, Glasnevin, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a></li> +<li> Balfour, Gerald, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a></li> +<li> Board of Technical Instruction, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a> _seq._ <a href='#Page_257'>257</a></li> +<li> College of Science and, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a></li> +<li> Congested Districts Board and Department, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a></li> +<li> Consultative Committee for Co-ordinating Education, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a></li> +<li> Constitution, etc., <a href='#Page_228'>228</a></li> +<li> Co-operative movement and the benefits of organisation, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a></li> +<li> Cork Exhibition exhibit, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a> _seq._</li> +<li> Council of Agriculture, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a> _seq._ <a href='#Page_257'>257</a></li> +<li> Crop improvement schemes <a href='#Page_282'>282</a></li> +<li> Domestic economy teaching, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a></li> +<li> Early days' experiences, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a> _seq._</li> +<li> Educational policy, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a></li> +<li> Educational work, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a></li> +<li> Endowment, etc., <a href='#Page_231'>231</a></li> +<li> Home Industries, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a></li> +<li> Industrial education and industrial life, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a></li> +<li> Intermediate Education Board and, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a></li> +<li> Itinerant instruction, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a></li> +<li> Irish Agricultural Organisation Society and, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a></li> +<li> Live Stock Schemes, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a></li> +<li> Local Committees, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a></li> +<li> Local Government Act and work of Department, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a></li> +<li> Metropolitan School of Art <a href='#Page_230'>230</a></li> +<li> Munster Institute, Cork, and, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a></li> +<li> Parliamentary representation, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a></li> +<li> Powers, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a> _seq._</li> +<li> Provincial Committees, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a></li> +<li> Purposes, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a></li> +<li> Recess Committee's Recommendations, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a></li> +<li> Royal Dublin Society and, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a></li> +<li> Rural life improvement, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a></li> +<li> Sea Fisheries, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a></li> +<li> Staff, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a></li> +<li> Teachers, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a></li> +<li> Technical instruction, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>, _seq._, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a>, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a></li> +<li> Work already accomplished, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a> _seq._</li></ul></li> + +<li>Desmolins, M.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> English love of home, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Devon Commission, tenants'</li> +<li><ul><li> improvements, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Dineen, Rev. P.S.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Editor O'Rahilly's poems, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Dixon, Sir Daniel:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Domestic economy teaching, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a></li> +<li>Drink Evil:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Anti-Treating League, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a></li> +<li> Causes, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a></li> +<li> Roman Catholic Clergy's influence, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Dudley, Lord, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a></li> +<li>Dufferin, Lord:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Effect of commercial restrictions in Ireland, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Duffy, Sir C.G. <a href='#Page_77'>77</a></li> +<li>Dunraven Conference, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Economic system in England, individualism of, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a></li> +<li>Economic thought:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Influence of Roman Catholicism, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Lack of in Ireland, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a> <i>seq</i>.</li></ul></li> + +<li>Education:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Agricultural instruction, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a> 264 <i>seq</i>. <a href='#Page_269'>269</a></li> +<li> Board of National Education, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a></li> +<li> Christian Brothers, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a></li> +<li> Commissioners of National Education, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a></li> +<li> Consultative Committee for co-ordinating Education, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a></li> +<li> Continental methods, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a></li> +<li> Defects of present system, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a></li> +<li> Denmark High Schools, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a></li> +<li> Department of Agriculture's policy and work, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a></li> +<li> Economic, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a></li> +<li> Education Bill, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a></li> +<li> English education in Ireland, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a></li> +<li> Influence of on national life, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a></li> +<li> Industrial, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a></li> +<li> Intermediate Education system, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a></li> +<li> Irish education schemes, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Itinerant instruction, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a></li> +<li> Keenan, Sir Patrick, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a></li> +<li> Kildare Street Society, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a></li> +<li> Literary Education, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a></li> +<li> Lord Chesterfield on Education <a href='#Page_144'>144</a></li> +<li> Manual and Practical Instruction in Primary Schools, Commission, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a></li> +<li> Maynooth, influence of, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>-<a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a></li> +<li> Monastic and Conventual institutions, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a></li> +<li> National factor in national education, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a></li> +<li> Practical, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Reports of Commissions, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a></li> +<li> Roman Catholics, higher education, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a></li> +<li> Royal University, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a></li> +<li> Technical instruction, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a> <i>seq</i>., <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a></li> +<li> Trinity College, influence of, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> University:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Place of the University in education, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a></li> +<li> Royal Commission on University Education, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a></li></ul></li> + +<li> Wyse's Scheme, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Education Bill, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a></li> +<li>Emigration, causes of, etc., <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a></li> +<li>England:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Anti-English sentiment in Ireland, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a></li> +<li> Co-operation in, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li> +<li> Economic system, individualism of, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a></li> +<li> Misunderstanding of Irish question, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a> <i>seq</i>.</li></ul></li> + +<li>Ewart, Sir William:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Experimental Plots of the Department, <a href='#Page_281'>281</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Ferguson, Sir Samuel:--</li> +<li><ul><li> National sentiment, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Field, Mr. William, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a></li> +<li>Finlay, Father Thomas:-- <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a></li> +<li> Recess Committee <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Fisheries--Department of Agriculture, development scheme, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a> <i>seq</i></li> +<li>Flax improvement Schemes, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a></li> +<li>_Fortnightly Review_:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Harold Frederic on Irish Question, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>France, _syndicats agricoles_, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li> +<li>Franchise extension in 1885, effects of on Irish political thought, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a></li> +<li>Frederic, Harold:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Views on Irish question, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a> <i>seq</i>.</li></ul></li> + +<li>Free Trade, effect of in Ireland, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Gaelic Revival:-- <a href='#Page_148'>148</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li><ul><li> Appeal to the individual <a href='#Page_155'>155</a></li> +<li> Co-operative movement and, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Gaelic League, aims and objects, <a href='#Page_150'>150</a></li> +<li> Hyde, Douglas, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a></li> +<li> Irish language as a commercial medium, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a></li> +<li> National factor in education, importance of, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a></li> +<li> Politics and the Gaelic revival, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a></li> +<li> Rural life, rehabilitation, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Gill, Mr. T.P.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Gladstone:-- <a href='#Page_85'>85</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Belfast Chamber of Commerce, Home Rule deputation, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a></li> +<li> Home Rule, attitude towards, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a></li> +<li> Tenants' improvements, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Glasnevin, Albert Institute, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a></li> +<li>Grattan, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a></li> +<li>Gray, Mr. J.C.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Co-operative movement, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Grazing, increase of, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a></li> +<li>Grundtvig, Bishop, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Hanbury, Mr.:-- <a href='#Page_251'>251</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Agricultural Societies, necessity of, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li> +<li> Suppression of Swine Fever, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Hannon, Mr. P.J.--I.A.O.S. <a href='#Page_200'>200</a></li> +<li>Harrington, Mr. T.C.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Healy, Archbishop, work for Ireland, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a></li> +<li>Hegarty, Father, work for Ireland, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a></li> +<li>Historical Grievances, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <i>seq</i>. <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a></li> +<li>Holdings, small, problem of, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a></li> +<li>Holyoake, Mr.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Co-operative Movement, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Domestic Economy Teaching, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a></li> +<li>Home: Improvement of, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Irish Conception of, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a></li> +<li> Irish, "homelessness at home," cause of <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Home Industries, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a></li> +<li>Home Rule:--Bill 1886, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Gladstone's attitude to the question <a href='#Page_3'>3</a></li> +<li> Nationalist tactics as a means of attaining <a href='#Page_84'>84</a></li> +<li> Rosebery, Lord, attitude to the question, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a></li> +<li> Ulster and Home Rule, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>. <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Unionist attitude towards, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Hughes, Tom, Co-operative Movement, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li>Hyde, Douglas, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Individualism of English economic system, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a></li> +<li>Industrial character of the Irish, effect of commercial restrictions, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a></li> +<li>Industrial leadership, and political leadership, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a></li> +<li>Industry:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Commercial Restrictions, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>-<a href='#Page_20'>20</a></li> +<li> Education and Industrial Life, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a></li> +<li> Free Trade, effect of, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a></li> +<li> Gaelic League and, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a></li> +<li> Home Rule and, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a></li> +<li> Peasant Industries <a href='#Page_52'>52</a></li> +<li> Protestantism and Industry <a href='#Page_100'>100</a></li> +<li> Roman Catholicism and Industry. <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> State-Aid <a href='#Page_45'>45</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Initiative, lack of in Irish character, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a></li> +<li>Intermediate Education <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a></li> +<li>Irish Agricultural Organisation Society:-- <a href='#Page_149'>149</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Agricultural Banks, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a> _seq._</li> +<li> Agricultural Organisation:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Denmark, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a></li> +<li> Department of Agriculture and Farmers' Societies, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a></li> +<li> England, Mr. Hanbury's view, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li> +<li> Onslow, Lord, opinion, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li> +<li> Welsh Co. Councils, and, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li></ul></li> + +<li> Anderson, R.A., <a href='#Page_200'>200</a></li> +<li> Central body, necessity for <a href='#Page_194'>194</a></li> +<li> Cork Exhibition, tours organised by, <a href='#Page_286'>286</a></li> +<li> Department of Agriculture and, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a></li> +<li> Federations, principal, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a></li> +<li> Finlay, Father Thomas, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li> +<li> Funds, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Gaelic revival and the co-operative movement, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a> _seq._</li> +<li> Hannon, Mr. P.J., <a href='#Page_200'>200</a></li> +<li> Inauguration, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a></li> +<li> _Irish, Homestead_, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a></li> +<li> Monteagle, Lord, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a></li> +<li> Roman Catholic clergy and the movement, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a></li> +<li> Rural life social movements, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a></li> +<li> Russell, George W. (A.E.), <a href='#Page_200'>200</a></li> +<li> Societies, number, etc. <a href='#Page_192'>192</a></li> +<li> Staff, &c. <a href='#Page_200'>200</a></li> +<li> Village libraries, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>_Irish Homestead_, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a></li> +<li>Irish language as a commercial medium, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a></li> +<li>"Irish night" in House of Commons, <a href='#Page_2'>2</a></li> +<li>Irish Question:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Anomalies, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a></li> +<li> Character, a problem of, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a></li> +<li> Emigration, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a></li> +<li> English misunderstanding, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a> _seq._</li> +<li> Frederic, Harold, diagnosis by, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Gaelic Revival and, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a></li> +<li> Historical grievances, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Home Rule (see that title)</li> +<li> Human problem, <a href='#Page_2'>2</a></li> +<li> Land Act marks a new era in, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a></li> +<li> Land system (see that title).</li> +<li> Our ignorance about ourselves <a href='#Page_32'>32</a></li> +<li> Parnell's death, effect of, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a></li> +<li> Political remedies, Irish belief in, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a></li> +<li> Rural life, problem, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a></li> +<li> Sentiment, force of, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a></li> +<li> Ulster's attitude important, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Itinerant Instructors, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>, <a href='#Page_284'>284</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Johnson, Dr., on "economy," <a href='#Page_278'>278</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Kane, Rev. R.R.:-- <a href='#Page_157'>157</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Keenan, Sir Patrick:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Itinerant instructors, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Kelly, Dr. (Bishop of Ross):--</li> +<li><ul><li> Work for Ireland, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Kildare Street School of Domestic Economy <a href='#Page_274'>274</a></li> +<li>Kildare Street Society, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>-<a href='#Page_125'>125</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Land Acts:--</li> +<li><ul><li> 1870, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>;</li> +<li> 1881, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>;</li> +<li> 1891, Congested Districts, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a></li> +<li> 1903:-- <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Marks a new era in Ireland, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a></li> +<li> Transfer of peasants to new farms, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a></li></ul></li></ul></li> + + +<li>Land Conference:-- <a href='#Page_93'>93</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Landed gentry not to be expatriated, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a></li> +<li> Nationalist leaders' attitude, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Land Purchase Acts, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a></li> +<li>Land Question and Tenure Question, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a></li> +<li>Land system:-- <a href='#Page_17'>17</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Causes of failure in Irish land system, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a></li> +<li> Dual ownership <a href='#Page_25'>25</a></li> +<li> Land Acts:</li> +<li><ul><li> 1870, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>;</li> +<li> 1881, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>;</li> +<li> 1891, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>;</li> +<li> 1903, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li> Land Purchase Acts, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a></li> +<li> Legislation, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Peasant proprietorship, germs of, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a></li> +<li> Tenure question, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Lawless, Emily:--</li> +<li><ul><li> "With the Wild Geese," <a href='#Page_92'>92</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Le Bon, "La Psychologie De la Foule," <a href='#Page_167'>167</a></li> +<li>Lea, Sir Thomas:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Leadership in Ireland, political and industrial, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a></li> +<li>Lecky, Mr.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Irish grievances, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a></li> +<li> Kildare Street Society, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Live stock improvement schemes, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a></li> +<li>Liverpool Financial Reform Association, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a></li> +<li>Local Government:-- <a href='#Page_83'>83</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Balfour, Mr. Gerald, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a></li> +<li> Department of Agriculture and local effort,</li> +<li> Educative effect of, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a></li> +<li> Nationalist leaders' attitude <a href='#Page_88'>88</a></li> +<li> Success in working, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Lucas, Mr., <a href='#Page_77'>77</a></li> +<li>Ludlow, Mr.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Co-operative movement, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li></ul></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>McCarthy, Mr. Justin:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Manchester, Co-operative Union <a href='#Page_181'>181</a></li> +<li>Manual and Practical Instruction in Primary Schools' Commission, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a></li> +<li>Manures, Artificial--</li> +<li><ul><li> Department of Agriculture's encouragement in the use of, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Marum, Mr. Mulhallen--Co-operative Movement <a href='#Page_189'>189</a></li> +<li>Maynooth, influence of, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a> 136, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a></li> +<li>Mayo, Lord:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>_Memorandum on Agricultural Education_ <a href='#Page_269'>269</a></li> +<li>Metropolitan School of Art, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a></li> +<li>Middlemen, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a></li> +<li>Monasteries and Convents, increase of, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a></li> +<li>Monteagle, Lord:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Co-operative movement, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li> I.A.O.S. President, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a></li> +<li> Recess Committee <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Moral timidity of Irish character, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a></li> +<li>Morals:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Roman Catholic Clergy's influence on, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Mulhall, Mr. Michael:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Munster Institute, Cork, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a></li> +<li>Musgrave, Sir James:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a></li></ul></li></ul> + + + +<ul><li>National Education Board, Agricultural Teaching, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a></li> +<li>Nationalist Party:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Home Rule, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a></li> +<li> Land Conference and, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a></li> +<li> Local Government and, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a></li> +<li> Policy, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a></li> +<li> Qualifications of leaders, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a></li> +<li> Recess Committee and, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a></li> +<li> Responsibility of leaders, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a></li> +<li> Tactics:-- <a href='#Page_84'>84</a> _seq._</li> +<li><ul><li> Effect of on Irish political character, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a></li></ul></li></ul></li> + + +<li>Nationality:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Education and nationality, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a> _seq._</li> +<li> Expansion of, outside party politics, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a></li> +<li> Modern conception of Irish nationality, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Neale, Vansittart:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Co-operative movement, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li></ul></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>O'Connell, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a></li> +<li>O'Conor Don:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>O'Dea, Dr.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> University Commission, statements, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>O'Donnell, Dr.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Ploughing up of grazing lands, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>O'Donovan, Father, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a></li> +<li>O'Dwyer, Dr.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Evidence before University Commission, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>O'Gara, Dr.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> On the cultivation of the land, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>O'Grady, Standish, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a></li> +<li>Onslow, Lord:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Agricultural organisation, benefit of, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>O'Rahilly, Egan:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Lament for the Irish clans, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Oyster Culture, <a href='#Page_283'>283</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Parnell:-- <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Downfall, effect on national idea and aims, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Peasant industries, necessity for, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a></li> +<li>Peasant Proprietary:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Agricultural organisation, necessity of, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Bright, John, and, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a></li> +<li> Peasant industries, necessity of, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a></li> +<li> Problem of next generation, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Penal laws, effect of, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a></li> +<li>Plantation system, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a></li> +<li>Politics:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Agitation as a policy, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a></li> +<li> America, Irish in politics in, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a> _seq,_</li> +<li> Gaelic revival and politics, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a></li> +<li> Irishmen as politicians,. <a href='#Page_69'>69</a> _seq._</li> +<li> "Irish night" in House of Commons, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a></li> +<li> Nationalist leaders' effect on Irish political character, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a></li> +<li> Obsession of the Irish mind by politics, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> "One-man" system, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a></li> +<li> Political leadership and industrial leadership, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a></li> +<li> Political remedies, Irish belief in, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a></li> +<li> Political "wilderness," <a href='#Page_91'>91</a></li> +<li> "Priest in politics," <a href='#Page_117'>117</a></li> +<li> Separation, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a></li> +<li> Ulster Liberal Unionist Association, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a></li> +<li> Unionists (Irish):--</li> +<li><ul><li> Industrial element and, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a></li> +<li> Influence in Irish life, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a> _seq._</li></ul></li></ul></li> + + +<li>Population.--</li> +<li><ul><li> Relation of population to area, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Potato culture improvement schemes, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a></li> +<li>Production and distribution, problems, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a></li> +<li>Protestantism:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Duty of, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a></li> +<li> Ulster, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a></li></ul></li></ul> + + + +<ul><li>Raiffeisen System of banking, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>-<a href='#Page_198'>198</a></li> +<li>Railways--Light railway system, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a></li> +<li>_Raimeis_, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a></li> +<li>Recess Committee:-- <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a> _seq._ <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Cadogan, Lord, and, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a></li> +<li> Constitution proposed, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a></li> +<li> Finlay, Father Thomas, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li> +<li> Gill, Mr. T.P. <a href='#Page_219'>219</a></li> +<li> Ideas leading to its formation, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a></li> +<li> M'Carthy, Mr. Justin, letter, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a></li> +<li> Members, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li> +<li> Mulhall, Mr. Michael, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a></li> +<li> Nationalist members, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a></li> +<li> Recommendations, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a></li> +<li> Redmond, Mr. John, and, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a></li> +<li> Report, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a></li> +<li> Results, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a> _seq._</li> +<li> State-aid question, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a></li> +<li> Tisserand's memorandum, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Redmond, Mr. John:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Religion:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Influence of on Irish life, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a> _seq._</li> +<li> Protestantism, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a></li> +<li> Roman Catholic Church (see that title).</li> +<li> Sectarian animosities, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a></li> +<li> Toleration, meaning of word, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Ritualistic movement, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a></li> +<li>Robertson, Lord:--</li> +<li><ul><li> University Commission, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Roman Catholic Church:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Church-building and increase of monasteries, etc., <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a></li> +<li> Clergy:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Action and attitude towards questions of the day, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Authority of, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a> _seq._</li></ul></li> + +<li> Co-operative movement, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a></li> +<li> Moral influence, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a></li> +<li> Political influence, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a></li> +<li> Temperance reform, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a></li> +<li> Economic conditions, influence on <a href='#Page_101'>101</a> _seq._</li> +<li> Effect on Irish character, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>-<a href='#Page_105'>105</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a></li> +<li> Higher education of Roman Catholics, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Rosebery, Lord:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Attitude towards Home Rule, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Ross, Mr. John:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Royal College of Science, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a></li> +<li>Royal Commission on University Education, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a></li> +<li>Royal Dublin Society, Aid to Department of Agriculture, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a></li> +<li>Royal University education, defects in, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a></li> +<li>Rural life:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Emigration, causes of, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a></li> +<li> Gaelic revival's influence on, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a></li> +<li> Industries, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>, <a href='#Page_266'>266</a></li> +<li> Problem of, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a></li> +<li> Rehabilitation, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Russell, George W. (A.E.), <a href='#Page_200'>200</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Salisbury, Lord:--</li> +<li><ul><li> "Twenty years of resolute government," <a href='#Page_61'>61</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Saunderson, Colonel:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Scotch-Irish in America, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a></li> +<li>Sea Fisheries--Department of Agriculture's improvement schemes, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a></li> +<li>Self-help movement (see Co-operative movement).</li> +<li>Sentiment:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Anti-English, cause of, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Force of in Irish question, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Separation, Home Rule and, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a></li> +<li>Shinnors, Rev. Mr.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Irish in America, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Sinclair, Thomas:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Social order, Irish attachment to, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a></li> +<li>_Spectator_:--English non-allowance for sentiment, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a></li> +<li>_Speed's Chronicle_:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Con O'Neal, etc. <a href='#Page_57'>57</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Spencer, Lord, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a></li> +<li>Starkie, Dr.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Mr. Wyse's education scheme, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>State-aid:-- <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a></li> +<li>Stephen, J.K. ("Cynicus") <a href='#Page_164'>164</a></li> +<li>Stopford Brooke, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a></li> +<li>Swine fever, <a href='#Page_251'>251</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Technical Instruction, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a> <i>seq</i>. <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a>, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a></li> +<li>Temperance Reform, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li>Tenure question and land question, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a></li> +<li>Tillage, decrease of, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a></li> +<li>Tisserand, M.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee memorandum, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Tobacco culture, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a></li> +<li>Trinity College, influence of, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a> _seq._</li> +<li>Two Irelands, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Ulster:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Attitude towards the rest of Ireland, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a></li> +<li> Home Rule, objections to, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Ulster Liberal Unionist Association, political thought in, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a></li> +<li>Unionist (Irish) Party:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Industrial element in Irish life and, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a></li> +<li> Influence in Irish life, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>_seq._</li> +<li> Policy, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a></li> +<li> Ulster and Home Rule, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>,86 _seq._</li></ul></li> + +<li>United Ireland, first real conception of, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a></li> +<li>United Irish League, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a></li> +<li>University Question:-- <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Catholic University:--</li> +<li><ul><li> O'Dea, Dr., on, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a></li> +<li> O'Dwyer, Dr., on, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a></li></ul></li> + +<li> Hyde, Dr., evidence before Commission, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a></li> +<li> Maynooth, influence of, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a></li> +<li> Place of the University in education, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a></li> +<li> Trinity College, influence of, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a> _seq._</li> +<li> University reform necessary, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a></li></ul></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Vandeleur Estate, co-operative community, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li>Village libraries, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Wolff, Mr. Henry W.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> People's banks, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Wyndham, Mr.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Land Act. 1903, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Wyse, Mr. Thomas:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Scheme of Irish education, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a></li></ul></li></ul> + + + +<ul><li>Yeats, W.B. <a href='#Page_154'>154</a></li> +<li>Yerburgh, Mr. R.A.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Agricultural banks, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a></li></ul></li></ul> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14342 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eeb1144 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #14342 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14342) diff --git a/old/14342-8.txt b/old/14342-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..afc166a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14342-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8595 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ireland In The New Century, by Horace Plunkett + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ireland In The New Century + +Author: Horace Plunkett + +Release Date: December 13, 2004 [EBook #14342] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IRELAND IN THE NEW CENTURY *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Susan Skinner and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +IRELAND + +IN THE NEW CENTURY + + +BY THE RIGHT HON. + +SIR HORACE PLUNKETT, K.C.V.O., F.R.S. + + +LONDON + +JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. + +1904 + +_Printed by_ BROWNE AND NOLAN, LTD., _Dublin_ + + + +TO THE MEMORY OF + +W.E.H. LECKY, + + +I DEDICATE ALL IN THIS BOOK +THAT IS WORTHY OF THE FRIENDSHIP +WITH WHICH HE HONOURED ME, +AND OF THE COUNSEL WHICH HE GAVE ME +FOR MY GUIDANCE IN IRISH PUBLIC LIFE. + + + + +PREFACE + +Those who have known Ireland for the last dozen years cannot have failed +to notice the advent of a wholly new spirit, clearly based upon +constructive thought, and expressing itself in a wide range of fresh +practical activities. The movement for the organisation of agriculture +and rural credit on co-operative lines, efforts of various kinds to +revive old or initiate new industries, and, lastly, the creation of a +department of Government to foster all that was healthy in the voluntary +effort of the people to build up the economic side of their life, are +each interesting in themselves. When taken together, and in conjunction +with the literary and artistic movements, and viewed in their relation +to history, politics, religion, education, and the other past and +present influences operating upon the Irish mind and character, these +movements appear to me to be worthy of the most thoughtful consideration +by all who are responsible for, or desire the well-being of the Irish +people. + +I should not, however, in days when my whole time and energies belong to +the public service, have undertaken the task of writing a book on a +subject so complex and apparently so inseparable from heated +controversy, were I not convinced that the expression of certain +thoughts which have come to me from practical contact with Irish +problems, was the best contribution I could make to the work on which I +was engaged. I wished, if I could, to bring into clearer light the +essential unity of the various progressive movements in Ireland, and to +do something towards promoting a greater definiteness of aim and method, +and a better understanding of each other's work, among those who are in +various ways striving for the upbuilding of a worthy national life in +Ireland. + +So far the task, if difficult, was congenial and free from +embarrassment. Unhappily, it had been borne in upon me, in the course of +a long study of Irish life, that our failure to rise to our +opportunities and to give practical evidence of the intellectual +qualities with which the race is admittedly gifted, was due to certain +defects of character, not ethically grave, but economically paralysing. +I need hardly say I refer to the lack of moral courage, initiative, +independence and self-reliance--defects which, however they may be +accounted for, it is the first duty of modern Ireland to recognise and +overcome. I believe in the new movements in Ireland, principally because +they seem to me to exert a stimulating influence upon our moral fibre. + +Holding such an opinion, I had to decide between preserving a discreet +silence and speaking my full mind. The former course would, it appeared +to me, be a poor example of the moral courage which I hold to be +Ireland's sorest need. Moreover, while I am full of hope for the future +of my country, its present condition does not, in my view, admit of any +delay in arriving at the truth as to the essential principles which +should guide all who wish to take a part, however humble, in the work of +national regeneration. + +I desire to state definitely that I have not written in any +representative capacity except where I say so explicitly. I write on my +own responsibility, with the full knowledge that there is much in the +book with which many of those with whom I work do not agree. + +_December_, 1903. + + + + +CONTENTS + +PART I. + +_THEORETICAL._ + +CHAPTER I + +THE ENGLISH MISUNDERSTANDING. + + Fidelity of the Irish to the National Ideal + Disregard of Material Advantage in its Pursuit + Home Rule Movement under Gladstone + The Anti-Climax under Lord Rosebery + The Logic of Events and the Dawn of the Practical + The Mutual Misunderstanding of England and Ireland + The Dunraven Conference produces a Revolution in English Thought + about Ireland + The Actual Change Examined + Future Misunderstanding best averted by considering Nature of + Anti-English Feeling + Illustration from Irish-American Life + Importance of Sentiment in Ireland--English Habit of Ignoring + Historical Grievances Still Operative + The Commercial Restrictions--Remaining Effects of + Irish Land Tenure--Lord Dufferin on + Defects of Land Laws--Their Effect on Agriculture + Right Attitude towards Historic Grievances + Plea for Broader and more Philosophic View of Irish Question + Simple Explanations and Panaceas Deprecated + A Many-Sided Human Problem + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE IRISH QUESTION IN IRELAND. + + Misunderstanding of the Irish People by the English and by Themselves + Anomalies of Irish Life + The New Movement--Position of Nationalists and Unionists in it + North and South + The Question of Rural Life + Economic Side of the Question + Grazing versus Tillage + Peasant Organisation to be Supplemented by State-Aid + Uneconomic Holdings too Prevalent + Remedies Proposed + Salvation not by Agriculture Alone + Rural Industries and the Irish Home + Reasons for Arrested Development of Home Life + Inter-Dependence of the Sentimental and Practical in Ireland + Outlines of Succeeding Chapters + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE INFLUENCE OF POLITICS UPON THE IRISH MIND. + + Legislation as a Substitute for Work + Political Shortcomings of Unionism and Nationalism Compared + Action of the Unionist Party Reviewed + Two Main Causes of its Lack of Success + The Contribution of Ulster + The Nationalist Party + Are Irishmen Good Politicians? + The Irish and the Scotch-Irish in America + America's Interest in the Problem + Part Played by English Government in Producing Modern Irish Disabilities + Causes of the Growth of National Feeling + Retardation of Political Education by the One-Man System + And by Politicians of To-Day + Defence of Nationalist Policy on Ground of Tactics Considered + The Forces opposed to Home Rule--How Dealt with + Local Government--How it might have been utilised + After Home Rule? + Beginnings of Political Education + The Irish Parliamentary Party + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION UPON SECULAR LIFE IN IRELAND. + + Influences of Religion in Ireland + What is Toleration? + Protestantism in Irish Life + Roman Catholicism and Economics + Power of the Roman Catholic Clergy + Has it been Abused? + Church Building and Monastic Establishments + Clerical Education + Responsibility of the Clergy for Irish Character + The Church and Temperance + The Inculcation of Chastity + The Priest in Politics + New Movement among the Roman Catholic Clergy + Duty and Interest of Protestantism + What each Creed has to Learn from the other + + +CHAPTER V. + +A PRACTICAL VIEW OF IRISH EDUCATION. + + English Government and Education + The Kildare Street Society + Scheme of Thomas Wyse + Early Attempts at Practical Education + Recent Reports on Irish Systems + The Policy of the Department of Agriculture + The Example of Denmark + University Education for Roman Catholics + Maynooth and its Limitations + Trinity College + Its Lack of Influence on the Irish Mind + A Democratic University Called for + National and Economic in its Aims + Views of Roman Catholic Ecclesiastics + The Two Irelands + Lord Chesterfield on Education and Character + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THROUGH THOUGHT TO ACTION. + + A Word to my Critics + The Gaelic League + Compared with the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society + Objects and Constitution of the League + Filling the Gap in Irish Education + Patriotism and Industry + Nationality and Nationalism + A Possible Danger + Extravagances in the Movement + The Gaelic League and the Rural Home + Meeting with Harold Frederic + His Pessimistic Views on the Celt + A New Solution of the Problem--Organised Self-Help + English and Irish Industrial Qualities + Special Value of the Associative Qualities + Conclusion of Part I. + + * * * * * + +PART II. + +_PRACTICAL._ + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE NEW MOVEMENT; ITS FOUNDATION ON SELF-HELP. + + Distrust of Novel Schemes often well justified + The Story of the New Movement + Necessitated by Foreign Competition + Production and Distribution + Causes of Continental Superiority + Objects for which Combination is Desirable + How to Organise the Industrial Army + Help from England + Doubts and Difficulties + Some Favouring Conditions + The Beginning of the Work--Co-operative Creameries + The Social Problem + Early Efforts and Experiences + Foundation of the I.A.O.S. + Its Present Position + Agricultural Banks + The Brightening of Home Life + Staff of the Society + Philanthropy and Business + Enquiries from Abroad + Moral and Social Effects of the New Movement + Unknown Leaders + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE RECESS COMMITTEE. + + After Six Years + Opportunity for State-Aid + Combination of Political and Industrial Leadership + A Letter to the Press + Mr. Justin McCarthy's Reply + Mr. Redmond's Reply + Formation of the Committee + Investigations on the Continent + Recommendations of the Committee + Position of the Nationalist Members of the Committee + Chief Reliance on Local Effort + Public Opinion on the New Proposals + Adoption of the Bill to give effect to them + Mr. Gerald Balfour's Policy + Industrial Home Rule + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A NEW DEPARTURE IN IRISH ADMINISTRATION. + + Functions and Constitution of the New Department + How it is Financed + The Representative Element in its Constitution + The Right to Vote Supplies + Consultative Committee on Education + The Department Linked with the Local Government System + Successful Co-operation with Local Government Bodies + And with Voluntary Societies + The New Department and the Congested Districts Board + The Reception of the Department by the Country + Some Typical Callers + A Wrong Impression Anticipated + + +CHAPTER X. + +GOVERNMENT WITH THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED. + + Summary of Previous Chapter + The Attitude of the People towards the Department + Method of Co-operation with Local Bodies + State-Aid, Direct and Indirect + The Department and the Large Towns + The Department's Plans for Developing Agriculture + The Industrial Problem and Education + The Difficulty of Finding Trained Teachers + How Surmounted + Difficulties of Agricultural Education + Decision to Adopt Itinerant Instruction + Double Purpose of this Instruction + Relation of the Department with Secondary Schools + Importance of Domestic Economy Teaching + Provision of Teachers in Domestic Economy + Miscellaneous Industries + Competition of the Factory + The Department's Fabian Policy Justified + Its Support by the Country + Improvement of Live-Stock + Best Method of giving Object Lessons in Agriculture + Sea Fisheries + Continental Tours for Irish Teachers + Cork Exhibition of 1902 + Things and Ideas + Concluding Words + + +INDEX + + + + +PART I. + +_THEORETICAL_. + + + "It is hard to say where history ends, and where religion and + politics begin; for history, religion and politics grow on one stem + in Ireland, an eternal trefoil."--_Lady Gregory_. + + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE ENGLISH MISUNDERSTANDING. + + +Whatever may be the ultimate verdict of history upon the long struggle +of the majority of the Irish people for self-government, the picture of +a small country with large aspirations giving of its best unstintingly +to the world, while gaining for itself little beyond sympathy, will +appeal to the imagination of future ages long after the Irish Question, +as we know it, has been buried. It may then, perhaps, be seen that the +aspirations came to nought because they were opposed to the manifest +destiny of the race, and that it should never have been expected or +desired that the Dark Rosaleen should 'reign and reign alone.' +Nevertheless, the fidelity and fortitude with which the national ideal +had been pursued would command admiration, even if the ideal itself were +to be altogether abandoned, or if it were to be ultimately realised in a +manner which showed that the methods by which its attainment had been +sought were the cause of its long postponement. Whatever the future may +have in store for the remnant of the Irish people at home, the continued +pursuit of a separate national existence by a nation which is rapidly +disappearing from the land of all its hopes, and the cherishing of +these hopes, not only by those who stay but also by those who go, will +stand as a monument to human constancy. + +The picture will be all the more remarkable when emphasised by a +contrast which the historian will not fail to draw. Across a narrow +streak of sea another people, during the same period, increased and +multiplied and prospered mightily, spread their laws and institutions, +and achieved in every portion of the globe material success which they +can call their own. Yet, although Irishmen have done much to win that +success for the English people to enjoy, and are to-day foremost in +maintaining the great empire which their brain and muscle were ever +ready to augment, Ireland makes no claim for herself in respect of the +achievement. It is to her but a proof of what her sons will do for her +in the coming time; it does not bring her nearer to her heart's desire. + +Although the nineteenth century, with all its marvellous contributions +to human progress, left Ireland with her hopes unfulfilled; although its +sun went down upon the British people with their greatest failure still +staring them in the face, its last decade witnessed at first a change in +the attitude of England towards Ireland, and afterwards a profound +revolution in the thoughts of Ireland about herself. The strangest and +most interesting feature of these developments was that in practical +England the Irish Question became the great political issue, while in +sentimental Ireland there set in a reaction from politics and an +inclination to the practical. The twentieth century has already brought +to birth the new Ireland upon whose problems I shall write. If the human +interest of these problems is to be realized, if their significance is +not to be as wholly misunderstood as that of every other Irish movement +which has perplexed the statesmen who have managed our affairs, they +must be studied in their relation to the English and Irish events of the +period in which the new Ireland was conceived. + +In 1885 Gladstone, appealing to an electorate with a large accession of +newly enfranchised voters, transferred the struggle over the Irish +Question from Ireland to Great Britain. The position taken up by the +average English Home Ruler was, it will be remembered, simple and +intelligible. The Irish had stated in the proper constitutional way what +they wanted, and that, in the first flush of a victorious democracy, +when counting heads irrespective of contents was the popular method of +arriving at political truth, was assumed to be precisely what they ought +to have. A long but inconclusive contest ensued. At times it looked as +if the Liberal-Irish alliance might snatch a victory for their policy. +But when Gladstone was forced to break with the Irish Leader, and +Parnellism without Parnell became obviously impossible, the English +realised that the working of representative institutions in Ireland had +produced not a democracy but a dictatorship, and they began to attach a +lesser significance to the verdict of the Irish polls. Their faith in +democracy was unimpaired, but, in their opinion, the Irish had not yet +risen to its dignity. So most English Radicals came round to a view +which they had always reprobated when advanced by the English +Conservatives, and political inferiority was added to the other moral +and intellectual defects which made the Irish an inferior race! + +The anti-climax to the Gladstone crusade was reached when Lord Rosebery +in 1894 took over the premiership from the greatest English advocate of +the Irish cause. The position of the new leader was very simple. In +effect, he told the Irish Nationalists that the English party he was +about to lead had done its best for them. They must now regard +themselves as partners in the United Kingdom, with the British as the +predominant partner. Until the predominant partner could be brought to +take the Irish view of the partnership, the relations between them must +remain substantially as they were. And not only must the concession of +Home Rule await the conversion of the British electorate, but before the +demand could be effectively preferred, another leader must rise up among +the Irish; and he, for all Lord Rosebery knew, was at the moment being +wheeled in a perambulator. This apparently cynical avowal of the new +premier's own attitude towards Home Rule accurately stated the facts of +the situation, and fairly reflected the mind of the British electorate, +after Irish obstruction had given them an opportunity of studying the +bearing of the Irish Question on English politics. + +If the logic of events was thus making for the removal of Home Rule from +the region of practical politics in England, an even more momentous +change was taking place in Ireland. Whilst the Home Rule controversy was +at its height in the 'eighties and early 'nineties, some Irish +grievances were incidentally dealt with--not always under the best +impulses or in the best way. The concentration of all the available +thought and energy of Irish public men upon an appeal to the passions +and prejudices of English parties had led to the further postponement of +all Irish endeavour to deal rationally and practically with her own +problems at home. But during the welter of contention which prevailed +after the fall of Parnell, there grew up in Ireland a wholly new spirit, +born of the bitter lesson which was at last being learned. The Irish +still clung undaunted to their political ideal, but its pursuit to the +exclusion of all other national aims had received a wholesome check. +Thought upon the problems of national progress broadened and deepened, +in a manner little understood by those who knew Ireland from without, +and, indeed, by many of those accounted wise among the observers from +within. Was the realisation of a distinctive national existence, many +began to ask themselves, to be for ever dependent upon the fortunes of a +political campaign? In any scheme of a reconstructed national life to +which the Irish would give of their best, there must be +distinctiveness--that much every man who is in touch with Irish life is +fully aware of--but the question of existence must not be altogether +ignored. At the rate the people were leaving the sinking ship, the Irish +Question would be settled in the not distant future by the disappearance +of the Irish. Had we not better look around and see how other countries +with more or less analogous conditions fared? Could we not--Unionists +and Nationalists alike--do something towards material progress without +abandoning our ideals? Could we not learn something from a study of what +our people were doing abroad? One seemed to hear the voice of Bishop +Berkeley, the biting pertinence of whose _Queries_ is ever fresh, asking +from the grave in which he had been laid to rest nearly a century and a +half ago 'whether it would not be more reasonable to mend our state than +complain of it; and how far this may be in our own power?' + +These questionings, though not generally heard on the platform or even +in the street, were none the less working in the depths of the Irish +mind, and found expression not so much in words as in deeds. Yet though +the downfall of Parnell released many minds from the obsession of +politics, the influence of that event was of a negative character, and +it took time to produce a beneficial effect. That fruitful last decade +of the nineteenth century saw the foundation of what will some day be +recognised as a new philosophy of Irish progress. Certain new principles +were then promulgated in Ireland, and gradually found acceptance; and +upon those principles a new movement was built. It is partly, indeed, to +expound and justify some, at any rate, of the principles and to give an +intelligible account of the practical achievement and future +possibilities of this movement that I write these pages. + +For English readers, to whom this introductory chapter is chiefly +addressed, I may here reiterate the opinion, which I have always held +and often expressed, that there is no real conflict of interest between +the two peoples and the two countries, and that the mutual +misunderstanding which we may now hope to see removed is due to a wide +difference of temperament and mental outlook. The English mind has never +understood the Irish mind--least of all during the period of the 'Union +of Hearts.' It is equally true that the Irish have largely misunderstood +both the English character and their own responsibility. The result has +been that their leaders, despite the brilliant capacity they have shown +in presenting the unhappy case of their country to the rest of the +world, have rarely presented it in the right way to the English people. +There have been many occasions during the last quarter of a century when +a calm, well-reasoned statement of the economic disadvantages under +which Ireland labours would, I am convinced, have successfully appealed +to British public opinion. It could have been shown that the development +of Ireland--the development not only of the resources of her soil but of +the far greater wealth which lies in the latent capacities of her +people--was demanded quite as much in the interest of one country as in +that of the other. + +Here, indeed, is an untilled field for those to whom the Irish Question +is yet a living one. If I could think that each country fully realised +its own responsibility in the matter, if I could think that the +long-continued misunderstanding was at an end, nothing would induce me +to trouble the waters at this auspicious hour, when a better feeling +towards Ireland prevails in Great Britain, and when the Irish people are +fully appreciative of the obviously sincere desire of England to be +generous to Ireland. But an examination of the events upon which the +prevailing optimism is based will show that, unhappily, +misunderstanding, though of another sort, still exists, and that Ireland +is as much as ever a riddle to the English mind. + +Now this new optimism in the English view of Ireland seems to be based, +not upon a recognition of the development of what I have ventured to +dignify with the title of a new philosophy of Irish progress, but upon a +belief that the spirit of moderation and conciliation displayed by so +many Irishmen in connection with the Land Act is due to the fact that my +incomprehensible countrymen have, under a sudden emotion, put away +childish things and learned to behave like grown-up Englishmen. +Throughout the press comments upon the Dunraven Conference and in public +speeches both inside and outside Parliament there has run a sense that a +sort of portent, a transformation scene, a sudden and magical +alteration in the whole spirit and outlook of the Irish people, has come +to pass. + +I feel some hesitation in asking the reader to believe that a great and +lasting revolution in Irish thought has been brought about in such a +moment in the life of a people as twelve short years. But a lesser +number of months seemed to the English mind adequate for the +accomplishment of the change. And what a change it was that they +conceived! To them, less than a year ago, the Irish Question was not +merely unsolved, but in its essential features appeared unaltered. After +seven centuries of experimental statecraft--so varied that the English +could not believe any expedient had yet to be tried--the vast majority +of the Irish people regarded the Government as alien, disputed the +validity of its laws, and felt no responsibility for administration, no +respect for the legislature, or for those who executed its decrees. And +this in a country forming an integral part of the United Kingdom, where +the fundamental basis of government is assumed to be the consent of the +governed! Nor were any hopes entertained that the cloud would quickly +pass. During the Boer war the prophets of evil, in predicting the +calamity which was to fall upon the British Empire, took as their text +the failure of English government in Ireland. When they wanted to paint +in the darkest colours the coming heritage of woe, they wrote upon the +wall, 'Another Ireland in South Africa'; and if any exception was taken +to the appropriateness of the phrase, it was certainly not on the +ground that Ireland had ceased to be a warning to British statesmen. + +I believe, quite as strongly as the most optimistic Englishman, that +there has been a great change from this state of things in Irish +sentiment, and my explanation of that change, if less dramatic than the +transformation theory, affords more solid ground for optimism. This +change in the sentiment of Irishmen towards England is due, not to a +sudden emotion of the incomprehensible Celt, but really to the +opinion--rapidly growing for the last dozen years--that great as is the +responsibility of England for the state of Ireland, still greater is the +responsibility of Irishmen. The conviction has been more and more borne +in upon the Irish mind that the most important part of the work of +regenerating Ireland must necessarily be done by Irishmen in Ireland. +The result has been that many Irishmen, both Unionists and Nationalists, +without in any way abandoning their opposition to, or support of, the +attempt to solve the political problem from without, have been +trying--not without success--to solve some part of the Irish Question +from within. The Report of the Recess Committee, on which I shall dwell +later, was the first great fruit of this movement, and the Dunraven +Treaty, which paved the way for Mr. Wyndham's Land Act, was a further +fruit, and not the result of an inexplicable transformation scene. + +The reason why I dwell on the true nature of the undoubted change in +the Irish situation is not in order to exaggerate the importance of the +part played by the new movement in bringing it about, nor to detract +from the importance of Parliamentary action, but because a mistaken view +of the change would inevitably postpone the firm establishment of an +improved mutual understanding between the two countries, which I regard +as an essential of Irish progress. I confess that my apprehension of a +new misunderstanding was aroused by the debates on the Land Bill in the +House of Commons. As regards the spirit of conciliation and moderation +displayed by the Irish, and the sincere desire exhibited by the British +to heal the chief Irish economic sore, the speeches were, if not +epoch-making, at any rate epoch-marking; but they showed little sense of +perspective or proportion in viewing the Irish Question, and little +grasp or appreciation of the large social and economic problems which +the Land Act will bring to the front. Temporary phenomena and +legislative machinery have been endowed with an importance they do not +possess, and miracles, it is supposed, are about to be worked in Ireland +by processes which, whatever rich good may be in them, have never worked +miracles, though they have not seldom excited very similar enthusiasms +in the economic history of other European lands. + +I agree, then, with most Englishmen in thinking, though for a different +reason, that the passing of the Land Act marked a new era in Ireland. +They regard it as productive of, or co-incident in time with, the dawn +of the practical in Ireland. I antedate that event by some dozen years, +and regard the Land Act rather as marking a new era, because it removes +the great obstacle which obscured the dawn of the practical for so many, +and hindered it for all. + +Whatever may have been the expectations upon which this great measure +was based, I, in common with most Irish observers, watched its progress +with unfeigned delight. The vast majority regarded the hundred millions +of credit and the twelve millions of 'bonus' as a generous concession to +Ireland; and I sympathised with those who deprecated the mischievous +suggestion, not infrequently heard in English political circles, that +this munificence was the 'price of peace.' On one point all were agreed: +the Bill could never have become law had not Mr. Wyndham handled the +Parliamentary situation with masterly tact, temper, and ability. To him +is chiefly due the credit for the fact that the Land Question, in its +old form at any rate, no longer blocks the way, and that the large +problems which remain to be solved, and, above all, the spirit in which +they will have to be approached by those who wish the existing peace to +be the forerunner of material and social progress, can be freely and +frankly discussed. + +It is true, as I have said, that Ireland is becoming more and more +practical, and that England is becoming more anxious than ever to do her +substantial justice. But still the manner of the doing will continue to +be as important as the thing which is done. Of the Irish qualities none +is stronger than the craving to be understood. If the English had only +known this secret we should have been the most easily governed people in +the world. For it is characteristic of the conduct of our most important +affairs that we care too little about the substance and too much about +the shadow. It is for this reason that I have discussed the real nature +of one phase of Irish sentiment which has been largely misunderstood, +and it is for the same reason that I propose to preface my examination +of the Irish Question with some reference to the cause and nature of the +anti-English sentiment, for the long continuance of which I can find no +other explanation than the failure of the English to see into the Irish +mind. + +I am well acquainted with this sentiment because, in my practical work +in Ireland, it has ever been the main current of the stream against +which I have had to swim. Years spent in the United States had made me +familiar with its full and true significance, for there it can be +studied in an atmosphere not dominated by any present Irish +controversies or struggles. I have found this sentiment of hatred deeply +rooted in the minds of Irishmen who had themselves never known Ireland, +who had no connection, other than a sentimental one, with that country, +who were living quiet business lives in the United States, but who were +ever ready to testify with their dollars, and genuinely believed that +they only lacked opportunity to demonstrate in a more enterprising way, +their "undying hatred of the English name."[1] + +With such men I have reasoned, and sometimes not in vain, upon the +injustice and unreason of their attitude. I have not attempted to +controvert the main facts of Ireland's grievances, which they frequently +told me they had gleaned from Froude and Lecky. I used to deprecate the +unqualified application of modern standards to the policies of other +days, and to protest against the injustice of punishing one set of +persons for the misdoings of another set of persons, who have long since +passed beyond the reach of any earthly tribunal. I have given them my +reasons for believing that, even if such a course were morally +admissible, the wit of man could not devise any means of inflicting a +blow upon England which would not react injuriously with tenfold force +upon Ireland. I have gone on to show that the sentiment itself, largely +the accident of untoward circumstances, is alien to the character and +temperament of the Irish people. In short, I have urged that the policy +of revenge is un-Christian and unintelligent, and, that, as the Irish +people are neither irreligious nor stupid, it is un-Irish. I well +remember taking up this position in conversation with some very advanced +Irish-Americans in the Far West and the reply which one of them made. +"Wal," said my half-persuaded friend, "mebbe you're right. I have two +sons, whom I have raised in the expectation that they will one day +strike a blow for old Ireland. Mebbe they won't. I'm too old to change." + +I have chosen this incident from a long series of similar reminiscences +of my study of Irish life, to illustrate an attitude of mind, the +historical explanation of which would seem to the practical Englishman +as academic as a psychological exposition of the effect of a red rag +upon a bull. The English are not much to be blamed for resenting the +survival of the feeling, but it appears to me to argue a singular lack +of political imagination that they should still fail to appreciate the +reality, the significance, and the abiding force of a sentiment which +has so far successfully resisted the influence of those governing +qualities which have played a foremost part in the civilisation of the +modern world. The _Spectator_ some time ago came out bluntly with a +truth which an Irishman may, I presume, quote without offence from so +high an English authority:--"The one blunder of average Englishmen in +considering foreign questions is that with white men they make too +little allowance for sentiment, and with coloured men they make none at +all."[2] I am afraid it must be added that 'average Englishmen' make +exactly the same blunder in under-estimating the force of sentiment when +considering Irish questions, with the not unnatural consequence that +the Irish regard them as foreigners, and that, as those foreigners +happen to govern them, the sentiment of nationality becomes political +and anti-English. + +There is one reason why this sentiment is not allowed to die which +should always be remembered by those who wish to grasp the inner +workings of the Irish mind. Briefly stated, the view prevails in Ireland +that in dealing with questions affecting our material well-being, the +government of our country by the English was, in the past, characterised +by an unenlightened self-interest. Thoughtful Englishmen admit this +charge, but they say that the past referred to is beyond living memory +and should now be buried. The Irish mind replies that the life of a +nation is not to be measured by the life of individuals, and that a +wrong inflicted by a Government upon a community entitles those who +inherit the consequences of the injury to claim reparation at the hands +of those who inherit the government. With this attitude on the part of +the Irish mind I am not only most heartily in sympathy, but I find every +Englishman who understands the situation equally so. In the later +portions of this book it will be shown that practical recognition, in no +small measure, has been given by England to the righteousness of this +part of the Irish case, and that if the effect thus produced has not +found as full an outward expression as might have been expected, the +Irish people have at any rate responded to the new treatment in a manner +which must, in no distant future, bring about a better understanding. + +The only historical causes of our present discontents to which I need +now particularly refer, are the commercial restrictions and the land +system of the past, which stand out from the long list of Irish +grievances as those for which their victims were the least responsible. +No one can be more anxious than I am that we should cease to be for ever +seeking in the past excuses for our present failures. But it is +essential to a correct estimation of Irish agricultural and industrial +possibilities that we should notice the true bearings of these +historical grievances upon existing conditions. + +In this connection there arises a question which is very pertinent to +the present inquiry and which must therefore be considered. I have seen +it argued by English economists that the industrial revolution which +took place at the end of the eighteenth and commencement of the +nineteenth century would in any case have destroyed, by force of open +competition, industries which, it is admitted, were previously +legislated away. They point out that the change from the order of small +scattered home industries to the factory system would have suited +neither the temperament nor the industrial habits of the Irish. They +tell us that with the industrial revolution the juxtaposition of coal +and iron became an all-important factor in the problem, and they recall +how the north and west of England captured the industrial supremacy from +the south and east. Incidentally they point out that the people of the +English counties which suffered by these economic causes braced +themselves to meet the changes, and it is suggested that if the people +of Ireland had shown the same resourcefulness, they, too, might have +weathered the storm. And, finally, we are reminded that England, by her +stupid Irish policy, punished her own supporters, and even herself, +quite as much as the 'mere Irish.' + +Much of this may be true, but this line of argument only shows that +these English economists do not thoroughly understand the real grievance +which the Irish people still harbour against the English for past +misgovernment. The commercial restraints sapped the industrial instinct +of the people--an evil which was intensified in the case of the +Catholics by the working of the penal laws. When these legislative +restrictions upon industry had been removed, the Irish, not being +trained in industrial habits, were unable to adapt themselves to the +altered conditions produced by the Industrial Revolution, as did the +people in England. And as for commerce, the restrictions, which had as +little moral sanction as the penal laws, and which invested smuggling +with a halo of patriotism, had prevented the development of commercial +morality, without which there can be no commercial success. It is not, +therefore, the destruction of specific industries, or even the sweeping +of our commerce from the seas, about which most complaint is now made. +The real grievance lies in the fact that something had been taken from +our industrial character which could not be remedied by the mere removal +of the restrictions. Not only had the tree been stripped, but the roots +had been destroyed. If ever there was a case where President Kruger's +'moral and intellectual damages' might fairly be claimed by an injured +nation, it is to be found in the industrial and commercial history of +Ireland during the period of the building up of England's commercial +supremacy. + +The English mind quite failed, until the very end of the nineteenth +century, to grasp the real needs of the situation which had thus been +created in Ireland The industrial revolution, as I have indicated, found +the Irish people fettered by an industrial past for which they +themselves were not chiefly responsible. They needed exceptional +treatment of a kind which was not conceded. They were, instead, still +further handicapped, towards the middle of the century, by the adoption +of Free Trade, which was imposed upon them when they were not only +unable to take advantage of its benefits, but were so situated as to +suffer to the utmost from its inconveniences. + +I am convinced that the long-continued misunderstanding of the +conditions and needs of this country, the withholding, for so long, of +necessary concessions, was due not to heartlessness or contempt so much +as to a lack of imagination, a defect for which the English cannot be +blamed. They had, to use a modern term, 'standardised' their qualities, +and it was impossible to get out of their minds the belief that a +divergence, in another race, from their standard of character was +synonymous with inferiority. This attitude is not yet a thing of the +past, but it is fast disappearing; and thoughtful Englishmen now +recognise the righteousness of the claim for reparation, and are willing +liberally to apply any stimulus to our industrial life which may place +us, so far as this is possible, on the level we might have occupied had +we been left to work out our own economic salvation. Unfortunately, all +Englishmen are not thoughtful, and hence I emphasise the fact that +England is largely responsible for our industrial defects, and must not +hesitate to face the financial results of that responsibility. + +When we pass from the domain of commerce, where we have seen that +circumstances reduced to the minimum Ireland's participation in the +industrial supremacy of England, and come to examine the historical +development of Irish agrarian life, we find a situation closely related +to, and indeed, largely created by, that which we have been discussing. +'Debarred from every other trade and industry,' wrote the late Lord +Dufferin, 'the entire nation flung itself back upon the land, with as +fatal an impulse as when a river, whose current is suddenly impeded, +rolls back and drowns the valley which it once fertilised.' The +energies, the hopes, nay, the very existence of the race, became thus +intimately bound up with agriculture. This industry, their last resort +and sole dependence, had to be conducted by a people who in every other +avocation had been unfitted for material success. And this industry, +too, was crippled from without, for a system of land tenure had been +imposed upon Ireland that was probably the most effective that could +have been devised for the purpose of perpetuating and accentuating every +disability to which other causes had given rise. + +The Irish land system suffered from the same ills as we all know the +political institutions to have suffered from--a partial and intermittent +conquest. Land holding in Ireland remained largely based on the tribal +system of open fields and common tillage for nearly eight hundred years +after collective ownership had begun to pass away in England. The sudden +imposition upon the Irish, early in the seventeenth century, of a land +system which was no part of the natural development of the country, +ignored, though it could not destroy, the old feeling of communistic +ownership, and, when this vanished, it did not vanish as it did in +countries where more normal conditions prevailed. It did not perish like +a piece of outworn tissue pushed off by a new growth from within: on the +contrary, it was arbitrarily cut away while yet fresh and vital, with +the result that where a bud should have been there was a scar. + +This sudden change in the system of land-holding was followed by a +century of reprisals and confiscations, and what war began the law +continued. The Celtic race, for the most part impoverished in mind and +estate by the penal laws, became rooted to the soil, for, as we have +seen, they had, on account of the repression of industries, no +alternative occupation, and so became, in fact, if not in law, +_adscripti glebae_. Upon the productiveness of their labour the +landlord depended for his revenues, but he did little to develop that +productiveness, and the system which was introduced did everything to +lessen it.[3] The wound produced by the original confiscation of the +land was kept from healing by the way in which the tenants' improvements +were somewhat similarly treated. I do not mean that they were +systematically confiscated--the Devon and Bessborough Commissions, as +well as Gladstone, bore witness to the contrary--but the right and the +occasional exercise of the right to confiscate operated in the same way. +In the Irish tenant's mind dispossession was nine-tenths of the law. + +An enlightened system of land tenure might have made prosperity and +contentment the lot of the native race, and, perhaps, have rendered +possible such a solution of the Irish problem as was effected between +England and Scotland two centuries ago. What was chiefly required for +agrarian peace was a recognition of that sense of partnership in the +land--a relic of the tribal days--to which the Irish mind tenaciously +adhered. But, like most English concessions, it was not granted until +too late, and then granted in the wrong way. The natural result was +that, when at last the recognition of partnership was enacted, it became +a lever for a demand for complete ownership. But this was the aftermath, +for in the meantime, from the seed sown by English blundering, +Ireland--native population and English garrison alike--had reaped the +awful harvest of the Irish famine, which was followed by a long dark +winter of discontent. Upon the England that sowed the wind there was +visited a whirlwind of hostility from the Irish race scattered +throughout the globe. + +It would be altogether outside the scope or purpose of this chapter to +present a complete history of the remedial legislation applied to Irish +land tenure. That history, however, illustrates so vividly the English +misunderstanding, that a short survey of one phase of it may help to +point the moral. The English intellect at long last began to grasp the +agrarian, though not the industrial side of the wrong that had been done +to Ireland, and the English conscience was moved; there came the era of +concessions to which I have alluded, and for over a quarter of a century +attempts, often generous, if not very discriminating, were made to deal +with the situation. In 1870, dispossession was made very costly to the +landlord. In 1881, it became impossible, except on the tenant's default, +and the partnership was fully recognised, the tenant's share being made +his own to sell, and being preserved for his profitable use by a right +to have the rent payable to his sleeping partner, the landlord, fixed by +a judicial tribunal. These rights were the famous three F's--fixity of +tenure, free sale, and fair rent--of the Magna Charta of the Irish +peasant. If these concessions had only been made in time, they would +probably have led to a strengthening of the economic position and +character of the Irish tenantry, which would have enabled them to take +full advantage of their new status, and meet any condition which might +arise; and it is just possible that the system might have worked well, +even at the eleventh hour, had it been launched on a rising market. +Unhappily, it fell upon evil days. The prosperous times of Irish +agriculture, which culminated a few years before the passing of the +'Tenants' Charter,' were followed by a serious reaction, the result of +causes which, though long operative, were only then beginning to make +themselves felt, and some of which, though the fact was not then +generally recognised, were destined to be of no temporary character. The +agricultural depression which has continued ever since was due, as is +now well known, to foreign competition, or, in other words, to the +opening up of vast areas in the Far West to the plough and herd, and the +bringing of the products of distant countries into the home markets in +ever-increasing quantity, in ever fresher condition, and at an +ever-decreasing cost of transportation. Great changes were taking place +in the market which the Irish farmer supplied, and no two men could +agree as to the relative influence of the new factors of the problem, or +as to their probable duration. + +Whatever may be said in disparagement of the great experiment commenced +in 1881, there can be no doubt that it enormously improved the legal +position of the Irish tenantry, and I, for one, regard it as a +necessary contribution to the events whose logic was finally to bring +about the abolition of dual ownership. But what a curious instance of +the irony of fate is afforded by this genuine attempt to heal an Irish +sore, what a commentary it is upon the English misunderstanding of the +Irish mind! Mr. Gladstone found the land system intolerable to one +party; he made it intolerable to the other also. For half a century +_laissez-faire_ was pedantically applied to Irish agriculture, then +suddenly the other extreme was adopted; nothing was left alone, and +political economy was sent on its famous planetary excursion. + +When Mr. Gladstone was attempting to settle the land question on the +basis of dual ownership, the seed of a new kind of single +ownership--peasant proprietorship--was sown through the influence of +John Bright. The operations of the land purchase clauses in the Church +Disestablishment Act of 1869, and the Land Acts of 1870 and 1881, were +enormously extended by the Land Purchase Acts introduced by the +Conservative Party in 1885 and in 1891, and the success which attended +these Acts accentuated the defects and sealed the fate of dual +ownership, which all parties recently united to destroy. In other words, +Parliament has been undoing a generation's legislative work upon the +Irish land question. + +This is all I need say about that stage of the Irish agrarian situation +at which we have now arrived. What I wish my readers to bear in mind is +that the effect of a bad system of land tenure upon the other aspects of +the Irish Question reaches much further back than the struggles, +agitations, and reforms in connection with Irish land which this +generation has witnessed. The same may be said with regard to the other +economic grievances. No one can be more anxious than I am to fasten the +mind of my countrymen upon the practical things of to-day, and to wean +their sad souls from idle regrets over the sorrows of the past. If I +revive these dead issues, it is because I have learned that no man can +move the Irish mind to action unless he can see its point of view, which +is largely retrospective. I cannot ignore the fact that the attitude of +mind which causes the Irish people to put too much faith in legislative +cures for economic ills is mainly due to the belief that their ancestors +were the victims of a long series of laws by which every industry that +might have made the country prosperous was jealously repressed or +ruthlessly destroyed. Those who are not too much appalled by the +quantity to examine into the quality of popular oratory in Ireland are +familiar with the subordination of present economic issues to the dreary +reiteration of this old tale of woe. Personally I have always held that +to foster resentment in respect of these old wrongs is as stupid as was +the policy which gave them birth; and, even if it were possible to +distribute the blame among our ancestors, I am sure we should do +ourselves much harm, and no living soul any good, in the reckoning. In +my view, Anglo-Irish history is for Englishmen to remember, for Irishmen +to forget. + +I may now conclude my appeal to outside observers for a broader and more +philosophic view of my country and my countrymen with a suggestion born +of my own early mistakes, and with a word of warning which is called for +by my later observation of the mistakes of others. The difficulty of the +outside observer in understanding the Irish Question is, no doubt, +largely due to the fact that those in intimate touch with the actual +conditions are so dominated by vehement and passionate conviction that +reason is not only at a discount but is fatal to the acquisition of +popular influence. Of course the power of knowledge and thought, though +kept in the background, is not really eliminated. But it is in the +circumstances not unnatural that most of us should fall into the error +of attributing to the influence of prominent individuals or +organisations the events and conditions which the superficial observer +regards as the creation of the hour, but which are in reality the +outcome of a slow and continuous process of evolution. I remember as a +boy being captivated by that charming corrective to this view of +historical development, Buckle's _History of Civilization_, which in +recent years has often recurred to my mind, despite the fact that many +of his theories are now somewhat discredited. Buckle, if I remember +right, almost eliminates the personal factor in the life of nations. +According to his theory, it would not have made much difference to +modern civilisation if Napoleon had happened, as was so near being the +case, to be born a British instead of a French subject. It would also +have followed that if O'Connell had limited his activities to his +professional work, or if Parnell had chanced to hate Ireland as bitterly +as he hated England, we should have been, politically, very much where +we are to-day. The student of Irish affairs should, of course, avoid the +extreme views of historical causation; but in the search for the truth +he will, I think, be well advised to attach less significance to the +influence of prominent personality than is the practice of the ordinary +observer in Ireland. + +The warning I have to offer, I think, will be justified by a reflection +upon the history of the panaceas which we have been offered, and upon +our present state. To those of my British readers who honestly desire to +understand the Irish Question, I would say, let them eschew the sweeping +generalisations by which Irish intelligence is commonly outraged. I may +pass by the explanation which rests upon the cheap attribution of racial +inferiority with the simple reply that our inferior race has much of the +superior blood in its veins; yet the Irish problem is just as acute in +districts where the English blood predominates as where the people are +'mere Irish.' If this view be disputed, the matter is not worth arguing +about, because we cannot be born again. But there are three other common +explanations of the Irish difficulty, any one of which taken by itself +only leads away from the truth. I refer, I need hardly say, to the +familiar assertions that the origin of the evil is political, that it is +religious, or that it is neither one nor the other, but economic. In +Irish history, no doubt, we may find, under any of these heads, cause +enough for much of our present wrong-goings. But I am profoundly +convinced that each of the simple explanations to which I have just +alluded--the racial, the political, the religious, the economic--is +based upon reasoning from imperfect knowledge of the facts of Irish +life. The cause and cure of Irish ills are not chiefly political, +broaden or narrow our conception of politics as we will; they are not +chiefly religious, whatever be the effect of Roman Catholic influence +upon the practical side of the people's life; they are not chiefly +economic, be the actual poverty of the people and the potential wealth +of the country what they may. The Irish Question is a broad and deeply +interesting human problem which has baffled generation after generation +of a great and virile race, who complacently attribute their incapacity +to master it to Irish perversity, and pass on, leaving it unsolved by +Anglo-Saxons, and therefore insoluble! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] My own experience confirms Mr. Lecky's view of the chief cause of +this extraordinary feeling. "It is probable," he writes, "that the true +source of the savage hatred of England that animates great bodies of +Irishmen on either side of the Atlantic has very little real connection +with the penal laws, or the rebellion, or the Union. It is far more due +to the great clearances and the vast unaided emigrations that followed +the famine."--_Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland_, Vol. II., p, 177. + +[2] _Spectator_, 6th September, 1902. + +[3] The title to the greater part of Irish land is based on +confiscation. This is true of many other countries, but what was +exceptional in the Irish confiscations was that the grantees for the +most part did not settle on the lands themselves, drive away the +dispossessed, or come to any rational working agreement with them. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE IRISH QUESTION IN IRELAND. + + +Whilst attributing the long continued failure of English rule in Ireland +largely to a misunderstanding of the Irish mind, I have given +England--at least modern England--credit for good intentions towards us. +I now come to the case of the misunderstood, and shall from henceforth +be concerned with the immeasurably greater responsibility of the Irish +people themselves for their own welfare. The most characteristic, and by +far the most hopeful feature of the change in the Anglo-Irish situation +which took place in the last decade of the nineteenth century, and upon +the meaning of which I dwelt in the preceding chapter, is the growing +sense amongst us that the English misunderstanding of Ireland is of far +less importance, and perhaps less inexcusable, than our own +misunderstanding of ourselves. + +When I first came into practical touch with the extraordinarily complex +problems of Irish life, nothing impressed me so much as the universal +belief among my countrymen that Providence had endowed them with +capacities of a high order, and their country with resources of +unbounded richness, but that both the capacities and the resources +remained undeveloped owing to the stupidity--or worse--of British rule. +It was asserted, and generally taken for granted, that the exiles of +Erin sprang to the front in every walk of life throughout the world, in +every country but their own--though I notice that in quite recent times +endeavours have been made to cool the emigration fever by painting the +fortunes of the Irish in America in the darkest colours. To suggest that +there was any use in trying at home to make the best of things as they +were was indicative of a leaning towards British rule; and to attempt to +give practical effect to such a heresy was to draw a red herring across +the path of true Nationalism. + +It is not easy to account for the long continuance of this attitude of +the Irish mind towards Irish problems, which seems unworthy of the +native intelligence of the people. The truth probably is that while we +have not allowed our intellectual gifts to decay, they have been of +little use to us because we have neglected the second part of the old +Scholastic rule of life, and have failed to develop the moral qualities +in which we are deficient. Hence we have developed our critical +faculties, not, unhappily, along constructive lines. We have been +throughout alive to the muddling of our affairs by the English, and have +accurately gauged the incapacity of our governors to appreciate our +needs and possibilities. But we recognised their incapacity more readily +than our own deficiencies, and we estimated the failure of the English +far more justly than we apportioned the responsibility between our +rulers and ourselves. The sense of the duty and dignity of labour has +been lost in the contemplation of circumstances over which it was +assumed that we have no control. + +It is a peculiarity of destructive criticism that, unlike charity, it +generally begins and ends abroad; and those who cultivate the gentle art +are seldom given to morbid introspection. Our prodigious ignorance about +ourselves has not been blissful. Mistaking self-assertion for +self-knowledge, we have presented the pathetic spectacle of a people +casting the blame for their shortcomings on another people, yet bearing +the consequences themselves. The national habit of living in the past +seems to give us a present without achievement, a future without hope. +The conclusion was long ago forced upon me that whatever may have been +true of the past, the chief responsibility for the remoulding of our +national life rests now with ourselves, and that in the last analysis +the problem of Irish ineffectiveness at home is in the main a problem of +character--and of Irish character. + +I am quite aware that such a diagnosis of our mind disease--from which +Ireland is, in my belief, slowly but surely recovering--will not pass +unchallenged, but I would ask any reader who dissents from this view to +take a glance at the picture of our national life as it might unfold +itself to an unprejudiced but sympathetic outsider who came to Ireland +not on a political tour but with a sincere desire to get at the truth of +the Irish Question, and to inquire into the conditions about which all +the controversy continues to rage. + +This hypothetical traveller would discover that our resources are but +half developed, and yet hundreds of thousands of our workers have gone, +and are still going, to produce wealth where it is less urgently needed. +The remnant of the race who still cling to the old country are not only +numerically weak, but in many other ways they show the physical and +moral effects of the drain which emigration has made on the youth, +strength, and energy of the community. Our four and a quarter millions +of people, mainly agricultural, have, speaking generally, a very low +standard of comfort, which they like to attribute to some five or six +millions sterling paid as agricultural rent, and three millions of +alleged over-taxation. They face the situation bravely--and, +incidentally, swell the over-taxation--with the help of the thirteen or +fourteen millions worth of alcoholic stimulants which they annually +consume. The still larger consumption in Great Britain may seem to lend +at least a respectability to this apparent over-indulgence, but it looks +odd. The people are endowed with intellectual capacities of a high +order. They have literary gifts and an artistic sense. Yet, with a few +brilliant exceptions, they contribute nothing to invention and create +nothing in literature or in art. One would say that there must be +something wrong with the education of the country; and most people +declare that it is too literary, though the Census returns show that +there are still large numbers who escape the tyranny of books. The +people have an extraordinary belief in political remedies for economic +ills; and their political leaders, who are not as a rule themselves +actively engaged in business life, tell the people, pointing to ruined +mills and unused water power, that the country once had diversified +industries, and that if they were allowed to apply their panacea, +Ireland would quickly rebuild her industrial life. If our hypothetical +traveller were to ask whether there are no other leaders in the country +besides the eloquent gentlemen who proclaim her helplessness, he would +be told that among the professional classes, the landlords, and the +captains of industry, are to be found as competent popular advisers as +are possessed by any other country of similar economic standing. But +these men take only a dilettante part in politics, and no value is set +on industrial, commercial or professional success in the choice of +public men. Can it be that to the Irish mind politics are, what Bulwer +Lytton declared love to be, "the business of the idle, and the idleness +of the busy"? + +These, though only a few of the strange ironies of Irish life, are so +paradoxical and so anomalous that they are not unnaturally attributed to +the intrusion of an alien and unfriendly power; and this furnishes the +reason why everything which goes wrong is used to nourish the +anti-English sentiment. At the same time they give emphasis to the +growing doubt as to the wisdom of those to whom the Irish Question +presents itself only as a single and simple issue--namely, whether the +laws which are to put all these things right shall be made at St. +Stephen's by the collective wisdom of the United Kingdom, aided by the +voice of Ireland--which is adequately represented--or whether these laws +shall be made by Irishmen alone in a Parliament in College Green. + +It is obviously necessary that, in presenting a comprehensive scheme for +dealing with the conditions I have roughly indicated. I should make some +reference to the attitude towards Home Rule of both the Nationalists and +the Unionists who have joined in work which, whatever be its +irregularity from the standpoint of party discipline as enforced in +Ireland, has succeeded in some degree in directing the energies of our +countrymen to the development of the resources of our country. Many of +my fellow-workers were Nationalists who, while stoutly adhering to the +prime necessity for constitutional changes, took the broad view, which +was unpopular among the Irish Party, that much could be done, even under +present conditions, to build up our national life on its social, +intellectual, and economic sides. The well-known constitutional changes +which were advocated in the political party to which they belonged would +then, they believed, be more effectively demanded by Ireland, and more +readily conceded by England. Unionists who worked with me were similarly +affected by the changing mental outlook of the country. They, too, had +to break loose from the traditions of an Irish party, for they felt that +the exclusively political opposition to Home Rule was not less +demoralising than the exclusively political pursuit of Home Rule. Just +as the Nationalists who joined the movement believed that all progress +must make for self-government, so my Unionist fellow-workers believed +it would ultimately strengthen the Union. Each view was thoroughly sound +from the standpoint of those who held it, and could be regarded with +respect by those who did not. We were all convinced that the way to +achieve what is best for Ireland was to develop what is best in +Irishmen. And it was the conviction that this can be done by Irishmen in +Ireland that brought together those whose thought and work supplies +whatever there may be of interest in this book. + +If I have fairly stated the attitude towards each other of the workers +to whose coming together must be attributed as much of the change in the +Irish situation as is due to Irish initiation, it will be seen that what +had so long kept them apart in public affairs, outside politics, was a +difference of opinion, not so much as to the conditions to be dealt +with, nor, indeed, as to the end to be sought, but rather as to the +means most effective for the attainment of that end. I naturally regard +the view which I am putting forward as being broader than that which has +hitherto prevailed. Some Nationalists may, however, contend that it is +essential to progress that the thoughts and energies of the nation +should be focussed upon a single movement, and not dissipated in the +pursuit of a multiplicity of ideals. I quite admit the importance of +concentration. But I strongly hold that any movement which is closely +related to the main currents of the people's life and subservient to +their urgent economic necessities, and which gives free play to the +intellectual qualities, while strengthening the moral or industrial +character, cannot be held to conflict with any national programme of +work, without raising a strong presumption that there is something wrong +with the programme. The exclusively political remedy I shall discuss in +the next chapter, but here I propose to consider some of the problems +which the new movement seeks to solve without waiting for the political +millenium. + +It is a commonplace that there are two Irelands, differing in race, in +creed, in political aspiration, and in what I regard as a more potent +factor than all the others put together--economic interest and +industrial pursuit. In the mutual misunderstanding of these two +Irelands, still more than in the misunderstanding of Ireland by England, +is to be found the chief cause of the still unsettled state of the Irish +Question. I shall not seek to apportion the blame between the two +sections of the population; but as the mists clear away and we can begin +to construct a united and contented Ireland, it is not only legitimate, +but helpful in the extreme, to assign to the two sections of our +wealth-producers their respective parts in repairing the fortunes of +their country. In such a discussion of future developments chief +prominence must necessarily be given to the problems affecting the life +of the majority of the people, who depend directly on the land, and +conduct the industry which produces by far the greater portion of the +wealth of the country. It is, of course, essential to the prosperity of +the whole community that the North should pursue and further develop +its own industrial and commercial life. That section of the community +has also, no doubt, economic and educational problems to face, but these +are much the same problems as those of industrial communities in other +parts of the United Kingdom[4]; and if they do not receive, vitally +important as is their solution to the welfare of Ireland, any large +share of attention in this book, it is because they are no part of what +is ordinarily understood by the Irish Question. + +Nevertheless, the interest of the manufacturing population of Ulster in +the welfare of the Roman Catholic agricultural majority is not merely +that of an onlooker, nor even that of the other parts of the United +Kingdom, but something more. It is obvious that the internal trade of +the country depends mainly upon the demand of the rural population for +the output of the manufacturing towns, and that this demand must depend +on the volume of agricultural production. I think the importance of +developing the home market has not been sufficiently appreciated, even +by Belfast. The best contribution the Ulster Protestant population can +make to the solution of this question is to do what they can to bring +about cordial co-operation between the two great sections of the +wealth-producers of Ireland. They should, I would suggest, learn to take +a broader and more patriotic view of the problems of the Roman Catholic +and agricultural majority, upon the true nature of which I hope to be +able to throw some new light. My purpose will be doubly served if I +have, to some extent, brought home to the minds of my Northern friends +that there is in Ireland an unsettled question in which they are largely +concerned, a rightly unsatisfied people by helping whom they can best +help themselves. + +The Irish Question is, then, in that aspect which must be to Irishmen of +paramount importance, the problem of a national existence, chiefly an +agricultural existence, in Ireland. To outside observers it is the +question of rural life, a question which is assuming a social and +economic importance and interest of the most intense character, not only +for Ireland North and South, but for almost the whole civilised world. +It is becoming increasingly difficult in many parts of the world to keep +the people on the land, owing to the enormously improved industrial +opportunities and enhanced social and intellectual advantages of urban +life. The problem can be better examined in Ireland than elsewhere, for +with us it can, to a large extent, be isolated, since we have little +highly developed town life. Our rural exodus takes our people, for the +most part, not into Irish or even into British towns, but into those of +the United States. What is migration in other countries is emigration +with us, and the mind of the country, brooding over the dreary +statistics of this perennial drain, naturally and longingly turns to +schemes for the rehabilitation of rural life--the only life it knows. + +We cannot exercise much direct influence upon the desire to emigrate +beyond spreading knowledge as to the real conditions of life in America, +for which home life in Ireland is often ignorantly bartered.[5] We +cannot isolate the phenomenon of emigration and find a cure for it apart +from the rest of the Irish Question. We must recognise that emigration +is but the chief symptom of a low national vitality, and that the first +result of our efforts to stay the tide may increase the outflow. We +cannot fit the people to stay without fitting them to go. Before we can +keep the people at home we have got to construct a national life with, +in the first place, a secure basis of physical comfort and decency. This +life must have a character, a dignity, an outlook of its own. A +comfortable Boeotia will never develop into a real Hibernia Pacata. The +standard of living may in some ways be lower than the English standard: +in some ways it may be higher. But even if statesmanship and all the +forces of philanthropy and patriotism combined can construct a contented +rural Ireland for the people, it can only be maintained by the people. +It will have to accord with the national sentiment and be distinctively +Irish. It is this national aspiration, and the remarkable promise of the +movements making for its fruition, which give to the work of Irish +social and economic reform the fascination which those who do not know +the Ireland of to-day cannot understand. This work of reform must, of +course, be primarily economic, but economic remedies cannot be applied +to Irish ills without the spiritual aids which are required to move to +action the latent forces of Irish reason and emotion. + + * * * * * + +The task which we have to face is, then, a two-sided one, but its +economic and its purely practical aspects first demand consideration. +Many even of the agrarian aspects of the question have, so far, been +somewhat neglected in Ireland owing to a cause which is not far to seek. +It has often been asserted that the Irish Question is, at bottom, the +Land Question. There is a great deal of truth in this view, but almost +all those who hold it have fallen into the grave error of tacitly +identifying the land question with the tenure question--an error which +vitiates a great deal of current theorising about Ireland. It was, +indeed, inevitable that Irish agriculturists, with such an economic +history behind them as I have outlined in the previous chapter, should +have concentrated their attention during the latter half of the +nineteenth century upon obtaining a legislative cure for the ills +produced by legislation, to the comparative neglect of those equally +difficult, if less obvious economic questions, which have been brought +into special prominence by the agricultural depression of the last +quarter of a century. Now, however, that the Land Act of 1903 has been +passed and the solution of the tenure question is in sight, we in +Ireland are more free to direct our attention to what is at present the +most important aspect of the agrarian situation--the necessity for +determining the social and economic conditions essential to the +well-being of the peasant proprietary, which, though it is to be started +with as bright an outlook as the law can give, must stand or fall by its +own inherent merits or defects. Not only are we now free to give +adequate consideration to this question, but it is also imperative that +we should do so, for whilst I am hopeful that the Land Act will settle +the question of tenure, it will obviously not merely leave the other +problems of agricultural existence--problems some of which are not +unknown in other parts of the United Kingdom--still unsolved, but will +also increase the necessity for their solution, and will, moreover, +bring in its train complex difficulties of its own. + +The main features of the depressing outlook of rural life in the United +Kingdom are well known. The land steadily passes from under the plough +and is given over to stock raising. As the kine increase the men decay. +In Ireland the rural exodus takes, as I have already said, the shape, +mainly, not of migration to Irish urban centres, but rather the uglier +form of an emigration which not only depletes our population but drains +it of the very elements which can least be spared. + +The reason generally given for the widespread resort to the lotus-eating +occupation of opening and shutting gates, in preference to tilling the +soil, is that in the existing state of agricultural organisation, and +while urban life is ever drawing away labour from the fields, the +substitution of pasturage for tillage is the readiest way to meet the +ruinous competition of Eastern Europe, the Western Hemisphere, and +Australasia. Yet upon the economic merits of this process I have heard +the most diverse opinions stated with equal conviction by men thoroughly +well informed as to the conditions. One of the largest graziers in +Ireland recently gave me a picture of what he considered to be an ideal +economic state for the country. If two more Belfasts could be +established on the east coast, and the rest of the country divided into +five hundred acre farms, grazing being adopted wherever permanent grass +would grow, the limits of Irish productivity would be reached. On the +other hand, Dr. O'Donnell, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Raphoe, who may +be taken as an authoritative exponent of the trend of popular thought in +the country, not long ago advocated ploughing the grazing lands of +Leinster right up to the slopes of Tara.[6] Moreover, many theories have +been advanced to show that the decline of tillage, whatever be its +cause, involves an enormous waste of national resources. But of +practical suggestion, making for a remedy, there is very little +forthcoming. + +The solution of all such problems largely depends upon certain +developments which, for many reasons, I regard as absolutely essential +to the success of the new agrarian order. One of these developments is +the spread of agricultural co-operation through voluntary associations. +Without this agency of social and economic progress, small landholders +in Ireland will be but a body of isolated units, having all the +drawbacks of individualism, and none of its virtues, unorganised and +singularly ill-equipped for that great international struggle of our +time, which we know as agricultural competition. Moreover, there is +another equally important, if less obvious, consideration which renders +urgent the organisation of our rural communities. From Russia, with its +half-communistic Mir to France with its modern village commune, there is +no country in Europe except the United Kingdom where the peasant +land-holders have not some form of corporate existence. In Ireland the +transition from landlordism to a peasant proprietary not only does not +create any corporate existence among the occupying peasantry but rather +deprives them of the slight social coherence which they formerly +possessed as tenants of the same landlord. The estate office has its +uses as well as its disadvantages, and the landlord or agent is by no +means without his value as a business adviser to those from whom he +collects the rent. + +The organisation of the peasantry by an extension of voluntary +associations, which is a condition precedent of social and economic +progress, will not, however, suffice to enable them to face and solve +the problems with which they are confronted, and whose solution has now +become a matter of very serious concern to the British taxpayer. The +condition of our agrarian life clearly indicates the necessity for +supplementing voluntary effort with a sound system of State aid to +agriculture and industry--a necessity fully recognised by the +governments of every progressive continental country and of our own +colonies. An altogether hopeful beginning of combined self-help and +State assistance has been already made. Those who have been studying +these problems, and practically preparing the way for the proper care of +a peasant proprietary, have overcome the chief obstacles which lay in +their path. They have gained popular acceptance for the principle that +State aid should not be resorted to until organised voluntary effort has +first been set in motion, and that any departure from this principle +would be an unwarrantable interference with the business of the people, +a fatal blow to private enterprise.[7] + +The task before the people, and before the State, of placing the new +agrarian order upon a permanent basis of decency and comfort is no light +one. Indeed, I doubt whether Parliament realises one-tenth of the +problems which the latest land legislation--by far the best we have yet +had--leaves unsolved. This becomes only too clear the moment we consider +seriously the fundamental question of the relation of population to area +in rural Ireland, or, in other words, when we inquire how many people +the agricultural land will support under existing circumstances, or +under any attainable improvement of the conditions in our rural life. +Roughly speaking, the surface area of the island is 20,000,000 acres, of +which 5,000,000 are described in the official returns as 'barren +mountain, bog and waste.' This leaves us with some 15,000,000 acres +available for agriculture and grazing, which area is now divided into +some 500,000 holdings. Thus we have an average of thirty acres in extent +for the Irish agricultural holding. But, unhappily, the returns show +that some 200,000 of these holdings are from one to fifteen acres in +extent. Nor do the mere figures show the case at its worst. For it +happens that the small holdings in Ireland, unlike those on the +Continent, are generally on the poorest land, and the majority of them +cannot come within any of the definitions of an 'economic holding.' + +These 200,000 holdings, the homes of nearly a million persons, threaten +to prove the greatest danger to the future of agricultural Ireland. As +the majority of them, as at present constituted, do not provide the +physical basis of a decent standard of living, the question arises, how +are they to be improved? Putting aside emigration, which at one period +was necessary and ought to have been aided and controlled by the State, +but which is now no longer a statesman's remedy, there is obviously no +solution except by the migration of a portion of the occupiers, and the +utilisation of the vacated holdings in order to enable the peasants who +remain to prosper--much as a forest is thinned to promote the growth of +trees. In typical congested districts this operation will have to be +carried out on a much larger scale than is generally realised, for a +considerable majority of families will have to be removed, in order to +allow a sufficient margin for the provision of adequate holdings for +those who remain. In some cases, there are large grazing tracts in close +proximity to the congested area which might be utilised for the +re-settlement, but where this is not so and the occupiers of the vacated +holdings have to migrate a considerable distance, the problem becomes +far more difficult. I need not dwell upon the administrative +difficulties of the operation, which are not light. I may assume, also, +that there will be no difficulty in obtaining suitable land somewhere. I +do not myself attach much weight to the unwillingness of the people to +leave their old holdings for better ones, or to the alleged objection of +the clergy to allow their parishioners to go to another parish. More +serious is the possible opposition of those who live in the vicinity of +the unoccupied land about to be distributed, and who feel that they have +the first claim upon the State in any scheme for its redistribution with +the help of public credit. Mr. Parnell promoted a company with the sole +object of practically demonstrating how this problem could be solved. A +large capital was raised, and a large estate purchased; but the company +did not effect the migration of a single family. Still these are minor +considerations compared with the larger one, to which I must briefly +refer. + +Under the Land Act of 1903 much has been done to facilitate the transfer +of peasants to new farms, but it is obvious that land cannot be handed +over as a gift from the State to the families which migrate. They will +become debtors for the value of the land itself, less perhaps a small +sum which may be credited to them in respect of the tenant's interest in +the holdings they have abandoned. This deduction will, however, be lost +in the expenditure required upon houses, buildings, fences, and other +improvements which would have to be effected before the land could be +profitably occupied. Speaking generally they will have no money or +agricultural implements, and their live stock will in many cases be +mortgaged to the local shopkeeper who has always financed them. It will +be necessary for the future welfare of the country to give them land +which admits of cultivation upon the ordinary principles of modern +agriculture; but without working capital, and bringing with them neither +the skill nor the habits necessary for the successful conduct of their +industry under the new conditions, it will be no easy task to place them +in a position to discharge their obligations to the State. It is all +very easy to talk about the obvious necessity of giving more land to +cultivators who have not enough to live upon; and there is, no doubt, a +poetic justice in the Utopian agrarianism which dangles before the eyes +of the Connaught peasantry the alternative of Heaven or Leinster. But +when we come down to practical economics, and face the task of giving to +a certain number of human beings, in an extremely backward industrial +condition, the opportunity of placing themselves and their families on a +basis of permanent well-being, it will be evident that, so far, at any +rate, as this particular community is concerned, the mere provision of +an economic holding is after all but a part of an economic existence. + +I have touched upon this question of migration from uneconomic to +economic holdings because it signally illustrates the importance of the +human, in contradistinction to the merely material considerations +involved in the solution of the many-sided Irish Question. I must now +return to the wider question of the relation of population to area in +rural Ireland, as it affects the general scheme of agricultural and +industrial development. + +It is obvious that there must be a limit to the number of individuals +that the land can support. Allowing an average of five members for each +family, and allowing for a considerable number of landless labourers, it +seems that the land at present directly supports about 2,500,000 +persons--a view which, I may add, is fully borne out by the figures of +the recent census; and it is hard to see how a population living by +agriculture can be much increased beyond this number. Even if all the +land in Ireland were available for re-distribution in equal shares, the +higher standard of comfort to which it is essential that the condition +of our people should be raised would forbid the existence of much more +than half a million peasant proprietors.[8] Hence the evergreen query, +'What shall we do with our boys?' remains to be answered; for while the +abolition of dual ownership will enable the present generation to bring +up their children according to a higher standard of living, the change +will not of itself provide a career for the children when they have been +brought up. The next generation will have to face this problem:--the +average farm can support only one of the children and his family, what +is to become of the others? The law forbids sub-division for two +generations, and after that, _ex hypothesi_, the then prevailing +conditions of life will also prevent such partition. A few of the next +generation may become agricultural labourers, but this involves +descending to the lowest standard of living of to-day, and in any case +the demand for agricultural labourers is not capable of much extension +in a country of small peasant proprietors. + +Against this view I know it is pointed out that in the earlier part of +the nineteenth century the agricultural population of Ireland was as +large as is the total population of to-day; but we know the sequel. +Instances are also cited of peasant proprietaries in foreign countries +which maintain a high standard of living upon small, sometimes +diminutive, and highly-rented holdings. We must remember, however, that +in these foreign countries State intervention has undoubtedly done much +to render possible a prosperous peasant proprietary by, for example, the +dissemination of useful information, admirable systems of technical +education in agriculture, cheap and expeditious transport, and even +State attention to the distribution of agricultural produce in distant +markets. Again, in many of these countries rural life is balanced by a +highly industrial town life, as, for instance, in the case of Belgium; +or is itself highly industrialised by the existence of rural industries, +as in the case of Switzerland; while in one notable instance--that of +Württemberg--both these conditions prevail. + +The true lesson to be drawn from these foreign analogies is that not by +agriculture alone is Ireland to be saved. The solution of the rural +problem embraces many spheres of national activity. It involves, as I +have already said, the further development of manufactures in Irish +towns. One of the best ways to stimulate our industries is to develop +the home market by means of an increased agricultural production, and a +higher standard of comfort among the peasant producers. We shall thus +be, so to speak, operating on consumption as well as on production, and +so increasing the home demand for Irish manufactures. Perhaps more +urgent than the creation or extension of manufactures on a larger scale +is the development of industries subsidiary to agriculture in the +country. This is generally admitted, and most people have a fair +knowledge of the wide and varied range of peasant industries in all +European countries where a prosperous peasantry exists. Nor is there +much difficulty in agreeing upon the main conditions to be satisfied in +the selection of the industries to meet the requirements of our case. +The men and boys require employment in the winter months, or they will +not stay, and the rural industries promoted should, as far as possible, +be those which allow of intermittent attention. The female members of +the family must have profitable and congenial employment. The +handicrafts to be promoted must be those which will give scope to the +native genius and aesthetic sense. But unless we can thus supply the +demand of the peasant-industry market with products of merit or +distinctiveness, we shall fail in competition with the hereditary skill +and old established trade of peasant proprietors which have solved this +part of the problem generations ago. This involves the vigorous +application of a class of instruction of which something will be said +in the proper place. + +So far the rural industry problem, and the direction in which its +solution is to be found, are fairly clear. But there is one disadvantage +with which we have to reckon, and which for many other reasons besides +the one I am now immediately concerned with, we must seek to remove. A +community does not naturally or easily produce for export that for which +it has itself no use, taste, or desire. Whatever latent capacity for +artistic handicrafts the Irish peasant may possess, it is very rarely +that one finds any spontaneous attempt to give outward expression to the +inward aesthetic sense. And this brings me to a strange aspect of Irish +life to which I have often wished, on the proper occasion, to draw +public attention. The matter arises now in the form of a peculiar +difficulty which lies in the path of those who endeavour to solve the +problem of rural life in Ireland, and which, in my belief, has +profoundly affected the fortunes of the race both at home and abroad. + +To a sympathetic insight there is a singular and significant void in the +Irish conception of a home--I mean the lack of appreciation for the +comforts of a home, which might never have been apparent to me had it +not obtruded itself in the form of a hindrance to social and economic +progress.[9] In the Irish love of home, as in the larger national +aspirations, the ideal has but a meagre material basis, its appeal being +essentially to the social and intellectual instincts. It is not the +physical environment and comfort of an orderly home that enchain and +attract minds still dominated, more or less unconsciously, by the +associations and common interests of the primitive clan, but rather the +sense of human neighbourhood and kinship which the individual finds in +the community. Indeed the Irish peasant scarcely seems to have a home in +the sense in which an Englishman understands the word. If he love the +place of his habitation he does not endeavour to improve or to adorn it, +or indeed to make it in any sense a reflection of his own mind and +taste. He treats life as if he were a mere sojourner upon earth whose +true home is somewhere else, a fact often attributed to his intense +faith in the unseen, but which I regard as not merely due to this cause, +but also, and in a large measure, as the natural outcome of historical +conditions, to which I shall presently refer. + +What the Irishman is really attached to in Ireland is not a home but a +social order. The pleasant amenities, the courtesies, the leisureliness, +the associations of religion, and the familiar faces of the neighbours, +whose ways and minds are like his and very unlike those of any other +people; these are the things to which he clings in Ireland and which he +remembers in exile. And the rawness and eagerness of America, the lust +of the eye and the pride of life that meet him, though with no welcoming +aspect, at every turn, the sense of being harshly appraised by new +standards of the nature of which he has but the dimmest conception, his +helplessness in the fierce current of industrial life in which he is +plunged, the climatic extremes of heat and cold, the early hours and few +holidays: all these experiences act as a rude shock upon the +ill-balanced refinement of the Irish immigrant. Not seldom, he or she +loses heart and hope and returns to Ireland mentally and physically a +wreck, a sad disillusionment to those who had been comforted in the +agony of the leave-taking by the assurance that to emigrate was to +succeed. + +The peculiar Irish conception of a home has probably a good deal to do +with the history of the Irish in the United States. It is well known +that whatever measure of success the Irish emigrant has there achieved +is pre-eminently in the American city, and not where, according to all +the usual commonplaces about the Irish race, they ought to have +succeeded, in American rural life. There they were afforded, and there +they missed, the greatest opportunity which ever fell to the lot of a +people agriculturally inclined. During the days of the great emigrations +from Ireland, a veritable Promised Land, rich beyond the dreams of +agricultural avarice, was gradually opened up between the Alleghanies +and the Rocky Mountains, which the Irish had only to occupy in order to +possess. Making all allowances for the depressing influences which had +been brought to bear upon the spirit of enterprise, and for their +impoverished condition, I am convinced that a prime cause of the failure +of almost every effort to settle them upon the land was the fact that +the tenement house, with all its domestic abominations, provided the +social order which they brought with them from Ireland, and the lack of +which on the western prairie no immediate or prospective physical +comfort could make good. + +Recently a daughter of a small farmer in County Galway with a family too +'long' for the means of subsistence available, was offered a comfortable +home on a farm owned by some better-off relatives, only thirty miles +away, though probably twenty miles beyond the limits of her utmost +peregrinations. She elected in preference to go to New York, and being +asked her reason by a friend of mine, replied in so many words, 'because +it is nearer.' She felt she would be less of a stranger in a New York +tenement house, among her relatives and friends who had already +emigrated, than in another part of County Galway. Educational science in +Ireland has always ignored the life history of the subject with which it +dealt. In no respect has this neglect been so unconsciously cruel as in +its failure to implant in the Irish mind that appreciation of the +material aspects of the home which the people so badly need both in +Ireland and in America If the Irishman abroad became 'a rootless +colonist of alien earth,' the lot of the Irishman in Ireland has been +not less melancholy. Sadness there is, indeed, in the story of 'the +sea-divided Gael,' but, to me, it is incomparably less pathetic than +their homelessness at home. + +There are, as I have said, historic reasons for the Celtic view of home +to which my personal observation and experience has induced me to devote +so much space. The Irish people have never had the opportunity of +developing that strong and salutary individualism which, amongst other +things, imperiously demands, as a condition of its growth, a home that +shall be a man's castle as well as his abiding place. In this, as in so +much else, a healthy evolution was constantly thwarted by the clash of +two peoples and two civilisations. The Irish had hardly emerged from the +nomad pastoral stage, when the first of that series of invasions, which +had all the ferocity, without the finality of conquest, made settled +life impossible over the greater part of the island. An old chronicle +throws some vivid light upon the way in which the idea of home life +presented itself to the mind of the clan chiefs as late as the days of +the Tudors. "Con O'Neal," we are told, "was so right Irish that he +cursed all his posterity in case they either learnt English, sowed wheat +or built them houses; lest the first should breed conversation, the +second commerce, and with the last they should speed as the crow that +buildeth her nest to be beaten out by the hawk."[10] The penal laws, +again, acted as a disintegrant of the home and the family; and, +finally, the paralysing effect of the abuses of a system of land tenure, +under which evidences of thrift and comfort might at any time become +determining factors in the calculation of rent, completed a series of +causes which, in unison or isolation, were calculated to destroy at its +source the growth of a wholesome domesticity. These causes happily, no +longer exist, and powerful forces are arising to overcome the defects +and disadvantages which they have bequeathed to us; and I have little +doubt that it will be possible to deal successfully with this obstacle +which adds so peculiar a feature to the problem of rural life in +Ireland. + +If I have dwelt at what may appear to be a disproportionate length upon +the Irishman's peculiar conception of a home, it is because this +difficulty, which Irish social and economic reformers still encounter, +and with which they must deal sympathetically if they are to succeed in +the work of national regeneration, strikingly illustrates the two-sided +character of the Irish Question and the never-to-be-forgotten +inter-dependence of the sentimental and the practical in Ireland. I +admit that this condition which adds to the interest of the problem, and +perhaps makes it more amenable to rapid solution, is an indication of a +weakness of moral fibre to which must be largely attributed our failure +to be master of our circumstances. Indeed, as I come into closer touch +with the efforts which are now being made to raise the material +condition of the people, the more convinced I become, much as my +practical training has made me resist the conviction, that the Irish +Question is, in its most difficult and most important aspects, the +problem of the Irish mind, and that the solution of this problem is to +be found in the strengthening of Irish character. + +With this enunciation of the main proposition of my book, I may now +indicate the order in which I shall endeavour to establish its truth. I +have said enough to show that I do not ignore the historical causes of +our present state; but with so many facts with which we can deal +confronting us, I propose to review the chief living influences to which +the Irish mind and character are still subjected. These influences fall +naturally into three distinct categories and will be treated in the +three succeeding chapters. The first will show the effect upon the Irish +mind of its obsession by politics. The next will deal with the influence +of religious systems upon the secular life of the people. I shall then +show how education, which should not only have been the most potent of +all the three influences in bringing our national life into line with +the progress of the age, but should also have modified the operation of +the other two causes, has aggravated rather than cured the malady. + +Whatever impression I may succeed in making upon others, I may here +state that, as the result of observation and reflection, the conclusion +has been forced upon me that the Irish mind is suffering from +considerable functional derangement, but not, so far as I can discern, +from any organic disease. This is the basis of my optimism. I shall +submit in another chapter, which will conclude the first, the critical +part of my book, certain new principles of treatment which are indicated +by the diagnosis; and I would ask the reader, before he rejects the +opinions which are there expressed, to persevere through the narrative +contained in the second part of the book. There he will find in process +of solution some of the problems which I have indicated, and the +principles for which a theoretical approval has been asked, in practical +operation, and already passing out of the experimental stage. The story +of the Self-help Movement will strike the note of Ireland's economic +hopes. The action of the Recess Committee will be explained, and the +concession of their demand by the establishment of a 'Department of +Agriculture and other rural industries and for Technical Instruction for +Ireland,' will be described. This will complete the story of a quiet, +unostentatious movement which will some day be seen to have made the +last decade of the nineteenth century a fit prelude to a future +commensurate with the potentialities of the Irish people. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] I speak from personal knowledge when I say that the leaders of Irish +industry and commerce are fully alive to the practical consideration +which they have now to devote to the new conditions by which they are +surrounded. They recognise that the intensified foreign competition +which harasses them is due chiefly to German education and American +enterprise. They are deep in the consideration of the form which +technical education should take to meet their peculiar needs; and I am +confident that Ulster will make a sound and useful contribution to the +solution of the commercial and industrial problems which confront the +manufacturers of the United Kingdom. + +[5] That such a knowledge is still required, though the need is becoming +less urgent, is shown by an incident which illustrates the pathos of the +Irish exodus. A poor woman once asked me to help her son to emigrate to +America, and I agreed to pay his passage. Early in the negotiations, +finding that she was somewhat vague as to her boy's prospects, I asked +her whether he wanted to go to North or South America. This detail she +seemed to consider immaterial. "Ach, glory be to God, I lave that to yer +honner. Why wouldn't I?" Had I shipped him to Peru she would have been +quite satisfied. Why wouldn't she? + +[6] Yet another view which seems to uproot most agrarian ideas in +Ireland has been put forward by Dr. O'Gara in _The Green Republic_ +(Fisher Unwin, 1902). His main conclusion is that the present disastrous +state of our rural economy is due to our treating land as an object of +property and not of industry. He advocates the cultivation of the land +by syndicates holding farms of 20,000 acres and tilling them by the +lavish application of modern machinery as the only way to meet American +competition. His book is able and suggestive, but it is perhaps, a work +of supererogation to discuss a theory the whole moral of which is the +expediency of absolutely divorcing the functions of the proprietor and +the manager of land at a time when the consensus of opinion in Ireland +is in favour of uniting them, and in view of the fact that under the new +Land Act the future of the country seems inevitably to lie for a long +time in the hands of a peasant proprietary. + +[7] The reader may wonder why I touch so lightly upon a fact of such +profound significance as the Irishman's acceptance of self-help as a +condition precedent of State aid in the development of agriculture and +industry. But such a cursory treatment, in the early chapters, of this +and of other equally important aspects of the Irish situation is +necessitated by the plan I have adopted. I am attempting to give in the +first part of the book a philosophic insight into the chief Irish +problems, and then, in the second part of the book, to present the facts +which appear to me to illustrate these problems in process of solution. + +[8] The best expert agricultural opinion tells me that under present +conditions a family cannot live in any decent standard of comfort--such +as I hope to see prevail in Ireland--on less than 30 acres of Irish +land, taking the bad land with the good. + +[9] It is, of course, unnecessary for me to dwell upon the part played +by the home in the standard of living, especially amongst a rural +community. But it may not be irrelevant to note that M. Desmolins, who, +in his remarkable book, _A quoi tient la superiorité des Anglo-saxons_? +hands over the future of civilisation to the Anglo-Saxons, ascribes to +the English rural home much of the success of the race. + +[10] Speed's Chronicle, quoted in _Calendar of State Papers, Ireland,_ +1611-14, p. xix. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE INFLUENCE OF POLITICS UPON THE IRISH MIND. + + +Among the humours of the Home Rule struggle, the story was current in +England that a peasant in Connemara ceased planting his potatoes when +the news of the introduction of the Home Rule Bill in 1886 seemed to +bring the millenium into the region of practical politics. Those who +used the story were not slow to suggest that, had the Bill become law, +the failure of spontaneous generation in the Connemara potato patch +might have been typical of much analogous disillusionment elsewhere. +Even to those who are familiar with our history, the faith of the Irish +people in the potentialities of government, which this little tale +illustrates by caricature, will give cause for reflection of another and +more serious kind. The moral to be drawn by Irish politicians is that we +in Ireland have yet to free ourselves from one of the worst legacies of +past misgovernment, the belief that any legislation or any legislature +can provide an escape from the physical and mental toil imposed through +our first parents upon all nations for all time. + +'The more business in politics, and the less politics in business, the +better for both,' is a maxim which I brought home from the Far West and +ventured to advocate publicly some years ago. Being still of the same +mind, I regret that I am compelled to introduce a whole chapter of +politics into this book, which is a study of Irish affairs mainly from a +social and economic point of view. But to ignore, either in the +diagnosis or in the treatment of the 'mind diseased,' the political +obsession of our national life would be about as wise as to discuss and +plan a Polar expedition without taking account of the climatic +conditions to be encountered. + +In such an examination of Irish politics as thus becomes necessary I +shall have to devote the greater part of my criticism to the influence +of the Nationalist party upon the Irish mind. But it will be seen that +this course is not taken with a view to making party capital for my own +side. As I read Irish history, neither party need expect very much +credit for more than good intentions. Whichever proves to be right in +its main contention, each will have to bear its share of the +responsibility for the long continuance of the barren controversy. Each +has neglected to concern itself with the settlement of vitally important +questions the consideration of which need not have been postponed +because the constitutional question still remained in dispute. +Therefore, though I seem to throw upon the Nationalist party the chief +blame for our present political backwardness, and, so far as politics +affect other spheres of national activity, for our industrial +depression, candour compels me to admit that Irish Unionism has failed +to recognise its obligation--an obligation recognised by the Unionist +party in Great Britain--to supplement opposition to Home Rule with a +positive and progressive policy which could have been expected to +commend itself to the majority of the Irish people--the Irish of the +Irish Question. + +To my own party in Ireland then, I would first direct the reader's +attention. I have already referred to the deplorable effects produced +upon national life by the exclusion of representatives of the landlord +and the industrial classes from positions of leadership and trust over +four-fifths of the country. I cannot conceive of a prosperous Ireland in +which the influence of these leaders is restricted within its present +bounds. It has been so restricted because the Irish Unionist party has +failed to produce a policy which could attract, at any rate, moderate +men from the other side, and we have, therefore, to consider why we have +so failed. Until this is done, we shall continue to share the blame for +the miserable state of our political life which, at the end of the +nineteenth century, appeared to have made but little advance from the +time when Bishop Berkeley asked 'Whether our parties are not a burlesque +upon politics.' + +The Irish Unionist party is supposed to unite all who, like the author, +are opposed to the plunge into what is called Home Rule. But its +propagandist activities in Ireland are confined to preaching the +doctrine of the _status quo_, and preaching it only to its own side. +From the beginning the party has been intimately connected with the +landlord class; yet even upon the land question it has thrown but few +gleams of the constructive thought which that question so urgently +demanded, and which it might have been expected to apply to it. Now and +again an individual tries to broaden the basis of Irish Unionism and to +bring himself into touch with the life of the people. But the nearer he +gets to the people the farther he gets from the Irish Unionist leaders. +The lot of such an individual is not a happy one: he is regarded as a +mere intruder who does not know the rules of the game, and he is treated +by the leading players on both sides like a dog in a tennis court. + +Two main causes appear to me to account for the failure of the Irish +Unionist party to make itself an effective force in Irish national life. +The great misunderstanding to which I have attributed the unhappy state +of Anglo-Irish relations kept the country in a condition of turmoil +which enabled the Unionist party to declare itself the party of law and +order. Adopting Lord Salisbury's famous prescription, 'twenty years of +resolute government,' they made it what its author would have been the +last man to consider it, a sufficient justification for a purely +negative and repressive policy. Such an attitude was open to somewhat +obvious objections. No one will dispute the proposition that the +government of Ireland, or of any other country, should be resolute, but +twenty years of resolute government, in the narrow sense in which it +came to be interpreted, needed for its success, what cannot be had under +party government, twenty years of consistency. It may be better to be +feared than to be loved, but Machiavelli would have been the first to +admit that his principle did not apply where the Government which sought +to establish fear had to reckon with an Opposition which was making +capital out of love. Moreover, the suggestion that the Irish Question is +not a matter of policy but of police, while by no means without +influential adherents, is altogether vicious. You cannot physically +intimidate Irishmen, and the last thing you want to do is morally to +intimidate a people whose greatest need at the moment is moral courage. + +The second cause which determined the character of Irish Unionism was +the linking of the agrarian with the political question; the one being, +in effect, a practical, the other a sentimental issue. The same thing +happened in the Nationalist party; but on their side it was intentional +and led to an immense accession of strength, while on the Unionist side +it made for weakness. If the influence of Irish Unionists was to be even +maintained, it was of vital importance that the interest of a class +should not be allowed to dominate the policy of the party. But the +organisation which ought to have rallied every force that Ireland could +contribute to the cause of imperial unity came to be too closely +identified with the landlord class. That class is admittedly essential +to the construction of any real national life. But there is another +element equally essential, to which the political leaders of Irish +Unionism have not given the prominence which is its due. The Irish +Question has been so successfully narrowed down to two simple policies, +one positive but vague, the other negative but definite, that to suggest +that there are three distinct forces--three distinct interests--to be +taken into account seems like confusing the issue. It is a fact, +nevertheless, that a very important element on the Unionist side, the +industrial element, has been practically left out of the calculation by +both sides. Yet the only expression of real political thought which I +have observed in Ireland, since I have been in touch with Irish life, +has emanated from the Ulster Liberal-Unionist Association, whose weighty +pronouncements, published from time to time, are worthy of deep +consideration by all interested in the welfare of Ireland. + +It will be remembered that when the Home Rule controversy was at its +height, the chief strength of the Irish opposition to Mr. Gladstone's +policy, and the consideration which most weighed with the British +electorate, lay in the business objection of the industrial population +of Ulster; though on the platform religious and political arguments were +more often heard. The intensely practical nature of the objection which +came from the commercial and industrial classes of the North who opposed +Home Rule was never properly recognised in Ireland. It was, and is still +unanswered. Briefly stated, the position taken up by their spokesmen was +as follows:--'We have come,' they said in effect, 'into Ireland, and not +the richest portion of the island, and have gradually built up an +industry and commerce with which we are able to hold our own in +competition with the most progressive nations in the world. Our success +has been achieved under a system and a polity in which we believe. Its +non-interference with the business of the people gave play to that +self-reliance with which we strove to emulate the industrial qualities +of the people of Great Britain. It is now proposed to place the +manufactures and commerce of the country at the mercy of a majority +which will have no real concern in the interests vitally affected, and +who have no knowledge of the science of government. The mere shadow of +these changes has so depressed the stocks which represent the +accumulations of our past enterprise and labour that we are already +commercially poorer than we were.'[11] + +My sole criticism of those leaders of commerce and industry in Belfast, +who, whenever they turn their attention from their various +pre-occupations, import into Irish politics the valuable qualities which +they display in the conduct of their private affairs, is that they do +not go further and take the necessary steps to give practical effect to +their views outside the ranks of their immediate associates and +followers. Had the industrial section made its voice heard in the +councils of the Irish Unionist party, the Government which that party +supports might have had less advice and assistance in the maintenance of +law and order, but it would have had invaluable aid in its constructive +policy. For the lack of the wise guidance which our captains of industry +should have provided, Irish Unionism has, by too close adherence to the +traditions of the landlord section, been the creed of a social caste +rather than a policy in Ireland. The result has been injurious alike for +the landlords, the leaders of industry, and the people. The policy of +the Unionist party in Ireland has been to uphold the Union by force +rather than by a reconciliation of the people to it. It has held aloof +from the masses, who, bereft of the guidance of their natural leaders, +have clung the more closely to the chiefs of the Nationalist party; and +these in their turn have not, as I shall show presently, risen to their +responsibility, but have retarded rather than advanced the march of +democracy in Ireland. If there is to be any future for Unionism in +Ireland, there must be a combination of the best thought of the country +aristocracy and that of the captains of industry. Then, and not till +then, shall we Unionists as a party exercise a healthful and stimulating +influence on the thought and action of the people. + +I cannot, therefore, escape from the conclusion that whilst the Irish +section of the party to which I belong is, in my opinion, right on the +main political question, its influence is now for the most part +negative. Hence I direct attention mainly to the Home Rule party, as the +more forceful element in Irish political life; and if it receives the +more criticism it is because it is more closely in touch with the +people, and because any reform in its principles or methods would more +generally and more rapidly prove beneficial to the country than would +any change in Unionist policy. + +In examining the policy of the Nationalist party my chief concern will +be to arrive at a correct estimate of the effect which is produced upon +the thought and action of the Irish people by the methods employed for +the attainment of Home Rule. I propose to show that these methods have +been in the past, and must, so long as they are employed, continue to be +injurious to the political and industrial character of the people, and +consequently a barrier to progress. I know that most of the Nationalist +leaders justify the employment of these methods on the ground that, in +their opinion, the constitutional reforms they advocate are a condition +precedent to industrial progress. I believe, on the contrary, and I +shall give my reasons for believing, that their tactics have been not +only a hindrance to industrial progress, but destructive even to the +ulterior purpose they were intended to fulfil. + +It is commonly believed--a belief very naturally fostered by their +leaders--that, if there is one thing the Irish do understand, it is +politics. Politics is a term obviously capable of wide interpretation, +and I fear that those who say that my countrymen are pre-eminently +politicians use the term in a sense more applicable to the conceptions +of Mr. Richard Croker than of Aristotle. In intellectual capacity for +discrimination upon political issues the average Irish elector is, I +believe, far superior to the average English elector. But there is as +yet something wanting in the character of our people which seems to +prohibit the exercise by them of any independent political thought and, +consequently, of any effective or permanent political influence. + +The assumption that Irishmen are singularly good politicians seems to +stand seriously in the way of their becoming so; and yet it is a matter +of the greatest importance that they should become good politicians in a +real sense, for in no country would sound political thought exercise a +more beneficial influence upon the life of the people than in Ireland. +Indeed I would go further and give it as my strong conviction that, +properly developed and freed from the narrowing influences of the party +squabbles by which it has been warped and sterilised, the political +thought of the Irish people would contribute a factor of vital +importance to the life of the British empire. But at the moment I am +dealing only with the influence of politics on Irish social and economic +life. + +I am aware that any political deficiencies which the Irish may display +at home, are commonly attributed to the political system which has been +imposed upon Ireland from without. If you want to see Irish genius in +its highest political manifestation, it must be studied, we are told, in +the United States, the widest and freest arena which has ever been +offered to the race. This view is not in accordance with the facts as I +have observed them. These facts are somewhat obscured by the natural, +but misleading habit of reckoning to the account of Ireland at large +achievements really due to the Scotch-Irish, who helped to colonise +Pennsylvania, and who undoubtedly played a dominant part in developing +the characteristic features of the American political system. The +Scotch-Irish, however, do not belong to the Ireland of the Irish +Question Descended, largely, as their names so often testify, from the +early Irish colonists of western Scotland, they came back as a distinct +race, dissociating themselves from the Irish Celts by refusing to adopt +their national traditions, or intermarry with them, and both here and in +America disclaiming the appellation of Irish.[12] + +Leaving, then, out of consideration the political achievements of the +Scotch-Irish, it appears to me that the part played in politics by the +Irish in America does not testify to any high political genius. They +have shown there an extraordinary aptitude for political organisation, +which, if it had been guided by anything approaching to political +thought, would have placed them in a far higher position in American +public life than that which they now occupy. But the fact is that it +would be much easier to find evidence of high political capacity and +success in the history of the Irish in British colonies; and the reason +for this fact is not only very germane to the purpose of this book, but +has a strong practical interest for Americans as well. Irishmen when +they go to America find themselves united by a bond which does not and +could not exist in the Colonies--though it does exist in Ireland--the +bond of anti-English feeling, and by the hope of giving practical effect +to this feeling through the policy of their adopted country. Imbued with +this common sentiment, and influenced by their inherited clannishness, +the Irish in America readily lend themselves to the system of political +groups, a system which the 'boss' for his own ends seeks to perpetuate. +The result is a sort of political paradox--it has made the Irish in +America both stronger and weaker than they ought to be. They suffer +politically from the defects of their political qualities: they are +strong as a voting machine, but the secret of their collective strength +is also the secret of their individual weakness. This organisation into +groups is much commoner among the Irish than among other American +immigrants, for the anti-English feeling with which so many of the Irish +land in America is carefully kept alive by the 'boss,' whose sedulous +fostering of the instinctive clannishness and inherited leader-following +habits of the Irish saps their independence of thought and prevents them +from ceasing to be mere political agents and developing a citizenship +which would furnish its due quota of statesmen to the service of the +Republic. They lack in the United States just what they lack at home, +the capacity, or at any rate the inclination, to use their undoubted +abilities in a large and foreseeing manner, and so are becoming less and +less powerful as a force in American politics. + +The fallacious views about the nature and sphere of politics, which the +Irish bring with them from Ireland, and which are perpetuated in +America, have the effect not only of debarring the Irish from real +political progress, but also, as at home, from gaining success in +industrial pursuits which their talents would otherwise win for them. +They succeed as journalists owing to their quick intelligence and +versatility, and as contractors mainly owing to their capacity for +organising gangs of workmen--a faculty which seems to be the only good +thing resulting from their political education. They are as brilliant +soldiers in the service of the United States as they are in that of +Britain--more it would be impossible to say--and they have produced +types of daring, endurance, and shrewdness like the 'Silver Kings' of +Nevada which testify to the exceptional powers always developed by the +Irish in exceptional circumstances. But in the humdrum business of +everyday life in the United States they suffer from defects which are +the outcome of their devotion to mistaken political ideals and of their +subordination of industry to politics, which are not always purely +American, but are often influenced by considerations of the country of +their birth. On the whole, a quarter of a century of not unsympathetic +observation of the Irish in the United States has convinced me that the +position they occupy there is not one which either they or the American +people can look on with entire satisfaction. The Irish immigrants are +felt to belong to a kind of _imperium in imperio_, and to carry into +American politics ideas which are not American, and which might easily +become an embarrassment if not a danger to America. Hence the powerful +interest which America shares with England, though of course in a less +degree, in understanding and helping to settle the complex difficulty +called the Irish Question. The Irish remember Ireland long after they +have left it. They are not in the same position as the German or English +immigrants who have no cause at home which they wish to forward. Every +echo in the States of political or social disturbance in Ireland rouses +the immigrant and he becomes an Irishman once more, and not a citizen of +the country of his adoption. His views and votes on international +questions, in so far as they affect these Islands, are thus often +dictated more by a passionate sympathy for and remembrance of the land +he no longer lives in, than by any right understanding of the interests +of the new country in which he and his children must live. + +The only reason why I have examined the assumption that Irishmen display +marked political capacity in the United States is to make it clear that +the political deficiencies they manifest at home are to be attributed +mainly to defects of character, and to a conception of politics for +which modern English government is very slightly responsible. I admit +that English government in the past had no small share in producing the +results we deplore to-day, but the motives and manner of its action +have, it seems to me, been very imperfectly understood. + +The fact is that the difficulties of English government in Ireland, +until a complete military conquest had been effected, were of a +peculiarly complex character. Before the English could impose upon +Ireland their own political organisation--and the idea that any other +system could work better among the Irish never entered the English +mind--it was obviously necessary that the very antithesis of that +organisation, the clan system, should be abolished. But there were +military and financial objections to carrying out this policy. Irish +campaigns were very costly, and England was in those days by no means +wealthy. English armies in Ireland, after a short period spent in +desultory warfare with light armed kernes in the fever-stricken Munster +forests, began to melt away. For many generations, therefore, England, +adopting a policy of _divide et impera_, set clan against clan. Later +on, statecraft may be said to have supervened upon military tactics. It +consisted of attempts made by alternate threats and bribes to induce the +chiefs to transform the clan organisation by the acceptance of English +institutions. But any systematic endeavours to complete the +transformation were soon rendered abortive by being coupled with huge +confiscations of land. The policy of converting the members of the clans +into freeholders was subordinated to the policy of planting British +colonists. After this there was no question of fusion of races or +institutions. Plantations on a large scale, self-supporting, +self-protecting, became the policy alike of the soldier and the +statesman. + +The inevitable result of these methods was that it was not until a +comparatively late date that a political conception of an Irish nation +first began to emerge out of the congeries of clans. In the State Papers +of the sixteenth century the clans are frequently spoken of as +'nations.' Even as late as the eighteenth century a Gaelic poet, in a +typical lament, thus identifies his country with the fortunes of her +great families:-- + + The O'Doherty is not holding sway, nor his noble race; + The O'Moores are not strong, that once were brave-- + O'Flaherty is not in power, nor his kinsfolk; + And sooth to say, the O'Briens have long since become English. + + Of O'Rourke there is no mention--my sharp wounding! + Nor yet of O'Donnell in Erin; + The Geraldines they are without vigour--without a nod, + And the Burkes, the Barrys, the Walshes of the slender ships.[13] + +The modern political idea of Irish nationality at length asserted itself +as the result of three main causes. The bond of a common grievance +against the English foe was created by the gradual abandonment of the +policy of setting clan against clan in favour of impartial confiscation +of land from friendly as well as from hostile chiefs. Secondly, when the +English had destroyed the natural leaders, the clan chiefs, and +attempted to proselytise their adherents, the political leadership +largely passed to the Roman Catholic Church, which very naturally +defended the religion common to the members of all the clans, by trying +to unite them against the English enemy. Nationality, in this sense, of +course applied only to Celtic Roman Catholic Ireland. The first real +idea of a United Ireland arose out of the third cause, the religious +grievances of the Protestant dissenters and the commercial grievances of +the Protestant manufacturers and artisans in the eighteenth century, who +suffered under a common disability with the Roman Catholics, and many of +whom came in the end to make common cause with them. But even long after +this conception had become firmly established, the local representative +institutions corresponding to those which formed the political training +of the English in law and administration either did not exist in Ireland +or were altogether in the hands of a small aristocracy, mostly of +non-Irish origin, and wholly non-Catholic. O'Connell's great work in +freeing Roman Catholic Ireland from the domination of the Protestant +oligarchy showed the people the power of combination, but his methods +can hardly be said to have fostered political thought. The efforts in +this direction of men like Gavan Duffy, Davis, and Lucas were +neutralised by the Famine, the after effects of which also did much to +thwart Butt's attempts to develop serious public opinion amongst a +people whose political education had been so long delayed. The prospect +of any early fruition of such efforts vanished with the revolutionary +agrarian propaganda, and independent thinking--so necessary in the +modern democratic state--never replaced the old leader-following habit +which continued until the climax was reached under Parnell. + +The political backwardness of the Irish people revealed itself +characteristically when, in 1884, the English and Irish democracies were +simultaneously endowed with a greatly extended franchise. In theory this +concession should have developed political thought in the people and +should have enhanced their sense of political responsibility. In England +no doubt this theory was proved by the event to be based on fact; but in +Ireland it was otherwise. Parnell was at the zenith of his power. The +Irish had the man, what mattered the principles? The new suffrages +simply became the figures upon the cheques handed over to the Chief by +each constituency, with the request that he would fill in the name of +the payee. On one or two occasions a constituency did protest against +the payee, but all that was required to settle the matter was a personal +visit from the Chief. Generally speaking, the electorate were quite +docile, and instances were not wanting of men discovering that they had +found favour with electors to whom their faces and even their names were +previously unknown. + +No doubt, the one-man system had a tactical value, of which the English +themselves were ever ready to make use. "If all Ireland cannot rule this +man, then let this man rule all Ireland," said Henry VII. of the Earl of +Kildare; and the echo of these words was heard when the Kilmainham +Treaty was negotiated with the last man who wore the mantle of the +chief. But whatever may be said for the one-man system as a means of +political organisation, it lacked every element of political education. +It left the people weaker, if possible, and less capable than it found +them; and assuredly it was no fit training for Home Rule. While +Parnell's genius was in the ascendant, all was well--outwardly. When a +tragic and painful disclosure brought about a crisis in his fate, it +will hardly be contended by the most devoted admirer of the Irish people +that the situation was met with even moderate ability and foresight. But +the logic of events began to take effect. The decade of dissension which +followed the fall of Parnell will, perhaps, some day be recognised as a +most fruitful epoch in modern Irish history. The reaction from the +one-man system set in as soon as the one man had passed away. The +independence which Parnell's former lieutenants began to assert when the +laurels faded upon the brow of the uncrowned King communicated itself to +some extent to the rank and file. The mere weighing of the merits of +several possible successors led to some wholesome questioning as to the +merits of the policies, such as they were, which they respectively +represented The critical spirit which was now called forth, did not, at +first, go very far; but it was at least constructive and marked a +distinct advance towards real political thought. I believe the day will +come, and come soon, when Nationalist leaders themselves will recognise +that while bemoaning faction and dissension and preaching the cause of +'unity' they often mistook the wheat for the tares. They will, I feel +sure, come to realise that the passing of the dictatorship, which to +outward appearances left the people as "sheep without a shepherd, when +the snow shuts out the sky," in fact turned the thoughts of Ireland in +some measure away from England into her own bosom, and gave birth there +to the idea of a national life to which the Irish people of all classes, +creeds, and politics could contribute of their best. + +I sometimes wonder whether the leaders of the Nationalist party really +understand the full effect of their tactics upon the political character +of the Irish people, and whether their vision is not as much obscured by +a too near, as is the vision of the Unionist leaders by a too distant, +view of the people's life. Everyone who seeks to provide practical +opportunities for Irish intellect to express-itself worthily in active +life--and this, I take it, is part of what the Nationalist leaders wish +to achieve--meets with the same difficulty. The lack of initiative and +shrinking from responsibility, the moral timidity in glaring contrast +with the physical courage--which has its worst manifestation in the +intense dread of public opinion, especially when the unknown terrors of +editorial power lurk behind an unfavourable mention 'on the paper,' +are, no doubt, qualities inherited from a primitive social state in +which the individual was nothing and the community everything. These +defects were intensified in past generations by British statecraft, +which seemed unable to appreciate or use the higher instincts of the +race; they remain to-day a prominent factor in the great human problem +known as the Irish Question--a factor to which, in my belief, may be +attributed the greatest of its difficulties. + +It is quite clear that education should have been the remedy for the +defects of character upon which I am forced to dwell so much; and I +cannot absolve any body of Irishmen, possessed of actual or potential +influence, of failure to recognise this truth. But here I am dealing +only with the political leaders, and trying to bring home to them the +responsibility which their power imposes upon them, not only for the +political development but also for the industrial progress of their +followers. They ought to have known that the weakness of character which +renders the task of political leadership in Ireland comparatively easy +is in reality the quicksand of Irish life, and that neither +self-government nor any other institution can be enduringly built upon +it. + +The leaders of the Nationalist party are, of course, entitled to hold +that, in existing political conditions, any non-political movement +towards national advancement, which in its nature cannot be linked, as +the land question was linked, to the Home Rule movement constitutes an +unwarrantable sacrifice of ends to means. And so holding, they are +further entitled to subject any proposal to elevate popular thought, or +to direct popular activities, to a strict censorship as to its remote as +well as to its immediate effect upon the electorate. I know, too, that +it is held by some thinking Nationalists who take no active part in +politics that the politicians are justified on tactical grounds in this +exclusive pursuit of their political aims, and in the methods by which +they pursue them. They consider the present system of government too +radically wrong to mend, and they can undoubtedly point to agrarian +legislation as evidence of the effectiveness of the means they employ to +gain their end. + +This view of things has sunk very deep into the Irish mind. The policy +of 'giving trouble' to the Government is looked upon as the one road to +reform and is believed in so fervently that, except for religion, which +sometimes conflicts with it, there is scarcely any capacity left for +belief in anything else. I am far from denying that the past offers much +justification for the belief that nothing can be gained by Ireland from +England except through violent agitation. Until recently, I admit, +Ireland's opportunity had to wait for England's difficulty. But, as +practised in the present day, I believe this doctrine to be mischievous +and false. For one thing, there is a new England to deal with. The +England which, certainly not in deference to violent agitation, +established the Congested Districts Board, gave Local Government to +Ireland, and accepted the recommendations of the Recess Committee for +far-reaching administrative changes, as well as those of the Land +Conference which involved great financial concessions, is not the +England of fifty years ago, still less the England of the eighteenth +century. Moreover, in riveting the mind of the country on what is to be +obtained from England, this doctrine of 'giving trouble,' the whole +gospel of the agitator, has blinded the Irish people to the many things +which Ireland can do for herself. Whatever may be said of what is called +'agitation' in Ireland as an engine for extorting legislation from the +Imperial Parliament, it is unquestionably bad for the much greater end +of building up Irish character and developing Irish industry and +commerce. 'Agitation,' as Thomas Davis said, 'is one means of redress, +but it leads to much disorganisation, great unhappiness, wounds upon the +soul of a country which sometimes are worse than the thinning of a +people by war.'[14] If Irish politicians had at all realised this truth, +it is difficult to believe that the popular movement of the last quarter +of a century would not have been conducted in a manner far less +injurious to the soul of Ireland and equally or more effective for +legislative reform as well as all other material interests. + +Now, modern Nationalism in Ireland is open to damaging criticism not +only from my Unionist point of view, which was also, in many respects, +the view of so strong a Nationalist as Thomas Davis; it is also open to +grave objection from the point of view of the effectiveness of the +tactics employed for the attainment of its end--the winning of Home +Rule. + +Before examining the effect of these tactics I may point out that this +conception of Nationalist policy, even if justifiable from a practical +point of view, does not relieve the leaders from the obligation of +giving some assurance that they are ready with a consistent scheme of +re-construction, and are prepared to build when the ground has been +cleared. In this connection I might make a good deal of Unionist +capital, and some points in support of my condemnation of the political +absorption of the Irish mind, out of the total failure of the +Nationalist party to solve certain all-important constitutional and +financial problems which months of Parliamentary debate in 1893 tended +rather to obscure than to elucidate. I am, however, willing for +argument's sake to postpone all such questions, vital as they are, to +the time when they can be practically dealt with. I am ready to assume +that the wit of man can devise a settlement of many points which seemed +insoluble in Mr. Gladstone's day. But even granting all this, I think it +can easily be shown that the means which the political thought +available on the Nationalist side has evolved for the attainment of +their end, and which _ex hypothesi_ are only to be justified on tactical +grounds, are the least likely to succeed; and that, consequently, they +should be abandoned in favour of a constructive policy which, to say the +least, would not be less effective towards advancing the Home Rule +cause, if that cause be sound, and which would at the same time help the +advancement of Ireland in other than political directions. + +Tactics form but a part of generalship, and half the success of +generalship lies in making a correct estimate of the opposing forces. +This is as true of political as it is of military operations. Now, of +what do the forces opposed to Home Rule consist? The Unionists, it may +be admitted, are numerically but a small minority of the population of +Ireland--probably not more than one-fourth. But what do they represent? +First, there are the landed gentry. Let us again make a concession for +the sake of argument and accept the view that this class so wantonly +kept itself aloof from the life of the majority of the people that the +Nationalists could not be expected to count them among the elements of a +Home Rule Ireland. I note, in passing, with extreme gratification that +at the recent Land Conference it was declared by the tenants' +representatives that it was desirable, in the interests of Ireland, that +the present owners of land should not be expatriated, and that +inducements should be afforded to selling owners to continue to reside +in the country. + +But I may ignore this as I wish here to recall attention to that other +element, which was, as I have already said, the real force which turned +the British democracy against Home Rule--I mean the commercial and +industrial community in Belfast and other hives of industry in the +north-east corner of the country, and in scattered localities elsewhere. +I have already admitted that the political importance of the industrial +element was not appreciated in Irish Unionist circles. No less +remarkable is the way in which it has been ignored by the Nationalists. +The question which the Nationalists had to answer in 1886 and 1893, and +which they have to answer to-day, is this:--In the Ireland of their +conception is the Unionist part of Ulster to be coerced or persuaded to +come under the new regime? To those who adopt the former alternative my +reply is simply that, if England is to do the coercion, the idea is +politically absurd. If we were left to fight it out among ourselves, it +is physically absurd. The task of the Empire in South Africa was light +compared with that which the Nationalists would have on hands. I am +aware that, at the time when we were all talking at concert pitch on the +Irish Question, a good deal was said about dying in the last ditch by +men who at the threat of any real trouble would be found more discreetly +perched upon the first fence. But those who know the temper and fighting +qualities of the working-men opponents of Home Rule in the North are +under no illusion as to the account they would give of themselves if +called upon to defend the cause of Protestantism, liberty, and imperial +unity as they understand it. Let us, however, dismiss this alternative +and give Nationalists credit for the desire to persuade the industrial +North to come in by showing it that it will be to its advantage to join +cordially in the building up of a united Ireland under a separate +legislature. + +The difficulties in the way of producing this conviction are very +obvious. The North has prospered under the Act of Union--why should it +be ready to enter upon a new 'variety of untried being'? What that state +of being will be like, it naturally gauges from the forces which are +working for Home Rule at present. Looking at these simply from the +industrial standpoint and leaving out of account all the powerful +elements of religious and race prejudice, the man of the North sees two +salient facts which have dominated all the political activity of the +Nationalist campaign. One is a voluble and aggressive disloyalty, not +merely to 'England' and to the present system of government, but to the +Crown which represents the unity of the three kingdoms, and the other is +the introduction of politics into business in the very virulent and +destructive form known as boycotting. + +Now, hostility to the Crown, if it means anything, means a struggle for +separation as soon as Home Rule has given to the Irish people the power +to organise and arm. And (still keeping to the sternly practical point +of view) that would, for the time being at least, spell absolute ruin to +the industrial North. The practice of boycotting, again, is the very +antithesis of industry--it creates an atmosphere in which industry and +enterprise simply cannot live. The North has seen this practice condoned +as a desperate remedy for a desperate ill, but it has seen it continued +long after the ill had passed away, used as a weapon by one Nationalist +section against another, and revived when anything like a really +oppressive or arbitrary eviction had become impossible. There seems to +have been in Nationalist circles, since the time of O'Connell, but +little appreciation of the deadly character of this social curse; and +the prospect of a Government which would tolerate it naturally fills the +mind of the Northern commercial man with alarm and aversion. + +Again, the democratisation of local government which gave the +Nationalist leaders a unique opportunity of showing the value, has but +served to demonstrate the ineffectiveness, of their political tactics. +North of Ireland opinion was deeply interested in this reform, and +appreciated its far-reaching importance. Elsewhere, I think it will be +safe to say, people generally were indifferent to it until it came, and +the leaders seemed to see in it only a weapon to be used for political +purposes. To the great vista of useful and patriotic work opened out by +the Act of 1898, to the impression that a proper use of that Act might +make on Northern opinion, they were blind. It is true that the Councils +when left to themselves did admirably, and fully justified the trust +reposed in them. But at the inauguration of local government it was +naturally not the work of the Councils but the attitude of the party +leaders which appeared to stamp the reception of the Act by the Irish +people. + +It is true, of course, that many thoughtful men among the Nationalist +party repudiate the idea that the methods of to-day would be continued +in a self-governed Ireland. I fail to see any reason why they should +not. Under any system of limited Home Rule questions would arise which +would afford much the same sort of justification for the employment of +such methods, and they could hardly be worse for the welfare of the +country then than they are now. There is abundant need and abundant work +in the present day for thoughtful and far-seeing men in a party +constitutionally so strong as that of the Irish Nationalists. If those +among them who possess, or at any rate can make effective use of +qualities of constructive statesmanship are as few as the history of +recent years would lead us to suppose, what assurance can Ulster +Unionists feel that such men would spring up spontaneously in an Ireland +under Home Rule? I admit, indeed, that a considerable measure of such +assurance might be derived from the attitude of the leaders of the party +at and since the Land Conference. But this adoption of statesmanlike +methods which cannot be too widely understood or too warmly commended is +a matter of very recent history; and though we may hope that the success +attending it will help materially in the political education of the +Irish people, that will not, by itself, undo the effect of a quarter of +a century of political agitation governed by ideas the very reverse of +those which are now happily beginning to find favour. + +I have thought it necessary to examine at some length the defence on the +ground of tactics which is often made for Nationalist politics, because +it is the only defence ever made by those apologists who admit the +disturbing influence upon our economic and social life of Nationalist +methods. A broader and saner view of political tactics than prevailed +ten years ago is now possible, for circumstances are becoming friendly +and helpful to the development of political thought. Though the United +Irish League apparently restored 'unity' to the ranks of the +Nationalists, the country is, I believe, getting restless under the +political bondage, and is seething with a wholesome discontent. In this +very matter of political education, the stir of corporate life, the +sense of corporate responsibility which in every parish of Ireland are +now being fostered by the reformed system of local government, must make +their influence felt in wider spheres. Even now I believe that the field +is ready for the work of those who would bid the old leader-following +habit, the product partly of the dead clan system, partly of dying +national animosities, depart as a thing that has had its day, and who +would endeavour to train up a race of free, self-reliant, and +independent citizens in a free state. + +In this work the very men whose mistaken conception of a united Ireland +I have criticised will, I doubt not, take a leading part. In many +respects, and these not the least important, no one could desire a +better instrument for the achievement of great reforms than the Irish +party. They are far beyond any similar group of English members in +rhetorical skill and quickness of intelligence and decision, qualities +which no doubt belong to the mechanism rather than the soul of politics, +but which the practical worker in public life will not despise. But even +when tried by a higher standard the Irish members need not fear the +judgment of history. They have often, in my opinion, misconceived the +true interests of their country, but they have been faithful to those +interests as they understood them, and have proved themselves notably +superior to sordid personal aims. These gifts and virtues are not +common, but still rarer is it to see such gifts and virtues cursed with +the doom of futility. The influence of the Irish political leaders has +neither advanced the nation's march through the wilderness nor taught +the people how they are to dispense with manna from above when they +reach the Promised Land. With all their brilliancy, they have thrown but +little helpful light on any Irish problem. In this want of political and +economic foresight Irish Nationalist politicians, with some exceptions +whom it would be invidious to name, have fallen lamentably short of what +might be expected of Irish intellect. For the eight years during which I +represented an Irish constituency I always felt that an Irish night in +the House of Commons was one of the strangest and most pathetic of +spectacles. There were the veterans of the Irish party hardened by a +hundred fights, ranging from Venezuela to the Soudan in search of +battlefields, making allies of every kind of foreign potentate, from +President Cleveland to the Mahdi, from Mr. Kruger to the Akhoom of Swat, +but looking with suspicion on every symptom of an independent national +movement in Ireland; masters of the language of hate and scorn, yet +mocked by inevitable and eternal failure; winners of victories that turn +to dust and ashes; devoted to their country, yet, from ignorance of the +real source of its malady, ever widening the gaping wound through which +its life-blood flows. While I recall these scenes, there rises before my +mind the picture vividly drawn by Miss Lawless of their prototypes, the +'Wild Geese,' who carried their swords into foreign service after the +final defeat of the Stuarts:-- + + War-battered dogs are we, + Fighters in every clime, + Fillers of trench and of grave, + Mockers, bemocked by Time; + War-dogs, hungry and grey, + Gnawing a naked bone, + Fighting in every clime + Every cause but our own.[15] + +Irishmen have been long in realising that the days of the 'Wild Geese' +are over, and that there are battles for Ireland to be fought and won in +Ireland--battles in which England is not the enemy she was in the days +of Fontenoy, but a friend and helper. But there will be little gain in +replacing the traditional conception of England as the inexorable foe by +the more modern conception, which threatened to become traditional in +its turn, of England as the source of all prosperity and her favour as +the condition of all progress in Ireland. In the recent Land Conference +I recognise something more valuable even than the financial and +legislative results which flowed from it, for it showed that the +conception of reliance upon Irishmen in Ireland, not under some future +and problematical conditions, but here and now, for the solution of +Irish questions, is gaining ground among us. If this conception once +takes firm hold, as I think it is beginning to do, of the Nationalist +party in Ireland, much of the criticism of this chapter will lose its +meaning. The mere substitution of a positive Irish policy for a negative +anti-English policy will elevate the whole range of Nationalist +political activity in and out of Ireland. And I am certain that if the +ultimate goal of Nationalist politics be desirable, and continue to be +desired, it will not be rendered more difficult, but on the contrary +very much easier of attainment if those who seek it take possession of +the great field of work which, without waiting for any concessions from +Westminster, is offered by the Ireland of to-day. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[11] This view of the case was powerfully stated by the deputation from +the Belfast Chamber of Commerce which waited on Mr. Gladstone in the +spring of 1893. They pointed out _inter alia_ that the members of the +deputation were poorer by thousands of pounds owing to the fall in Irish +stocks consequent upon the introduction of the Home Rule Bill in that +year. + +[12] The term 'Scotch-Irish' does not mean an amalgam of Scotch and +Irish, but a race of Scottish immigrants who settled in north-east +Ireland. I may point out that in these criticisms of Irish-American +politics I refer, of course, mainly to the Irish-born immigrants and not +to the Irish, Scotch-Irish or other, who are American-born. Nobody can +have a higher appreciation than I of the great part played by the +American-Irish once they have assimilated the full spirit of American +institutions. + +[13] _Poems of Egan O'Rahilly._ Edited, with translation, by the Rev. +P.S. Dinneen, M.A., for the Irish Texts Society, p. 11. O'Rahilly's +charge against Cromwell is that he "gave plenty to the man with the +flail," but beggared the great lords, p. 167. + +[14] _Prose Writings of Thomas Davis_, p. 284. 'The writers of _The +Nation_,' wrote Davis in another place, 'have never concealed the +defects or flattered the good qualities of their countrymen. They have +told them in good faith that they wanted many an attribute of a free +people, _and that the true way to command happiness and liberty was by +learning the arts and practising the culture that fitted men for their +enjoyment'_ (p. 176). The thing that especially distinguished Davis +among Nationalist politicians was the essentially constructive mind +which he brought to bear on Irish questions, as illustrated in the +passage I have italicised. It is, I am afraid, the part of his legacy of +thought which has been least regarded by his admirers. + +[15] _With the Wild Geese_. Poems by the Hon. Emily Lawless. I have +never read a better portrayal of the historic Irish sentiment than is +set forth in this little volume. By the way, there is a preface by Mr. +Stopford Brooke, which is singularly interesting and informing. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION UPON SECULAR LIFE IN IRELAND. + + +In the preceding chapter I attempted to estimate the influence of our +political leaders as a potential and as an actual force. I come now to +the second great influence upon the thought and action of the Irish +people, the influence of religion, especially the power exercised by the +priests and by the unrivalled organisation of the Roman Catholic Church. +I do not share the pessimism which sees in this potent influence nothing +but the shackles of mediævalism restraining its adherents from falling +into line with the progress of the age. I shall, indeed, have to admit +much of what is charged against the clerical leaders of popular thought +in Ireland, but I shall be able to show, I hope, that these leaders are +largely the product of a situation which they themselves did not create, +and that not only are they as susceptible as are the political leaders +to the influences of progressive movements, but that they can be more +readily induced to take part in their promotion. In no other country in +the world, probably, is religion so dominant an element in the daily +life of the people as in Ireland, and certainly nowhere else has the +minister of religion so wide and undisputed an authority. It is obvious, +therefore, that, however foreign such a theme may _prima facie_ appear +to the scope and aim of the present volume, I have no choice but to +analyse frankly and as fully as my personal experience justifies, what I +conceive to be the true nature, the salutary limits, and the actual +scope of clerical influence in this country. + +But before I can discuss what I may call the religious situation, there +is one fundamental question--a question which will appear somewhat +strange to anyone not in touch with Irish life--which I must, with a +view to a general agreement on essentials, submit to some of my +co-religionists. In all seriousness I would ask, whether in their +opinion the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland is to be tolerated. If the +answer be in the negative, I can only reply that any efforts to stamp +out the Roman Catholic faith would fail as they did in the past; and the +practical minds among those I am now addressing must admit that in +toleration alone is to be found the solution of that part of the Irish +difficulty which is due to sectarian animosities. + +This brings us face to face with the question, What is religious +toleration--I do not mean as a pious sentiment which we are all +conscious of ourselves possessing in a truer sense than that in which it +is possessed by others, but rather toleration as an essential of the +liberty which we Protestants enjoy under the British Constitution, and +boast that all other creeds equally enjoy? Perhaps I had better state +simply how I answer this question in my own mind. Toleration by the +Irish minority, in regard to the religious faith and ecclesiastical +system of the Irish majority, implies that we admit the right of Rome to +say what Roman Catholics shall believe and what outward forms they shall +observe, and that they shall not suffer before the State for these +beliefs and observances. I do not think exception can be taken to the +statement that toleration in this narrow sense cannot be refused +consistently with the fundamental principles of British government. + +Now, however, comes a less obvious, but, as I think, no less essential +condition of toleration in the sense above indicated. The Roman Catholic +Hierarchy claim the right to exercise such supervision and control over +the education of their flock as will enable them to safe-guard faith and +morals as preached and practised by their Church. I concede this second +claim as a necessary corollary of the first. Having lived most of my +life among Roman Catholics--two branches of my own family belonging to +that religion--I am aware that this control is an essential part of the +whole fabric of Roman Catholicism. Whether the basis of authority upon +which that system is founded be in its origin divine or human is beside +the point. If we profess to tolerate the faith and religious system of +the majority of our countrymen we must at least concede the conditions +essential to the maintenance of both the one and the other, unless our +tolerance is to be a sham. + +So far all liberal-minded Protestants, who know what Roman Catholicism +is, will be with me; and for the main purposes of the argument contained +in this chapter it is not necessary to interpret toleration in any wider +sense than that which I have indicated. Many Protestants, among whom I +am one, do, it is true, make a further concession to the claim of our +Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen. We would give them in Ireland +facilities for higher education which we would not give them in England, +and we would advocate liberal endowment by the State to this end. But +this attitude is, I admit, based upon something more than tolerance, and +those who would withhold this concession need not be accused of bigotry +or intolerance for so doing. They may be, and often are, actuated by the +most liberal motives, by a perfectly legitimate conception of +educational principles, or by other considerations which are neither of +a narrow nor sectarian character. + +I need hardly say that in criticising religious systems and their +ministers I have not the faintest intention of entering on the +discussion of doctrinal issues. I am, of course, here concerned with +only those aspects of the religious situation which bear directly on +secular life. I am endeavouring, it must be remembered, to arrive at a +comprehensive and accurate appreciation of the chief influences which +mould the character, guide the thought, and, therefore, direct the +action of the Irish people as citizens of this world and of their own +country. From this standpoint let us try to make a dispassionate survey +of Protestantism and Roman Catholicism in Ireland, and see wherein +their votaries fulfil, or fail to fulfil, their mission in advancing our +common civilisation. Let us examine, in a word, not merely the direct +influence which the creed of each of the two sections of Irishmen +produces on the industrial character of its adherents, but also its +indirect effects upon the mutual relations and regard for each other of +Protestants and Roman Catholics. + +Protestantism has its stronghold in the great industrial centres of the +North and among the Presbyterian farmers of five or six Ulster counties. +These communities, it is significant to note, have developed the +essentially strenuous qualities which, no doubt, they brought from +England and Scotland. In city life their thrift, industry, and +enterprise, unsurpassed in the United Kingdom, have built up a +world-wide commerce. In rural life they have drawn the largest yield +from relatively infertile soil. Such, in brief, is the achievement of +Ulster Protestantism in the realm of industry. It is a story of which, +when a united Ireland becomes more than a dream, all Irishmen will be +proud. + +But there is, unhappily, another side to the picture. This industrial +life, otherwise so worthily cultivated, is disturbed by manifestations +of religious bigotry which sadly tarnish the glory of the really heroic +deeds they are intended to commemorate. It is impossible for any close +observer of these deplorable exhibitions to avoid the conclusion that +the embers of the old fires are too often fanned by men who are +actuated by motives, which, when not other than religious, are certainly +based upon an unworthy conception of religion. I am quite aware that it +is only a small and decreasing minority of my co-religionists who are +open to the charge of intolerance, and that the geographical limits of +the July orgy are now strictly circumscribed. But this bigotry is so +notorious, as for instance in the exclusion of Roman Catholics from many +responsible positions, that it unquestionably reacts most unfavourably +upon the general relations between the two creeds throughout the whole +of Ireland. The existence of such a spirit of suspicion and hatred, from +whatever motive it emanates, is bound to retard our progress as a people +towards the development of a healthy and balanced national life. + +Many causes have recently contributed to the unhappy continuance of +sectarian animosities in Ireland. The Ritualistic movement and the +struggle over the Education Bill in England, the renewed controversy on +the University Question in Ireland, instances of bigotry towards +Protestants displayed by County, District, and Urban Councils in the +three southern provinces of Ireland, the formation of the Catholic +Association, the question of the form of the King's oath, and, more +remotely, the protest against clericalism in such Roman Catholic +countries as France and Austria, have one and all helped to keep alive +the flame of anti-Roman feeling among Irish Protestants.[16] + +There are, happily, other influences now at work in a contrary +direction. Among the industrial leaders a better spirit prevails. A +well-known Ulster manufacturer told me recently that only a few years +ago, when an applicant for employment appeared at certain Northern +factories, which my friend named, the first question always put was, +'Are you a Protestant or Roman Catholic?' Now, he said, it is not what a +man believes, but what he can do, which is considered when engaging +workers. And outside the cities there are most gratifying signs of +better relations between the two creeds. We are on the eve of the +creation of a peasant proprietary, involving the rehabilitation of rural +life, and one essential condition of the successful inauguration of the +new agrarian order is the elimination of anything approaching to +sectarian bitterness in communities which will require every advantage +derivable from joint deliberation and common effort to enable them to +hold their own against foreign competition. I recall a trivial but +significant incident in the course of my Irish work which left a deep +impression on my mind. After attending a meeting of farmers in a very +backward district in the extreme west of Mayo, I arrived one winter's +evening at the Roman Catholic priest's house. Before the meeting I had +been promised a cup of tea, which, after a long, cold drive, was more +than acceptable. When I presented myself at the priest's house, what was +my astonishment at finding the Protestant clergyman presiding over a +steaming urn and a plate of home-made cakes, having been requested to do +the honours by his fellow-minister, who had been called away to a sick +bed. A cycle of homilies on the virtue of tolerance could add nothing to +the simple lesson which these two clergymen gave to the adherents of +both their creeds. I felt as I went on my way that night that I had had +a glimpse into the kind of future for Ireland towards which my +fellow-workers are striving. + +It is, however, with the religion of the majority of the Irish people +and with its influence upon the industrial character of its adherents +that I am chiefly concerned. Roman Catholicism strikes an outsider as +being in some of its tendencies non-economic, if not actually +anti-economic. These tendencies have, of course, much fuller play when +they act on a people whose education has (through no fault of their own) +been retarded or stunted. The fact is not in dispute, but the difficulty +arises when we come to apportion the blame between ignorance on the part +of the people and a somewhat one-sided religious zeal on the part of +large numbers of their clergy. I do not seek to do so with any precision +here. I am simply adverting to what has appeared to me, in the course of +my experience in Ireland, to be a defect in the industrial character of +Roman Catholics which, however caused, seems to me to have been +intensified by their religion. The reliance of that religion on +authority, its repression of individuality, and its complete shifting of +what I may call the moral centre of gravity to a future existence--to +mention no other characteristics--appear to me calculated, unless +supplemented by other influences, to check the growth of the qualities +of initiative and self-reliance, especially amongst a people whose lack +of education unfits them for resisting the influence of what may present +itself to such minds as a kind of fatalism with resignation as its +paramount virtue. + +It is true that one cannot expect of any church or religion, as a +condition of its acceptance, that it will furnish an economic theory; +and it is also true that Roman Catholicism has, at different periods of +history, advantageously affected economic conditions, even if it did not +act from distinctively economic motives--for example, by its direct +influence in the suppression of slavery[17] and its creation of the +mediæval craft guilds. It may, too, be admitted that during the Middle +Ages, when Roman Catholicism was freer than now to manifest its +influence in many directions, owing to its practically unchallenged +supremacy, it favoured, when it did not originate, many forms of sound +economic activity, and was, to say the least, abreast of the time in its +conception of the working of economic causes. But from the time when +the Reformation, by its demand for what we Protestants conceive to be a +simpler Christianity, drove Roman Catholicism back, if I may use the +expression, on its first line of defence, and constrained it to look to +its distinctively spiritual heritage, down to the present day, it has +seemed to stand strangely aloof from any contact with industrial and +economic issues. When we consider that in this period Adam Smith lived +and died, the industrial revolution was effected, and the world-market +opened, it is not surprising that we do not find Roman Catholic +countries in the van of economic progress, or even the Roman Catholic +element in Protestant countries, as a rule, abreast of their +fellow-countrymen. It would, however, be an error to ignore some notable +exceptions to this generalisation. In Belgium, in France, in parts of +Germany and Austria, and in the north of Italy economic thought is +making headway amongst Roman Catholics, and the solution of social +problems is being advanced by Roman Catholic laymen and clergymen. Even +in these countries, however, much remains to be done. The revolution in +the industrial order, and its consequences, such as the concentration of +immense populations within restricted areas, have brought with them +social and moral evils that must be met with new weapons. In the +interests of religion itself, principles first expounded to a Syrian +community with the most elementary physical needs and the simplest of +avocations, have to be taught in their application to the conditions of +the most complex social organisation and economic life. Taking people +as we find them, it may be said with truth that their lives must be +wholesome before they can be holy, and while a voluntary asceticism may +have its justification, it behoves a Church to see that its members, +while fully acknowledging the claims of another life, should develop the +qualities which make for well-being in this life. In fact, I believe +that the influence of Christianity upon social progress will be best +maintained by co-ordinating these spiritual and economic ideals in a +philosophy of life broader and truer than any to which the nations have +yet attained. + +What I have just been saying with regard to Roman Catholicism generally, +in relation to economic doctrines and industrial progress, applies, of +course, with a hundred fold pertinence to the case of Ireland. Between +the enactment of the first Penal Laws and the date of Roman Catholic +Emancipation, Irish Roman Catholics were, to put it mildly, afforded +scant opportunity, in their own country, of developing economic virtues +or achieving industrial success. Ruthlessly deprived of education, are +they to be blamed if they did not use the newly acquired facilities to +the best advantage? With their religion looked on as the badge of legal +and social inferiority, was it any wonder that priests and people alike, +while clinging with unexampled fidelity to their creed, remained +altogether cut off from the current of material prosperity? Excluded, as +they were, not merely from social and political privileges, but from the +most ordinary civil rights, denied altogether the right of ownership of +real property, and restricted in the possession of personalty, is it +any wonder that they are not to-day in the van of industrial and +commercial progress? Nay, more, was it to have been expected that the +character of a people so persecuted and ostracised should have come out +of the ordeal of centuries with its adaptability and elasticity +unimpaired? That would have been impossible. Those who are intimate with +the Roman Catholic people of Ireland, and at the same time familiar with +their history, will recognise in their character and mental outlook many +an inheritance of that epoch of serfdom. I speak, of course, of the +mass, for I am not unmindful of many exceptions to this generalisation. + +But I must now pass on to a more definite consideration of the present +action and attitude of the Irish Roman Catholic clergy towards the +economic, educational, and other issues discussed in this book. The +reasons which render such a consideration necessary are obvious. Even if +we include Ulster, three quarters of the Irish people are Roman +Catholics, while, excluding the Northern province, quite nine-tenths of +the population belong to that religion. Again, the three thousand +clergymen of that denomination exercise an influence over their flocks +not merely in regard to religious matters, but in almost every phase of +their lives and conduct, which is, in its extent and character, quite +unique, even, I should say, amongst Roman Catholic communities. To a +Protestant, this authority seems to be carried very far beyond what the +legitimate influence of any clergy over the lay members of their +congregation should be. We are, however, dealing with a national life +explicable only by reference to a very exceptional and gloomy history of +religious persecution. What I may call the secular shortcomings of the +Roman Catholics in Ireland cannot be fairly judged except as the results +of a series of enactments by which they were successively denied almost +all means of succeeding as citizens of this world. + +From such study as I have been able to give to the history of their +Church, I have come to the conclusion that the immense power of the +Irish Roman Catholic clergy has been singularly little abused. I think +it must be admitted that they have not exhibited in any marked degree +bigotry towards Protestants. They have not put obstacles in the way of +the Roman Catholic majority choosing Protestants for political leaders, +and it is significant that refugees, such as the Palatines, from +Catholic persecutions in Europe, found at different times a home amongst +the Roman Catholic people of Ireland. My own experience, too, if I may +again refer to that, distinctly proves that it is no disadvantage to a +man to be a Protestant in Irish political life, and that where +opposition is shown to him by Roman Catholics it is almost invariably on +political, social, or agrarian, but not on religious grounds. + +A charge of another kind has of late been often brought against the +Roman Catholic clergy, which has a direct bearing upon the economic +aspect of this question. Although, as I read Irish history, the Roman +Catholic priesthood have, in the main, used their authority with +personal disinterestedness, if not always with prudence or discretion, +their undoubted zeal for religion has, on occasion, assumed forms which +enlightened Roman Catholics, including high dignitaries of that Church, +think unjustifiable on economic grounds, and discourage even from a +religious standpoint. Excessive and extravagant church-building in the +heart and at the expense of poor communities is a recent and notorious +example of this misdirected zeal. It has been, I believe, too often +forgotten that the best monument of any clergyman's influence and +earnestness must always be found in the moral character and the +spiritual fibre of his flock, and not in the marbles and mosaics of a +gaudy edifice. And without doubt a good many motives which have but a +remote connection with religion are, unfortunately, at work in the +church-building movement. It may, however, to some extent, be regarded +as an extreme re-action from the penal times, when the hunted _soggarth_ +had to celebrate the Mass in cabins and caves on the mountain side--a +re-action the converse of which was witnessed in Protestant England when +Puritanism rose up against Anglicanism in the seventeenth century. This +expenditure, however, has been incurred; and, no one, I take it, would +advocate the demolition of existing religious edifices on the ground +that their erection had been unduly costly! The moral is for the present +and the future, and applies not merely to economy in new buildings, but +also in the decoration of existing churches.[18] + +But it is not alone extravagant church building which in a country so +backward as Ireland, shocks the economic sense. The multiplication--in +inverse ratio to a declining population--of costly and elaborate +monastic and conventual institutions, involving what in the aggregate +must be an enormous annual expenditure for maintenance, is difficult to +reconcile with the known conditions of the country. Most of these +institutions, it is true, carry on educational work, often, as in the +case of the Christian Brothers and some colleges and convents, of an +excellent kind. Many of them render great services to the poor, and +especially to the sick poor. But, none the less, it seems to me, their +growth in number and size is anomalous. I cannot believe that so large +an addition to the 'unproductive' classes is economically sound, and I +have no doubt at all that the competition with lay teachers of celibates +'living in community' is excessive and educationally injurious. Strongly +as I hold the importance of religion in education, I personally do not +think that teachers who have renounced the world and withdrawn from +contact with its stress and strain are the best moulders of the +characters of youths who will have to come into direct conflict with the +trials and temptations of life. But here again we must accept the +situation and work with the instruments ready to hand. The practical and +statesmanlike action for all those concerned is to endeavour to render +these institutions as efficient educational agencies as may be possible. +They owe their existence largely to the gaps in the educational system +of this country which religious and political strife have produced and +maintained, and they deserve the utmost credit for endeavouring to +supply missing steps in our educational ladder.[19] If they now fully +respond to the spirit of the new movements and meet the demand for +technical education by the employment of the most approved methods and +equipment, and by the thorough training on sound lines of their staffs, +it is impossible that their influence on the young generation should not +be as salutary as it will be wide-reaching. + +But, after all, these criticisms are, for the purposes of my argument, +of minor relevance and importance. The real matter in which the direct +and personal responsibility of the Roman Catholic clergy seems to me to +be involved, is the character and _morale_ of the people of this +country. No reader of this book will accuse me of attaching too little +weight to the influence of historical causes on the present state, +social, economic and political, of Ireland, but even when I have given +full consideration to all such influences I still think that, with their +unquestioned authority in religion, and their almost equally undisputed +influence in education, the Roman Catholic clergy cannot be exonerated +from some responsibility in regard to Irish character as we find it +to-day. Are they, I would ask, satisfied with that character? I cannot +think so. The impartial observer will, I fear, find amongst a majority +of our people a striking absence of self-reliance and moral courage; an +entire lack of serious thought on public questions; a listlessness and +apathy in regard to economic improvement which amount to a form of +fatalism; and, in backward districts, a survival of superstition, which +saps all strength of will and purpose--and all this, too, amongst a +people singularly gifted by nature with good qualities of mind and +heart. + +Nor can the Roman Catholic clergy altogether console themselves with the +thought that religious faith, even when free from superstition, is +strong in the breasts of the people. So long, no doubt, as Irish Roman +Catholics remain at home, in a country of sharply defined religious +classes, and with a social environment and a public opinion so +preponderatingly stamped with their creed, open defections from Roman +Catholicism are rare. But we have only to look at the extent of the +'leakage' from Roman Catholicism amongst the Irish emigrants in the +United States and in Great Britain, to realise how largely emotional and +formal must be the religion of those who lapse so quickly in a +non-Catholic atmosphere.[20] + +It is not, of course, to the causes of the defections from a creed to +which I do not subscribe that my criticism is directed. I refer to the +matter only in order to emphasise the large share of responsibility +which belongs to the Roman Catholic clergy for what I strongly believe +to be the chief part in the work of national regeneration, the part +compared with which all legislative, administrative, educational or +industrial achievements are of minor importance. Holding, as I do, that +the building of character is the condition precedent to material, social +and intellectual advancement, indeed to all national progress, I may, +perhaps, as a lay citizen, more properly criticise, from this point of +view, what I conceive to be the great defect in the methods of clerical +influence. For this purpose no better illustration could be afforded +than a brief analysis of the results of the efforts made by the Roman +Catholic clergy to inculcate temperance. + +Among temperance advocates--the most earnest of all reformers--the Roman +Catholic clergy have an honourable record. An Irish priest was the +greatest, and, for a brief spell, the most successful temperance apostle +of the last century, and statistics, it is only fair to say, show that +we Irish drink rather less than people in other parts of the United +Kingdom. But the real question is whether we more often drink to +intoxication, and police statistics as well as common experience seem to +disclose that we do. Many a temperate man drinks more in his life than +many a village drunkard. Again, the test of the average consumption of +man, woman and child is somewhat misleading, especially in Ireland +where, owing to the excessive emigration of adults, there is a +disproportionately large number of very young and old. Moreover, we +Irish drink more in proportion to our means than the English, Scotch, +and Welsh, whose consumption is absolutely larger. Anyone who attempts +to deal practically with the problems of industrial development in +Ireland realises what a terribly depressing influence the drink evil +exercises upon the industrial capacity of the people. 'Ireland sober is +Ireland free,' is nearer the truth, than much that is thought and most +of what is said about liberty in this country. + +Now, the drink habit in Ireland differs from that of the other parts of +the United Kingdom. The Irishman is, in my belief, physiologically less +subject to the craving for alcohol than the Englishman, a fact which is +partially attributable, I should say, to the less animal dietary to +which he is accustomed. By far the greater proportion of the drinking +which retards our progress is of a festive character. It takes place at +fairs and markets, sometimes, even yet, at 'wakes,' those ghastly +parodies on the blessed consolation of religion in bereavement. It is +intensified by the almost universal sale of liquor in the country shops +'for consumption on the premises,' an evil the demoralising effects of +which are an hundredfold greater than those of the 'grocer's licences' +which temperance reformers so strenuously denounce. It is an evil in +defence of which nothing can be said, but it has somehow escaped the +effective censure of the Church. + +The indiscriminate granting of licences in Ireland, which has resulted +in the provision of liquor shops in a proportion to the population +larger than is found in any other country, is in itself due mainly to +the moral cowardice of magistrates, who do not care to incur local +unpopularity by refusing licences for which there is no pretence of any +need beyond that of the applicant and his relatives. Not long ago the +magistrates of Ireland met in Dublin in order to inaugurate common +action in dealing with this scandal. Appropriate resolutions were +passed, and much good has already resulted from the meeting, but had the +unvarnished truth been admissible, the first and indeed the only +necessary resolution should have run, "Resolved that in future we be +collectively as brave as we have been individually timid, and that we +take heart of grace and carry away from this meeting sufficient strength +to do, in the exercise of our functions as the licensing authority, what +we have always known to be our plain duty to our country and our God." +No such resolution was proposed, for though patriotism is becoming real +in Ireland, it is not yet very robust. + +I do not think it unfair to insist upon the large responsibility of the +clergy for the state of public opinion in this matter, to which the few +facts I have cited bear testimony. But I attribute their failure to deal +with a moral evil of which they are fully cognisant to the fact that +they do not recognise the chief defect in the character of the people, +and to a misunderstanding of the means by which that character can be +strengthened. There are, however, exceptions to this general statement. +It is of happy augury for the future of Ireland that many of the clergy +are now leading a temperance movement which shows a real knowledge of +the _causa causans_ of Irish intemperance. The Anti-Treating League, as +it is called, administers a novel pledge which must have been conceived +in a very understanding mind. Those enlisted undertake neither to treat +nor to be treated. They may drink, so far as the pledge is concerned, as +much as they like; but they must drink at their own expense; and others +must not drink at their expense. The good nature and sociability of +Irishmen, too often the mere result of inability to say 'no,' need not +be sacrificed. But even if they were, the loss of these social graces +would be far more than compensated by a self-respect and seriousness of +life out of which something permanent might be built. Still, even this +League makes no direct appeal to character, and so acts rather as a cure +for than as a preventive of our moral weakness. + +The methods by which clerical influence is wielded in the inculcation of +chastity may be criticised from exactly the same standpoint as that from +which I have found it necessary to deal with the question of temperance. +Here the success of the Irish priesthood is, considering the conditions +of peasant life, and the fire of the Celtic temperament, absolutely +unique. No one can deny that almost the entire credit of this moral +achievement belongs to the Roman Catholic clergy. It may be said that +the practice of a virtue, even if the motive be of an emotional kind, +becomes a habit, and that habit proverbially develops into a second +nature. With this view of moral evolution I am in entire accord; but I +would ask whether the evolution has not reached a stage where a gradual +relaxation of the disciplinary measures by which chastity is insured +might be safely allowed without any danger of lowering the high standard +of continence which is general in Ireland and which of course it is of +supreme importance to maintain. + +There are, however, many parishes where in this matter the strictest +discipline is rigorously enforced Amusements, not necessarily or even +often vicious, are objected to as being fraught with dangers which would +never occur to any but the rigidly ascetic or the puritanical mind. In +many parishes the Sunday cyclist will observe the strange phenomenon of +a normally light-hearted peasantry marshalled in male and female groups +along the road, eyeing one another in dull wonderment across the +forbidden space through the long summer day. This kind of discipline, +unless when really necessary, is open to the objection that it +eliminates from the education of life, especially during the formative +years, an essential of culture--the mutual understanding of the sexes. +The evil of grafting upon secular life a quasi-monasticism which, not +being voluntary, has no real effect upon the character, may perhaps +involve moral consequences little dreamed of by the spiritual guardians +of the people. A study of the pathology of the emotions might throw +doubt upon the safety of enforced asceticism when unaccompanied by the +training which the Church wisely prescribes for those who take the vow +of celibacy. But of my own knowledge I can speak only of another aspect +of the effect upon our national life of the restrictions to which I +refer. No Irishmen are more sincerely desirous of staying the tide of +emigration than the Roman Catholic clergy, and while, wisely as I think, +they do not dream of a wealthy Ireland, they earnestly work for the +physical and material as well as the spiritual well-being of their +flocks. And yet no man can get into the confidence of the emigrating +classes without being told by them that the exodus is largely due to a +feeling that the clergy are, no doubt from an excellent motive, taking +joy--innocent joy--from the social side of the home life. + +To go more fully into these subjects might carry me beyond the proper +limits of lay criticism. But, clearly, large questions of clerical +training must suggest themselves to those to whom their discussion +properly belongs--whether, for example, there is not in the instances +which I have cited evidence of a failure to understand that mere +authority in the regions of moral conduct cannot have any abiding +effect, except in the rarest combination of circumstances, and with a +very primitive people. Do not many of these clergy ignore the vast +difference between the ephemeral nature of moral compulsion and the +enduring force of a real moral training? + +I have dealt with the exercise of clerical influence in these matters as +being, at any rate in relation to the subject matter of this book, far +more important than the evil commonly described as "The Priest in +Politics." That evil is, in my opinion, greatly misrepresented. The +cases of priests who take an improper part in politics are cited without +reference to the vastly greater number who take no part at all, except +when genuinely assured that a definite moral issue is at stake. I also +have in my mind the question of how we should have fared if the control +of the different Irish agitations had been confined to laymen, and if +the clergy had not consistently condemned secret associations. But +whatever may be said in defence of the priest in politics in the past, +there are the strongest grounds for deprecating a continuance of their +political activity in the future. As I gauge the several forces now +operating in Ireland, I am convinced that if an anti-clerical movement +similar to that which other Roman Catholic countries have witnessed, +were to succeed in discrediting the priesthood and lowering them in +public estimation, it would be followed by a moral, social, and +political degradation which would blight, or at least postpone, our +hopes of a national regeneration. From this point of view I hold that +those clergymen who are predominantly politicians endanger the moral +influence which it is their solemn duty to uphold. I believe however, +that the over-active part hitherto taken in politics by the priests is +largely the outcome of the way in which Roman Catholics were treated in +the past, and that this undesirable feature in Irish life will yield, +and is already yielding to the removal of the evils to which it owed its +origin and in some measure its justification.[21] + +One has only to turn to the spirit and temper of such representative +Roman Catholics as Archbishop Healy and Dr. Kelly, Bishop of Ross--to +their words and to their deeds--in order to catch the inspiration of a +new movement amongst our Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen at once +religious and patriotic. And if my optimism ever wavers, I have but to +think of the noble work that many priests are to my own knowledge +doing, often in remote and obscure parishes, in the teeth of innumerable +obstacles. I call to mind at such times, as pioneers in a great +awakening, men like the eminent Jesuit, Father Thomas Finlay, Father +Hegarty of Erris, Father O'Donovan of Loughrea, and many others--men +with whom I have worked and taken counsel, and who represent, I believe, +an ever increasing number of their fellow priests.[22] + +My position, then, towards the influence of the Roman Catholic +clergy--and this influence is a matter of vital importance to the +understanding of Irish problems--- may now be clearly defined. While +recognising to the full that large numbers of the Irish Roman Catholic +clergy have in the past exercised undue influence in purely political +questions, and, in many other matters, social, educational, and +economic, have not, as I see things, been on the side of progress, I +hold that their influence is now, more than ever before, essential for +improving the condition of the most backward section of the population. +Therefore I feel it to be both the duty and the strong interest of my +Protestant fellow-countrymen to think much less of the religious +differences which divide them from Roman Catholics, and much more of +their common citizenship and their common cause. I also hold with equal +strength and sincerity to the belief, which I have already expressed, +that the shortcomings of the Roman Catholic clergy are largely to be +accounted for, not by any innate tendency on their part towards +obscurantism, but by the sad history of Ireland in the past. I would +appeal to those of my co-religionists who think otherwise to suspend +their judgment for a time. That Roman Catholicism is firmly established +in Ireland is a fact of the situation which they must admit, and as this +involves the continued powerful influence of the priesthood upon the +character of the people, it is surely good policy by liberality and fair +dealing, especially in the matter of education, to turn this influence +towards the upbuilding of our national life. + +To sum up the influence of religion and religious controversy in +Ireland, as it presents itself from the only standpoint from which I +have approached the matter in this chapter, namely, that of material, +social, and intellectual progress, I find that while the Protestants +have given, and continue to give, a fine example of thrift and industry +to the rest of the nation, the attitude of a section of them towards the +majority of their fellow-countrymen has been a bigoted and unintelligent +one. On the other hand, I have learned from practical experience amongst +the Roman Catholic people of Ireland that, while more free from bigotry, +in the sense in which that word is usually applied, they are apathetic, +thriftless, and almost non-industrial, and that they especially require +the exercise of strengthening influences on their moral fibre. I have +dealt with their shortcomings at much greater length than with those of +Protestants, because they have much more bearing on the subject matter +of this book. North and South have each virtues which the other lacks; +each has much to learn from the other; but the home of the strictly +civic virtues and efficiencies is in Protestant Ireland. The work of the +future in Ireland will be to break down in social intercourse the +barriers of creed as well as those of race, politics, and class, and +thus to promote the fruitful contact of North and South, and the +concentration of both on the welfare of their common country. In the +case of those of us, of whatever religious belief, who look to a future +for our country commensurate with the promise of her undeveloped +resources both of intellect and soil, it is of the essence of our hope +that the qualities which are in great measure accountable for the actual +economic and educational backwardness of so many of our +fellow-countrymen, and for the intolerance of too many who are not +backward in either respect, are not purely racial or sectarian, but are +the transitory growth of days and deeds which we must all try to forget +if our work for Ireland is to endure. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[16] The reproach which is brought upon Irish Christianity mainly by the +extravagances of a section of my co-religionists, to which I have been +obliged to refer, came home to me not long ago in a very forcible way. I +happened to remark to a friend that it was a disgrace to Christianity +that Mussulman soldiery were employed at the Holy Sepulchre to keep the +peace between the Latin and Greek Christians. He reminded me that the +prosperous and progressive municipality of Belfast, with a population +eminently industrious, and predominantly Protestant, has to be policed +by an Imperial force in order to restrain two sections of Irish +Christians from assaulting each other in the name of religion. + +[17] '_Pro salute animae meae_' was, I am reminded, the consideration +usually expressed in the old charters of manumission. + +[18] One of the unfortunate effects of this passion for building costly +churches is the importation of quantities of foreign art-work in the +shape of woodcarvings, stained glass, mosaics, and metal work. To good +foreign art, indeed, one could not, within certain limits, object. It +might prove a valuable example and stimulus. But the articles which have +actually been imported, in the impulse to get everything finished as +soon as possible, generally consist of the stock pieces produced in a +spirit of mere commercialism in the workshops of Continental firms which +make it their business to cater for a public who do not know the +difference between good art and bad. Much of the decoration of +ecclesiastical buildings, whether Roman Catholic or Protestant, might +fittingly be postponed until religion in Ireland has got into closer +relation with the native artistic sense and industrial spirit now +beginning to seek creative expression. + +[19] The following extract from a statement of the Most Rev. Dr. O'Dea, +the newly elected Bishop of Clonfert, is pertinent:--'There is another +cause also--i.e. in addition to the absence of university education for +Roman Catholic laymen--which has hindered the employment of the laity in +the past. Till very recently, the secondary Catholic schools received no +assistance whatever from the State, and their endowment from private +sources was utterly inadequate to supply suitable remuneration for lay +teachers. It is evident that a celibate clergy _can_ live on a lower +wage than the laity, and they are now charged with having monopolized +the schools, because they chose to work for a minimum allowance rather +than suffer the country to remain without any secondary education +whatever. Two causes, then, operated in the past, and in a large measure +still operate, to exclude the laity from the secondary schools,--first, +these schools were so poverty-stricken that they could not afford to pay +lay teachers at such a rate as would attract them to the teaching +profession, and, next, the Catholic laity as a body were uneducated, +and, therefore, unfit to teach in the schools.'--_Maynooth and the +University Question_, p. 109 (footnote). + +[20] See, _inter alia_, an article "Ireland and America," by Rev. Mr. +Shinnors, O.M., in the _Irish Ecclesiastical Record_, February, 1902. +'Has the Church,' asks Father Shinnors, 'increased her membership in the +ratio that the population of the United States has increased? No. There +are many converts, but there are many more apostates. Large numbers +lapse into indifferentism and irreligion. There should be in America +about 20,000,000 Catholics; there are scarcely 10,000,000. There are +reasons to fear that the great majority of the apostates are of Irish +extraction, and not a few of them of Irish birth.' + +[21] This view seems to be taken by the most influential spokesmen of +the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. See Evidence, _Royal Commission on +University Education in Ireland_, vol. iii., p. 238, Questions 8702-6. + +[22] I may mention that of the co-operative societies organised by the +Irish Agricultural Organisation Society there are no fewer than 331 +societies of which the local priests are the Chairmen, while to my own +knowledge during the summer and autumn of 1902, as many as 50,000 +persons from all parts of Ireland were personally conducted over the +exhibit of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction at +the Cork Exhibition by their local clergy. The educational purpose of +these visits is explained in Chap. x. Again, in a great number of cases +the village libraries which have been recently started in Ireland with +the assistance of the Department (the books consisting largely of +industrial, economic, and technical works on agriculture), have been +organised and assisted by the Roman Catholic clergy. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +A PRACTICAL VIEW OF IRISH EDUCATION. + + +A little learning, we are told, is a dangerous thing; and in their +dealings with Irish education the English should have discovered that +this danger is accentuated when the little learning is combined with +much native wit. In the days when religious persecution was +universal--only, be it remembered, a few generations ago--it was the +policy of England to avert this danger by prohibiting, as far as +possible, the acquisition by Irish Roman Catholics of any learning at +all. After the Union, Englishmen began to feel their responsibility for +the state of Ireland, a state of poverty and distress which culminated +in the Famine. Knowledge was then no longer withheld: indeed the English +sincerely desired to dispel our darkness and enable us to share in the +wisdom, and so in the prosperity, of the predominant partner. In their +attempts to educate us they dealt with what they saw on the surface, and +moulded their educational principles upon what they knew; but they did +not know Ireland. Even if we excuse them for paying scant attention to +what they were told by Irishmen, they should have given more heed to the +reports of their own Royal Commissions. + +We have so far seen that the Irish mind has been in regard to +economics, politics, and even some phases of religious influence, a mind +warped and diseased, deprived of good nutrition and fed on fancies or +fictions, out of which no genuine growth, industrial or other, was +possible. The one thing that might have strengthened and saved a people +with such a political, social, and religious history, and such racial +characteristics, was an educational system which would have had special +regard to that history, and which would have been a just expression of +the better mind of the people whom it was intended to serve. + +Now this is exactly what was denied to Ireland. Not merely has all +educational legislation come from England, in the sense of being based +on English models and thought out by Englishmen largely out of touch and +sympathy with the peculiar needs of Ireland, but whenever there has been +genuine native thought on Irish educational problems, it has been either +ignored altogether or distorted till its value and significance were +lost. And in this matter we can claim for Ireland that there was in the +country during the first half of the nineteenth century, when England +was trying her best to provide us with a sound English education, a +comparatively advanced stage of home-grown Irish thought upon the +educational needs of the people. Take, for example, the Society for +Promoting Elementary Education among the Irish Poor, know as the Kildare +Street Society, which was founded as early as the year 1811. The first +resolution passed by this body, which was composed of prominent Dublin +citizens of all religious beliefs, was set out as follows:-- + + (1.) Resolved--That promoting the education of the poor of Ireland + is a grand object which every Irishman anxious for the welfare and + prosperity of his country ought to have in view as the basis upon + which the morals and true happiness of the country can be best + secured. + +This Society, it is true, did not see or foresee that any system of +mixed religious education was doomed to failure in Ireland, but they +took a wide view of the place of education in a nation's development, +and the character of the education which their schools actually +dispensed was admirable. This hopeful and enterprising educational +movement is described by Mr. Lecky in a passage from which I take a few +extracts:-- + + The "Kildare Street Society" which received an endowment from + Government, and directed National education from 1812 to 1831, was + not proselytising, and it was for some time largely patronized by + Roman Catholics. It is certainly by no means deserving of the + contempt which some writers have bestowed on it, and if measured by + the spirit of the time in which it was founded it will appear both + liberal and useful.... The object of the schools was stated to be + united education, "taking common Christian ground for the + foundation, and excluding all sectarian distinctions from every + part of the arrangement;" "drawing the attention of both + denominations to the many leading truths of Christianity in which + they agree." To carry out this principle it was a fundamental rule + that the Bible must be read without note or comment in all the + schools. It might be read either in the Authorized or in the Douay + version.... In 1825 there were 1,490 schools connected with the + Society, containing about 100,000 pupils. The improvements + introduced into education by Bell, Lancaster, and Pestalozzi were + largely adopted. Great attention was paid to needlework.... A great + number of useful publications were printed by the Society, and we + have the high authority of Dr. Doyle for stating that he never + found anything objectionable [to Catholics] in them.[23] + +Take, again, as an evidence of the progressive spirit of the Irish +thinkers on education, the remarkable scheme of national education +which, after the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act, was +formulated by Mr. Thomas Wyse, of Waterford. In addition to elementary +schools, Mr. Wyse proposed to establish in every county, 'an academy for +the education of the middle class of society in those departments of +knowledge most necessary to those classes, and over those a College in +each of the four provinces, managed by a Committee representative of the +interests of the several counties of the provinces.' 'It is a matter of +importance,' wrote Mr. Wyse, 'for the simple and efficient working of +the whole system of national education, that each part should as much as +possible be brought into co-operation and accord with the others.' He +foresaw, too, that one of the needs of the Irish temperament was a +training in science which would cultivate the habits of 'education, +observation, and reasoning,' and he pointed out that the peculiar +manufactures, trades, and occupations of the several localities would +determine the course of studies. Mr. Wyse's memorandum on education led, +as is well known, to the creation of the Board of National Education, +but, to quote Dr. Starkie,[24] the present Resident Commissioner of the +Board, 'the more important part of the scheme, dealing with a university +and secondary education, was shelved, in spite of Mr. Wyse's warnings +that it was imprudent, dangerous, and pernicious to the social condition +of the country, and to its future tranquillity, that so much +encouragement should be given to the education of the lower classes, +without at the same time due provision being made for the education of +the middle and upper classes.' + +As still another evidence of the sound thought on educational problems +which came from Irishmen who knew the actual conditions of their own +country and people, the case of the agricultural instruction +administered by the National Board is pertinent. The late Sir Patrick +Keenan has told us that landlords and others who on political and +religious grounds distrusted the National system, turned to this feature +of the operations of the National Board with the greatest fervour. A +scheme of itinerant instruction in agriculture, which had a curious +resemblance to that which the Department of Agriculture is now +organising, was developed, and was likely to have worked with the +greatest advantage to the country at large. Sir Patrick Keenan, who +knew Ireland and the Irish people well, speaks of this part of the +scheme as 'the most fruitful experiment in the material interests of the +country that was ever attempted. It was,' he adds, 'through the agency +of this corps of practical instructors that green cropping as a +systematic feature in farming was introduced into the South and West, +and even into the central parts of Ireland.' But all the hopes thus +raised went down, not before any intrinsic difficulties in the scheme +itself, or before any adverse opinion to it in Ireland, but before the +opposition of the Liverpool Financial Reform Association, who had their +own views as to the limits of State interference with agriculture. These +examples, drawn from different stages of Irish educational history, +might easily be multiplied, but they will serve as typical instances of +that want of recognition by English statesmen of Irish thought on Irish +problems, and that ignoring of Irish sentiment--as distinguished from +Irish sentimentality--which I insist is the basal element in the +misunderstandings of Irish problems. + +I now come to a brief consideration of some facts of the present +educational situation, and I shall indicate, for those readers who are +not familiar with current events in Ireland, the significant evolution, +or revolution, through which Irish education is passing. Within the last +eight years we have had in Ireland three very remarkable reports--in +themselves symptoms of a widespread unrest and dissatisfaction--on the +educational systems of the country. I allude to the reports of two +Viceregal Commissions, one on Manual and Practical Instruction in our +Primary Schools, and the other on our Intermediate Education; and to the +recent report by a Royal Commission on University Education. These +reports cover the three grades of our educational system, and each of +them contains a strong denunciation and a scathing criticism of the +existing provision and methods of instruction in elementary, secondary, +and university education (outside Dublin University), respectively. One +and all showed that the education to be had in our primary and secondary +schools, as well as in the examining body known as the Royal University, +had little regard to the industrial or economic conditions of the +country. We find, for example, agriculture taught out of a text book in +the primary schools, with the result that the _gamins_ of the Belfast +streets secured the highest marks in the subject. In the Intermediate +system are to be found anomalies of a similar kind, which could not long +have survived if there had been a living opinion on educational matters +in Ireland. No careful reader of the evidence given before the +Commissions can fail to see that under our educational system the +schools were practically bribed to fall in with a stereotyped course of +studies which left scant room for elasticity and adaptation to local +needs; that the teacher was, to all intents and purposes, deprived of +healthy initiative; and that the Irish parents must as a body have been +in the dark as to the bearing of their children's studies on their +probable careers in life. A deep and wholesome impression was made in +Ireland by the exposure of the intrinsic evils of a system calculated in +my opinion to turn our youth into a generation of second-rate clerks, +with a distinct distaste for any industrial or productive occupation in +which such qualities as initiative, self-reliance, or judgment were +called for. + +I am told by competent authorities that there is not a single +educational principle laid down in either the report on Manual +Instruction or on Intermediate Education, which was not known and +applied at least half a century ago in continental countries. In fact, +in the Recess Committee investigations, as any reader of the report of +that body can see for himself, the Committee, guided by foreign +experience, foreshadowed practically every reform now being put into +operation. It is better, of course, that we should reform late than +never, but it is well to bear in mind also, so far as the problems of +this book are concerned, how far the education of the country has fallen +short of any sound standard, and how little could have been expected +from the working of our system. The curve of Irish illiteracy has indeed +fallen continuously with each succeeding census, but true education as +opposed to mere instruction has languished sadly. + +Together with my friends and fellow-workers in the self-help movement, I +believe that the problem of Irish education, like all other Irish +problems, must be reconsidered from the standpoint of its relation to +the practical affairs and everyday life of the people of Ireland. The +needs and opportunities of the industrial struggle must, in fact, mould +into shape our educational policy and programmes. We are convinced that +there is little hope of any real solution of the more general problem of +national education, unless and until those in direct contact with the +specific industries of the country succeed in bringing to the notice of +those engaged in the framing of our educational system the kind and +degree of the defects in the industrial character of our people which +debar them from successful competition with other countries. Education +in Ireland has been too long a thing apart from the economic realities +of the country--with what result we know. In the work of the Department +of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, an attempt is +being made to establish a vital relation between industrial education +and industrial life. It is desired to try, at this critical stage of our +development, the experiment--I call it an experiment only because it +does not seem to have been tried before in Ireland--of directing our +instruction with a conscious and careful regard to the probable future +careers of those we are educating. + +This attempt touches, of course, only one department of the whole +educational problem, much of which it would be quite outside my present +purpose to discuss. But I must guard against the supposition that in our +insistence upon the importance of the practical side of education we +are under any doubt as to the great importance of the literary side. My +friends and I have been deeply impressed by the educational experience +of Denmark, where the people, who are as much dependent on agriculture +as are the Irish, have brought it by means of organisation to a more +genuine success than it has attained anywhere else in Europe. Yet an +inquirer will at once discover that it is to the "High Schools" founded +by Bishop Grundtvig, and not to the agricultural schools, which are also +excellent, that the extraordinary national progress is mainly due. A +friend of mine who was studying the Danish system of State aid to +agriculture, found this to be the opinion of the Danes of all classes, +and was astounded at the achievements of the associations of farmers, +not only in the manufacture of butter, but in a far more difficult +undertaking, the manufacture of bacon in large factories equipped with +all the most modern machinery and appliances which science had devised +for the production of the finished article. He at first concluded that +this success in a highly technical industry by bodies of farmers +indicated a very perfect system of technical education. But he soon +found another cause. As one of the leading educators and agriculturists +of the country put it to him: 'It's not technical instruction, it's the +humanities.' I would like to add that it is also, if I may coin a term, +the 'nationalities,' for nothing is more evident to the student of +Danish education or, I might add, of the excellent system of the +Christian Brothers in Ireland, than that one of the secrets of their +success is to be found in their national basis and their foundation +upon the history and literature of the country. + +To sum up the educational situation in Ireland, it is not too much to +say that all our forms of education, technical and general, hang loose. +We lack a body of trained teachers; we have no alert and informed public +opinion on education and its function in regard to life; and there is no +proper provision for research work in all branches, a deficiency, which, +I am told by those who have given deep thought and long study to these +problems, inevitably reacts most disastrously on the general educational +system of the country. This state of things appears not unnatural when +we remember that the Penal Laws were not repealed till almost the close +of the eighteenth century, and that a large majority of the Irish people +had not full and free access to even primary and secondary education +until the passing of the Emancipation Act in 1829. At the present day, +the absence of any provision for higher education of which Roman +Catholics will avail themselves is not merely an enormous loss in +itself, but it reacts most adversely upon the whole educational +machinery, and consequently upon the whole public life and thought of +that section of the nation. + +One of the very first things I had to learn when I came into direct +touch with educational problems, was that the education of a country +cannot be divided into water-tight compartments, and each part +legislated for or discussed solely on its merits and without reference +to the other parts. I see now very clearly that the educational system +of a country is an organic whole, the working of any part of which +necessarily has an influence on the working of the rest. I had always +looked upon the lower, secondary, and higher grades as the first, +second, and third storeys of the educational house, and I am not quite +sure that I attached sufficient importance to the staircase. My view has +now changed, and I find myself regarding the University as a foundation +and support of the primary and secondary school. + +It was not on purely pedagogic grounds that I added to my other +political irregularities the earnest advocacy of such a provision for +higher education as Roman Catholics will avail themselves of. This great +need was revealed to me in my study of the Irish mind and of the +direction in which it could look for its higher development. My belief +is based on practical experience; my point of view is that of the +economist. When the new economic mission in Ireland began now fourteen +years ago, we had to undertake, in addition to our practical programme, +a kind of University extension work with the important omission of the +University. We had to bring home to adult farmers whose general +education was singularly poor, though their native intelligence was keen +and receptive, a large number of general ideas bearing on the productive +and distributive side of their industry. Our chief obstacles arose from +the lack of trained economic thought among all classes, and especially +among those to whom the majority looked for guidance. The air was thick +with economic fallacies or half-truths. We were, it is true, successful +beyond our expectations in planting in apparently uncongenial soil sound +economic principles. But our success was mainly due, as I shall show +later, to our having used the associative instincts of the Irish peasant +to help out the working of our theories; and we became convinced that if +a tithe of our priests, public men, national school teachers, and +members of our local bodies had received a university education, we +should have made much more rapid progress. + +I hardly know how to describe the mental atmosphere in which we were +working. It would be no libel upon the public opinion upon which we +sought to make an impression to say that it really allowed no question +to be discussed on its merits. Public opinion on social and economic +questions is changing now, but I cannot associate the change with any +influence emanating from institutions of higher education. In other +countries, so far as my investigations have extended, the universities +do guide economic thought and have a distinct though wholly unofficial +function as a court of appeal upon questions relating to the material +progress of the communities amongst which they are situated. Of such +institutions there are in Ireland only two which could be expected to +direct in any large way the thought of the country upon economic and +other important national questions--Maynooth, and Trinity College, +Dublin. Whether in their widely different spheres of influence these two +institutions could, under conditions other than those prevailing, have +so met the requirements of the country as to have obviated what is at +present an urgent necessity for a complete reorganisation of higher +education need not be discussed; but it is essential to my argument that +I should set forth clearly the results of my own observation upon their +influence, or rather lack of influence, upon the people among whom I +have worked. + +The influence of Maynooth, actual and potential, can hardly be +exaggerated, but it is exercised indirectly upon the secular thought of +the country. It is not its function to make a direct impression. It is +in fact only a professional--I had almost said a technical--school. It +trains its students, most admirably I am told, in theology, philosophy, +and the studies subsidiary to these sciences, but always, for the vast +majority of its students, with a distinctly practical and definite +missionary end in view. There is, I believe, an arts course of modest +scope, designed rather to meet the deficiencies of students whose +general education has been neglected than to serve as anything in the +nature of a university arts course. I am quite aware of the value of a +sound training in mental science if given in connection with a full +university course, but I am equally convinced that the Maynooth +education, on the whole, is no substitute for a university course, and +that while its chief end of turning out a large number of trained +priests has been fulfilled, it has not given, and could not be expected +to have given, that broader and more humane culture which only a +university, as distinguished from a professional school, can adequately +provide. + +Moreover, under the Maynooth system young clerics are constantly called +upon to take a part in the life of a lay community, towards which, when +they entered college, they were in no position of responsibility, and +upon which, so far as secular matters are concerned, when they emerge +from their theological training, they are no better adapted to exercise +a helpful influence. In my experience of priests I have met with many in +whom I recognised a sincere desire to attend to the material and social +well-being of their flocks, but who certainly had not that breadth of +view and understanding of human nature which perhaps contact with the +laity during the years in which they were passing from discipline to +authority might have given to them. However this may be, it is clear and +it is admitted that education as opposed to professional training of a +high order is still, generally speaking, a want among the priests of +Ireland, and I look forward to no greater boon from a University or +University College for Roman Catholics than its influence, direct and +indirect, on a body of men whose prestige and authority are necessarily +so unique. + +It is, therefore, to Trinity College, or the University of Dublin, that +one would naturally turn as to a great centre of thought in Ireland for +help in the theoretic aspects, at least, of the practical problems upon +whose successful solution our national well-being depends. Judged by +the not unimportant test of the men it has supplied to the service of +the State and country during its three centuries of educational +activity, by the part it took in one of the brightest epochs of these +three centuries--the days when it gave Grattan to Grattan's Parliament, +by the work and reputation of the _alumni_ it could muster to-day within +and without its walls, our venerable seat of learning need not fear +comparison with any similar institutions in Great Britain. It may also, +of course, be said that many men who have passed through Trinity College +have impressed the thought of Ireland, and, indeed, of the world, in one +way or another--such men as, to take two very different examples, Burke +and Thomas Davis--but on some of the very best spirits amongst these men +Trinity College and its atmosphere have exerted influence rather by +repulsion than by attraction; and certainly their characteristics of +temper or thought have not been of a kind which those best acquainted +with the atmosphere of Trinity College associate with that institution. +Still nothing can detract from the credit of having educated such men. +But these tests and standards are, for my present purpose, irrelevant. I +am not writing a book on Irish educational history, or even a record of +present-day Irish educational achievement. I am rather trying, from the +standpoint of a practical worker for national progress, to measure the +reality and strength of the educational and other influences which are +actually and actively operating on the character and intellect of the +majority of the Irish people, moulding their thought and directing +their action towards the upbuilding of our national life. + +From this point of view I am bound to say that Trinity College, so far +as I have seen, has had but little influence upon the minds or the lives +of the people. Nor can I find that at any period of the extraordinarily +interesting economic and social revolution, which has been in progress +in Ireland since the great catastrophe of the Famine period, Dublin +University has departed from its academic isolation and its aloofness +from the great national problems that were being worked out. The more +one thinks of it, indeed, and the more one realises the opportunities of +an institution like Trinity College in a country like Ireland, the more +one must recognise how small, in recent times, has been its positive +influence on the mind of the country, and how little it has contributed +towards the solution of any of those problems, educational, economic, or +social, that were clamant for solution, and which in any other country +would have naturally secured the attention of men who ought to have been +leaders of thought. + +Whatever the causes, and many may be assigned, this unfortunate lack of +influence on the part of Trinity College, has always seemed to me a +strong supplementary argument for the creation of another University or +University College on a more popular basis, to which the Roman Catholic +people of Ireland would have recourse. From the fact that Maynooth by +its constitution could never have developed into a great national +University,[25] and that Trinity College has never, as a matter of fact, +done so, and has thus, in my opinion, missed a unique opportunity, it +has come about that Ireland has been without any great centre of thought +whose influence would have tended to leaven the mass of mental +inactivity or random-thinking so prevalent in Ireland, and would have +created a body of educated public opinion sufficiently informed and +potent to secure the study and discussion on their merits of questions +of vital interest to the country. The demoralising atmosphere of +partisanship which hangs over Ireland would, I am convinced, gradually +give way before an organised system of education with a thoroughly +democratic University at its head, which would diffuse amongst the +people at large a sense of the value of a balanced judgment on, and a +true appreciation of, the real forces with which Ireland has to deal in +building up her fortunes. + +To discuss the merits of the different solutions which have been +proposed for the vexed problem of higher education in Ireland would be +beyond the scope of this book. The question will have to be faced, and +all I need do here is to state the conditions which the solution will +have to fulfil if it is to deal with the aspects of the Irish Question +with which the new movement is practically concerned. What is most +needed is a University that will reach down to the rural population, +much in the same way as the Scottish Universities do, and a lower scale +of fees will be required than Trinity College, with its diminished +revenues, could establish. Already I can see that the work of the new +Department, acting in conjunction with local bodies, urban and rural, +throughout the country, will provide a considerable number of +scholarships, bursaries, and exhibitions for young men who are being +prepared to take part in the very real, but rather hazily understood, +industrial revival which is imminent. Leaving sectarian controversies +out of the question, the type of institution which is required in order +to provide adequately for the classes now left outside the influence of +higher education is an institution pre-eminently national in its aims, +and one intimately associated with the new movements making for the +development of our national resources. + +Unfortunately, however, in Ireland, and indeed in England too, there is +a tendency to regard educational institutions almost solely as they will +affect religion. At least it is difficult to arouse any serious interest +in them except from this point of view. I welcome, therefore, the +striking answers given to the queries of Lord Robertson, Chairman of the +University Commission, by Dr. O'Dwyer, the Roman Catholic Bishop of +Limerick, who boldly and wisely placed the question before the country +in the light in which cleric and layman should alike regard it:-- + + _The Chairman_.--(413): "I suppose you believe a Catholic + University, such as you propose, will strengthen Roman Catholicism + in Ireland?"--"It is not easy to answer that; not so easy as it + looks." (414):--"But it won't weaken it, or you would not be + here?"--"It would educate Catholics in Ireland very largely, and, + of course, a religious denomination composed of a body of educated + men is stronger than a religious denomination composed of ignorant + men. In that sense it would strengthen Roman Catholicism." + (415):--"Is there any sense in which it won't?"--"As far as + religion is concerned, I do not know how a University would work + out. If you ask me now whether I think that that University in a + certain number of years would become a centre of thought, + strengthening the Catholic faith in Ireland, I cannot tell you. It + is a leap in the dark." (416):--"But it is in the hope that it will + strengthen your own Church that you propose it?"--"No, it is not, + by any means. We are Bishops, but we are Irishmen, also, and we + want to serve our country."[26] + +Equally significant were the statements of Dr. O'Dea, the official +spokesman of Maynooth, when he said, + + I regard the interest of the laity in the settlement of the + University Question as supreme. The clergy are but a small, however + important, part of the nation, and the laity have never had an + institution of higher education comparable to Maynooth in magnitude + or resources. I recognise, therefore, that the educational + grievances of the laity are much more pressing than those of the + clergy ... It is generally admitted that Irish priests hold a + position of exceptional influence, due to historical causes, the + intensely religious character of the people, and the want of + Catholic laymen qualified by education and position for social and + political leadership. What Bishop Berkeley said of them in 1749, in + his letter, _A Word to the Wise_, still holds true, 'That no set of + men on earth have it in their power to do good on easier terms, + with more advantage to others, and less pains or loss to + themselves.' It would be folly to expect that in a mixed community + the State should do anything to strengthen or perpetuate this + power; but this result will certainly not follow from the more + liberal education of the clergy, provided equal advantages are + extended to the laity. On the contrary, I am convinced that if the + void in the lay leadership of the country be filled up by higher + education of the better classes among the Catholic laity, the power + of the priests, so far as it is abnormal or unnecessary will pass + away; and, further, if I believed, with many who are opposed to the + better education of the priesthood, that their power is based on + falsehood or superstition, I would unhesitatingly advocate the + spread of higher education among the laity and clergy alike, as the + best means of effectually sapping and disintegrating it.[27] + +I had for long indulged a hope that a university of the type which +Ireland requires would have been the outcome of a great national +educational movement emanating from Trinity College, which might, at +this auspicious hour, have surpassed all the proud achievements of its +three hundred years. That hope was dispelled when the cry of 'Hands off +Trinity' was applied to the profane hands of the Royal Commission. +Perhaps that attitude may be reconsidered yet. There is one hopeful +sentiment which is often heard coming from that institution. An opinion +has been strongly expressed that nothing ought to be done to separate in +secular life two sections of Irishmen who happen to belong to different +creeds. Whatever may be the logical outcome of the position taken up +towards the University problem by those who give expression to this +pious opinion, I do not for a moment doubt their sincerity. But I often +think that too much importance is attached to the danger of building new +walls, and that there is too little appreciation of the wide and deep +foundation of the already existing walls between the two sections of +Irishmen who are so unhappily kept apart. In dealing with this, as with +all large Irish problems, it had better be frankly recognised that there +are in the country two races, two creeds, and, what is too little +considered, two separate spheres of economic interest and pursuit. +Socially two separate classes have naturally, nay inevitably, arisen out +of these distinctions. One class has superior advantages in many ways of +great importance. The other class is far more numerous, produces far the +greater proportion of the nation's wealth, and is, therefore, from the +national point of view, of greater importance. But both are necessary. +Both must be adequately provided for in the supreme matter of higher +education. Above all, the two classes must be educated to regard +themselves as united by the bond of a common country--a sentiment which, +if genuine, would treat differences arising from whatever cause, not as +a difficulty in the way of national progress, but rather as affording a +variety of opportunities for national expansion. + +I do not concern myself as to the exact form which the new institution +or institutions which are to give us the absolutely essential advantage +of higher education should take. If in view of the difference in the +requirements to which I have alluded, and the complicated pedagogic and +administrative considerations which have to be taken into account, +schemes of co-education of Protestants and Roman Catholics are difficult +of immediate accomplishment, let that ideal be postponed. The two creeds +can meet in the playground now: they can meet everywhere in after life. +Ireland will bring them together soon enough if Ireland is given a +chance, and when the time is ripe for their coming together in higher +education they will come together. If the time is not now ripe for this +ideal there is no justification for postponing educational reform until +the relations between the two creeds have been elevated to a plane +which, in my opinion, they will never reach except through the aid of +that culture which a widely diffused higher education alone can afford. + + * * * * * + +When I was beginning to write this chapter I chanced to pick up the +_Chesterfield Letters_. I opened the book at the two hundredth epistle, +and, curiously enough, almost the first sentence which caught my eye +ran: 'Education more than nature is the cause of that difference you see +in the character of men.' I felt myself at first in strong disagreement +with this aphorism. But when I came to reflect how much the nature of +one generation must be the outcome of the education of those which went +before it, I gradually came to see the truth in Lord Chesterfield's +words. I must leave it to experts to define the exact steps which ought +to be taken to make the general education of this country capable of +cultivating the judgment, strengthening the will, and so of building up +the character. But every day, every thought, I give to the problems of +Irish progress convinces me more firmly that this is the real task of +educational reform, a task that must be accomplished before we can prove +to those who brand us with racial inferiority that, in Ireland, it was +not nature that has been unkind in causing the difference we find in the +character of men. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[23] _Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland_, II., 122-4. + +[24] _Recent Reforms in Irish Education_, p. 7. + +[25] It was not authorised to give degrees to lay students; and even the +admission of lay students to an Arts course was prohibited by +Government, lest Catholic students should be drawn away from Trinity +College. See Cornwallis Correspondence, III., 366-8. + +[26] Appendix to First Report, p. 37. + +[27] Appendix to Third Report, pp. 283, 296. + + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THROUGH THOUGHT TO ACTION. + + +I have now completed my survey of the main conditions which, in my +opinion, must be taken into account by anyone who would understand the +Irish mind, and still more by those who seek to work with it in +rebuilding the fortunes of the country. The task has been one of great +difficulty, as it was necessary to tell, not only the truth--for that +even an official person may be excused--but also the whole truth, which, +unless made compulsory by the kissing of the book, is regarded as a +gratuitous kissing of the rod. From the frying pan of political dispute, +I have passed into the fire of sectarian controversy. I have not +hesitated to poach on the preserves of historians and economists, and +have even bearded the pedagogues in their dens. Before my stock of +metaphors is exhausted, let me say that I have one hope of escape from +the cross-fire of denunciation which independent speaking about Ireland +is apt to provoke. I once witnessed a football match between two +villages, one of which favoured a political party called by the name of +a leader, with an 'ism' added to indicate a policy, the other adopting +the same name, still further elongated by the prefix 'anti.' When I +arrived on the scene the game had begun in deadly earnest, but I noticed +the ball lying unmolested in another quarter of the field. In Irish +public life I have often had reason to envy that ball, and perhaps now +its lot may be mine, while the game goes on and the critics pay +attention to each other. + +To my friendly critics a word of explanation is due. The opinions to +which I have given expression are based upon personal observation and +experience extending over a quarter of a century during which I have +been in close touch with Irish life at home, and not unfamiliar with it +abroad. I have referred to history only when I could not otherwise +account for social and economic conditions with which I came into +contact, or with which I desired practically to deal. Whether looking +back over the dreary wastes of Anglo-Irish history, or studying the men +and things of to-day, I came to conclusions which differed widely from +what I had been taught to believe by those whose theories of Irish +development had not been subjected to any practical test. Deeply as I +have felt for the past sufferings of the Irish people and their heritage +of disability and distress, I could not bring myself to believe that, +where misgovernment had continued so long, and in such an immense +variety of circumstances and conditions, the governors could have been +alone to blame. I envied those leaders of popular thought whose +confidence in themselves and in their followers was shaken by no such +reflections. But the more I listened to them the more the conviction was +borne in upon me that they were seeking to build an impossible future +upon an imaginary past. + +Those who know Ireland from within are aware that Irish thought upon +Irish problems has been undergoing a silent, and therefore too lightly +regarded revolution. The surface of Irish life, often so inexplicably +ruffled, and sometimes so inexplicably calm, has just now become smooth +to a degree which has led to hasty conclusions as to the real cause and +the inward significance of the change. To chime in with the thoughtless +optimism of the hour will do no good; but a real understanding of the +forces which have created the existing situation will reveal an +unprecedented opportunity for those who would give to the Irish mind +that full and free development which has been so long and, as I have +tried to show, so unnaturally delayed. + +Among these new forces in Irish life there is one which has been greatly +misunderstood; and yet to its influence during the last few years much +of the 'transformation scene' in the drama of the Irish Question is +really due. It deserves more than a passing notice here, because, while +its aims as formulated appear somewhat restricted, it unquestionably +tends in practice towards that national object of paramount importance, +the strengthening of character. I refer to the movement known as the +Gaelic Revival. Of this movement I am myself but an outside observer, +having been forced to devote nearly all my time and energies to a +variety of attempts which aim at the doing in the industrial sphere of +very much the same work as that which the Gaelic movement attempts in +the intellectual sphere--the rehabilitation of Ireland from within. But +in the course of my work of agricultural and industrial development I +naturally came across this new intellectual force and found that when it +began to take effect, so far from diverting the minds of the peasantry +from the practical affairs of life, it made them distinctly more +amenable to the teaching of the dry economic doctrine of which I was an +apostle. The reason for this is plain enough to me now, though, like all +my theories about Ireland, the truth came to me from observation and +practical experience rather than as the result of philosophic +speculation. For the co-operative movement depended for its success upon +a two-fold achievement. In order to get it started at all, its +principles and working details had to be grasped by the Irish peasant +mind and commended to his intelligence. Its further development and its +hopes of permanence depend upon the strengthening of character, which, I +must repeat, is the foundation of all Irish progress. + +The Irish Agricultural Organisation Society[28] exerts its influence--a +now established and rapidly-growing influence--mainly through the medium +of associations. The Gaelic movement, on the other hand, acts more +directly upon the individual, and the two forces are therefore in a +sense complementary to each other. Both will be seen to be playing an +important part--I should say a necessary part--in the reconstruction of +our national life. At any rate, I feel that it is necessary to my +argument that I should explain to those who are as ill-informed about +the Gaelic revival as I was myself until its practical usefulness was +demonstrated to me, what exactly seems to be the most important outcome +of the work of that movement. + +The Gaelic League, which defines its objects as 'The preservation of +Irish as the national language of Ireland and the extension of its use +as a spoken tongue; the study and publication of existing Irish +literature and the cultivation of a modern literature in Irish,' was +formed in 1893. Like the Agricultural Organisation Society, the Gaelic +League is declared by its constitution to be 'strictly non-political and +non-sectarian,' and, like it, has been the object of much suspicion, +because severance from politics in Ireland has always seemed to the +politician the most active form of enmity. Its constitution, too, is +somewhat similar, being democratically guided in its policy by the +elected representatives of its affiliated branches. It is interesting to +note that the funds with which it carries on an extensive propaganda are +mainly supplied from the small contributions of the poor. It publishes +two periodicals, one weekly and another monthly. It administers an +income of some £6,000 a year, not reckoning what is spent by local +branches, and has a paid staff of eleven officers, a secretary, +treasurer, and nine organisers, together with a large number of +voluntary workers. It resembled the agricultural movement also in the +fact that it made very little headway during the first few years of its +existence. But it had a nucleus of workers with new ideas for the +intellectual regeneration of Ireland. In face of much apathy they +persisted with their propaganda, and they have at last succeeded in +making their ideas understood. So much is evident from the +rapidly-increasing number of affiliated branches of the League, which in +March, 1903, amounted to 600, almost treble the number registered two +years before. But even this does not convey any idea of the influence +which the movement exerts. Within the past year the teaching of the +Irish language has been introduced into no less than 1,300 National +Schools. In 1900 the number of schools in which Irish was taught was +only about 140. The statement that our people do not read books is +generally accepted as true, yet the sale of the League publications +during one year reached nearly a quarter of a million copies. These +results cannot be left unconsidered by anybody who wishes to understand +the psychology of the Irish mind. The movement can truly claim to have +effected the conversion of a large amount of intellectual apathy into +genuine intellectual activity. + +The declared objects of the League--- the popularising of the national +language and literature--do not convey, perhaps, an adequate conception +of its actual work, or of the causes of its popularity. It seeks to +develop the intellectual, moral, and social life of the Irish people +from within, and it is doing excellent work in the cause of temperance. +Its president, Dr. Douglas Hyde, in his evidence given before the +University Commission,[29] pointed out that the success of the League +was due to its meeting the people half way; that it educated them by +giving them something which they could appreciate and assimilate; and +that it afforded a proof that people who would not respond to alien +educational systems, will respond with eagerness to something they can +call their own. The national factor in Ireland has been studiously +eliminated from national education, and Ireland is perhaps the only +country in Europe where it was part of the settled policy of those, who +had the guidance of education to ignore the literature, history, arts, +and traditions of the people. It was a fatal policy, for it obviously +tended to stamp their native country in the eyes of Irishmen with the +badge of inferiority and to extinguish the sense of healthy self-respect +which comes from the consciousness of high national ancestry and +traditions. This policy, rigidly adhered to for many years, almost +extinguished native culture among Irishmen, but it did not succeed in +making another form of culture acceptable to them. It dulled the +intelligence of the people, impaired their interest in their own +surroundings, stimulated emigration by teaching them to look on other +countries as more agreeable places to live in, and made Ireland almost a +social desert. Men and women without culture or knowledge of literature +or of music have succeeded a former generation who were passionately +interested in these things, an interest which extended down even to the +wayside cabin. The loss of these elevating influences in Irish society +probably accounts for much of the arid nature of Irish controversies, +while the reaction against their suppression has given rise to those +displays of rhetorical patriotism for which the Irish language has found +the expressive term _raimeis_, and which (thanks largely to the Gaelic +movement) most people now listen to with a painful and half-ashamed +sense of their unreality. + +The Gaelic movement has brought to the surface sentiments and thoughts +which had been developed in Gaelic Ireland through hundreds of years, +and which no repression had been able to obliterate altogether, but +which still remained as a latent spiritual inheritance in the mind. And +now this stream, which has long run underground, has again emerged even +stronger than before, because an element of national self-consciousness +has been added at its re-emergence. A passionate conviction is gaining +ground that if Irish traditions, literature, language, art, music, and +culture are allowed to disappear, it will mean the disappearance of the +race; and that the education of the country must be nationalised if our +social, intellectual, or even our economic position is to be permanently +improved. + +With this view of the Gaelic movement my own thoughts are in complete +accord. It is undeniable that the pride in country justly felt by +Englishmen, a pride developed by education and a knowledge of their +history, has had much to do with the industrial pre-eminence of England; +for the pioneers of its commerce have been often actuated as much by +patriotic motives as by the desire for gain. The education of the Irish +people has ignored the need for any such historical basis for pride or +love of country, and, for my part, I feel sure that the Gaelic League is +acting wisely in seeking to arouse such a sentiment, and to found it +mainly upon the ages of Ireland's story when Ireland was most Irish. + +It is this expansion of the sentiment of nationality outside the domain +of party politics--the distinction, so to speak, between nationality and +nationalism--which is the chief characteristic of the Gaelic movement. +Nationality had come to have no meaning other than a political one, any +broader national sentiment having had little or nothing to feed upon. +During the last century the spirit of nationality has found no unworthy +expression in literature, in the writings of Ferguson, Standish O'Grady +and Yeats, which, however, have not been even remotely comparable in +popularity with the political journalism in prose and rhyme in which the +age has been so fruitful. It has never expressed itself in the arts, and +not only has Ireland no representative names in the higher regions of +art, but the national deficiency has been felt in every department of +industry into which design enters, and where national +art-characteristics have a commercial value. The national customs, +culture, and recreations which made the country a pleasant place to live +in, have almost disappeared, and with them one of the strongest ties +which bind people to the country of their birth. The Gaelic revival, as +I understand it, is an attempt to supply these deficiencies, to give to +Irish people a culture of their own; and I believe that by awakening the +feelings of pride, self-respect, and love of country, based on +knowledge, every department of Irish life will be invigorated. + +Thus it is that the elevating influence upon the individual is exerted. +Politics have never awakened initiative among the mass of the people, +because there was no programme of action for the individual. Perhaps it +is as well for Ireland that such should have been the case, for, as it +has been shown, we have had little of the political thought which should +be at the back of political action. Political action under present +conditions must necessarily be deputed to a few representatives, and +after the vote is given or the cheering at a meeting has ceased, the +individual can do nothing but wait, and his lethargy tends to become +still deeper. In the Gaelic revival there is a programme of work for the +individual; his mind is engaged, thought begets energy, and this energy +vitalises every part of his nature. This makes for the strengthening of +character, and so far from any harm being done to the practical +movement, to which I have so often referred, the testimony of my +fellow-workers, as well as my own observation, is unanimous in affirming +that the influence of the branches of the Gaelic League is distinctly +useful whenever it is sought to move the people to industrial or +commercial activity. + +Many of my political friends cannot believe--and I am afraid that +nothing that I can say will make them believe--that the movement is not +necessarily, in the political sense, separatist in its sentiment. This +impression is, in my opinion, founded on a complete misunderstanding of +Anglo-Irish history. Those who look askance at the rise of the Gaelic +movement ignore the important fact that there has never been any +essential opposition between the English connection and Irish +nationality. The Elizabethan chiefs of the sixteenth and the Gaelic +poets of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the relations +between the two countries were far worse than they are to-day, knew +nothing of this opposition. The true sentiment of nationality is a +priceless heritage of every small nation which has done great things, +and had it not largely perished in Ireland, separatist sentiment, the +offspring, not of Irish nationality, but of Irish political nationalism, +could hardly have survived until to-day. + +But undoubtedly we strike here on a danger to the Gaelic movement, so +far at least as that movement is bound up with the future of the Gaelic +League; a danger which cannot be left out of account in any estimate of +this new force in Irish life. The continuance of the League as a +beneficent force, or indeed a force at all, seems to me, as in the case +of the co-operative organisation to which I have compared it, to be +vitally dependent on a scrupulous observance of that part of its +constitution which keeps the door open to Irishmen of every creed or +political party. Only thus can the League remain a truly national body, +and attract from all classes Irishmen who are capable of forwarding its +true policy. I do not think there is much danger of a spirit of +sectarian exclusiveness developing itself in a body mainly composed of +Roman Catholics whose President is a Protestant. But it cannot be denied +that there has been an occasional tendency to interpret the 'no +politics' clause of the constitution in a manner which seems hardly fair +to Unionists or even to constitutional Home Rulers who may have joined +the organisation on the strength of its declaration of political +neutrality. If this is not a mere transitory phenomenon its effect will +be serious. As a political body the League would immediately sink into +insignificance and probably disappear amid a crowd of contending +factions. It would certainly cease to fulfil its great function of +creating a nationality of the thought and spirit, in which all Irishmen +who wish to be anything else than English colonists might aspire to +share. Its early successes in bringing together men of different +political views were remarkable. At the very outset of its career it +enlisted the support of so militant a politician as the late Rev. R.R. +Kane, who declared that though a Unionist and an Orangeman he had no +desire to forget that he was an O'Cahan. On this basis it is difficult +to set a limit to the fruitfulness of the work which this organisation +might do for Ireland, and I cannot regard any who would depart from the +letter and spirit of its constitution as sincere, or if sincere as wise, +friends of the movement with which they are associated. + +Of minor importance are certain extravagances in the conduct of the +movement which time and practical experience can hardly fail to correct. +I have borne witness to the value of the cultivation of the language +even from my own practical standpoint, but I cannot think that to sign +cheques in Irish, and get angry when those who cannot understand will +not honour them, is a good way of demonstrating that value. I should, +speaking generally, regard it as a mistake, supposing it were +practicable, to substitute Irish for English in the conduct of business. +If any large development of the trade in pampooties, turf and potheen +between the Aran Islands and the mainland were in contemplation, this +attempt might be justified. But on behalf of those Philistines who +attach paramount importance to the development of Irish industry, trade +and commerce on a large and comprehensive scale, I should regret a +course which, from a business point of view, would be about as wise as +the advocacy of distinctive Irish currency, weights and measures. And I +protest more strongly against the reasons which have been given to me +for this policy. I have been told that, in order to generate sufficient +enthusiasm, a young movement of the kind must adopt a rigorous +discipline and an aggressive policy. Not only are we thus confronted +with a false issue, but by giving countenance to the outward acceptance +of what the better sense rejects, these over-zealous leaguers are +administering to the Irish character the very poison which all Irish +movements should combine to eliminate from the national life. + +The position which I have given to the Gaelic Revival among the new +influences at work and making for progress in Ireland will hardly be +understood by those who have never embraced the idea of combining all +such forces in a constructive and comprehensive scheme of national +advancement. One instance of the potential utility of the Gaelic League +will appeal to those of my readers who attach as much importance as I do +to the improvement of the peasant home. Concerted action to this end is +being planned while I write. It is proposed to take a few districts +where the peasants are members of one of the new co-operative societies, +and where the clergy have taken a keen interest in the economic and +social advancement of the members of the Society, but where the cottages +are in the normal condition. The new Department will lend the services +of its domestic economy teachers. The Organisation Society, the clergy, +and the Department thus working together will, I hope, be able to get +the people of the selected districts to effect an improvement in their +domestic surroundings which will act as an invaluable example for other +districts to follow. But in order that this much needed contribution to +the well-being of the peasant proprietary, upon which all our thoughts +are just now concentrated, may be assisted with the enthusiasm which +belongs in Ireland to a consciously national effort, it is hoped that +common action with the Gaelic League may be possible, so that this force +also may be enlisted in the solution of this part of our central +problem, the rehabilitation of rural life in Ireland. + +It is, however, on more general grounds that I have, albeit as an +outside observer, watched with some anxiety and much gratification the +progress of the Gaelic Revival. In the historical evolution of the Irish +mind we find certain qualities atrophied, so to speak, by disuse; and to +this cause I attribute the past failures of the race in practical life +at home. I have shown how politics, religion, and our systems of +education have all, in their respective influences upon the people, +missed to a large extent, the effect upon character which they should +have made it their paramount duty to produce. Nevertheless, whenever the +intellect of the people is appealed to by those who know its past, a +recuperative power is manifested which shows that its vitality has not +been irredeemably impaired. It is because I believe that, on the whole, +a right appeal has been made by the Gaelic League that I have borne +testimony to its patriotic endeavours. + +The question of the Gaelic Revival seems to be really a form of the +eternal question of the interdependence of the practical and the ideal +in Ireland. Their true relation to each other is one of the hardest +lessons the student of our problems has to learn. I recall an incident +in the course of my own studies which I will here recount, as it appears +to me to furnish an admirable illustration of this difficulty as it +presented itself to a very interesting mind. During the years covering +the rise and fall of Parnell, when interest in the Irish Question was at +its zenith, the newspapers of the United States kept in London a corps +of very able correspondents, who watched and reported to their +transatlantic readers every move in the Home Rule campaign. An American +public, by no means limited to the American-Irish, devoured every morsel +of this intelligence with an avidity which could not have been surpassed +if the United States had been engaged in a war with Great Britain. Among +these correspondents perhaps the most brilliant was the late Harold +Frederic. Not many months before he died I received a letter from him, +in which he said that, although we were unknown to each other, he +thought, from some public utterances of mine, that we must have many +views in common. He had often intended to get an introduction to me, and +now suggested that we should 'waive things and meet.' We met and spent +an evening together, which left some deep impressions on my mind. He +told me that the Irish Question possessed for him a fascination for +which he could give no rational explanation. He had absolutely no tie of +blood or material interest with Ireland, and his friendship for it had +brought him the only quarrels in which he had ever been engaged. + +What chiefly interested me in Harold Frederic's philosophy of the Irish +Question was that he had arrived at a diagnosis of the Irish mind not +substantially different from my own. Since that evening I have come +across a passage in one of his novels, which clothes in delightful +language his view of the chaotic psychology of the Celt: + + There, in Ireland, you get a strange mixture of elementary early + peoples, walled off from the outer world by the four seas, and + free to work out their own racial amalgam on their own lines. They + brought with them at the outset a great inheritance of Eastern + mysticism. Others lost it, but the Irish, all alone on their + island, kept it alive and brooded on it, and rooted their whole + spiritual side in it. Their religion is full of it; their blood is + full of it.... The Ireland of two thousand years ago is incarnated + in her. They are the merriest people and the saddest, the most + turbulent and the most docile, the most talented and the most + unproductive, the most practical and the most visionary, the most + devout and the most pagan. These impossible contradictions war + ceaselessly in their blood.[30] + +In our conversation what struck me most was the influence which politics +had exercised even on his philosophic mind, notwithstanding a low +estimate of our political leaders. In one of a series of three notable +articles upon the Irish Question, which appeared anonymously in the +_Fortnightly Review_[31] in the winter of 1893-4, and of which he told +me he was the writer, he had given a character sketch of what he called +'The Rhetoricians.' Their performances since the Union were summarised +in the phrase 'a century of unremitting gabble,' and he regarded it as a +sad commentary on Irish life that such brilliant talents so largely ran +to waste in destructive criticism. + +I naturally turned the conversation on to my own line of thought, and +discussed the practical conclusions to which his studies had led him. I +tried to elicit from him exactly what he had in his mind when, in one of +the articles to which I have referred, he advocated 'a reconstruction of +Ireland on distinctive national lines.' I hoped to find that his +psychological study of my countrymen would enable him to throw some +light upon the means by which play could be given at home to the latent +capacities of the race. I found that he was in entire accord with my +view, that the chief difficulty in the way of constructive statesmanship +was the defect in the Irish character about which I have said so much. I +was prepared for that conclusion, for I had already seen the lack of +initiative admirably appreciated in the following illuminating sentence +of his:--'The Celt will help someone else to do the thing that other has +in mind, and will help him with great zeal and devotion; but he will not +start to do the thing he himself has thought of.'[32] But I was +disappointed when he bade me his first and last good-bye that I had not +convinced him that there was any way out of the Irish difficulty other +than political changes, for which, at the same time, he appeared to +think the people singularly unfitted. + +The fact is we had arrived at the point where the student of Irish life +usually finds himself in a _cul de sac_. If he has accurately observed +the conditions, he is face to face with a problem which appears to be in +its nature insoluble. For at every turn he finds things being done wrong +which might so easily be done right, only that nobody is concerned that +they should be done right. And what is worse, when he has learned, in +the course of his investigations, to discount the picturesque +explanation of our unsuccess in practical life which in Ireland veils +the unpleasant truth, he will find that the people are quite aware of +their defects, although they attribute them to causes beyond their power +to remove. Then, too, the sympathetic inquirer is shocked by the lack of +seriousness in it all. With all their past griefs and their high +aspirations, the Irish people seem to be play-acting before the world. +The inquirer does not, perhaps, reflect that, if play-acting be +inconsistent with the deepest emotions, and with the pursuit of high +ideals, then he condemns a little over one half of the human race.[33] +He probably comes to the main conclusion adopted in these pages, and +realises that the Irish Question is a problem of character. And as Irish +character is the product of Irish history, which cannot be re-enacted, +he leaves the problem there. Harold Frederic left it there, and there it +has been taken up by those whose endeavour forms the story which I have +to tell. + +I now come to the principles which, it appears to me, must underlie the +solution of this problem. The narrative contained in the second part of +this book is a record of the efforts made during the last decade of the +nineteenth and the first two years of the twentieth century by a small, +but now rapidly augmenting group of Irishmen, to pluck the brand of +Irish intellect from the burning of the Irish Question. The problem +before us was, my readers will now understand, how to make headway in +view of the weakness of character to which I have had to attribute the +paralysis of our activities in the past. We were quite aware that our +progress would at first be slow. But as we were satisfied that the +defects of character which stood in the way of economic advancement were +due to causes which need no longer be operative, and that the intellect +of the people was unimpaired, we faced the problem with confidence. + +The practical form which our work took was the launching upon Irish life +of a movement of organised self-help, and the subsequent grafting upon +this movement of a system of State-aid to the agriculture and industries +of the country. I need not here further elaborate this programme, for +the steps by which it has been and is being adopted will be presently +described in detail. But there is one aspect of the new movement in +Ireland which must be understood by those who would grasp the true +significance and the human interest of an evolution in our national +life, the only recent parallel for which, as far as I am aware, is to be +found in Japan: though to my mind the conscious attempt of the Irish +people to develop a civilisation of their own is far more interesting +than the recent efforts of the Japanese to westernise their +institutions. + +The problem of mind and character with which we had to deal in Ireland +presented this central and somewhat discouraging fact. In practical life +the Irish had failed where the English had succeeded, and this was +attributed to the lack of certain English qualities which have been +undoubtedly essential to success in commerce and in industry from the +days of the industrial revolution until a comparatively recent date. It +was the individualism of the English economic system during this period +which made these qualities indispensable. The lack of these qualities in +Irishmen to-day may be admitted, and the cause of the deficiency has +been adequately explained. But those who regard the Irish situation as +industrially hopeless probably ignore the fact that there are other +qualities, of great and growing importance under modern economic +conditions, which can be developed in Irishmen and may form the basis of +an industrial system. I refer to the range of qualities which come into +play rather in association than in the individual, and to which the term +'associative' is applied.[34] So that although much disparaging +criticism of Irish character is based upon the survival in the Celt of +the tribal instincts, it is gratifying to be able to show that even from +the practical English point of view, our preference for thinking and +working in groups may not be altogether a _damnosa hereditas_. If, owing +to our deficiency in the individualistic qualities of the English, we +cannot at this stage hope to produce many types of the 'economic man' of +the economists, we think we see our way to provide, as a substitute, the +economic association. If the association succeeds, and by virtue of its +financial success becomes permanent, a great change will, in our +opinion, be produced on the character of its members. The reflex action +upon the individual mind of the habit of doing, in association with +others, things which were formerly left undone, or badly done, may be +relied upon to have a tonic effect upon the character of the individual. +This is, I suppose, the secret of discipline, which, though apparently +eliminating volition, seems in weak characters to strengthen the will. + +There is, too, as we have learned, in the association a strange +influence which develops qualities and capacities that one would not +expect on a mere consideration of the character of its members. This +psychological phenomenon has been admirably and most entertainingly +discussed by the French psychologist, Le Bon,[35] who, in the attractive +pursuit of paradox, almost goes to the length of the proposition that +the association inherently possesses qualities the opposite of those +possessed by its members. My own experience--and I have had +opportunities of observing hundreds of associations formed by my friends +upon the principles above laid down--does not carry me quite so far. +But, unquestionably, the association in Ireland does often become an +entity as distinct from the individualities of which it is composed, as +is a new chemical compound from its constituent elements. + +Associations of the kind we had in our minds, which were to be primarily +for purely business purposes, were bound to have many collateral +effects. They would open up outside of politics and religion, but not in +conflict with either, a sphere of action where an independence new to +the country would have to be exercised. In Ireland public opinion is +under an obsession which, whether political, religious, historical, or +all three combined, is probably unique among civilised peoples. Until +the last few years, for example, it was our habit--one which immensely +weakened the influence of Ireland in the Imperial Parliament--to form +extravagant estimates of men, exalting and abasing them with irrational +caprice, not according to their qualities so much as by their attitude +towards the passion of the hour. The ups and downs of the reputations of +Lord Spencer and Mr. Arthur Balfour in Ireland are a sufficient +illustration of our disregard of the old Latin proverb which tells us +that no man ever became suddenly altogether bad. Even now public opinion +is too prone to attach excessive value to projects of vague and +visionary development, and to underrate the importance of serious +thought and quiet work, which can be the only solid foundation of our +national progress. In these new associations--humble indeed in their +origin, but destined to play a large part in the people's +lives--projects, professing to be fraught with economic benefit, have to +be judged by the cruel precision of audited balance sheets, and the +worth of men is measured by the solid contribution they have made to the +welfare of the community. + + * * * * * + +I have now accomplished one long stage of my journey towards the +conclusion of this discussion of the needs of modern Ireland. Were I to +stop here, probably most of those who had been induced to open yet +another book upon the Irish Question would accuse me, and not without +justice, of being responsible for a barren graft upon a barren +controversy. I fear no such criticism, whatever other shortcomings may +be detected, from those who have the patience to read on. For when I +pass from my own reflections to record the work to which many thousands +of my countrymen have addressed themselves in building up the Ireland of +the twentieth century, I shall have a story to tell which must inspire +hope in all who can be persuaded that Ireland in the past has not often +been treated fairly and has never been understood. I have shown--and it +was necessary to show, if a repetition of misunderstanding was to be +avoided--that the Irish people themselves are gravely responsible for +the ills of their country, and that the forces which have mainly +governed their action hitherto are rapidly bringing about their +disappearance as a distinct nationality. But I shall now have to tell of +the widespread and growing adoption of certain new principles of action +which I believe to be consonant with the genius and traditions of the +race, and the acceptance of which seems to me vitally necessary if the +Irish people are to play a worthy part in the future history of the +world. That part is a far greater one than they could ever hope to play +as an independent and separate State, yet their success in playing it +must closely depend upon their remaining a distinct nationality, in the +sense so clearly and wisely indicated by his Majesty when, in his reply +to the address of the Belfast Corporation, he spoke of the 'national +characteristics and ideals' which he desired his kingdoms to cherish in +the midst of their imperial unity.[36] The great experiment which I am +about to relate is, in its own province, one of the many applications +which we see around us of the conception here put forward. And I believe +that a few more years of quiet work by those who are taking part in this +movement, with its appeal to Irish intellect, and its reliance upon +Irish patriotism, is all that is needed to prove that by developing the +industrial qualities of the Celt on associative lines we can in politics +as well as in economics, add strength to the Irish character without +making it less Irish or less attractive than of old. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[28] This body is fully described in the next chapter. + +[29] See Appendix to Third Report, p. 311. + +[30] _The Damnation of Theron Ware_. This was the title of the book I +read in the United States. I am told he published it in England under +the title of _Illuminations_--a nice discrimination! + +[31] They appeared under the signature of 'X.' in Nov. and Dec., 1893, +and Jan., 1894. + +[32] _Fortnightly Review_, Jan. 1894, pp. 11, 12. + +[33] The difficulties of the writer who is not a writer are great. I +sent this chapter to two literary friends, one of whom, with the help of +a globe, disputed my accuracy in a learned ethnological disquisition +with which he favoured me. The other warned me to be even more obscure +and sent me the following verses, addressed by 'Cynicus' (J.K. Stephen) +to Shakespeare, + +"You wrote a line too much, my sage, Of seers the first, the first of +sayers; For only half the world's a stage, And only all the women +players." + + + +[34] These qualities, as will be explained later, happen to have a +special economic value in the farming industry, and so are available for +the elevation of rural life, with whose problems we are now so deeply +concerned in Ireland. Their applicability to urban life need not be +discussed here. But my study of the co-operative movement in England has +convinced me that, if the English had the associative instincts of the +Irish, that movement would play a part in English life more commensurate +with its numerical strength and the volume of its commercial +transactions, than can be claimed for it so far. + +[35] _La Psychologie de la Foule_. + +[36] July 27th, 1903,--His Majesty thus confirmed the striking utterance +of imperial policy contained in Lord Dudley's speech to the Incorporated +Law Society, on the 20th of November, 1902. His Excellency, after +protesting against the conception of empire as a 'huge regiment' in +which each nation was to lose its individuality, said--"Lasting +strength, lasting loyalty, are not to be secured by any attempt to force +into one system or to remould into one type those special +characteristics which are the outcome of a nation's history and of her +religious and social conditions, but rather by a full recognition of the +fact that these very characteristics form an essential part of a +nation's life; and that under wise guidance and under sympathetic +treatment they will enable her to provide her own contribution and to +play her own special part in the life of the empire to which she +belongs." + + + + +PART II. + +_PRACTICAL_. + + +"For a country so attractive and a people so gifted we cherish the +warmest regard, and it is, therefore, with supreme satisfaction that I +have during our stay so often heard the hope expressed that a brighter +day is dawning upon Ireland. I shall eagerly await the fulfilment of +this hope. Its realisation will, under Divine Providence, depend largely +upon the steady development of self-reliance and co-operation, upon +better and more practical education, upon the growth of industrial and +commercial enterprise, and upon that increase of mutual toleration and +respect which the responsibility my Irish people now enjoy in the public +administration of their local affairs is well-fitted to +teach."--_Message of the King to the Irish People_, 1st August, 1903. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE NEW MOVEMENT: ITS FOUNDATION ON SELF-HELP. + + +The movement for the reorganisation of Irish agricultural and industrial +life, to which I have already frequently referred, must now be described +in practical operation. Before I do this, however, there are two lines +of criticism which the very mention of a new movement may suggest, and +which I must anticipate. Every year has its tale of new movements, +launched by estimable persons whose philanthropic zeal is not balanced +by the judgment required to discriminate between schemes which possess +the elements of permanence, and those which depend upon the enthusiasm +or financial support of their promoters, and are in their nature +ephemeral. There is, consequently, a widespread and well justified +mistrust of novel schemes for the industrial regeneration of Ireland. I +confess to having had my ingenuity severely taxed on some occasions to +find a sympathetic circumlocution wherewith to show cause for declining +to join a new movement, my real reason being an inward conviction that +nothing except resolutions would be moved. In the complex problem of +building up the economic and social life of a people with such a +history as ours, we must resist the temptation to multiply schemes +which, however well intended, are but devices for enabling individuals +to devolve their responsibilities upon the community or upon the +Government, and which owe their bubble reputation and brief popularity +to this unconscious humouring of our chief national defect. On the +contrary, we must seek to instil into the mind of each individual the +too little recognised importance of his own contribution to the sum of +national achievement. The building of character must be our paramount +object, as it is the condition precedent of all social and economic +reform in Ireland. To explain the principles by the observance of which +the agency of the association may be utilised as an economic force, +while at the same time the industrial character of the individual may be +developed, was one of the chief aims I had in view in the foregoing +analysis of the Irish mind and character, as they have emerged from +history and are stunted in their growth by present influences. The facts +about to be recited will, I hope, suffice to prove that the reformer in +Ireland, if he has a true insight into the great human problem with +which he is dealing, may find in the association not only a healthy +stimulus to national activities, but also a means whereby the assistance +of the State may be so invoked and applied that it will concentrate, and +not dissipate, the energies of the people. + +The other criticism which I think it necessary to anticipate would, if +ignored, leave room for a wrong impression as to much of the work which +is being done both on the self-help and on the State-aid sides of the +new movement. Education, it will be said, is the only real solvent to +the range of problems discussed in this book, most other agencies of +social and economic reform being of doubtful efficacy and, if they tend +to postpone educational effort, positively harmful. There is much truth +in this view. But it must be remembered that the backward condition of +our economic life is due mainly to the fact that our educational systems +have had little regard to our history or economic circumstances. We +must, therefore, at this stage in our national development give to +education a much wider interpretation than that which is usually applied +to the term. We cannot wait for a generation to grow up which has been +given an education calculated to fit it for the modern economic +struggle, even if there were any probability that the necessary reforms +would soon be carried against the prejudices which are aroused by any +proposal to train the minds, or even the hands and eyes, of the rising +generation. In the meantime much of the work, both voluntary and +State-aided, now initiated in Ireland, must consist of educating adults +to introduce into their business concerns the more advanced economic and +scientific methods which the superior education of our rivals in +agriculture and industry abroad has enabled them to adopt, and which my +experience of Irish work convinces me our people would have adopted long +ago if they had had similar educational advantages. And I would further +point out that there is no better way of promoting the reform of +education in the ordinary, the pedagogic, sense, than by bringing to +bear upon the minds of parents those educational influences which are +calculated to convince them of the advantage of improved practical +education for their children. So to the economist and to the +educationist alike I would submit that the new work of economic and +social reform should be judged as a whole, and not prejudged by that +hypercriticism of details which ignores the fact that the conditions +with which it is attempted to deal are wholly unprecedented. I am quite +content that the movement which I am about to describe should be +ultimately known and judged by its fruits. Meanwhile, I think that to +the intelligent critic it will sufficiently justify its existence if it +continues to exist. + + * * * * * + +The story of the new movement, which must now be told, begins in the +year 1889, when a few Irishmen, the writer of these pages among them, +set themselves the task of bringing home to the rural population of +Ireland the fact that their prosperity was in their own hands much more +than they were generally led to believe. I have already pointed out that +in order to direct the Irish mind towards practical affairs and in order +effectively to arouse and apply the latent capacities of the Irish +people to their chief industry, agriculture, we must rely upon +associative, as distinct from individual effort; or, in other words, we +must get the people to do their business together rather than +separately as the English do. Fortunately for us, it happened that this +course, which was clearly indicated by the character and temperament of +the people, was equally prescribed by economic considerations. The +population and wealth of Ireland are, I need hardly say, so +predominantly agricultural that the welfare of the country must depend +upon the welfare of the farming classes. It is notorious that the +industry by which these classes live has for the last quarter of a +century become less and less profitable. It is also recognised that the +prime cause of agricultural depression, foreign competition, is not +likely to be removed, while that from the colonies is likely to +increase. The extraordinary development of rapid and cheap transit, +together with recently invented processes of preservation, have enabled +the more favoured producers in the newly developed countries of both +hemispheres successfully to enter into competition in the British +markets with the farmers of these islands. The agricultural producers in +other European countries, although to some extent protected by tariffs, +have had to face similar conditions; but in most of these countries, +though not in the United Kingdom, the farmers have so changed their +methods, to meet the altered circumstances, that they seem to have +gained by improvement at home as much as they have lost by competition +from abroad Thus our farmers find themselves harassed first by the +cheaper production from vast tracts of virgin soil in the uttermost +parts of the earth, and secondly by a nearer and keener competition +from the better organised and better educated producers of the +Continent. + +While the opening up of what the economists call the 'world market,' has +necessitated, as a condition of successful competition, improved methods +of production for, and carriage to, the market, a third and less obvious +force has effected an important change in the method of distribution in +the market. The swarming populations, which the factory system has +brought together in industrial centres, have to be supplied with food by +a system of distribution which must above all things be expeditious. +This requirement can only be met by the regular consignment of food in +large quantities, of such uniform quality that the sample can be relied +upon to be truly indicative of the quality of the bulk. Thus the rapid +distribution of produce in the markets becomes as important a factor in +agricultural economy as improved methods of production or cheap and +expeditious carriage. + +Now this new market condition is being met in two ways. In the United +States, and, in a less marked degree, at home, an army of middlemen +between the producer and the consumer attends to this business for a +share of the profits accruing from it, whilst in many parts of the +Continent the farmers themselves attend, partially at any rate, to the +business side of their industry instead of paying others to do it all +for them. I say all, for middlemen are necessary at the distributive +end: but it is absolutely essential, in a country like Ireland, that at +the producing end the farmers should be so organised that they +themselves can manage the first stages of distribution, and exercise +some control over the middlemen who do the rest. The foreign +agricultural producers have long been alive to this necessity, for their +superior education enabled them to grasp the economic situation and even +to realise that the matter is not one of acute political controversy. + +Here, then, was a definite practical problem to the solution of which +the promoters of the new movement could apply their principle of +co-operative effort. The more we studied the question the more apparent +it became that the enormous advantage which the Continental farmers had +over the Irish farmers, both in production and in distribution, was due +to superior organisation combined with better education. State-aid had +no doubt done a great deal abroad, but in every case it was manifest +that it had been preceded, or at least accompanied, by the organised +voluntary effort without which the interference of the Government with +the business of the people is simply demoralising. + +Generally speaking, the task before us in Ireland was the adaptation to +the special circumstances of our country of methods successfully pursued +by communities similarly situated in foreign countries. We had to urge +upon farmers that combination was just as necessary to their economic +salvation as it was recognised to be by their own class, and by those +engaged in other industries, elsewhere. They must combine, so we urged +on them, for example, to buy their agricultural requirements at the +cheapest rate and of the best quality in order to produce more +efficiently and more economically; they must combine to avail themselves +of improved appliances beyond the reach of individual producers, whether +it be by the erection of creameries, for which there was urgent need, or +of cheese factories and jam factories which might come later; or in +ordinary farm operations, to secure the use of the latest agricultural +machinery and the most suitable pure-bred stock; they must combine--not +to abolish middle profits in distribution, whether those of the carrying +companies or those of the dealers in agricultural produce--but to keep +those profits within reasonable limits, and to collect in bulk and +regularise consignments so that they could be carried and marketed at a +moderate cost; they must combine, as we afterwards learned, for the +purpose of creating, by mutual support, the credit required to bring in +the fresh working capital which each new development of their industry +would demand and justify. In short, whenever and wherever the +individuals in a farming community could be brought to see that they +might advantageously substitute associated for isolated production or +distribution, they must be taught to form themselves into associations +in order to reap the anticipated advantages. + +This brief statement of our general aims will furnish a rough idea of +the economic propaganda which we initiated, and if I give a few +illustrations of the practical application of the new principle to the +farming industry, I shall have done all that will be required to leave +on the reader's mind a true though perhaps an incomplete impression of +the character and scope of the self-help side of the new movement. I +shall first give a sketch of the unrecorded struggles of its pioneers, +because these struggles prove to those engaged in social and economic +work in Ireland that, in the wholly abnormal condition of our national +life, no project which is theoretically sound need be rejected because +everybody says it is impracticable. The work of the morrow will largely +consist of the impossible of to-day. If this adds to the difficulty, it +also adds to the fun. + +When we arrived at the conclusion that the introduction of the principle +of agricultural co-operation was a vital necessity, the first practical +question which had to be decided was how the industrial army, which was +to do battle for Ireland's position in the world market, should be +organised and disciplined for the task. It is evident that before a body +of men who have never worked together can form a successful commercial +combination, they must be provided with a constitution and set of rules +and regulations for the conduct of their business. These must be so +skilfully contrived that they will harmonise all the interests involved. +And when an arrangement has been come to which is, not only in fact but +also obviously, equitable, it remains as part of the process of +organisation to teach the participants in the new project the meaning, +and to imbue them with the spirit, of the joint enterprise into which +they have been persuaded to enter with perhaps no very clear +understanding of all that is involved. There were in Ireland no +precedents to guide us and no examples to follow, but the co-operative +movement in England appeared to furnish most of the principles involved +and a perfect machinery for their application.[37] So Lord Monteagle and +Mr. R.A. Anderson, my first two associates in the New Movement, joined +me as regular attendants at the annual Co-operative congresses. We were +assiduous seekers after information at the head-quarters of the +Co-operative Union in Manchester. We had the good fortune to fall in +with Vansittart Neale, and Tom Hughes, both of whom have passed away, +and with Mr. Holyoake, who, with the exception of Mr. Ludlow, is now the +sole survivor of that noble group of practical philanthropists, the +Christian Socialists. Mr. J.C. Gray, who succeeded Mr. Vansittart Neale +as the General Secretary of the Co-operative Union, gave us invaluable +help and continues to do so to this day. The leaders of the English +movement sympathised with our efforts. The Union paid us the compliment +of constituting our first converts its Irish Section. Liberal support +was given out of the central English funds towards the cost of the +missionary work which was to spread co-operative light in the sister +isle. We can never forget the generosity of the workingmen in England in +giving their aid to the Irish farmers, especially when it is remembered +that they had no sanguine anticipations for the success of our efforts +and no prospect of advantages to themselves if we did succeed. + +It must be admitted that the outlook was not altogether rosy. +Agricultural co-operation had never succeeded in England, where it +seemed to be accepted as one of the disappointing limitations of the +co-operative movement that it did not apply to rural communities in +these islands. There were also in Ireland the peculiar difficulties +arising from ceaseless political and agrarian agitation. It was +naturally asked--did Irish farmers possess the qualities out of which +co-operators are made? Had they commercial experience or business +education? Had they business capacity? Would they display that +confidence in each other which is essential to successful association, +or indeed that confidence in themselves without which there can be no +business enterprise? Could they ever be induced to form themselves into +societies, and to adopt, and loyally adhere to those rules and +regulations by which alone equitable distribution of the responsibility +and profit among the participants in the joint undertaking can be +assured, and harmony and successful working be rendered possible? Then, +our best-informed Irish critics assured us that voluntary association +for humdrum business purposes, devoid of some religious or political +incentive, was alien to the Celtic temperament and that we should wear +ourselves out crying in the wilderness. We were told that Irishmen can +conspire but cannot combine. Economists assured us that even if we +succeeded in getting farmers to embark on the projected enterprises, +financial disaster would be the inevitable result of our attempts to +substitute in industrial undertakings, ever becoming more technical and +requiring more and more commercial knowledge and experience, democratic +management for one-man control. + +On the other hand there were some favouring conditions, the importance +of which our studies of the human problems already discussed will have +made my readers realise. Isolated, the Irish farmer is conservative, +sceptical of innovations, a believer in routine and tradition. In union +with his fellows, he is progressive, open to ideas, and wonderfully keen +at grasping the essential features of any new proposal for his +advancement. He was, then, himself eminently a subject for co-operative +treatment, and his circumstances were equally so. The smallness of his +holding, the lack of capital, and the backwardness of his methods made +him helpless in competition with his rivals abroad. The process of +organisation was also, to some extent, facilitated by the insight the +people had been given by the Land League into the power of combination, +and by the education they had received in the conduct of meetings. It +was a great advantage that there was a machinery ready at hand for +getting people together, and a procedure fully understood for giving +expression to the sense of the meeting. On the other hand, the +domination of a powerful central body, which was held to be essential to +the success of the political and agrarian movement, had exercised an +influence which added enormously to the difficulty of getting the people +to act on their own initiative. + +Though the economic conditions of the Irish farmer clearly indicated a +need for the application of co-operative effort to all branches of his +industry, it was necessary at the beginning to embrace a more limited +aim. It happened at the time we commenced our Irish work that one branch +of farming, the dairying industry, presented features admirably adapted +to our methods. This industry was, so to speak, ripe for its industrial +development, for its change from a home to a factory industry. New +machinery, costly but highly efficient, had enabled the factory product, +notably that of Denmark and Sweden, to compete successfully with the +home-made article, both in quality and cost of production. Here, it will +be observed, was an opportunity for an experiment in co-operative +production, under modern industrial conditions, which would put the +associative qualities of the Irish farmer to a test which the British +artisan had not stood quite as well as the founders of the co-operative +movement had anticipated. To add to the interest of the situation, +capitalists had seized upon the material advantages which the abundant +supply of Irish milk afforded, and the green pastures of the "Golden +Vein" were studded with snow white creameries which proclaimed the +transfer of this great Irish industry from the tiller of the soil to the +man of commerce. The new-comers secured the milk of the district by +giving the farmer much more for his milk than it was worth to him, so +long as he pursued the old methods of home manufacture. This induced +farmers to go out of the butter-making business. After a while the price +was reduced, and the proprietor, finding it necessary to give the +suppliers only what they could make out of their milk without his modern +equipment, realised profits altogether out of proportion to his share of +the capital embarked or the labour involved in the production of the +butter. + +The economic position was ideal for our purpose, and we had no +difficulty in explaining it to the farmers themselves. The social +problem was the real difficulty. To all suggestions of co-operative +action they at first opposed a hopeless _non possumus_. Their objections +may be summed up thus:--They had never combined for any business +purpose. How could they trust the Committee they were asked to elect +from amongst themselves to expend their money and conduct their +business? It was all very well for the proprietor with his ample +capital, free hand, and business experience, to work with complicated +machinery and to consign his butter out of the reach of the local butter +buyer, and to save the waste and delay of the local butter market. But +they knew nothing of the business and would only make fools of +themselves. The promoters--they were not putting anything into the +scheme--how much did they intend to take out?[38] + +There was nothing in this attitude of mind which we had not fully +anticipated. We were confident that, as we were on sound economic +ground, no matter what difficulties might confront us it was only a +question of time for the attainment of our ends. All that was required +was that we should keep pegging away. My own experience was not +encouraging at first. I was, and am, a poor speaker, and in Ireland a +man who cannot express his thoughts with facility, whether he has got +them or not, accentuates the difficulties under which a prophet labours +in his own country. I made up for my deficiencies in the first essential +of Irish public life by engaging a very eloquent political speaker, the +late Mr. Mulhallen Marum, M.P., to stump the country. He gave to the +propaganda a relish which my prosaic economics altogether lacked. The +nationalist band sometimes came out to meet him. We all know the +efficiency of the drum in politics and religion, but it seemed to me a +little out of place in economics. However, he created an excellent +impression, but unhappily he died of heart disease before he had +attended more than three or four meetings. This was a severe blow to us, +and we toiled away under some temporary discouragement. My own diary +records attendance at fifty meetings before a single society had +resulted therefrom. It was weary work for a long time. These gatherings +were miserable affairs compared with those which greeted our political +speakers. On one occasion the agricultural community was represented by +the Dispensary Doctor, the Schoolmaster, and the Sergeant of Police. +Sometimes, in spite of copious advertising of the meeting, the prosaic +nature of the objects had got abroad, and nobody met. + +Mr. Anderson, who sometimes accompanied me and sometimes went his rounds +alone, had similar experiences. I may quote a passage from some of his +reminiscences, recently published in the _Irish Homestead_, the organ of +the co-operative movement in Ireland. + + It was hard and thankless work. There was the apathy of the people + and the active opposition of the Press and the politicians. It + would be hard to say now whether the abuse of the Conservative + _Cork Constitution_ or that of the Nationalist _Eagle_, of + Skibbereen, was the louder. We were "killing the calves," we were + "forcing the young women to emigrate," we were "destroying the + industry." Mr. Plunkett was described as a "monster in human + shape," and was adjured to "cease his hellish work." I was + described as his "Man Friday" and as "Rough-rider Anderson." Once, + when I thought I had planted a Creamery within the precincts of the + town of Rathkeale, my co-operative apple-cart was upset by a local + solicitor who, having elicited the fact that our movement + recognised neither political nor religious differences--that the + Unionist-Protestant cow was as dear to us as her + Nationalist-Catholic sister--gravely informed me that our programme + would not suit Rathkeale. "Rathkeale," said he, pompously, "is a + Nationalist town--Nationalist to the backbone--and every pound of + butter made in this Creamery must be made on Nationalist + principles, or it shan't be made at all." This sentiment was + applauded loudly, and the proceedings terminated. + +On another occasion a similar project was abandoned because the flow of +water to the disused mill which it was proposed to convert into a +creamery, passed through a conduit lined with cement originally +purchased from a man who now occupied a farm from which another had been +evicted. To some minds these little complications would have spelled +failure. To my associates they but accentuated the need for the movement +which they had so laboriously thought out, and the very nature of the +difficulties confirmed them in their belief that the economic doctrine +they were preaching was adapted to meet the requirements of the case. +And so the event proved. + +In the year 1894 the movement had gathered volume to such an +extent--although the societies then numbered but one for every twenty +that are in existence to-day--that it became beyond the power of a few +individuals to direct its further progress. In April of that year a +meeting was held in Dublin to inaugurate the Irish Agricultural +Organisation Society, Ltd. (now commonly known as the I.A.O.S.), which +was to be the analogue of the Co-operative Union in England. In the +first instance it was to consist of philanthropic persons, but its +constitution provided for the inclusion in its membership of the +societies which had already been created and those which it would itself +create as time went on. It had, and has to-day, a thoroughly +representative Committee. I was elected the first President, a position +which I held until I entered official life, when Lord Monteagle, a +practical philanthropist if ever there was one, became my successor. +Father Finlay, who joined the movement in 1892, and who has devoted the +extraordinary influence which he possesses over the rural population of +Ireland to the dissemination of our economic principles, became +Vice-President. Both he and Lord Monteagle have been annually re-elected +ever since. + +The growth of the movement in the last nine years under the fostering +care of the I.A.O.S. is highly satisfactory. By the autumn of this year +(1903) considerably over eight hundred societies had been established, +and the number is ever growing; of these 360 were dairy, and 140 +agricultural societies, nearly 200 agricultural banks, 50 home +industries societies, 40 poultry societies, while there were 40 others +with miscellaneous objects. The membership may be estimated--I am +writing towards the end of the Society's statistical year--at about +80,000, representing some 400,000 persons. The combined trade turnover +of these societies during the present year will reach approximately +£2,000,000, a figure the meaning of which can only be appreciated when +it is remembered that the great majority of the associated farmers are +in so small a way of business that in England they would hardly be +classed as farmers at all. + +These societies consist, as has been explained, of groups of farmers who +have been taught by organisers that certain branches of their business +can be more profitably conducted in association than by individuals +acting separately. The principle of agricultural co-operation with its +economic advantages will, as time goes on, be further extended by the +combined action of societies. With this end in view federations are +constantly being formed with a constitution similar to that of the +societies, the only difference being that the members of the federation +are not individuals but societies, the government of the central body +being carried on by delegates from its constituent associations. The two +largest of these federations, one for the sale of butter, and another +for the combined purchase by societies of their agricultural +requirements, have been working successfully for several years. +Federations, too, are being formed, as societies find that their +business can be conducted more economically, for example, in dairying by +centralising the manufacture of butter, or in the egg export trade by +the alliance of many districts to enable large contracts to be +undertaken. In the near future a further development of federation will +be required to complete a scheme now under consideration for the mutual +insurance of live stock. Such a scheme involves the existence of two +prime conditions, a local organisation for the purpose of effective +supervision, and the spreading of the risk over a large area. + +In all such enterprises and economic changes the Organisation Society is +either the initiator, or is called in for advice, and its continued +existence in a purely advisory capacity as a link between the societies +where concerted action is required, will be necessary even when the +organisation of farmers into societies is completed. The economic life +of rural communities is in continual need of adjustment. Now it is an +invention like a steam separator which revolutionises an industry. At +another time the crisis created by a change in the tariff of a foreign +country forces the producer either to find a new outlet for his wares, +or to abandon a hitherto profitable employment. A striking instance of +the value of organisation and connection with a central advisory body +occurred in 1887, when swine fever broke out in Denmark, and the exports +of live swine fell from 230,000 in one year to 16,000 in the next. The +organisation of the farmers, however, enabled them easily to consult +together how best to meet the emergency, and their decision to start +co-operative bacon-curing factories was the foundation of their present +great export trade in manufactured bacon. + +I must not overburden with details a narrative intended for readers to +whom I merely wish to give a deeper and wider understanding of Irish +life than most of them probably possess. But there is just one form of +agricultural co-operation to which I can usefully devote a few +paragraphs, because it throws much light upon the associative qualities +of the people and also upon the educational and social value of the +movement. I refer to the Agricultural Banks, more properly called Credit +Associations, which have been organised upon the Raiffeisen system. +Before the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society was formed we had +read of these institutions, and of the marvellously beneficial effect +they had produced upon the most depressed rural communities abroad. But +only in the last few years have we fully realised that they are even +more required and are likely to do more good in Ireland than in any +other country; for on the psychological side of our work we formerly but +dimly saw things which we now see clearly. + +The exact purpose of these organisations is to create credit as a means +of introducing capital into the agricultural industry. They perform the +apparent miracle of giving solvency to a community composed almost +entirely of insolvent individuals. The constitution of these bodies, +which can, of course, be described only in broad outline here, is +somewhat startling. They have no subscribed capital, but every member is +liable for the entire debts of the association. Consequently the +association takes good care to admit men of approved character and +capacity only. It starts by borrowing a sum of money on the joint and +several security of its members. A member wishing to borrow from the +association is not required to give tangible security, but must bring +two sureties. He fills up an application form which states, among other +things, what he wants the money for. The rules provide--and this is the +salient feature of the system--that a loan shall be made for a +productive purpose only, that is, a purpose which, in the judgment of +the other members of the association as represented by a committee +democratically elected from among themselves, will enable the borrower +to repay the loan out of the results of the use made of the money lent. + +Raiffeisen held, and our experience in Ireland has fully confirmed his +opinion, that in the poorest communities there is a perfectly safe basis +of security in the honesty and industry of its members. This security is +not valuable to the ordinary commercial lender, such as the local joint +stock bank. Even if such lenders had the intimate knowledge possessed by +the committee of one of these associations as to the character and +capacity of the borrower, they would not be able to satisfy themselves +that the loan was required for a really productive purpose, nor would +they be able to see that it was properly applied to the stipulated +object. One of the rules of the co-operative banks provides for the +expulsion of a member who does not apply the money to the agreed +productive purpose. But although these "Banks" are almost invariably +situated in very poor districts, there has been no necessity to put this +rule in force in a single instance. Social influences seem to be quite +sufficient to secure obedience to the association's laws. + +Another advantage conferred by the association is that the term for +which money is advanced is a matter of agreement between the borrower +and the bank. The hard and fast term of three months which prevails in +Ireland for small loans is unsuited to the requirements of the +agricultural industry--as for instance, when a man borrows money to sow +a crop, and has to repay it before harvest. The society borrows at four +or five per cent, and lends at five or six per cent. In some cases the +Congested Districts Board or the Department of Agriculture have made +loans to these banks at three per cent. This enables the societies to +lend at the popular rate of one penny for the use of one pound for a +month. The expenses of administration are very small. As the credit of +these associations develops, they will become a depository for the +savings of the community, to the great advantage of both lender and +borrower. The latter generally makes an enormous profit out of these +loans, which have accordingly gained the name of 'the lucky money,' and +we find, in practice, that he always repays the association and almost +invariably with punctuality. + +The sketch I have given of the agricultural banks will, perhaps, be +sufficient to show what an immense educational and economic benefit they +are likely to confer when they are widely extended throughout Ireland, +as I hope they will be in the near future. Under this system, which, to +quote the report of the Indian Famine Commission, 1901, 'separates the +working bees from the drones,' the industrious men of the community who +had no clear idea before of the meaning or functions of capital or +credit, and who were generally unable to get capital into their industry +except at exorbitant rates of interest and upon unsuitable terms, are +now able to get, not always, indeed, all the money they want, but all +the money they can well employ for the improvement of their industry. +There is no fear of rash investment of capital in enterprises believed +to be, but not in reality productive--the committee take good care of +that. The whole community is taught the difference between borrowing to +spend and borrowing to make. You have the collective wisdom of the best +men in the association helping the borrower to decide whether he ought +to borrow or not, and then assisting him, if only from motives of +self-interest, to make the loan fulfil the purpose for which it was +made. I was delighted to find when I was making an enquiry into the +working of the system that, whereas the debt-laden peasants had formerly +concealed their indebtedness, of which they were ashamed, those who were +in debt to the new banks were proud of the fact, as it was the best +testimonial to their character for honesty and industry.[39] + +One other sphere of activity worked by the co-operative associations +needs a passing notice. The desire that, together with material +amelioration, there should be a corresponding intellectual advancement +and a greater beauty in life has prompted many of the farmers' societies +to use their organisation for higher ends. A considerable number of them +have started Village Libraries, and by an admirable selection of books +have brought to their members, not only the means of educating +themselves in the more difficult technical problems of their industry, +but also a means of access to that enchanted world of Irish thought +which inspires the Gaelic Revival to which I have already referred. +Social gatherings of every kind, dances, lectures, concerts, and such +like entertainments, which have the two-fold effect of brightening rural +life and increasing the attachment of the members to their society, are +becoming a common feature in the movement, and this more human aspect +has attracted to it the attention of many who do not understand its +economic side. We have gratifying evidence from many of the clergy that +the movement thus developed has kept at home young people who would +otherwise have fled from the continued hardship and intellectual +emptiness of rural life at home. + +These results are in no small measure due to the zeal and devotion of +the governing body and staff of the I.A.O.S. The general policy of the +society is guided by a committee of twenty-four members, one-half of +whom are elected by the individual subscribers and the other half by the +affiliated societies. It is representative in the best sense and +influential accordingly. The success of the Committee is no doubt mainly +due to the wisdom which they have displayed in the selection of the +staff. In the most important post, that of Secretary, they have kept on +my chief fellow-worker in the early struggle, Mr. R.A. Anderson, who has +devoted himself to the cause with all the energy of a nature at once +enthusiastic, unselfish, and practical, and who has succeeded in +inspiring his staff of organisers and experts with his own spirit. Among +these, two deserve special mention, Mr. George W. Russell, one of the +Assistant Secretaries, who has, under the _nom de plume_ "A.E.," +attained fame for a poetry of rare distinction of thought and diction, +and Mr. P.J. Hannon, the other Assistant Secretary, who has proved +himself a splendid propagandist. Each of these gentlemen has brought to +the movement a zeal and ability which could only come of a devotion to +high ideals of patriotism, curiously combined with a shrewd practical +instinct for carrying on varied and responsible business undertakings. + +With the growing work the staff has been repeatedly augmented to enable +the central society to keep pace with the demand made by groups of +farmers to be initiated into the principles of co-operative +organisation and the details of its application to the particular +branches of farming carried on in their several districts. At the same +time the societies which have been established need, during their +earlier years, and with each extension of their operations, constant +advice and supervision. Hence skilled organisers have to be kept to form +co-operative dairy societies, inspect creameries, and give technical +advice upon the manufacture and sale of butter, the care of machinery, +the adequacy of the water supply, the drainage system, and many similar +technical questions. Others are employed to start poultry societies, +which when organised have still to be instructed by a Danish expert in +the proper method of packing, selecting, and grading the eggs for +export. In tillage districts there is a constant demand for organisers +of purely agricultural societies, which aim at the joint purchase of +seeds and manures, of implements and other farm requisites, and at the +better disposal of produce; while the growing importance of an improved +system of agricultural credit keeps four organisers of agricultural +banks constantly at work Home industries, bee-keeping, and horticulture, +may be added to the objects for which societies have been formed and +which require separate expert organisers. And in addition to all this +work, the central association has found it necessary to keep a staff of +accountants, versed in the principles of co-operative organisation, to +instruct these miscellaneous societies in simple and efficient systems +of bookkeeping, and in the general principles of conducting business. +To complete the description of the propagandist activities of the +central body, there is a ceaseless flow of leaflets and circulars +containing advice and direction to bodies of farmers who, for the first +time in their lives, have combined for business purposes; while a little +weekly paper, the _Irish Homestead_, acts as the organ of the movement, +promotes the exchange of ideas between societies scattered throughout +the country, furnishes useful information upon all matters connected +with their business operations, and keeps constantly before the +associated farmers the economic principles which must be observed, and, +above all, the spirit in which the work must be approached, if the +movement is to fulfil its mission.[40] + +One of the difficulties incidental to a movement of this kind, which, +for the reasons already set forth, had to be rapidly and widely +extended, was the enormous cost to its supporters. It is needless to say +that such a staff as I have described could not be kept continuously +travelling by rail and road for so many years without the provision of a +large fund. These officers must obviously be men with exceptional +qualifications, if they are not only to impress the thought of their +agricultural audiences, but also to move them to action, and to sustain +the newly organised societies through the initial difficulties of their +unfamiliar enterprise. Such men are not to be found idle, and if they +preach this gospel, they are entitled to live by it. They are not by any +means overpaid, but their salaries in the aggregate amount to a large +annual sum. Before the creation of the Department of Agriculture and +Technical Instruction in 1900 large sums were spent by the I.A.O.S. not +only in its proper work of organisation, but also in giving technical +instruction, which was found to be essential to commercial success. When +the Society was relieved of this educational work many of its supporters +withdrew their subscriptions under the impression that there was now no +longer any need for its continued existence. But so far from the +Society's usefulness having ceased, it has now become more important +than ever that the doctrine of organised self-help, which must be the +foundation of any sound Irish economic policy, should be insisted upon +and put into practical operation as widely as possible. All those who +are devoting their lives to the firm establishment of this self-help +movement among the chief wealth-producers of the country are agreed that +no better educational work can be done at the moment than that which is +bringing about so salutary a change in the economic attitude of the +Irish mind. + +It is not to be wondered at that the greater part of the necessary funds +should have been drawn from a very limited circle of public-spirited men +capable of grasping the significance of a movement the practical effect +of which would appear to be permanent only to those who had a deep +insight into Irish problems.[41] The difficulty of a successful appeal +to a wider public has been the impossibility of giving in brief form an +adequate explanation, such as that which it is hoped these pages will +afford, of the part the movement was to play in Irish life. We were +asked whether our scheme was business or philanthropy. If philanthropy, +it would probably do more harm than good. If business, why was it not +self-supporting? I remember hearing the movement ridiculed in the House +of Commons by a prominent Irish member on the ground that the accounts +of the I.A.O.S. showed that £20,000 (£40,000 would be nearer the mark +now) had been put into the 'business,' and that this large capital had +been entirely lost! When we proved that agricultural co-operation +brought a large profit to the members of the societies we formed, it was +suggested that a small part of this profit would give us all we required +for our organising work. So it will in time, but if instead of merely +refusing financial assistance to our converts, we were, on the other +hand, to demand it from them, we certainly should not lessen the +difficulty of launching our movement among the farmers of Ireland. Some +of our critics denounced the expenditure of so much money for which, in +their opinion, there was nothing to show, and said that the time had +come to stop this 'spoon-feeding.' When those for whose exclusive +benefit the costly work had been undertaken learned that all we had to +offer was the cold advice that they should help themselves, they not +infrequently raised a wholly different objection to our economic +doctrine. Spoonfeeding they might have tolerated, but there was nothing +in the spoon! The movement has survived all these criticisms. The lack +of moral and of financial support which retarded its progress in the +early years, has been so far surmounted The movement may now, I think, +appeal for further help as one that has justified its existence. The +opinion that it has done so is not held only by those who are engaged in +promoting it, nor by Irish observers alone. The efforts of the Irish +farmers so to reorganise their industry that they may hopefully approach +the solution of the problems of rural life are being watched by +economists and administrators abroad. Enquirers have come to Ireland +during the last two years from Germany, France, Canada, the United +States, India, South Africa, Cyprus and the West Indies, having been +drawn here by the desire to understand the combination of economic and +human reform. It was not alone the economic advantages of the movement +which interested them, but the way in which the organisation at the same +time acted upon the character and awoke those forces of self-help and +comradeship in which lies the surety of any enduring national +prosperity. A native governor from a famine district in the Madras +Presidency, who, perhaps, better than any one realised the importance +of these human factors, because the lethargy of his own people had +forced it on his notice, said, when he was referred to the Department of +Agriculture and Technical Instruction for information, "Oh, don't speak +to me about Government Departments. They are the same all over the +world. I come here to learn what the Irish people are doing to help +themselves and how you awaken the will and the initiative." I hope to +show later that State assistance properly applied is not necessarily +demoralising but very much the reverse. It is consoling, too, to our +national pride, long wounded by contemptuous references to our +industrial incapacity as compared with our neighbours, to find that our +latest efforts are regarded by them as worthy of imitation. From the +other side of the Channel no less than five County Councils have sent +deputations of farmers to Ireland to study the progress of the movement, +and already an English Organisation Society, expressly modelled upon its +Irish namesake, has been established and is endeavouring to carry out +the same work. + +It is not surprising that the facts which I have cited should be +interesting to the honest inquirer. A summary of actual achievement will +show that this movement has spread all over Ireland, that its principle +of organised self-help has been universally accepted, and that nothing +but time and the necessary funds are required by its promoters to give +it, within the range of its applicability, general effect. It is no +exaggeration to say that there has been set in motion and carried +beyond the experimental stage a revolution in agricultural methods which +will enable our farmers to compete with their rivals abroad, both in +production and in distribution, under far more favourable conditions +than before. Alike in its material and in its moral achievements this +movement has provided an effective means whereby the peasant proprietary +about to be created will be able to face and solve the vital problems +before it, problems for which no improvement in land tenure, no rent +reductions actual or prospective, could otherwise provide an adequate +solution. Furthermore, nothing could be more evident to any close +observer of Irish life than the fact that had it not been for the new +spirit which the workers in this movement, mostly humble unknown men, +had generated, the attitude of the Irish democracy towards England's +latest concession to Ireland would have been very different from what it +is. In the last dozen years hundreds and thousands of meetings have been +held to discuss matters of business importance to our rural communities. +At these meetings landlord and tenant-farmer have often met each other +for the first time on a footing of friendly equality, as fellow-members +of co-operative societies. It is significant that all through the +negotiations which culminated in the Dunraven Treaty, landlords who had +come into the life of the people in connection with the co-operative +movement took a prominent part in favour of conciliation. + +I would further give it as my opinion, whatever it may be worth, that +the movement has exercised a profound influence in those departments of +our national life where, as I have shown in previous chapters, new +forces must be not only recognised but accepted as essential to national +well-being, if we are to cherish what is good and free ourselves from +what is bad in the historical evolution of our national life. In the +domain of politics it is hard to estimate even the political value of +the exclusion of politics from deliberations and activities where they +have no proper place. In our religious life, where intolerance has +perpetuated anti-industrial tendencies, the new movement is seen to be +bringing together for business purposes men who had previously no +dealings with each other, but who have now learned that the doctrine of +self-help by mutual help involves no danger to faith and no sacrifice of +hope, while it engenders a genuinely Christian interpretation of +charity.[42] + +I cannot conclude the story of this movement without paying a brief +tribute of respect and gratitude to those true patriots who have borne +the daily burden of the work. I hope the picture I have given of their +aims and achievements will lead to a just appreciation of their services +to their country. By these men and women applause or even recognition +was not expected or desired: they knew that it was to those who had the +advantages of leisure, and what the world calls position, that the +credit for their work would be given. But it is of national importance +that altruistic service should be understood and given freedom of +expansion. I have, therefore, presented as faithfully as I could the +origin and development of one of the least understood, but in my +opinion, most fruitful movements which has ever been undertaken by a +body of social and economic reformers. As Irish leaders they have +preferred to remain obscure, conscious that the most damaging criticism +which could be applied to their work would be that it depended on their +own personal qualities or acts for its permanent utility. But most +assuredly the real conquerors of the world are those who found upon +human character their hopes of human progress. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[37] The story of the conversion of some of the tenants on the Vandeleur +estate into a co-operative community in 1831 by Mr. E.T. Craig, a +Scotchman who took up the agency of the property, told in the _History +of Ralahine_ (London, Trübner & Co., 1893) is worth reading. The +experiment, most hopeful as far as it went, was only two years in +existence when the landlord gambled away his property at cards in a +Dublin club and the Utopia was sold up. But in the co-operative world +Mr. Craig, who died as recently as 1894, is revered as the author of the +most advanced experiment in the realisation of co-operative ideals. The +economic significance of the narrative is obviously not important, and I +doubt whether joint ownership of land, except for the purpose of common +grazing, is a practical ideal. The ready response, however, of the Irish +peasants to Mr. Craig's enthusiasm and the way in which they took up the +idea form an interesting study of the Irish character. + +[38] The late Canon Bagot had done good service in explaining the value +of the new machinery; but unhappily the vital importance of co-operative +organisation was not then understood. He formed some joint stock +companies with the result that, having no co-operative spirit to offset +their commercial inexperience, they all proved, instead of co-operative +successes, competitive failures. This fact added to our early +difficulties. + +[39] It should be noted that this form of association for credit +purposes, owing to its peculiar constitution, applies only to a grade of +the community whose members all live on about the same scale and that a +fairly low one. It is obvious that unlimited liability would lose its +efficacy in developing the sense of responsibility if some members of +the association were so substantial that its creditors would make them +primarily responsible in the event of failure. The fact, however, that +the scheme has worked with unvarying success among the poorest of the +poor, and the most Irish of the Irish, renders it as good an +illustration as can be found of what may be done by sympathetic and +intelligent treatment of Irish economic problems. Mr. Henry W. Wolff, +the foremost authority on People's Banks in these islands, and Mr. R.A. +Yerburgh, M.P., a generous subscriber to the Irish Agricultural +Organisation Society, have taken great interest in this part of the +movement and have rendered much assistance. + +[40] Those who wish to go more fully into the details of the +co-operative agricultural movement in Ireland should write to the +Secretary Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, 22 Lincoln-place, +Dublin. The publications of the Society are somewhat voluminous, and the +inquirer should intimate any particular branches of the subject in which +he is especially interested. Those wishing to keep _au courant_ with the +further development of the movement would do well to take in the _Irish +Homestead_, post free _6s. 6d._ per annum. + +[41] The chief donors belong to the class of philanthropists who do not +care to advertise their beneficence. I, therefore, respect their wishes +and withhold their names. + +[42] I recall an occasion when the Vice-President of the I.A.O.S. (a +Nationalist in politics and a Jesuit priest), who has been ever ready to +lend a hand as volunteer organiser when the prior claims of his +religious and educational duties allowed, found himself before an +audience which he was informed, when he came to the meeting, consisted +mainly of Orangemen. He began his address by referring to the new and +somewhat strange environment into which he had drifted. He did not, +however, see why this circumstance should lead to any misunderstanding +between himself and his audience. He had never been able to understand +what a battle fought upon a famous Irish river two centuries ago had got +to do with the practical issues of to-day which he had come to discuss. +The dispute in question was, after all, between a Scotchman and a +Dutchman, and if it had not yet been decided, they might be left to +settle it themselves--that is if too great a gulf did not separate them. + + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE RECESS COMMITTEE. + + +The new movement, six years after its initiation, had succeeded beyond +the most sanguine expectations of its promoters. All over the country +the idea of self-help was taking firm hold of the imagination of the +people. + +Co-operation had got, so to speak, into the air to such an extent that, +whereas at the beginning, as I well remember, our chief difficulty had +been to popularise a principle to which one section of the community was +strongly opposed, and in which no section believed, it was now no longer +necessary to explain or support the theory, but only to show how it +could be advantageously applied to some branch of the farmer's industry. +It was not, strange to say, the economic advantage which had chiefly +appealed to the quick intelligence of the Irish farmer, but rather the +novel sensation that he was thinking for himself, and that while +improving his own condition he was working for others. This attitude was +essential to the success of the movement, because had it not been for a +vein of altruism, the "strong" farmers would have held aloof, and the +small men would have been discouraged by the abstention of the +better-off and presumably more enlightened of their class. + +Perhaps, too, we owed something to the recognition on the part of the +working farmers of Ireland that they were showing a capacity to grasp an +idea which had so far failed to penetrate the bucolic intelligence of +the predominant partner. Whatever the causes to which the success of the +movement was attributable, those who were responsible for its promotion +felt in the year 1895 that it had reached a stage in its development +when it was but a question of time to complete the projected revolution +in the farming industry, the substitution of combined for isolated +methods of production and distribution. It was then further brought home +to them that the principle of self-help was destined to obtain general +acceptance in rural Ireland, and that the time had come when a sound +system of State aid to agriculture might be fruitfully grafted on to +this native growth of local effort and self-reliance. + +From time to time our public men had included in the list of Irish +grievances the fact that England enjoyed a Board of Agriculture while +Ireland had no similar institution. As a matter of fact a mere replica +of the English Board would not have fulfilled a tithe of the objects we +had in view. That much at least we knew, but beyond that our information +was vague. What, having regard to Irish rural conditions, should be the +character and constitution of any Department called into being to +administer the aid required? Here indeed was a vital and difficult +problem. Even those of us who had given the closest thought to the +matter did not know exactly what was wanted; nor, if we had known our +own minds, could we have formulated our demand in such a way as to have +obtained a backing from representative public bodies, associations, and +individuals sufficient to secure its concession. Instead, therefore, of +agitating in the conventional manner we determined to try to direct the +best thought of the country to the problem in hand, with a view to +satisfying the Government, and also ourselves, as to what was wanted. We +had confidence that a demand presented to Parliament, based upon calm +and deliberate debate among the most competent of Irishmen, would be +conceded. The story of this agitation, its initiation, its conduct, and +its final success will, I am sure, be of interest to all who feel any +concern for the welfare of Ireland. + +I have accepted the common characterisation of the Irish as a +leader-following people. When we come to analyse the human material out +of which a strong national life may be constructed, we find that there +are in Ireland--in this connection I exclude the influence of the +clergy, with which I have dealt specifically in another chapter--two +elements of leadership, the political and the industrial. The political +leaders are seen to enjoy an influence over the great majority of the +people which is probably as powerful as that of any political leaders in +ancient or modern times; but as a class they certainly do not take a +prominent, or even an active part in business life. This fact is not +introduced with any controversial purpose, and I freely acknowledge can +be interpreted in a sense altogether creditable to the Nationalist +members. The other element of leadership contains all that is prominent +in industrial and commercial life, and few countries could produce +better types of such leaders than can be found in the northern capital +of the country. But, unhappily, these men are debarred from all +influence upon the thought and action of the great majority of the +people, who are under the domination of the political leaders. This is +one of the strange anomalies of Irish life to which I have already +referred. Its recognition, and the desire to utilise the knowledge of +business men as well as politicians, took practical effect in the +formation of the Recess Committee. + +The idea underlying this project was the combination of these two forces +of leadership--the force with political influence and that of proved +industrial and commercial capacity--in order to concentrate public +opinion, which was believed to be inclining in this direction, on the +material needs of the country. The General Election of 1895 had, by +universal admission, postponed, for some years at any rate, any +possibility of Home Rule, and the cessation of the bitter feelings +aroused when Home Rule seemed imminent provided the opportunity for an +appeal to the Irish people in behalf of the views which I have +adumbrated. The appeal took the form of a letter, dated August 27th, +1895, by the author to the Irish Press, under the quite sincere, if +somewhat grandiloquent, title, "A proposal affecting the general welfare +of Ireland." + +The letter set out the general scope and purpose of the scheme. After a +confession of the writer's continued opposition to Home Rule, the +admission was made that if the average Irish elector, who is more +intelligent than the average British elector, were also as prosperous, +as industrious, and as well educated, his continued demand, in the +proper constitutional way, for Home Rule would very likely result in the +experiment being one day tried. On the other hand, the opinion was +expressed that if the material conditions of the great body of our +countrymen were advanced, if they were encouraged in industrial +enterprise, and were provided with practical education in proportion to +their natural intelligence, they would see that a political development +on lines similar to those adopted in England was, considering the +necessary relations between the two countries, best for Ireland; and +then they would cease to desire what is ordinarily understood as Home +Rule. A basis for united action between politicians on both sides of the +Irish controversy was then suggested. Finding ourselves still opposed +upon the main question, but all anxious to promote the welfare of the +country, and confident that, as this was advanced, our respective +policies would be confirmed, it would appear, it was suggested, to be +alike good patriotism and good policy to work for the material and +social advancement of the people. Why then, it was asked, should any +Irishman hesitate to enter at once upon that united action between men +of both parties which alone, under existing conditions, could enable +either party to do any real and lasting good to the country? + +The letter proceeded to indicate economic legislation which, though +sorely needed by Ireland, was hopelessly unattainable unless it could be +removed from the region of controversy. The _modus co-operandi_ +suggested was as follows:--a committee sitting in the Parliamentary +recess, whence it came to be known as the Recess Committee, was to be +formed, consisting in the first instance, of Irish Members of Parliament +nominated by the leaders of the different sections. These nominees were +to invite to join them any Irishmen whose capacity, knowledge, or +experience might be of service to the Committee, irrespective of the +political party or religious persuasion to which they might belong. The +day had come, the letter went on to say, when "we Unionists, without +abating one jot of our Unionism, and Nationalists, without abating one +jot of their Nationalism, can each show our faith in the cause for which +we have fought so bitterly and so long, by sinking our party differences +for our country's good, and leaving our respective policies for the +justification of time." + +Needless to say, few were sanguine enough to hope that such a committee +would ever be brought together. If that were accomplished some +prophesied that its members would but emulate the fame of the Kilkenny +cats. A severe blow was dealt to the project at the outset by the +refusal of Mr. Justin McCarthy, who then spoke for the largest section +of the Nationalist representatives, to have anything to do with it. His +reply to the letter must be given in full:-- + + MY DEAR MR. PLUNKETT, + + I am sure I need not say that any effort to promote the general + welfare of Ireland has my fullest sympathy. I readily acknowledge + and entirely believe in the sincerity and good purpose of your + effort, but I cannot see my way to associate myself with it. Your + frank avowal in your letter of August 27th is the expression of a + belief that if your policy could be successfully carried out the + Irish people "would cease to desire Home Rule." Now, I do not + believe that anything in the way of material improvement conferred + by the Parliament at Westminster, or by Dublin Castle, could + extinguish the national desire for Home Rule. Still, I do not feel + that I could possibly take part in any organisation which had for + its object the seeking of a substitute for that which I believe to + be Ireland's greatest need--Home Rule. + + Yours very truly, + + JUSTIN MCCARTHY. + + 73, Eaton-terrace, S.W., October 22nd, 1895. + +I had not much hope that I could influence Mr. McCarthy's decision; but +it was so serious an obstacle to further action that I made one more +appeal. I wrote to my respected and courteous correspondent, pointing +out the misconception of my proposal, which had arisen from the use made +of the six words quoted by him, which were hardly intelligible without +the context. I asked him to reconsider his refusal to join in the +proposal for promoting the material improvement of our country, on +account of a contingency which he confidently declared could not arise. +But in those days economic seed fell upon stony political ground. + +The position was rendered still more difficult by the action of Colonel +Saunderson, the leader of the Irish Unionist party, who wrote to the +newspapers declaring that he would not sit on a Committee with Mr. John +Redmond. On the other hand, Mr. Redmond, speaking then for the +"Independent" party, consisting of less than a dozen members, but +containing some men who agreed with Mr. Field's admission in the House +of Commons that "man cannot live on politics alone," joined the +Committee and acted throughout in a manner which was broad, +statesmanlike, conciliatory, and as generous as it was courageous. His +letter of acceptance ran as follows:-- + + DEAR MR. PLUNKETT, + + I received your letter, in which you ask me to co-operate with you + in bringing together a small Committee of Members of Parliament to + discuss certain measures to be proposed next Session for the + benefit of Ireland. While I cannot take as sanguine a view as you + do of the benefits likely to flow from such a proceeding, I am + unwilling to take the responsibility of declining to aid in any + effort to promote useful legislation for Ireland. + + I will, under the circumstances, co-operate with you in bringing + such a Committee as you suggest together. Very truly yours, + + J.E. REDMOND. + + October 21st, 1895. + +Before these decisions were officially announced the idea had "caught +on." Public bodies throughout the country endorsed the scheme. The +parliamentarians, who formed the nucleus of the Committee, came +together and invited prominent men from all quarters to join them. A +committee which, though informal and self-appointed, might fairly claim +to be representative in every material respect, was thus constituted on +the lines laid down. + +Truly, it was a strange council over which I had the honour to preside. +All shades of politics were there--Lords Mayo and Monteagle, Mr. Dane +and Sir Thomas Lea (Tories and Liberal Unionist Peers and Members of +Parliament) sitting down beside Mr. John Redmond and his parliamentary +followers. It was found possible, in framing proposals fraught with +moral, social, and educational results, to secure the cordial agreement +of the late Rev. Dr. Kane, Grand Master of the Belfast Orangemen, and of +the eminent Jesuit educationist, Father Thomas Finlay, of the Royal +University. The O'Conor Don, the able Chairman of the Financial +Relations Commission, and Mr. John Ross, M.P., now one of His Majesty's +Judges, both Unionists, were balanced by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and +Mr. T.C. Harrington, M.P., who now occupies that post, both +Nationalists. The late Sir John Arnott fitly represented the commercial +enterprise of the South, while such men as Mr. Thomas Sinclair, +universally regarded as one of the wisest of Irish public men, Sir +William Ewart, head of the leading linen concern in the North, Sir +Daniel Dixon, now Lord Mayor of Belfast, Sir James Musgrave, Chairman of +the Belfast Harbour Board, and Mr. Thomas Andrews, a well-known +flax-spinner and Chairman of the Belfast and County Down Railway, would +be universally accepted as the highest authorities upon the needs of the +business community which has made Ulster famous in the industrial world. +Mr. T.P. Gill, besides undertaking investigation of the utmost value +into State aid to agriculture in France and Denmark, acted as Hon. +Secretary to the Committee, of which he was a member. + +The story of our deliberations and ultimate conclusions cannot be set +forth here except in the barest outline. We instituted an inquiry into +the means by which the Government could best promote the development of +our agricultural and industrial resources, and despatched commissioners +to countries of Europe whose conditions and progress might afford some +lessons for Ireland. Most of this work was done for us by the late +eminent statistician, Mr. Michael Mulhall. Our funds did not admit of an +inquiry in the United States or the Colonies. However, we obtained +invaluable information as to the methods by which countries which were +our chief rivals in agricultural and industrial production have been +enabled to compete successfully with our producers even in our own +markets. Our commissioners were instructed in each case to collect the +facts necessary to enable us to differentiate between the parts played +respectively by State aid and the efforts of the people themselves in +producing these results. With this information before us, after long and +earnest deliberation we came to a unanimous agreement upon the main +facts of the situation with which we had to deal, and upon the +recommendations for remedial legislation which we should make to the +Government. + +The substance of our recommendations was that a Department of Government +should be specially created, with a minister directly responsible to +Parliament at its head. The central body was to be assisted by a +Consultative Council representative of the interests concerned. The +Department was to be adequately endowed from the Imperial Treasury, and +was to administer State aid to agriculture and industries in Ireland +upon principles which were fully described. The proposal to amalgamate +agriculture and industries under one Department was adopted largely on +account of the opinion expressed by M. Tisserand, late Director-General +of Agriculture in France, one of the highest authorities in Europe upon +the administration of State aid to agriculture.[43] The creation of a +new minister directly responsible to Parliament was considered a +necessary provision. Ireland is governed by a number of Boards, all, +with the exception of the Board of Works (which is really a branch of +the Treasury), responsible to the Chief Secretary--practically a whole +cabinet under one hat--who is supposed to be responsible for them to +Parliament and to the Lord Lieutenant. The bearers of this burden are +generally men of great ability. But no Chief Secretary could possibly +take under his wing yet another department with the entirely new and +important functions now to be discharged. What these functions were to +be need not here be described, as the Department thus 'agitated' for has +now been three years at work and will form the subject of the next two +chapters. + +On August 1st, 1896, less than a year from the issue of the invitation +to the political leaders, the Report was forwarded to the Chief +Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant for Ireland, with a covering letter, +setting out the considerations upon which the Committee relied for the +justification of its course of action. Attention was drawn to the terms +of the original proposal, its exceptional nature and essential +informality, the political conditions which appeared to make it +opportune, the spirit in which it was responded to by those who were +invited to join, and the degree of public approval which had been +accorded to our action. We were able to claim for the Committee that it +was thoroughly representative of those agricultural and industrial +interests, North and South, with which the Report was concerned. + +There were two special features in the brief history of this unique +coming together of Irishmen which will strike any man familiar with the +conditions of Irish public life. The first was the way in which the +business element, consisting of men already deeply engaged in their +various callings--and, indeed, selected for that very reason--devoted +time and labour to the service of their country. Still more significant +was the fact that the political element on the Committee should have +come to an absolutely unanimous agreement upon a policy which, though +not intended to influence the trend of politics, was yet bound to have +far-reaching consequences upon the political thought of the country, and +upon the positions of parties and leaders. It was thought only fair to +the Nationalist members of the Committee that every precaution should be +taken to prevent their being placed in a false position. 'To avoid any +possible misconception,' the covering letter ran, 'as to the attitude of +those members of the Committee who are not supporters of the present +Government, it is right here to state that, while under existing +political conditions they agreed in recommending a certain course to the +Government, they wish it to be understood that their political +principles remain unaltered, and that, were it immediately possible, +they would prefer that the suggested reforms should be preceded by the +constitutional changes of which they are the well-known advocates.' + +It is interesting to note that the Committee claimed favourable +consideration for their proposals on the ground that they sought to act +as 'a channel of communication between the Irish Government and Irish +public opinion.' Little interest, they pointed out, had been hitherto +aroused in those economic problems for which the Report suggested some +solution. They expressed the hope that their action would do something +to remedy this defect, especially in view of the importance which +foreign Governments had found it necessary to attach to public opinion +in working out their various systems of State aid to agriculture and +industries. At the same time the Committee emphasised, in the covering +letter, their reliance on individual and combined effort rather than on +State aid. They were able to point out that, in asking for the latter, +they had throughout attached the utmost importance to its being granted +in such a manner as to evoke and supplement, and in no way be a +substitute for self-help. If they appeared to give undue prominence to +the capabilities of State initiation, it was to be remembered that they +were dealing with economic conditions which had been artificially +produced, and which, therefore, might require exceptional treatment of a +temporary nature to bring about a permanent remedy. + +I fear those most intimately connected with the above occurrences will +regard this chapter as a very inadequate description of events so +unprecedented and so full of hope for the future. My purpose is, +however, to limit myself, in dealing with the past, to such details as +are necessary to enable the reader to understand the present facts of +Irish life, and to build upon them his own conclusions as to the most +hopeful line of future development. I shall, therefore, pass rapidly in +review the events which led to the fruition of the labours of the Recess +Committee. + +Public opinion in favour of the new proposals grew rapidly. Before the +end of the year (1896) a deputation, representing all the leading +agricultural and industrial interests of the country, waited upon the +Irish Government, in order to press upon them the urgent need for the +new department. The Lord Lieutenant, after describing the gathering as +'one of the most notable deputations which had ever come to lay its case +before the Irish Government,' and noting the 'remarkable growth of +public opinion' in favour of the policy they were advocating, expressed +his heartfelt sympathy with the case which had been presented, and his +earnest desire--which was well known--to proceed with legislation for +the agricultural and industrial development of the country at the +earliest moment. The demand made upon the Government was, +argumentatively, already irresistible. But economic agitation of this +kind takes time to acquire dynamic force. Mr. Gerald Balfour introduced +a Bill the following year, but it had to be withdrawn to leave the way +clear for the other great Irish measure which revolutionised local +government. The unconventional agitation went on upon the original +lines, appealing to that latent public opinion which we were striving to +develop. In 1899 another Bill was introduced, and, owing to its masterly +handling by the Chief Secretary in the House of Commons, ably seconded +by the strong support given by Lord Cadogan, who was in the Cabinet, it +became law. + +I cannot conclude this chapter without a word upon the extraordinary +misunderstanding of Mr. Gerald Balfour's policy to which the obscuring +atmosphere surrounding all Irish questions gave rise. In one respect +that policy was a new departure of the utmost importance. He proved +himself ready to take a measure from Ireland and carry it through, +instead of insisting upon a purely English scheme which he could call +his own. These pre-digested foods had already done much to destroy our +political digestion, and it was time we were given something to grow, to +cook, and to assimilate for ourselves. It will be seen, too, in the next +chapter, that he had realised the potentiality for good of the new +forces in Irish life to which he gave play in his two great linked +Acts--one of them popularising local government, and the other creating +a new Department which was to bring the government and the people +together in an attempt to develop the resources of the country. Yet his +eminently sane and far-seeing policy was regarded in many quarters as a +sacrifice of Unionist interests in Ireland. Its real effect was to endow +Unionism with a positive as well as a negative policy. But all reformers +know that the further ahead they look, the longer they have to wait for +their justification. Meanwhile, we may leave out of consideration the +division of honour or of blame for what has been done. The only matter +of historic interest is to arrive at a correct measure of the progress +made. + +The new movement had thus completed the first and second stages of its +mission. The idea of self-help had become a growing reality, and upon +this foundation an edifice of State aid had been erected. When a +Nationalist member met a Tory member of the Recess Committee he laughed +over the success with which they had wheedled a measure of industrial +Home Rule out of a Unionist Government. None the less they cordially +agreed that the people would rise to their economic responsibility. The +promoters of the movement had faith that this new departure in English +government would be more than justified by the English test, and that in +the new sphere of administration the government would be accorded, +without prejudice, of course, to the ultimate views either of Unionists +or Home Rulers, not only the consent, but the whole-hearted co-operation +of the governed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[43] The memorandum which he kindly contributed to the Recess Committee +was copied into the Annual Report of the United States Department of +Agriculture for 1896. + + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A NEW DEPARTURE IN IRISH ADMINISTRATION. + + +To the average English Member of Parliament, the passing of an Act "for +establishing a Department of Agriculture and other Industries and +Technical Instruction in Ireland and for other purposes connected +therewith," probably signified little more than the removal of another +Irish grievance, which might not be imaginary, by the concession to +Ireland of an equivalent to the Board of Agriculture in England. In +reality the difference between the two institutions is as wide as the +difference between the two islands. The chief interest of the new +Department consists in the free play which it gives to the pent-up +forces of a re-awakening life. A new institution is at best but a new +opportunity, but the Department starts with the unique advantage that, +unlike most Irish institutions, it is one which we Irishmen planned +ourselves and for which we have worked. For this reason the opportunity +is one to which we may hope to rise. + +Before I can convey any clear impression of the part which the +Department is, I believe, destined to play on the stage of Irish public +life, it will be necessary for me to give a somewhat detailed +description of its functions and constitution. The subject is perhaps +dull and technical; but readers cannot understand the Ireland of to-day +unless they have in their minds not only an accurate conception of the +new moral forces in Irish life and of the movements to which these +forces have given rise, but also a knowledge of the administrative +machinery and methods by which the people and the Government are now, +for the first time since the Union, working together towards the +building up of the Ireland of to-morrow. + +The Department consists of the President (who is the Chief Secretary for +the time being) and the Vice-President. The staff is composed of a +Secretary, two Assistant Secretaries (one in respect of Agriculture and +one in respect of Technical Instruction), as well as certain heads of +Branches and a number of inspectors, instructors, officers and servants. +The Recess Committee, it will be remembered, had laid stress upon the +importance of having at the head of the Department a new Minister who +should be directly responsible to Parliament; and, accordingly, it was +arranged that the Vice-President should be its direct Ministerial head. +The Act provided that the Department should be assisted in its work by a +Council of Agriculture and two Boards, and also by a Consultative +Committee to advise upon educational questions. But before discussing +the constitution of these bodies, it is necessary to explain the nature +of the task assigned to the new Department which began work in April, +1900. It was created to fulfil two main purposes. In the first place, +it was to consolidate in one authority certain inter-related functions +of government in connection with the business concerns of the people +which, until the creation of the Department, were scattered over some +half-dozen Boards, and to place these functions under the direct control +and responsibility of the new Minister. The second purpose was to +provide means by which the Government and the people might work together +in developing the resources of the country so far as State intervention +could be legitimately applied to this end. + +To accomplish the first object, two distinct Government departments, the +Veterinary Department of the Privy Council and the Office of the +Inspectors of Irish Fisheries, were merged in the new Department. The +importance to the economic life of the country of having the laws for +safeguarding our flocks and herds from disease, our crops from insect +pests, our farmers from fraud in the supply of fertilisers and feeding +stuffs and in the adulteration of foods (which compete with their +products), administered by a Department generally concerned for the +farming industry need not be laboured. Similarly, it was well that the +laws for the protection of both sea and inland fisheries should be +administered by the authority whose function it was to develop these +industries. There was also transferred from South Kensington the +administration of the Science and Arts grants and the grant in aid of +technical instruction, together with the control of several national +institutions, the most important being the Royal College of Science and +the Metropolitan School of Art; for they, in a sense, would stand at the +head of much of the new work which would be required for the +contemplated agricultural and industrial developments. The Albert +Institute at Glasnevin and the Munster Institute in Cork, both +institutions for teaching practical agriculture, were, as a matter of +course, handed over from the Board of National Education. + +The desirability of bringing order and simplicity into these branches of +administration, where co-related action was not provided for before, was +obvious. A few years ago, to take a somewhat extreme case, when a +virulent attack of potato disease broke out which demanded prompt and +active Governmental intervention, the task of instructing farmers how to +spray their potatoes was shared by no fewer than six official or +semi-official bodies. The consolidation of administration effected by +the Act, in addition to being a real step towards efficiency and +economy, relieved the Chief Secretary of an immense amount of detailed +work to which he could not possibly give adequate personal attention, +and made it possible for him to devote a greater share of his time to +the larger problems of general Irish legislation and finance. + +The newly created powers of the Department, which were added to and +co-ordinated with the various pre-existing functions of the several +departments whose consolidation I have mentioned above, fairly fulfilled +the recommendation of the Recess Committee that the Department should +have 'a wide reference and a free hand.' These powers include the +aiding, improving, and developing of agriculture in all its branches; +horticulture, forestry, home and cottage industries; sea and inland +fisheries; the aiding and facilitating of the transit of produce; and +the organisation of a system of education in science and art, and in +technology as applied to these various subjects. The provision of +technical instruction suitable to the needs of the few manufacturing +centres in Ireland was included, but need not be dealt with in any +detail in these pages, since, as I have said before, the questions +connected therewith are more or less common to all such centres and have +no specially Irish significance. + +For all the administrative functions transferred to the new Department +moneys are, as before, annually voted by Parliament. Towards the +fulfilment of the second purpose mentioned above--the development of the +resources of the country upon the principles of the Recess Committee--an +annual income of £166,000, which was derived in about equal parts from +Irish and imperial sources, and is called the Department's Endowment, +together with a capital sum of about £200,000, were provided. + +It will be seen that a very wide sphere of usefulness was thus opened +out for the new Department in two distinct ways. The consolidation, +under one authority, of many scattered but co-related functions was +clearly a move in the right direction. Upon this part of its +recommendations the Recess Committee had no difficulty in coming to a +quick decision. But the real importance of their Report lay in the +direction of the new work which was to be assigned to the Department. +Under the new order of things, if the Department, acting with as well as +for the people, succeeds in doing well what legitimately may and ought +to be done by the Government towards the development of the resources of +the country, and, at the same time, as far as possible confines its +interference to helping the Irish people to help themselves, a wholly +new spirit will be imported into the industrial life of the nation. + +The very nature of the work which the Department was called into +existence to accomplish made it absolutely essential that it should keep +in touch with the classes whom its work would most immediately affect, +and without whose active co-operation no lasting good could be achieved. +The machinery for this purpose was provided by the establishment of a +Council of Agriculture and two Boards, one of the latter being concerned +with agriculture, rural industries, and inland fisheries, the other with +technical instruction. These representative bodies, whose constitution +is interesting as a new departure in administration, were adapted from +similar continental councils which have been found by experience, in +those foreign countries which are Ireland's economic rivals, to be the +most valuable of all means whereby the administration keeps in touch +with the agricultural and industrial classes, and becomes truly +responsive to their needs and wishes. + +The Council of Agriculture consists of two members appointed by each +County Council (Cork being regarded as two counties and returning four +members), making in all sixty-eight persons. The Department also appoint +one half this number of persons, observing in their nomination the same +provincial proportions as obtained in the appointments by the popular +bodies. This adds thirty-four members, and makes in all one hundred and +two Councillors, in addition to the President and Vice-President of the +Department, who are _ex-officio_ members. Thus, if all the members +attended a Council meeting, the Vice-President would find himself +presiding over a body as truly representative of the interests concerned +as could be brought together, consisting, by a strange coincidence, of +exactly the same number as the Irish representatives in Parliament. + +The Council, which is appointed for a term of three years, the first +term dating from the 1st April, 1900, has a two-fold function. It is, in +the first place, a deliberative assembly which must be convened by the +Department at least once a year. The domain over which its deliberations +may travel is certainly not restricted, as the Act defines its function +as that of "discussing matters of public interest in connection with any +of the purposes of this Act." The view Mr. Gerald Balfour took was that +nothing but the new spirit he laboured to evoke would make his machine +work. Although he gave the Vice-President statutory powers to make +rules for the proper ordering of the Council debates, I have been well +content to rely upon the usual privileges of a chairman. I have +estimated beforehand the time required for the discussion of matters of +inquiry: the speakers have condensed their speeches accordingly, the +business has been expeditiously transacted, and in the mere exchange of +ideas invaluable assistance has been given to the Department. + +The second function of the Council is exercised only at its first +meeting, and consequently but once in three years. At this first +triennial meeting it becomes an Electoral College. It divides itself +into four Provincial Committees, each of which elects two members to +represent its province on the Agricultural Board and one member to +represent it on the Board of Technical Instruction. The Agricultural +Board, which controls a sum of over £100,000 a year, consists of twelve +members, and as eight out of the twelve are elected by the four +Provincial Committees--the remaining four being appointed by the +Department, one from each province--it will be seen that the Council of +Agriculture exercises an influence upon the administration commensurate +with its own representative character. The Board of Technical +Instruction, consisting of twenty-one members, together with the +President and Vice-President of the Department, has a less simple +constitution, owing to the fact that it is concerned with the more +complex life of the urban districts of the country. As I have said, the +Council of Agriculture elects only four members--one for each province. +The Department appoints four others; each of the County Boroughs of +Dublin and Belfast appoints three members; the remaining four County +Boroughs appoint one member each; a joint Committee of the Councils of +the large urban districts surrounding Dublin appoint one member; one +member is appointed by the Commissioners of National Education, and one +member by the Intermediate Board of Education. + +The two Boards have to advise upon all matters submitted to them by the +Department in connection, in the one case, with agriculture and other +rural industries and inland fisheries, and, in the other case, in +connection with Technical Instruction. The advisory powers of the Boards +are very real, for the expenditure of all moneys out of the Endowment +funds is subject to their concurrence. Hence, while they have not +specific administrative powers and apparently have only the right of +veto, it is obvious that, if they wished, they might largely force their +own views upon the Department by refusing to sanction the expenditure of +money upon any of the Department's proposals, until these were so +modified as practically to be their own proposals. It is, therefore, +clear that the machinery can only work harmoniously and efficiently so +long as it is moved by a right spirit. Above all it is necessary that +the central administrative body should gain such a measure of popular +confidence as to enable it, without loss of influence, to resist +proposals for expenditure upon schemes which might ensure great +popularity at the moment, but would do permanent harm to the industrial +character we are all trying to build up. I need not fear contradiction +at the hands of a single member of either Board when I say that up to +the present perfect harmony has reigned throughout. The utmost +consideration has been shown by the Boards for the difficulties which +the Department have to overcome; and I think I may add that due regard +has been paid by the administrative authority to the representative +character and the legitimate wishes of the bodies which advise and +largely control it. + +The other statutory body attached to the Department has a significance +and potential importance in strange contrast to the humble place it +occupies in the statute book. The Agriculture and Technical Instruction +(Ireland) Act, 1899, has, like many other Acts, a part entitled +'Miscellaneous,' in which the draughtsman's skill has attended to +multifarious practical details, and made provision for all manner of +contingencies, many of which the layman might never have thought of or +foreseen. Travelling expenses for Council, Boards, and Committees, +casual vacancies thereon, a short title for the Act, and a seal for the +Department, definitions, which show how little we know of our own +language, and a host of kindred matters are included. In this miscellany +appears the following little clause:-- + + For the purpose of co-ordinating educational administration there + shall be established a Consultative Committee consisting of the + following members:-- + + (a.) The Vice-President of the Department, who shall be chairman + thereof; + + (b.) One person to be appointed by the Commissioners of National + Education; + + (c.) One person to be appointed by the Intermediate Education + Board; + + (d.) One person to be appointed by the Agricultural Board; and + + (e.) One person to be appointed by the Board of Technical + Instruction. + +Now the real value of this clause, and in this I think it shows a +consumate statesmanship, lies not in what it says, but in what it +suggests. The Committee, it will be observed, has an immensely important +function, but no power beyond such authority as its representative +character may afford. Any attempt to deal with a large educational +problem by a clause in a measure of this kind would have alarmed the +whole force of unco-ordinated pedagogy, and perhaps have wrecked the +Bill. The clause as it stands is in harmony with the whole spirit of the +new movement and of the legislation provided for its advancement. The +Committee may be very useful in suggesting improvements in educational +administration which will prevent unnecessary overlapping and lead to +co-operation between the systems concerned. Indeed it has already made +suggestions of far-reaching importance, which have been acted upon by +the educational authorities represented upon it. As I have said in an +earlier chapter when discussing Irish education from the practical +point of view, I have great faith in the efficacy of the economic factor +in educational controversy, and this Committee is certainly in a +position to watch and pronounce on any defects in our educational system +which the new efforts to deal practically with our industrial and +commercial problems may disclose. + +There remains to be explained only one feature of the new administrative +machinery, and it is a very important one. The Recess Committee had +recommended the adaptation to Ireland of a type of central institution +which it had found in successful operation on the Continent wherever it +had pursued its investigations. So far as schemes applicable to the +whole country were concerned, the central Department, assuming that it +gained the confidence of the Council and Boards, might easily justify +its existence. But the greater part of its work, the Recess Committee +saw, would relate to special localities, and could not succeed without +the cordial co-operation of the people immediately concerned. This fact +brought Mr. Gerald Balfour face to face with a problem which the Recess +Committee could not solve in its day, because, when it sat, there still +existed the old grand jury system, though its early abolition had been +promised. It was extremely fortunate that to the same minister fell the +task of framing both the Act of 1898, which revolutionised local +government, and the Act of 1899, now under review. The success with +which these two Acts were linked together by the provisions of the +latter forms an interesting lesson in constructive statesmanship. Time +will, I believe, thoroughly discredit the hostile criticism which +withheld its due mead of praise from the most fruitful policy which any +administration had up to that time ever devised for the better +government of Ireland. + +The local authorities created by the Act of 1898 provided the machinery +for enabling the representatives of the people to decide themselves, to +a large extent, upon the nature of the particular measures to be adopted +in each locality and to carry out the schemes when formulated. The Act +creating the new Department empowered the council of any county or of +any urban district, or any two or more public bodies jointly, to appoint +committees, composed partly of members of the local bodies and partly of +co-opted persons, for the purpose of carrying out such of the +Department's schemes as are of local, and not of general importance. +True to the underlying principle of the new movement--the principle of +self-reliance and local effort--the Act lays it down that 'the +Department shall not, in the absence of any special considerations, +apply or approve of the application of money ... to schemes in respect +of which aid is not given out of money provided by local authorities or +from other local sources.' To meet this requirement the local +authorities are given the power of raising a limited rate for the +purposes of the Act. By these two simple provisions for local +administration and local combination, the people of each district were +made voluntarily contributory both in effort and in money, towards the +new practical developments, and given an interest in, and +responsibility for their success. It was of the utmost importance that +these new local authorities should be practically interested in the +business concerns of the country which the Department was to serve. Mr. +Gerald Balfour himself, in introducing the Local Government Bill, had +shown that he was under no illusion as to the possible disappointment to +which his great democratic experiment might at first give rise. He +anticipated that it would "work through failure to success." To put it +plainly, the new bodies might devote a great deal of attention to +politics and very little to business. I am told by those best qualified +to form an opinion (some of my informants having been, to say the least, +sceptical as to the wisdom of the experiment), that notwithstanding some +extravagances in particular instances, it can already be stated +positively that local government in Ireland, taken as a whole, has not +suffered in efficiency by the revolution which it has undergone. This is +the opinion of officials of the Local Government Board,[44] and refers +mainly to the transaction of the fiscal business of the new local +authorities. From a different point of observation I shall presently +bear witness to a display of administrative capacity on the part of the +many statutory committees, appointed by County, Borough, and District +Councils to co-operate with the Department, which is most creditable to +the thought and feeling of the people. + +It would be quite unfair to a large body of farmers in Ireland if, in +describing the administrative machinery for carrying out an economic +policy based upon self-help and dependent for its success upon the +conciliatory spirit abroad in the country, I were to ignore the part +played by the large number of co-operative associations, the +organisation, work and multiplication of which have been described in a +former chapter. The Recess Committee, in their enquiries, found that, in +the countries whose competition Ireland feels most keenly, Departments +of Agriculture had come to recognise it as an axiom of their policy that +without organisation for economic purposes amongst the agricultural +classes, State aid to agriculture must be largely ineffectual, and even +mischievous. Such Departments devote a considerable part of their +efforts to promoting agricultural organisation. Short a time as this +Department has been in existence it has had some striking evidence of +the justice of these views. As will be seen from the First Annual Report +of the Department, it was only where the farmers were organised in +properly representative societies that many of the lessons the +Department had to teach could effectually reach the farming classes, or +that many of the agricultural experiments intended for their guidance +could be profitably carried out. Although these experiment schemes were +issued to the County Councils and the agricultural public generally, it +was only the farmers organised in societies who were really in a +position to take part in them. Some of these experiments, indeed, could +not be carried out at all except through such societies. + +Both for the sake of efficiency in its educational work, and of economy +in administration, the Department would be obliged to lay stress on the +value of organisation.[45] But there are other reasons for its doing so: +industrial, moral, and social. In an able critique upon Bodley's +_France_ Madame Darmesteter, writing in the _Contemporary Review_, July, +1898, points out that even so well informed an observer of French life +as the author of that remarkable book failed to appreciate the steadying +influence exercised upon the French body politic by the network of +voluntary associations, the _syndicats agricoles_, which are the +analogues and, to some extent, the prototypes, in France of our +agricultural societies in Ireland. The late Mr. Hanbury, during his too +brief career as President of the Board of Agriculture, frequently dwelt +upon the importance of organising similar associations in England as a +necessary step in the development of the new agricultural policy which +he foreshadowed. His successor, Lord Onslow, has fully endorsed his +views, and in his speeches is to be found the same appreciation of the +exemplary self-reliance of the Irish farmers. I have already referred to +the keen interest which both agricultural reformers and English and +Welsh County Councils have been taking in the unexpectedly progressive +efforts of the Irish farmers to reorganise their industry and place +themselves in a position to take advantage of State assistance. I +believe that our farmers are going to the root of things, and that due +weight should be given to the silent force of organised self-help by +those who would estimate the degree in which the aims and sanguine +anticipations of the new movement in Ireland are likely to be realised. + +And it is not only for its foundation upon self-reliance that the latest +development of Irish Government will have a living interest for +economists and students of political philosophy. They will see in the +facts under review a rapid and altogether healthy evolution of the Irish +policy so honourably associated with the name of Mr. Arthur Balfour. His +Chief Secretaryship, when all its storm and stress have been forgotten, +will be remembered for the opening up of the desolate, poverty-stricken +western seaboard by light railways, and for the creation of the +Congested Districts Board. The latter institution has gained so wide +and, as I think, well merited popularity, that many thought its +extension to other parts of Ireland would have been a simpler and safer +method of procedure than that actually recommended by the Recess +Committee, and adopted by Mr. Gerald Balfour. The Land Act of 1891 +applied a treatment to the problem of the congested districts--a problem +of economic depression and industrial backwardness, differing rather in +degree than in kind from the economic problem of the greater part of +rural Ireland--as simple as it was new. A large capital sum of Irish +moneys was handed over to an unpaid commission consisting of Irishmen +who were acquainted with the local circumstances, and who were in a +position to give their services to a public philanthropic purpose. They +were given the widest discretion in the expenditure of the interest of +this capital sum, and from time to time their income has been augmented +from annually voted moneys. They were restricted only to measures +calculated permanently to improve the condition of the people, as +distinct from measures affording temporary relief. + +I agree with those who hold that Mr. Arthur Balfour's plan was the best +that could be adopted at the moment. But events have marched rapidly +since 1891, and wholly new possibilities in the sphere of Irish economic +legislation and administration have been revealed. A new Irish mind has +now to be taken into account, and to be made part of any ameliorative +Irish policy. Hence it was not only possible, but desirable, to +administer State help more democratically in 1899 than in 1891. The +policy of the Congested Districts Board was a notable advance upon the +inaction of the State in the pre-famine times, and upon the system of +doles and somewhat objectless relief works of the latter half of the +nineteenth century; but the policy of the new departure now under review +was no less notable a departure from the paternalism of the Congested +Districts Board. When that body was called into existence it was thought +necessary to rely on persons nominated by the Government. When the +Department was created eight years later it was found possible, owing to +the broadening of the basis of local government and to the moral and +social effect of the new movement, to rely largely on the advice and +assistance of persons selected by the people themselves. + +The two departments are in constant consultation as to the co-ordination +of their work, so as to avoid conflict of administrative system and +sociological principle in adjoining districts; and much has already been +done in this direction. My own experience has not only made me a firm +believer in the principle of self-help, but I carry my belief to the +extreme length of holding that the poorer a community is the more +essential is it to throw it as much as possible on its own resources, in +order to develop self-reliance. I recognise, however, the undesirability +of too sudden changes of system in these matters. Meanwhile, I may add +in this connection that the Wyndham Land Act enormously increases the +importance of the Congested Districts Board in regard to its main +function--that of dealing directly with congestion, by the purchase and +resettlement of estates, the migration of families, and the enlargement +of holdings.[46] + +I have now said enough about the aims and objects, the constitution and +powers, and the relations with other Governmental institutions, of the +new Department, to enable the reader to form a fairly accurate estimate +of its general character, scope and purpose. From what it is I shall +pass in the next chapter to what it does, and there I must describe its +everyday work in some detail. But I wish I could also give the reader an +adequate picture of the surge of activities raised by the first plunge +of the Department into Irish life and thought. After a time the torrent +of business made channels for itself and went on in a more orderly +fashion; practical ideas and promising openings were sifted out at an +early stage of their approach to the Department from those which were +neither one nor the other; time was economised, work distributed, and +the functions of demand and supply in relation to the Department's work +throughout Ireland were brought into proper adjustment with each other. +Yet, even at first, to a sympathetic and understanding view, the waste +of time and thought involved in dealing with impossible projects and +dispelling false hopes was compensated for by the evidence forced upon +us that the Irish people had no notion of regarding the Department as an +alien institution with which they need concern themselves but little, +however much it might concern itself with them. They were never for a +moment in doubt as to its real meaning and purpose. They meant to make +it their own and to utilise it in the uplifting of their country. No +description of the machinery of the institution could explain the real +place which it took in the life of the country from the very beginning. +But perhaps it may give the reader a more living interest in this part +of the story, and a more living picture of the situation, if I try to +convey to his mind some of the impressions left on my own, by my +experiences during the period immediately following the projection of +this new phenomenon into Irish consciousness. + +When in Upper Merrion-street, Dublin, opposite to the Land Commission, +big brass plates appeared upon the doors of a row of houses announcing +that there was domiciled the Department of Agriculture and Technical +Instruction, the average man in the street might have been expected to +murmur, 'Another Castle Board,' and pass on. It was not long, however, +before our visiting list became somewhat embarrassing. We have since got +down, as I have said, to a more humdrum, though no less interesting, +official life inside the Department. But let the reader imagine himself +to have been concealed behind a screen in my office on a day when some +event, like the Dublin Horse Show, brought crowds in from the country to +the Irish capital. Such an experience would certainly have given him a +new understanding of some then neglected men and things. While I was +opening the morning's letters and dealing with "Files" marked "urgent," +he would see nothing to distinguish my day's work from that of other +ministers, who act as a link between the permanent officials of a +spending Department and the Government of the day. But presently a +stream of callers would set in, and he would begin to realise that the +minister is, in this case, a human link of another kind--a link between +the people and the Government. A courteous and discreet Private +Secretary, having attended to those who have come to the wrong +department, and to those who are satisfied with an interview with him or +with the officer who would have to attend to their particular business, +brings into my not august presence a procession of all sorts and +conditions of men. Some know me personally, some bring letters of +introduction or want to see me on questions of policy. Others--for these +the human link is most needed--must see the ultimate source of +responsibility, which, in Ireland, whether it be head of a family or of +a Department, is reduced from the abstract to the concrete by the +pregnant pronoun 'himself.' I cannot reveal confidences, but I may give +a few typical instances of, let us say, callers who might have called. + +First comes a visitor, who turns out to be a 'man with an idea,' just +home from an unpronounceable address in Scandinavia. He has come to tell +me that we have in Ireland a perfect gold mine, if we only knew it--in +extent never was there such a gold field--no illusory pockets--good +payable stuff in sight for centuries to come--and so on for five +precious minutes, which seem like half a day, during which I have +realised that he is an inventor, and that it is no good asking him to +come to the point. But I keep my eye riveted on his leather bag which is +filled to bursting point, and manifest an intelligent interest and +burning curiosity. The suggestion works, and out of the bag come black +bars and balls, samples of fabrics ranging from sack-cloth to fine +linen, buttons, combs, papers for packing and for polite correspondence, +bottles of queer black fluid, and a host of other miscellaneous wares. I +realise that the particular solution of the Irish Question which is +about to be unfolded is the utilisation of our bogs. Well, this _is_ +one of the problems with which we have to deal. It is physically +possible to make almost anything out of this Irish asset, from moss +litter to billiard balls, and though one would not think it, aeons of +energy have been stored in these inert looking wastes by the apparently +unsympathetic sun, energy which some think may, before long, be +converted into electricity to work all the smokeless factories which the +rising generation are to see. Indeed, the vista of possibilities is +endless, the only serious problem that remains to be solved being 'how +to make it pay,' and upon that aspect of the question, unhappily, my +visitor had no light to throw. + +The next visitor, who brings with him a son and a daughter, is himself +the product of an Irish bog in the wildest of the wilds. His Parish +Priest had sent him to me. A little awkwardness, which is soon +dispelled, and the point is reached. This fine specimen of the 'bone and +sinew' has had a hard struggle to bring up his 'long family'; but, with +a capable wife, who makes the most of the _res angusta domi_--of the +pig, the poultry, and even of the butter from the little black cows on +the mountain--he has risen to the extent of his opportunities. The +children are all doing something. Lace and crochet come out of the +cabin, the yarn from the wool of the 'mountainy' sheep, carded and spun +at home, is feeding the latest type of hosiery knitting machine and the +hereditary handloom. The story of this man's life which was written to +me by the priest cannot find space here. The immediate object of his +visit is to get his eldest daughter trained as a poultry instructress to +take part in some of the 'County Schemes' under the Department, and to +obtain for his eldest son, who has distinguished himself under the +tuition of the Christian Brothers, a travelling scholarship. For this he +has been recommended by his teachers. They had marked this bright boy +out as an ideal agricultural instructor, and if I could give the reader +all the particulars of the case it would be a rare illustration of the +latent human resources we mean to develop in the Ireland that is to be. +I explain that the young man must pass a qualifying examination, but am +glad to be able to admit that the circumstances of his life, which would +have to be taken into account in deciding between the qualified, are in +his case of a kind likely to secure favourable consideration. + +And now enters a sporting friend of mine, a 'practical angler,' who +comes with a very familiar tale of woe. The state of the salmon +fisheries is deplorable: if the Department does not fulfil its obvious +duties there will not be a salmon in Ireland outside a museum in ten +years more. He has lived for forty-five years on the banks of a salmon +river, and he knows that I don't fish. But this much the conversation +reveals: his own knowledge of the subject is confined to the piece of +river he happens to own, the gossip he hears at his club, and the ideas +of the particular poacher he employs as his gillie. His suggested remedy +is the abolition of all netting. But I have to tell him that only the +day before I had a deputation from the net fishermen in the estuary of +this very river, whose bitter complaint was that this 'poor man's +industry' was being destroyed by the mackerel and herring nets round the +coast, and--I thought my friend would have a fit--by the way in which +the gentlemen on the upper waters neglect their duty of protecting the +spawning fish! Some belonging to the lower water interest carried their +scepticism as to the efficacy of artificial propagation to the length of +believing that hatcheries are partially responsible for the decrease. As +so often happens, the opposing interests, disagreeing on all else, find +that best of peacemakers, a common enemy, in the Government. The +Department is responsible--for two opposite reasons, it is true, but +somehow they seem to confirm each other. We must labour to find some +other common ground, starting from the recognition that the salmon +fisheries are a national asset which must be made to subserve the +general public interest. I assure my friend that when all parties make +their proper contribution in effort and in cash, the Department will not +be backward in doing their part. + +At the end of this interview a messenger brings a telegram for 'himself' +from a stockowner in a remote district.[47] 'My pigs,' runs one of the +most businesslike communications I ever received, 'are all spotted. +What shall I do?' I send it to the Veterinary Branch, which, with the +Board of Agriculture in England, is engaged in a scheme for staying the +ravages of swine fever, a scheme into which the late Mr. Hanbury threw +himself with his characteristic energy. The problem is of immense +importance, and the difficulty is not mainly quadrupedal. Unless the +police 'spot' the spotted pigs, we too often hear nothing about them. I +am sure it must be daily brought home to the English Board, as it is to +the Irish Department, that an enormous addition might be made to the +wealth of the country if our veterinary officers were intelligently and +actively aided, in their difficult duties for the protection of our +flocks and herds, by those most immediately concerned. + +So far it has been an interesting morning bright with the activities out +of which the future is to be made. The element of hope has predominated, +but now comes a visitor who wishes to see me upon the one part of my +duties and responsibilities which is distasteful to me--the exercise of +patronage. He has been unloaded upon me by an influential person, upon +whom he has more legitimate claims than upon the Department. He has +prepared the way for a favourable reception by getting his friends to +write to my friends, many of whom have already fulfilled a promise to +interview me in his behalf. His mother and two maiden aunts have written +letters which have drawn from my poor Private Secretary, who has to read +them all, the dry quotation, 'there's such a thing as being so good as +to be good for nothing.' The young hopeful quickly puts an end to my +speculations as to the exact capacity in which he means to serve the +Department by applying for an inspectorship. I ask him what he proposes +to inspect, and the sum and substance of his reply is that he is not +particular, but would not mind beginning at a moderate salary, say £200 +a year. As for his qualifications, they are a sadly minus quantity, his +blighted career having included failure for the army, and a clerkship in +a bank, which only lasted a week when he proved to be deficient in the +second and dangerous in the third of the three R's. His case reminds me +of a story of my ranching days, which the exercise of patronage has so +often recalled to my mind that I must out with it. Riding into camp one +evening, I turned my horse loose and got some supper, which was a vilely +cooked meal even for a cow camp. Recognising in the cook a cowboy I had +formerly employed, I said to him, 'You were a way up cow hand, but as +cook you are no account. Why did you give up riding and take to cooking? +What are your qualifications as a cook any way?' 'Qualifications!' he +replied, 'why, don't you know I've got varicose veins?' My caller's +qualifications are of an equally negative description, though not of a +physical kind. He is one of the young Micawbers, to whom the Department +from its first inception has been the something which was to turn up. He +had, of course, testimonials which in any other country would have +commanded success by their terms and the position of the signatories, +but which in Ireland only illustrate the charity with which we condone +our moral cowardice under the name of good nature. I am glad when this +interview closes. + +One more type--a Nationalist Member of Parliament! He does not often +darken the door of a Government office--they all have the same +structural defect, no front stairs--he never has asked and never thought +he would ask anything from the Government. But he is interested in some +poor fishermen of County Clare who pursue their calling under cruel +disadvantages for want of the protection from the Atlantic rollers which +a small breakwater would afford. It is true that they were the worst +constituents he had--- went against him in 'The Split,'--but if I saw +how they lived, and so on. I knew all about the case. A breakwater to be +of any use would cost a very large sum, and the local authority, though +sympathetic, did not see their way to contribute their proportion, and +without a local contribution, I explained, the Department could not, +consistently with its principles, unless in most exceptional--Here he +breaks in: 'Oh! that red tape. You're as bad as the rest--exceptional, +indeed! Why, everything is exceptional in my constituency. I am a bit +that way myself. But, seriously, the condition of these poor people +would move even a Government official. Besides, you remember the night I +made thirteen speeches on the Naval Estimates--the Government wanted a +little matter of twenty millions--and you met me in the Lobby and told +me you wished to go to bed, and asked me what I really wanted, and--I +am always reasonable--I said I would pass the whole Naval Programme if I +got the Government to give them a boat-slip at Ballyduck.--"Done!" you +said, and we both went home.--I believe you knew that I had got +constituency matters mixed up, that Ballyduck was inland, and that it +was Ballycrow that I meant to say.--But you won't deny that you are +under a moral obligation.' + +Well, I would go into the matter again very carefully--for I thought we +might help these fishermen in some other way--and write to him. He +leaves me; and, while outside the door he travels over the main points +with my Private Secretary, the lights and shades in the picture which +this strange personality has left on my mind throw me back behind the +practical things of to-day. In Parliament facing the Sassanach, in +Ireland facing their police, he has for years--the best years of his +life--displayed the same love of fighting for fighting's sake. In the +riots he has provoked, and they are not a few, he is ever regardless of +his own skin, and would be truly miserable if he inflicted any serious +bodily harm on a human being--even a landlord. It is impossible not to +like this very human anachronism, who, within the limitations imposed by +the convenience of a citizenship to which he unwillingly belongs, does +battle + + For Faith, and Fame, and Honour, and the ruined hearths of Clare. + +The reader may take all this as fiction. I am sure no one will annoy me +by trying on any of the caps I have displayed on the counter of my +shop. What I do fear is that the picture of some of my duties which I +have given may have made a wrong impression of the Department's work +upon the reader's mind. He may have come to the conclusion that, +contrary to all the principles laid down, an attempt was being made to +do for the people things which the new movement was to induce the people +to do for themselves. The Department may appear to be using its official +position and Government funds to constitute itself a sort of Universal +Providence, exercising an authority and a discretion over matters upon +which in any progressive community the people must decide for +themselves. However near to the appearances such an impression might be, +nothing could be further from the facts. If I have helped the reader to +unravel the tangled skein of our national life, if I have sufficiently +revealed the mind of the new movement to show that there is in it 'a +scheme of things entire,' it should be quite clear that the deliberate +intentions both of Mr. Gerald Balfour and of those Irishmen whom he took +into his confidence are being fulfilled in letter and in spirit. It only +remains for me to attempt an adequate description of the work of the +Department created by that Chief Secretary, and, above all, of the way +in which the people themselves are playing the part which his +statesmanship assigned to them. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[44] See Report of the Local Government Board, 1901-2. + +[45] See Annual General Report of the Department 1900-1901, pp. 25-27. + +[46] _Cf. ante_, pp. 46-49. + +[47] No fiction about this, nor about the following letter to the +Secretary:-- + +'The Scratatory, Vitny Dept. + +'Honord Sir, + +'I want to let ye know the terible state we're in now. Al the pigs about +here is dyin in showers. Send down a Vit at oncet.' + + + + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +GOVERNMENT WITH THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED. + + +In the preceding chapter I attempted to give to the reader a rough +impression of the general purpose and miscellaneous functions of the new +Department. I described in some detail the constitution and powers of +the Council of Agriculture--a sort of Business Parliament--which +criticises our doings and elects representatives on our Boards; and of +the two Boards which, in addition to their advisory functions, possess +the power of the purse. I laid special stress upon the important part +these instruments of the popular will were intended to play as a link +between the people and the Department. I gave a similar description and +explanation of the Committees of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, +appointed by local representative bodies, by means of which the people +were brought into touch with the local as distinct from the central +work, and made responsible for its success. The details were necessarily +dull; and so also must be those which will now be required in order to +indicate the general nature and scope of the work for the accomplishment +of which all this machinery was designed. Yet I am not without hope +that even the general reader may find a deep human interest in the +practical endeavour of the humbler classes of my fellow-countrymen to +reconstruct their national life upon the solid foundation of honest +work. + +The Department has at the time of writing been in existence for three +years, the term of office, it will be remembered, of the Council of +Agriculture and of the two Boards. It would be unreasonable to expect in +so short a time any great achievement; but the understanding critic will +attach importance rather to the spirit in which the work was approached +than to the actual amount of work which was accomplished. He may say +that no true estimate of its value can be formed until the enthusiasm +aroused by its novelty has had time to wear off. Those of us who know +the real character of the work are quite satisfied that the interest +which it aroused during the period in which the people had yet to grasp +its meaning and utility is not likely to become less real as the blossom +fades and the fruit begins to swell. The attitude of the Irish people +towards the Department and its work has not been that of a child towards +a new toy, but of a full-grown man towards a piece of his life's work, +upon which he feels that he entered all too late. Indeed, so quickly +have the people grasped the significance of the new opportunities for +material advancement now placed within their reach, that the Department +has had to carry out, and to assist the statutory local committees in +carrying out, a number and variety of schemes which, at any rate, proved +that public opinion did not regard it as a transitory experiment; but +as a much-needed institution which, if properly utilised, might do much +to make up for lost time, and which, in any case, had come to stay. The +amount of the work which we were thus constrained to undertake was +somewhat embarrassing; but so general and so genuine was the desire to +make a start that we have done our best to keep pace with the local +demands for immediate action. The staff of the Department caught the +spirit in which the task had been set by the country, and showed a keen +anxiety to get to work; and I am glad to have an opportunity of +acknowledging that both the indoor and outdoor support it has received +leaves the Department without excuse if it has not already justified its +existence. + +I shall deal as mercifully as I can with my readers in helping them +towards an understanding of what has been actually done in the three +years under review. I am aware that if I were to attempt a description +of all the schemes which the variety of local needs suggested, and in +the execution of which the assistance of the many-sided Department was +sought and obtained, I should lose the patient readers, who have not +already fainted by the way, in a jungle where they could not see the +wood for the trees. These things can be studied by those +interested,--and they I hope, in Ireland at any rate, are not few--in +the Annual Reports and other official publications of the Department. +For the general reader I must try to indicate in broad outline the +nature and scope of that side of the new movement which seeks to +supplement organised self-help and open the way for individual +enterprise by a well considered measure of State assistance. I shall be +more than satisfied if I succeed in giving him a clear insight into the +manner in which the delicate task of making State interference with the +business of the people not only harmless but beneficial has been set +about. It is obvious that the fulfilment of this object must depend upon +the soundness of the economic policy pursued, and upon the establishment +and maintenance of mutual confidence between the central authority and +the popular representative bodies through which the people utilise the +new facilities afforded by the State. + +I think the best way of giving the information which is required for an +understanding of our somewhat complicated scheme for agricultural and +industrial development under democratic control is first to explain the +line of demarcation which we have drawn between the respective functions +of the Department and the people's committees throughout the country; +and then I must give a rapid description of some of the most important +features of the Department's policy and programme. I shall add a +sufficiency of detail from the actual work accomplished in these +organising and experimental years, to illustrate both the difficulties +which are incidental to such a policy, and the manner in which these +difficulties may be surmounted. + +When it became manifest that both the country and the Department were +anxious to drive ahead, the first thing to do was to lay down a _modus +operandi_ which would assign to the local and central bodies their +proper shares in the work and responsibilities and secure some degree of +order and uniformity in administration. This was quickly done, and the +plan adopted works smoothly. The Department gives the local committee +general information as to the kind of purpose to which it can legally +and properly apply the funds jointly contributed from the rates and the +central exchequer. The committee, after full consideration of the +conditions, needs and industrial environment of the community for which +it acts, selects certain definite projects which it considers most +applicable to its district, allocates the amount required to each +project, and sends the scheme to the Department for its approval. When +the scheme is formally approved, it becomes the official scheme in the +locality for the current year; and the local committee has to carry it +out. + +Although harmony now usually exists between the local and central +authorities to the advantage and comfort of both, a considerable amount +of friction was inevitable until they got to understand each other. The +occasional over-riding of local desires by the 'autocratic' Department, +which in the first rush of its work had to act in a somewhat peremptory +fashion, was, no doubt, irritating. Now, however, it is generally +recognised that the central body, having not only the advice of its +experts and access to information from similar Departments in other +countries to guide it, but also being in a position to profit by the +exchange of ideas which is constantly going on between it and all the +local committees in Ireland, is in a position of special advantage for +deciding as to the bearing of local schemes upon national interests, and +sometimes even as to their soundness from a purely local point of view. + +Passing now from the conditions under which the Department's work is +done, we come to review some typical portions of the work itself so far +as it has proceeded. This falls naturally, both as regards that which is +done by the central authority for the country at large and that which is +locally administered, into two divisions. The first consists of direct +aid to agriculture and other rural industries, and to sea and inland +fisheries. The second consists of indirect aid given to these objects, +and also to town manufactures and commerce, through education--a term +which must be interpreted in its widest sense. Needless to say, direct +aids, being tangible and immediately beneficial, are the more popular: a +bull, a boat, or a hand-loom is more readily appreciated than a lecture, +a leaflet, or an idea. Yet in the Department we all realise--and, what +is more important, the people are coming to realise--that by far the +most important work we have to do is that which belongs to the sphere of +education, especially education which has a distinctly practical aim. To +this branch of the subject I shall, therefore, first direct the reader's +attention. + +It must be remembered that, for reasons fully set out in the earlier +portions of the book, I am treating the Irish Question as being, in its +most important economic and social aspects, the problem of rural life. +The Department's scheme of technical instruction, therefore, need not +here be detailed in its application to the needs of our few +manufacturing towns, but only in its application to agriculture and the +subsidiary industries. I do not suggest that the questions relating to +the revival of industry in our large manufacturing centres and +provincial towns are not of the first importance. The local authorities +in these places have eagerly come into the movement, and the Department +has already taken part in founding, in our cities and larger towns, +comprehensive schemes of technical education, as to the outcome of which +we have every reason to be hopeful. Not only that, but it is highly +necessary for the Department to consider these schemes in close relation +to its work upon the more specially rural problems, for, as I have said +elsewhere,[48] the interdependence of town and country, and the +establishment of proper relations between their systems of industry and +education, is a prime factor in Irish prosperity. But the rural problem, +as I have so often reiterated, is the core of the Irish Question; and to +deal at all adequately with technical education, so far as we carry it +on upon lines common both to Great Britain and Ireland, would lead us +too far afield on the present occasion. I must, therefore, content +myself with indicating my reasons for leaving it rather on one side, and +pass on to a brief description of the Department's educational work in +respect of its two-fold aim of developing agriculture and the subsidiary +industries. + +In the case of agriculture our task is perfectly plain. We know pretty +well what we want to do, for we are dealing with an existing industry, +and with known conditions. The productivity of the soil, the demand of +the market, the means of transport from the one to the other, are all +easily ascertainable. What most needs to be provided in Ireland is a +much higher technical skill, a more advanced scientific and commercial +knowledge, as applied to agricultural production and distribution.[49] +This, in our belief, depends, more than upon any other agency, upon the +soundness of the education which is provided to develop the capacities +of those in charge of these operations. Our chief difficulty is that of +co-ordinating our teaching of technical agriculture with the general +educational systems of the country--a difficulty which the other +educational authorities are all united with us in seeking to remove. + +When, on the other hand, education--again, I believe, the chief agency +for the purpose--is considered as a means for the creation of new +industries, we come face to face with a wholly different problem. We +have no longer an industry which we are seeking to foster and develop +going on under our eyes, steadying us in our theorising, and in our +experimenting upon the mind of the worker, by bringing us into close +touch with the actual conditions of his work. Our chief aim must be to +develop his adaptability for the ever-changing and, we hope, improving +economic industrial conditions amidst which he will have to work. But +unless we can satisfy parents that the schemes of development in which +their children are being educated to take their place have an assured +prospect of practical realisation, they will naturally prefer an +inferior teaching which seems to them to offer a better prospect of an +immediate wage or salary. The teachers in the secondary schools of the +country, who, so far, have shown a desire to assist us in giving an +industrial and commercial direction to our educational policy, would +also in that event have to meet the wishes of the parents; and thus +education would fall back into the old rut with its cramming, its +examinations and result fees--all leading to the multiplication of +clerks and professional men, and preventing us from turning the thoughts +and energies of the people towards productive occupations. + +The natural trend of our educational policy will now be clear. Leaving +out of account large towns, where our problem is, as I have said, the +same as that which confronts the industrial classes in the manufacturing +centres of Great Britain, we are chiefly concerned with the application +of science to the cultivation of the soil and the improvement of live +stock, and of business principles to the commercial side of farming; +with the teaching of dairying, horticulture, apiculture, and what has +been called farm-yard lore, outside the rural home, and with domestic +economy inside. On the industrial as distinct from the agricultural side +of the work in rural localities, technical instruction must be directed +towards the development of subsidiary rural industries. + +We early came to the conclusion that we could not expect to find a +system which we could simply transplant from some other country. The +system adopted in Great Britain, where each county or group of counties +maintains an agricultural college and an experimental farm, and many +more elaborate systems on the continent, were all found on examination +to be inapplicable to our own rural conditions, unsuitable to the +national character, and unrelated to the history of our agriculture. +Many of these schemes might have turned out a few highly qualified +authorities on the theory of agriculture, and even good practical +directors for those who farm on a large scale. But we are dealing with a +country with great possibilities from an agricultural point of view, but +where, nevertheless, agriculture in many parts is in a very backward +condition, and where it is probably safe to say that three-fifths of the +farms are crowded on one-fourth of the land. We are dealing with a +community with whom the systems of elementary, secondary and higher +education have not tended to prepare the student for agricultural +pursuits. A system of agricultural and domestic education suited to the +wants of those who are to farm the land must recognise and foster the +new spirit of self-help and hope which is springing up in the country, +and must be made so interesting as to become a serious rival to the race +meeting and the public-house. The daily drudgery of farm work must be +counteracted by the ambition to possess the best stock, the neatest +homestead and fences, the cleanest and the best tilled fields. The +unsolved problem of agricultural education is to devise a system which +will reach down to the small working farmers who form the great bulk of +the wealth producers of Ireland, to give them new hope, a new interest, +new knowledge and, I might add, a new industrial character. + +We were met at the outset by the difficulty which would apply to any +system--that of finding trained teachers. This deficiency was felt in +two directions--first, in the secondary school, in which the preliminary +scientific studies should be undertaken, which are necessary to enable a +lad to profit by more advanced instruction later on; and, secondly, in +the special training of technical agriculture. It would not have been +desirable to overcome these difficulties by any very extensive +importation of teachers from without. I certainly hold the occasional +importation of teachers with outside experience to be most desirable, +but these should not form more than a leaven of the pedagogic lump; for +it is a serious hindrance when to the task of familiarising students +with a new system of education there is added that of familiarising a +large body of teachers with the intellectual, social and economic +conditions of the people among whom they are to work. + +The manner in which the teacher difficulty was surmounted may be briefly +stated, first, as regards the school, and, secondly, as regards the +teaching of agriculture. Those already engaged in the teaching +profession could not be relegated again to the _status pupillaris_. +There was only one way in which they could assist us to overcome the +difficulty, and that involved a great sacrifice on their part, the +sacrifice of their well-earned vacation, but a sacrifice which they +willingly made. The teachers most urgently needed were those of +practical science, with knowledge of experimental work; and about five +hundred teachers from secondary schools, in order to qualify themselves, +have attended summer courses specially organised by the Department at +several centres in Ireland, while about four hundred have availed +themselves of special summer courses in such subjects as drawing, manual +instruction, domestic economy, building construction, wood-carving and +modelling. + +For the provision of a future supply of thoroughly trained teachers of +science and of technology, including agriculture, the Royal College of +Science has been re-organised. Although this institution was brought +under the new conditions little more than three years ago, it will be +seen that no time has been lost when I state that the first batch of men +who have received a three years' course of training under the new +programme are already at work under County Committees. For the training +of these teachers, scholarships had to be provided, and new professors +and teachers, particularly in agriculture, had to be appointed. + +In regard to agricultural instruction we had to begin by carefully +considering what, among many alternative plans, should be our immediate +as well as our more remote aims. The Department's officers had studied +Continental systems, and some of them had taken part in establishing +systems of agricultural education in Great Britain. But it was not until +the summer of 1901 that we had sufficiently studied the question in +Ireland itself, with direct reference to the history, the environment, +and the ideals of the people, to justify us in initiating a policy or +formulating a definite programme for its execution.[50] The main object +was to secure for the youth of the present generation who will later be +concerned with agriculture, sound and thorough instruction in its +principles and practice. Everyone who has given any thought to the +subject knows how difficult it is to teach technical agriculture unless +provision has been made in the general education of the country for +instruction in those fundamental principles of science which, recognised +or unrecognised, lie at the root of, and profoundly influence +agricultural practice. This foundation, as I have shown, is now being +laid in Ireland. In our scheme the boy who has managed to avail himself +of a two or three years' course of practical science in one of the +secondary schools is then prepared to take full advantage of courses of +technology, and will have to make up his mind as to the career he is to +follow. We are now considering the case of a boy who is going to become +a farmer, the class to which we chiefly look for the future well-being +of Ireland. It is necessary that he should be taught the practical as +well as the technical side of agriculture. The practical work he can +learn upon his father's farm during spring and summer, and the technical +by continuing his studies during the winter months in a school of +agriculture. The establishment of such winter schools is in +contemplation. But, in the meanwhile, to bring home to farmers the +advantages of a first-class agricultural education for their sons, and +at the same time to teach these farmers the more practical application +of science to agriculture, the Department decided on a preliminary +period of Itinerant Instruction. + +The teacher difficulty, experienced on all sides of our work, was +probably felt more acutely in regard to the specialised teachers of +agriculture than in any other connection. Here it was necessary to take +the young men brought up upon farms and possessed of the normal +qualifications of the Irish practical farmer. We then had to make them +into teachers by adding to their inherited and home-manufactured +capacities a scientific training. In the training of agricultural +teachers the Albert Institute, Glasnevin, has been utilised by the +Department. This school has also been re-organised to meet the new +programme, and it will probably form in future a link between the winter +schools of agriculture and the Royal College of Science in the training +of our agricultural teachers. + +Partly by these methods, partly by the temporary engagement of lecturers +on special subjects, and partly by the appointment of trained teachers +from England or Scotland, the system of itinerant instruction has been +brought into operation as fully as could be expected in the time. +Already half the County Committees have been provided with County +instructors, while the remainder have nearly all drafted schemes and +allocated funds for a similar purpose, ready to go to work as soon as +more teachers have been trained. + +The Itinerant Instruction scheme, it may be pointed out, besides one +obvious, has another less immediately recognisable purpose. The direct +business of the itinerant instructor is, by the aid of experimental +plots, simple lectures, and demonstrations, to teach the farmers of his +district as much as they can take in without the scientific preparation +in which, as adults who have grown up under the old system of education, +they are still lacking. But he does more than that. He not only conducts +a school for adults, but in the very process of instruction he +necessarily makes them aware of the vital necessity of a school for the +young; and they begin, as parents, to understand and to desire the kind +of instruction in the schools of the country which will prepare their +children to take more advantage of the advanced teaching in agriculture +than they themselves can ever hope to do. + +This preparation is provided for as follows. To the Department, as has +already been explained, was handed over the administration of the +Science and Art Grants formerly administered by South Kensington. The +Department accordingly drew up a programme of experimental science and +drawing, carrying capitation grants, for day secondary schools. The +Intermediate Education Board, acting on the suggestion of the +Consultative Committee for Co-ordinating Education,[51] adopted this +programme and at the same time undertook to accept the reports of the +Department's inspectors as the basis of their awards in the new +"subject." These steps insured the rapid and general introduction of +this practical teaching in secondary schools, and, owing particularly to +the spirit in which their authorities and teaching staffs accepted the +innovation, the work has been carried out with the happiest results. + +I now come to the subjects grouped together under the classification of +'domestic economy.' These differ only in detail in their application to +town and country. To these subjects the Department attaches great +importance. In the industrial life of manufacturing towns I am persuaded +that far too little thought has been given to this element of industrial +efficiency. From a purely economic point of view a saving in the +worker's income due to superior housewifery is equivalent to an increase +in his earnings; but, morally, the superior thrift is, of course, +immensely more important. "Without economy," says Dr. Johnson, "none can +be rich, and with it few can be poor," and the education which only +increases the productiveness of labour and neglects the principles of +wise spending will place us at a disadvantage in the great industrial +struggle. When we come to consider domestic economy as an agency for +improving the conditions of the peasant home, not only by thrift, but by +increasing the general attractiveness of home life, the introduction of +a sound system of domestic economy teaching becomes not only important, +but vital. + +The establishment of such a system and the task of making it operative +and effective in the country is beset with difficulties. The teacher +difficulty confronts us again, and also that of making pupils and their +parents understand that there are other objects in domestic training +than that of qualifying for domestic service. A corps of instructresses +in domestic economy is, however, already abroad throughout the country, +nearly all the County Councils having already appointed them. Some of +these teachers, who have made the best contributions towards the as yet +only partially determined question of the ultimate aim and present +possibilities of a course of instruction in hygiene, laundry work, +cookery, the management of children, sewing, and so forth, have told me +that the demand in rural districts seems to be chiefly for the class of +instruction which may lead to success in town life. I have heard of a +class of girls in a Connaught village who would not be content with +knowing the accomplishments of a farmer's wife until they had learned +how to make asparagus soup and cook sweetbreads. No doubt they had read +of the way things are done in the kitchens of the great. This tendency +should never be encouraged, but neither can it always be inflexibly +repressed without endangering the main objects of the class. + +Women teachers of poultry-keeping, dairying, domestic science and +kindred subjects are trained at the Munster Institute, Cork, and the +School of Domestic Economy, Kildare Street, Dublin, both of which have +been equipped to meet the needs of the new programme. The want of +teachers, and not any lack of interest on the part of the country, has +alone prevented all the counties from adopting schemes for encouraging +improvement in all these branches of work. I may add that more than one +hundred and fifty of these qualified teachers are now at work under +County Committees. + +I have already, in this chapter, indicated that outside large industrial +centres, our educational policy is, broadly speaking, twofold. We seek, +in the first place, through our programme in Experimental Science and +its allied subjects, now so generally adopted by secondary schools in +Ireland, to give that fundamental training in science and scientific +method which, most thinkers are agreed, constitutes a condition +precedent to sound specialised teaching of agriculture as well as other +forms of industry. We seek further, by methods less academic in +character--for example, by itinerant instruction which is of value +chiefly to those with whom 'school' is a thing of the past--to teach not +only improved agricultural methods but also simple industries, and to +promote the cultivation of industrial habits which are as essential to +the success of farming as to that of every other occupation. Classes in +manual work of various kinds--woodwork, carpentry, applied drawing and +building construction, lace and crochet making, needlework, dressmaking +and embroidery, sprigging, hosiery and other such subjects, have been +numerously and steadily attended. + +I do not ignore the argument that such home industries must in time give +way before the competition of highly-organised factory industries. The +simple answer is that it is desirable, and indeed necessary, to employ +the energy now running to waste in our rural districts--energy which +cannot in the nature of things be employed in highly-organised +industries. To the small farmer and his family, time is a realisable, +though too often unrealised, asset, and it is part of our aim to aid the +family income by employing their waste time. Even if we can only cause +them to do at home what they now pay someone else to do, we shall not +only have improved their budget but shall have contributed to the +elevation of the standard of home life, and thus, in no small measure, +to the solution of the difficult problem of rural life in Ireland. + +I think the reader will now understand the general character of the +problem with which we were confronted and the means by which its +solution is being sought. Our policy was not one which was likely to +commend itself to the "man in the street." Indeed, to be quite candid, +it was a little disappointing even to myself that I could not +immortalise my appointment by erecting monuments both to my constructive +ability and to my educational zeal in the shape of stately edifices at +convenient railway centres, preferably along the tourist routes. We have +had to stand the fire of the critic fresh from his holiday on the +Continent where he had seen agricultural and technological institutions, +magnificently housed and lavishly equipped, fitting generations of young +men and young women for competition with our less fortunate countrymen. +It is hard to prevail in argument against the man who has gone and seen +for himself. It is useless to point out to the man with a kodak that the +Corinthian façade and the marble columns of the _aula maxima_ which +aroused his patriotic envy are but a small part of the educational +structure which he saw and thought he understood. If he would read the +history of the systems and trace the successive stages by which the need +for these great institutions was established, he would have a little +more sympathy with the difficulties of the Department, a little more +patience with its Fabian policy. + +I must not, however, utter a word which suggests that the Department has +any ground of complaint against the country for the spirit in which it +has been met; especially as there was one factor to be taken into +account which made it difficult for public opinion to approve of our +policy. As I have already explained, a large capital sum of a little +over £200,000 was handed over to the Department at its creation. During +the first year, what with the organisation of the staff, the thinking +out of a policy on every side of the Department's work, the constitution +of the statutory committees to administer its local schemes in town and +country, the agreement, after long discussion, between the central body +and these committees upon the local schemes, and all the other +preparatory steps which had to be taken before money could wisely be +applied, it is obvious that the Department could not have spent its +income. In the second year, and even the third year, savings were +effected, and the original capital sum has been largely increased. What +more natural than that in a poor country a spending Department which was +backward in spending should appear to be lacking in enterprise, if not +in administrative capacity? But whether the policy was right or wrong it +has unquestionably been approved by the best thought in the country, a +fact which throws a very interesting light upon the constitutional +aspects of the Department. At each successive stage the policy was +discussed at the Council of Agriculture and its practical operation was +dependent upon the consent of the Boards which have the power of the +purse. A Vice-President who had not these bodies at his back would be +powerless, in fact would have to resign. Thoughtless criticism has now +and again condemned not only the parsimonious action of the Department, +but the invertebrate conduct of the Council of Agriculture and the +Boards in tolerating it. The time will soon come when the service +rendered to their country by the members of the first Council and +Boards, who gave their representative backing to a slow but sure +educational policy, and scorned to seek popularity in showy projects and +local doles, will be gratefully remembered to them. + +Already we have had some gratifying evidences that the country is with +us in the paramount importance we attach to education as the real need +of the hour. Most readers will be surprised to hear that in the short +time the Department has been at work it has aided in the equipment of +nearly two hundred science laboratories and of about fifty manual +instruction workshops, while the many-sided programme involved in the +movement as a whole is in operation in some four hundred schools +attended by thirty-six thousand pupils. + +Nothing can be more gratifying than the unanimous testimony of the +officers of the Department to the increasing practical intelligence and +reasonableness of the numerous Committees responsible for the local +administration of the schemes which the Department has to approve of and +supervise. The demand for visible money's worth has largely given place +to a genuine desire for schemes having a practical educational value for +the industry of the district. County Clare is not generally considered +the most advanced part of Ireland, nor can Kilrush be very far distant +from 'the back of Godspeed'; yet even from that storm-battered outpost +of Irish ideas I was memorialised a year ago to induce the County +Council to pay less attention to the improvement of cattle and more to +the technical education of the peasantry. + +Under the heading of direct aids to agriculture, rural industries, and +sea and inland fisheries, there is much important and useful work which +the Department has set in motion, partly by the use of its funds and +partly by suggestion and the organisation of local effort. The most +obvious, popular and easily understood schemes were those directed to +the improvement of live stock. The Department exercised its supervision +and control with the help of advisory committees composed of the best +experts it could get to volunteer advice upon the various classes of +live stock. It is unnecessary to give any details of these schemes. The +Department profited by the experience of, and received considerable +assistance from the Royal Dublin Society, which had for many years +administered a Government grant for the improvement of horses and +cattle. The broad principle adopted by the Department was that its +efforts and its available resources should be devoted rather to +improving the quality, than to increasing the quantity, of the stock in +the country, the latter function being regarded as belonging to the +region of private enterprise. + +It is impossible to over-estimate the importance to the country of +having a widespread interest aroused and discussion stimulated on +problems of breeding which affect a trade of vast importance to the +economic standing of the country--a trade which now reaches in horned +cattle alone an annual export of nearly three quarters of a million +animals. All manner of practical discussions were set on foot, ranging +from the production of the ideal, the general purposes cow, to that +controversy which competes, in the virulence with which it is waged, +with the political, the educational, and the fiscal questions--the +question whether the hackney strain will bring a new era of prosperity +to Ireland, or whether it will irretrievably destroy the reputation of +the Irish hunter. The discussion of these problems has been accompanied +by much practical work which, in due time, cannot fail to produce a +considerable improvement upon the breed of different classes of live +stock. In one year over one thousand sires have been selected by the +experts of the Department for admission to the stock improvement +schemes. Probably an equal number of breeding animals offered for +inspection have been rejected. Many a _cause celèbre_ has not +unnaturally arisen over the decisions of the equestrian tribunal, and +there have not been wanting threats that the attention of Parliament +should be called to the gross partiality of the Department which has +cast a reflection upon the form of stallion A or upon the constitutional +soundness of stallion B. On the whole, as far as I can gather, the best +authorities in the country are agreed that since the Department has +been at work there has been established a higher standard of excellence +in the bucolic mind as regards that vastly important national asset, our +flocks and herds. + +Again for details I must refer the reader to official documents. There +he will find as much information as he can digest about the vast variety +of agricultural activities which originate sometimes with the +Department's officers or with its _Journal_ and leaflets, the +circulation of which has no longer to be stimulated from our Statistics +and Intelligence bureau, and sometimes emanate from the local +committees, whose growing interest in the work naturally leads to the +discovery of fresh needs and hitherto unthought of possibilities of +agricultural and industrial improvement. I may, however, indicate a few +of the subjects which have been gone into even in these years while the +new Department has been trying so far as it might, without sacrifice of +efficiency and sound economic principle, to keep pace with the feverish +anxiety of a genuinely interested people to get to work upon schemes +which they believe to be practical, sound, and of permanent utility. + +A question which has troubled administrators of State aid to every +progressive agricultural community, and which each country must settle +for itself, is by what form of object lesson in ordinary agriculture +intelligent local interest can best be aroused We have advocated widely +diffused small experimental plots, and they have done much good. +Probably the most useful of our crop improvement schemes have been +those which have demonstrated the profitableness of artificial manures, +the use of which has been enormously increased. The profits derivable in +many parts of Ireland from the cultivation of early potatoes has been +demonstrated in the most convincing manner. To what may be called the +industrial crops, notably flax and barley, a great deal of time and +thought has been applied and much information disseminated and +illustrated by practical experiments. In many quarters interest has been +aroused in the possibilities of profitable tobacco culture. Many +negative and some positive results have been attained by the Department +in the as yet incomplete experiments upon this crop. Much has been +learned about the functions of central and local agricultural and small +industry shows, those occasional aids to the year's work which +disseminate knowledge and stimulate interest and friendly rivalry among +the different producers. The reduction in the death-rate among young +stock, due to preventible causes such as white scour and blackleg, is +well worthy of the attention of those who wish to study the more +practical work of the Department. + +The branch of the Department's work which deals with the Sea-fisheries +can only be very briefly touched on. It falls into two main heads which +may roughly be termed the administrative and the scientific; the latter, +of course, having economic developments as its ultimate object. The +issue of loans to fishermen for the purchase of boats and gear, +contributing to the cost of fishery slips and piers, circulating +telegraphic intelligence, the making of by-laws for the regulation of +the fisheries, the patrolling of the Irish fishing grounds to prevent +illegalities, and the attempts which are being made to develop the +valuable Irish oyster fishery by the introduction, with modifications +suited to our own seaboard, of a system of culture comparable to those +which are pursued with success in France and Norway, may be mentioned as +falling under the more directly economic branch of our activities. Irish +oysters are already attaining considerable celebrity, owing to the +distance of our oyster beds from contaminating influences; and it is +hoped that when the Department's experiments are complete the Irish +oyster will be made subject to direct control for all its life, until it +is despatched to market. Attention is also being given to the relative +value of seed oysters, other than native, for relaying on Irish beds. + +On the more directly scientific side, the Department has undertaken the +survey of the trawling grounds around the coast to obtain an exact +knowledge of the movements of the marketable fish at different times of +their life, so that we may be guided in making by-laws and regulations +by a full knowledge of the times and places at which protection is +necessary. The biological and physical conditions of the western seas +are also being studied in special reference to the mackerel fishery, +with the object of correlating certain readily observable phenomena with +the movements of the fish, and so of predicting the probable success of +a fishery in a particular season. The routine observations of the +Department's fishery cruiser have been so arranged as to synchronise +with those of other nations, in order to assist the international scheme +of investigation now in progress, wherever its objects and those of the +Department are the same. While these various practical projects have +been in operation, we have done our best to keep abreast of the times by +sending missions to other countries, consisting of an expert accompanied +by practical Irishmen who would bring home information which was +applicable to the conditions of our own country. The first batch of +itinerant instructors in agriculture, whose training for the important +work of laying the foundations for our whole scheme of agricultural +instruction I have referred to, were taken on a continental tour by the +Professor of Agriculture at the Royal College of Science, in order to +give special advantages to a portion of our outdoor staff upon the +success of whose work the rate of our progress in agricultural +development might largely depend. And not only have we in our first +three years gleaned as much information as possible by sending qualified +Irishmen to study abroad the industries in which we were particularly +interested, but we also took steps to give the mass of our people at +home an opportunity of studying these industries for themselves. With +the somewhat unique experiment carried out for this object, I will +conclude the story of the new Department's activities in its early +years. + +The part we took at the Cork Exhibition of 1902 was well understood in +Ireland, but not perhaps elsewhere. We secured a large space both in the +main Industrial Hall and in the grounds, and gave an illustration not of +what Ireland had done, but of what, in our opinion, the country might +achieve in the way of agricultural and industrial development in the +near future. Exhibiting on the one hand our available resources in the +way of raw material, we gave, on the other hand, demonstrations of a +large number of industries in actual operation. These exhibits, imported +with their workers, machinery and tools, from several European countries +and from Great Britain, all belonged to some class of industry which, in +our belief, was capable of successful development in Ireland. In the +indoor part of the exhibit there was nothing very original, except +perhaps in its close relation to the work of a government department. +But what attracted by far the greatest interest and attention was a +series of object lessons in many phases of farm activities, where, in +our opinion, great and immediate improvements might be made. Here were +to be seen varieties of crops under various systems of treatment, +demonstrations of sheep-dipping, calf-rearing on different foods, +illustrations of the different breeds of fowl and systems of poultry +management, model buildings and gardens for farmer and labourer; while +in separate buildings the drying and pressing of fruit and vegetables, +the manufacture of butter and cheese, and a very comprehensive forestry +exhibit enabled our visitors to combine profitable suggestion with, if I +may judge from my frequent opportunities of observing the sightseers in +whom I was particularly interested, the keenest enjoyment. + +We kept at the Exhibition, for six months, a staff of competent experts, +whose instructions were to give to all-comers this simple lesson. They +were to bring home to our people that, here in Ireland before their very +eyes, there were industries being carried on by foreigners, by +Englishmen, by Scotchmen, and in some instances by Irishmen, but in all +cases by men and women who had no advantage over our workers except that +they had the technical training which it was the desire of the +Department to give to the workers of Ireland. The officials of the +Department entered into the spirit of this scheme enthusiastically and +cheerfully, some of them, in addition to their ordinary work, turning +the office into a tourist agency for these busy months. With the +generous help of the railway companies they organised parties of +farmers, artisans, school teachers, members of the statutory committees, +and, in fact, of all to whom it was of importance to give this object +lesson upon the relations between practical education and the promotion +of industry. Nearly 100,000 persons were thus moved to Cork and back +before the Exhibition closed--an achievement largely due to the +assistance given by the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society and the +clergy throughout the country. + +This experiment, both in its conception and in its results, was perhaps +unique. There were not wanting critics of the new Department who stood +aghast at so large an expenditure upon temporary edifices and a passing +show; but those who are in touch with its educational work know that +this novel application of State assistance fulfilled its purpose. It +helped substantially to generate a belief in, and stimulate a demand +for, technical instruction which it will take us many years adequately +to supply. + +An American visitor who, as I afterwards learned, takes an active part +in the discussion of the rural problems of his own country, disembarked +at Queenstown in order to 'take in' the Cork Exhibition. In his rush +through Dublin he 'took in' the Department and the writer. 'Mr. +Vice-President,' he said, before the hand-shaking was completed, 'I have +visited all the great Expositions held in my time. I have been to the +Cork Exposition. I often saw more things, but never more ideas.' + +With this characteristically rapid appreciation of a movement which +seeks to turn Irish thought to action, my strange visitor vanished as +suddenly as he came. + + * * * * * + +Those whose sympathy with Ireland has induced them to persevere through +the mass of details with which this story of small beginnings is pieced +together may wonder why the bearing of hopeful efforts for bringing +prosperity and contentment to Ireland upon the mental attitude of +millions of Irishmen scattered throughout the British Empire and the +United States, and so upon the lives of the countries in which they have +made their homes, is apparently ignored. I fully recognise the vast +importance of the subject. A book dealing comprehensively with the +actual and potential influence of Irish intellect upon English politics +at home, and upon the politics of the United States, a carefully +reasoned estimate of the part which Irish intellect is qualified, and +which I firmly believe it is destined, to play wherever the civilisation +of the world is to be under the control of the English-speaking +peoples--more especially where these peoples govern races which speak +other tongues and see through other eyes--a clear and striking +exposition of the true relation between the small affairs of the small +island and that greater Ireland which takes its inspiration from the +sorrows, the passions, the endeavours, and the hopes of those who stick +to the old home--such a book would possess a deep human interest, and +would make a high and wide appeal. Nevertheless, I feel that at the +present time the most urgent need, from every point of view on which I +have touched, is to focus the thought available for the Irish Question +upon the definite work of a reconstruction of Irish life. + +Such is the purpose of this book. I do not wish to attach any +exaggerated importance to the scheme of social and economic reform of +which I have attempted to give a faithful account; nor is it in their +practical achievement, be it great or small, that the initiators and +organisers of the new movement take most pride. What these Irishmen are +proud of is the manner in which the people have responded to their +efforts to bring Irish sentiment into an intimate and helpful relation +with Irish economic problems. They had to reckon with that greatest of +hindrances to the spirit of enterprise, a rooted belief in the +potentiality of government to bring material prosperity to our doors. As +I have pointed out, the practical demonstration which Ireland had +received of the power of government to inflict lasting economic injury +gave rise to this belief; and I have noted the present influences to +which it seems to owe its continuance until to-day. I believe that, if +any enduring interest attaches to the story which I have told, it will +consist in the successive steps by which this initial difficulty has +been overcome. + +Let me summarise in a few words what has been, so far, actually +accomplished. Those who did the work of which I have written first +launched upon Irish life a scheme of organised self-help which, perhaps +more by good luck than design, proved to be in accordance with the +inherited instincts of the people, and, therefore, moved them to action. +Next they called for, and in due season obtained, a department of +government with adequate powers and means to aid in developing the +resources of the country, so far as this end could be attained without +transgressing the limits of beneficial State interference with the +business of the people. In its constitution this department was so +linked with the representative institutions of the country that the +people soon began to feel that they largely controlled its policy and +were responsible for its success. Meanwhile, the progress of economic +thought in the country had made such rapid strides that, in the +administration of State assistance, the principle of self-help could be +rigidly insisted upon and was willingly submitted to. The result is that +a situation has been created which is as gratifying as it may appear to +be paradoxical. Within the scope and sphere of the movement the Irish +people are now, without any sacrifice of industrial character, combining +reliance upon government with reliance upon themselves. + +That a movement thus conceived should so rapidly have overcome its +initial difficulties and should, I might almost add, have passed beyond +the experimental stage, will suggest to any thoughtful reader that above +and beyond the removal by legislation of obstacles to progress--and much +has been accomplished in this way of recent years--there must have been +new, positive influences at work upon the national mind. These will be +found in the growing recognition of the fact that the path of progress +lies along distinctively Irish lines, and that otherwise it will not be +trodden by the Irish people. Much good in the same direction has been +done, too, by the generous and authoritative admission by England that +the future development of Ireland should be assisted and promoted 'with +a full and constant regard to the special traditions of the +country.'[52] But after all, while these concessions to Irish +sentiment, vitally important though they be, may speed us on our road to +national regeneration, they will not take us far. It remains for us +Irishmen to realise--and the chief value of all the work I have +described consists in the degree in which it forces us to realise--the +responsibility which now rests with ourselves. We have been too long a +prey to that deep delusion, which, because the ills of the country we +love were in past days largely caused from without, bids us look to the +same source for their cure. The true remedies are to be sought +elsewhere; for, however disastrous may have been the past, the injury +was moral rather than material, and the opportunity has now arrived for +the patient building up again of Irish character in those qualities +which win in the modern struggle for existence. The field for that great +work is clear of at least the worst of its many historic encumbrances. +Ireland must be re-created from within. The main work must be done in +Ireland, and the centre of interest must be Ireland. When Irishmen +realise this truth, the splendid human power of their country, so much +of which now runs idly or disastrously to waste, will be utilised; and +we may then look with confidence for the foundation of a fabric of Irish +prosperity, framed in constructive thought, and laid enduringly in human +character. + +THE END. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[48] Pages 38, 39. + +[49] It must be borne in mind that the Department is not officially +concerned with the question of the economic distribution of land +referred to on pp. 46-49. + +[50] For a full description of the Department's scheme of agricultural +education I may refer to a _Memorandum on Agricultural Education in +Ireland,_ written by the author and published by the Department, July, +1901. + +[51] See _ante_, pp. 236-238. + +[52] Speech of the Lord Lieutenant to the Incorporated Law Society, +November 20th, 1902. See also p. 170. + + + + +INDEX + +A.E. (George W. Russell) 200 +Agitation as a policy, 82, 83 +Agricultural Board, 228, 234, _seq_. 269 +Agriculture:-- + Agricultural Holdings:-- + Improvement of, 46 _seq_. + Transfer of peasants to new farms, 48 _seq_. + Agricultural Organisation: + Denmark, 131 + Department of Agriculture and farmers' societies, 211 + England, Mr. Hanbury's and Lord Onslow's views, 242 + Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (see that title) + Societies 44, 45 + Co-operation (see that title). + Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (see that title) + Depression in, 179 + Education in relation to, 126, 264 _seq_. 269 + Exodus of Rural Population, 39 + State-Aid, 45, 211 + Tillage, decrease of, 42 +Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, 224, 227, 236, 238 +Albert Institute, Glasnevin, 230, 271 +Altruism, appeal to in co-operation, 210 +America, Irish in: 72 + Causes of their success and failure, 55 _seq_. + Irish in American politics, 70 _seq_. + Loss of religion in, 111 +Anderson, R.A.:-- + Co-operative movement, 184, 190 + Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, 200 +Andrews, Mr. Thomas:-- + Recess Committee, 219 +Anti-English Sentiment:-- + Irish in America and, 72 + Nature and cause, 13 +Anti-Treating League, 114 +Arnott, Sir John:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +Art, modern ecclesiastical art in Ireland, 108 +Association, economic, value of, 167 +Associative qualities of the Irish, 166 + +Bacon Curing:-- + Denmark, 131, 194 +Bagot, Canon:-- + Creamery movement, 189 +Balfour, Arthur:--168 + Irish policy, 243, 244 +Balfour, Gerald:--243, 256 + Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, 225, 233 + Local Government Act, 224, 238, 240 + Policy of explained, 225 + Recess Committee Proposals; Bill, 224 +Banks, agricultural credit, 195 _seq._ +Barley Experiments of the Department of Agriculture, 282 +Belfast Chamber of Commerce and Home Rule, 67 +Berkeley, Bishop:-- + Irish priests, 141 + On "Mending our state," 6 + "Parties" and "politics," 63 +Bessborough Commission, tenants improvements, &c. 22 +Board of National Education, 126 +Board of Technical Instruction, 228, 234 _seq_. 257 +Bodley's _France_, Madame Darmesteter's review, 242 +Boer war and the Irish attitude, 9 +Bogs, utilisation of, 249 +Boycotting, 87 +Bright, John:-- + Peasant proprietorship, 25 +Brooke, Stopford, 92 +Buckle, personal factor in history, 27 +Bulwer Lytton, 34 +Burke, 137 +Butt, Isaac, 78 +Butter, Danish, 131 + +Cadogan, Lord, 224 +Catholic Association, 99 +Catholic Emancipation Act, 104, 125, 132 +Catholic University (see University Question). +Celtic Race, Harold Frederic's opinion, 161 _seq_. +Character:-- + Associative qualities of the Irish, 166 + Education and character, 144 + Gaelic Revival, effect of on national character, 148, 155 + Industrial character, 18 + Irish inefficiency a problem of character, 32 + Irish question a problem of character, 32, 59, 164 + Lack of initiative in Irish character, 163 + Moral timidity of Irish character, 64, 65, 80, 81 + Prosperity of Ireland, to be founded on character, 291 + Roman Catholicism and Irish character, 101-105, 110 +Chesterfield, Lord:-- + Education as the cause of difference in the character of men, 144 +Christian Brothers' Schools, 131 +Christian Socialists, 184 +Church-building in Ireland,. 107 +Church Disestablishment Act, 1869,--Land Purchase Clauses, 25 +Clan-System in Ireland, 75 +Clergy, Roman Catholic:-- + Action and attitude towards questions of the day 105 + Authority, 96, 105 _seq_. + Moral influence, 115, 116 + Political influence, 117 + Temperance reform, 112, 114 +College of Science and Department of Agriculture, 229 +Colonies, history of the Irish in, 72 _seq_. +Commercial Restrictions--effect of on Irish industrial character, 17 _seq_. +Con O'Neal forbids his posterity to build houses, etc., 57 +Congested Districts Board:-- + Agricultural banks, loans to 197 + Department of Agriculture and, 245 + Land Act (1903) and, 245 + Success of, 243, 244 +Convents and Monasteries, increase of, 108 +Co-operative Movement:-- + Agricultural Banks, 195 _seq_. + Agricultural depression, cause of, 179 + Altruism, appeal to, 210 + Anderson, R.A., 184, 190, 200 + Associative qualities of Irish, 166, 178, 186 + Beginnings, 178 + Combination, necessity of, 181 + Co-operative Union, Manchester, 184 + Craig, Mr. E.T., and the Vandeleur Estate, 184 + Creameries, 187 _seq_. + Denmark, 131, 194 + Educating adults, 177 + English co-operation, 166, 184 + Finlay, Father Thomas, 119, 192, 218 + Gaelic Revival and, 149 _seq_. + Gray, Mr. T.C., 184 + Holyoake, Mr., 184 + Hughes, Mr. Tom, 184 + Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (see that title). + _Irish Homestead_, 190, 202 + Ludlow, Mr., 184 + Marum, Mr. Mulhallen, 189 + Middlemen, 180 + Monteagle, Lord, 184 + Moral effects, 207, 208 + Neale, Mr. Vansittart, 184 + Necessity of co-operation for small landholders, 44 _seq_. + Production and distribution problems, 179, 180 + Roman Catholic clergy and, 119 + State-aid side, 45, 165 + Success, causes of 210, 211 + Vandeleur estate community, 184 + Village libraries, 199 + Wolff, Mr. Henry W., 199 + Yerburgh, Mr., 199 +Cork:-- + Exhibition, Department's Exhibit, 119, 285 _seq_. +Craig, Mr. E.T.-- + Co-operative Movement 184 +Creameries, co-operative, beginnings, 187 _seq_. +Crop improvement schemes of the Department, 282 +Council of Agriculture, 228, 232 _seq_. 257 + +Dairying Industry--Co-operation and, 187 _seq_. +Dane, Mr.:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +Darmesteter, Madame, _Syndicats agricoles_, 242 +Davis, Thomas:--137 + Political Methods, 77, 83 +Denmark:-- + Co-operation in, 131, 194 + High Schools, 131 +Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction:-- 60 + Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, 224, 227, 236, 238 + Agricultural Board, 228, 234 _seq._ 257 + Agricultural education, 236, 237, 264 _seq._ 269, 272 + Agricultural Organisation, 241 + Albert Institute, Glasnevin, 230, 271 + Balfour, Gerald, 225, 233 + Board of Technical Instruction, 228, 234 _seq._ 257 + College of Science and, 229 + Congested Districts Board and Department, 245 + Consultative Committee for Co-ordinating Education, 236, 237, 272 + Constitution, etc., 228 + Co-operative movement and the benefits of organisation, 241 + Cork Exhibition exhibit, 119, 285 _seq._ + Council of Agriculture, 228, 232 _seq._ 257 + Crop improvement schemes 282 + Domestic economy teaching, 272 + Early days' experiences, 217 _seq._ + Educational policy, 236, 237, 272, 274 + Educational work, 262 + Endowment, etc., 231 + Home Industries, 275 + Industrial education and industrial life, 130 + Intermediate Education Board and, 235, 237 + Itinerant instruction, 126, 270 + Irish Agricultural Organisation Society and, 203 + Live Stock Schemes, 279 + Local Committees, 261 + Local Government Act and work of Department, 239 + Metropolitan School of Art 230 + Munster Institute, Cork, and, 230, 274 + Parliamentary representation, 220, 228 + Powers, 229 _seq._ + Provincial Committees, 234 + Purposes, 228 + Recess Committee's Recommendations, 220 + Royal Dublin Society and, 279 + Rural life improvement, 159 + Sea Fisheries, 282 + Staff, 228 + Teachers, 267 + Technical instruction, 130, 228, 234, _seq._, 257, 263, 267, 279 + Work already accomplished, 278 _seq._ +Desmolins, M.:-- + English love of home, 53 +Devon Commission, tenants' + improvements, 22 +Dineen, Rev. P.S.:-- + Editor O'Rahilly's poems, 76 +Dixon, Sir Daniel:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +Domestic economy teaching, 272 +Drink Evil:-- + Anti-Treating League, 114 + Causes, 112 + Roman Catholic Clergy's influence, 112, 114 +Dudley, Lord, 170, 290 +Dufferin, Lord:-- + Effect of commercial restrictions in Ireland, 20 +Duffy, Sir C.G. 77 +Dunraven Conference, 8, 10, 207 + +Economic system in England, individualism of, 166 +Economic thought:-- + Influence of Roman Catholicism, 101 _seq_. + Lack of in Ireland, 133 _seq_. +Education:-- + Agricultural instruction, 126 264 _seq_. 269 + Board of National Education, 126 + Christian Brothers, 131 + Commissioners of National Education, 235 + Consultative Committee for co-ordinating Education, 236, 237, 272 + Continental methods, 129 + Defects of present system, 128 + Denmark High Schools, 131 + Department of Agriculture's policy and work, 236, 237, 262, 272, 274 + Economic, 130, 133 + Education Bill, 99 + English education in Ireland, 122 + Influence of on national life, 59 + Industrial, 130, 264 + Intermediate Education system, 128, 235, 237 + Irish education schemes, 123 _seq_. + Itinerant instruction, 126, 270 + Keenan, Sir Patrick, 126 + Kildare Street Society, 123 + Literary Education, 131 + Lord Chesterfield on Education 144 + Manual and Practical Instruction in Primary Schools, Commission, 128, 129 + Maynooth, influence of, 134-136, 138, 139 + Monastic and Conventual institutions, 108 + National factor in national education, 152, 153 + Practical, 129 _seq_. + Reports of Commissions, 127 + Roman Catholics, higher education, 97, 132, 133 + Royal University, 128 + Technical instruction, 228, 231 _seq_., 257, 263 + Trinity College, influence of, 134, 136 _seq_. + University:-- + Place of the University in education, 133 + Royal Commission on University Education, 128 + Wyse's Scheme, 125 +Education Bill, 99 +Emigration, causes of, etc., 40, 116 +England:-- + Anti-English sentiment in Ireland, 13, 72 + Co-operation in, 166, 184, 192, 206, 242 + Economic system, individualism of, 166 + Misunderstanding of Irish question, 7 _seq_. +Ewart, Sir William:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +Experimental Plots of the Department, 281 + +Ferguson, Sir Samuel:-- + National sentiment, 154 +Field, Mr. William, 217 +Finlay, Father Thomas:-- 119, 208 + Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, 192 + Recess Committee 218 +Fisheries--Department of Agriculture, development scheme, 282 _seq_ +Flax improvement Schemes, 282 +_Fortnightly Review_:-- + Harold Frederic on Irish Question, 162 +France, _syndicats agricoles_, 242 +Franchise extension in 1885, effects of on Irish political thought, 78 +Frederic, Harold:-- + Views on Irish question, 161 _seq_. +Free Trade, effect of in Ireland, 19 + +Gaelic Revival:-- 148 _seq_. + Appeal to the individual 155 + Co-operative movement and, 149 _seq_. + Gaelic League, aims and objects, 150 + Hyde, Douglas, 151 + Irish language as a commercial medium, 158 + National factor in education, importance of, 153 + Politics and the Gaelic revival, 156, 187 + Rural life, rehabilitation, 159 +Gill, Mr. T.P.:-- + Recess Committee, 219 +Gladstone:-- 85 + Belfast Chamber of Commerce, Home Rule deputation, 67 + Home Rule, attitude towards, 3, 66, 67 + Tenants' improvements, 22 +Glasnevin, Albert Institute, 230, 271 +Grattan, 137 +Gray, Mr. J.C.:-- + Co-operative movement, 181 +Grazing, increase of, 42 +Grundtvig, Bishop, 131 + +Hanbury, Mr.:-- 251 + Agricultural Societies, necessity of, 242 + Suppression of Swine Fever, 252 +Hannon, Mr. P.J.--I.A.O.S. 200 +Harrington, Mr. T.C.:-- + Recess Committee 218 +Healy, Archbishop, work for Ireland, 118 +Hegarty, Father, work for Ireland, 119 +Historical Grievances, 14, 17, 59, 104, _seq_. 120, 147 +Holdings, small, problem of, 46 +Holyoake, Mr.:-- + Co-operative Movement, 184 +Domestic Economy Teaching, 272 +Home: Improvement of, 159 + Irish Conception of, 53 + Irish, "homelessness at home," cause of 57, 58 +Home Industries, 192, 275 +Home Rule:--Bill 1886, 61 + Gladstone's attitude to the question 3 + Nationalist tactics as a means of attaining 84 + Rosebery, Lord, attitude to the question, 4 + Ulster and Home Rule, 66, 86. _seq_. + Unionist attitude towards, 35 +Hughes, Tom, Co-operative Movement, 184 +Hyde, Douglas, 151 + +Individualism of English economic system, 166 +Industrial character of the Irish, effect of commercial restrictions, 18 +Industrial leadership, and political leadership, 212 +Industry:-- + Commercial Restrictions, 16-20 + Education and Industrial Life, 130 + Free Trade, effect of, 19 + Gaelic League and, 135 + Home Rule and, 87 + Peasant Industries 52 + Protestantism and Industry 100 + Roman Catholicism and Industry. 100, 103 _seq_. + State-Aid 45 +Initiative, lack of in Irish character, 163 +Intermediate Education 128, 235, 237 +Irish Agricultural Organisation Society:-- 149 + Agricultural Banks, 195 _seq._ + Agricultural Organisation:-- + Denmark, 131 + Department of Agriculture and Farmers' Societies, 241 + England, Mr. Hanbury's view, 242 + Onslow, Lord, opinion, 242 + Welsh Co. Councils, and, 242 + Anderson, R.A., 200 + Central body, necessity for 194 + Cork Exhibition, tours organised by, 286 + Department of Agriculture and, 203 + Federations, principal, 193 + Finlay, Father Thomas, 119, 192, 208, 218 + Funds, 202 _seq_. + Gaelic revival and the co-operative movement, 149 _seq._ + Hannon, Mr. P.J., 200 + Inauguration, 191 + _Irish, Homestead_, 190, 202 + Monteagle, Lord, 192 + Roman Catholic clergy and the movement, 119 + Rural life social movements, 159, 199 + Russell, George W. (A.E.), 200 + Societies, number, etc. 192 + Staff, &c. 200 + Village libraries, 199 +_Irish Homestead_, 190, 202 +Irish language as a commercial medium, 158 +"Irish night" in House of Commons, 2 +Irish Question:-- + Anomalies, 33 + Character, a problem of, 32, 59, 164 + Emigration, 40 + English misunderstanding, 7 _seq._ + Frederic, Harold, diagnosis by, 161 _seq_. + Gaelic Revival and, 148 + Historical grievances, 16 _seq_. + Home Rule (see that title) + Human problem, 2 + Land Act marks a new era in, 11 + Land system (see that title). + Our ignorance about ourselves 32 + Parnell's death, effect of, 5 + Political remedies, Irish belief in, 33 + Rural life, problem, 39, 57, 263 + Sentiment, force of, 15 + Ulster's attitude important, 38 +Itinerant Instructors, 126, 127, 271, 284 + +Johnson, Dr., on "economy," 278 + +Kane, Rev. R.R.:-- 157 + Recess Committee, 218 +Keenan, Sir Patrick:-- + Itinerant instructors, 126, 127 +Kelly, Dr. (Bishop of Ross):-- + Work for Ireland, 118 +Kildare Street School of Domestic Economy 274 +Kildare Street Society, 123-125 + +Land Acts:-- + 1870, 23; + 1881, 23, 24; + 1891, Congested Districts, 243 + 1903:-- 10, 11, 42, 48, 245 + Marks a new era in Ireland, 11 + Transfer of peasants to new farms, 48 +Land Conference:-- 93 + Landed gentry not to be expatriated, 85 + Nationalist leaders' attitude, 89 +Land Purchase Acts, 25 +Land Question and Tenure Question, 41, 42 +Land system:-- 17 + Causes of failure in Irish land system, 21 + Dual ownership 25 + Land Acts: + 1870, 23; + 1881, 23, 24; + 1891, 243; + 1903, 10, 11, 42, 48, 246. + Land Purchase Acts, 25 + Legislation, 23 _seq_. + Peasant proprietorship, germs of, 25 + Tenure question, 41, 42 +Lawless, Emily:-- + "With the Wild Geese," 92 +Le Bon, "La Psychologie De la Foule," 167 +Lea, Sir Thomas:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +Leadership in Ireland, political and industrial, 212 +Lecky, Mr.:-- + Irish grievances, 14 + Kildare Street Society, 124 +Live stock improvement schemes, 279 +Liverpool Financial Reform Association, 127 +Local Government:-- 83 + Balfour, Mr. Gerald, 224, 238, 240 + Department of Agriculture and local effort, + Educative effect of, 90 + Nationalist leaders' attitude 88 + Success in working, 88, 240 +Lucas, Mr., 77 +Ludlow, Mr.:-- + Co-operative movement, 184 + +McCarthy, Mr. Justin:-- + Recess Committee, 215 +Manchester, Co-operative Union 181 +Manual and Practical Instruction in Primary Schools' Commission, 128, 129 +Manures, Artificial-- + Department of Agriculture's encouragement in the use of, 282 +Marum, Mr. Mulhallen--Co-operative Movement 189 +Maynooth, influence of, 134 136, 138, 139 +Mayo, Lord:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +_Memorandum on Agricultural Education_ 269 +Metropolitan School of Art, 230 +Middlemen, 180 +Monasteries and Convents, increase of, 108 +Monteagle, Lord:-- + Co-operative movement, 184 + I.A.O.S. President, 192 + Recess Committee 218 +Moral timidity of Irish character, 65, 80, 81 +Morals:-- + Roman Catholic Clergy's influence on, 115, 116 +Mulhall, Mr. Michael:-- + Recess Committee, 219 +Munster Institute, Cork, 230, 274 +Musgrave, Sir James:-- + Recess Committee, 219 + +National Education Board, Agricultural Teaching, 126 +Nationalist Party:-- + Home Rule, 35, 84 + Land Conference and, 89 + Local Government and, 88 + Policy, 69 + Qualifications of leaders, 90, 91 + Recess Committee and, 222 + Responsibility of leaders, 81 + Tactics:-- 84 _seq._ + Effect of on Irish political character, 80 +Nationality:-- + Education and nationality, 152 _seq._ + Expansion of, outside party politics, 154 + Modern conception of Irish nationality, 76 +Neale, Vansittart:-- + Co-operative movement, 184 +O'Connell, 77 +O'Conor Don:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +O'Dea, Dr.:-- + University Commission, statements, 109, 141 +O'Donnell, Dr.:-- + Ploughing up of grazing lands, 43 +O'Donovan, Father, 119 +O'Dwyer, Dr.:-- + Evidence before University Commission, 140 +O'Gara, Dr.:-- + On the cultivation of the land, 43 +O'Grady, Standish, 154 +Onslow, Lord:-- + Agricultural organisation, benefit of, 242 +O'Rahilly, Egan:-- + Lament for the Irish clans, 27 +Oyster Culture, 283 + +Parnell:-- 48, 78 + Downfall, effect on national idea and aims, 5, 79, 80 +Peasant industries, necessity for, 52 +Peasant Proprietary:-- + Agricultural organisation, necessity of, 44 _seq_. + Bright, John, and, 25 + Peasant industries, necessity of, 52 + Problem of next generation, 50, 51 +Penal laws, effect of, 104, 132 +Plantation system, 76 +Politics:-- + Agitation as a policy, 82, 83 + America, Irish in politics in, 70 _seq,_ + Gaelic revival and politics, 156, 157 + Irishmen as politicians,. 69 _seq._ + "Irish night" in House of Commons, 92 + Nationalist leaders' effect on Irish political character, 80 + Obsession of the Irish mind by politics, 59, 61 _seq_. + "One-man" system, 79 + Political leadership and industrial leadership, 212 + Political remedies, Irish belief in, 33 + Political "wilderness," 91 + "Priest in politics," 117 + Separation, 87 + Ulster Liberal Unionist Association, 66 + Unionists (Irish):-- + Industrial element and, 67, 68 + Influence in Irish life, 63 _seq._ +Population.-- + Relation of population to area, 49 +Potato culture improvement schemes, 282 +Production and distribution, problems, 179, 180 +Protestantism:-- + Duty of, 119 + Ulster, 98, 99 + +Raiffeisen System of banking, 195-198 +Railways--Light railway system, 243 +_Raimeis_, 153 +Recess Committee:-- 83, 210 _seq._ 238, 241 + Cadogan, Lord, and, 224, 225 + Constitution proposed, 215 + Finlay, Father Thomas, 218 + Gill, Mr. T.P. 219 + Ideas leading to its formation, 213 + M'Carthy, Mr. Justin, letter, 215 + Members, 218 + Mulhall, Mr. Michael, 219 + Nationalist members, 222 + Recommendations, 220 + Redmond, Mr. John, and, 217 + Report, 10, 129, 221 + Results, 223 _seq._ + State-aid question, 223 + Tisserand's memorandum, 220 +Redmond, Mr. John:-- + Recess Committee, 217 +Religion:-- + Influence of on Irish life, 59, 94 _seq._ + Protestantism, 98, 99, 119 + Roman Catholic Church (see that title). + Sectarian animosities, 98, 99 + Toleration, meaning of word, 95 +Ritualistic movement, 99 +Robertson, Lord:-- + University Commission, 140 +Roman Catholic Church:-- + Church-building and increase of monasteries, etc., 107, 108, 109 + Clergy:-- + Action and attitude towards questions of the day, 105 _seq_. + Authority of, 98, 105 _seq._ + Co-operative movement, 119 + Moral influence, 115, 116 + Political influence, 77, 117 + Temperance reform, 112, 114 + Economic conditions, influence on 101 _seq._ + Effect on Irish character, 101-105, 110 + Higher education of Roman Catholics, 97, 132 +Rosebery, Lord:-- + Attitude towards Home Rule, 4 +Ross, Mr. John:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +Royal College of Science, 229, 268, 270 +Royal Commission on University Education, 118, 128, 140 +Royal Dublin Society, Aid to Department of Agriculture, 279 +Royal University education, defects in, 128 +Rural life:-- + Emigration, causes of, 40, 116 + Gaelic revival's influence on, 159 + Industries, 52, 262, 266 + Problem of, 39, 51, 263 + Rehabilitation, 159, 199 +Russell, George W. (A.E.), 200 + +Salisbury, Lord:-- + "Twenty years of resolute government," 61 +Saunderson, Colonel:-- + Recess Committee, 217 +Scotch-Irish in America, 71 +Sea Fisheries--Department of Agriculture's improvement schemes, 282 +Self-help movement (see Co-operative movement). +Sentiment:-- + Anti-English, cause of, 13 _seq_. + Force of in Irish question, 15, 127 +Separation, Home Rule and, 87 +Shinnors, Rev. Mr.:-- + Irish in America, 111 +Sinclair, Thomas:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +Social order, Irish attachment to, 54 +_Spectator_:--English non-allowance for sentiment, 15 +_Speed's Chronicle_:-- + Con O'Neal, etc. 57 +Spencer, Lord, 168 +Starkie, Dr.:-- + Mr. Wyse's education scheme, 126 +State-aid:-- 45, 211, 219, 220, 223 +Stephen, J.K. ("Cynicus") 164 +Stopford Brooke, 92 +Swine fever, 251 + +Technical Instruction, 130, 228, 234 _seq_. 257, 263, 267, 279 +Temperance Reform, 112 _seq_. +Tenure question and land question, 41 +Tillage, decrease of, 42 +Tisserand, M.:-- + Recess Committee memorandum, 220 +Tobacco culture, 282 +Trinity College, influence of, 134, 136 _seq._ +Two Irelands, 37 + +Ulster:-- + Attitude towards the rest of Ireland, 38 + Home Rule, objections to, 66, 86, 87 +Ulster Liberal Unionist Association, political thought in, 66 +Unionist (Irish) Party:-- + Industrial element in Irish life and, 67, 68, 86 + Influence in Irish life, 63_seq._ + Policy, 68 + Ulster and Home Rule, 66,86 _seq._ +United Ireland, first real conception of, 77 +United Irish League, 90 +University Question:-- 99, 109 + Catholic University:-- + O'Dea, Dr., on, 141 + O'Dwyer, Dr., on, 140 + Hyde, Dr., evidence before Commission, 151 + Maynooth, influence of, 134, 136, 138, 139 + Place of the University in education, 133 + Trinity College, influence of, 134, 136 _seq._ + University reform necessary, 138 + +Vandeleur Estate, co-operative community, 184 +Village libraries, 119, 199 + +Wolff, Mr. Henry W.:-- + People's banks, 199 +Wyndham, Mr.:-- + Land Act. 1903, 10, 12 +Wyse, Mr. Thomas:-- + Scheme of Irish education, 125 + +Yeats, W.B. 154 +Yerburgh, Mr. R.A.:-- + Agricultural banks, 199 + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Ireland In The New Century, by Horace Plunkett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IRELAND IN THE NEW CENTURY *** + +***** This file should be named 14342-8.txt or 14342-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/3/4/14342/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Susan Skinner and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Sir Horace Plunkett. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + LI {list-style-type: none} + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */ + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ireland In The New Century, by Horace Plunkett + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ireland In The New Century + +Author: Horace Plunkett + +Release Date: December 13, 2004 [EBook #14342] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IRELAND IN THE NEW CENTURY *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Susan Skinner and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1><b>IRELAND</b></h1> + +<h2><b>IN THE NEW CENTURY</b></h2> +<br /> + +<h4>BY THE RIGHT HON.</h4> + +<h3>SIR HORACE PLUNKETT, K.C.V.O., F.R.S. +</h3> +<br /> +<br /> +<h5>LONDON</h5> + +<h5>JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.</h5> + +<h4>1904</h4> +<br /> +<br /> +<h5><i>Printed by</i> BROWNE AND NOLAN, LTD., <i>Dublin</i></h5> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>TO THE MEMORY OF</h4> +<br /> + + +<h4><b>W.E.H. LECKY,</b></h4> +<br /> + +<h4>I DEDICATE ALL IN THIS BOOK</h4> +<h4>THAT IS WORTHY OF THE FRIENDSHIP</h4> +<h4>WITH WHICH HE HONOURED ME,</h4> +<h4>AND OF THE COUNSEL WHICH HE GAVE ME</h4> +<h4>FOR MY GUIDANCE IN IRISH PUBLIC LIFE.</h4> + +<br /> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="PREFACE"></a><h2>PREFACE</h2> + +<p>Those who have known Ireland for the last dozen years cannot have failed +to notice the advent of a wholly new spirit, clearly based upon +constructive thought, and expressing itself in a wide range of fresh +practical activities. The movement for the organisation of agriculture +and rural credit on co-operative lines, efforts of various kinds to +revive old or initiate new industries, and, lastly, the creation of a +department of Government to foster all that was healthy in the voluntary +effort of the people to build up the economic side of their life, are +each interesting in themselves. When taken together, and in conjunction +with the literary and artistic movements, and viewed in their relation +to history, politics, religion, education, and the other past and +present influences operating upon the Irish mind and character, these +movements appear to me to be worthy of the most thoughtful consideration +by all who are responsible for, or desire the well-being of the Irish +people.</p> + +<p>I should not, however, in days when my whole time and energies belong to +the public service, have undertaken the task of writing a book on a +subject so complex and apparently so inseparable from heated +controversy, were I not convinced that the expression of certain +thoughts which have come to me from practical contact with Irish +problems, was the best contribution I could make to the work on which I +was engaged. I wished, if I could, to bring into clearer light the +essential unity of the various progressive movements in Ireland, and to +do something towards promoting a greater definiteness of aim and method, +and a better understanding of each other's work, among those who are in +various ways striving for the upbuilding of a worthy national life in +Ireland.</p> + +<p>So far the task, if difficult, was congenial and free from +embarrassment. Unhappily, it had been borne in upon me, in the course of +a long study of Irish life, that our failure to rise to our +opportunities and to give practical evidence of the intellectual +qualities with which the race is admittedly gifted, was due to certain +defects of character, not ethically grave, but economically paralysing. +I need hardly say I refer to the lack of moral courage, initiative, +independence and self-reliance—defects which, however they may be +accounted for, it is the first duty of modern Ireland to recognise and +overcome. I believe in the new movements in Ireland, principally because +they seem to me to exert a stimulating influence upon our moral fibre.</p> + +<p>Holding such an opinion, I had to decide between preserving a discreet +silence and speaking my full mind. The former course would, it appeared +to me, be a poor example of the moral courage which I hold to be +Ireland's sorest need. Moreover, while I am full of hope for the future +of my country, its present condition does not, in my view, admit of any +delay in arriving at the truth as to the essential principles which +should guide all who wish to take a part, however humble, in the work of +national regeneration.</p> + +<p>I desire to state definitely that I have not written in any +representative capacity except where I say so explicitly. I write on my +own responsibility, with the full knowledge that there is much in the +book with which many of those with whom I work do not agree.</p> + +<p><i>December</i>, 1903.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CONTENTS"></a><h2><b>CONTENTS</b></h2> + +<h3><a href="#PART_I">PART I.</a></h3> + +<h4><i>THEORETICAL.</i></h4> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></h3> + +<h4>THE ENGLISH MISUNDERSTANDING.</h4> + +<ul><li><a href="#Page_1">Fidelity of the Irish to the National Ideal</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_2">Disregard of Material Advantage in its Pursuit</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_3">Home Rule Movement under Gladstone</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_4">The Anti-Climax under Lord Rosebery</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_5">The Logic of Events and the Dawn of the Practical</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_7">The Mutual Misunderstanding of England and Ireland</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_8">The Dunraven Conference produces a Revolution in English Thought +about Ireland</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_10">The Actual Change Examined</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_12">Future Misunderstanding best averted by considering Nature of +Anti-English Feelin</a>g</li> +<li><a href="#Page_13">Illustration from Irish-American Life</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_15">Importance of Sentiment in Ireland—English Habit of Ignoring</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_16">Historical Grievances Still Operative</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_17">The Commercial Restrictions—Remaining Effects of</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_20">Irish Land Tenure—Lord Dufferin on</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_21">Defects of Land Laws—Their Effect on Agriculture</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_25">Right Attitude towards Historic Grievances</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_27">Plea for Broader and more Philosophic View of Irish Question</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_28">Simple Explanations and Panaceas Deprecated</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_29">A Many-Sided Human Problem</a></li></ul> + + + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></h3> + +<h4>THE IRISH QUESTION IN IRELAND.</h4> + +<ul><li><a href="#Page_30">Misunderstanding of the Irish People by the English and by Themselves</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_33">Anomalies of Irish Life</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_35">The New Movement—Position of Nationalists and Unionists in it</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_38">North and South</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_39">The Question of Rural Life</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_41">Economic Side of the Question</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_43">Grazing versus Tillage</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_45">Peasant Organisation to be Supplemented by State-Aid</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_46">Uneconomic Holdings too Prevalent</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_48">Remedies Proposed</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_51">Salvation not by Agriculture Alone</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_53">Rural Industries and the Irish Home</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_57">Reasons for Arrested Development of Home Life</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_58">Inter-Dependence of the Sentimental and Practical in Ireland</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_59">Outlines of Succeeding Chapters</a></li></ul> + + + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></h3> + +<h4>THE INFLUENCE OF POLITICS UPON THE IRISH MIND.</h4> + +<ul><li><a href="#Page_61">Legislation as a Substitute for Work</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_62">Political Shortcomings of Unionism and Nationalism Compared</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_63">Action of the Unionist Party Reviewed</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_64">Two Main Causes of its Lack of Success</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_66">The Contribution of Ulster</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_69">The Nationalist Party</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_70">Are Irishmen Good Politicians?</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_71">The Irish and the Scotch-Irish in America</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_74">America's Interest in the Problem</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_75">Part Played by English Government in Producing Modern Irish Disabilities</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_77">Causes of the Growth of National Feeling</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_78">Retardation of Political Education by the One-Man System</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_81">And by Politicians of To-Day</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_82">Defence of Nationalist Policy on Ground of Tactics Considered</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_86">The Forces opposed to Home Rule—How Dealt with</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_88">Local Government—How it might have been utilised</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_89">After Home Rule?</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_90">Beginnings of Political Education</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_91">The Irish Parliamentary Party</a></li></ul> + + + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></h3> + +<h4>THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION UPON SECULAR LIFE IN IRELAND.</h4> + +<ul><li><a href="#Page_94">Influences of Religion in Ireland</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_95">What is Toleration?</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_98">Protestantism in Irish Life</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_101">Roman Catholicism and Economics</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_105">Power of the Roman Catholic Clergy</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_106">Has it been Abused?</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_107">Church Building and Monastic Establishments</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_109">Clerical Education</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_111">Responsibility of the Clergy for Irish Character</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_112">The Church and Temperance</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_115">The Inculcation of Chastity</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_117">The Priest in Politics</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_118">New Movement among the Roman Catholic Clergy</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_119">Duty and Interest of Protestantism</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_121">What each Creed has to Learn from the other</a></li></ul> + + + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></h3> + +<h4>A PRACTICAL VIEW OF IRISH EDUCATION.</h4> + +<ul><li><a href="#Page_122">English Government and Education</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_123">The Kildare Street Society</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_125">Scheme of Thomas Wyse</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_126">Early Attempts at Practical Education</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_127">Recent Reports on Irish Systems</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_130">The Policy of the Department of Agriculture</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_131">The Example of Denmark</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_132">University Education for Roman Catholics</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_135">Maynooth and its Limitations</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_136">Trinity College</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_138">Its Lack of Influence on the Irish Mind</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_139">A Democratic University Called for</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_140">National and Economic in its Aims</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_141">Views of Roman Catholic Ecclesiastics</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_143">The Two Irelands</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_144">Lord Chesterfield on Education and Character</a></li></ul> + + + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></h3> + +<h4>THROUGH THOUGHT TO ACTION.</h4> + +<ul><li><a href="#Page_146">A Word to my Critics</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_148">The Gaelic League</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_149">Compared with the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_150">Objects and Constitution of the League</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_152">Filling the Gap in Irish Education</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_153">Patriotism and Industry</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_154">Nationality and Nationalism</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_156">A Possible Danger</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_158">Extravagances in the Movement</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_159">The Gaelic League and the Rural Home</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_161">Meeting with Harold Frederic</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_162">His Pessimistic Views on the Celt</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_165">A New Solution of the Problem—Organised Self-Help</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_166">English and Irish Industrial Qualities</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_167">Special Value of the Associative Qualities</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_169">Conclusion of Part I.</a></li></ul> + + + + +<h3><a href="#PART_II">PART II.</a></h3> + +<h4><i>PRACTICAL.</i></h4> + + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></h3> + +<h4>THE NEW MOVEMENT; ITS FOUNDATION ON SELF-HELP.</h4> + +<ul><li><a href="#Page_175">Distrust of Novel Schemes often well justified</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_178">The Story of the New Movement</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_179">Necessitated by Foreign Competition</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_180">Production and Distribution</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_181">Causes of Continental Superiority</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_182">Objects for which Combination is Desirable</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_183">How to Organise the Industrial Army</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_184">Help from England</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_185">Doubts and Difficulties</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_186">Some Favouring Conditions</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_187">The Beginning of the Work—Co-operative Creameries</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_188">The Social Problem</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_189">Early Efforts and Experiences</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_191">Foundation of the I.A.O.S.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_192">Its Present Position</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_195">Agricultural Banks</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_199">The Brightening of Home Life</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_200">Staff of the Society</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_204">Philanthropy and Business</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_205">Enquiries from Abroad</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_207">Moral and Social Effects of the New Movement</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_209">Unknown Leaders</a></li></ul> + + + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h3> + +<h4>THE RECESS COMMITTEE.</h4> + +<ul><li><a href="#Page_210">After Six Years</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_211">Opportunity for State-Aid</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_212">Combination of Political and Industrial Leadership</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_213">A Letter to the Press</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_216">Mr. Justin McCarthy's Reply</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_217">Mr. Redmond's Reply</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_218">Formation of the Committee</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_219">Investigations on the Continent</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_220">Recommendations of the Committee</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_222">Position of the Nationalist Members of the Committee</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_223">Chief Reliance on Local Effort</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_224">Public Opinion on the New Proposals</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_224">Adoption of the Bill to give effect to them</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_225">Mr. Gerald Balfour's Policy</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_226">Industrial Home Rule</a></li></ul> + + + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></h3> + +<h4>A NEW DEPARTURE IN IRISH ADMINISTRATION.</h4> + +<ul><li><a href="#Page_227">Functions and Constitution of the New Department</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_231">How it is Financed</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_232">The Representative Element in its Constitution</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_235">The Right to Vote Supplies</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_236">Consultative Committee on Education</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_238">The Department Linked with the Local Government System</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_240">Successful Co-operation with Local Government Bodies</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_241">And with Voluntary Societies</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_243">The New Department and the Congested Districts Board</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_246">The Reception of the Department by the Country</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_247">Some Typical Callers</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_256">A Wrong Impression Anticipated</a></li></ul> + + + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></h3> + +<h4>GOVERNMENT WITH THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED.</h4> + +<ul><li><a href="#Page_257">Summary of Previous Chapter</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_258">The Attitude of the People towards the Department</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_261">Method of Co-operation with Local Bodies</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_262">State-Aid, Direct and Indirect</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_263">The Department and the Large Towns</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_264">The Department's Plans for Developing Agriculture</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_265">The Industrial Problem and Education</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_267">The Difficulty of Finding Trained Teachers</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_268">How Surmounted</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_269">Difficulties of Agricultural Education</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_270">Decision to Adopt Itinerant Instruction</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_271">Double Purpose of this Instruction</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_272">Relation of the Department with Secondary Schools</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_272">Importance of Domestic Economy Teaching</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_274">Provision of Teachers in Domestic Economy</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_275">Miscellaneous Industries</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_275">Competition of the Factory</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_276">The Department's Fabian Policy Justified</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_278">Its Support by the Country</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_279">Improvement of Live-Stock</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_281">Best Method of giving Object Lessons in Agriculture</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_282">Sea Fisheries</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_284">Continental Tours for Irish Teachers</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_285">Cork Exhibition of 1902</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_287">Things and Ideas</a></li> +<li><a href="#Page_287">Concluding Words</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li><a href="#INDEX">INDEX</a></li></ul> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="PART_I"></a><h2>PART I.</h2> + +<h4><i>THEORETICAL</i>.</h4> + + +<blockquote><p>"It is hard to say where history ends, and where religion and + politics begin; for history, religion and politics grow on one stem + in Ireland, an eternal trefoil."—<i>Lady Gregory</i>.</p></blockquote> +<a name="Page_1"></a> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_I"></a><h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h4>THE ENGLISH MISUNDERSTANDING.</h4> + + +<p>Whatever may be the ultimate verdict of history upon the long struggle +of the majority of the Irish people for self-government, the picture of +a small country with large aspirations giving of its best unstintingly +to the world, while gaining for itself little beyond sympathy, will +appeal to the imagination of future ages long after the Irish Question, +as we know it, has been buried. It may then, perhaps, be seen that the +aspirations came to nought because they were opposed to the manifest +destiny of the race, and that it should never have been expected or +desired that the Dark Rosaleen should 'reign and reign alone.' +Nevertheless, the fidelity and fortitude with which the national ideal +had been pursued would command admiration, even if the ideal itself were +to be altogether abandoned, or if it were to be ultimately realised in a +manner which showed that the methods by which its attainment had been +sought were the cause of its long postponement. Whatever the future may +have in store for the remnant of the Irish people at home, the continued +pursuit of a separate national existence by a nation which is rapidly +dis<a name="Page_2"></a>appearing from the land of all its hopes, and the cherishing of +these hopes, not only by those who stay but also by those who go, will +stand as a monument to human constancy.</p> + +<p>The picture will be all the more remarkable when emphasised by a +contrast which the historian will not fail to draw. Across a narrow +streak of sea another people, during the same period, increased and +multiplied and prospered mightily, spread their laws and institutions, +and achieved in every portion of the globe material success which they +can call their own. Yet, although Irishmen have done much to win that +success for the English people to enjoy, and are to-day foremost in +maintaining the great empire which their brain and muscle were ever +ready to augment, Ireland makes no claim for herself in respect of the +achievement. It is to her but a proof of what her sons will do for her +in the coming time; it does not bring her nearer to her heart's desire.</p> + +<p>Although the nineteenth century, with all its marvellous contributions +to human progress, left Ireland with her hopes unfulfilled; although its +sun went down upon the British people with their greatest failure still +staring them in the face, its last decade witnessed at first a change in +the attitude of England towards Ireland, and afterwards a profound +revolution in the thoughts of Ireland about herself. The strangest and +most interesting feature of these developments was that in practical +England the Irish Question became the great political <a name="Page_3"></a>issue, while in +sentimental Ireland there set in a reaction from politics and an +inclination to the practical. The twentieth century has already brought +to birth the new Ireland upon whose problems I shall write. If the human +interest of these problems is to be realized, if their significance is +not to be as wholly misunderstood as that of every other Irish movement +which has perplexed the statesmen who have managed our affairs, they +must be studied in their relation to the English and Irish events of the +period in which the new Ireland was conceived.</p> + +<p>In 1885 Gladstone, appealing to an electorate with a large accession of +newly enfranchised voters, transferred the struggle over the Irish +Question from Ireland to Great Britain. The position taken up by the +average English Home Ruler was, it will be remembered, simple and +intelligible. The Irish had stated in the proper constitutional way what +they wanted, and that, in the first flush of a victorious democracy, +when counting heads irrespective of contents was the popular method of +arriving at political truth, was assumed to be precisely what they ought +to have. A long but inconclusive contest ensued. At times it looked as +if the Liberal-Irish alliance might snatch a victory for their policy. +But when Gladstone was forced to break with the Irish Leader, and +Parnellism without Parnell became obviously impossible, the English +realised that the working of representative institutions in Ireland had +produced not a democracy but a dictatorship, and they <a name="Page_4"></a>began to attach a +lesser significance to the verdict of the Irish polls. Their faith in +democracy was unimpaired, but, in their opinion, the Irish had not yet +risen to its dignity. So most English Radicals came round to a view +which they had always reprobated when advanced by the English +Conservatives, and political inferiority was added to the other moral +and intellectual defects which made the Irish an inferior race!</p> + +<p>The anti-climax to the Gladstone crusade was reached when Lord Rosebery +in 1894 took over the premiership from the greatest English advocate of +the Irish cause. The position of the new leader was very simple. In +effect, he told the Irish Nationalists that the English party he was +about to lead had done its best for them. They must now regard +themselves as partners in the United Kingdom, with the British as the +predominant partner. Until the predominant partner could be brought to +take the Irish view of the partnership, the relations between them must +remain substantially as they were. And not only must the concession of +Home Rule await the conversion of the British electorate, but before the +demand could be effectively preferred, another leader must rise up among +the Irish; and he, for all Lord Rosebery knew, was at the moment being +wheeled in a perambulator. This apparently cynical avowal of the new +premier's own attitude towards Home Rule accurately stated the facts of +the situation, and fairly reflected the mind of the British electorate, +after Irish obstruction had given them an <a name="Page_5"></a>opportunity of studying the +bearing of the Irish Question on English politics.</p> + +<p>If the logic of events was thus making for the removal of Home Rule from +the region of practical politics in England, an even more momentous +change was taking place in Ireland. Whilst the Home Rule controversy was +at its height in the 'eighties and early 'nineties, some Irish +grievances were incidentally dealt with—not always under the best +impulses or in the best way. The concentration of all the available +thought and energy of Irish public men upon an appeal to the passions +and prejudices of English parties had led to the further postponement of +all Irish endeavour to deal rationally and practically with her own +problems at home. But during the welter of contention which prevailed +after the fall of Parnell, there grew up in Ireland a wholly new spirit, +born of the bitter lesson which was at last being learned. The Irish +still clung undaunted to their political ideal, but its pursuit to the +exclusion of all other national aims had received a wholesome check. +Thought upon the problems of national progress broadened and deepened, +in a manner little understood by those who knew Ireland from without, +and, indeed, by many of those accounted wise among the observers from +within. Was the realisation of a distinctive national existence, many +began to ask themselves, to be for ever dependent upon the fortunes of a +political campaign? In any scheme of a reconstructed national life to +which the<a name="Page_6"></a> Irish would give of their best, there must be +distinctiveness—that much every man who is in touch with Irish life is +fully aware of—but the question of existence must not be altogether +ignored. At the rate the people were leaving the sinking ship, the Irish +Question would be settled in the not distant future by the disappearance +of the Irish. Had we not better look around and see how other countries +with more or less analogous conditions fared? Could we not—Unionists +and Nationalists alike—do something towards material progress without +abandoning our ideals? Could we not learn something from a study of what +our people were doing abroad? One seemed to hear the voice of Bishop +Berkeley, the biting pertinence of whose <i>Queries</i> is ever fresh, asking +from the grave in which he had been laid to rest nearly a century and a +half ago 'whether it would not be more reasonable to mend our state than +complain of it; and how far this may be in our own power?'</p> + +<p>These questionings, though not generally heard on the platform or even +in the street, were none the less working in the depths of the Irish +mind, and found expression not so much in words as in deeds. Yet though +the downfall of Parnell released many minds from the obsession of +politics, the influence of that event was of a negative character, and +it took time to produce a beneficial effect. That fruitful last decade +of the nineteenth century saw the foundation of what will some day be +recognised as a new philosophy of Irish progress. Certain new principles +were then promul<a name="Page_7"></a>gated in Ireland, and gradually found acceptance; and +upon those principles a new movement was built. It is partly, indeed, to +expound and justify some, at any rate, of the principles and to give an +intelligible account of the practical achievement and future +possibilities of this movement that I write these pages.</p> + +<p>For English readers, to whom this introductory chapter is chiefly +addressed, I may here reiterate the opinion, which I have always held +and often expressed, that there is no real conflict of interest between +the two peoples and the two countries, and that the mutual +misunderstanding which we may now hope to see removed is due to a wide +difference of temperament and mental outlook. The English mind has never +understood the Irish mind—least of all during the period of the 'Union +of Hearts.' It is equally true that the Irish have largely misunderstood +both the English character and their own responsibility. The result has +been that their leaders, despite the brilliant capacity they have shown +in presenting the unhappy case of their country to the rest of the +world, have rarely presented it in the right way to the English people. +There have been many occasions during the last quarter of a century when +a calm, well-reasoned statement of the economic disadvantages under +which Ireland labours would, I am convinced, have successfully appealed +to British public opinion. It could have been shown that the development +of Ireland—the development not only of the resources of her soil but of +the far greater wealth which lies in the <a name="Page_8"></a>latent capacities of her +people—was demanded quite as much in the interest of one country as in +that of the other.</p> + +<p>Here, indeed, is an untilled field for those to whom the Irish Question +is yet a living one. If I could think that each country fully realised +its own responsibility in the matter, if I could think that the +long-continued misunderstanding was at an end, nothing would induce me +to trouble the waters at this auspicious hour, when a better feeling +towards Ireland prevails in Great Britain, and when the Irish people are +fully appreciative of the obviously sincere desire of England to be +generous to Ireland. But an examination of the events upon which the +prevailing optimism is based will show that, unhappily, +misunderstanding, though of another sort, still exists, and that Ireland +is as much as ever a riddle to the English mind.</p> + +<p>Now this new optimism in the English view of Ireland seems to be based, +not upon a recognition of the development of what I have ventured to +dignify with the title of a new philosophy of Irish progress, but upon a +belief that the spirit of moderation and conciliation displayed by so +many Irishmen in connection with the Land Act is due to the fact that my +incomprehensible countrymen have, under a sudden emotion, put away +childish things and learned to behave like grown-up Englishmen. +Throughout the press comments upon the Dunraven Conference and in public +speeches both inside and outside Parliament there has run a sense that a +sort of <a name="Page_9"></a>portent, a transformation scene, a sudden and magical +alteration in the whole spirit and outlook of the Irish people, has come +to pass.</p> + +<p>I feel some hesitation in asking the reader to believe that a great and +lasting revolution in Irish thought has been brought about in such a +moment in the life of a people as twelve short years. But a lesser +number of months seemed to the English mind adequate for the +accomplishment of the change. And what a change it was that they +conceived! To them, less than a year ago, the Irish Question was not +merely unsolved, but in its essential features appeared unaltered. After +seven centuries of experimental statecraft—so varied that the English +could not believe any expedient had yet to be tried—the vast majority +of the Irish people regarded the Government as alien, disputed the +validity of its laws, and felt no responsibility for administration, no +respect for the legislature, or for those who executed its decrees. And +this in a country forming an integral part of the United Kingdom, where +the fundamental basis of government is assumed to be the consent of the +governed! Nor were any hopes entertained that the cloud would quickly +pass. During the Boer war the prophets of evil, in predicting the +calamity which was to fall upon the British Empire, took as their text +the failure of English government in Ireland. When they wanted to paint +in the darkest colours the coming heritage of woe, they wrote upon the +wall, 'Another Ireland in South Africa'; and if any exception was taken +to the <a name="Page_10"></a>appropriateness of the phrase, it was certainly not on the +ground that Ireland had ceased to be a warning to British statesmen.</p> + +<p>I believe, quite as strongly as the most optimistic Englishman, that +there has been a great change from this state of things in Irish +sentiment, and my explanation of that change, if less dramatic than the +transformation theory, affords more solid ground for optimism. This +change in the sentiment of Irishmen towards England is due, not to a +sudden emotion of the incomprehensible Celt, but really to the +opinion—rapidly growing for the last dozen years—that great as is the +responsibility of England for the state of Ireland, still greater is the +responsibility of Irishmen. The conviction has been more and more borne +in upon the Irish mind that the most important part of the work of +regenerating Ireland must necessarily be done by Irishmen in Ireland. +The result has been that many Irishmen, both Unionists and Nationalists, +without in any way abandoning their opposition to, or support of, the +attempt to solve the political problem from without, have been +trying—not without success—to solve some part of the Irish Question +from within. The Report of the Recess Committee, on which I shall dwell +later, was the first great fruit of this movement, and the Dunraven +Treaty, which paved the way for Mr. Wyndham's Land Act, was a further +fruit, and not the result of an inexplicable transformation scene.</p> + +<p>The reason why I dwell on the true nature of the <a name="Page_11"></a>undoubted change in +the Irish situation is not in order to exaggerate the importance of the +part played by the new movement in bringing it about, nor to detract +from the importance of Parliamentary action, but because a mistaken view +of the change would inevitably postpone the firm establishment of an +improved mutual understanding between the two countries, which I regard +as an essential of Irish progress. I confess that my apprehension of a +new misunderstanding was aroused by the debates on the Land Bill in the +House of Commons. As regards the spirit of conciliation and moderation +displayed by the Irish, and the sincere desire exhibited by the British +to heal the chief Irish economic sore, the speeches were, if not +epoch-making, at any rate epoch-marking; but they showed little sense of +perspective or proportion in viewing the Irish Question, and little +grasp or appreciation of the large social and economic problems which +the Land Act will bring to the front. Temporary phenomena and +legislative machinery have been endowed with an importance they do not +possess, and miracles, it is supposed, are about to be worked in Ireland +by processes which, whatever rich good may be in them, have never worked +miracles, though they have not seldom excited very similar enthusiasms +in the economic history of other European lands.</p> + +<p>I agree, then, with most Englishmen in thinking, though for a different +reason, that the passing of the Land Act marked a new era in Ireland. +They regard it <a name="Page_12"></a>as productive of, or co-incident in time with, the dawn +of the practical in Ireland. I antedate that event by some dozen years, +and regard the Land Act rather as marking a new era, because it removes +the great obstacle which obscured the dawn of the practical for so many, +and hindered it for all.</p> + +<p>Whatever may have been the expectations upon which this great measure +was based, I, in common with most Irish observers, watched its progress +with unfeigned delight. The vast majority regarded the hundred millions +of credit and the twelve millions of 'bonus' as a generous concession to +Ireland; and I sympathised with those who deprecated the mischievous +suggestion, not infrequently heard in English political circles, that +this munificence was the 'price of peace.' On one point all were agreed: +the Bill could never have become law had not Mr. Wyndham handled the +Parliamentary situation with masterly tact, temper, and ability. To him +is chiefly due the credit for the fact that the Land Question, in its +old form at any rate, no longer blocks the way, and that the large +problems which remain to be solved, and, above all, the spirit in which +they will have to be approached by those who wish the existing peace to +be the forerunner of material and social progress, can be freely and +frankly discussed.</p> + +<p>It is true, as I have said, that Ireland is becoming more and more +practical, and that England is becoming more anxious than ever to do her +substantial justice. But still the manner of the doing will continue to +be as important <a name="Page_13"></a>as the thing which is done. Of the Irish qualities none +is stronger than the craving to be understood. If the English had only +known this secret we should have been the most easily governed people in +the world. For it is characteristic of the conduct of our most important +affairs that we care too little about the substance and too much about +the shadow. It is for this reason that I have discussed the real nature +of one phase of Irish sentiment which has been largely misunderstood, +and it is for the same reason that I propose to preface my examination +of the Irish Question with some reference to the cause and nature of the +anti-English sentiment, for the long continuance of which I can find no +other explanation than the failure of the English to see into the Irish +mind.</p> + +<p>I am well acquainted with this sentiment because, in my practical work +in Ireland, it has ever been the main current of the stream against +which I have had to swim. Years spent in the United States had made me +familiar with its full and true significance, for there it can be +studied in an atmosphere not dominated by any present Irish +controversies or struggles. I have found this sentiment of hatred deeply +rooted in the minds of Irishmen who had themselves never known Ireland, +who had no connection, other than a sentimental one, with that country, +who were living quiet business lives in the United States, but who were +ever ready to testify with their dollars, and genuinely believed that +they only lacked opportunity to demonstrate in a more <a name="Page_14"></a>enterprising way, +their "undying hatred of the English name."<a name="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a></p> + +<p>With such men I have reasoned, and sometimes not in vain, upon the +injustice and unreason of their attitude. I have not attempted to +controvert the main facts of Ireland's grievances, which they frequently +told me they had gleaned from Froude and Lecky. I used to deprecate the +unqualified application of modern standards to the policies of other +days, and to protest against the injustice of punishing one set of +persons for the misdoings of another set of persons, who have long since +passed beyond the reach of any earthly tribunal. I have given them my +reasons for believing that, even if such a course were morally +admissible, the wit of man could not devise any means of inflicting a +blow upon England which would not react injuriously with tenfold force +upon Ireland. I have gone on to show that the sentiment itself, largely +the accident of untoward circumstances, is alien to the character and +temperament of the Irish people. In short, I have urged that the policy +of revenge is un-Christian and unintelligent, and, that, as the Irish +people are neither irreligious nor stupid, it is un-Irish. I well +remember taking up this position in conversation with some very advanced +Irish-Americans <a name="Page_15"></a>in the Far West and the reply which one of them made. +"Wal," said my half-persuaded friend, "mebbe you're right. I have two +sons, whom I have raised in the expectation that they will one day +strike a blow for old Ireland. Mebbe they won't. I'm too old to change."</p> + +<p>I have chosen this incident from a long series of similar reminiscences +of my study of Irish life, to illustrate an attitude of mind, the +historical explanation of which would seem to the practical Englishman +as academic as a psychological exposition of the effect of a red rag +upon a bull. The English are not much to be blamed for resenting the +survival of the feeling, but it appears to me to argue a singular lack +of political imagination that they should still fail to appreciate the +reality, the significance, and the abiding force of a sentiment which +has so far successfully resisted the influence of those governing +qualities which have played a foremost part in the civilisation of the +modern world. The <i>Spectator</i> some time ago came out bluntly with a +truth which an Irishman may, I presume, quote without offence from so +high an English authority:—"The one blunder of average Englishmen in +considering foreign questions is that with white men they make too +little allowance for sentiment, and with coloured men they make none at +all."<a name="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> I am afraid it must be added that 'average Englishmen' make +exactly the same blunder in under-estimating the force of sentiment when +considering Irish questions, with the not unnatural consequence <a name="Page_16"></a>that +the Irish regard them as foreigners, and that, as those foreigners +happen to govern them, the sentiment of nationality becomes political +and anti-English.</p> + +<p>There is one reason why this sentiment is not allowed to die which +should always be remembered by those who wish to grasp the inner +workings of the Irish mind. Briefly stated, the view prevails in Ireland +that in dealing with questions affecting our material well-being, the +government of our country by the English was, in the past, characterised +by an unenlightened self-interest. Thoughtful Englishmen admit this +charge, but they say that the past referred to is beyond living memory +and should now be buried. The Irish mind replies that the life of a +nation is not to be measured by the life of individuals, and that a +wrong inflicted by a Government upon a community entitles those who +inherit the consequences of the injury to claim reparation at the hands +of those who inherit the government. With this attitude on the part of +the Irish mind I am not only most heartily in sympathy, but I find every +Englishman who understands the situation equally so. In the later +portions of this book it will be shown that practical recognition, in no +small measure, has been given by England to the righteousness of this +part of the Irish case, and that if the effect thus produced has not +found as full an outward expression as might have been expected, the +Irish people have at any rate responded to the new treatment in a manner +which must, in no distant future, bring about a better understanding.</p><a name="Page_17"></a> + +<p>The only historical causes of our present discontents to which I need +now particularly refer, are the commercial restrictions and the land +system of the past, which stand out from the long list of Irish +grievances as those for which their victims were the least responsible. +No one can be more anxious than I am that we should cease to be for ever +seeking in the past excuses for our present failures. But it is +essential to a correct estimation of Irish agricultural and industrial +possibilities that we should notice the true bearings of these +historical grievances upon existing conditions.</p> + +<p>In this connection there arises a question which is very pertinent to +the present inquiry and which must therefore be considered. I have seen +it argued by English economists that the industrial revolution which +took place at the end of the eighteenth and commencement of the +nineteenth century would in any case have destroyed, by force of open +competition, industries which, it is admitted, were previously +legislated away. They point out that the change from the order of small +scattered home industries to the factory system would have suited +neither the temperament nor the industrial habits of the Irish. They +tell us that with the industrial revolution the juxtaposition of coal +and iron became an all-important factor in the problem, and they recall +how the north and west of England captured the industrial supremacy from +the south and east. Incidentally they point out that the people of the +English counties which suffered by these <a name="Page_18"></a>economic causes braced +themselves to meet the changes, and it is suggested that if the people +of Ireland had shown the same resourcefulness, they, too, might have +weathered the storm. And, finally, we are reminded that England, by her +stupid Irish policy, punished her own supporters, and even herself, +quite as much as the 'mere Irish.'</p> + +<p>Much of this may be true, but this line of argument only shows that +these English economists do not thoroughly understand the real grievance +which the Irish people still harbour against the English for past +misgovernment. The commercial restraints sapped the industrial instinct +of the people—an evil which was intensified in the case of the +Catholics by the working of the penal laws. When these legislative +restrictions upon industry had been removed, the Irish, not being +trained in industrial habits, were unable to adapt themselves to the +altered conditions produced by the Industrial Revolution, as did the +people in England. And as for commerce, the restrictions, which had as +little moral sanction as the penal laws, and which invested smuggling +with a halo of patriotism, had prevented the development of commercial +morality, without which there can be no commercial success. It is not, +therefore, the destruction of specific industries, or even the sweeping +of our commerce from the seas, about which most complaint is now made. +The real grievance lies in the fact that something had been taken from +our industrial character which could not be remedied by the mere removal +of the <a name="Page_19"></a>restrictions. Not only had the tree been stripped, but the roots +had been destroyed. If ever there was a case where President Kruger's +'moral and intellectual damages' might fairly be claimed by an injured +nation, it is to be found in the industrial and commercial history of +Ireland during the period of the building up of England's commercial +supremacy.</p> + +<p>The English mind quite failed, until the very end of the nineteenth +century, to grasp the real needs of the situation which had thus been +created in Ireland The industrial revolution, as I have indicated, found +the Irish people fettered by an industrial past for which they +themselves were not chiefly responsible. They needed exceptional +treatment of a kind which was not conceded. They were, instead, still +further handicapped, towards the middle of the century, by the adoption +of Free Trade, which was imposed upon them when they were not only +unable to take advantage of its benefits, but were so situated as to +suffer to the utmost from its inconveniences.</p> + +<p>I am convinced that the long-continued misunderstanding of the +conditions and needs of this country, the withholding, for so long, of +necessary concessions, was due not to heartlessness or contempt so much +as to a lack of imagination, a defect for which the English cannot be +blamed. They had, to use a modern term, 'standardised' their qualities, +and it was impossible to get out of their minds the belief that a +divergence, in another race, from their standard of character was +synonymous with inferiority. This attitude is not yet <a name="Page_20"></a>a thing of the +past, but it is fast disappearing; and thoughtful Englishmen now +recognise the righteousness of the claim for reparation, and are willing +liberally to apply any stimulus to our industrial life which may place +us, so far as this is possible, on the level we might have occupied had +we been left to work out our own economic salvation. Unfortunately, all +Englishmen are not thoughtful, and hence I emphasise the fact that +England is largely responsible for our industrial defects, and must not +hesitate to face the financial results of that responsibility.</p> + +<p>When we pass from the domain of commerce, where we have seen that +circumstances reduced to the minimum Ireland's participation in the +industrial supremacy of England, and come to examine the historical +development of Irish agrarian life, we find a situation closely related +to, and indeed, largely created by, that which we have been discussing. +'Debarred from every other trade and industry,' wrote the late Lord +Dufferin, 'the entire nation flung itself back upon the land, with as +fatal an impulse as when a river, whose current is suddenly impeded, +rolls back and drowns the valley which it once fertilised.' The +energies, the hopes, nay, the very existence of the race, became thus +intimately bound up with agriculture. This industry, their last resort +and sole dependence, had to be conducted by a people who in every other +avocation had been unfitted for material success. And this industry, +too, was crippled from without, for a system of land tenure had <a name="Page_21"></a>been +imposed upon Ireland that was probably the most effective that could +have been devised for the purpose of perpetuating and accentuating every +disability to which other causes had given rise.</p> + +<p>The Irish land system suffered from the same ills as we all know the +political institutions to have suffered from—a partial and intermittent +conquest. Land holding in Ireland remained largely based on the tribal +system of open fields and common tillage for nearly eight hundred years +after collective ownership had begun to pass away in England. The sudden +imposition upon the Irish, early in the seventeenth century, of a land +system which was no part of the natural development of the country, +ignored, though it could not destroy, the old feeling of communistic +ownership, and, when this vanished, it did not vanish as it did in +countries where more normal conditions prevailed. It did not perish like +a piece of outworn tissue pushed off by a new growth from within: on the +contrary, it was arbitrarily cut away while yet fresh and vital, with +the result that where a bud should have been there was a scar.</p> + +<p>This sudden change in the system of land-holding was followed by a +century of reprisals and confiscations, and what war began the law +continued. The Celtic race, for the most part impoverished in mind and +estate by the penal laws, became rooted to the soil, for, as we have +seen, they had, on account of the repression of industries, no +alternative occupation, and so became, in fact, if not in law, +<i>adscripti glebae</i>. Upon the pro<a name="Page_22"></a>ductiveness of their labour the +landlord depended for his revenues, but he did little to develop that +productiveness, and the system which was introduced did everything to +lessen it.<a name="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> The wound produced by the original confiscation of the +land was kept from healing by the way in which the tenants' improvements +were somewhat similarly treated. I do not mean that they were +systematically confiscated—the Devon and Bessborough Commissions, as +well as Gladstone, bore witness to the contrary—but the right and the +occasional exercise of the right to confiscate operated in the same way. +In the Irish tenant's mind dispossession was nine-tenths of the law.</p> + +<p>An enlightened system of land tenure might have made prosperity and +contentment the lot of the native race, and, perhaps, have rendered +possible such a solution of the Irish problem as was effected between +England and Scotland two centuries ago. What was chiefly required for +agrarian peace was a recognition of that sense of partnership in the +land—a relic of the tribal days—to which the Irish mind tenaciously +adhered. But, like most English concessions, it was not granted until +too late, and then granted in the wrong way. The natural result was +that, when at last the recognition of partnership was enacted, it became +a lever for a demand for complete ownership. But this was the aftermath, +for in the meantime, from the seed <a name="Page_23"></a>sown by English blundering, +Ireland—native population and English garrison alike—had reaped the +awful harvest of the Irish famine, which was followed by a long dark +winter of discontent. Upon the England that sowed the wind there was +visited a whirlwind of hostility from the Irish race scattered +throughout the globe.</p> + +<p>It would be altogether outside the scope or purpose of this chapter to +present a complete history of the remedial legislation applied to Irish +land tenure. That history, however, illustrates so vividly the English +misunderstanding, that a short survey of one phase of it may help to +point the moral. The English intellect at long last began to grasp the +agrarian, though not the industrial side of the wrong that had been done +to Ireland, and the English conscience was moved; there came the era of +concessions to which I have alluded, and for over a quarter of a century +attempts, often generous, if not very discriminating, were made to deal +with the situation. In 1870, dispossession was made very costly to the +landlord. In 1881, it became impossible, except on the tenant's default, +and the partnership was fully recognised, the tenant's share being made +his own to sell, and being preserved for his profitable use by a right +to have the rent payable to his sleeping partner, the landlord, fixed by +a judicial tribunal. These rights were the famous three F's—fixity of +tenure, free sale, and fair rent—of the Magna Charta of the Irish +peasant. If these concessions had only been made in time, <a name="Page_24"></a>they would +probably have led to a strengthening of the economic position and +character of the Irish tenantry, which would have enabled them to take +full advantage of their new status, and meet any condition which might +arise; and it is just possible that the system might have worked well, +even at the eleventh hour, had it been launched on a rising market. +Unhappily, it fell upon evil days. The prosperous times of Irish +agriculture, which culminated a few years before the passing of the +'Tenants' Charter,' were followed by a serious reaction, the result of +causes which, though long operative, were only then beginning to make +themselves felt, and some of which, though the fact was not then +generally recognised, were destined to be of no temporary character. The +agricultural depression which has continued ever since was due, as is +now well known, to foreign competition, or, in other words, to the +opening up of vast areas in the Far West to the plough and herd, and the +bringing of the products of distant countries into the home markets in +ever-increasing quantity, in ever fresher condition, and at an +ever-decreasing cost of transportation. Great changes were taking place +in the market which the Irish farmer supplied, and no two men could +agree as to the relative influence of the new factors of the problem, or +as to their probable duration.</p> + +<p>Whatever may be said in disparagement of the great experiment commenced +in 1881, there can be no doubt that it enormously improved the legal +position of the<a name="Page_25"></a> Irish tenantry, and I, for one, regard it as a +necessary contribution to the events whose logic was finally to bring +about the abolition of dual ownership. But what a curious instance of +the irony of fate is afforded by this genuine attempt to heal an Irish +sore, what a commentary it is upon the English misunderstanding of the +Irish mind! Mr. Gladstone found the land system intolerable to one +party; he made it intolerable to the other also. For half a century +<i>laissez-faire</i> was pedantically applied to Irish agriculture, then +suddenly the other extreme was adopted; nothing was left alone, and +political economy was sent on its famous planetary excursion.</p> + +<p>When Mr. Gladstone was attempting to settle the land question on the +basis of dual ownership, the seed of a new kind of single +ownership—peasant proprietorship—was sown through the influence of +John Bright. The operations of the land purchase clauses in the Church +Disestablishment Act of 1869, and the Land Acts of 1870 and 1881, were +enormously extended by the Land Purchase Acts introduced by the +Conservative Party in 1885 and in 1891, and the success which attended +these Acts accentuated the defects and sealed the fate of dual +ownership, which all parties recently united to destroy. In other words, +Parliament has been undoing a generation's legislative work upon the +Irish land question.</p> + +<p>This is all I need say about that stage of the Irish agrarian situation +at which we have now arrived. What I wish my readers to bear in mind is +that the effect of a bad system of land tenure upon the other aspects of +the<a name="Page_26"></a> Irish Question reaches much further back than the struggles, +agitations, and reforms in connection with Irish land which this +generation has witnessed. The same may be said with regard to the other +economic grievances. No one can be more anxious than I am to fasten the +mind of my countrymen upon the practical things of to-day, and to wean +their sad souls from idle regrets over the sorrows of the past. If I +revive these dead issues, it is because I have learned that no man can +move the Irish mind to action unless he can see its point of view, which +is largely retrospective. I cannot ignore the fact that the attitude of +mind which causes the Irish people to put too much faith in legislative +cures for economic ills is mainly due to the belief that their ancestors +were the victims of a long series of laws by which every industry that +might have made the country prosperous was jealously repressed or +ruthlessly destroyed. Those who are not too much appalled by the +quantity to examine into the quality of popular oratory in Ireland are +familiar with the subordination of present economic issues to the dreary +reiteration of this old tale of woe. Personally I have always held that +to foster resentment in respect of these old wrongs is as stupid as was +the policy which gave them birth; and, even if it were possible to +distribute the blame among our ancestors, I am sure we should do +ourselves much harm, and no living soul any good, in the reckoning. In +my view, Anglo-Irish history is for Englishmen to remember, for Irishmen +to forget.</p><a name="Page_27"></a> + +<p>I may now conclude my appeal to outside observers for a broader and more +philosophic view of my country and my countrymen with a suggestion born +of my own early mistakes, and with a word of warning which is called for +by my later observation of the mistakes of others. The difficulty of the +outside observer in understanding the Irish Question is, no doubt, +largely due to the fact that those in intimate touch with the actual +conditions are so dominated by vehement and passionate conviction that +reason is not only at a discount but is fatal to the acquisition of +popular influence. Of course the power of knowledge and thought, though +kept in the background, is not really eliminated. But it is in the +circumstances not unnatural that most of us should fall into the error +of attributing to the influence of prominent individuals or +organisations the events and conditions which the superficial observer +regards as the creation of the hour, but which are in reality the +outcome of a slow and continuous process of evolution. I remember as a +boy being captivated by that charming corrective to this view of +historical development, Buckle's <i>History of Civilization</i>, which in +recent years has often recurred to my mind, despite the fact that many +of his theories are now somewhat discredited. Buckle, if I remember +right, almost eliminates the personal factor in the life of nations. +According to his theory, it would not have made much difference to +modern civilisation if Napoleon had happened, as was so near being the +case, to be born <a name="Page_28"></a>a British instead of a French subject. It would also +have followed that if O'Connell had limited his activities to his +professional work, or if Parnell had chanced to hate Ireland as bitterly +as he hated England, we should have been, politically, very much where +we are to-day. The student of Irish affairs should, of course, avoid the +extreme views of historical causation; but in the search for the truth +he will, I think, be well advised to attach less significance to the +influence of prominent personality than is the practice of the ordinary +observer in Ireland.</p> + +<p>The warning I have to offer, I think, will be justified by a reflection +upon the history of the panaceas which we have been offered, and upon +our present state. To those of my British readers who honestly desire to +understand the Irish Question, I would say, let them eschew the sweeping +generalisations by which Irish intelligence is commonly outraged. I may +pass by the explanation which rests upon the cheap attribution of racial +inferiority with the simple reply that our inferior race has much of the +superior blood in its veins; yet the Irish problem is just as acute in +districts where the English blood predominates as where the people are +'mere Irish.' If this view be disputed, the matter is not worth arguing +about, because we cannot be born again. But there are three other common +explanations of the Irish difficulty, any one of which taken by itself +only leads away from the truth. I refer, I need hardly say, to the +familiar assertions that the origin of the evil is political, that it is +religious, or that it is neither one nor the <a name="Page_29"></a>other, but economic. In +Irish history, no doubt, we may find, under any of these heads, cause +enough for much of our present wrong-goings. But I am profoundly +convinced that each of the simple explanations to which I have just +alluded—the racial, the political, the religious, the economic—is +based upon reasoning from imperfect knowledge of the facts of Irish +life. The cause and cure of Irish ills are not chiefly political, +broaden or narrow our conception of politics as we will; they are not +chiefly religious, whatever be the effect of Roman Catholic influence +upon the practical side of the people's life; they are not chiefly +economic, be the actual poverty of the people and the potential wealth +of the country what they may. The Irish Question is a broad and deeply +interesting human problem which has baffled generation after generation +of a great and virile race, who complacently attribute their incapacity +to master it to Irish perversity, and pass on, leaving it unsolved by +Anglo-Saxons, and therefore insoluble!</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1">[1]</a><div class="note"><p> My own experience confirms Mr. Lecky's view of the chief +cause of this extraordinary feeling. "It is probable," he writes, "that +the true source of the savage hatred of England that animates great +bodies of Irishmen on either side of the Atlantic has very little real +connection with the penal laws, or the rebellion, or the Union. It is +far more due to the great clearances and the vast unaided emigrations +that followed the famine."—<i>Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland</i>, Vol. +II., p, 177.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2">[2]</a><div class="note"><p> <i>Spectator</i>, 6th September, 1902.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3">[3]</a><div class="note"><p> The title to the greater part of Irish land is based on +confiscation. This is true of many other countries, but what was +exceptional in the Irish confiscations was that the grantees for the +most part did not settle on the lands themselves, drive away the +dispossessed, or come to any rational working agreement with them.</p></div> + +<a name="Page_30"></a> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_II"></a><h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h4>THE IRISH QUESTION IN IRELAND.</h4> + + +<p>Whilst attributing the long continued failure of English rule in Ireland +largely to a misunderstanding of the Irish mind, I have given +England—at least modern England—credit for good intentions towards us. +I now come to the case of the misunderstood, and shall from henceforth +be concerned with the immeasurably greater responsibility of the Irish +people themselves for their own welfare. The most characteristic, and by +far the most hopeful feature of the change in the Anglo-Irish situation +which took place in the last decade of the nineteenth century, and upon +the meaning of which I dwelt in the preceding chapter, is the growing +sense amongst us that the English misunderstanding of Ireland is of far +less importance, and perhaps less inexcusable, than our own +misunderstanding of ourselves.</p> + +<p>When I first came into practical touch with the extraordinarily complex +problems of Irish life, nothing impressed me so much as the universal +belief among my countrymen that Providence had endowed them with +capacities of a high order, and their country with resources of +unbounded richness, but that both the capacities and the resources +remained undeveloped <a name="Page_31"></a>owing to the stupidity—or worse—of British rule. +It was asserted, and generally taken for granted, that the exiles of +Erin sprang to the front in every walk of life throughout the world, in +every country but their own—though I notice that in quite recent times +endeavours have been made to cool the emigration fever by painting the +fortunes of the Irish in America in the darkest colours. To suggest that +there was any use in trying at home to make the best of things as they +were was indicative of a leaning towards British rule; and to attempt to +give practical effect to such a heresy was to draw a red herring across +the path of true Nationalism.</p> + +<p>It is not easy to account for the long continuance of this attitude of +the Irish mind towards Irish problems, which seems unworthy of the +native intelligence of the people. The truth probably is that while we +have not allowed our intellectual gifts to decay, they have been of +little use to us because we have neglected the second part of the old +Scholastic rule of life, and have failed to develop the moral qualities +in which we are deficient. Hence we have developed our critical +faculties, not, unhappily, along constructive lines. We have been +throughout alive to the muddling of our affairs by the English, and have +accurately gauged the incapacity of our governors to appreciate our +needs and possibilities. But we recognised their incapacity more readily +than our own deficiencies, and we estimated the failure of the English +far more justly than we apportioned the responsibility between our +rulers and ourselves. The sense of <a name="Page_32"></a>the duty and dignity of labour has +been lost in the contemplation of circumstances over which it was +assumed that we have no control.</p> + +<p>It is a peculiarity of destructive criticism that, unlike charity, it +generally begins and ends abroad; and those who cultivate the gentle art +are seldom given to morbid introspection. Our prodigious ignorance about +ourselves has not been blissful. Mistaking self-assertion for +self-knowledge, we have presented the pathetic spectacle of a people +casting the blame for their shortcomings on another people, yet bearing +the consequences themselves. The national habit of living in the past +seems to give us a present without achievement, a future without hope. +The conclusion was long ago forced upon me that whatever may have been +true of the past, the chief responsibility for the remoulding of our +national life rests now with ourselves, and that in the last analysis +the problem of Irish ineffectiveness at home is in the main a problem of +character—and of Irish character.</p> + +<p>I am quite aware that such a diagnosis of our mind disease—from which +Ireland is, in my belief, slowly but surely recovering—will not pass +unchallenged, but I would ask any reader who dissents from this view to +take a glance at the picture of our national life as it might unfold +itself to an unprejudiced but sympathetic outsider who came to Ireland +not on a political tour but with a sincere desire to get at the truth of +the Irish Question, and to inquire into the conditions about which all +the controversy continues to rage.</p><a name="Page_33"></a> + +<p>This hypothetical traveller would discover that our resources are but +half developed, and yet hundreds of thousands of our workers have gone, +and are still going, to produce wealth where it is less urgently needed. +The remnant of the race who still cling to the old country are not only +numerically weak, but in many other ways they show the physical and +moral effects of the drain which emigration has made on the youth, +strength, and energy of the community. Our four and a quarter millions +of people, mainly agricultural, have, speaking generally, a very low +standard of comfort, which they like to attribute to some five or six +millions sterling paid as agricultural rent, and three millions of +alleged over-taxation. They face the situation bravely—and, +incidentally, swell the over-taxation—with the help of the thirteen or +fourteen millions worth of alcoholic stimulants which they annually +consume. The still larger consumption in Great Britain may seem to lend +at least a respectability to this apparent over-indulgence, but it looks +odd. The people are endowed with intellectual capacities of a high +order. They have literary gifts and an artistic sense. Yet, with a few +brilliant exceptions, they contribute nothing to invention and create +nothing in literature or in art. One would say that there must be +something wrong with the education of the country; and most people +declare that it is too literary, though the Census returns show that +there are still large numbers who escape the tyranny of books. The +people have an extraordinary belief in political remedies for economic +ills; <a name="Page_34"></a>and their political leaders, who are not as a rule themselves +actively engaged in business life, tell the people, pointing to ruined +mills and unused water power, that the country once had diversified +industries, and that if they were allowed to apply their panacea, +Ireland would quickly rebuild her industrial life. If our hypothetical +traveller were to ask whether there are no other leaders in the country +besides the eloquent gentlemen who proclaim her helplessness, he would +be told that among the professional classes, the landlords, and the +captains of industry, are to be found as competent popular advisers as +are possessed by any other country of similar economic standing. But +these men take only a dilettante part in politics, and no value is set +on industrial, commercial or professional success in the choice of +public men. Can it be that to the Irish mind politics are, what Bulwer +Lytton declared love to be, "the business of the idle, and the idleness +of the busy"?</p> + +<p>These, though only a few of the strange ironies of Irish life, are so +paradoxical and so anomalous that they are not unnaturally attributed to +the intrusion of an alien and unfriendly power; and this furnishes the +reason why everything which goes wrong is used to nourish the +anti-English sentiment. At the same time they give emphasis to the +growing doubt as to the wisdom of those to whom the Irish Question +presents itself only as a single and simple issue—namely, whether the +laws which are to put all these things right shall be made at St. +Stephen's by the collective wisdom of the United Kingdom, aided <a name="Page_35"></a>by the +voice of Ireland—which is adequately represented—or whether these laws +shall be made by Irishmen alone in a Parliament in College Green.</p> + +<p>It is obviously necessary that, in presenting a comprehensive scheme for +dealing with the conditions I have roughly indicated. I should make some +reference to the attitude towards Home Rule of both the Nationalists and +the Unionists who have joined in work which, whatever be its +irregularity from the standpoint of party discipline as enforced in +Ireland, has succeeded in some degree in directing the energies of our +countrymen to the development of the resources of our country. Many of +my fellow-workers were Nationalists who, while stoutly adhering to the +prime necessity for constitutional changes, took the broad view, which +was unpopular among the Irish Party, that much could be done, even under +present conditions, to build up our national life on its social, +intellectual, and economic sides. The well-known constitutional changes +which were advocated in the political party to which they belonged would +then, they believed, be more effectively demanded by Ireland, and more +readily conceded by England. Unionists who worked with me were similarly +affected by the changing mental outlook of the country. They, too, had +to break loose from the traditions of an Irish party, for they felt that +the exclusively political opposition to Home Rule was not less +demoralising than the exclusively political pursuit of Home Rule. Just +as the Nationalists who joined the movement believed that all progress +must make for self-<a name="Page_36"></a>government, so my Unionist fellow-workers believed +it would ultimately strengthen the Union. Each view was thoroughly sound +from the standpoint of those who held it, and could be regarded with +respect by those who did not. We were all convinced that the way to +achieve what is best for Ireland was to develop what is best in +Irishmen. And it was the conviction that this can be done by Irishmen in +Ireland that brought together those whose thought and work supplies +whatever there may be of interest in this book.</p> + +<p>If I have fairly stated the attitude towards each other of the workers +to whose coming together must be attributed as much of the change in the +Irish situation as is due to Irish initiation, it will be seen that what +had so long kept them apart in public affairs, outside politics, was a +difference of opinion, not so much as to the conditions to be dealt +with, nor, indeed, as to the end to be sought, but rather as to the +means most effective for the attainment of that end. I naturally regard +the view which I am putting forward as being broader than that which has +hitherto prevailed. Some Nationalists may, however, contend that it is +essential to progress that the thoughts and energies of the nation +should be focussed upon a single movement, and not dissipated in the +pursuit of a multiplicity of ideals. I quite admit the importance of +concentration. But I strongly hold that any movement which is closely +related to the main currents of the people's life and subservient to +their urgent economic necessities, and which gives free play to <a name="Page_37"></a>the +intellectual qualities, while strengthening the moral or industrial +character, cannot be held to conflict with any national programme of +work, without raising a strong presumption that there is something wrong +with the programme. The exclusively political remedy I shall discuss in +the next chapter, but here I propose to consider some of the problems +which the new movement seeks to solve without waiting for the political +millenium.</p> + +<p>It is a commonplace that there are two Irelands, differing in race, in +creed, in political aspiration, and in what I regard as a more potent +factor than all the others put together—economic interest and +industrial pursuit. In the mutual misunderstanding of these two +Irelands, still more than in the misunderstanding of Ireland by England, +is to be found the chief cause of the still unsettled state of the Irish +Question. I shall not seek to apportion the blame between the two +sections of the population; but as the mists clear away and we can begin +to construct a united and contented Ireland, it is not only legitimate, +but helpful in the extreme, to assign to the two sections of our +wealth-producers their respective parts in repairing the fortunes of +their country. In such a discussion of future developments chief +prominence must necessarily be given to the problems affecting the life +of the majority of the people, who depend directly on the land, and +conduct the industry which produces by far the greater portion of the +wealth of the country. It is, of course, essential to the prosperity of +the whole community that the North should pursue <a name="Page_38"></a>and further develop +its own industrial and commercial life. That section of the community +has also, no doubt, economic and educational problems to face, but these +are much the same problems as those of industrial communities in other +parts of the United Kingdom<a name="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a>; and if they do not receive, vitally +important as is their solution to the welfare of Ireland, any large +share of attention in this book, it is because they are no part of what +is ordinarily understood by the Irish Question.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the interest of the manufacturing population of Ulster in +the welfare of the Roman Catholic agricultural majority is not merely +that of an onlooker, nor even that of the other parts of the United +Kingdom, but something more. It is obvious that the internal trade of +the country depends mainly upon the demand of the rural population for +the output of the manufacturing towns, and that this demand must depend +on the volume of agricultural production. I think the importance of +developing the home market has not been sufficiently appreciated, even +by Belfast. The best contribution the Ulster Protestant population can +make to the solution of this question is to do what they can to bring +about cordial co-operation between the two <a name="Page_39"></a>great sections of the +wealth-producers of Ireland. They should, I would suggest, learn to take +a broader and more patriotic view of the problems of the Roman Catholic +and agricultural majority, upon the true nature of which I hope to be +able to throw some new light. My purpose will be doubly served if I +have, to some extent, brought home to the minds of my Northern friends +that there is in Ireland an unsettled question in which they are largely +concerned, a rightly unsatisfied people by helping whom they can best +help themselves.</p> + +<p>The Irish Question is, then, in that aspect which must be to Irishmen of +paramount importance, the problem of a national existence, chiefly an +agricultural existence, in Ireland. To outside observers it is the +question of rural life, a question which is assuming a social and +economic importance and interest of the most intense character, not only +for Ireland North and South, but for almost the whole civilised world. +It is becoming increasingly difficult in many parts of the world to keep +the people on the land, owing to the enormously improved industrial +opportunities and enhanced social and intellectual advantages of urban +life. The problem can be better examined in Ireland than elsewhere, for +with us it can, to a large extent, be isolated, since we have little +highly developed town life. Our rural exodus takes our people, for the +most part, not into Irish or even into British towns, but into those of +the United States. What is migration in other countries is emigration +with us, and the mind of the country, brooding over <a name="Page_40"></a>the dreary +statistics of this perennial drain, naturally and longingly turns to +schemes for the rehabilitation of rural life—the only life it knows.</p> + +<p>We cannot exercise much direct influence upon the desire to emigrate +beyond spreading knowledge as to the real conditions of life in America, +for which home life in Ireland is often ignorantly bartered.<a name="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> We +cannot isolate the phenomenon of emigration and find a cure for it apart +from the rest of the Irish Question. We must recognise that emigration +is but the chief symptom of a low national vitality, and that the first +result of our efforts to stay the tide may increase the outflow. We +cannot fit the people to stay without fitting them to go. Before we can +keep the people at home we have got to construct a national life with, +in the first place, a secure basis of physical comfort and decency. This +life must have a character, a dignity, an outlook of its own. A +comfortable Boeotia will never develop into a real Hibernia Pacata. The +standard of living may in some ways be lower than the English standard: +in some ways it may be higher. But even if statesmanship and all the +forces of philanthropy and patriotism combined can construct a contented +rural Ireland for the people, it can only be <a name="Page_41"></a>maintained by the people. +It will have to accord with the national sentiment and be distinctively +Irish. It is this national aspiration, and the remarkable promise of the +movements making for its fruition, which give to the work of Irish +social and economic reform the fascination which those who do not know +the Ireland of to-day cannot understand. This work of reform must, of +course, be primarily economic, but economic remedies cannot be applied +to Irish ills without the spiritual aids which are required to move to +action the latent forces of Irish reason and emotion.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The task which we have to face is, then, a two-sided one, but its +economic and its purely practical aspects first demand consideration. +Many even of the agrarian aspects of the question have, so far, been +somewhat neglected in Ireland owing to a cause which is not far to seek. +It has often been asserted that the Irish Question is, at bottom, the +Land Question. There is a great deal of truth in this view, but almost +all those who hold it have fallen into the grave error of tacitly +identifying the land question with the tenure question—an error which +vitiates a great deal of current theorising about Ireland. It was, +indeed, inevitable that Irish agriculturists, with such an economic +history behind them as I have outlined in the previous chapter, should +have concentrated their attention during the latter half of the +nineteenth century upon obtaining a legislative cure for the ills +produced by <a name="Page_42"></a>legislation, to the comparative neglect of those equally +difficult, if less obvious economic questions, which have been brought +into special prominence by the agricultural depression of the last +quarter of a century. Now, however, that the Land Act of 1903 has been +passed and the solution of the tenure question is in sight, we in +Ireland are more free to direct our attention to what is at present the +most important aspect of the agrarian situation—the necessity for +determining the social and economic conditions essential to the +well-being of the peasant proprietary, which, though it is to be started +with as bright an outlook as the law can give, must stand or fall by its +own inherent merits or defects. Not only are we now free to give +adequate consideration to this question, but it is also imperative that +we should do so, for whilst I am hopeful that the Land Act will settle +the question of tenure, it will obviously not merely leave the other +problems of agricultural existence—problems some of which are not +unknown in other parts of the United Kingdom—still unsolved, but will +also increase the necessity for their solution, and will, moreover, +bring in its train complex difficulties of its own.</p> + +<p>The main features of the depressing outlook of rural life in the United +Kingdom are well known. The land steadily passes from under the plough +and is given over to stock raising. As the kine increase the men decay. +In Ireland the rural exodus takes, as I have already said, the shape, +mainly, not of migration to Irish urban centres, but rather the uglier +form of an emigration which not <a name="Page_43"></a>only depletes our population but drains +it of the very elements which can least be spared.</p> + +<p>The reason generally given for the widespread resort to the lotus-eating +occupation of opening and shutting gates, in preference to tilling the +soil, is that in the existing state of agricultural organisation, and +while urban life is ever drawing away labour from the fields, the +substitution of pasturage for tillage is the readiest way to meet the +ruinous competition of Eastern Europe, the Western Hemisphere, and +Australasia. Yet upon the economic merits of this process I have heard +the most diverse opinions stated with equal conviction by men thoroughly +well informed as to the conditions. One of the largest graziers in +Ireland recently gave me a picture of what he considered to be an ideal +economic state for the country. If two more Belfasts could be +established on the east coast, and the rest of the country divided into +five hundred acre farms, grazing being adopted wherever permanent grass +would grow, the limits of Irish productivity would be reached. On the +other hand, Dr. O'Donnell, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Raphoe, who may +be taken as an authoritative exponent of the trend of popular thought in +the country, not long ago advocated ploughing the grazing lands of +Leinster right up to the slopes of Tara.<a name="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> Moreover, many theories have +been <a name="Page_44"></a>advanced to show that the decline of tillage, whatever be its +cause, involves an enormous waste of national resources. But of +practical suggestion, making for a remedy, there is very little +forthcoming.</p> + +<p>The solution of all such problems largely depends upon certain +developments which, for many reasons, I regard as absolutely essential +to the success of the new agrarian order. One of these developments is +the spread of agricultural co-operation through voluntary associations. +Without this agency of social and economic progress, small landholders +in Ireland will be but a body of isolated units, having all the +drawbacks of individualism, and none of its virtues, unorganised and +singularly ill-equipped for that great international struggle of our +time, which we know as agricultural competition. Moreover, there is +another equally important, if less obvious, consideration which renders +urgent the organisation of our rural communities. From Russia, with its +half-communistic Mir to France with its modern village commune, there is +no country in Europe except the United Kingdom where the peasant +land-holders have not some form of corporate existence. In Ireland the +transition from landlordism to a peasant proprietary not only does not +create any corporate existence among the <a name="Page_45"></a>occupying peasantry but rather +deprives them of the slight social coherence which they formerly +possessed as tenants of the same landlord. The estate office has its +uses as well as its disadvantages, and the landlord or agent is by no +means without his value as a business adviser to those from whom he +collects the rent.</p> + +<p>The organisation of the peasantry by an extension of voluntary +associations, which is a condition precedent of social and economic +progress, will not, however, suffice to enable them to face and solve +the problems with which they are confronted, and whose solution has now +become a matter of very serious concern to the British taxpayer. The +condition of our agrarian life clearly indicates the necessity for +supplementing voluntary effort with a sound system of State aid to +agriculture and industry—a necessity fully recognised by the +governments of every progressive continental country and of our own +colonies. An altogether hopeful beginning of combined self-help and +State assistance has been already made. Those who have been studying +these problems, and practically preparing the way for the proper care of +a peasant proprietary, have overcome the chief obstacles which lay in +their path. They have gained popular acceptance for the principle that +State aid should not be resorted to until organised voluntary effort has +first been set in motion, and that any departure from this principle +would be an unwarrantable interference with the business of the people, +a fatal blow to private enterprise.<a name="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a></p> +<a name="Page_46"></a> +<p>The task before the people, and before the State, of placing the new +agrarian order upon a permanent basis of decency and comfort is no light +one. Indeed, I doubt whether Parliament realises one-tenth of the +problems which the latest land legislation—by far the best we have yet +had—leaves unsolved. This becomes only too clear the moment we consider +seriously the fundamental question of the relation of population to area +in rural Ireland, or, in other words, when we inquire how many people +the agricultural land will support under existing circumstances, or +under any attainable improvement of the conditions in our rural life. +Roughly speaking, the surface area of the island is 20,000,000 acres, of +which 5,000,000 are described in the official returns as 'barren +mountain, bog and waste.' This leaves us with some 15,000,000 acres +available for agriculture and grazing, which area is now divided into +some 500,000 holdings. Thus we have an average of thirty acres in extent +for the Irish agricultural holding. But, unhappily, the returns show +that some 200,000 of these holdings are from one to fifteen acres in +extent. Nor do the mere figures show the case at its worst. For it +happens that the small holdings in Ireland, unlike those on the +Continent, are generally on the poorest land, and the majority of them +<a name="Page_47"></a>cannot come within any of the definitions of an 'economic holding.'</p> + +<p>These 200,000 holdings, the homes of nearly a million persons, threaten +to prove the greatest danger to the future of agricultural Ireland. As +the majority of them, as at present constituted, do not provide the +physical basis of a decent standard of living, the question arises, how +are they to be improved? Putting aside emigration, which at one period +was necessary and ought to have been aided and controlled by the State, +but which is now no longer a statesman's remedy, there is obviously no +solution except by the migration of a portion of the occupiers, and the +utilisation of the vacated holdings in order to enable the peasants who +remain to prosper—much as a forest is thinned to promote the growth of +trees. In typical congested districts this operation will have to be +carried out on a much larger scale than is generally realised, for a +considerable majority of families will have to be removed, in order to +allow a sufficient margin for the provision of adequate holdings for +those who remain. In some cases, there are large grazing tracts in close +proximity to the congested area which might be utilised for the +re-settlement, but where this is not so and the occupiers of the vacated +holdings have to migrate a considerable distance, the problem becomes +far more difficult. I need not dwell upon the administrative +difficulties of the operation, which are not light. I may assume, also, +that there will be no difficulty in obtaining suitable land somewhere. I +do <a name="Page_48"></a>not myself attach much weight to the unwillingness of the people to +leave their old holdings for better ones, or to the alleged objection of +the clergy to allow their parishioners to go to another parish. More +serious is the possible opposition of those who live in the vicinity of +the unoccupied land about to be distributed, and who feel that they have +the first claim upon the State in any scheme for its redistribution with +the help of public credit. Mr. Parnell promoted a company with the sole +object of practically demonstrating how this problem could be solved. A +large capital was raised, and a large estate purchased; but the company +did not effect the migration of a single family. Still these are minor +considerations compared with the larger one, to which I must briefly +refer.</p> + +<p>Under the Land Act of 1903 much has been done to facilitate the transfer +of peasants to new farms, but it is obvious that land cannot be handed +over as a gift from the State to the families which migrate. They will +become debtors for the value of the land itself, less perhaps a small +sum which may be credited to them in respect of the tenant's interest in +the holdings they have abandoned. This deduction will, however, be lost +in the expenditure required upon houses, buildings, fences, and other +improvements which would have to be effected before the land could be +profitably occupied. Speaking generally they will have no money or +agricultural implements, and their live stock will in many cases be +mortgaged to the local shopkeeper who has always <a name="Page_49"></a>financed them. It will +be necessary for the future welfare of the country to give them land +which admits of cultivation upon the ordinary principles of modern +agriculture; but without working capital, and bringing with them neither +the skill nor the habits necessary for the successful conduct of their +industry under the new conditions, it will be no easy task to place them +in a position to discharge their obligations to the State. It is all +very easy to talk about the obvious necessity of giving more land to +cultivators who have not enough to live upon; and there is, no doubt, a +poetic justice in the Utopian agrarianism which dangles before the eyes +of the Connaught peasantry the alternative of Heaven or Leinster. But +when we come down to practical economics, and face the task of giving to +a certain number of human beings, in an extremely backward industrial +condition, the opportunity of placing themselves and their families on a +basis of permanent well-being, it will be evident that, so far, at any +rate, as this particular community is concerned, the mere provision of +an economic holding is after all but a part of an economic existence.</p> + +<p>I have touched upon this question of migration from uneconomic to +economic holdings because it signally illustrates the importance of the +human, in contradistinction to the merely material considerations +involved in the solution of the many-sided Irish Question. I must now +return to the wider question of the relation of population to area in +rural Ireland, as it affects the general scheme of agricultural and +industrial development.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_50"></a>It is obvious that there must be a limit to the number of individuals +that the land can support. Allowing an average of five members for each +family, and allowing for a considerable number of landless labourers, it +seems that the land at present directly supports about 2,500,000 +persons—a view which, I may add, is fully borne out by the figures of +the recent census; and it is hard to see how a population living by +agriculture can be much increased beyond this number. Even if all the +land in Ireland were available for re-distribution in equal shares, the +higher standard of comfort to which it is essential that the condition +of our people should be raised would forbid the existence of much more +than half a million peasant proprietors.<a name="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> Hence the evergreen query, +'What shall we do with our boys?' remains to be answered; for while the +abolition of dual ownership will enable the present generation to bring +up their children according to a higher standard of living, the change +will not of itself provide a career for the children when they have been +brought up. The next generation will have to face this problem:—the +average farm can support only one of the children and his family, what +is to become of the others? The law forbids sub-division for two +generations, and after that, <i>ex hypothesi</i>, the then prevailing +conditions of life will also prevent such partition. A few of the next +generation may become <a name="Page_51"></a>agricultural labourers, but this involves +descending to the lowest standard of living of to-day, and in any case +the demand for agricultural labourers is not capable of much extension +in a country of small peasant proprietors.</p> + +<p>Against this view I know it is pointed out that in the earlier part of +the nineteenth century the agricultural population of Ireland was as +large as is the total population of to-day; but we know the sequel. +Instances are also cited of peasant proprietaries in foreign countries +which maintain a high standard of living upon small, sometimes +diminutive, and highly-rented holdings. We must remember, however, that +in these foreign countries State intervention has undoubtedly done much +to render possible a prosperous peasant proprietary by, for example, the +dissemination of useful information, admirable systems of technical +education in agriculture, cheap and expeditious transport, and even +State attention to the distribution of agricultural produce in distant +markets. Again, in many of these countries rural life is balanced by a +highly industrial town life, as, for instance, in the case of Belgium; +or is itself highly industrialised by the existence of rural industries, +as in the case of Switzerland; while in one notable instance—that of +Württemberg—both these conditions prevail.</p> + +<p>The true lesson to be drawn from these foreign analogies is that not by +agriculture alone is Ireland to be saved. The solution of the rural +problem embraces many spheres of national activity. It involves, as I +have already said, the further development of manufactures <a name="Page_52"></a>in Irish +towns. One of the best ways to stimulate our industries is to develop +the home market by means of an increased agricultural production, and a +higher standard of comfort among the peasant producers. We shall thus +be, so to speak, operating on consumption as well as on production, and +so increasing the home demand for Irish manufactures. Perhaps more +urgent than the creation or extension of manufactures on a larger scale +is the development of industries subsidiary to agriculture in the +country. This is generally admitted, and most people have a fair +knowledge of the wide and varied range of peasant industries in all +European countries where a prosperous peasantry exists. Nor is there +much difficulty in agreeing upon the main conditions to be satisfied in +the selection of the industries to meet the requirements of our case. +The men and boys require employment in the winter months, or they will +not stay, and the rural industries promoted should, as far as possible, +be those which allow of intermittent attention. The female members of +the family must have profitable and congenial employment. The +handicrafts to be promoted must be those which will give scope to the +native genius and aesthetic sense. But unless we can thus supply the +demand of the peasant-industry market with products of merit or +distinctiveness, we shall fail in competition with the hereditary skill +and old established trade of peasant proprietors which have solved this +part of the problem generations ago. This involves the vigorous +application of a class of in<a name="Page_53"></a>struction of which something will be said +in the proper place.</p> + +<p>So far the rural industry problem, and the direction in which its +solution is to be found, are fairly clear. But there is one disadvantage +with which we have to reckon, and which for many other reasons besides +the one I am now immediately concerned with, we must seek to remove. A +community does not naturally or easily produce for export that for which +it has itself no use, taste, or desire. Whatever latent capacity for +artistic handicrafts the Irish peasant may possess, it is very rarely +that one finds any spontaneous attempt to give outward expression to the +inward aesthetic sense. And this brings me to a strange aspect of Irish +life to which I have often wished, on the proper occasion, to draw +public attention. The matter arises now in the form of a peculiar +difficulty which lies in the path of those who endeavour to solve the +problem of rural life in Ireland, and which, in my belief, has +profoundly affected the fortunes of the race both at home and abroad.</p> + +<p>To a sympathetic insight there is a singular and significant void in the +Irish conception of a home—I mean the lack of appreciation for the +comforts of a home, which might never have been apparent to me had it +not obtruded itself in the form of a hindrance to social and economic +progress.<a name="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> In the Irish love of home, as in <a name="Page_54"></a>the larger national +aspirations, the ideal has but a meagre material basis, its appeal being +essentially to the social and intellectual instincts. It is not the +physical environment and comfort of an orderly home that enchain and +attract minds still dominated, more or less unconsciously, by the +associations and common interests of the primitive clan, but rather the +sense of human neighbourhood and kinship which the individual finds in +the community. Indeed the Irish peasant scarcely seems to have a home in +the sense in which an Englishman understands the word. If he love the +place of his habitation he does not endeavour to improve or to adorn it, +or indeed to make it in any sense a reflection of his own mind and +taste. He treats life as if he were a mere sojourner upon earth whose +true home is somewhere else, a fact often attributed to his intense +faith in the unseen, but which I regard as not merely due to this cause, +but also, and in a large measure, as the natural outcome of historical +conditions, to which I shall presently refer.</p> + +<p>What the Irishman is really attached to in Ireland is not a home but a +social order. The pleasant amenities, the courtesies, the leisureliness, +the associations of religion, and the familiar faces of the neighbours, +whose ways and minds are like his and very unlike those of any other +people; these are the things to which he clings in Ireland and which he +<a name="Page_55"></a>remembers in exile. And the rawness and eagerness of America, the lust +of the eye and the pride of life that meet him, though with no welcoming +aspect, at every turn, the sense of being harshly appraised by new +standards of the nature of which he has but the dimmest conception, his +helplessness in the fierce current of industrial life in which he is +plunged, the climatic extremes of heat and cold, the early hours and few +holidays: all these experiences act as a rude shock upon the +ill-balanced refinement of the Irish immigrant. Not seldom, he or she +loses heart and hope and returns to Ireland mentally and physically a +wreck, a sad disillusionment to those who had been comforted in the +agony of the leave-taking by the assurance that to emigrate was to +succeed.</p> + +<p>The peculiar Irish conception of a home has probably a good deal to do +with the history of the Irish in the United States. It is well known +that whatever measure of success the Irish emigrant has there achieved +is pre-eminently in the American city, and not where, according to all +the usual commonplaces about the Irish race, they ought to have +succeeded, in American rural life. There they were afforded, and there +they missed, the greatest opportunity which ever fell to the lot of a +people agriculturally inclined. During the days of the great emigrations +from Ireland, a veritable Promised Land, rich beyond the dreams of +agricultural avarice, was gradually opened up between the Alleghanies +and the Rocky Mountains, which the Irish had only to occupy in order to +possess. Making all allowances for <a name="Page_56"></a>the depressing influences which had +been brought to bear upon the spirit of enterprise, and for their +impoverished condition, I am convinced that a prime cause of the failure +of almost every effort to settle them upon the land was the fact that +the tenement house, with all its domestic abominations, provided the +social order which they brought with them from Ireland, and the lack of +which on the western prairie no immediate or prospective physical +comfort could make good.</p> + +<p>Recently a daughter of a small farmer in County Galway with a family too +'long' for the means of subsistence available, was offered a comfortable +home on a farm owned by some better-off relatives, only thirty miles +away, though probably twenty miles beyond the limits of her utmost +peregrinations. She elected in preference to go to New York, and being +asked her reason by a friend of mine, replied in so many words, 'because +it is nearer.' She felt she would be less of a stranger in a New York +tenement house, among her relatives and friends who had already +emigrated, than in another part of County Galway. Educational science in +Ireland has always ignored the life history of the subject with which it +dealt. In no respect has this neglect been so unconsciously cruel as in +its failure to implant in the Irish mind that appreciation of the +material aspects of the home which the people so badly need both in +Ireland and in America If the Irishman abroad became 'a rootless +colonist of alien earth,' the lot of the Irishman <a name="Page_57"></a>in Ireland has been +not less melancholy. Sadness there is, indeed, in the story of 'the +sea-divided Gael,' but, to me, it is incomparably less pathetic than +their homelessness at home.</p> + +<p>There are, as I have said, historic reasons for the Celtic view of home +to which my personal observation and experience has induced me to devote +so much space. The Irish people have never had the opportunity of +developing that strong and salutary individualism which, amongst other +things, imperiously demands, as a condition of its growth, a home that +shall be a man's castle as well as his abiding place. In this, as in so +much else, a healthy evolution was constantly thwarted by the clash of +two peoples and two civilisations. The Irish had hardly emerged from the +nomad pastoral stage, when the first of that series of invasions, which +had all the ferocity, without the finality of conquest, made settled +life impossible over the greater part of the island. An old chronicle +throws some vivid light upon the way in which the idea of home life +presented itself to the mind of the clan chiefs as late as the days of +the Tudors. "Con O'Neal," we are told, "was so right Irish that he +cursed all his posterity in case they either learnt English, sowed wheat +or built them houses; lest the first should breed conversation, the +second commerce, and with the last they should speed as the crow that +buildeth her nest to be beaten out by the hawk."<a name="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> The penal laws, +again, acted as a disin<a name="Page_58"></a>tegrant of the home and the family; and, +finally, the paralysing effect of the abuses of a system of land tenure, +under which evidences of thrift and comfort might at any time become +determining factors in the calculation of rent, completed a series of +causes which, in unison or isolation, were calculated to destroy at its +source the growth of a wholesome domesticity. These causes happily, no +longer exist, and powerful forces are arising to overcome the defects +and disadvantages which they have bequeathed to us; and I have little +doubt that it will be possible to deal successfully with this obstacle +which adds so peculiar a feature to the problem of rural life in +Ireland.</p> + +<p>If I have dwelt at what may appear to be a disproportionate length upon +the Irishman's peculiar conception of a home, it is because this +difficulty, which Irish social and economic reformers still encounter, +and with which they must deal sympathetically if they are to succeed in +the work of national regeneration, strikingly illustrates the two-sided +character of the Irish Question and the never-to-be-forgotten +inter-dependence of the sentimental and the practical in Ireland. I +admit that this condition which adds to the interest of the problem, and +perhaps makes it more amenable to rapid solution, is an indication of a +weakness of moral fibre to which must be largely attributed our failure +to be master of our circumstances. Indeed, as I come into closer touch +with the efforts which are now being made to raise the material +condition of the people, the more convinced I become, much <a name="Page_59"></a>as my +practical training has made me resist the conviction, that the Irish +Question is, in its most difficult and most important aspects, the +problem of the Irish mind, and that the solution of this problem is to +be found in the strengthening of Irish character.</p> + +<p>With this enunciation of the main proposition of my book, I may now +indicate the order in which I shall endeavour to establish its truth. I +have said enough to show that I do not ignore the historical causes of +our present state; but with so many facts with which we can deal +confronting us, I propose to review the chief living influences to which +the Irish mind and character are still subjected. These influences fall +naturally into three distinct categories and will be treated in the +three succeeding chapters. The first will show the effect upon the Irish +mind of its obsession by politics. The next will deal with the influence +of religious systems upon the secular life of the people. I shall then +show how education, which should not only have been the most potent of +all the three influences in bringing our national life into line with +the progress of the age, but should also have modified the operation of +the other two causes, has aggravated rather than cured the malady.</p> + +<p>Whatever impression I may succeed in making upon others, I may here +state that, as the result of observation and reflection, the conclusion +has been forced upon me that the Irish mind is suffering from +considerable functional derangement, but not, so far as I can discern, +from any organic disease. This is the basis of my <a name="Page_60"></a>optimism. I shall +submit in another chapter, which will conclude the first, the critical +part of my book, certain new principles of treatment which are indicated +by the diagnosis; and I would ask the reader, before he rejects the +opinions which are there expressed, to persevere through the narrative +contained in the second part of the book. There he will find in process +of solution some of the problems which I have indicated, and the +principles for which a theoretical approval has been asked, in practical +operation, and already passing out of the experimental stage. The story +of the Self-help Movement will strike the note of Ireland's economic +hopes. The action of the Recess Committee will be explained, and the +concession of their demand by the establishment of a 'Department of +Agriculture and other rural industries and for Technical Instruction for +Ireland,' will be described. This will complete the story of a quiet, +unostentatious movement which will some day be seen to have made the +last decade of the nineteenth century a fit prelude to a future +commensurate with the potentialities of the Irish people.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4">[4]</a><div class="note"><p> I speak from personal knowledge when I say that the leaders +of Irish industry and commerce are fully alive to the practical +consideration which they have now to devote to the new conditions by +which they are surrounded. They recognise that the intensified foreign +competition which harasses them is due chiefly to German education and +American enterprise. They are deep in the consideration of the form +which technical education should take to meet their peculiar needs; and +I am confident that Ulster will make a sound and useful contribution to +the solution of the commercial and industrial problems which confront +the manufacturers of the United Kingdom.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5">[5]</a><div class="note"><p> That such a knowledge is still required, though the need is +becoming less urgent, is shown by an incident which illustrates the +pathos of the Irish exodus. A poor woman once asked me to help her son +to emigrate to America, and I agreed to pay his passage. Early in the +negotiations, finding that she was somewhat vague as to her boy's +prospects, I asked her whether he wanted to go to North or South +America. This detail she seemed to consider immaterial. "Ach, glory be +to God, I lave that to yer honner. Why wouldn't I?" Had I shipped him to +Peru she would have been quite satisfied. Why wouldn't she?</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6">[6]</a><div class="note"><p> Yet another view which seems to uproot most agrarian ideas +in Ireland has been put forward by Dr. O'Gara in <i>The Green Republic</i> +(Fisher Unwin, 1902). His main conclusion is that the present disastrous +state of our rural economy is due to our treating land as an object of +property and not of industry. He advocates the cultivation of the land +by syndicates holding farms of 20,000 acres and tilling them by the +lavish application of modern machinery as the only way to meet American +competition. His book is able and suggestive, but it is perhaps, a work +of supererogation to discuss a theory the whole moral of which is the +expediency of absolutely divorcing the functions of the proprietor and +the manager of land at a time when the consensus of opinion in Ireland +is in favour of uniting them, and in view of the fact that under the new +Land Act the future of the country seems inevitably to lie for a long +time in the hands of a peasant proprietary.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7">[7]</a><div class="note"><p> The reader may wonder why I touch so lightly upon a fact of +such profound significance as the Irishman's acceptance of self-help as +a condition precedent of State aid in the development of agriculture and +industry. But such a cursory treatment, in the early chapters, of this +and of other equally important aspects of the Irish situation is +necessitated by the plan I have adopted. I am attempting to give in the +first part of the book a philosophic insight into the chief Irish +problems, and then, in the second part of the book, to present the facts +which appear to me to illustrate these problems in process of solution.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8">[8]</a><div class="note"><p> The best expert agricultural opinion tells me that under +present conditions a family cannot live in any decent standard of +comfort—such as I hope to see prevail in Ireland—on less than 30 acres +of Irish land, taking the bad land with the good.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9">[9]</a><div class="note"><p> It is, of course, unnecessary for me to dwell upon the part +played by the home in the standard of living, especially amongst a rural +community. But it may not be irrelevant to note that M. Desmolins, who, +in his remarkable book, <i>A quoi tient la superiorité des Anglo-saxons</i>? +hands over the future of civilisation to the Anglo-Saxons, ascribes to +the English rural home much of the success of the race.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10">[10]</a><div class="note"><p> Speed's Chronicle, quoted in <i>Calendar of State Papers, +Ireland, </i> 1611-14, p. xix.</p></div> + +<a name="Page_61"></a> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_III"></a><h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h4>THE INFLUENCE OF POLITICS UPON THE IRISH MIND.</h4> + + +<p>Among the humours of the Home Rule struggle, the story was current in +England that a peasant in Connemara ceased planting his potatoes when +the news of the introduction of the Home Rule Bill in 1886 seemed to +bring the millenium into the region of practical politics. Those who +used the story were not slow to suggest that, had the Bill become law, +the failure of spontaneous generation in the Connemara potato patch +might have been typical of much analogous disillusionment elsewhere. +Even to those who are familiar with our history, the faith of the Irish +people in the potentialities of government, which this little tale +illustrates by caricature, will give cause for reflection of another and +more serious kind. The moral to be drawn by Irish politicians is that we +in Ireland have yet to free ourselves from one of the worst legacies of +past misgovernment, the belief that any legislation or any legislature +can provide an escape from the physical and mental toil imposed through +our first parents upon all nations for all time.</p> + +<p>'The more business in politics, and the less politics in business, the +better for both,' is a maxim which I brought <a name="Page_62"></a>home from the Far West and +ventured to advocate publicly some years ago. Being still of the same +mind, I regret that I am compelled to introduce a whole chapter of +politics into this book, which is a study of Irish affairs mainly from a +social and economic point of view. But to ignore, either in the +diagnosis or in the treatment of the 'mind diseased,' the political +obsession of our national life would be about as wise as to discuss and +plan a Polar expedition without taking account of the climatic +conditions to be encountered.</p> + +<p>In such an examination of Irish politics as thus becomes necessary I +shall have to devote the greater part of my criticism to the influence +of the Nationalist party upon the Irish mind. But it will be seen that +this course is not taken with a view to making party capital for my own +side. As I read Irish history, neither party need expect very much +credit for more than good intentions. Whichever proves to be right in +its main contention, each will have to bear its share of the +responsibility for the long continuance of the barren controversy. Each +has neglected to concern itself with the settlement of vitally important +questions the consideration of which need not have been postponed +because the constitutional question still remained in dispute. +Therefore, though I seem to throw upon the Nationalist party the chief +blame for our present political backwardness, and, so far as politics +affect other spheres of national activity, for our industrial +depression, candour compels me to admit that Irish Unionism has failed +to recognise its obligation—an <a name="Page_63"></a>obligation recognised by the Unionist +party in Great Britain—to supplement opposition to Home Rule with a +positive and progressive policy which could have been expected to +commend itself to the majority of the Irish people—the Irish of the +Irish Question.</p> + +<p>To my own party in Ireland then, I would first direct the reader's +attention. I have already referred to the deplorable effects produced +upon national life by the exclusion of representatives of the landlord +and the industrial classes from positions of leadership and trust over +four-fifths of the country. I cannot conceive of a prosperous Ireland in +which the influence of these leaders is restricted within its present +bounds. It has been so restricted because the Irish Unionist party has +failed to produce a policy which could attract, at any rate, moderate +men from the other side, and we have, therefore, to consider why we have +so failed. Until this is done, we shall continue to share the blame for +the miserable state of our political life which, at the end of the +nineteenth century, appeared to have made but little advance from the +time when Bishop Berkeley asked 'Whether our parties are not a burlesque +upon politics.'</p> + +<p>The Irish Unionist party is supposed to unite all who, like the author, +are opposed to the plunge into what is called Home Rule. But its +propagandist activities in Ireland are confined to preaching the +doctrine of the <i>status quo</i>, and preaching it only to its own side. +From the beginning the party has been intimately connected with the +landlord class; yet even upon <a name="Page_64"></a>the land question it has thrown but few +gleams of the constructive thought which that question so urgently +demanded, and which it might have been expected to apply to it. Now and +again an individual tries to broaden the basis of Irish Unionism and to +bring himself into touch with the life of the people. But the nearer he +gets to the people the farther he gets from the Irish Unionist leaders. +The lot of such an individual is not a happy one: he is regarded as a +mere intruder who does not know the rules of the game, and he is treated +by the leading players on both sides like a dog in a tennis court.</p> + +<p>Two main causes appear to me to account for the failure of the Irish +Unionist party to make itself an effective force in Irish national life. +The great misunderstanding to which I have attributed the unhappy state +of Anglo-Irish relations kept the country in a condition of turmoil +which enabled the Unionist party to declare itself the party of law and +order. Adopting Lord Salisbury's famous prescription, 'twenty years of +resolute government,' they made it what its author would have been the +last man to consider it, a sufficient justification for a purely +negative and repressive policy. Such an attitude was open to somewhat +obvious objections. No one will dispute the proposition that the +government of Ireland, or of any other country, should be resolute, but +twenty years of resolute government, in the narrow sense in which it +came to be interpreted, needed for its success, what cannot be had under +<a name="Page_65"></a>party government, twenty years of consistency. It may be better to be +feared than to be loved, but Machiavelli would have been the first to +admit that his principle did not apply where the Government which sought +to establish fear had to reckon with an Opposition which was making +capital out of love. Moreover, the suggestion that the Irish Question is +not a matter of policy but of police, while by no means without +influential adherents, is altogether vicious. You cannot physically +intimidate Irishmen, and the last thing you want to do is morally to +intimidate a people whose greatest need at the moment is moral courage.</p> + +<p>The second cause which determined the character of Irish Unionism was +the linking of the agrarian with the political question; the one being, +in effect, a practical, the other a sentimental issue. The same thing +happened in the Nationalist party; but on their side it was intentional +and led to an immense accession of strength, while on the Unionist side +it made for weakness. If the influence of Irish Unionists was to be even +maintained, it was of vital importance that the interest of a class +should not be allowed to dominate the policy of the party. But the +organisation which ought to have rallied every force that Ireland could +contribute to the cause of imperial unity came to be too closely +identified with the landlord class. That class is admittedly essential +to the construction of any real national life. But there is another +element equally essential, to which the political leaders of Irish<a name="Page_66"></a> +Unionism have not given the prominence which is its due. The Irish +Question has been so successfully narrowed down to two simple policies, +one positive but vague, the other negative but definite, that to suggest +that there are three distinct forces—three distinct interests—to be +taken into account seems like confusing the issue. It is a fact, +nevertheless, that a very important element on the Unionist side, the +industrial element, has been practically left out of the calculation by +both sides. Yet the only expression of real political thought which I +have observed in Ireland, since I have been in touch with Irish life, +has emanated from the Ulster Liberal-Unionist Association, whose weighty +pronouncements, published from time to time, are worthy of deep +consideration by all interested in the welfare of Ireland.</p> + +<p>It will be remembered that when the Home Rule controversy was at its +height, the chief strength of the Irish opposition to Mr. Gladstone's +policy, and the consideration which most weighed with the British +electorate, lay in the business objection of the industrial population +of Ulster; though on the platform religious and political arguments were +more often heard. The intensely practical nature of the objection which +came from the commercial and industrial classes of the North who opposed +Home Rule was never properly recognised in Ireland. It was, and is still +unanswered. Briefly stated, the position taken up by their spokesmen was +as follows:—'We have come,' they said in effect, 'into Ireland, and not +the richest portion <a name="Page_67"></a>of the island, and have gradually built up an +industry and commerce with which we are able to hold our own in +competition with the most progressive nations in the world. Our success +has been achieved under a system and a polity in which we believe. Its +non-interference with the business of the people gave play to that +self-reliance with which we strove to emulate the industrial qualities +of the people of Great Britain. It is now proposed to place the +manufactures and commerce of the country at the mercy of a majority +which will have no real concern in the interests vitally affected, and +who have no knowledge of the science of government. The mere shadow of +these changes has so depressed the stocks which represent the +accumulations of our past enterprise and labour that we are already +commercially poorer than we were.'<a name="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a></p> + +<p>My sole criticism of those leaders of commerce and industry in Belfast, +who, whenever they turn their attention from their various +pre-occupations, import into Irish politics the valuable qualities which +they display in the conduct of their private affairs, is that they do +not go further and take the necessary steps to give practical effect to +their views outside the ranks of their immediate associates and +followers. Had the industrial section made its voice heard in the +councils of the Irish Unionist <a name="Page_68"></a>party, the Government which that party +supports might have had less advice and assistance in the maintenance of +law and order, but it would have had invaluable aid in its constructive +policy. For the lack of the wise guidance which our captains of industry +should have provided, Irish Unionism has, by too close adherence to the +traditions of the landlord section, been the creed of a social caste +rather than a policy in Ireland. The result has been injurious alike for +the landlords, the leaders of industry, and the people. The policy of +the Unionist party in Ireland has been to uphold the Union by force +rather than by a reconciliation of the people to it. It has held aloof +from the masses, who, bereft of the guidance of their natural leaders, +have clung the more closely to the chiefs of the Nationalist party; and +these in their turn have not, as I shall show presently, risen to their +responsibility, but have retarded rather than advanced the march of +democracy in Ireland. If there is to be any future for Unionism in +Ireland, there must be a combination of the best thought of the country +aristocracy and that of the captains of industry. Then, and not till +then, shall we Unionists as a party exercise a healthful and stimulating +influence on the thought and action of the people.</p> + +<p>I cannot, therefore, escape from the conclusion that whilst the Irish +section of the party to which I belong is, in my opinion, right on the +main political question, its influence is now for the most part +negative. Hence I direct attention mainly to the Home Rule party, as the +<a name="Page_69"></a>more forceful element in Irish political life; and if it receives the +more criticism it is because it is more closely in touch with the +people, and because any reform in its principles or methods would more +generally and more rapidly prove beneficial to the country than would +any change in Unionist policy.</p> + +<p>In examining the policy of the Nationalist party my chief concern will +be to arrive at a correct estimate of the effect which is produced upon +the thought and action of the Irish people by the methods employed for +the attainment of Home Rule. I propose to show that these methods have +been in the past, and must, so long as they are employed, continue to be +injurious to the political and industrial character of the people, and +consequently a barrier to progress. I know that most of the Nationalist +leaders justify the employment of these methods on the ground that, in +their opinion, the constitutional reforms they advocate are a condition +precedent to industrial progress. I believe, on the contrary, and I +shall give my reasons for believing, that their tactics have been not +only a hindrance to industrial progress, but destructive even to the +ulterior purpose they were intended to fulfil.</p> + +<p>It is commonly believed—a belief very naturally fostered by their +leaders—that, if there is one thing the Irish do understand, it is +politics. Politics is a term obviously capable of wide interpretation, +and I fear that those who say that my countrymen are pre-eminently +politicians use the term in a sense more applicable to <a name="Page_70"></a>the conceptions +of Mr. Richard Croker than of Aristotle. In intellectual capacity for +discrimination upon political issues the average Irish elector is, I +believe, far superior to the average English elector. But there is as +yet something wanting in the character of our people which seems to +prohibit the exercise by them of any independent political thought and, +consequently, of any effective or permanent political influence.</p> + +<p>The assumption that Irishmen are singularly good politicians seems to +stand seriously in the way of their becoming so; and yet it is a matter +of the greatest importance that they should become good politicians in a +real sense, for in no country would sound political thought exercise a +more beneficial influence upon the life of the people than in Ireland. +Indeed I would go further and give it as my strong conviction that, +properly developed and freed from the narrowing influences of the party +squabbles by which it has been warped and sterilised, the political +thought of the Irish people would contribute a factor of vital +importance to the life of the British empire. But at the moment I am +dealing only with the influence of politics on Irish social and economic +life.</p> + +<p>I am aware that any political deficiencies which the Irish may display +at home, are commonly attributed to the political system which has been +imposed upon Ireland from without. If you want to see Irish genius in +its highest political manifestation, it must be studied, we are told, in +the United States, the <a name="Page_71"></a>widest and freest arena which has ever been +offered to the race. This view is not in accordance with the facts as I +have observed them. These facts are somewhat obscured by the natural, +but misleading habit of reckoning to the account of Ireland at large +achievements really due to the Scotch-Irish, who helped to colonise +Pennsylvania, and who undoubtedly played a dominant part in developing +the characteristic features of the American political system. The +Scotch-Irish, however, do not belong to the Ireland of the Irish +Question Descended, largely, as their names so often testify, from the +early Irish colonists of western Scotland, they came back as a distinct +race, dissociating themselves from the Irish Celts by refusing to adopt +their national traditions, or intermarry with them, and both here and in +America disclaiming the appellation of Irish.<a name="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Leaving, then, out of consideration the political achievements of the +Scotch-Irish, it appears to me that the part played in politics by the +Irish in America does not testify to any high political genius. They +have shown there an extraordinary aptitude for political organisation, +which, if it had been guided by anything approaching to political +thought, would have placed them in a far higher position in American +public life than that <a name="Page_72"></a>which they now occupy. But the fact is that it +would be much easier to find evidence of high political capacity and +success in the history of the Irish in British colonies; and the reason +for this fact is not only very germane to the purpose of this book, but +has a strong practical interest for Americans as well. Irishmen when +they go to America find themselves united by a bond which does not and +could not exist in the Colonies—though it does exist in Ireland—the +bond of anti-English feeling, and by the hope of giving practical effect +to this feeling through the policy of their adopted country. Imbued with +this common sentiment, and influenced by their inherited clannishness, +the Irish in America readily lend themselves to the system of political +groups, a system which the 'boss' for his own ends seeks to perpetuate. +The result is a sort of political paradox—it has made the Irish in +America both stronger and weaker than they ought to be. They suffer +politically from the defects of their political qualities: they are +strong as a voting machine, but the secret of their collective strength +is also the secret of their individual weakness. This organisation into +groups is much commoner among the Irish than among other American +immigrants, for the anti-English feeling with which so many of the Irish +land in America is carefully kept alive by the 'boss,' whose sedulous +fostering of the instinctive clannishness and inherited leader-following +habits of the Irish saps their independence of thought and prevents them +from <a name="Page_73"></a>ceasing to be mere political agents and developing a citizenship +which would furnish its due quota of statesmen to the service of the +Republic. They lack in the United States just what they lack at home, +the capacity, or at any rate the inclination, to use their undoubted +abilities in a large and foreseeing manner, and so are becoming less and +less powerful as a force in American politics.</p> + +<p>The fallacious views about the nature and sphere of politics, which the +Irish bring with them from Ireland, and which are perpetuated in +America, have the effect not only of debarring the Irish from real +political progress, but also, as at home, from gaining success in +industrial pursuits which their talents would otherwise win for them. +They succeed as journalists owing to their quick intelligence and +versatility, and as contractors mainly owing to their capacity for +organising gangs of workmen—a faculty which seems to be the only good +thing resulting from their political education. They are as brilliant +soldiers in the service of the United States as they are in that of +Britain—more it would be impossible to say—and they have produced +types of daring, endurance, and shrewdness like the 'Silver Kings' of +Nevada which testify to the exceptional powers always developed by the +Irish in exceptional circumstances. But in the humdrum business of +everyday life in the United States they suffer from defects which are +the outcome of their devotion to mistaken political ideals and of their +subordination of industry to politics, which are not always purely<a name="Page_74"></a> +American, but are often influenced by considerations of the country of +their birth. On the whole, a quarter of a century of not unsympathetic +observation of the Irish in the United States has convinced me that the +position they occupy there is not one which either they or the American +people can look on with entire satisfaction. The Irish immigrants are +felt to belong to a kind of <i>imperium in imperio</i>, and to carry into +American politics ideas which are not American, and which might easily +become an embarrassment if not a danger to America. Hence the powerful +interest which America shares with England, though of course in a less +degree, in understanding and helping to settle the complex difficulty +called the Irish Question. The Irish remember Ireland long after they +have left it. They are not in the same position as the German or English +immigrants who have no cause at home which they wish to forward. Every +echo in the States of political or social disturbance in Ireland rouses +the immigrant and he becomes an Irishman once more, and not a citizen of +the country of his adoption. His views and votes on international +questions, in so far as they affect these Islands, are thus often +dictated more by a passionate sympathy for and remembrance of the land +he no longer lives in, than by any right understanding of the interests +of the new country in which he and his children must live.</p> + +<p>The only reason why I have examined the assumption that Irishmen display +marked political capacity in the United States is to make it clear that +the political defi<a name="Page_75"></a>ciencies they manifest at home are to be attributed +mainly to defects of character, and to a conception of politics for +which modern English government is very slightly responsible. I admit +that English government in the past had no small share in producing the +results we deplore to-day, but the motives and manner of its action +have, it seems to me, been very imperfectly understood.</p> + +<p>The fact is that the difficulties of English government in Ireland, +until a complete military conquest had been effected, were of a +peculiarly complex character. Before the English could impose upon +Ireland their own political organisation—and the idea that any other +system could work better among the Irish never entered the English +mind—it was obviously necessary that the very antithesis of that +organisation, the clan system, should be abolished. But there were +military and financial objections to carrying out this policy. Irish +campaigns were very costly, and England was in those days by no means +wealthy. English armies in Ireland, after a short period spent in +desultory warfare with light armed kernes in the fever-stricken Munster +forests, began to melt away. For many generations, therefore, England, +adopting a policy of <i>divide et impera</i>, set clan against clan. Later +on, statecraft may be said to have supervened upon military tactics. It +consisted of attempts made by alternate threats and bribes to induce the +chiefs to transform the clan organisation by the acceptance of English +institutions. But any systematic endeavours to complete the +transformation were soon <a name="Page_76"></a>rendered abortive by being coupled with huge +confiscations of land. The policy of converting the members of the clans +into freeholders was subordinated to the policy of planting British +colonists. After this there was no question of fusion of races or +institutions. Plantations on a large scale, self-supporting, +self-protecting, became the policy alike of the soldier and the +statesman.</p> + +<p>The inevitable result of these methods was that it was not until a +comparatively late date that a political conception of an Irish nation +first began to emerge out of the congeries of clans. In the State Papers +of the sixteenth century the clans are frequently spoken of as +'nations.' Even as late as the eighteenth century a Gaelic poet, in a +typical lament, thus identifies his country with the fortunes of her +great families:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>The O'Doherty is not holding sway, nor his noble race;<br /></span> +<span>The O'Moores are not strong, that once were brave—<br /></span> +<span>O'Flaherty is not in power, nor his kinsfolk;<br /></span> +<span>And sooth to say, the O'Briens have long since become English.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Of O'Rourke there is no mention—my sharp wounding!<br /></span> +<span>Nor yet of O'Donnell in Erin;<br /></span> +<span>The Geraldines they are without vigour—without a nod,<br /></span> +<span>And the Burkes, the Barrys, the Walshes of the slender ships.<a name="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The modern political idea of Irish nationality at length asserted itself +as the result of three main causes. The bond of a common grievance +against the English foe was created by the gradual abandonment of the +policy of setting clan against clan in favour of impartial <a name="Page_77"></a>confiscation +of land from friendly as well as from hostile chiefs. Secondly, when the +English had destroyed the natural leaders, the clan chiefs, and +attempted to proselytise their adherents, the political leadership +largely passed to the Roman Catholic Church, which very naturally +defended the religion common to the members of all the clans, by trying +to unite them against the English enemy. Nationality, in this sense, of +course applied only to Celtic Roman Catholic Ireland. The first real +idea of a United Ireland arose out of the third cause, the religious +grievances of the Protestant dissenters and the commercial grievances of +the Protestant manufacturers and artisans in the eighteenth century, who +suffered under a common disability with the Roman Catholics, and many of +whom came in the end to make common cause with them. But even long after +this conception had become firmly established, the local representative +institutions corresponding to those which formed the political training +of the English in law and administration either did not exist in Ireland +or were altogether in the hands of a small aristocracy, mostly of +non-Irish origin, and wholly non-Catholic. O'Connell's great work in +freeing Roman Catholic Ireland from the domination of the Protestant +oligarchy showed the people the power of combination, but his methods +can hardly be said to have fostered political thought. The efforts in +this direction of men like Gavan Duffy, Davis, and Lucas were +neutralised by the Famine, the after effects of which also did much to +<a name="Page_78"></a>thwart Butt's attempts to develop serious public opinion amongst a +people whose political education had been so long delayed. The prospect +of any early fruition of such efforts vanished with the revolutionary +agrarian propaganda, and independent thinking—so necessary in the +modern democratic state—never replaced the old leader-following habit +which continued until the climax was reached under Parnell.</p> + +<p>The political backwardness of the Irish people revealed itself +characteristically when, in 1884, the English and Irish democracies were +simultaneously endowed with a greatly extended franchise. In theory this +concession should have developed political thought in the people and +should have enhanced their sense of political responsibility. In England +no doubt this theory was proved by the event to be based on fact; but in +Ireland it was otherwise. Parnell was at the zenith of his power. The +Irish had the man, what mattered the principles? The new suffrages +simply became the figures upon the cheques handed over to the Chief by +each constituency, with the request that he would fill in the name of +the payee. On one or two occasions a constituency did protest against +the payee, but all that was required to settle the matter was a personal +visit from the Chief. Generally speaking, the electorate were quite +docile, and instances were not wanting of men discovering that they had +found favour with electors to whom their faces and even their names were +previously unknown.</p> + +<p>No doubt, the one-man system had a tactical <a name="Page_79"></a>value, of which the English +themselves were ever ready to make use. "If all Ireland cannot rule this +man, then let this man rule all Ireland," said Henry VII. of the Earl of +Kildare; and the echo of these words was heard when the Kilmainham +Treaty was negotiated with the last man who wore the mantle of the +chief. But whatever may be said for the one-man system as a means of +political organisation, it lacked every element of political education. +It left the people weaker, if possible, and less capable than it found +them; and assuredly it was no fit training for Home Rule. While +Parnell's genius was in the ascendant, all was well—outwardly. When a +tragic and painful disclosure brought about a crisis in his fate, it +will hardly be contended by the most devoted admirer of the Irish people +that the situation was met with even moderate ability and foresight. But +the logic of events began to take effect. The decade of dissension which +followed the fall of Parnell will, perhaps, some day be recognised as a +most fruitful epoch in modern Irish history. The reaction from the +one-man system set in as soon as the one man had passed away. The +independence which Parnell's former lieutenants began to assert when the +laurels faded upon the brow of the uncrowned King communicated itself to +some extent to the rank and file. The mere weighing of the merits of +several possible successors led to some wholesome questioning as to the +merits of the policies, such as they were, which they respectively +represented The critical spirit which was now called forth, did not, <a name="Page_80"></a>at +first, go very far; but it was at least constructive and marked a +distinct advance towards real political thought. I believe the day will +come, and come soon, when Nationalist leaders themselves will recognise +that while bemoaning faction and dissension and preaching the cause of +'unity' they often mistook the wheat for the tares. They will, I feel +sure, come to realise that the passing of the dictatorship, which to +outward appearances left the people as "sheep without a shepherd, when +the snow shuts out the sky," in fact turned the thoughts of Ireland in +some measure away from England into her own bosom, and gave birth there +to the idea of a national life to which the Irish people of all classes, +creeds, and politics could contribute of their best.</p> + +<p>I sometimes wonder whether the leaders of the Nationalist party really +understand the full effect of their tactics upon the political character +of the Irish people, and whether their vision is not as much obscured by +a too near, as is the vision of the Unionist leaders by a too distant, +view of the people's life. Everyone who seeks to provide practical +opportunities for Irish intellect to express-itself worthily in active +life—and this, I take it, is part of what the Nationalist leaders wish +to achieve—meets with the same difficulty. The lack of initiative and +shrinking from responsibility, the moral timidity in glaring contrast +with the physical courage—which has its worst manifestation in the +intense dread of public opinion, especially when the unknown terrors of +editorial power lurk behind an unfavourable mention 'on the <a name="Page_81"></a>paper,' +are, no doubt, qualities inherited from a primitive social state in +which the individual was nothing and the community everything. These +defects were intensified in past generations by British statecraft, +which seemed unable to appreciate or use the higher instincts of the +race; they remain to-day a prominent factor in the great human problem +known as the Irish Question—a factor to which, in my belief, may be +attributed the greatest of its difficulties.</p> + +<p>It is quite clear that education should have been the remedy for the +defects of character upon which I am forced to dwell so much; and I +cannot absolve any body of Irishmen, possessed of actual or potential +influence, of failure to recognise this truth. But here I am dealing +only with the political leaders, and trying to bring home to them the +responsibility which their power imposes upon them, not only for the +political development but also for the industrial progress of their +followers. They ought to have known that the weakness of character which +renders the task of political leadership in Ireland comparatively easy +is in reality the quicksand of Irish life, and that neither +self-government nor any other institution can be enduringly built upon +it.</p> + +<p>The leaders of the Nationalist party are, of course, entitled to hold +that, in existing political conditions, any non-political movement +towards national advancement, which in its nature cannot be linked, as +the land question was linked, to the Home Rule movement constitutes an +unwarrantable sacrifice of ends to means. And <a name="Page_82"></a>so holding, they are +further entitled to subject any proposal to elevate popular thought, or +to direct popular activities, to a strict censorship as to its remote as +well as to its immediate effect upon the electorate. I know, too, that +it is held by some thinking Nationalists who take no active part in +politics that the politicians are justified on tactical grounds in this +exclusive pursuit of their political aims, and in the methods by which +they pursue them. They consider the present system of government too +radically wrong to mend, and they can undoubtedly point to agrarian +legislation as evidence of the effectiveness of the means they employ to +gain their end.</p> + +<p>This view of things has sunk very deep into the Irish mind. The policy +of 'giving trouble' to the Government is looked upon as the one road to +reform and is believed in so fervently that, except for religion, which +sometimes conflicts with it, there is scarcely any capacity left for +belief in anything else. I am far from denying that the past offers much +justification for the belief that nothing can be gained by Ireland from +England except through violent agitation. Until recently, I admit, +Ireland's opportunity had to wait for England's difficulty. But, as +practised in the present day, I believe this doctrine to be mischievous +and false. For one thing, there is a new England to deal with. The +England which, certainly not in deference to violent agitation, +established the Congested Districts Board, gave Local Government to +Ireland, and accepted the recom<a name="Page_83"></a>mendations of the Recess Committee for +far-reaching administrative changes, as well as those of the Land +Conference which involved great financial concessions, is not the +England of fifty years ago, still less the England of the eighteenth +century. Moreover, in riveting the mind of the country on what is to be +obtained from England, this doctrine of 'giving trouble,' the whole +gospel of the agitator, has blinded the Irish people to the many things +which Ireland can do for herself. Whatever may be said of what is called +'agitation' in Ireland as an engine for extorting legislation from the +Imperial Parliament, it is unquestionably bad for the much greater end +of building up Irish character and developing Irish industry and +commerce. 'Agitation,' as Thomas Davis said, 'is one means of redress, +but it leads to much disorganisation, great unhappiness, wounds upon the +soul of a country which sometimes are worse than the thinning of a +people by war.'<a name="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> If Irish politicians had at all realised this truth, +it is difficult to believe that the popular movement of the last quarter +of a century would not have been conducted in a manner far less +injurious to the soul of <a name="Page_84"></a>Ireland and equally or more effective for +legislative reform as well as all other material interests.</p> + +<p>Now, modern Nationalism in Ireland is open to damaging criticism not +only from my Unionist point of view, which was also, in many respects, +the view of so strong a Nationalist as Thomas Davis; it is also open to +grave objection from the point of view of the effectiveness of the +tactics employed for the attainment of its end—the winning of Home +Rule.</p> + +<p>Before examining the effect of these tactics I may point out that this +conception of Nationalist policy, even if justifiable from a practical +point of view, does not relieve the leaders from the obligation of +giving some assurance that they are ready with a consistent scheme of +re-construction, and are prepared to build when the ground has been +cleared. In this connection I might make a good deal of Unionist +capital, and some points in support of my condemnation of the political +absorption of the Irish mind, out of the total failure of the +Nationalist party to solve certain all-important constitutional and +financial problems which months of Parliamentary debate in 1893 tended +rather to obscure than to elucidate. I am, however, willing for +argument's sake to postpone all such questions, vital as they are, to +the time when they can be practically dealt with. I am ready to assume +that the wit of man can devise a settlement of many points which seemed +insoluble in Mr. Gladstone's day. But even granting all this, I think it +can easily be shown that the means which the political <a name="Page_85"></a>thought +available on the Nationalist side has evolved for the attainment of +their end, and which <i>ex hypothesi</i> are only to be justified on tactical +grounds, are the least likely to succeed; and that, consequently, they +should be abandoned in favour of a constructive policy which, to say the +least, would not be less effective towards advancing the Home Rule +cause, if that cause be sound, and which would at the same time help the +advancement of Ireland in other than political directions.</p> + +<p>Tactics form but a part of generalship, and half the success of +generalship lies in making a correct estimate of the opposing forces. +This is as true of political as it is of military operations. Now, of +what do the forces opposed to Home Rule consist? The Unionists, it may +be admitted, are numerically but a small minority of the population of +Ireland—probably not more than one-fourth. But what do they represent? +First, there are the landed gentry. Let us again make a concession for +the sake of argument and accept the view that this class so wantonly +kept itself aloof from the life of the majority of the people that the +Nationalists could not be expected to count them among the elements of a +Home Rule Ireland. I note, in passing, with extreme gratification that +at the recent Land Conference it was declared by the tenants' +representatives that it was desirable, in the interests of Ireland, that +the present owners of land should not be expatriated, and that +inducements should be afforded to selling owners to continue to reside +in the country.</p><a name="Page_86"></a> + +<p>But I may ignore this as I wish here to recall attention to that other +element, which was, as I have already said, the real force which turned +the British democracy against Home Rule—I mean the commercial and +industrial community in Belfast and other hives of industry in the +north-east corner of the country, and in scattered localities elsewhere. +I have already admitted that the political importance of the industrial +element was not appreciated in Irish Unionist circles. No less +remarkable is the way in which it has been ignored by the Nationalists. +The question which the Nationalists had to answer in 1886 and 1893, and +which they have to answer to-day, is this:—In the Ireland of their +conception is the Unionist part of Ulster to be coerced or persuaded to +come under the new regime? To those who adopt the former alternative my +reply is simply that, if England is to do the coercion, the idea is +politically absurd. If we were left to fight it out among ourselves, it +is physically absurd. The task of the Empire in South Africa was light +compared with that which the Nationalists would have on hands. I am +aware that, at the time when we were all talking at concert pitch on the +Irish Question, a good deal was said about dying in the last ditch by +men who at the threat of any real trouble would be found more discreetly +perched upon the first fence. But those who know the temper and fighting +qualities of the working-men opponents of Home Rule in the North are +under no illusion as to the account they would give of <a name="Page_87"></a>themselves if +called upon to defend the cause of Protestantism, liberty, and imperial +unity as they understand it. Let us, however, dismiss this alternative +and give Nationalists credit for the desire to persuade the industrial +North to come in by showing it that it will be to its advantage to join +cordially in the building up of a united Ireland under a separate +legislature.</p> + +<p>The difficulties in the way of producing this conviction are very +obvious. The North has prospered under the Act of Union—why should it +be ready to enter upon a new 'variety of untried being'? What that state +of being will be like, it naturally gauges from the forces which are +working for Home Rule at present. Looking at these simply from the +industrial standpoint and leaving out of account all the powerful +elements of religious and race prejudice, the man of the North sees two +salient facts which have dominated all the political activity of the +Nationalist campaign. One is a voluble and aggressive disloyalty, not +merely to 'England' and to the present system of government, but to the +Crown which represents the unity of the three kingdoms, and the other is +the introduction of politics into business in the very virulent and +destructive form known as boycotting.</p> + +<p>Now, hostility to the Crown, if it means anything, means a struggle for +separation as soon as Home Rule has given to the Irish people the power +to organise and arm. And (still keeping to the sternly practical point +of view) that would, for the time being at least, spell absolute ruin to +the industrial North. The practice of <a name="Page_88"></a>boycotting, again, is the very +antithesis of industry—it creates an atmosphere in which industry and +enterprise simply cannot live. The North has seen this practice condoned +as a desperate remedy for a desperate ill, but it has seen it continued +long after the ill had passed away, used as a weapon by one Nationalist +section against another, and revived when anything like a really +oppressive or arbitrary eviction had become impossible. There seems to +have been in Nationalist circles, since the time of O'Connell, but +little appreciation of the deadly character of this social curse; and +the prospect of a Government which would tolerate it naturally fills the +mind of the Northern commercial man with alarm and aversion.</p> + +<p>Again, the democratisation of local government which gave the +Nationalist leaders a unique opportunity of showing the value, has but +served to demonstrate the ineffectiveness, of their political tactics. +North of Ireland opinion was deeply interested in this reform, and +appreciated its far-reaching importance. Elsewhere, I think it will be +safe to say, people generally were indifferent to it until it came, and +the leaders seemed to see in it only a weapon to be used for political +purposes. To the great vista of useful and patriotic work opened out by +the Act of 1898, to the impression that a proper use of that Act might +make on Northern opinion, they were blind. It is true that the Councils +when left to themselves did admirably, and fully justified the trust +reposed in them. But at the inauguration of local government <a name="Page_89"></a>it was +naturally not the work of the Councils but the attitude of the party +leaders which appeared to stamp the reception of the Act by the Irish +people.</p> + +<p>It is true, of course, that many thoughtful men among the Nationalist +party repudiate the idea that the methods of to-day would be continued +in a self-governed Ireland. I fail to see any reason why they should +not. Under any system of limited Home Rule questions would arise which +would afford much the same sort of justification for the employment of +such methods, and they could hardly be worse for the welfare of the +country then than they are now. There is abundant need and abundant work +in the present day for thoughtful and far-seeing men in a party +constitutionally so strong as that of the Irish Nationalists. If those +among them who possess, or at any rate can make effective use of +qualities of constructive statesmanship are as few as the history of +recent years would lead us to suppose, what assurance can Ulster +Unionists feel that such men would spring up spontaneously in an Ireland +under Home Rule? I admit, indeed, that a considerable measure of such +assurance might be derived from the attitude of the leaders of the party +at and since the Land Conference. But this adoption of statesmanlike +methods which cannot be too widely understood or too warmly commended is +a matter of very recent history; and though we may hope that the success +attending it will help materially in the political education of the +Irish people, that will not, by itself, undo the effect of a quarter of +a century of <a name="Page_90"></a>political agitation governed by ideas the very reverse of +those which are now happily beginning to find favour.</p> + +<p>I have thought it necessary to examine at some length the defence on the +ground of tactics which is often made for Nationalist politics, because +it is the only defence ever made by those apologists who admit the +disturbing influence upon our economic and social life of Nationalist +methods. A broader and saner view of political tactics than prevailed +ten years ago is now possible, for circumstances are becoming friendly +and helpful to the development of political thought. Though the United +Irish League apparently restored 'unity' to the ranks of the +Nationalists, the country is, I believe, getting restless under the +political bondage, and is seething with a wholesome discontent. In this +very matter of political education, the stir of corporate life, the +sense of corporate responsibility which in every parish of Ireland are +now being fostered by the reformed system of local government, must make +their influence felt in wider spheres. Even now I believe that the field +is ready for the work of those who would bid the old leader-following +habit, the product partly of the dead clan system, partly of dying +national animosities, depart as a thing that has had its day, and who +would endeavour to train up a race of free, self-reliant, and +independent citizens in a free state.</p> + +<p>In this work the very men whose mistaken conception of a united Ireland +I have criticised will, I doubt not, take a leading part. In many +respects, <a name="Page_91"></a>and these not the least important, no one could desire a +better instrument for the achievement of great reforms than the Irish +party. They are far beyond any similar group of English members in +rhetorical skill and quickness of intelligence and decision, qualities +which no doubt belong to the mechanism rather than the soul of politics, +but which the practical worker in public life will not despise. But even +when tried by a higher standard the Irish members need not fear the +judgment of history. They have often, in my opinion, misconceived the +true interests of their country, but they have been faithful to those +interests as they understood them, and have proved themselves notably +superior to sordid personal aims. These gifts and virtues are not +common, but still rarer is it to see such gifts and virtues cursed with +the doom of futility. The influence of the Irish political leaders has +neither advanced the nation's march through the wilderness nor taught +the people how they are to dispense with manna from above when they +reach the Promised Land. With all their brilliancy, they have thrown but +little helpful light on any Irish problem. In this want of political and +economic foresight Irish Nationalist politicians, with some exceptions +whom it would be invidious to name, have fallen lamentably short of what +might be expected of Irish intellect. For the eight years during which I +represented an Irish constituency I always felt that an Irish night in +the House of Commons was one of the strangest and most pathetic of +spectacles. There were <a name="Page_92"></a>the veterans of the Irish party hardened by a +hundred fights, ranging from Venezuela to the Soudan in search of +battlefields, making allies of every kind of foreign potentate, from +President Cleveland to the Mahdi, from Mr. Kruger to the Akhoom of Swat, +but looking with suspicion on every symptom of an independent national +movement in Ireland; masters of the language of hate and scorn, yet +mocked by inevitable and eternal failure; winners of victories that turn +to dust and ashes; devoted to their country, yet, from ignorance of the +real source of its malady, ever widening the gaping wound through which +its life-blood flows. While I recall these scenes, there rises before my +mind the picture vividly drawn by Miss Lawless of their prototypes, the +'Wild Geese,' who carried their swords into foreign service after the +final defeat of the Stuarts:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>War-battered dogs are we,<br /></span> +<span>Fighters in every clime,<br /></span> +<span>Fillers of trench and of grave,<br /></span> +<span>Mockers, bemocked by Time;<br /></span> +<span>War-dogs, hungry and grey,<br /></span> +<span>Gnawing a naked bone,<br /></span> +<span>Fighting in every clime<br /></span> +<span>Every cause but our own.<a name="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Irishmen have been long in realising that the days of the 'Wild Geese' +are over, and that there are battles for Ireland to be fought and won in +Ireland—battles in which England is not the enemy she was in the days +of <a name="Page_93"></a>Fontenoy, but a friend and helper. But there will be little gain in +replacing the traditional conception of England as the inexorable foe by +the more modern conception, which threatened to become traditional in +its turn, of England as the source of all prosperity and her favour as +the condition of all progress in Ireland. In the recent Land Conference +I recognise something more valuable even than the financial and +legislative results which flowed from it, for it showed that the +conception of reliance upon Irishmen in Ireland, not under some future +and problematical conditions, but here and now, for the solution of +Irish questions, is gaining ground among us. If this conception once +takes firm hold, as I think it is beginning to do, of the Nationalist +party in Ireland, much of the criticism of this chapter will lose its +meaning. The mere substitution of a positive Irish policy for a negative +anti-English policy will elevate the whole range of Nationalist +political activity in and out of Ireland. And I am certain that if the +ultimate goal of Nationalist politics be desirable, and continue to be +desired, it will not be rendered more difficult, but on the contrary +very much easier of attainment if those who seek it take possession of +the great field of work which, without waiting for any concessions from +Westminster, is offered by the Ireland of to-day.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11">[11]</a><div class="note"><p> This view of the case was powerfully stated by the +deputation from the Belfast Chamber of Commerce which waited on Mr. +Gladstone in the spring of 1893. They pointed out <i>inter alia</i> that the +members of the deputation were poorer by thousands of pounds owing to +the fall in Irish stocks consequent upon the introduction of the Home +Rule Bill in that year.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12">[12]</a><div class="note"><p> The term 'Scotch-Irish' does not mean an amalgam of Scotch +and Irish, but a race of Scottish immigrants who settled in north-east +Ireland. I may point out that in these criticisms of Irish-American +politics I refer, of course, mainly to the Irish-born immigrants and not +to the Irish, Scotch-Irish or other, who are American-born. Nobody can +have a higher appreciation than I of the great part played by the +American-Irish once they have assimilated the full spirit of American +institutions.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13">[13]</a><div class="note"><p> <i>Poems of Egan O'Rahilly.</i> Edited, with translation, by +the Rev. P.S. Dinneen, M.A., for the Irish Texts Society, p. 11. +O'Rahilly's charge against Cromwell is that he "gave plenty to the man +with the flail," but beggared the great lords, p. 167.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14">[14]</a><div class="note"><p> <i>Prose Writings of Thomas Davis</i>, p. 284. 'The writers of +<i>The Nation</i>,' wrote Davis in another place, 'have never concealed the +defects or flattered the good qualities of their countrymen. They have +told them in good faith that they wanted many an attribute of a free +people, <i>and that the true way to command happiness and liberty was by +learning the arts and practising the culture that fitted men for their +enjoyment'</i> (p. 176). The thing that especially distinguished Davis +among Nationalist politicians was the essentially constructive mind +which he brought to bear on Irish questions, as illustrated in the +passage I have italicised. It is, I am afraid, the part of his legacy of +thought which has been least regarded by his admirers.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15">[15]</a><div class="note"><p> <i>With the Wild Geese</i>. Poems by the Hon. Emily Lawless. I +have never read a better portrayal of the historic Irish sentiment than +is set forth in this little volume. By the way, there is a preface by +Mr. Stopford Brooke, which is singularly interesting and informing.</p></div> + +<a name="Page_94"></a> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_IV"></a><h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h4>THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION UPON SECULAR LIFE IN IRELAND.</h4> + + +<p>In the preceding chapter I attempted to estimate the influence of our +political leaders as a potential and as an actual force. I come now to +the second great influence upon the thought and action of the Irish +people, the influence of religion, especially the power exercised by the +priests and by the unrivalled organisation of the Roman Catholic Church. +I do not share the pessimism which sees in this potent influence nothing +but the shackles of mediævalism restraining its adherents from falling +into line with the progress of the age. I shall, indeed, have to admit +much of what is charged against the clerical leaders of popular thought +in Ireland, but I shall be able to show, I hope, that these leaders are +largely the product of a situation which they themselves did not create, +and that not only are they as susceptible as are the political leaders +to the influences of progressive movements, but that they can be more +readily induced to take part in their promotion. In no other country in +the world, probably, is religion so dominant an element in the daily +life of the people as in Ireland, and certainly <a name="Page_95"></a>nowhere else has the +minister of religion so wide and undisputed an authority. It is obvious, +therefore, that, however foreign such a theme may <i>prima facie</i> appear +to the scope and aim of the present volume, I have no choice but to +analyse frankly and as fully as my personal experience justifies, what I +conceive to be the true nature, the salutary limits, and the actual +scope of clerical influence in this country.</p> + +<p>But before I can discuss what I may call the religious situation, there +is one fundamental question—a question which will appear somewhat +strange to anyone not in touch with Irish life—which I must, with a +view to a general agreement on essentials, submit to some of my +co-religionists. In all seriousness I would ask, whether in their +opinion the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland is to be tolerated. If the +answer be in the negative, I can only reply that any efforts to stamp +out the Roman Catholic faith would fail as they did in the past; and the +practical minds among those I am now addressing must admit that in +toleration alone is to be found the solution of that part of the Irish +difficulty which is due to sectarian animosities.</p> + +<p>This brings us face to face with the question, What is religious +toleration—I do not mean as a pious sentiment which we are all +conscious of ourselves possessing in a truer sense than that in which it +is possessed by others, but rather toleration as an essential of the +liberty which we Protestants enjoy under the British Constitution, and +boast that all other creeds equally <a name="Page_96"></a>enjoy? Perhaps I had better state +simply how I answer this question in my own mind. Toleration by the +Irish minority, in regard to the religious faith and ecclesiastical +system of the Irish majority, implies that we admit the right of Rome to +say what Roman Catholics shall believe and what outward forms they shall +observe, and that they shall not suffer before the State for these +beliefs and observances. I do not think exception can be taken to the +statement that toleration in this narrow sense cannot be refused +consistently with the fundamental principles of British government.</p> + +<p>Now, however, comes a less obvious, but, as I think, no less essential +condition of toleration in the sense above indicated. The Roman Catholic +Hierarchy claim the right to exercise such supervision and control over +the education of their flock as will enable them to safe-guard faith and +morals as preached and practised by their Church. I concede this second +claim as a necessary corollary of the first. Having lived most of my +life among Roman Catholics—two branches of my own family belonging to +that religion—I am aware that this control is an essential part of the +whole fabric of Roman Catholicism. Whether the basis of authority upon +which that system is founded be in its origin divine or human is beside +the point. If we profess to tolerate the faith and religious system of +the majority of our countrymen we must at least concede the conditions +essential to the maintenance of both the one and the other, unless our +tolerance is to be a sham.</p><a name="Page_97"></a> + +<p>So far all liberal-minded Protestants, who know what Roman Catholicism +is, will be with me; and for the main purposes of the argument contained +in this chapter it is not necessary to interpret toleration in any wider +sense than that which I have indicated. Many Protestants, among whom I +am one, do, it is true, make a further concession to the claim of our +Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen. We would give them in Ireland +facilities for higher education which we would not give them in England, +and we would advocate liberal endowment by the State to this end. But +this attitude is, I admit, based upon something more than tolerance, and +those who would withhold this concession need not be accused of bigotry +or intolerance for so doing. They may be, and often are, actuated by the +most liberal motives, by a perfectly legitimate conception of +educational principles, or by other considerations which are neither of +a narrow nor sectarian character.</p> + +<p>I need hardly say that in criticising religious systems and their +ministers I have not the faintest intention of entering on the +discussion of doctrinal issues. I am, of course, here concerned with +only those aspects of the religious situation which bear directly on +secular life. I am endeavouring, it must be remembered, to arrive at a +comprehensive and accurate appreciation of the chief influences which +mould the character, guide the thought, and, therefore, direct the +action of the Irish people as citizens of this world and of their own +country. From this standpoint let us try to make a dispassionate survey +<a name="Page_98"></a>of Protestantism and Roman Catholicism in Ireland, and see wherein +their votaries fulfil, or fail to fulfil, their mission in advancing our +common civilisation. Let us examine, in a word, not merely the direct +influence which the creed of each of the two sections of Irishmen +produces on the industrial character of its adherents, but also its +indirect effects upon the mutual relations and regard for each other of +Protestants and Roman Catholics.</p> + +<p>Protestantism has its stronghold in the great industrial centres of the +North and among the Presbyterian farmers of five or six Ulster counties. +These communities, it is significant to note, have developed the +essentially strenuous qualities which, no doubt, they brought from +England and Scotland. In city life their thrift, industry, and +enterprise, unsurpassed in the United Kingdom, have built up a +world-wide commerce. In rural life they have drawn the largest yield +from relatively infertile soil. Such, in brief, is the achievement of +Ulster Protestantism in the realm of industry. It is a story of which, +when a united Ireland becomes more than a dream, all Irishmen will be +proud.</p> + +<p>But there is, unhappily, another side to the picture. This industrial +life, otherwise so worthily cultivated, is disturbed by manifestations +of religious bigotry which sadly tarnish the glory of the really heroic +deeds they are intended to commemorate. It is impossible for any close +observer of these deplorable exhibitions to avoid the conclusion that +the embers of the old <a name="Page_99"></a>fires are too often fanned by men who are +actuated by motives, which, when not other than religious, are certainly +based upon an unworthy conception of religion. I am quite aware that it +is only a small and decreasing minority of my co-religionists who are +open to the charge of intolerance, and that the geographical limits of +the July orgy are now strictly circumscribed. But this bigotry is so +notorious, as for instance in the exclusion of Roman Catholics from many +responsible positions, that it unquestionably reacts most unfavourably +upon the general relations between the two creeds throughout the whole +of Ireland. The existence of such a spirit of suspicion and hatred, from +whatever motive it emanates, is bound to retard our progress as a people +towards the development of a healthy and balanced national life.</p> + +<p>Many causes have recently contributed to the unhappy continuance of +sectarian animosities in Ireland. The Ritualistic movement and the +struggle over the Education Bill in England, the renewed controversy on +the University Question in Ireland, instances of bigotry towards +Protestants displayed by County, District, and Urban Councils in the +three southern provinces of Ireland, the formation of the Catholic +Association, the question of the form of the King's oath, and, more +remotely, the protest against clericalism in such Roman Catholic +countries as France and Austria, have one and all helped to keep alive +the flame of anti-Roman feeling among Irish Protestants.<a name="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a></p> +<a name="Page_100"></a> +<p>There are, happily, other influences now at work in a contrary +direction. Among the industrial leaders a better spirit prevails. A +well-known Ulster manufacturer told me recently that only a few years +ago, when an applicant for employment appeared at certain Northern +factories, which my friend named, the first question always put was, +'Are you a Protestant or Roman Catholic?' Now, he said, it is not what a +man believes, but what he can do, which is considered when engaging +workers. And outside the cities there are most gratifying signs of +better relations between the two creeds. We are on the eve of the +creation of a peasant proprietary, involving the rehabilitation of rural +life, and one essential condition of the successful inauguration of the +new agrarian order is the elimination of anything approaching to +sectarian bitterness in communities which will require every advantage +derivable from joint deliberation and common effort to enable them to +hold their own against foreign competition. I recall a trivial but +significant incident in the course of my Irish work which left a deep +impression on my mind. After attending a meeting of farmers in a very +backward district in the extreme west of Mayo, I arrived one winter's +<a name="Page_101"></a>evening at the Roman Catholic priest's house. Before the meeting I had +been promised a cup of tea, which, after a long, cold drive, was more +than acceptable. When I presented myself at the priest's house, what was +my astonishment at finding the Protestant clergyman presiding over a +steaming urn and a plate of home-made cakes, having been requested to do +the honours by his fellow-minister, who had been called away to a sick +bed. A cycle of homilies on the virtue of tolerance could add nothing to +the simple lesson which these two clergymen gave to the adherents of +both their creeds. I felt as I went on my way that night that I had had +a glimpse into the kind of future for Ireland towards which my +fellow-workers are striving.</p> + +<p>It is, however, with the religion of the majority of the Irish people +and with its influence upon the industrial character of its adherents +that I am chiefly concerned. Roman Catholicism strikes an outsider as +being in some of its tendencies non-economic, if not actually +anti-economic. These tendencies have, of course, much fuller play when +they act on a people whose education has (through no fault of their own) +been retarded or stunted. The fact is not in dispute, but the difficulty +arises when we come to apportion the blame between ignorance on the part +of the people and a somewhat one-sided religious zeal on the part of +large numbers of their clergy. I do not seek to do so with any precision +here. I am simply adverting to what has appeared to me, in the course of +my experience in Ireland, to be a defect in the industrial <a name="Page_102"></a>character of +Roman Catholics which, however caused, seems to me to have been +intensified by their religion. The reliance of that religion on +authority, its repression of individuality, and its complete shifting of +what I may call the moral centre of gravity to a future existence—to +mention no other characteristics—appear to me calculated, unless +supplemented by other influences, to check the growth of the qualities +of initiative and self-reliance, especially amongst a people whose lack +of education unfits them for resisting the influence of what may present +itself to such minds as a kind of fatalism with resignation as its +paramount virtue.</p> + +<p>It is true that one cannot expect of any church or religion, as a +condition of its acceptance, that it will furnish an economic theory; +and it is also true that Roman Catholicism has, at different periods of +history, advantageously affected economic conditions, even if it did not +act from distinctively economic motives—for example, by its direct +influence in the suppression of slavery<a name="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> and its creation of the +mediæval craft guilds. It may, too, be admitted that during the Middle +Ages, when Roman Catholicism was freer than now to manifest its +influence in many directions, owing to its practically unchallenged +supremacy, it favoured, when it did not originate, many forms of sound +economic activity, and was, to say the least, abreast of the time in its +conception of the working of economic causes. But from the <a name="Page_103"></a>time when +the Reformation, by its demand for what we Protestants conceive to be a +simpler Christianity, drove Roman Catholicism back, if I may use the +expression, on its first line of defence, and constrained it to look to +its distinctively spiritual heritage, down to the present day, it has +seemed to stand strangely aloof from any contact with industrial and +economic issues. When we consider that in this period Adam Smith lived +and died, the industrial revolution was effected, and the world-market +opened, it is not surprising that we do not find Roman Catholic +countries in the van of economic progress, or even the Roman Catholic +element in Protestant countries, as a rule, abreast of their +fellow-countrymen. It would, however, be an error to ignore some notable +exceptions to this generalisation. In Belgium, in France, in parts of +Germany and Austria, and in the north of Italy economic thought is +making headway amongst Roman Catholics, and the solution of social +problems is being advanced by Roman Catholic laymen and clergymen. Even +in these countries, however, much remains to be done. The revolution in +the industrial order, and its consequences, such as the concentration of +immense populations within restricted areas, have brought with them +social and moral evils that must be met with new weapons. In the +interests of religion itself, principles first expounded to a Syrian +community with the most elementary physical needs and the simplest of +avocations, have to be taught in their application to the conditions of +the most complex social organisation and <a name="Page_104"></a>economic life. Taking people +as we find them, it may be said with truth that their lives must be +wholesome before they can be holy, and while a voluntary asceticism may +have its justification, it behoves a Church to see that its members, +while fully acknowledging the claims of another life, should develop the +qualities which make for well-being in this life. In fact, I believe +that the influence of Christianity upon social progress will be best +maintained by co-ordinating these spiritual and economic ideals in a +philosophy of life broader and truer than any to which the nations have +yet attained.</p> + +<p>What I have just been saying with regard to Roman Catholicism generally, +in relation to economic doctrines and industrial progress, applies, of +course, with a hundred fold pertinence to the case of Ireland. Between +the enactment of the first Penal Laws and the date of Roman Catholic +Emancipation, Irish Roman Catholics were, to put it mildly, afforded +scant opportunity, in their own country, of developing economic virtues +or achieving industrial success. Ruthlessly deprived of education, are +they to be blamed if they did not use the newly acquired facilities to +the best advantage? With their religion looked on as the badge of legal +and social inferiority, was it any wonder that priests and people alike, +while clinging with unexampled fidelity to their creed, remained +altogether cut off from the current of material prosperity? Excluded, as +they were, not merely from social and political privileges, but from the +most ordinary civil rights, denied altogether the right of ownership of +<a name="Page_105"></a>real property, and restricted in the possession of personalty, is it +any wonder that they are not to-day in the van of industrial and +commercial progress? Nay, more, was it to have been expected that the +character of a people so persecuted and ostracised should have come out +of the ordeal of centuries with its adaptability and elasticity +unimpaired? That would have been impossible. Those who are intimate with +the Roman Catholic people of Ireland, and at the same time familiar with +their history, will recognise in their character and mental outlook many +an inheritance of that epoch of serfdom. I speak, of course, of the +mass, for I am not unmindful of many exceptions to this generalisation.</p> + +<p>But I must now pass on to a more definite consideration of the present +action and attitude of the Irish Roman Catholic clergy towards the +economic, educational, and other issues discussed in this book. The +reasons which render such a consideration necessary are obvious. Even if +we include Ulster, three quarters of the Irish people are Roman +Catholics, while, excluding the Northern province, quite nine-tenths of +the population belong to that religion. Again, the three thousand +clergymen of that denomination exercise an influence over their flocks +not merely in regard to religious matters, but in almost every phase of +their lives and conduct, which is, in its extent and character, quite +unique, even, I should say, amongst Roman Catholic communities. To a +Protestant, this authority seems to be carried very far beyond what the +legitimate <a name="Page_106"></a>influence of any clergy over the lay members of their +congregation should be. We are, however, dealing with a national life +explicable only by reference to a very exceptional and gloomy history of +religious persecution. What I may call the secular shortcomings of the +Roman Catholics in Ireland cannot be fairly judged except as the results +of a series of enactments by which they were successively denied almost +all means of succeeding as citizens of this world.</p> + +<p>From such study as I have been able to give to the history of their +Church, I have come to the conclusion that the immense power of the +Irish Roman Catholic clergy has been singularly little abused. I think +it must be admitted that they have not exhibited in any marked degree +bigotry towards Protestants. They have not put obstacles in the way of +the Roman Catholic majority choosing Protestants for political leaders, +and it is significant that refugees, such as the Palatines, from +Catholic persecutions in Europe, found at different times a home amongst +the Roman Catholic people of Ireland. My own experience, too, if I may +again refer to that, distinctly proves that it is no disadvantage to a +man to be a Protestant in Irish political life, and that where +opposition is shown to him by Roman Catholics it is almost invariably on +political, social, or agrarian, but not on religious grounds.</p> + +<p>A charge of another kind has of late been often brought against the +Roman Catholic clergy, which has a direct bearing upon the economic +aspect of this question.<a name="Page_107"></a> Although, as I read Irish history, the Roman +Catholic priesthood have, in the main, used their authority with +personal disinterestedness, if not always with prudence or discretion, +their undoubted zeal for religion has, on occasion, assumed forms which +enlightened Roman Catholics, including high dignitaries of that Church, +think unjustifiable on economic grounds, and discourage even from a +religious standpoint. Excessive and extravagant church-building in the +heart and at the expense of poor communities is a recent and notorious +example of this misdirected zeal. It has been, I believe, too often +forgotten that the best monument of any clergyman's influence and +earnestness must always be found in the moral character and the +spiritual fibre of his flock, and not in the marbles and mosaics of a +gaudy edifice. And without doubt a good many motives which have but a +remote connection with religion are, unfortunately, at work in the +church-building movement. It may, however, to some extent, be regarded +as an extreme re-action from the penal times, when the hunted <i>soggarth</i> +had to celebrate the Mass in cabins and caves on the mountain side—a +re-action the converse of which was witnessed in Protestant England when +Puritanism rose up against Anglicanism in the seventeenth century. This +expenditure, however, has been incurred; and, no one, I take it, would +advocate the demolition of existing religious edifices on the ground +that their erection had been unduly costly! The moral is for the present +and the future, and applies not merely to economy in new <a name="Page_108"></a>buildings, but +also in the decoration of existing churches.<a name="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a></p> + +<p>But it is not alone extravagant church building which in a country so +backward as Ireland, shocks the economic sense. The multiplication—in +inverse ratio to a declining population—of costly and elaborate +monastic and conventual institutions, involving what in the aggregate +must be an enormous annual expenditure for maintenance, is difficult to +reconcile with the known conditions of the country. Most of these +institutions, it is true, carry on educational work, often, as in the +case of the Christian Brothers and some colleges and convents, of an +excellent kind. Many of them render great services to the poor, and +especially to the sick poor. But, none the less, it seems to me, their +growth in number and size is anomalous. I cannot believe that so large +an addition to the 'unproductive' classes is economically sound, and I +have no doubt at all that the competition with lay teachers of celibates +'living in community' is excessive and educationally injurious. Strongly +as I hold the importance of religion in education, I per<a name="Page_109"></a>sonally do not +think that teachers who have renounced the world and withdrawn from +contact with its stress and strain are the best moulders of the +characters of youths who will have to come into direct conflict with the +trials and temptations of life. But here again we must accept the +situation and work with the instruments ready to hand. The practical and +statesmanlike action for all those concerned is to endeavour to render +these institutions as efficient educational agencies as may be possible. +They owe their existence largely to the gaps in the educational system +of this country which religious and political strife have produced and +maintained, and they deserve the utmost credit for endeavouring to +supply missing steps in our educational ladder.<a name="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> If they now fully +respond to the spirit of the new movements and meet the demand for +technical education by the employment of the most approved methods and +equipment, and by the thorough training on sound lines of <a name="Page_110"></a>their staffs, +it is impossible that their influence on the young generation should not +be as salutary as it will be wide-reaching.</p> + +<p>But, after all, these criticisms are, for the purposes of my argument, +of minor relevance and importance. The real matter in which the direct +and personal responsibility of the Roman Catholic clergy seems to me to +be involved, is the character and <i>morale</i> of the people of this +country. No reader of this book will accuse me of attaching too little +weight to the influence of historical causes on the present state, +social, economic and political, of Ireland, but even when I have given +full consideration to all such influences I still think that, with their +unquestioned authority in religion, and their almost equally undisputed +influence in education, the Roman Catholic clergy cannot be exonerated +from some responsibility in regard to Irish character as we find it +to-day. Are they, I would ask, satisfied with that character? I cannot +think so. The impartial observer will, I fear, find amongst a majority +of our people a striking absence of self-reliance and moral courage; an +entire lack of serious thought on public questions; a listlessness and +apathy in regard to economic improvement which amount to a form of +fatalism; and, in backward districts, a survival of superstition, which +saps all strength of will and purpose—and all this, too, amongst a +people singularly gifted by nature with good qualities of mind and +heart.</p> + +<p>Nor can the Roman Catholic clergy altogether console themselves with the +thought that religious faith, even <a name="Page_111"></a>when free from superstition, is +strong in the breasts of the people. So long, no doubt, as Irish Roman +Catholics remain at home, in a country of sharply defined religious +classes, and with a social environment and a public opinion so +preponderatingly stamped with their creed, open defections from Roman +Catholicism are rare. But we have only to look at the extent of the +'leakage' from Roman Catholicism amongst the Irish emigrants in the +United States and in Great Britain, to realise how largely emotional and +formal must be the religion of those who lapse so quickly in a +non-Catholic atmosphere.<a name="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a></p> + +<p>It is not, of course, to the causes of the defections from a creed to +which I do not subscribe that my criticism is directed. I refer to the +matter only in order to emphasise the large share of responsibility +which belongs to the Roman Catholic clergy for what I strongly believe +to be the chief part in the work of national regeneration, the part +compared with which all legislative, administrative, educational or +industrial achievements are of minor importance. Holding, as I do, that +the building of character is the condition precedent to material, social +and intellectual advancement, indeed to <a name="Page_112"></a>all national progress, I may, +perhaps, as a lay citizen, more properly criticise, from this point of +view, what I conceive to be the great defect in the methods of clerical +influence. For this purpose no better illustration could be afforded +than a brief analysis of the results of the efforts made by the Roman +Catholic clergy to inculcate temperance.</p> + +<p>Among temperance advocates—the most earnest of all reformers—the Roman +Catholic clergy have an honourable record. An Irish priest was the +greatest, and, for a brief spell, the most successful temperance apostle +of the last century, and statistics, it is only fair to say, show that +we Irish drink rather less than people in other parts of the United +Kingdom. But the real question is whether we more often drink to +intoxication, and police statistics as well as common experience seem to +disclose that we do. Many a temperate man drinks more in his life than +many a village drunkard. Again, the test of the average consumption of +man, woman and child is somewhat misleading, especially in Ireland +where, owing to the excessive emigration of adults, there is a +disproportionately large number of very young and old. Moreover, we +Irish drink more in proportion to our means than the English, Scotch, +and Welsh, whose consumption is absolutely larger. Anyone who attempts +to deal practically with the problems of industrial development in +Ireland realises what a terribly depressing influence the drink evil +exercises upon the industrial capacity of the people. 'Ireland sober is +Ireland free,' is nearer the truth, than <a name="Page_113"></a>much that is thought and most +of what is said about liberty in this country.</p> + +<p>Now, the drink habit in Ireland differs from that of the other parts of +the United Kingdom. The Irishman is, in my belief, physiologically less +subject to the craving for alcohol than the Englishman, a fact which is +partially attributable, I should say, to the less animal dietary to +which he is accustomed. By far the greater proportion of the drinking +which retards our progress is of a festive character. It takes place at +fairs and markets, sometimes, even yet, at 'wakes,' those ghastly +parodies on the blessed consolation of religion in bereavement. It is +intensified by the almost universal sale of liquor in the country shops +'for consumption on the premises,' an evil the demoralising effects of +which are an hundredfold greater than those of the 'grocer's licences' +which temperance reformers so strenuously denounce. It is an evil in +defence of which nothing can be said, but it has somehow escaped the +effective censure of the Church.</p> + +<p>The indiscriminate granting of licences in Ireland, which has resulted +in the provision of liquor shops in a proportion to the population +larger than is found in any other country, is in itself due mainly to +the moral cowardice of magistrates, who do not care to incur local +unpopularity by refusing licences for which there is no pretence of any +need beyond that of the applicant and his relatives. Not long ago the +magistrates of Ireland met in Dublin in order to inaugurate common +action in <a name="Page_114"></a>dealing with this scandal. Appropriate resolutions were +passed, and much good has already resulted from the meeting, but had the +unvarnished truth been admissible, the first and indeed the only +necessary resolution should have run, "Resolved that in future we be +collectively as brave as we have been individually timid, and that we +take heart of grace and carry away from this meeting sufficient strength +to do, in the exercise of our functions as the licensing authority, what +we have always known to be our plain duty to our country and our God." +No such resolution was proposed, for though patriotism is becoming real +in Ireland, it is not yet very robust.</p> + +<p>I do not think it unfair to insist upon the large responsibility of the +clergy for the state of public opinion in this matter, to which the few +facts I have cited bear testimony. But I attribute their failure to deal +with a moral evil of which they are fully cognisant to the fact that +they do not recognise the chief defect in the character of the people, +and to a misunderstanding of the means by which that character can be +strengthened. There are, however, exceptions to this general statement. +It is of happy augury for the future of Ireland that many of the clergy +are now leading a temperance movement which shows a real knowledge of +the <i>causa causans</i> of Irish intemperance. The Anti-Treating League, as +it is called, administers a novel pledge which must have been conceived +in a very understanding mind. Those enlisted undertake neither to treat +nor to be treated. They may drink, so far as the pledge is concerned, as +<a name="Page_115"></a>much as they like; but they must drink at their own expense; and others +must not drink at their expense. The good nature and sociability of +Irishmen, too often the mere result of inability to say 'no,' need not +be sacrificed. But even if they were, the loss of these social graces +would be far more than compensated by a self-respect and seriousness of +life out of which something permanent might be built. Still, even this +League makes no direct appeal to character, and so acts rather as a cure +for than as a preventive of our moral weakness.</p> + +<p>The methods by which clerical influence is wielded in the inculcation of +chastity may be criticised from exactly the same standpoint as that from +which I have found it necessary to deal with the question of temperance. +Here the success of the Irish priesthood is, considering the conditions +of peasant life, and the fire of the Celtic temperament, absolutely +unique. No one can deny that almost the entire credit of this moral +achievement belongs to the Roman Catholic clergy. It may be said that +the practice of a virtue, even if the motive be of an emotional kind, +becomes a habit, and that habit proverbially develops into a second +nature. With this view of moral evolution I am in entire accord; but I +would ask whether the evolution has not reached a stage where a gradual +relaxation of the disciplinary measures by which chastity is insured +might be safely allowed without any danger of lowering the high standard +of continence which is general in Ireland and which of course it is of +supreme importance to maintain.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_116"></a>There are, however, many parishes where in this matter the strictest +discipline is rigorously enforced Amusements, not necessarily or even +often vicious, are objected to as being fraught with dangers which would +never occur to any but the rigidly ascetic or the puritanical mind. In +many parishes the Sunday cyclist will observe the strange phenomenon of +a normally light-hearted peasantry marshalled in male and female groups +along the road, eyeing one another in dull wonderment across the +forbidden space through the long summer day. This kind of discipline, +unless when really necessary, is open to the objection that it +eliminates from the education of life, especially during the formative +years, an essential of culture—the mutual understanding of the sexes. +The evil of grafting upon secular life a quasi-monasticism which, not +being voluntary, has no real effect upon the character, may perhaps +involve moral consequences little dreamed of by the spiritual guardians +of the people. A study of the pathology of the emotions might throw +doubt upon the safety of enforced asceticism when unaccompanied by the +training which the Church wisely prescribes for those who take the vow +of celibacy. But of my own knowledge I can speak only of another aspect +of the effect upon our national life of the restrictions to which I +refer. No Irishmen are more sincerely desirous of staying the tide of +emigration than the Roman Catholic clergy, and while, wisely as I think, +they do not dream of a wealthy Ireland, they earnestly work for the +physical and material as well as the spiritual well-being <a name="Page_117"></a>of their +flocks. And yet no man can get into the confidence of the emigrating +classes without being told by them that the exodus is largely due to a +feeling that the clergy are, no doubt from an excellent motive, taking +joy—innocent joy—from the social side of the home life.</p> + +<p>To go more fully into these subjects might carry me beyond the proper +limits of lay criticism. But, clearly, large questions of clerical +training must suggest themselves to those to whom their discussion +properly belongs—whether, for example, there is not in the instances +which I have cited evidence of a failure to understand that mere +authority in the regions of moral conduct cannot have any abiding +effect, except in the rarest combination of circumstances, and with a +very primitive people. Do not many of these clergy ignore the vast +difference between the ephemeral nature of moral compulsion and the +enduring force of a real moral training?</p> + +<p>I have dealt with the exercise of clerical influence in these matters as +being, at any rate in relation to the subject matter of this book, far +more important than the evil commonly described as "The Priest in +Politics." That evil is, in my opinion, greatly misrepresented. The +cases of priests who take an improper part in politics are cited without +reference to the vastly greater number who take no part at all, except +when genuinely assured that a definite moral issue is at stake. I also +have in my mind the question of how we should have fared if the control +of the different Irish agitations had been confined to laymen, and if +the clergy had not consistently <a name="Page_118"></a>condemned secret associations. But +whatever may be said in defence of the priest in politics in the past, +there are the strongest grounds for deprecating a continuance of their +political activity in the future. As I gauge the several forces now +operating in Ireland, I am convinced that if an anti-clerical movement +similar to that which other Roman Catholic countries have witnessed, +were to succeed in discrediting the priesthood and lowering them in +public estimation, it would be followed by a moral, social, and +political degradation which would blight, or at least postpone, our +hopes of a national regeneration. From this point of view I hold that +those clergymen who are predominantly politicians endanger the moral +influence which it is their solemn duty to uphold. I believe however, +that the over-active part hitherto taken in politics by the priests is +largely the outcome of the way in which Roman Catholics were treated in +the past, and that this undesirable feature in Irish life will yield, +and is already yielding to the removal of the evils to which it owed its +origin and in some measure its justification.<a name="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a></p> + +<p>One has only to turn to the spirit and temper of such representative +Roman Catholics as Archbishop Healy and Dr. Kelly, Bishop of Ross—to +their words and to their deeds—in order to catch the inspiration of a +new movement amongst our Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen at once +religious and patriotic. And if my optimism ever wavers, I have but to +think of the noble work that many <a name="Page_119"></a>priests are to my own knowledge +doing, often in remote and obscure parishes, in the teeth of innumerable +obstacles. I call to mind at such times, as pioneers in a great +awakening, men like the eminent Jesuit, Father Thomas Finlay, Father +Hegarty of Erris, Father O'Donovan of Loughrea, and many others—men +with whom I have worked and taken counsel, and who represent, I believe, +an ever increasing number of their fellow priests.<a name="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a></p> + +<p>My position, then, towards the influence of the Roman Catholic +clergy—and this influence is a matter of vital importance to the +understanding of Irish problems—- may now be clearly defined. While +recognising to the full that large numbers of the Irish Roman Catholic +clergy have in the past exercised undue influence in purely political +questions, and, in many other matters, social, educational, and +economic, have not, as I see things, been on the side of progress, I +hold that their influence is now, more than ever before, essential for +improving the condition of the most backward section of the population. +Therefore I feel it to be both the duty and the strong interest of my +Protestant fellow-country<a name="Page_120"></a>men to think much less of the religious +differences which divide them from Roman Catholics, and much more of +their common citizenship and their common cause. I also hold with equal +strength and sincerity to the belief, which I have already expressed, +that the shortcomings of the Roman Catholic clergy are largely to be +accounted for, not by any innate tendency on their part towards +obscurantism, but by the sad history of Ireland in the past. I would +appeal to those of my co-religionists who think otherwise to suspend +their judgment for a time. That Roman Catholicism is firmly established +in Ireland is a fact of the situation which they must admit, and as this +involves the continued powerful influence of the priesthood upon the +character of the people, it is surely good policy by liberality and fair +dealing, especially in the matter of education, to turn this influence +towards the upbuilding of our national life.</p> + +<p>To sum up the influence of religion and religious controversy in +Ireland, as it presents itself from the only standpoint from which I +have approached the matter in this chapter, namely, that of material, +social, and intellectual progress, I find that while the Protestants +have given, and continue to give, a fine example of thrift and industry +to the rest of the nation, the attitude of a section of them towards the +majority of their fellow-countrymen has been a bigoted and unintelligent +one. On the other hand, I have learned from practical experience amongst +the Roman Catholic people of Ireland that, while more free from bigotry, +in the sense <a name="Page_121"></a>in which that word is usually applied, they are apathetic, +thriftless, and almost non-industrial, and that they especially require +the exercise of strengthening influences on their moral fibre. I have +dealt with their shortcomings at much greater length than with those of +Protestants, because they have much more bearing on the subject matter +of this book. North and South have each virtues which the other lacks; +each has much to learn from the other; but the home of the strictly +civic virtues and efficiencies is in Protestant Ireland. The work of the +future in Ireland will be to break down in social intercourse the +barriers of creed as well as those of race, politics, and class, and +thus to promote the fruitful contact of North and South, and the +concentration of both on the welfare of their common country. In the +case of those of us, of whatever religious belief, who look to a future +for our country commensurate with the promise of her undeveloped +resources both of intellect and soil, it is of the essence of our hope +that the qualities which are in great measure accountable for the actual +economic and educational backwardness of so many of our +fellow-countrymen, and for the intolerance of too many who are not +backward in either respect, are not purely racial or sectarian, but are +the transitory growth of days and deeds which we must all try to forget +if our work for Ireland is to endure.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16">[16]</a><div class="note"><p> The reproach which is brought upon Irish Christianity +mainly by the extravagances of a section of my co-religionists, to which +I have been obliged to refer, came home to me not long ago in a very +forcible way. I happened to remark to a friend that it was a disgrace to +Christianity that Mussulman soldiery were employed at the Holy Sepulchre +to keep the peace between the Latin and Greek Christians. He reminded me +that the prosperous and progressive municipality of Belfast, with a +population eminently industrious, and predominantly Protestant, has to +be policed by an Imperial force in order to restrain two sections of +Irish Christians from assaulting each other in the name of religion.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17">[17]</a><div class="note"><p> '<i>Pro salute animae meae</i>' was, I am reminded, the +consideration usually expressed in the old charters of manumission.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18">[18]</a><div class="note"><p> One of the unfortunate effects of this passion for +building costly churches is the importation of quantities of foreign +art-work in the shape of woodcarvings, stained glass, mosaics, and metal +work. To good foreign art, indeed, one could not, within certain limits, +object. It might prove a valuable example and stimulus. But the articles +which have actually been imported, in the impulse to get everything +finished as soon as possible, generally consist of the stock pieces +produced in a spirit of mere commercialism in the workshops of +Continental firms which make it their business to cater for a public who +do not know the difference between good art and bad. Much of the +decoration of ecclesiastical buildings, whether Roman Catholic or +Protestant, might fittingly be postponed until religion in Ireland has +got into closer relation with the native artistic sense and industrial +spirit now beginning to seek creative expression.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19">[19]</a><div class="note"><p> The following extract from a statement of the Most Rev. +Dr. O'Dea, the newly elected Bishop of Clonfert, is pertinent:—'There +is another cause also—i.e. in addition to the absence of university +education for Roman Catholic laymen—which has hindered the employment +of the laity in the past. Till very recently, the secondary Catholic +schools received no assistance whatever from the State, and their +endowment from private sources was utterly inadequate to supply suitable +remuneration for lay teachers. It is evident that a celibate clergy +<i>can</i> live on a lower wage than the laity, and they are now charged with +having monopolized the schools, because they chose to work for a minimum +allowance rather than suffer the country to remain without any secondary +education whatever. Two causes, then, operated in the past, and in a +large measure still operate, to exclude the laity from the secondary +schools,—first, these schools were so poverty-stricken that they could +not afford to pay lay teachers at such a rate as would attract them to +the teaching profession, and, next, the Catholic laity as a body were +uneducated, and, therefore, unfit to teach in the schools.'—<i>Maynooth +and the University Question</i>, p. 109 (footnote).</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20">[20]</a><div class="note"><p> See, <i>inter alia</i>, an article "Ireland and America," by +Rev. Mr. Shinnors, O.M., in the <i>Irish Ecclesiastical Record</i>, February, +1902. 'Has the Church,' asks Father Shinnors, 'increased her membership +in the ratio that the population of the United States has increased? No. +There are many converts, but there are many more apostates. Large +numbers lapse into indifferentism and irreligion. There should be in +America about 20,000,000 Catholics; there are scarcely 10,000,000. There +are reasons to fear that the great majority of the apostates are of +Irish extraction, and not a few of them of Irish birth.'</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21">[21]</a><div class="note"><p> This view seems to be taken by the most influential +spokesmen of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. See Evidence, <i>Royal +Commission on University Education in Ireland</i>, vol. iii., p. 238, +Questions 8702-6.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22">[22]</a><div class="note"><p> I may mention that of the co-operative societies organised +by the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society there are no fewer than +331 societies of which the local priests are the Chairmen, while to my +own knowledge during the summer and autumn of 1902, as many as 50,000 +persons from all parts of Ireland were personally conducted over the +exhibit of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction at +the Cork Exhibition by their local clergy. The educational purpose of +these visits is explained in Chap. x. Again, in a great number of cases +the village libraries which have been recently started in Ireland with +the assistance of the Department (the books consisting largely of +industrial, economic, and technical works on agriculture), have been +organised and assisted by the Roman Catholic clergy.</p></div> + +<a name="Page_122"></a> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_V"></a><h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h4>A PRACTICAL VIEW OF IRISH EDUCATION.</h4> + + +<p>A little learning, we are told, is a dangerous thing; and in their +dealings with Irish education the English should have discovered that +this danger is accentuated when the little learning is combined with +much native wit. In the days when religious persecution was +universal—only, be it remembered, a few generations ago—it was the +policy of England to avert this danger by prohibiting, as far as +possible, the acquisition by Irish Roman Catholics of any learning at +all. After the Union, Englishmen began to feel their responsibility for +the state of Ireland, a state of poverty and distress which culminated +in the Famine. Knowledge was then no longer withheld: indeed the English +sincerely desired to dispel our darkness and enable us to share in the +wisdom, and so in the prosperity, of the predominant partner. In their +attempts to educate us they dealt with what they saw on the surface, and +moulded their educational principles upon what they knew; but they did +not know Ireland. Even if we excuse them for paying scant attention to +what they were told by Irishmen, they should have given more heed to the +reports of their own Royal Commissions.</p> + +<p>We have so far seen that the Irish mind has been in <a name="Page_123"></a>regard to +economics, politics, and even some phases of religious influence, a mind +warped and diseased, deprived of good nutrition and fed on fancies or +fictions, out of which no genuine growth, industrial or other, was +possible. The one thing that might have strengthened and saved a people +with such a political, social, and religious history, and such racial +characteristics, was an educational system which would have had special +regard to that history, and which would have been a just expression of +the better mind of the people whom it was intended to serve.</p> + +<p>Now this is exactly what was denied to Ireland. Not merely has all +educational legislation come from England, in the sense of being based +on English models and thought out by Englishmen largely out of touch and +sympathy with the peculiar needs of Ireland, but whenever there has been +genuine native thought on Irish educational problems, it has been either +ignored altogether or distorted till its value and significance were +lost. And in this matter we can claim for Ireland that there was in the +country during the first half of the nineteenth century, when England +was trying her best to provide us with a sound English education, a +comparatively advanced stage of home-grown Irish thought upon the +educational needs of the people. Take, for example, the Society for +Promoting Elementary Education among the Irish Poor, know as the Kildare +Street Society, which was founded as early as the year 1811. The first +resolution passed by this body, which was composed of <a name="Page_124"></a>prominent Dublin +citizens of all religious beliefs, was set out as follows:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>(1.) Resolved—That promoting the education of the poor of Ireland + is a grand object which every Irishman anxious for the welfare and + prosperity of his country ought to have in view as the basis upon + which the morals and true happiness of the country can be best + secured.</p></blockquote> + +<p>This Society, it is true, did not see or foresee that any system of +mixed religious education was doomed to failure in Ireland, but they +took a wide view of the place of education in a nation's development, +and the character of the education which their schools actually +dispensed was admirable. This hopeful and enterprising educational +movement is described by Mr. Lecky in a passage from which I take a few +extracts:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>The "Kildare Street Society" which received an endowment from + Government, and directed National education from 1812 to 1831, was + not proselytising, and it was for some time largely patronized by + Roman Catholics. It is certainly by no means deserving of the + contempt which some writers have bestowed on it, and if measured by + the spirit of the time in which it was founded it will appear both + liberal and useful.... The object of the schools was stated to be + united education, "taking common Christian ground for the + foundation, and excluding all sectarian distinctions from every + part of the arrangement;" "drawing the attention of both + denominations to the many leading truths of Christianity in which + they agree." To carry out this principle it was a fundamental rule + that the Bible must be read without note or <a name="Page_125"></a>comment in all the + schools. It might be read either in the Authorized or in the Douay + version.... In 1825 there were 1,490 schools connected with the + Society, containing about 100,000 pupils. The improvements + introduced into education by Bell, Lancaster, and Pestalozzi were + largely adopted. Great attention was paid to needlework.... A great + number of useful publications were printed by the Society, and we + have the high authority of Dr. Doyle for stating that he never + found anything objectionable [to Catholics] in them.<a name="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a></p></blockquote> + +<p>Take, again, as an evidence of the progressive spirit of the Irish +thinkers on education, the remarkable scheme of national education +which, after the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act, was +formulated by Mr. Thomas Wyse, of Waterford. In addition to elementary +schools, Mr. Wyse proposed to establish in every county, 'an academy for +the education of the middle class of society in those departments of +knowledge most necessary to those classes, and over those a College in +each of the four provinces, managed by a Committee representative of the +interests of the several counties of the provinces.' 'It is a matter of +importance,' wrote Mr. Wyse, 'for the simple and efficient working of +the whole system of national education, that each part should as much as +possible be brought into co-operation and accord with the others.' He +foresaw, too, that one of the needs of the Irish temperament was a +training in science which would cultivate the habits of 'education, +observation, and reasoning,' and he pointed <a name="Page_126"></a>out that the peculiar +manufactures, trades, and occupations of the several localities would +determine the course of studies. Mr. Wyse's memorandum on education led, +as is well known, to the creation of the Board of National Education, +but, to quote Dr. Starkie,<a name="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> the present Resident Commissioner of the +Board, 'the more important part of the scheme, dealing with a university +and secondary education, was shelved, in spite of Mr. Wyse's warnings +that it was imprudent, dangerous, and pernicious to the social condition +of the country, and to its future tranquillity, that so much +encouragement should be given to the education of the lower classes, +without at the same time due provision being made for the education of +the middle and upper classes.'</p> + +<p>As still another evidence of the sound thought on educational problems +which came from Irishmen who knew the actual conditions of their own +country and people, the case of the agricultural instruction +administered by the National Board is pertinent. The late Sir Patrick +Keenan has told us that landlords and others who on political and +religious grounds distrusted the National system, turned to this feature +of the operations of the National Board with the greatest fervour. A +scheme of itinerant instruction in agriculture, which had a curious +resemblance to that which the Department of Agriculture is now +organising, was developed, and was likely to have worked with the +<a name="Page_127"></a>greatest advantage to the country at large. Sir Patrick Keenan, who +knew Ireland and the Irish people well, speaks of this part of the +scheme as 'the most fruitful experiment in the material interests of the +country that was ever attempted. It was,' he adds, 'through the agency +of this corps of practical instructors that green cropping as a +systematic feature in farming was introduced into the South and West, +and even into the central parts of Ireland.' But all the hopes thus +raised went down, not before any intrinsic difficulties in the scheme +itself, or before any adverse opinion to it in Ireland, but before the +opposition of the Liverpool Financial Reform Association, who had their +own views as to the limits of State interference with agriculture. These +examples, drawn from different stages of Irish educational history, +might easily be multiplied, but they will serve as typical instances of +that want of recognition by English statesmen of Irish thought on Irish +problems, and that ignoring of Irish sentiment—as distinguished from +Irish sentimentality—which I insist is the basal element in the +misunderstandings of Irish problems.</p> + +<p>I now come to a brief consideration of some facts of the present +educational situation, and I shall indicate, for those readers who are +not familiar with current events in Ireland, the significant evolution, +or revolution, through which Irish education is passing. Within the last +eight years we have had in Ireland three very remarkable reports—in +themselves symptoms of a wide<a name="Page_128"></a>spread unrest and dissatisfaction—on the +educational systems of the country. I allude to the reports of two +Viceregal Commissions, one on Manual and Practical Instruction in our +Primary Schools, and the other on our Intermediate Education; and to the +recent report by a Royal Commission on University Education. These +reports cover the three grades of our educational system, and each of +them contains a strong denunciation and a scathing criticism of the +existing provision and methods of instruction in elementary, secondary, +and university education (outside Dublin University), respectively. One +and all showed that the education to be had in our primary and secondary +schools, as well as in the examining body known as the Royal University, +had little regard to the industrial or economic conditions of the +country. We find, for example, agriculture taught out of a text book in +the primary schools, with the result that the <i>gamins</i> of the Belfast +streets secured the highest marks in the subject. In the Intermediate +system are to be found anomalies of a similar kind, which could not long +have survived if there had been a living opinion on educational matters +in Ireland. No careful reader of the evidence given before the +Commissions can fail to see that under our educational system the +schools were practically bribed to fall in with a stereotyped course of +studies which left scant room for elasticity and adaptation to local +needs; that the teacher was, to all intents and purposes, deprived of +healthy initiative; and that the Irish parents must as a body have been +<a name="Page_129"></a>in the dark as to the bearing of their children's studies on their +probable careers in life. A deep and wholesome impression was made in +Ireland by the exposure of the intrinsic evils of a system calculated in +my opinion to turn our youth into a generation of second-rate clerks, +with a distinct distaste for any industrial or productive occupation in +which such qualities as initiative, self-reliance, or judgment were +called for.</p> + +<p>I am told by competent authorities that there is not a single +educational principle laid down in either the report on Manual +Instruction or on Intermediate Education, which was not known and +applied at least half a century ago in continental countries. In fact, +in the Recess Committee investigations, as any reader of the report of +that body can see for himself, the Committee, guided by foreign +experience, foreshadowed practically every reform now being put into +operation. It is better, of course, that we should reform late than +never, but it is well to bear in mind also, so far as the problems of +this book are concerned, how far the education of the country has fallen +short of any sound standard, and how little could have been expected +from the working of our system. The curve of Irish illiteracy has indeed +fallen continuously with each succeeding census, but true education as +opposed to mere instruction has languished sadly.</p> + +<p>Together with my friends and fellow-workers in the self-help movement, I +believe that the problem of Irish education, like all other Irish +problems, must be recon<a name="Page_130"></a>sidered from the standpoint of its relation to +the practical affairs and everyday life of the people of Ireland. The +needs and opportunities of the industrial struggle must, in fact, mould +into shape our educational policy and programmes. We are convinced that +there is little hope of any real solution of the more general problem of +national education, unless and until those in direct contact with the +specific industries of the country succeed in bringing to the notice of +those engaged in the framing of our educational system the kind and +degree of the defects in the industrial character of our people which +debar them from successful competition with other countries. Education +in Ireland has been too long a thing apart from the economic realities +of the country—with what result we know. In the work of the Department +of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, an attempt is +being made to establish a vital relation between industrial education +and industrial life. It is desired to try, at this critical stage of our +development, the experiment—I call it an experiment only because it +does not seem to have been tried before in Ireland—of directing our +instruction with a conscious and careful regard to the probable future +careers of those we are educating.</p> + +<p>This attempt touches, of course, only one department of the whole +educational problem, much of which it would be quite outside my present +purpose to discuss. But I must guard against the supposition that in our +insistence upon the importance of the practical side of <a name="Page_131"></a>education we +are under any doubt as to the great importance of the literary side. My +friends and I have been deeply impressed by the educational experience +of Denmark, where the people, who are as much dependent on agriculture +as are the Irish, have brought it by means of organisation to a more +genuine success than it has attained anywhere else in Europe. Yet an +inquirer will at once discover that it is to the "High Schools" founded +by Bishop Grundtvig, and not to the agricultural schools, which are also +excellent, that the extraordinary national progress is mainly due. A +friend of mine who was studying the Danish system of State aid to +agriculture, found this to be the opinion of the Danes of all classes, +and was astounded at the achievements of the associations of farmers, +not only in the manufacture of butter, but in a far more difficult +undertaking, the manufacture of bacon in large factories equipped with +all the most modern machinery and appliances which science had devised +for the production of the finished article. He at first concluded that +this success in a highly technical industry by bodies of farmers +indicated a very perfect system of technical education. But he soon +found another cause. As one of the leading educators and agriculturists +of the country put it to him: 'It's not technical instruction, it's the +humanities.' I would like to add that it is also, if I may coin a term, +the 'nationalities,' for nothing is more evident to the student of +Danish education or, I might add, of the excellent system of the +Christian Brothers in Ireland, than that one of the secrets of their +<a name="Page_132"></a>success is to be found in their national basis and their foundation +upon the history and literature of the country.</p> + +<p>To sum up the educational situation in Ireland, it is not too much to +say that all our forms of education, technical and general, hang loose. +We lack a body of trained teachers; we have no alert and informed public +opinion on education and its function in regard to life; and there is no +proper provision for research work in all branches, a deficiency, which, +I am told by those who have given deep thought and long study to these +problems, inevitably reacts most disastrously on the general educational +system of the country. This state of things appears not unnatural when +we remember that the Penal Laws were not repealed till almost the close +of the eighteenth century, and that a large majority of the Irish people +had not full and free access to even primary and secondary education +until the passing of the Emancipation Act in 1829. At the present day, +the absence of any provision for higher education of which Roman +Catholics will avail themselves is not merely an enormous loss in +itself, but it reacts most adversely upon the whole educational +machinery, and consequently upon the whole public life and thought of +that section of the nation.</p> + +<p>One of the very first things I had to learn when I came into direct +touch with educational problems, was that the education of a country +cannot be divided into water-tight compartments, and each part +legislated for or discussed solely on its merits and without reference +to the other parts. I see now very clearly that the <a name="Page_133"></a>educational system +of a country is an organic whole, the working of any part of which +necessarily has an influence on the working of the rest. I had always +looked upon the lower, secondary, and higher grades as the first, +second, and third storeys of the educational house, and I am not quite +sure that I attached sufficient importance to the staircase. My view has +now changed, and I find myself regarding the University as a foundation +and support of the primary and secondary school.</p> + +<p>It was not on purely pedagogic grounds that I added to my other +political irregularities the earnest advocacy of such a provision for +higher education as Roman Catholics will avail themselves of. This great +need was revealed to me in my study of the Irish mind and of the +direction in which it could look for its higher development. My belief +is based on practical experience; my point of view is that of the +economist. When the new economic mission in Ireland began now fourteen +years ago, we had to undertake, in addition to our practical programme, +a kind of University extension work with the important omission of the +University. We had to bring home to adult farmers whose general +education was singularly poor, though their native intelligence was keen +and receptive, a large number of general ideas bearing on the productive +and distributive side of their industry. Our chief obstacles arose from +the lack of trained economic thought among all classes, and especially +among those to whom the majority looked for guidance. The air was thick +with economic fallacies or <a name="Page_134"></a>half-truths. We were, it is true, successful +beyond our expectations in planting in apparently uncongenial soil sound +economic principles. But our success was mainly due, as I shall show +later, to our having used the associative instincts of the Irish peasant +to help out the working of our theories; and we became convinced that if +a tithe of our priests, public men, national school teachers, and +members of our local bodies had received a university education, we +should have made much more rapid progress.</p> + +<p>I hardly know how to describe the mental atmosphere in which we were +working. It would be no libel upon the public opinion upon which we +sought to make an impression to say that it really allowed no question +to be discussed on its merits. Public opinion on social and economic +questions is changing now, but I cannot associate the change with any +influence emanating from institutions of higher education. In other +countries, so far as my investigations have extended, the universities +do guide economic thought and have a distinct though wholly unofficial +function as a court of appeal upon questions relating to the material +progress of the communities amongst which they are situated. Of such +institutions there are in Ireland only two which could be expected to +direct in any large way the thought of the country upon economic and +other important national questions—Maynooth, and Trinity College, +Dublin. Whether in their widely different spheres of influence these two +institutions could, under <a name="Page_135"></a>conditions other than those prevailing, have +so met the requirements of the country as to have obviated what is at +present an urgent necessity for a complete reorganisation of higher +education need not be discussed; but it is essential to my argument that +I should set forth clearly the results of my own observation upon their +influence, or rather lack of influence, upon the people among whom I +have worked.</p> + +<p>The influence of Maynooth, actual and potential, can hardly be +exaggerated, but it is exercised indirectly upon the secular thought of +the country. It is not its function to make a direct impression. It is +in fact only a professional—I had almost said a technical—school. It +trains its students, most admirably I am told, in theology, philosophy, +and the studies subsidiary to these sciences, but always, for the vast +majority of its students, with a distinctly practical and definite +missionary end in view. There is, I believe, an arts course of modest +scope, designed rather to meet the deficiencies of students whose +general education has been neglected than to serve as anything in the +nature of a university arts course. I am quite aware of the value of a +sound training in mental science if given in connection with a full +university course, but I am equally convinced that the Maynooth +education, on the whole, is no substitute for a university course, and +that while its chief end of turning out a large number of trained +priests has been fulfilled, it has not given, and could not be expected +to have given, that broader and more humane culture which only <a name="Page_136"></a>a +university, as distinguished from a professional school, can adequately +provide.</p> + +<p>Moreover, under the Maynooth system young clerics are constantly called +upon to take a part in the life of a lay community, towards which, when +they entered college, they were in no position of responsibility, and +upon which, so far as secular matters are concerned, when they emerge +from their theological training, they are no better adapted to exercise +a helpful influence. In my experience of priests I have met with many in +whom I recognised a sincere desire to attend to the material and social +well-being of their flocks, but who certainly had not that breadth of +view and understanding of human nature which perhaps contact with the +laity during the years in which they were passing from discipline to +authority might have given to them. However this may be, it is clear and +it is admitted that education as opposed to professional training of a +high order is still, generally speaking, a want among the priests of +Ireland, and I look forward to no greater boon from a University or +University College for Roman Catholics than its influence, direct and +indirect, on a body of men whose prestige and authority are necessarily +so unique.</p> + +<p>It is, therefore, to Trinity College, or the University of Dublin, that +one would naturally turn as to a great centre of thought in Ireland for +help in the theoretic aspects, at least, of the practical problems upon +whose successful solution our national well-being depends. Judged <a name="Page_137"></a>by +the not unimportant test of the men it has supplied to the service of +the State and country during its three centuries of educational +activity, by the part it took in one of the brightest epochs of these +three centuries—the days when it gave Grattan to Grattan's Parliament, +by the work and reputation of the <i>alumni</i> it could muster to-day within +and without its walls, our venerable seat of learning need not fear +comparison with any similar institutions in Great Britain. It may also, +of course, be said that many men who have passed through Trinity College +have impressed the thought of Ireland, and, indeed, of the world, in one +way or another—such men as, to take two very different examples, Burke +and Thomas Davis—but on some of the very best spirits amongst these men +Trinity College and its atmosphere have exerted influence rather by +repulsion than by attraction; and certainly their characteristics of +temper or thought have not been of a kind which those best acquainted +with the atmosphere of Trinity College associate with that institution. +Still nothing can detract from the credit of having educated such men. +But these tests and standards are, for my present purpose, irrelevant. I +am not writing a book on Irish educational history, or even a record of +present-day Irish educational achievement. I am rather trying, from the +standpoint of a practical worker for national progress, to measure the +reality and strength of the educational and other influences which are +actually and actively operating on the character and intellect of the +majority of the Irish people, moulding <a name="Page_138"></a>their thought and directing +their action towards the upbuilding of our national life.</p> + +<p>From this point of view I am bound to say that Trinity College, so far +as I have seen, has had but little influence upon the minds or the lives +of the people. Nor can I find that at any period of the extraordinarily +interesting economic and social revolution, which has been in progress +in Ireland since the great catastrophe of the Famine period, Dublin +University has departed from its academic isolation and its aloofness +from the great national problems that were being worked out. The more +one thinks of it, indeed, and the more one realises the opportunities of +an institution like Trinity College in a country like Ireland, the more +one must recognise how small, in recent times, has been its positive +influence on the mind of the country, and how little it has contributed +towards the solution of any of those problems, educational, economic, or +social, that were clamant for solution, and which in any other country +would have naturally secured the attention of men who ought to have been +leaders of thought.</p> + +<p>Whatever the causes, and many may be assigned, this unfortunate lack of +influence on the part of Trinity College, has always seemed to me a +strong supplementary argument for the creation of another University or +University College on a more popular basis, to which the Roman Catholic +people of Ireland would have recourse. From the fact that Maynooth by +its constitution could never have developed into a great national<a name="Page_139"></a> +University,<a name="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> and that Trinity College has never, as a matter of fact, +done so, and has thus, in my opinion, missed a unique opportunity, it +has come about that Ireland has been without any great centre of thought +whose influence would have tended to leaven the mass of mental +inactivity or random-thinking so prevalent in Ireland, and would have +created a body of educated public opinion sufficiently informed and +potent to secure the study and discussion on their merits of questions +of vital interest to the country. The demoralising atmosphere of +partisanship which hangs over Ireland would, I am convinced, gradually +give way before an organised system of education with a thoroughly +democratic University at its head, which would diffuse amongst the +people at large a sense of the value of a balanced judgment on, and a +true appreciation of, the real forces with which Ireland has to deal in +building up her fortunes.</p> + +<p>To discuss the merits of the different solutions which have been +proposed for the vexed problem of higher education in Ireland would be +beyond the scope of this book. The question will have to be faced, and +all I need do here is to state the conditions which the solution will +have to fulfil if it is to deal with the aspects of the Irish Question +with which the new movement is practically concerned. What is most +needed is a University that will <a name="Page_140"></a>reach down to the rural population, +much in the same way as the Scottish Universities do, and a lower scale +of fees will be required than Trinity College, with its diminished +revenues, could establish. Already I can see that the work of the new +Department, acting in conjunction with local bodies, urban and rural, +throughout the country, will provide a considerable number of +scholarships, bursaries, and exhibitions for young men who are being +prepared to take part in the very real, but rather hazily understood, +industrial revival which is imminent. Leaving sectarian controversies +out of the question, the type of institution which is required in order +to provide adequately for the classes now left outside the influence of +higher education is an institution pre-eminently national in its aims, +and one intimately associated with the new movements making for the +development of our national resources.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, however, in Ireland, and indeed in England too, there is +a tendency to regard educational institutions almost solely as they will +affect religion. At least it is difficult to arouse any serious interest +in them except from this point of view. I welcome, therefore, the +striking answers given to the queries of Lord Robertson, Chairman of the +University Commission, by Dr. O'Dwyer, the Roman Catholic Bishop of +Limerick, who boldly and wisely placed the question before the country +in the light in which cleric and layman should alike regard it:—</p> + +<blockquote><p><i>The Chairman</i>.—(413): "I suppose you believe a Catholic<a name="Page_141"></a> + University, such as you propose, will strengthen Roman Catholicism + in Ireland?"—"It is not easy to answer that; not so easy as it + looks." (414):—"But it won't weaken it, or you would not be + here?"—"It would educate Catholics in Ireland very largely, and, + of course, a religious denomination composed of a body of educated + men is stronger than a religious denomination composed of ignorant + men. In that sense it would strengthen Roman Catholicism." + (415):—"Is there any sense in which it won't?"—"As far as + religion is concerned, I do not know how a University would work + out. If you ask me now whether I think that that University in a + certain number of years would become a centre of thought, + strengthening the Catholic faith in Ireland, I cannot tell you. It + is a leap in the dark." (416):—"But it is in the hope that it will + strengthen your own Church that you propose it?"—"No, it is not, + by any means. We are Bishops, but we are Irishmen, also, and we + want to serve our country."<a name="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a></p></blockquote> + +<p>Equally significant were the statements of Dr. O'Dea, the official +spokesman of Maynooth, when he said,</p> + +<blockquote><p>I regard the interest of the laity in the settlement of the + University Question as supreme. The clergy are but a small, however + important, part of the nation, and the laity have never had an + institution of higher education comparable to Maynooth in magnitude + or resources. I recognise, therefore, that the educational + grievances of the laity are much more pressing than those of the + clergy ... It is generally admitted that Irish priests hold a + position of exceptional influence, due to historical causes, the + intensely religious character of the people, and the want of + Catholic laymen qualified by education and position for social and + political leadership. What Bishop Berkeley said of them in 1749, in + his letter, <i>A Word to the Wise</i>, still holds true, 'That no set of + men on earth have it in <a name="Page_142"></a>their power to do good on easier terms, + with more advantage to others, and less pains or loss to + themselves.' It would be folly to expect that in a mixed community + the State should do anything to strengthen or perpetuate this + power; but this result will certainly not follow from the more + liberal education of the clergy, provided equal advantages are + extended to the laity. On the contrary, I am convinced that if the + void in the lay leadership of the country be filled up by higher + education of the better classes among the Catholic laity, the power + of the priests, so far as it is abnormal or unnecessary will pass + away; and, further, if I believed, with many who are opposed to the + better education of the priesthood, that their power is based on + falsehood or superstition, I would unhesitatingly advocate the + spread of higher education among the laity and clergy alike, as the + best means of effectually sapping and disintegrating it.<a name="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a></p></blockquote> + +<p>I had for long indulged a hope that a university of the type which +Ireland requires would have been the outcome of a great national +educational movement emanating from Trinity College, which might, at +this auspicious hour, have surpassed all the proud achievements of its +three hundred years. That hope was dispelled when the cry of 'Hands off +Trinity' was applied to the profane hands of the Royal Commission. +Perhaps that attitude may be reconsidered yet. There is one hopeful +sentiment which is often heard coming from that institution. An opinion +has been strongly expressed that nothing ought to be done to separate in +secular life two sections of Irishmen who happen to belong to different +creeds. Whatever may be the logical outcome of the position taken up +towards the University problem by <a name="Page_143"></a>those who give expression to this +pious opinion, I do not for a moment doubt their sincerity. But I often +think that too much importance is attached to the danger of building new +walls, and that there is too little appreciation of the wide and deep +foundation of the already existing walls between the two sections of +Irishmen who are so unhappily kept apart. In dealing with this, as with +all large Irish problems, it had better be frankly recognised that there +are in the country two races, two creeds, and, what is too little +considered, two separate spheres of economic interest and pursuit. +Socially two separate classes have naturally, nay inevitably, arisen out +of these distinctions. One class has superior advantages in many ways of +great importance. The other class is far more numerous, produces far the +greater proportion of the nation's wealth, and is, therefore, from the +national point of view, of greater importance. But both are necessary. +Both must be adequately provided for in the supreme matter of higher +education. Above all, the two classes must be educated to regard +themselves as united by the bond of a common country—a sentiment which, +if genuine, would treat differences arising from whatever cause, not as +a difficulty in the way of national progress, but rather as affording a +variety of opportunities for national expansion.</p> + +<p>I do not concern myself as to the exact form which the new institution +or institutions which are to give us the absolutely essential advantage +of higher education should <a name="Page_144"></a>take. If in view of the difference in the +requirements to which I have alluded, and the complicated pedagogic and +administrative considerations which have to be taken into account, +schemes of co-education of Protestants and Roman Catholics are difficult +of immediate accomplishment, let that ideal be postponed. The two creeds +can meet in the playground now: they can meet everywhere in after life. +Ireland will bring them together soon enough if Ireland is given a +chance, and when the time is ripe for their coming together in higher +education they will come together. If the time is not now ripe for this +ideal there is no justification for postponing educational reform until +the relations between the two creeds have been elevated to a plane +which, in my opinion, they will never reach except through the aid of +that culture which a widely diffused higher education alone can afford.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>When I was beginning to write this chapter I chanced to pick up the +<i>Chesterfield Letters</i>. I opened the book at the two hundredth epistle, +and, curiously enough, almost the first sentence which caught my eye +ran: 'Education more than nature is the cause of that difference you see +in the character of men.' I felt myself at first in strong disagreement +with this aphorism. But when I came to reflect how much the nature of +one generation must be the outcome of the education of those which went +before it, I gradually came to see the truth in Lord Chesterfield's +words. I must leave it to <a name="Page_145"></a>experts to define the exact steps which ought +to be taken to make the general education of this country capable of +cultivating the judgment, strengthening the will, and so of building up +the character. But every day, every thought, I give to the problems of +Irish progress convinces me more firmly that this is the real task of +educational reform, a task that must be accomplished before we can prove +to those who brand us with racial inferiority that, in Ireland, it was +not nature that has been unkind in causing the difference we find in the +character of men.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23">[23]</a><div class="note"><p> <i>Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland</i>, II., 122-4.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24">[24]</a><div class="note"><p> <i>Recent Reforms in Irish Education</i>, p. 7.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25">[25]</a><div class="note"><p> It was not authorised to give degrees to lay students; and +even the admission of lay students to an Arts course was prohibited by +Government, lest Catholic students should be drawn away from Trinity +College. See Cornwallis Correspondence, III., 366-8.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26">[26]</a><div class="note"><p> Appendix to First Report, p. 37.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27">[27]</a><div class="note"><p> Appendix to Third Report, pp. 283, 296.</p></div> + + +<a name="Page_146"></a> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VI"></a><h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h4>THROUGH THOUGHT TO ACTION.</h4> + + +<p>I have now completed my survey of the main conditions which, in my +opinion, must be taken into account by anyone who would understand the +Irish mind, and still more by those who seek to work with it in +rebuilding the fortunes of the country. The task has been one of great +difficulty, as it was necessary to tell, not only the truth—for that +even an official person may be excused—but also the whole truth, which, +unless made compulsory by the kissing of the book, is regarded as a +gratuitous kissing of the rod. From the frying pan of political dispute, +I have passed into the fire of sectarian controversy. I have not +hesitated to poach on the preserves of historians and economists, and +have even bearded the pedagogues in their dens. Before my stock of +metaphors is exhausted, let me say that I have one hope of escape from +the cross-fire of denunciation which independent speaking about Ireland +is apt to provoke. I once witnessed a football match between two +villages, one of which favoured a political party called by the name of +a leader, with an 'ism' added to indicate a policy, the other adopting +the same name, still further elongated by the prefix 'anti.' When I +arrived on the scene the game had begun in deadly earnest, but I noticed +the ball lying unmolested in another quarter of <a name="Page_147"></a>the field. In Irish +public life I have often had reason to envy that ball, and perhaps now +its lot may be mine, while the game goes on and the critics pay +attention to each other.</p> + +<p>To my friendly critics a word of explanation is due. The opinions to +which I have given expression are based upon personal observation and +experience extending over a quarter of a century during which I have +been in close touch with Irish life at home, and not unfamiliar with it +abroad. I have referred to history only when I could not otherwise +account for social and economic conditions with which I came into +contact, or with which I desired practically to deal. Whether looking +back over the dreary wastes of Anglo-Irish history, or studying the men +and things of to-day, I came to conclusions which differed widely from +what I had been taught to believe by those whose theories of Irish +development had not been subjected to any practical test. Deeply as I +have felt for the past sufferings of the Irish people and their heritage +of disability and distress, I could not bring myself to believe that, +where misgovernment had continued so long, and in such an immense +variety of circumstances and conditions, the governors could have been +alone to blame. I envied those leaders of popular thought whose +confidence in themselves and in their followers was shaken by no such +reflections. But the more I listened to them the more the conviction was +borne in upon me that they were seeking to build an impossible future +upon an imaginary past.</p><a name="Page_148"></a> + +<p>Those who know Ireland from within are aware that Irish thought upon +Irish problems has been undergoing a silent, and therefore too lightly +regarded revolution. The surface of Irish life, often so inexplicably +ruffled, and sometimes so inexplicably calm, has just now become smooth +to a degree which has led to hasty conclusions as to the real cause and +the inward significance of the change. To chime in with the thoughtless +optimism of the hour will do no good; but a real understanding of the +forces which have created the existing situation will reveal an +unprecedented opportunity for those who would give to the Irish mind +that full and free development which has been so long and, as I have +tried to show, so unnaturally delayed.</p> + +<p>Among these new forces in Irish life there is one which has been greatly +misunderstood; and yet to its influence during the last few years much +of the 'transformation scene' in the drama of the Irish Question is +really due. It deserves more than a passing notice here, because, while +its aims as formulated appear somewhat restricted, it unquestionably +tends in practice towards that national object of paramount importance, +the strengthening of character. I refer to the movement known as the +Gaelic Revival. Of this movement I am myself but an outside observer, +having been forced to devote nearly all my time and energies to a +variety of attempts which aim at the doing in the industrial sphere of +very much the same work as that which the Gaelic movement attempts in +the intellectual sphere—the re<a name="Page_149"></a>habilitation of Ireland from within. But +in the course of my work of agricultural and industrial development I +naturally came across this new intellectual force and found that when it +began to take effect, so far from diverting the minds of the peasantry +from the practical affairs of life, it made them distinctly more +amenable to the teaching of the dry economic doctrine of which I was an +apostle. The reason for this is plain enough to me now, though, like all +my theories about Ireland, the truth came to me from observation and +practical experience rather than as the result of philosophic +speculation. For the co-operative movement depended for its success upon +a two-fold achievement. In order to get it started at all, its +principles and working details had to be grasped by the Irish peasant +mind and commended to his intelligence. Its further development and its +hopes of permanence depend upon the strengthening of character, which, I +must repeat, is the foundation of all Irish progress.</p> + +<p>The Irish Agricultural Organisation Society<a name="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a> exerts its influence—a +now established and rapidly-growing influence—mainly through the medium +of associations. The Gaelic movement, on the other hand, acts more +directly upon the individual, and the two forces are therefore in a +sense complementary to each other. Both will be seen to be playing an +important part—I should say a necessary part—in the reconstruction of +our national life. At any rate, I feel that it is necessary to my +argument that I should explain to those who are as ill-informed <a name="Page_150"></a>about +the Gaelic revival as I was myself until its practical usefulness was +demonstrated to me, what exactly seems to be the most important outcome +of the work of that movement.</p> + +<p>The Gaelic League, which defines its objects as 'The preservation of +Irish as the national language of Ireland and the extension of its use +as a spoken tongue; the study and publication of existing Irish +literature and the cultivation of a modern literature in Irish,' was +formed in 1893. Like the Agricultural Organisation Society, the Gaelic +League is declared by its constitution to be 'strictly non-political and +non-sectarian,' and, like it, has been the object of much suspicion, +because severance from politics in Ireland has always seemed to the +politician the most active form of enmity. Its constitution, too, is +somewhat similar, being democratically guided in its policy by the +elected representatives of its affiliated branches. It is interesting to +note that the funds with which it carries on an extensive propaganda are +mainly supplied from the small contributions of the poor. It publishes +two periodicals, one weekly and another monthly. It administers an +income of some £6,000 a year, not reckoning what is spent by local +branches, and has a paid staff of eleven officers, a secretary, +treasurer, and nine organisers, together with a large number of +voluntary workers. It resembled the agricultural movement also in the +fact that it made very little headway during the first few years of its +existence. But it had a nucleus of workers with new ideas for the +intellectual <a name="Page_151"></a>regeneration of Ireland. In face of much apathy they +persisted with their propaganda, and they have at last succeeded in +making their ideas understood. So much is evident from the +rapidly-increasing number of affiliated branches of the League, which in +March, 1903, amounted to 600, almost treble the number registered two +years before. But even this does not convey any idea of the influence +which the movement exerts. Within the past year the teaching of the +Irish language has been introduced into no less than 1,300 National +Schools. In 1900 the number of schools in which Irish was taught was +only about 140. The statement that our people do not read books is +generally accepted as true, yet the sale of the League publications +during one year reached nearly a quarter of a million copies. These +results cannot be left unconsidered by anybody who wishes to understand +the psychology of the Irish mind. The movement can truly claim to have +effected the conversion of a large amount of intellectual apathy into +genuine intellectual activity.</p> + +<p>The declared objects of the League—- the popularising of the national +language and literature—do not convey, perhaps, an adequate conception +of its actual work, or of the causes of its popularity. It seeks to +develop the intellectual, moral, and social life of the Irish people +from within, and it is doing excellent work in the cause of temperance. +Its president, Dr. Douglas Hyde, in his evidence given before the +University Commission,<a name="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a> <a name="Page_152"></a>pointed out that the success of the League +was due to its meeting the people half way; that it educated them by +giving them something which they could appreciate and assimilate; and +that it afforded a proof that people who would not respond to alien +educational systems, will respond with eagerness to something they can +call their own. The national factor in Ireland has been studiously +eliminated from national education, and Ireland is perhaps the only +country in Europe where it was part of the settled policy of those, who +had the guidance of education to ignore the literature, history, arts, +and traditions of the people. It was a fatal policy, for it obviously +tended to stamp their native country in the eyes of Irishmen with the +badge of inferiority and to extinguish the sense of healthy self-respect +which comes from the consciousness of high national ancestry and +traditions. This policy, rigidly adhered to for many years, almost +extinguished native culture among Irishmen, but it did not succeed in +making another form of culture acceptable to them. It dulled the +intelligence of the people, impaired their interest in their own +surroundings, stimulated emigration by teaching them to look on other +countries as more agreeable places to live in, and made Ireland almost a +social desert. Men and women without culture or knowledge of literature +or of music have succeeded a former generation who were passionately +interested in these things, an interest which extended down even to the +wayside cabin. The loss of these elevating influences in Irish society +probably <a name="Page_153"></a>accounts for much of the arid nature of Irish controversies, +while the reaction against their suppression has given rise to those +displays of rhetorical patriotism for which the Irish language has found +the expressive term <i>raimeis</i>, and which (thanks largely to the Gaelic +movement) most people now listen to with a painful and half-ashamed +sense of their unreality.</p> + +<p>The Gaelic movement has brought to the surface sentiments and thoughts +which had been developed in Gaelic Ireland through hundreds of years, +and which no repression had been able to obliterate altogether, but +which still remained as a latent spiritual inheritance in the mind. And +now this stream, which has long run underground, has again emerged even +stronger than before, because an element of national self-consciousness +has been added at its re-emergence. A passionate conviction is gaining +ground that if Irish traditions, literature, language, art, music, and +culture are allowed to disappear, it will mean the disappearance of the +race; and that the education of the country must be nationalised if our +social, intellectual, or even our economic position is to be permanently +improved.</p> + +<p>With this view of the Gaelic movement my own thoughts are in complete +accord. It is undeniable that the pride in country justly felt by +Englishmen, a pride developed by education and a knowledge of their +history, has had much to do with the industrial pre-eminence of England; +for the pioneers of its commerce have been often actuated as much by +patriotic motives as by the <a name="Page_154"></a>desire for gain. The education of the Irish +people has ignored the need for any such historical basis for pride or +love of country, and, for my part, I feel sure that the Gaelic League is +acting wisely in seeking to arouse such a sentiment, and to found it +mainly upon the ages of Ireland's story when Ireland was most Irish.</p> + +<p>It is this expansion of the sentiment of nationality outside the domain +of party politics—the distinction, so to speak, between nationality and +nationalism—which is the chief characteristic of the Gaelic movement. +Nationality had come to have no meaning other than a political one, any +broader national sentiment having had little or nothing to feed upon. +During the last century the spirit of nationality has found no unworthy +expression in literature, in the writings of Ferguson, Standish O'Grady +and Yeats, which, however, have not been even remotely comparable in +popularity with the political journalism in prose and rhyme in which the +age has been so fruitful. It has never expressed itself in the arts, and +not only has Ireland no representative names in the higher regions of +art, but the national deficiency has been felt in every department of +industry into which design enters, and where national +art-characteristics have a commercial value. The national customs, +culture, and recreations which made the country a pleasant place to live +in, have almost disappeared, and with them one of the strongest ties +which bind people to the country of their birth. The Gaelic revival, as +I understand it, is an <a name="Page_155"></a>attempt to supply these deficiencies, to give to +Irish people a culture of their own; and I believe that by awakening the +feelings of pride, self-respect, and love of country, based on +knowledge, every department of Irish life will be invigorated.</p> + +<p>Thus it is that the elevating influence upon the individual is exerted. +Politics have never awakened initiative among the mass of the people, +because there was no programme of action for the individual. Perhaps it +is as well for Ireland that such should have been the case, for, as it +has been shown, we have had little of the political thought which should +be at the back of political action. Political action under present +conditions must necessarily be deputed to a few representatives, and +after the vote is given or the cheering at a meeting has ceased, the +individual can do nothing but wait, and his lethargy tends to become +still deeper. In the Gaelic revival there is a programme of work for the +individual; his mind is engaged, thought begets energy, and this energy +vitalises every part of his nature. This makes for the strengthening of +character, and so far from any harm being done to the practical +movement, to which I have so often referred, the testimony of my +fellow-workers, as well as my own observation, is unanimous in affirming +that the influence of the branches of the Gaelic League is distinctly +useful whenever it is sought to move the people to industrial or +commercial activity.</p> + +<p>Many of my political friends cannot believe—and I am afraid that +nothing that I can say will make them <a name="Page_156"></a>believe—that the movement is not +necessarily, in the political sense, separatist in its sentiment. This +impression is, in my opinion, founded on a complete misunderstanding of +Anglo-Irish history. Those who look askance at the rise of the Gaelic +movement ignore the important fact that there has never been any +essential opposition between the English connection and Irish +nationality. The Elizabethan chiefs of the sixteenth and the Gaelic +poets of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the relations +between the two countries were far worse than they are to-day, knew +nothing of this opposition. The true sentiment of nationality is a +priceless heritage of every small nation which has done great things, +and had it not largely perished in Ireland, separatist sentiment, the +offspring, not of Irish nationality, but of Irish political nationalism, +could hardly have survived until to-day.</p> + +<p>But undoubtedly we strike here on a danger to the Gaelic movement, so +far at least as that movement is bound up with the future of the Gaelic +League; a danger which cannot be left out of account in any estimate of +this new force in Irish life. The continuance of the League as a +beneficent force, or indeed a force at all, seems to me, as in the case +of the co-operative organisation to which I have compared it, to be +vitally dependent on a scrupulous observance of that part of its +constitution which keeps the door open to Irishmen of every creed or +political party. Only thus can the League remain a truly national body, +and attract from all classes Irishmen <a name="Page_157"></a>who are capable of forwarding its +true policy. I do not think there is much danger of a spirit of +sectarian exclusiveness developing itself in a body mainly composed of +Roman Catholics whose President is a Protestant. But it cannot be denied +that there has been an occasional tendency to interpret the 'no +politics' clause of the constitution in a manner which seems hardly fair +to Unionists or even to constitutional Home Rulers who may have joined +the organisation on the strength of its declaration of political +neutrality. If this is not a mere transitory phenomenon its effect will +be serious. As a political body the League would immediately sink into +insignificance and probably disappear amid a crowd of contending +factions. It would certainly cease to fulfil its great function of +creating a nationality of the thought and spirit, in which all Irishmen +who wish to be anything else than English colonists might aspire to +share. Its early successes in bringing together men of different +political views were remarkable. At the very outset of its career it +enlisted the support of so militant a politician as the late Rev. R.R. +Kane, who declared that though a Unionist and an Orangeman he had no +desire to forget that he was an O'Cahan. On this basis it is difficult +to set a limit to the fruitfulness of the work which this organisation +might do for Ireland, and I cannot regard any who would depart from the +letter and spirit of its constitution as sincere, or if sincere as wise, +friends of the movement with which they are associated.</p> + +<p>Of minor importance are certain extravagances in the <a name="Page_158"></a>conduct of the +movement which time and practical experience can hardly fail to correct. +I have borne witness to the value of the cultivation of the language +even from my own practical standpoint, but I cannot think that to sign +cheques in Irish, and get angry when those who cannot understand will +not honour them, is a good way of demonstrating that value. I should, +speaking generally, regard it as a mistake, supposing it were +practicable, to substitute Irish for English in the conduct of business. +If any large development of the trade in pampooties, turf and potheen +between the Aran Islands and the mainland were in contemplation, this +attempt might be justified. But on behalf of those Philistines who +attach paramount importance to the development of Irish industry, trade +and commerce on a large and comprehensive scale, I should regret a +course which, from a business point of view, would be about as wise as +the advocacy of distinctive Irish currency, weights and measures. And I +protest more strongly against the reasons which have been given to me +for this policy. I have been told that, in order to generate sufficient +enthusiasm, a young movement of the kind must adopt a rigorous +discipline and an aggressive policy. Not only are we thus confronted +with a false issue, but by giving countenance to the outward acceptance +of what the better sense rejects, these over-zealous leaguers are +administering to the Irish character the very poison which all Irish +movements should combine to eliminate from the national life.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_159"></a>The position which I have given to the Gaelic Revival among the new +influences at work and making for progress in Ireland will hardly be +understood by those who have never embraced the idea of combining all +such forces in a constructive and comprehensive scheme of national +advancement. One instance of the potential utility of the Gaelic League +will appeal to those of my readers who attach as much importance as I do +to the improvement of the peasant home. Concerted action to this end is +being planned while I write. It is proposed to take a few districts +where the peasants are members of one of the new co-operative societies, +and where the clergy have taken a keen interest in the economic and +social advancement of the members of the Society, but where the cottages +are in the normal condition. The new Department will lend the services +of its domestic economy teachers. The Organisation Society, the clergy, +and the Department thus working together will, I hope, be able to get +the people of the selected districts to effect an improvement in their +domestic surroundings which will act as an invaluable example for other +districts to follow. But in order that this much needed contribution to +the well-being of the peasant proprietary, upon which all our thoughts +are just now concentrated, may be assisted with the enthusiasm which +belongs in Ireland to a consciously national effort, it is hoped that +common action with the Gaelic League may be possible, so that this force +also may be enlisted in the solution of this part of our central +problem, the rehabilitation of rural life in Ireland.</p><a name="Page_160"></a> + +<p>It is, however, on more general grounds that I have, albeit as an +outside observer, watched with some anxiety and much gratification the +progress of the Gaelic Revival. In the historical evolution of the Irish +mind we find certain qualities atrophied, so to speak, by disuse; and to +this cause I attribute the past failures of the race in practical life +at home. I have shown how politics, religion, and our systems of +education have all, in their respective influences upon the people, +missed to a large extent, the effect upon character which they should +have made it their paramount duty to produce. Nevertheless, whenever the +intellect of the people is appealed to by those who know its past, a +recuperative power is manifested which shows that its vitality has not +been irredeemably impaired. It is because I believe that, on the whole, +a right appeal has been made by the Gaelic League that I have borne +testimony to its patriotic endeavours.</p> + +<p>The question of the Gaelic Revival seems to be really a form of the +eternal question of the interdependence of the practical and the ideal +in Ireland. Their true relation to each other is one of the hardest +lessons the student of our problems has to learn. I recall an incident +in the course of my own studies which I will here recount, as it appears +to me to furnish an admirable illustration of this difficulty as it +presented itself to a very interesting mind. During the years covering +the rise and fall of Parnell, when interest in the Irish Question was at +its zenith, the newspapers of the United States kept in<a name="Page_161"></a> London a corps +of very able correspondents, who watched and reported to their +transatlantic readers every move in the Home Rule campaign. An American +public, by no means limited to the American-Irish, devoured every morsel +of this intelligence with an avidity which could not have been surpassed +if the United States had been engaged in a war with Great Britain. Among +these correspondents perhaps the most brilliant was the late Harold +Frederic. Not many months before he died I received a letter from him, +in which he said that, although we were unknown to each other, he +thought, from some public utterances of mine, that we must have many +views in common. He had often intended to get an introduction to me, and +now suggested that we should 'waive things and meet.' We met and spent +an evening together, which left some deep impressions on my mind. He +told me that the Irish Question possessed for him a fascination for +which he could give no rational explanation. He had absolutely no tie of +blood or material interest with Ireland, and his friendship for it had +brought him the only quarrels in which he had ever been engaged.</p> + +<p>What chiefly interested me in Harold Frederic's philosophy of the Irish +Question was that he had arrived at a diagnosis of the Irish mind not +substantially different from my own. Since that evening I have come +across a passage in one of his novels, which clothes in delightful +language his view of the chaotic psychology of the Celt:</p> + +<blockquote><p>There, in Ireland, you get a strange mixture of elementary early + peoples, walled off from the outer world <a name="Page_162"></a>by the four seas, and + free to work out their own racial amalgam on their own lines. They + brought with them at the outset a great inheritance of Eastern + mysticism. Others lost it, but the Irish, all alone on their + island, kept it alive and brooded on it, and rooted their whole + spiritual side in it. Their religion is full of it; their blood is + full of it.... The Ireland of two thousand years ago is incarnated + in her. They are the merriest people and the saddest, the most + turbulent and the most docile, the most talented and the most + unproductive, the most practical and the most visionary, the most + devout and the most pagan. These impossible contradictions war + ceaselessly in their blood.<a name="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a></p></blockquote> + +<p>In our conversation what struck me most was the influence which politics +had exercised even on his philosophic mind, notwithstanding a low +estimate of our political leaders. In one of a series of three notable +articles upon the Irish Question, which appeared anonymously in the +<i>Fortnightly Review</i><a name="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> in the winter of 1893-4, and of which he told +me he was the writer, he had given a character sketch of what he called +'The Rhetoricians.' Their performances since the Union were summarised +in the phrase 'a century of unremitting gabble,' and he regarded it as a +sad commentary on Irish life that such brilliant talents so largely ran +to waste in destructive criticism.</p> + +<p>I naturally turned the conversation on to my own line of thought, and +discussed the practical conclusions to <a name="Page_163"></a>which his studies had led him. I +tried to elicit from him exactly what he had in his mind when, in one of +the articles to which I have referred, he advocated 'a reconstruction of +Ireland on distinctive national lines.' I hoped to find that his +psychological study of my countrymen would enable him to throw some +light upon the means by which play could be given at home to the latent +capacities of the race. I found that he was in entire accord with my +view, that the chief difficulty in the way of constructive statesmanship +was the defect in the Irish character about which I have said so much. I +was prepared for that conclusion, for I had already seen the lack of +initiative admirably appreciated in the following illuminating sentence +of his:—'The Celt will help someone else to do the thing that other has +in mind, and will help him with great zeal and devotion; but he will not +start to do the thing he himself has thought of.'<a name="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a> But I was +disappointed when he bade me his first and last good-bye that I had not +convinced him that there was any way out of the Irish difficulty other +than political changes, for which, at the same time, he appeared to +think the people singularly unfitted.</p> + +<p>The fact is we had arrived at the point where the student of Irish life +usually finds himself in a <i>cul de sac</i>. If he has accurately observed +the conditions, he is face to face with a problem which appears to be in +its nature insoluble. For at every turn he finds things being done wrong +which might so easily be done right, only that <a name="Page_164"></a>nobody is concerned that +they should be done right. And what is worse, when he has learned, in +the course of his investigations, to discount the picturesque +explanation of our unsuccess in practical life which in Ireland veils +the unpleasant truth, he will find that the people are quite aware of +their defects, although they attribute them to causes beyond their power +to remove. Then, too, the sympathetic inquirer is shocked by the lack of +seriousness in it all. With all their past griefs and their high +aspirations, the Irish people seem to be play-acting before the world. +The inquirer does not, perhaps, reflect that, if play-acting be +inconsistent with the deepest emotions, and with the pursuit of high +ideals, then he condemns a little over one half of the human race.<a name="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a> +He probably comes to the main conclusion adopted in these pages, and +realises that the Irish Question is a problem of character. And as Irish +character is the product of Irish history, which cannot be re-enacted, +he leaves the problem there. Harold Frederic left it there, and there it +has been taken up by those whose endeavour forms the story which I have +to tell.</p> + +<p>I now come to the principles which, it appears to me, must underlie the +solution of this problem. The narra<a name="Page_165"></a>tive contained in the second part of +this book is a record of the efforts made during the last decade of the +nineteenth and the first two years of the twentieth century by a small, +but now rapidly augmenting group of Irishmen, to pluck the brand of +Irish intellect from the burning of the Irish Question. The problem +before us was, my readers will now understand, how to make headway in +view of the weakness of character to which I have had to attribute the +paralysis of our activities in the past. We were quite aware that our +progress would at first be slow. But as we were satisfied that the +defects of character which stood in the way of economic advancement were +due to causes which need no longer be operative, and that the intellect +of the people was unimpaired, we faced the problem with confidence.</p> + +<p>The practical form which our work took was the launching upon Irish life +of a movement of organised self-help, and the subsequent grafting upon +this movement of a system of State-aid to the agriculture and industries +of the country. I need not here further elaborate this programme, for +the steps by which it has been and is being adopted will be presently +described in detail. But there is one aspect of the new movement in +Ireland which must be understood by those who would grasp the true +significance and the human interest of an evolution in our national +life, the only recent parallel for which, as far as I am aware, is to be +found in Japan: though to my mind the conscious attempt of the Irish +<a name="Page_166"></a>people to develop a civilisation of their own is far more interesting +than the recent efforts of the Japanese to westernise their +institutions.</p> + +<p>The problem of mind and character with which we had to deal in Ireland +presented this central and somewhat discouraging fact. In practical life +the Irish had failed where the English had succeeded, and this was +attributed to the lack of certain English qualities which have been +undoubtedly essential to success in commerce and in industry from the +days of the industrial revolution until a comparatively recent date. It +was the individualism of the English economic system during this period +which made these qualities indispensable. The lack of these qualities in +Irishmen to-day may be admitted, and the cause of the deficiency has +been adequately explained. But those who regard the Irish situation as +industrially hopeless probably ignore the fact that there are other +qualities, of great and growing importance under modern economic +conditions, which can be developed in Irishmen and may form the basis of +an industrial system. I refer to the range of qualities which come into +play rather in association than in the individual, and to which the term +'associative' is applied.<a name="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> <a name="Page_167"></a>So that although much disparaging +criticism of Irish character is based upon the survival in the Celt of +the tribal instincts, it is gratifying to be able to show that even from +the practical English point of view, our preference for thinking and +working in groups may not be altogether a <i>damnosa hereditas</i>. If, owing +to our deficiency in the individualistic qualities of the English, we +cannot at this stage hope to produce many types of the 'economic man' of +the economists, we think we see our way to provide, as a substitute, the +economic association. If the association succeeds, and by virtue of its +financial success becomes permanent, a great change will, in our +opinion, be produced on the character of its members. The reflex action +upon the individual mind of the habit of doing, in association with +others, things which were formerly left undone, or badly done, may be +relied upon to have a tonic effect upon the character of the individual. +This is, I suppose, the secret of discipline, which, though apparently +eliminating volition, seems in weak characters to strengthen the will.</p> + +<p>There is, too, as we have learned, in the association a strange +influence which develops qualities and capacities that one would not +expect on a mere consideration of the character of its members. This +psychological phenomenon has been admirably and most entertainingly +discussed by the French psychologist, Le Bon,<a name="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35"><sup>[35]</sup></a> who, in the attractive +pursuit of paradox, almost goes to the length of the proposition that +the association inherently <a name="Page_168"></a>possesses qualities the opposite of those +possessed by its members. My own experience—and I have had +opportunities of observing hundreds of associations formed by my friends +upon the principles above laid down—does not carry me quite so far. +But, unquestionably, the association in Ireland does often become an +entity as distinct from the individualities of which it is composed, as +is a new chemical compound from its constituent elements.</p> + +<p>Associations of the kind we had in our minds, which were to be primarily +for purely business purposes, were bound to have many collateral +effects. They would open up outside of politics and religion, but not in +conflict with either, a sphere of action where an independence new to +the country would have to be exercised. In Ireland public opinion is +under an obsession which, whether political, religious, historical, or +all three combined, is probably unique among civilised peoples. Until +the last few years, for example, it was our habit—one which immensely +weakened the influence of Ireland in the Imperial Parliament—to form +extravagant estimates of men, exalting and abasing them with irrational +caprice, not according to their qualities so much as by their attitude +towards the passion of the hour. The ups and downs of the reputations of +Lord Spencer and Mr. Arthur Balfour in Ireland are a sufficient +illustration of our disregard of the old Latin proverb which tells us +that no man ever became suddenly altogether bad. Even now public opinion +is too prone to attach excessive value to projects of vague and +visionary development, and to underrate <a name="Page_169"></a>the importance of serious +thought and quiet work, which can be the only solid foundation of our +national progress. In these new associations—humble indeed in their +origin, but destined to play a large part in the people's +lives—projects, professing to be fraught with economic benefit, have to +be judged by the cruel precision of audited balance sheets, and the +worth of men is measured by the solid contribution they have made to the +welfare of the community.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I have now accomplished one long stage of my journey towards the +conclusion of this discussion of the needs of modern Ireland. Were I to +stop here, probably most of those who had been induced to open yet +another book upon the Irish Question would accuse me, and not without +justice, of being responsible for a barren graft upon a barren +controversy. I fear no such criticism, whatever other shortcomings may +be detected, from those who have the patience to read on. For when I +pass from my own reflections to record the work to which many thousands +of my countrymen have addressed themselves in building up the Ireland of +the twentieth century, I shall have a story to tell which must inspire +hope in all who can be persuaded that Ireland in the past has not often +been treated fairly and has never been understood. I have shown—and it +was necessary to show, if a repetition of misunderstanding was to be +avoided—that the Irish people themselves are gravely responsible for +the ills of their country, and that the forces which have <a name="Page_170"></a>mainly +governed their action hitherto are rapidly bringing about their +disappearance as a distinct nationality. But I shall now have to tell of +the widespread and growing adoption of certain new principles of action +which I believe to be consonant with the genius and traditions of the +race, and the acceptance of which seems to me vitally necessary if the +Irish people are to play a worthy part in the future history of the +world. That part is a far greater one than they could ever hope to play +as an independent and separate State, yet their success in playing it +must closely depend upon their remaining a distinct nationality, in the +sense so clearly and wisely indicated by his Majesty when, in his reply +to the address of the Belfast Corporation, he spoke of the 'national +characteristics and ideals' which he desired his kingdoms to cherish in +the midst of their imperial unity.<a name="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36"><sup>[36]</sup></a> The great experiment which I am +about to relate is, in its own province, one of the many applications +which we see around us of the conception here put forward. And I believe +that a few more years of quiet work by those who are taking part in this +movement, with its appeal to Irish <a name="Page_171"></a>intellect, and its reliance upon +Irish patriotism, is all that is needed to prove that by developing the +industrial qualities of the Celt on associative lines we can in politics +as well as in economics, add strength to the Irish character without +making it less Irish or less attractive than of old.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28">[28]</a><div class="note"><p> This body is fully described in the next chapter.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29">[29]</a><div class="note"><p> See Appendix to Third Report, p. 311.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30">[30]</a><div class="note"><p> <i>The Damnation of Theron Ware</i>. This was the title of the +book I read in the United States. I am told he published it in England +under the title of <i>Illuminations</i>—a nice discrimination!</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31">[31]</a><div class="note"><p> They appeared under the signature of 'X.' in Nov. and +Dec., 1893, and Jan., 1894.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32">[32]</a><div class="note"><p> <i>Fortnightly Review</i>, Jan. 1894, pp. 11, 12.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33">[33]</a><div class="note"><p> The difficulties of the writer who is not a writer are +great. I sent this chapter to two literary friends, one of whom, with +the help of a globe, disputed my accuracy in a learned ethnological +disquisition with which he favoured me. The other warned me to be even +more obscure and sent me the following verses, addressed by 'Cynicus' +(J.K. Stephen) to Shakespeare, +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"You wrote a line too much, my sage,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of seers the first, the first of sayers;<br /></span> +<span>For only half the world's a stage,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And only all the women players."<br /></span> +</div></div> +</div> + +<a name="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34">[34]</a><div class="note"><p> These qualities, as will be explained later, happen to +have a special economic value in the farming industry, and so are +available for the elevation of rural life, with whose problems we are +now so deeply concerned in Ireland. Their applicability to urban life +need not be discussed here. But my study of the co-operative movement in +England has convinced me that, if the English had the associative +instincts of the Irish, that movement would play a part in English life +more commensurate with its numerical strength and the volume of its +commercial transactions, than can be claimed for it so far.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35">[35]</a><div class="note"><p> <i>La Psychologie de la Foule</i>.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36">[36]</a><div class="note"><p> July 27th, 1903,—His Majesty thus confirmed the striking +utterance of imperial policy contained in Lord Dudley's speech to the +Incorporated Law Society, on the 20th of November, 1902. His Excellency, +after protesting against the conception of empire as a 'huge regiment' +in which each nation was to lose its individuality, said—"Lasting +strength, lasting loyalty, are not to be secured by any attempt to force +into one system or to remould into one type those special +characteristics which are the outcome of a nation's history and of her +religious and social conditions, but rather by a full recognition of the +fact that these very characteristics form an essential part of a +nation's life; and that under wise guidance and under sympathetic +treatment they will enable her to provide her own contribution and to +play her own special part in the life of the empire to which she +belongs."</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="PART_II"></a><h2>PART II.</h2> +<a name="Page_174"></a> +<h4><i>PRACTICAL</i>.</h4> + + +<p>"For a country so attractive and a people so gifted we cherish the +warmest regard, and it is, therefore, with supreme satisfaction that I +have during our stay so often heard the hope expressed that a brighter +day is dawning upon Ireland. I shall eagerly await the fulfilment of +this hope. Its realisation will, under Divine Providence, depend largely +upon the steady development of self-reliance and co-operation, upon +better and more practical education, upon the growth of industrial and +commercial enterprise, and upon that increase of mutual toleration and +respect which the responsibility my Irish people now enjoy in the public +administration of their local affairs is well-fitted to +teach."—<i>Message of the King to the Irish People</i>, 1st August, 1903.</p> +<a name="Page_175"></a> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VII"></a><h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h4>THE NEW MOVEMENT: ITS FOUNDATION ON SELF-HELP.</h4> + + +<p>The movement for the reorganisation of Irish agricultural and industrial +life, to which I have already frequently referred, must now be described +in practical operation. Before I do this, however, there are two lines +of criticism which the very mention of a new movement may suggest, and +which I must anticipate. Every year has its tale of new movements, +launched by estimable persons whose philanthropic zeal is not balanced +by the judgment required to discriminate between schemes which possess +the elements of permanence, and those which depend upon the enthusiasm +or financial support of their promoters, and are in their nature +ephemeral. There is, consequently, a widespread and well justified +mistrust of novel schemes for the industrial regeneration of Ireland. I +confess to having had my ingenuity severely taxed on some occasions to +find a sympathetic circumlocution wherewith to show cause for declining +to join a new movement, my real reason being an inward conviction that +nothing except resolutions would be moved. In the complex problem of +building up the economic and social life of a people <a name="Page_176"></a>with such a +history as ours, we must resist the temptation to multiply schemes +which, however well intended, are but devices for enabling individuals +to devolve their responsibilities upon the community or upon the +Government, and which owe their bubble reputation and brief popularity +to this unconscious humouring of our chief national defect. On the +contrary, we must seek to instil into the mind of each individual the +too little recognised importance of his own contribution to the sum of +national achievement. The building of character must be our paramount +object, as it is the condition precedent of all social and economic +reform in Ireland. To explain the principles by the observance of which +the agency of the association may be utilised as an economic force, +while at the same time the industrial character of the individual may be +developed, was one of the chief aims I had in view in the foregoing +analysis of the Irish mind and character, as they have emerged from +history and are stunted in their growth by present influences. The facts +about to be recited will, I hope, suffice to prove that the reformer in +Ireland, if he has a true insight into the great human problem with +which he is dealing, may find in the association not only a healthy +stimulus to national activities, but also a means whereby the assistance +of the State may be so invoked and applied that it will concentrate, and +not dissipate, the energies of the people.</p> + +<p>The other criticism which I think it necessary to anticipate would, if +ignored, leave room for a wrong impres<a name="Page_177"></a>sion as to much of the work which +is being done both on the self-help and on the State-aid sides of the +new movement. Education, it will be said, is the only real solvent to +the range of problems discussed in this book, most other agencies of +social and economic reform being of doubtful efficacy and, if they tend +to postpone educational effort, positively harmful. There is much truth +in this view. But it must be remembered that the backward condition of +our economic life is due mainly to the fact that our educational systems +have had little regard to our history or economic circumstances. We +must, therefore, at this stage in our national development give to +education a much wider interpretation than that which is usually applied +to the term. We cannot wait for a generation to grow up which has been +given an education calculated to fit it for the modern economic +struggle, even if there were any probability that the necessary reforms +would soon be carried against the prejudices which are aroused by any +proposal to train the minds, or even the hands and eyes, of the rising +generation. In the meantime much of the work, both voluntary and +State-aided, now initiated in Ireland, must consist of educating adults +to introduce into their business concerns the more advanced economic and +scientific methods which the superior education of our rivals in +agriculture and industry abroad has enabled them to adopt, and which my +experience of Irish work convinces me our people would have adopted long +ago if they had had similar educational advantages. And I would further +<a name="Page_178"></a>point out that there is no better way of promoting the reform of +education in the ordinary, the pedagogic, sense, than by bringing to +bear upon the minds of parents those educational influences which are +calculated to convince them of the advantage of improved practical +education for their children. So to the economist and to the +educationist alike I would submit that the new work of economic and +social reform should be judged as a whole, and not prejudged by that +hypercriticism of details which ignores the fact that the conditions +with which it is attempted to deal are wholly unprecedented. I am quite +content that the movement which I am about to describe should be +ultimately known and judged by its fruits. Meanwhile, I think that to +the intelligent critic it will sufficiently justify its existence if it +continues to exist.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The story of the new movement, which must now be told, begins in the +year 1889, when a few Irishmen, the writer of these pages among them, +set themselves the task of bringing home to the rural population of +Ireland the fact that their prosperity was in their own hands much more +than they were generally led to believe. I have already pointed out that +in order to direct the Irish mind towards practical affairs and in order +effectively to arouse and apply the latent capacities of the Irish +people to their chief industry, agriculture, we must rely upon +associative, as distinct from individual effort; or, in other words, we +must get the people to do their <a name="Page_179"></a>business together rather than +separately as the English do. Fortunately for us, it happened that this +course, which was clearly indicated by the character and temperament of +the people, was equally prescribed by economic considerations. The +population and wealth of Ireland are, I need hardly say, so +predominantly agricultural that the welfare of the country must depend +upon the welfare of the farming classes. It is notorious that the +industry by which these classes live has for the last quarter of a +century become less and less profitable. It is also recognised that the +prime cause of agricultural depression, foreign competition, is not +likely to be removed, while that from the colonies is likely to +increase. The extraordinary development of rapid and cheap transit, +together with recently invented processes of preservation, have enabled +the more favoured producers in the newly developed countries of both +hemispheres successfully to enter into competition in the British +markets with the farmers of these islands. The agricultural producers in +other European countries, although to some extent protected by tariffs, +have had to face similar conditions; but in most of these countries, +though not in the United Kingdom, the farmers have so changed their +methods, to meet the altered circumstances, that they seem to have +gained by improvement at home as much as they have lost by competition +from abroad Thus our farmers find themselves harassed first by the +cheaper production from vast tracts of virgin soil in the uttermost +parts of the earth, and secondly by a nearer <a name="Page_180"></a>and keener competition +from the better organised and better educated producers of the +Continent.</p> + +<p>While the opening up of what the economists call the 'world market,' has +necessitated, as a condition of successful competition, improved methods +of production for, and carriage to, the market, a third and less obvious +force has effected an important change in the method of distribution in +the market. The swarming populations, which the factory system has +brought together in industrial centres, have to be supplied with food by +a system of distribution which must above all things be expeditious. +This requirement can only be met by the regular consignment of food in +large quantities, of such uniform quality that the sample can be relied +upon to be truly indicative of the quality of the bulk. Thus the rapid +distribution of produce in the markets becomes as important a factor in +agricultural economy as improved methods of production or cheap and +expeditious carriage.</p> + +<p>Now this new market condition is being met in two ways. In the United +States, and, in a less marked degree, at home, an army of middlemen +between the producer and the consumer attends to this business for a +share of the profits accruing from it, whilst in many parts of the +Continent the farmers themselves attend, partially at any rate, to the +business side of their industry instead of paying others to do it all +for them. I say all, for middlemen are necessary at the distributive +end: but it is absolutely essential, in a <a name="Page_181"></a>country like Ireland, that at +the producing end the farmers should be so organised that they +themselves can manage the first stages of distribution, and exercise +some control over the middlemen who do the rest. The foreign +agricultural producers have long been alive to this necessity, for their +superior education enabled them to grasp the economic situation and even +to realise that the matter is not one of acute political controversy.</p> + +<p>Here, then, was a definite practical problem to the solution of which +the promoters of the new movement could apply their principle of +co-operative effort. The more we studied the question the more apparent +it became that the enormous advantage which the Continental farmers had +over the Irish farmers, both in production and in distribution, was due +to superior organisation combined with better education. State-aid had +no doubt done a great deal abroad, but in every case it was manifest +that it had been preceded, or at least accompanied, by the organised +voluntary effort without which the interference of the Government with +the business of the people is simply demoralising.</p> + +<p>Generally speaking, the task before us in Ireland was the adaptation to +the special circumstances of our country of methods successfully pursued +by communities similarly situated in foreign countries. We had to urge +upon farmers that combination was just as necessary to their economic +salvation as it was recognised to be by their own class, and by those +engaged in other industries, elsewhere. They must combine, so we urged +on them, <a name="Page_182"></a>for example, to buy their agricultural requirements at the +cheapest rate and of the best quality in order to produce more +efficiently and more economically; they must combine to avail themselves +of improved appliances beyond the reach of individual producers, whether +it be by the erection of creameries, for which there was urgent need, or +of cheese factories and jam factories which might come later; or in +ordinary farm operations, to secure the use of the latest agricultural +machinery and the most suitable pure-bred stock; they must combine—not +to abolish middle profits in distribution, whether those of the carrying +companies or those of the dealers in agricultural produce—but to keep +those profits within reasonable limits, and to collect in bulk and +regularise consignments so that they could be carried and marketed at a +moderate cost; they must combine, as we afterwards learned, for the +purpose of creating, by mutual support, the credit required to bring in +the fresh working capital which each new development of their industry +would demand and justify. In short, whenever and wherever the +individuals in a farming community could be brought to see that they +might advantageously substitute associated for isolated production or +distribution, they must be taught to form themselves into associations +in order to reap the anticipated advantages.</p> + +<p>This brief statement of our general aims will furnish a rough idea of +the economic propaganda which we initiated, and if I give a few +illustrations of the practical application of the new principle to the +farming industry, I <a name="Page_183"></a>shall have done all that will be required to leave +on the reader's mind a true though perhaps an incomplete impression of +the character and scope of the self-help side of the new movement. I +shall first give a sketch of the unrecorded struggles of its pioneers, +because these struggles prove to those engaged in social and economic +work in Ireland that, in the wholly abnormal condition of our national +life, no project which is theoretically sound need be rejected because +everybody says it is impracticable. The work of the morrow will largely +consist of the impossible of to-day. If this adds to the difficulty, it +also adds to the fun.</p> + +<p>When we arrived at the conclusion that the introduction of the principle +of agricultural co-operation was a vital necessity, the first practical +question which had to be decided was how the industrial army, which was +to do battle for Ireland's position in the world market, should be +organised and disciplined for the task. It is evident that before a body +of men who have never worked together can form a successful commercial +combination, they must be provided with a constitution and set of rules +and regulations for the conduct of their business. These must be so +skilfully contrived that they will harmonise all the interests involved. +And when an arrangement has been come to which is, not only in fact but +also obviously, equitable, it remains as part of the process of +organisation to teach the participants in the new project the meaning, +and to imbue them with the spirit, of the <a name="Page_184"></a>joint enterprise into which +they have been persuaded to enter with perhaps no very clear +understanding of all that is involved. There were in Ireland no +precedents to guide us and no examples to follow, but the co-operative +movement in England appeared to furnish most of the principles involved +and a perfect machinery for their application.<a name="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37"><sup>[37]</sup></a> So Lord Monteagle and +Mr. R.A. Anderson, my first two associates in the New Movement, joined +me as regular attendants at the annual Co-operative congresses. We were +assiduous seekers after information at the head-quarters of the +Co-operative Union in Manchester. We had the good fortune to fall in +with Vansittart Neale, and Tom Hughes, both of whom have passed away, +and with Mr. Holyoake, who, with the exception of Mr. Ludlow, is now the +sole survivor of that noble group of practical philanthropists, the +Christian Socialists. Mr. J.C. Gray, who succeeded Mr. Vansittart Neale +as the General Secretary of the Co-operative Union, gave us invaluable +help and continues to do so to this day. The leaders of the English +movement <a name="Page_185"></a>sympathised with our efforts. The Union paid us the compliment +of constituting our first converts its Irish Section. Liberal support +was given out of the central English funds towards the cost of the +missionary work which was to spread co-operative light in the sister +isle. We can never forget the generosity of the workingmen in England in +giving their aid to the Irish farmers, especially when it is remembered +that they had no sanguine anticipations for the success of our efforts +and no prospect of advantages to themselves if we did succeed.</p> + +<p>It must be admitted that the outlook was not altogether rosy. +Agricultural co-operation had never succeeded in England, where it +seemed to be accepted as one of the disappointing limitations of the +co-operative movement that it did not apply to rural communities in +these islands. There were also in Ireland the peculiar difficulties +arising from ceaseless political and agrarian agitation. It was +naturally asked—did Irish farmers possess the qualities out of which +co-operators are made? Had they commercial experience or business +education? Had they business capacity? Would they display that +confidence in each other which is essential to successful association, +or indeed that confidence in themselves without which there can be no +business enterprise? Could they ever be induced to form themselves into +societies, and to adopt, and loyally adhere to those rules and +regulations by which alone equitable distribution of the responsibility +and profit among the participants in the joint undertaking can be +assured, and harmony and <a name="Page_186"></a>successful working be rendered possible? Then, +our best-informed Irish critics assured us that voluntary association +for humdrum business purposes, devoid of some religious or political +incentive, was alien to the Celtic temperament and that we should wear +ourselves out crying in the wilderness. We were told that Irishmen can +conspire but cannot combine. Economists assured us that even if we +succeeded in getting farmers to embark on the projected enterprises, +financial disaster would be the inevitable result of our attempts to +substitute in industrial undertakings, ever becoming more technical and +requiring more and more commercial knowledge and experience, democratic +management for one-man control.</p> + +<p>On the other hand there were some favouring conditions, the importance +of which our studies of the human problems already discussed will have +made my readers realise. Isolated, the Irish farmer is conservative, +sceptical of innovations, a believer in routine and tradition. In union +with his fellows, he is progressive, open to ideas, and wonderfully keen +at grasping the essential features of any new proposal for his +advancement. He was, then, himself eminently a subject for co-operative +treatment, and his circumstances were equally so. The smallness of his +holding, the lack of capital, and the backwardness of his methods made +him helpless in competition with his rivals abroad. The process of +organisation was also, to some extent, facilitated by the insight the +people had been given by the Land League into the power of combination, +and by the education they had <a name="Page_187"></a>received in the conduct of meetings. It +was a great advantage that there was a machinery ready at hand for +getting people together, and a procedure fully understood for giving +expression to the sense of the meeting. On the other hand, the +domination of a powerful central body, which was held to be essential to +the success of the political and agrarian movement, had exercised an +influence which added enormously to the difficulty of getting the people +to act on their own initiative.</p> + +<p>Though the economic conditions of the Irish farmer clearly indicated a +need for the application of co-operative effort to all branches of his +industry, it was necessary at the beginning to embrace a more limited +aim. It happened at the time we commenced our Irish work that one branch +of farming, the dairying industry, presented features admirably adapted +to our methods. This industry was, so to speak, ripe for its industrial +development, for its change from a home to a factory industry. New +machinery, costly but highly efficient, had enabled the factory product, +notably that of Denmark and Sweden, to compete successfully with the +home-made article, both in quality and cost of production. Here, it will +be observed, was an opportunity for an experiment in co-operative +production, under modern industrial conditions, which would put the +associative qualities of the Irish farmer to a test which the British +artisan had not stood quite as well as the founders of the co-operative +movement had anticipated. To add to the interest of the situation, +capitalists had seized upon <a name="Page_188"></a>the material advantages which the abundant +supply of Irish milk afforded, and the green pastures of the "Golden +Vein" were studded with snow white creameries which proclaimed the +transfer of this great Irish industry from the tiller of the soil to the +man of commerce. The new-comers secured the milk of the district by +giving the farmer much more for his milk than it was worth to him, so +long as he pursued the old methods of home manufacture. This induced +farmers to go out of the butter-making business. After a while the price +was reduced, and the proprietor, finding it necessary to give the +suppliers only what they could make out of their milk without his modern +equipment, realised profits altogether out of proportion to his share of +the capital embarked or the labour involved in the production of the +butter.</p> + +<p>The economic position was ideal for our purpose, and we had no +difficulty in explaining it to the farmers themselves. The social +problem was the real difficulty. To all suggestions of co-operative +action they at first opposed a hopeless <i>non possumus</i>. Their objections +may be summed up thus:—They had never combined for any business +purpose. How could they trust the Committee they were asked to elect +from amongst themselves to expend their money and conduct their +business? It was all very well for the proprietor with his ample +capital, free hand, and business experience, to work with complicated +machinery and to consign his butter out of the reach of the local butter +buyer, and to save <a name="Page_189"></a>the waste and delay of the local butter market. But +they knew nothing of the business and would only make fools of +themselves. The promoters—they were not putting anything into the +scheme—how much did they intend to take out?<a name="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38"><sup>[38]</sup></a></p> + +<p>There was nothing in this attitude of mind which we had not fully +anticipated. We were confident that, as we were on sound economic +ground, no matter what difficulties might confront us it was only a +question of time for the attainment of our ends. All that was required +was that we should keep pegging away. My own experience was not +encouraging at first. I was, and am, a poor speaker, and in Ireland a +man who cannot express his thoughts with facility, whether he has got +them or not, accentuates the difficulties under which a prophet labours +in his own country. I made up for my deficiencies in the first essential +of Irish public life by engaging a very eloquent political speaker, the +late Mr. Mulhallen Marum, M.P., to stump the country. He gave to the +propaganda a relish which my prosaic economics altogether lacked. The +nationalist band sometimes came out to meet him. We all know the +efficiency of the drum in politics and religion, but it seemed to me a +little out of place in economics. However, he created an excellent +impression, but unhappily <a name="Page_190"></a>he died of heart disease before he had +attended more than three or four meetings. This was a severe blow to us, +and we toiled away under some temporary discouragement. My own diary +records attendance at fifty meetings before a single society had +resulted therefrom. It was weary work for a long time. These gatherings +were miserable affairs compared with those which greeted our political +speakers. On one occasion the agricultural community was represented by +the Dispensary Doctor, the Schoolmaster, and the Sergeant of Police. +Sometimes, in spite of copious advertising of the meeting, the prosaic +nature of the objects had got abroad, and nobody met.</p> + +<p>Mr. Anderson, who sometimes accompanied me and sometimes went his rounds +alone, had similar experiences. I may quote a passage from some of his +reminiscences, recently published in the <i>Irish Homestead</i>, the organ of +the co-operative movement in Ireland.</p> + +<blockquote><p>It was hard and thankless work. There was the apathy of the people + and the active opposition of the Press and the politicians. It + would be hard to say now whether the abuse of the Conservative + <i>Cork Constitution</i> or that of the Nationalist <i>Eagle</i>, of + Skibbereen, was the louder. We were "killing the calves," we were + "forcing the young women to emigrate," we were "destroying the + industry." Mr. Plunkett was described as a "monster in human + shape," and was adjured to "cease his hellish work." I was + described as his "Man Friday" and as "Rough-rider Anderson." Once, + when I thought I had planted a Creamery within the precincts of the + town of Rathkeale, my co-operative apple-cart was upset by a local + solicitor <a name="Page_191"></a>who, having elicited the fact that our movement + recognised neither political nor religious differences—that the + Unionist-Protestant cow was as dear to us as her + Nationalist-Catholic sister—gravely informed me that our programme + would not suit Rathkeale. "Rathkeale," said he, pompously, "is a + Nationalist town—Nationalist to the backbone—and every pound of + butter made in this Creamery must be made on Nationalist + principles, or it shan't be made at all." This sentiment was + applauded loudly, and the proceedings terminated.</p></blockquote> + +<p>On another occasion a similar project was abandoned because the flow of +water to the disused mill which it was proposed to convert into a +creamery, passed through a conduit lined with cement originally +purchased from a man who now occupied a farm from which another had been +evicted. To some minds these little complications would have spelled +failure. To my associates they but accentuated the need for the movement +which they had so laboriously thought out, and the very nature of the +difficulties confirmed them in their belief that the economic doctrine +they were preaching was adapted to meet the requirements of the case. +And so the event proved.</p> + +<p>In the year 1894 the movement had gathered volume to such an +extent—although the societies then numbered but one for every twenty +that are in existence to-day—that it became beyond the power of a few +individuals to direct its further progress. In April of that year a +meeting was held in Dublin to inaugurate the Irish Agricultural +Organisation Society, Ltd. (now commonly known as the I.A.O.S.), which +was to be the analogue <a name="Page_192"></a>of the Co-operative Union in England. In the +first instance it was to consist of philanthropic persons, but its +constitution provided for the inclusion in its membership of the +societies which had already been created and those which it would itself +create as time went on. It had, and has to-day, a thoroughly +representative Committee. I was elected the first President, a position +which I held until I entered official life, when Lord Monteagle, a +practical philanthropist if ever there was one, became my successor. +Father Finlay, who joined the movement in 1892, and who has devoted the +extraordinary influence which he possesses over the rural population of +Ireland to the dissemination of our economic principles, became +Vice-President. Both he and Lord Monteagle have been annually re-elected +ever since.</p> + +<p>The growth of the movement in the last nine years under the fostering +care of the I.A.O.S. is highly satisfactory. By the autumn of this year +(1903) considerably over eight hundred societies had been established, +and the number is ever growing; of these 360 were dairy, and 140 +agricultural societies, nearly 200 agricultural banks, 50 home +industries societies, 40 poultry societies, while there were 40 others +with miscellaneous objects. The membership may be estimated—I am +writing towards the end of the Society's statistical year—at about +80,000, representing some 400,000 persons. The combined trade turnover +of these societies during the present year will reach approximately +£2,000,000, a figure the <a name="Page_193"></a>meaning of which can only be appreciated when +it is remembered that the great majority of the associated farmers are +in so small a way of business that in England they would hardly be +classed as farmers at all.</p> + +<p>These societies consist, as has been explained, of groups of farmers who +have been taught by organisers that certain branches of their business +can be more profitably conducted in association than by individuals +acting separately. The principle of agricultural co-operation with its +economic advantages will, as time goes on, be further extended by the +combined action of societies. With this end in view federations are +constantly being formed with a constitution similar to that of the +societies, the only difference being that the members of the federation +are not individuals but societies, the government of the central body +being carried on by delegates from its constituent associations. The two +largest of these federations, one for the sale of butter, and another +for the combined purchase by societies of their agricultural +requirements, have been working successfully for several years. +Federations, too, are being formed, as societies find that their +business can be conducted more economically, for example, in dairying by +centralising the manufacture of butter, or in the egg export trade by +the alliance of many districts to enable large contracts to be +undertaken. In the near future a further development of federation will +be required to complete a scheme now under consideration for the mutual +insurance of live stock. Such a scheme <a name="Page_194"></a>involves the existence of two +prime conditions, a local organisation for the purpose of effective +supervision, and the spreading of the risk over a large area.</p> + +<p>In all such enterprises and economic changes the Organisation Society is +either the initiator, or is called in for advice, and its continued +existence in a purely advisory capacity as a link between the societies +where concerted action is required, will be necessary even when the +organisation of farmers into societies is completed. The economic life +of rural communities is in continual need of adjustment. Now it is an +invention like a steam separator which revolutionises an industry. At +another time the crisis created by a change in the tariff of a foreign +country forces the producer either to find a new outlet for his wares, +or to abandon a hitherto profitable employment. A striking instance of +the value of organisation and connection with a central advisory body +occurred in 1887, when swine fever broke out in Denmark, and the exports +of live swine fell from 230,000 in one year to 16,000 in the next. The +organisation of the farmers, however, enabled them easily to consult +together how best to meet the emergency, and their decision to start +co-operative bacon-curing factories was the foundation of their present +great export trade in manufactured bacon.</p> + +<p>I must not overburden with details a narrative intended for readers to +whom I merely wish to give a deeper and wider understanding of Irish +life than most of them probably possess. But there is just one form of +<a name="Page_195"></a>agricultural co-operation to which I can usefully devote a few +paragraphs, because it throws much light upon the associative qualities +of the people and also upon the educational and social value of the +movement. I refer to the Agricultural Banks, more properly called Credit +Associations, which have been organised upon the Raiffeisen system. +Before the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society was formed we had +read of these institutions, and of the marvellously beneficial effect +they had produced upon the most depressed rural communities abroad. But +only in the last few years have we fully realised that they are even +more required and are likely to do more good in Ireland than in any +other country; for on the psychological side of our work we formerly but +dimly saw things which we now see clearly.</p> + +<p>The exact purpose of these organisations is to create credit as a means +of introducing capital into the agricultural industry. They perform the +apparent miracle of giving solvency to a community composed almost +entirely of insolvent individuals. The constitution of these bodies, +which can, of course, be described only in broad outline here, is +somewhat startling. They have no subscribed capital, but every member is +liable for the entire debts of the association. Consequently the +association takes good care to admit men of approved character and +capacity only. It starts by borrowing a sum of money on the joint and +several security of its members. A member wishing to borrow from the +association is not required to give tangible <a name="Page_196"></a>security, but must bring +two sureties. He fills up an application form which states, among other +things, what he wants the money for. The rules provide—and this is the +salient feature of the system—that a loan shall be made for a +productive purpose only, that is, a purpose which, in the judgment of +the other members of the association as represented by a committee +democratically elected from among themselves, will enable the borrower +to repay the loan out of the results of the use made of the money lent.</p> + +<p>Raiffeisen held, and our experience in Ireland has fully confirmed his +opinion, that in the poorest communities there is a perfectly safe basis +of security in the honesty and industry of its members. This security is +not valuable to the ordinary commercial lender, such as the local joint +stock bank. Even if such lenders had the intimate knowledge possessed by +the committee of one of these associations as to the character and +capacity of the borrower, they would not be able to satisfy themselves +that the loan was required for a really productive purpose, nor would +they be able to see that it was properly applied to the stipulated +object. One of the rules of the co-operative banks provides for the +expulsion of a member who does not apply the money to the agreed +productive purpose. But although these "Banks" are almost invariably +situated in very poor districts, there has been no necessity to put this +rule in force in a single instance. Social influences seem to be quite +sufficient to secure obedience to the association's laws.</p><a name="Page_197"></a> + +<p>Another advantage conferred by the association is that the term for +which money is advanced is a matter of agreement between the borrower +and the bank. The hard and fast term of three months which prevails in +Ireland for small loans is unsuited to the requirements of the +agricultural industry—as for instance, when a man borrows money to sow +a crop, and has to repay it before harvest. The society borrows at four +or five per cent, and lends at five or six per cent. In some cases the +Congested Districts Board or the Department of Agriculture have made +loans to these banks at three per cent. This enables the societies to +lend at the popular rate of one penny for the use of one pound for a +month. The expenses of administration are very small. As the credit of +these associations develops, they will become a depository for the +savings of the community, to the great advantage of both lender and +borrower. The latter generally makes an enormous profit out of these +loans, which have accordingly gained the name of 'the lucky money,' and +we find, in practice, that he always repays the association and almost +invariably with punctuality.</p> + +<p>The sketch I have given of the agricultural banks will, perhaps, be +sufficient to show what an immense educational and economic benefit they +are likely to confer when they are widely extended throughout Ireland, +as I hope they will be in the near future. Under this system, which, to +quote the report of the Indian Famine Commission, 1901, 'separates the +working bees from the <a name="Page_198"></a>drones,' the industrious men of the community who +had no clear idea before of the meaning or functions of capital or +credit, and who were generally unable to get capital into their industry +except at exorbitant rates of interest and upon unsuitable terms, are +now able to get, not always, indeed, all the money they want, but all +the money they can well employ for the improvement of their industry. +There is no fear of rash investment of capital in enterprises believed +to be, but not in reality productive—the committee take good care of +that. The whole community is taught the difference between borrowing to +spend and borrowing to make. You have the collective wisdom of the best +men in the association helping the borrower to decide whether he ought +to borrow or not, and then assisting him, if only from motives of +self-interest, to make the loan fulfil the purpose for which it was +made. I was delighted to find when I was making an enquiry into the +working of the system that, whereas the debt-laden peasants had formerly +concealed their indebtedness, of which they were ashamed, those who were +in debt to the new banks were proud of the fact, as it was the best +testimonial to their character for honesty and industry.<a name="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39"><sup>[39]</sup></a></p> +<a name="Page_199"></a> +<p>One other sphere of activity worked by the co-operative associations +needs a passing notice. The desire that, together with material +amelioration, there should be a corresponding intellectual advancement +and a greater beauty in life has prompted many of the farmers' societies +to use their organisation for higher ends. A considerable number of them +have started Village Libraries, and by an admirable selection of books +have brought to their members, not only the means of educating +themselves in the more difficult technical problems of their industry, +but also a means of access to that enchanted world of Irish thought +which inspires the Gaelic Revival to which I have already referred. +Social gatherings of every kind, dances, lectures, concerts, and such +like entertainments, which have the two-fold effect of brightening rural +life and increasing the attachment of the members to their society, are +becoming a common feature in the movement, and this more human aspect +has attracted to it the attention of many who do not understand its +economic side. We have gratifying evidence from many of the clergy that +the movement thus developed has kept at home young people who would +otherwise have fled from the continued hardship and intellectual +emptiness of rural life at home.</p><a name="Page_200"></a> + +<p>These results are in no small measure due to the zeal and devotion of +the governing body and staff of the I.A.O.S. The general policy of the +society is guided by a committee of twenty-four members, one-half of +whom are elected by the individual subscribers and the other half by the +affiliated societies. It is representative in the best sense and +influential accordingly. The success of the Committee is no doubt mainly +due to the wisdom which they have displayed in the selection of the +staff. In the most important post, that of Secretary, they have kept on +my chief fellow-worker in the early struggle, Mr. R.A. Anderson, who has +devoted himself to the cause with all the energy of a nature at once +enthusiastic, unselfish, and practical, and who has succeeded in +inspiring his staff of organisers and experts with his own spirit. Among +these, two deserve special mention, Mr. George W. Russell, one of the +Assistant Secretaries, who has, under the <i>nom de plume</i> "A.E.," +attained fame for a poetry of rare distinction of thought and diction, +and Mr. P.J. Hannon, the other Assistant Secretary, who has proved +himself a splendid propagandist. Each of these gentlemen has brought to +the movement a zeal and ability which could only come of a devotion to +high ideals of patriotism, curiously combined with a shrewd practical +instinct for carrying on varied and responsible business undertakings.</p> + +<p>With the growing work the staff has been repeatedly augmented to enable +the central society to keep pace with the demand made by groups of +farmers to be <a name="Page_201"></a>initiated into the principles of co-operative +organisation and the details of its application to the particular +branches of farming carried on in their several districts. At the same +time the societies which have been established need, during their +earlier years, and with each extension of their operations, constant +advice and supervision. Hence skilled organisers have to be kept to form +co-operative dairy societies, inspect creameries, and give technical +advice upon the manufacture and sale of butter, the care of machinery, +the adequacy of the water supply, the drainage system, and many similar +technical questions. Others are employed to start poultry societies, +which when organised have still to be instructed by a Danish expert in +the proper method of packing, selecting, and grading the eggs for +export. In tillage districts there is a constant demand for organisers +of purely agricultural societies, which aim at the joint purchase of +seeds and manures, of implements and other farm requisites, and at the +better disposal of produce; while the growing importance of an improved +system of agricultural credit keeps four organisers of agricultural +banks constantly at work Home industries, bee-keeping, and horticulture, +may be added to the objects for which societies have been formed and +which require separate expert organisers. And in addition to all this +work, the central association has found it necessary to keep a staff of +accountants, versed in the principles of co-operative organisation, to +instruct these miscellaneous societies in simple and efficient systems +of bookkeeping, <a name="Page_202"></a>and in the general principles of conducting business. +To complete the description of the propagandist activities of the +central body, there is a ceaseless flow of leaflets and circulars +containing advice and direction to bodies of farmers who, for the first +time in their lives, have combined for business purposes; while a little +weekly paper, the <i>Irish Homestead</i>, acts as the organ of the movement, +promotes the exchange of ideas between societies scattered throughout +the country, furnishes useful information upon all matters connected +with their business operations, and keeps constantly before the +associated farmers the economic principles which must be observed, and, +above all, the spirit in which the work must be approached, if the +movement is to fulfil its mission.<a name="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40"><sup>[40]</sup></a></p> + +<p>One of the difficulties incidental to a movement of this kind, which, +for the reasons already set forth, had to be rapidly and widely +extended, was the enormous cost to its supporters. It is needless to say +that such a staff as I have described could not be kept continuously +travelling by rail and road for so many years without the provision of a +large fund. These officers must obviously be men with exceptional +qualifications, if they are not only to impress the thought of their +agricultural <a name="Page_203"></a>audiences, but also to move them to action, and to sustain +the newly organised societies through the initial difficulties of their +unfamiliar enterprise. Such men are not to be found idle, and if they +preach this gospel, they are entitled to live by it. They are not by any +means overpaid, but their salaries in the aggregate amount to a large +annual sum. Before the creation of the Department of Agriculture and +Technical Instruction in 1900 large sums were spent by the I.A.O.S. not +only in its proper work of organisation, but also in giving technical +instruction, which was found to be essential to commercial success. When +the Society was relieved of this educational work many of its supporters +withdrew their subscriptions under the impression that there was now no +longer any need for its continued existence. But so far from the +Society's usefulness having ceased, it has now become more important +than ever that the doctrine of organised self-help, which must be the +foundation of any sound Irish economic policy, should be insisted upon +and put into practical operation as widely as possible. All those who +are devoting their lives to the firm establishment of this self-help +movement among the chief wealth-producers of the country are agreed that +no better educational work can be done at the moment than that which is +bringing about so salutary a change in the economic attitude of the +Irish mind.</p> + +<p>It is not to be wondered at that the greater part of the necessary funds +should have been drawn from a very limited circle of public-spirited men +capable of grasping <a name="Page_204"></a>the significance of a movement the practical effect +of which would appear to be permanent only to those who had a deep +insight into Irish problems.<a name="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41"><sup>[41]</sup></a> The difficulty of a successful appeal +to a wider public has been the impossibility of giving in brief form an +adequate explanation, such as that which it is hoped these pages will +afford, of the part the movement was to play in Irish life. We were +asked whether our scheme was business or philanthropy. If philanthropy, +it would probably do more harm than good. If business, why was it not +self-supporting? I remember hearing the movement ridiculed in the House +of Commons by a prominent Irish member on the ground that the accounts +of the I.A.O.S. showed that £20,000 (£40,000 would be nearer the mark +now) had been put into the 'business,' and that this large capital had +been entirely lost! When we proved that agricultural co-operation +brought a large profit to the members of the societies we formed, it was +suggested that a small part of this profit would give us all we required +for our organising work. So it will in time, but if instead of merely +refusing financial assistance to our converts, we were, on the other +hand, to demand it from them, we certainly should not lessen the +difficulty of launching our movement among the farmers of Ireland. Some +of our critics denounced the expenditure of so much money for which, in +their opinion, there was nothing to <a name="Page_205"></a>show, and said that the time had +come to stop this 'spoon-feeding.' When those for whose exclusive +benefit the costly work had been undertaken learned that all we had to +offer was the cold advice that they should help themselves, they not +infrequently raised a wholly different objection to our economic +doctrine. Spoonfeeding they might have tolerated, but there was nothing +in the spoon! The movement has survived all these criticisms. The lack +of moral and of financial support which retarded its progress in the +early years, has been so far surmounted The movement may now, I think, +appeal for further help as one that has justified its existence. The +opinion that it has done so is not held only by those who are engaged in +promoting it, nor by Irish observers alone. The efforts of the Irish +farmers so to reorganise their industry that they may hopefully approach +the solution of the problems of rural life are being watched by +economists and administrators abroad. Enquirers have come to Ireland +during the last two years from Germany, France, Canada, the United +States, India, South Africa, Cyprus and the West Indies, having been +drawn here by the desire to understand the combination of economic and +human reform. It was not alone the economic advantages of the movement +which interested them, but the way in which the organisation at the same +time acted upon the character and awoke those forces of self-help and +comradeship in which lies the surety of any enduring national +prosperity. A native governor from a famine district in the Madras +Presidency, who, perhaps, better <a name="Page_206"></a>than any one realised the importance +of these human factors, because the lethargy of his own people had +forced it on his notice, said, when he was referred to the Department of +Agriculture and Technical Instruction for information, "Oh, don't speak +to me about Government Departments. They are the same all over the +world. I come here to learn what the Irish people are doing to help +themselves and how you awaken the will and the initiative." I hope to +show later that State assistance properly applied is not necessarily +demoralising but very much the reverse. It is consoling, too, to our +national pride, long wounded by contemptuous references to our +industrial incapacity as compared with our neighbours, to find that our +latest efforts are regarded by them as worthy of imitation. From the +other side of the Channel no less than five County Councils have sent +deputations of farmers to Ireland to study the progress of the movement, +and already an English Organisation Society, expressly modelled upon its +Irish namesake, has been established and is endeavouring to carry out +the same work.</p> + +<p>It is not surprising that the facts which I have cited should be +interesting to the honest inquirer. A summary of actual achievement will +show that this movement has spread all over Ireland, that its principle +of organised self-help has been universally accepted, and that nothing +but time and the necessary funds are required by its promoters to give +it, within the range of its applicability, general effect. It is no +exaggeration to say that there <a name="Page_207"></a>has been set in motion and carried +beyond the experimental stage a revolution in agricultural methods which +will enable our farmers to compete with their rivals abroad, both in +production and in distribution, under far more favourable conditions +than before. Alike in its material and in its moral achievements this +movement has provided an effective means whereby the peasant proprietary +about to be created will be able to face and solve the vital problems +before it, problems for which no improvement in land tenure, no rent +reductions actual or prospective, could otherwise provide an adequate +solution. Furthermore, nothing could be more evident to any close +observer of Irish life than the fact that had it not been for the new +spirit which the workers in this movement, mostly humble unknown men, +had generated, the attitude of the Irish democracy towards England's +latest concession to Ireland would have been very different from what it +is. In the last dozen years hundreds and thousands of meetings have been +held to discuss matters of business importance to our rural communities. +At these meetings landlord and tenant-farmer have often met each other +for the first time on a footing of friendly equality, as fellow-members +of co-operative societies. It is significant that all through the +negotiations which culminated in the Dunraven Treaty, landlords who had +come into the life of the people in connection with the co-operative +movement took a prominent part in favour of conciliation.</p> + +<p>I would further give it as my opinion, whatever it may <a name="Page_208"></a>be worth, that +the movement has exercised a profound influence in those departments of +our national life where, as I have shown in previous chapters, new +forces must be not only recognised but accepted as essential to national +well-being, if we are to cherish what is good and free ourselves from +what is bad in the historical evolution of our national life. In the +domain of politics it is hard to estimate even the political value of +the exclusion of politics from deliberations and activities where they +have no proper place. In our religious life, where intolerance has +perpetuated anti-industrial tendencies, the new movement is seen to be +bringing together for business purposes men who had previously no +dealings with each other, but who have now learned that the doctrine of +self-help by mutual help involves no danger to faith and no sacrifice of +hope, while it engenders a genuinely Christian interpretation of +charity.<a name="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42"><sup>[42]</sup></a></p> + +<p>I cannot conclude the story of this movement without paying a brief +tribute of respect and gratitude to those true patriots who have borne +the daily burden of the <a name="Page_209"></a>work. I hope the picture I have given of their +aims and achievements will lead to a just appreciation of their services +to their country. By these men and women applause or even recognition +was not expected or desired: they knew that it was to those who had the +advantages of leisure, and what the world calls position, that the +credit for their work would be given. But it is of national importance +that altruistic service should be understood and given freedom of +expansion. I have, therefore, presented as faithfully as I could the +origin and development of one of the least understood, but in my +opinion, most fruitful movements which has ever been undertaken by a +body of social and economic reformers. As Irish leaders they have +preferred to remain obscure, conscious that the most damaging criticism +which could be applied to their work would be that it depended on their +own personal qualities or acts for its permanent utility. But most +assuredly the real conquerors of the world are those who found upon +human character their hopes of human progress.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37">[37]</a><div class="note"><p> The story of the conversion of some of the tenants on the +Vandeleur estate into a co-operative community in 1831 by Mr. E.T. +Craig, a Scotchman who took up the agency of the property, told in the +<i>History of Ralahine</i> (London, Trübner & Co., 1893) is worth reading. +The experiment, most hopeful as far as it went, was only two years in +existence when the landlord gambled away his property at cards in a +Dublin club and the Utopia was sold up. But in the co-operative world +Mr. Craig, who died as recently as 1894, is revered as the author of the +most advanced experiment in the realisation of co-operative ideals. The +economic significance of the narrative is obviously not important, and I +doubt whether joint ownership of land, except for the purpose of common +grazing, is a practical ideal. The ready response, however, of the Irish +peasants to Mr. Craig's enthusiasm and the way in which they took up the +idea form an interesting study of the Irish character.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38">[38]</a><div class="note"><p> The late Canon Bagot had done good service in explaining +the value of the new machinery; but unhappily the vital importance of +co-operative organisation was not then understood. He formed some joint +stock companies with the result that, having no co-operative spirit to +offset their commercial inexperience, they all proved, instead of +co-operative successes, competitive failures. This fact added to our +early difficulties.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39">[39]</a><div class="note"><p> It should be noted that this form of association for +credit purposes, owing to its peculiar constitution, applies only to a +grade of the community whose members all live on about the same scale +and that a fairly low one. It is obvious that unlimited liability would +lose its efficacy in developing the sense of responsibility if some +members of the association were so substantial that its creditors would +make them primarily responsible in the event of failure. The fact, +however, that the scheme has worked with unvarying success among the +poorest of the poor, and the most Irish of the Irish, renders it as good +an illustration as can be found of what may be done by sympathetic and +intelligent treatment of Irish economic problems. Mr. Henry W. Wolff, +the foremost authority on People's Banks in these islands, and Mr. R.A. +Yerburgh, M.P., a generous subscriber to the Irish Agricultural +Organisation Society, have taken great interest in this part of the +movement and have rendered much assistance.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40">[40]</a><div class="note"><p> Those who wish to go more fully into the details of the +co-operative agricultural movement in Ireland should write to the +Secretary Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, 22 Lincoln-place, +Dublin. The publications of the Society are somewhat voluminous, and the +inquirer should intimate any particular branches of the subject in which +he is especially interested. Those wishing to keep <i>au courant</i> with the +further development of the movement would do well to take in the <i>Irish +Homestead</i>, post free <i>6s. 6d.</i> per annum.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41">[41]</a><div class="note"><p> The chief donors belong to the class of philanthropists +who do not care to advertise their beneficence. I, therefore, respect +their wishes and withhold their names.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42">[42]</a><div class="note"><p> I recall an occasion when the Vice-President of the +I.A.O.S. (a Nationalist in politics and a Jesuit priest), who has been +ever ready to lend a hand as volunteer organiser when the prior claims +of his religious and educational duties allowed, found himself before an +audience which he was informed, when he came to the meeting, consisted +mainly of Orangemen. He began his address by referring to the new and +somewhat strange environment into which he had drifted. He did not, +however, see why this circumstance should lead to any misunderstanding +between himself and his audience. He had never been able to understand +what a battle fought upon a famous Irish river two centuries ago had got +to do with the practical issues of to-day which he had come to discuss. +The dispute in question was, after all, between a Scotchman and a +Dutchman, and if it had not yet been decided, they might be left to +settle it themselves—that is if too great a gulf did not separate +them.</p></div> + + +<a name="Page_210"></a> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VIII"></a><h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h4>THE RECESS COMMITTEE.</h4> + + +<p>The new movement, six years after its initiation, had succeeded beyond +the most sanguine expectations of its promoters. All over the country +the idea of self-help was taking firm hold of the imagination of the +people.</p> + +<p>Co-operation had got, so to speak, into the air to such an extent that, +whereas at the beginning, as I well remember, our chief difficulty had +been to popularise a principle to which one section of the community was +strongly opposed, and in which no section believed, it was now no longer +necessary to explain or support the theory, but only to show how it +could be advantageously applied to some branch of the farmer's industry. +It was not, strange to say, the economic advantage which had chiefly +appealed to the quick intelligence of the Irish farmer, but rather the +novel sensation that he was thinking for himself, and that while +improving his own condition he was working for others. This attitude was +essential to the success of the movement, because had it not been for a +vein of altruism, the "strong" farmers would have held aloof, and the +small men would have been discouraged by the abstention of the +better-off and presumably more enlightened of their class.</p><a name="Page_211"></a> + +<p>Perhaps, too, we owed something to the recognition on the part of the +working farmers of Ireland that they were showing a capacity to grasp an +idea which had so far failed to penetrate the bucolic intelligence of +the predominant partner. Whatever the causes to which the success of the +movement was attributable, those who were responsible for its promotion +felt in the year 1895 that it had reached a stage in its development +when it was but a question of time to complete the projected revolution +in the farming industry, the substitution of combined for isolated +methods of production and distribution. It was then further brought home +to them that the principle of self-help was destined to obtain general +acceptance in rural Ireland, and that the time had come when a sound +system of State aid to agriculture might be fruitfully grafted on to +this native growth of local effort and self-reliance.</p> + +<p>From time to time our public men had included in the list of Irish +grievances the fact that England enjoyed a Board of Agriculture while +Ireland had no similar institution. As a matter of fact a mere replica +of the English Board would not have fulfilled a tithe of the objects we +had in view. That much at least we knew, but beyond that our information +was vague. What, having regard to Irish rural conditions, should be the +character and constitution of any Department called into being to +administer the aid required? Here indeed was a vital and difficult +problem. Even those of us who had given the closest thought to the +matter did not know exactly <a name="Page_212"></a>what was wanted; nor, if we had known our +own minds, could we have formulated our demand in such a way as to have +obtained a backing from representative public bodies, associations, and +individuals sufficient to secure its concession. Instead, therefore, of +agitating in the conventional manner we determined to try to direct the +best thought of the country to the problem in hand, with a view to +satisfying the Government, and also ourselves, as to what was wanted. We +had confidence that a demand presented to Parliament, based upon calm +and deliberate debate among the most competent of Irishmen, would be +conceded. The story of this agitation, its initiation, its conduct, and +its final success will, I am sure, be of interest to all who feel any +concern for the welfare of Ireland.</p> + +<p>I have accepted the common characterisation of the Irish as a +leader-following people. When we come to analyse the human material out +of which a strong national life may be constructed, we find that there +are in Ireland—in this connection I exclude the influence of the +clergy, with which I have dealt specifically in another chapter—two +elements of leadership, the political and the industrial. The political +leaders are seen to enjoy an influence over the great majority of the +people which is probably as powerful as that of any political leaders in +ancient or modern times; but as a class they certainly do not take a +prominent, or even an active part in business life. This fact is not +introduced with any controversial purpose, and I freely acknowledge can +be inter<a name="Page_213"></a>preted in a sense altogether creditable to the Nationalist +members. The other element of leadership contains all that is prominent +in industrial and commercial life, and few countries could produce +better types of such leaders than can be found in the northern capital +of the country. But, unhappily, these men are debarred from all +influence upon the thought and action of the great majority of the +people, who are under the domination of the political leaders. This is +one of the strange anomalies of Irish life to which I have already +referred. Its recognition, and the desire to utilise the knowledge of +business men as well as politicians, took practical effect in the +formation of the Recess Committee.</p> + +<p>The idea underlying this project was the combination of these two forces +of leadership—the force with political influence and that of proved +industrial and commercial capacity—in order to concentrate public +opinion, which was believed to be inclining in this direction, on the +material needs of the country. The General Election of 1895 had, by +universal admission, postponed, for some years at any rate, any +possibility of Home Rule, and the cessation of the bitter feelings +aroused when Home Rule seemed imminent provided the opportunity for an +appeal to the Irish people in behalf of the views which I have +adumbrated. The appeal took the form of a letter, dated August 27th, +1895, by the author to the Irish Press, under the quite sincere, if +somewhat grandiloquent, title, "A proposal affecting the general welfare +of Ireland."</p><a name="Page_214"></a> + +<p>The letter set out the general scope and purpose of the scheme. After a +confession of the writer's continued opposition to Home Rule, the +admission was made that if the average Irish elector, who is more +intelligent than the average British elector, were also as prosperous, +as industrious, and as well educated, his continued demand, in the +proper constitutional way, for Home Rule would very likely result in the +experiment being one day tried. On the other hand, the opinion was +expressed that if the material conditions of the great body of our +countrymen were advanced, if they were encouraged in industrial +enterprise, and were provided with practical education in proportion to +their natural intelligence, they would see that a political development +on lines similar to those adopted in England was, considering the +necessary relations between the two countries, best for Ireland; and +then they would cease to desire what is ordinarily understood as Home +Rule. A basis for united action between politicians on both sides of the +Irish controversy was then suggested. Finding ourselves still opposed +upon the main question, but all anxious to promote the welfare of the +country, and confident that, as this was advanced, our respective +policies would be confirmed, it would appear, it was suggested, to be +alike good patriotism and good policy to work for the material and +social advancement of the people. Why then, it was asked, should any +Irishman hesitate to enter at once upon that united action between men +of both parties which alone, under <a name="Page_215"></a>existing conditions, could enable +either party to do any real and lasting good to the country?</p> + +<p>The letter proceeded to indicate economic legislation which, though +sorely needed by Ireland, was hopelessly unattainable unless it could be +removed from the region of controversy. The <i>modus co-operandi</i> +suggested was as follows:—a committee sitting in the Parliamentary +recess, whence it came to be known as the Recess Committee, was to be +formed, consisting in the first instance, of Irish Members of Parliament +nominated by the leaders of the different sections. These nominees were +to invite to join them any Irishmen whose capacity, knowledge, or +experience might be of service to the Committee, irrespective of the +political party or religious persuasion to which they might belong. The +day had come, the letter went on to say, when "we Unionists, without +abating one jot of our Unionism, and Nationalists, without abating one +jot of their Nationalism, can each show our faith in the cause for which +we have fought so bitterly and so long, by sinking our party differences +for our country's good, and leaving our respective policies for the +justification of time."</p> + +<p>Needless to say, few were sanguine enough to hope that such a committee +would ever be brought together. If that were accomplished some +prophesied that its members would but emulate the fame of the Kilkenny +cats. A severe blow was dealt to the project at the outset by the +refusal of Mr. Justin McCarthy, who then spoke for the largest section +of the Nationalist repre<a name="Page_216"></a>sentatives, to have anything to do with it. His +reply to the letter must be given in full:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>MY DEAR MR. PLUNKETT,</p> + +<p> I am sure I need not say that any effort to promote the general + welfare of Ireland has my fullest sympathy. I readily acknowledge + and entirely believe in the sincerity and good purpose of your + effort, but I cannot see my way to associate myself with it. Your + frank avowal in your letter of August 27th is the expression of a + belief that if your policy could be successfully carried out the + Irish people "would cease to desire Home Rule." Now, I do not + believe that anything in the way of material improvement conferred + by the Parliament at Westminster, or by Dublin Castle, could + extinguish the national desire for Home Rule. Still, I do not feel + that I could possibly take part in any organisation which had for + its object the seeking of a substitute for that which I believe to + be Ireland's greatest need—Home Rule.</p> + +<p> Yours very truly,</p> + +<p> JUSTIN MCCARTHY.</p> + +<p> 73, Eaton-terrace, S.W., October 22nd, 1895.</p></blockquote> + +<p>I had not much hope that I could influence Mr. McCarthy's decision; but +it was so serious an obstacle to further action that I made one more +appeal. I wrote to my respected and courteous correspondent, pointing +out the misconception of my proposal, which had arisen from the use made +of the six words quoted by him, which were hardly intelligible without +the context. I asked him to reconsider his refusal to join in the +proposal for promoting the material improvement of our country, on +account of a contingency which he confidently declared could not <a name="Page_217"></a>arise. +But in those days economic seed fell upon stony political ground.</p> + +<p>The position was rendered still more difficult by the action of Colonel +Saunderson, the leader of the Irish Unionist party, who wrote to the +newspapers declaring that he would not sit on a Committee with Mr. John +Redmond. On the other hand, Mr. Redmond, speaking then for the +"Independent" party, consisting of less than a dozen members, but +containing some men who agreed with Mr. Field's admission in the House +of Commons that "man cannot live on politics alone," joined the +Committee and acted throughout in a manner which was broad, +statesmanlike, conciliatory, and as generous as it was courageous. His +letter of acceptance ran as follows:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>DEAR MR. PLUNKETT,</p> + +<p> I received your letter, in which you ask me to co-operate with you + in bringing together a small Committee of Members of Parliament to + discuss certain measures to be proposed next Session for the + benefit of Ireland. While I cannot take as sanguine a view as you + do of the benefits likely to flow from such a proceeding, I am + unwilling to take the responsibility of declining to aid in any + effort to promote useful legislation for Ireland.</p> + +<p> I will, under the circumstances, co-operate with you in bringing + such a Committee as you suggest together. Very truly yours,</p> + +<p> J.E. REDMOND.</p> + +<p> October 21st, 1895.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Before these decisions were officially announced the idea had "caught +on." Public bodies throughout the country endorsed the scheme. The +parliamentarians, <a name="Page_218"></a>who formed the nucleus of the Committee, came +together and invited prominent men from all quarters to join them. A +committee which, though informal and self-appointed, might fairly claim +to be representative in every material respect, was thus constituted on +the lines laid down.</p> + +<p>Truly, it was a strange council over which I had the honour to preside. +All shades of politics were there—Lords Mayo and Monteagle, Mr. Dane +and Sir Thomas Lea (Tories and Liberal Unionist Peers and Members of +Parliament) sitting down beside Mr. John Redmond and his parliamentary +followers. It was found possible, in framing proposals fraught with +moral, social, and educational results, to secure the cordial agreement +of the late Rev. Dr. Kane, Grand Master of the Belfast Orangemen, and of +the eminent Jesuit educationist, Father Thomas Finlay, of the Royal +University. The O'Conor Don, the able Chairman of the Financial +Relations Commission, and Mr. John Ross, M.P., now one of His Majesty's +Judges, both Unionists, were balanced by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and +Mr. T.C. Harrington, M.P., who now occupies that post, both +Nationalists. The late Sir John Arnott fitly represented the commercial +enterprise of the South, while such men as Mr. Thomas Sinclair, +universally regarded as one of the wisest of Irish public men, Sir +William Ewart, head of the leading linen concern in the North, Sir +Daniel Dixon, now Lord Mayor of Belfast, Sir James Musgrave, Chairman of +the Belfast<a name="Page_219"></a> Harbour Board, and Mr. Thomas Andrews, a well-known +flax-spinner and Chairman of the Belfast and County Down Railway, would +be universally accepted as the highest authorities upon the needs of the +business community which has made Ulster famous in the industrial world. +Mr. T.P. Gill, besides undertaking investigation of the utmost value +into State aid to agriculture in France and Denmark, acted as Hon. +Secretary to the Committee, of which he was a member.</p> + +<p>The story of our deliberations and ultimate conclusions cannot be set +forth here except in the barest outline. We instituted an inquiry into +the means by which the Government could best promote the development of +our agricultural and industrial resources, and despatched commissioners +to countries of Europe whose conditions and progress might afford some +lessons for Ireland. Most of this work was done for us by the late +eminent statistician, Mr. Michael Mulhall. Our funds did not admit of an +inquiry in the United States or the Colonies. However, we obtained +invaluable information as to the methods by which countries which were +our chief rivals in agricultural and industrial production have been +enabled to compete successfully with our producers even in our own +markets. Our commissioners were instructed in each case to collect the +facts necessary to enable us to differentiate between the parts played +respectively by State aid and the efforts of the people themselves in +producing these results. With this information before us, after long and +earnest deli<a name="Page_220"></a>beration we came to a unanimous agreement upon the main +facts of the situation with which we had to deal, and upon the +recommendations for remedial legislation which we should make to the +Government.</p> + +<p>The substance of our recommendations was that a Department of Government +should be specially created, with a minister directly responsible to +Parliament at its head. The central body was to be assisted by a +Consultative Council representative of the interests concerned. The +Department was to be adequately endowed from the Imperial Treasury, and +was to administer State aid to agriculture and industries in Ireland +upon principles which were fully described. The proposal to amalgamate +agriculture and industries under one Department was adopted largely on +account of the opinion expressed by M. Tisserand, late Director-General +of Agriculture in France, one of the highest authorities in Europe upon +the administration of State aid to agriculture.<a name="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43"><sup>[43]</sup></a> The creation of a +new minister directly responsible to Parliament was considered a +necessary provision. Ireland is governed by a number of Boards, all, +with the exception of the Board of Works (which is really a branch of +the Treasury), responsible to the Chief Secretary—practically a whole +cabinet under one hat—who is supposed to be responsible for them to +Parliament and to the Lord Lieutenant. The bearers of this burden are +generally men of great ability. But no Chief Secretary could <a name="Page_221"></a>possibly +take under his wing yet another department with the entirely new and +important functions now to be discharged. What these functions were to +be need not here be described, as the Department thus 'agitated' for has +now been three years at work and will form the subject of the next two +chapters.</p> + +<p>On August 1st, 1896, less than a year from the issue of the invitation +to the political leaders, the Report was forwarded to the Chief +Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant for Ireland, with a covering letter, +setting out the considerations upon which the Committee relied for the +justification of its course of action. Attention was drawn to the terms +of the original proposal, its exceptional nature and essential +informality, the political conditions which appeared to make it +opportune, the spirit in which it was responded to by those who were +invited to join, and the degree of public approval which had been +accorded to our action. We were able to claim for the Committee that it +was thoroughly representative of those agricultural and industrial +interests, North and South, with which the Report was concerned.</p> + +<p>There were two special features in the brief history of this unique +coming together of Irishmen which will strike any man familiar with the +conditions of Irish public life. The first was the way in which the +business element, consisting of men already deeply engaged in their +various callings—and, indeed, selected for that very reason—devoted +time and labour to the service of their country. Still more significant +was the <a name="Page_222"></a>fact that the political element on the Committee should have +come to an absolutely unanimous agreement upon a policy which, though +not intended to influence the trend of politics, was yet bound to have +far-reaching consequences upon the political thought of the country, and +upon the positions of parties and leaders. It was thought only fair to +the Nationalist members of the Committee that every precaution should be +taken to prevent their being placed in a false position. 'To avoid any +possible misconception,' the covering letter ran, 'as to the attitude of +those members of the Committee who are not supporters of the present +Government, it is right here to state that, while under existing +political conditions they agreed in recommending a certain course to the +Government, they wish it to be understood that their political +principles remain unaltered, and that, were it immediately possible, +they would prefer that the suggested reforms should be preceded by the +constitutional changes of which they are the well-known advocates.'</p> + +<p>It is interesting to note that the Committee claimed favourable +consideration for their proposals on the ground that they sought to act +as 'a channel of communication between the Irish Government and Irish +public opinion.' Little interest, they pointed out, had been hitherto +aroused in those economic problems for which the Report suggested some +solution. They expressed the hope that their action would do something +to remedy this defect, especially in view of the importance which +foreign Governments had found it necessary to <a name="Page_223"></a>attach to public opinion +in working out their various systems of State aid to agriculture and +industries. At the same time the Committee emphasised, in the covering +letter, their reliance on individual and combined effort rather than on +State aid. They were able to point out that, in asking for the latter, +they had throughout attached the utmost importance to its being granted +in such a manner as to evoke and supplement, and in no way be a +substitute for self-help. If they appeared to give undue prominence to +the capabilities of State initiation, it was to be remembered that they +were dealing with economic conditions which had been artificially +produced, and which, therefore, might require exceptional treatment of a +temporary nature to bring about a permanent remedy.</p> + +<p>I fear those most intimately connected with the above occurrences will +regard this chapter as a very inadequate description of events so +unprecedented and so full of hope for the future. My purpose is, +however, to limit myself, in dealing with the past, to such details as +are necessary to enable the reader to understand the present facts of +Irish life, and to build upon them his own conclusions as to the most +hopeful line of future development. I shall, therefore, pass rapidly in +review the events which led to the fruition of the labours of the Recess +Committee.</p> + +<p>Public opinion in favour of the new proposals grew rapidly. Before the +end of the year (1896) a deputation, representing all the leading +agricul<a name="Page_224"></a>tural and industrial interests of the country, waited upon the +Irish Government, in order to press upon them the urgent need for the +new department. The Lord Lieutenant, after describing the gathering as +'one of the most notable deputations which had ever come to lay its case +before the Irish Government,' and noting the 'remarkable growth of +public opinion' in favour of the policy they were advocating, expressed +his heartfelt sympathy with the case which had been presented, and his +earnest desire—which was well known—to proceed with legislation for +the agricultural and industrial development of the country at the +earliest moment. The demand made upon the Government was, +argumentatively, already irresistible. But economic agitation of this +kind takes time to acquire dynamic force. Mr. Gerald Balfour introduced +a Bill the following year, but it had to be withdrawn to leave the way +clear for the other great Irish measure which revolutionised local +government. The unconventional agitation went on upon the original +lines, appealing to that latent public opinion which we were striving to +develop. In 1899 another Bill was introduced, and, owing to its masterly +handling by the Chief Secretary in the House of Commons, ably seconded +by the strong support given by Lord Cadogan, who was in the Cabinet, it +became law.</p> + +<p>I cannot conclude this chapter without a word upon the extraordinary +misunderstanding of Mr. Gerald Balfour's policy to which the obscuring +atmosphere sur<a name="Page_225"></a>rounding all Irish questions gave rise. In one respect +that policy was a new departure of the utmost importance. He proved +himself ready to take a measure from Ireland and carry it through, +instead of insisting upon a purely English scheme which he could call +his own. These pre-digested foods had already done much to destroy our +political digestion, and it was time we were given something to grow, to +cook, and to assimilate for ourselves. It will be seen, too, in the next +chapter, that he had realised the potentiality for good of the new +forces in Irish life to which he gave play in his two great linked +Acts—one of them popularising local government, and the other creating +a new Department which was to bring the government and the people +together in an attempt to develop the resources of the country. Yet his +eminently sane and far-seeing policy was regarded in many quarters as a +sacrifice of Unionist interests in Ireland. Its real effect was to endow +Unionism with a positive as well as a negative policy. But all reformers +know that the further ahead they look, the longer they have to wait for +their justification. Meanwhile, we may leave out of consideration the +division of honour or of blame for what has been done. The only matter +of historic interest is to arrive at a correct measure of the progress +made.</p> + +<p>The new movement had thus completed the first and second stages of its +mission. The idea of self-help had become a growing reality, and upon +this foundation an edifice of State aid had been erected. When a +Nationalist <a name="Page_226"></a>member met a Tory member of the Recess Committee he laughed +over the success with which they had wheedled a measure of industrial +Home Rule out of a Unionist Government. None the less they cordially +agreed that the people would rise to their economic responsibility. The +promoters of the movement had faith that this new departure in English +government would be more than justified by the English test, and that in +the new sphere of administration the government would be accorded, +without prejudice, of course, to the ultimate views either of Unionists +or Home Rulers, not only the consent, but the whole-hearted co-operation +of the governed.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43">[43]</a><div class="note"><p> The memorandum which he kindly contributed to the Recess +Committee was copied into the Annual Report of the United States +Department of Agriculture for 1896.</p></div> + + + +<a name="Page_227"></a> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_IX"></a><h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h4>A NEW DEPARTURE IN IRISH ADMINISTRATION.</h4> + + +<p>To the average English Member of Parliament, the passing of an Act "for +establishing a Department of Agriculture and other Industries and +Technical Instruction in Ireland and for other purposes connected +therewith," probably signified little more than the removal of another +Irish grievance, which might not be imaginary, by the concession to +Ireland of an equivalent to the Board of Agriculture in England. In +reality the difference between the two institutions is as wide as the +difference between the two islands. The chief interest of the new +Department consists in the free play which it gives to the pent-up +forces of a re-awakening life. A new institution is at best but a new +opportunity, but the Department starts with the unique advantage that, +unlike most Irish institutions, it is one which we Irishmen planned +ourselves and for which we have worked. For this reason the opportunity +is one to which we may hope to rise.</p> + +<p>Before I can convey any clear impression of the part which the +Department is, I believe, destined to play on the stage of Irish public +life, it will be necessary for me to give a somewhat detailed +description of its functions and constitution. The subject is perhaps +dull <a name="Page_228"></a>and technical; but readers cannot understand the Ireland of to-day +unless they have in their minds not only an accurate conception of the +new moral forces in Irish life and of the movements to which these +forces have given rise, but also a knowledge of the administrative +machinery and methods by which the people and the Government are now, +for the first time since the Union, working together towards the +building up of the Ireland of to-morrow.</p> + +<p>The Department consists of the President (who is the Chief Secretary for +the time being) and the Vice-President. The staff is composed of a +Secretary, two Assistant Secretaries (one in respect of Agriculture and +one in respect of Technical Instruction), as well as certain heads of +Branches and a number of inspectors, instructors, officers and servants. +The Recess Committee, it will be remembered, had laid stress upon the +importance of having at the head of the Department a new Minister who +should be directly responsible to Parliament; and, accordingly, it was +arranged that the Vice-President should be its direct Ministerial head. +The Act provided that the Department should be assisted in its work by a +Council of Agriculture and two Boards, and also by a Consultative +Committee to advise upon educational questions. But before discussing +the constitution of these bodies, it is necessary to explain the nature +of the task assigned to the new Department which began work in April, +1900. It was created to fulfil two main purposes.<a name="Page_229"></a> In the first place, +it was to consolidate in one authority certain inter-related functions +of government in connection with the business concerns of the people +which, until the creation of the Department, were scattered over some +half-dozen Boards, and to place these functions under the direct control +and responsibility of the new Minister. The second purpose was to +provide means by which the Government and the people might work together +in developing the resources of the country so far as State intervention +could be legitimately applied to this end.</p> + +<p>To accomplish the first object, two distinct Government departments, the +Veterinary Department of the Privy Council and the Office of the +Inspectors of Irish Fisheries, were merged in the new Department. The +importance to the economic life of the country of having the laws for +safeguarding our flocks and herds from disease, our crops from insect +pests, our farmers from fraud in the supply of fertilisers and feeding +stuffs and in the adulteration of foods (which compete with their +products), administered by a Department generally concerned for the +farming industry need not be laboured. Similarly, it was well that the +laws for the protection of both sea and inland fisheries should be +administered by the authority whose function it was to develop these +industries. There was also transferred from South Kensington the +administration of the Science and Arts grants and the grant in aid of +technical instruction, together with the control of several national +institutions, <a name="Page_230"></a>the most important being the Royal College of Science and +the Metropolitan School of Art; for they, in a sense, would stand at the +head of much of the new work which would be required for the +contemplated agricultural and industrial developments. The Albert +Institute at Glasnevin and the Munster Institute in Cork, both +institutions for teaching practical agriculture, were, as a matter of +course, handed over from the Board of National Education.</p> + +<p>The desirability of bringing order and simplicity into these branches of +administration, where co-related action was not provided for before, was +obvious. A few years ago, to take a somewhat extreme case, when a +virulent attack of potato disease broke out which demanded prompt and +active Governmental intervention, the task of instructing farmers how to +spray their potatoes was shared by no fewer than six official or +semi-official bodies. The consolidation of administration effected by +the Act, in addition to being a real step towards efficiency and +economy, relieved the Chief Secretary of an immense amount of detailed +work to which he could not possibly give adequate personal attention, +and made it possible for him to devote a greater share of his time to +the larger problems of general Irish legislation and finance.</p> + +<p>The newly created powers of the Department, which were added to and +co-ordinated with the various pre-existing functions of the several +departments whose consolidation I have mentioned above, fairly fulfilled +the <a name="Page_231"></a>recommendation of the Recess Committee that the Department should +have 'a wide reference and a free hand.' These powers include the +aiding, improving, and developing of agriculture in all its branches; +horticulture, forestry, home and cottage industries; sea and inland +fisheries; the aiding and facilitating of the transit of produce; and +the organisation of a system of education in science and art, and in +technology as applied to these various subjects. The provision of +technical instruction suitable to the needs of the few manufacturing +centres in Ireland was included, but need not be dealt with in any +detail in these pages, since, as I have said before, the questions +connected therewith are more or less common to all such centres and have +no specially Irish significance.</p> + +<p>For all the administrative functions transferred to the new Department +moneys are, as before, annually voted by Parliament. Towards the +fulfilment of the second purpose mentioned above—the development of the +resources of the country upon the principles of the Recess Committee—an +annual income of £166,000, which was derived in about equal parts from +Irish and imperial sources, and is called the Department's Endowment, +together with a capital sum of about £200,000, were provided.</p> + +<p>It will be seen that a very wide sphere of usefulness was thus opened +out for the new Department in two distinct ways. The consolidation, +under one authority, of many scattered but co-related functions was +clearly <a name="Page_232"></a>a move in the right direction. Upon this part of its +recommendations the Recess Committee had no difficulty in coming to a +quick decision. But the real importance of their Report lay in the +direction of the new work which was to be assigned to the Department. +Under the new order of things, if the Department, acting with as well as +for the people, succeeds in doing well what legitimately may and ought +to be done by the Government towards the development of the resources of +the country, and, at the same time, as far as possible confines its +interference to helping the Irish people to help themselves, a wholly +new spirit will be imported into the industrial life of the nation.</p> + +<p>The very nature of the work which the Department was called into +existence to accomplish made it absolutely essential that it should keep +in touch with the classes whom its work would most immediately affect, +and without whose active co-operation no lasting good could be achieved. +The machinery for this purpose was provided by the establishment of a +Council of Agriculture and two Boards, one of the latter being concerned +with agriculture, rural industries, and inland fisheries, the other with +technical instruction. These representative bodies, whose constitution +is interesting as a new departure in administration, were adapted from +similar continental councils which have been found by experience, in +those foreign countries which are Ireland's economic rivals, to be the +most valuable of all means whereby the administration keeps in touch +with the <a name="Page_233"></a>agricultural and industrial classes, and becomes truly +responsive to their needs and wishes.</p> + +<p>The Council of Agriculture consists of two members appointed by each +County Council (Cork being regarded as two counties and returning four +members), making in all sixty-eight persons. The Department also appoint +one half this number of persons, observing in their nomination the same +provincial proportions as obtained in the appointments by the popular +bodies. This adds thirty-four members, and makes in all one hundred and +two Councillors, in addition to the President and Vice-President of the +Department, who are <i>ex-officio</i> members. Thus, if all the members +attended a Council meeting, the Vice-President would find himself +presiding over a body as truly representative of the interests concerned +as could be brought together, consisting, by a strange coincidence, of +exactly the same number as the Irish representatives in Parliament.</p> + +<p>The Council, which is appointed for a term of three years, the first +term dating from the 1st April, 1900, has a two-fold function. It is, in +the first place, a deliberative assembly which must be convened by the +Department at least once a year. The domain over which its deliberations +may travel is certainly not restricted, as the Act defines its function +as that of "discussing matters of public interest in connection with any +of the purposes of this Act." The view Mr. Gerald Balfour took was that +nothing but the new spirit he laboured to evoke would make his machine +work. Although he <a name="Page_234"></a>gave the Vice-President statutory powers to make +rules for the proper ordering of the Council debates, I have been well +content to rely upon the usual privileges of a chairman. I have +estimated beforehand the time required for the discussion of matters of +inquiry: the speakers have condensed their speeches accordingly, the +business has been expeditiously transacted, and in the mere exchange of +ideas invaluable assistance has been given to the Department.</p> + +<p>The second function of the Council is exercised only at its first +meeting, and consequently but once in three years. At this first +triennial meeting it becomes an Electoral College. It divides itself +into four Provincial Committees, each of which elects two members to +represent its province on the Agricultural Board and one member to +represent it on the Board of Technical Instruction. The Agricultural +Board, which controls a sum of over £100,000 a year, consists of twelve +members, and as eight out of the twelve are elected by the four +Provincial Committees—the remaining four being appointed by the +Department, one from each province—it will be seen that the Council of +Agriculture exercises an influence upon the administration commensurate +with its own representative character. The Board of Technical +Instruction, consisting of twenty-one members, together with the +President and Vice-President of the Department, has a less simple +constitution, owing to the fact that it is concerned with the more +complex life of the urban districts of the country. As I have said, the<a name="Page_235"></a> +Council of Agriculture elects only four members—one for each province. +The Department appoints four others; each of the County Boroughs of +Dublin and Belfast appoints three members; the remaining four County +Boroughs appoint one member each; a joint Committee of the Councils of +the large urban districts surrounding Dublin appoint one member; one +member is appointed by the Commissioners of National Education, and one +member by the Intermediate Board of Education.</p> + +<p>The two Boards have to advise upon all matters submitted to them by the +Department in connection, in the one case, with agriculture and other +rural industries and inland fisheries, and, in the other case, in +connection with Technical Instruction. The advisory powers of the Boards +are very real, for the expenditure of all moneys out of the Endowment +funds is subject to their concurrence. Hence, while they have not +specific administrative powers and apparently have only the right of +veto, it is obvious that, if they wished, they might largely force their +own views upon the Department by refusing to sanction the expenditure of +money upon any of the Department's proposals, until these were so +modified as practically to be their own proposals. It is, therefore, +clear that the machinery can only work harmoniously and efficiently so +long as it is moved by a right spirit. Above all it is necessary that +the central administrative body should gain such a measure of popular +confidence as to enable it, without loss of influence, to resist +pro<a name="Page_236"></a>posals for expenditure upon schemes which might ensure great +popularity at the moment, but would do permanent harm to the industrial +character we are all trying to build up. I need not fear contradiction +at the hands of a single member of either Board when I say that up to +the present perfect harmony has reigned throughout. The utmost +consideration has been shown by the Boards for the difficulties which +the Department have to overcome; and I think I may add that due regard +has been paid by the administrative authority to the representative +character and the legitimate wishes of the bodies which advise and +largely control it.</p> + +<p>The other statutory body attached to the Department has a significance +and potential importance in strange contrast to the humble place it +occupies in the statute book. The Agriculture and Technical Instruction +(Ireland) Act, 1899, has, like many other Acts, a part entitled +'Miscellaneous,' in which the draughtsman's skill has attended to +multifarious practical details, and made provision for all manner of +contingencies, many of which the layman might never have thought of or +foreseen. Travelling expenses for Council, Boards, and Committees, +casual vacancies thereon, a short title for the Act, and a seal for the +Department, definitions, which show how little we know of our own +language, and a host of kindred matters are included. In this miscellany +appears the following little clause:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>For the purpose of co-ordinating educational administration there<a name="Page_237"></a> + shall be established a Consultative Committee consisting of the + following members:—</p> + +<p> (a.) The Vice-President of the Department, who shall be chairman + thereof;</p> + +<p> (b.) One person to be appointed by the Commissioners of National + Education;</p> + +<p> (c.) One person to be appointed by the Intermediate Education + Board;</p> + +<p> (d.) One person to be appointed by the Agricultural Board; and</p> + +<p> (e.) One person to be appointed by the Board of Technical + Instruction.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Now the real value of this clause, and in this I think it shows a +consumate statesmanship, lies not in what it says, but in what it +suggests. The Committee, it will be observed, has an immensely important +function, but no power beyond such authority as its representative +character may afford. Any attempt to deal with a large educational +problem by a clause in a measure of this kind would have alarmed the +whole force of unco-ordinated pedagogy, and perhaps have wrecked the +Bill. The clause as it stands is in harmony with the whole spirit of the +new movement and of the legislation provided for its advancement. The +Committee may be very useful in suggesting improvements in educational +administration which will prevent unnecessary overlapping and lead to +co-operation between the systems concerned. Indeed it has already made +suggestions of far-reaching importance, which have been acted upon by +the educational authorities represented upon it. As I have said in an +earlier <a name="Page_238"></a>chapter when discussing Irish education from the practical +point of view, I have great faith in the efficacy of the economic factor +in educational controversy, and this Committee is certainly in a +position to watch and pronounce on any defects in our educational system +which the new efforts to deal practically with our industrial and +commercial problems may disclose.</p> + +<p>There remains to be explained only one feature of the new administrative +machinery, and it is a very important one. The Recess Committee had +recommended the adaptation to Ireland of a type of central institution +which it had found in successful operation on the Continent wherever it +had pursued its investigations. So far as schemes applicable to the +whole country were concerned, the central Department, assuming that it +gained the confidence of the Council and Boards, might easily justify +its existence. But the greater part of its work, the Recess Committee +saw, would relate to special localities, and could not succeed without +the cordial co-operation of the people immediately concerned. This fact +brought Mr. Gerald Balfour face to face with a problem which the Recess +Committee could not solve in its day, because, when it sat, there still +existed the old grand jury system, though its early abolition had been +promised. It was extremely fortunate that to the same minister fell the +task of framing both the Act of 1898, which revolutionised local +government, and the Act of 1899, now under review. The success with +which these two Acts were linked together by the provisions of the +latter forms an <a name="Page_239"></a>interesting lesson in constructive statesmanship. Time +will, I believe, thoroughly discredit the hostile criticism which +withheld its due mead of praise from the most fruitful policy which any +administration had up to that time ever devised for the better +government of Ireland.</p> + +<p>The local authorities created by the Act of 1898 provided the machinery +for enabling the representatives of the people to decide themselves, to +a large extent, upon the nature of the particular measures to be adopted +in each locality and to carry out the schemes when formulated. The Act +creating the new Department empowered the council of any county or of +any urban district, or any two or more public bodies jointly, to appoint +committees, composed partly of members of the local bodies and partly of +co-opted persons, for the purpose of carrying out such of the +Department's schemes as are of local, and not of general importance. +True to the underlying principle of the new movement—the principle of +self-reliance and local effort—the Act lays it down that 'the +Department shall not, in the absence of any special considerations, +apply or approve of the application of money ... to schemes in respect +of which aid is not given out of money provided by local authorities or +from other local sources.' To meet this requirement the local +authorities are given the power of raising a limited rate for the +purposes of the Act. By these two simple provisions for local +administration and local combination, the people of each district were +made voluntarily contributory both in effort and in money, towards the +new practical <a name="Page_240"></a>developments, and given an interest in, and +responsibility for their success. It was of the utmost importance that +these new local authorities should be practically interested in the +business concerns of the country which the Department was to serve. Mr. +Gerald Balfour himself, in introducing the Local Government Bill, had +shown that he was under no illusion as to the possible disappointment to +which his great democratic experiment might at first give rise. He +anticipated that it would "work through failure to success." To put it +plainly, the new bodies might devote a great deal of attention to +politics and very little to business. I am told by those best qualified +to form an opinion (some of my informants having been, to say the least, +sceptical as to the wisdom of the experiment), that notwithstanding some +extravagances in particular instances, it can already be stated +positively that local government in Ireland, taken as a whole, has not +suffered in efficiency by the revolution which it has undergone. This is +the opinion of officials of the Local Government Board,<a name="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44"><sup>[44]</sup></a> and refers +mainly to the transaction of the fiscal business of the new local +authorities. From a different point of observation I shall presently +bear witness to a display of administrative capacity on the part of the +many statutory committees, appointed by County, Borough, and District +Councils to co-operate with the Department, which is most creditable to +the thought and feeling of the people.</p> + +<p>It would be quite unfair to a large body of farmers in <a name="Page_241"></a>Ireland if, in +describing the administrative machinery for carrying out an economic +policy based upon self-help and dependent for its success upon the +conciliatory spirit abroad in the country, I were to ignore the part +played by the large number of co-operative associations, the +organisation, work and multiplication of which have been described in a +former chapter. The Recess Committee, in their enquiries, found that, in +the countries whose competition Ireland feels most keenly, Departments +of Agriculture had come to recognise it as an axiom of their policy that +without organisation for economic purposes amongst the agricultural +classes, State aid to agriculture must be largely ineffectual, and even +mischievous. Such Departments devote a considerable part of their +efforts to promoting agricultural organisation. Short a time as this +Department has been in existence it has had some striking evidence of +the justice of these views. As will be seen from the First Annual Report +of the Department, it was only where the farmers were organised in +properly representative societies that many of the lessons the +Department had to teach could effectually reach the farming classes, or +that many of the agricultural experiments intended for their guidance +could be profitably carried out. Although these experiment schemes were +issued to the County Councils and the agricultural public generally, it +was only the farmers organised in societies who were really in a +position to take part in them. Some of these experiments, indeed, could +not be carried out at all except through such societies.</p><a name="Page_242"></a> + +<p>Both for the sake of efficiency in its educational work, and of economy +in administration, the Department would be obliged to lay stress on the +value of organisation.<a name="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45"><sup>[45]</sup></a> But there are other reasons for its doing so: +industrial, moral, and social. In an able critique upon Bodley's +<i>France</i> Madame Darmesteter, writing in the <i>Contemporary Review</i>, July, +1898, points out that even so well informed an observer of French life +as the author of that remarkable book failed to appreciate the steadying +influence exercised upon the French body politic by the network of +voluntary associations, the <i>syndicats agricoles</i>, which are the +analogues and, to some extent, the prototypes, in France of our +agricultural societies in Ireland. The late Mr. Hanbury, during his too +brief career as President of the Board of Agriculture, frequently dwelt +upon the importance of organising similar associations in England as a +necessary step in the development of the new agricultural policy which +he foreshadowed. His successor, Lord Onslow, has fully endorsed his +views, and in his speeches is to be found the same appreciation of the +exemplary self-reliance of the Irish farmers. I have already referred to +the keen interest which both agricultural reformers and English and +Welsh County Councils have been taking in the unexpectedly progressive +efforts of the Irish farmers to reorganise their industry and place +themselves in a position to take advantage of State assistance. I +believe that our farmers are going to the <a name="Page_243"></a>root of things, and that due +weight should be given to the silent force of organised self-help by +those who would estimate the degree in which the aims and sanguine +anticipations of the new movement in Ireland are likely to be realised.</p> + +<p>And it is not only for its foundation upon self-reliance that the latest +development of Irish Government will have a living interest for +economists and students of political philosophy. They will see in the +facts under review a rapid and altogether healthy evolution of the Irish +policy so honourably associated with the name of Mr. Arthur Balfour. His +Chief Secretaryship, when all its storm and stress have been forgotten, +will be remembered for the opening up of the desolate, poverty-stricken +western seaboard by light railways, and for the creation of the +Congested Districts Board. The latter institution has gained so wide +and, as I think, well merited popularity, that many thought its +extension to other parts of Ireland would have been a simpler and safer +method of procedure than that actually recommended by the Recess +Committee, and adopted by Mr. Gerald Balfour. The Land Act of 1891 +applied a treatment to the problem of the congested districts—a problem +of economic depression and industrial backwardness, differing rather in +degree than in kind from the economic problem of the greater part of +rural Ireland—as simple as it was new. A large capital sum of Irish +moneys was handed over to an unpaid commission consisting of Irishmen +who were <a name="Page_244"></a>acquainted with the local circumstances, and who were in a +position to give their services to a public philanthropic purpose. They +were given the widest discretion in the expenditure of the interest of +this capital sum, and from time to time their income has been augmented +from annually voted moneys. They were restricted only to measures +calculated permanently to improve the condition of the people, as +distinct from measures affording temporary relief.</p> + +<p>I agree with those who hold that Mr. Arthur Balfour's plan was the best +that could be adopted at the moment. But events have marched rapidly +since 1891, and wholly new possibilities in the sphere of Irish economic +legislation and administration have been revealed. A new Irish mind has +now to be taken into account, and to be made part of any ameliorative +Irish policy. Hence it was not only possible, but desirable, to +administer State help more democratically in 1899 than in 1891. The +policy of the Congested Districts Board was a notable advance upon the +inaction of the State in the pre-famine times, and upon the system of +doles and somewhat objectless relief works of the latter half of the +nineteenth century; but the policy of the new departure now under review +was no less notable a departure from the paternalism of the Congested +Districts Board. When that body was called into existence it was thought +necessary to rely on persons nominated by the Government. When the +Department was created eight years later it was found possible, owing to +the broadening of the basis of local <a name="Page_245"></a>government and to the moral and +social effect of the new movement, to rely largely on the advice and +assistance of persons selected by the people themselves.</p> + +<p>The two departments are in constant consultation as to the co-ordination +of their work, so as to avoid conflict of administrative system and +sociological principle in adjoining districts; and much has already been +done in this direction. My own experience has not only made me a firm +believer in the principle of self-help, but I carry my belief to the +extreme length of holding that the poorer a community is the more +essential is it to throw it as much as possible on its own resources, in +order to develop self-reliance. I recognise, however, the undesirability +of too sudden changes of system in these matters. Meanwhile, I may add +in this connection that the Wyndham Land Act enormously increases the +importance of the Congested Districts Board in regard to its main +function—that of dealing directly with congestion, by the purchase and +resettlement of estates, the migration of families, and the enlargement +of holdings.<a name="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46"><sup>[46]</sup></a></p> + +<p>I have now said enough about the aims and objects, the constitution and +powers, and the relations with other Governmental institutions, of the +new Department, to enable the reader to form a fairly accurate estimate +of its general character, scope and purpose. From what it is I shall +pass in the next chapter to what it does, and there I must describe its +everyday work in some detail. But I wish I could also give the reader an +adequate <a name="Page_246"></a>picture of the surge of activities raised by the first plunge +of the Department into Irish life and thought. After a time the torrent +of business made channels for itself and went on in a more orderly +fashion; practical ideas and promising openings were sifted out at an +early stage of their approach to the Department from those which were +neither one nor the other; time was economised, work distributed, and +the functions of demand and supply in relation to the Department's work +throughout Ireland were brought into proper adjustment with each other. +Yet, even at first, to a sympathetic and understanding view, the waste +of time and thought involved in dealing with impossible projects and +dispelling false hopes was compensated for by the evidence forced upon +us that the Irish people had no notion of regarding the Department as an +alien institution with which they need concern themselves but little, +however much it might concern itself with them. They were never for a +moment in doubt as to its real meaning and purpose. They meant to make +it their own and to utilise it in the uplifting of their country. No +description of the machinery of the institution could explain the real +place which it took in the life of the country from the very beginning. +But perhaps it may give the reader a more living interest in this part +of the story, and a more living picture of the situation, if I try to +convey to his mind some of the impressions left on my own, by my +experiences during the period immediately following the projection of +this new phenomenon into Irish consciousness.</p><a name="Page_247"></a> + +<p>When in Upper Merrion-street, Dublin, opposite to the Land Commission, +big brass plates appeared upon the doors of a row of houses announcing +that there was domiciled the Department of Agriculture and Technical +Instruction, the average man in the street might have been expected to +murmur, 'Another Castle Board,' and pass on. It was not long, however, +before our visiting list became somewhat embarrassing. We have since got +down, as I have said, to a more humdrum, though no less interesting, +official life inside the Department. But let the reader imagine himself +to have been concealed behind a screen in my office on a day when some +event, like the Dublin Horse Show, brought crowds in from the country to +the Irish capital. Such an experience would certainly have given him a +new understanding of some then neglected men and things. While I was +opening the morning's letters and dealing with "Files" marked "urgent," +he would see nothing to distinguish my day's work from that of other +ministers, who act as a link between the permanent officials of a +spending Department and the Government of the day. But presently a +stream of callers would set in, and he would begin to realise that the +minister is, in this case, a human link of another kind—a link between +the people and the Government. A courteous and discreet Private +Secretary, having attended to those who have come to the wrong +department, and to those who are satisfied with an interview with him or +with the officer who would have to attend to their particular business, +<a name="Page_248"></a>brings into my not august presence a procession of all sorts and +conditions of men. Some know me personally, some bring letters of +introduction or want to see me on questions of policy. Others—for these +the human link is most needed—must see the ultimate source of +responsibility, which, in Ireland, whether it be head of a family or of +a Department, is reduced from the abstract to the concrete by the +pregnant pronoun 'himself.' I cannot reveal confidences, but I may give +a few typical instances of, let us say, callers who might have called.</p> + +<p>First comes a visitor, who turns out to be a 'man with an idea,' just +home from an unpronounceable address in Scandinavia. He has come to tell +me that we have in Ireland a perfect gold mine, if we only knew it—in +extent never was there such a gold field—no illusory pockets—good +payable stuff in sight for centuries to come—and so on for five +precious minutes, which seem like half a day, during which I have +realised that he is an inventor, and that it is no good asking him to +come to the point. But I keep my eye riveted on his leather bag which is +filled to bursting point, and manifest an intelligent interest and +burning curiosity. The suggestion works, and out of the bag come black +bars and balls, samples of fabrics ranging from sack-cloth to fine +linen, buttons, combs, papers for packing and for polite correspondence, +bottles of queer black fluid, and a host of other miscellaneous wares. I +realise that the particular solution of the Irish Question which is +about to be un<a name="Page_249"></a>folded is the utilisation of our bogs. Well, this <i>is</i> +one of the problems with which we have to deal. It is physically +possible to make almost anything out of this Irish asset, from moss +litter to billiard balls, and though one would not think it, aeons of +energy have been stored in these inert looking wastes by the apparently +unsympathetic sun, energy which some think may, before long, be +converted into electricity to work all the smokeless factories which the +rising generation are to see. Indeed, the vista of possibilities is +endless, the only serious problem that remains to be solved being 'how +to make it pay,' and upon that aspect of the question, unhappily, my +visitor had no light to throw.</p> + +<p>The next visitor, who brings with him a son and a daughter, is himself +the product of an Irish bog in the wildest of the wilds. His Parish +Priest had sent him to me. A little awkwardness, which is soon +dispelled, and the point is reached. This fine specimen of the 'bone and +sinew' has had a hard struggle to bring up his 'long family'; but, with +a capable wife, who makes the most of the <i>res angusta domi</i>—of the +pig, the poultry, and even of the butter from the little black cows on +the mountain—he has risen to the extent of his opportunities. The +children are all doing something. Lace and crochet come out of the +cabin, the yarn from the wool of the 'mountainy' sheep, carded and spun +at home, is feeding the latest type of hosiery knitting machine and the +hereditary handloom. The story of this man's life which was written to +me by the priest cannot <a name="Page_250"></a>find space here. The immediate object of his +visit is to get his eldest daughter trained as a poultry instructress to +take part in some of the 'County Schemes' under the Department, and to +obtain for his eldest son, who has distinguished himself under the +tuition of the Christian Brothers, a travelling scholarship. For this he +has been recommended by his teachers. They had marked this bright boy +out as an ideal agricultural instructor, and if I could give the reader +all the particulars of the case it would be a rare illustration of the +latent human resources we mean to develop in the Ireland that is to be. +I explain that the young man must pass a qualifying examination, but am +glad to be able to admit that the circumstances of his life, which would +have to be taken into account in deciding between the qualified, are in +his case of a kind likely to secure favourable consideration.</p> + +<p>And now enters a sporting friend of mine, a 'practical angler,' who +comes with a very familiar tale of woe. The state of the salmon +fisheries is deplorable: if the Department does not fulfil its obvious +duties there will not be a salmon in Ireland outside a museum in ten +years more. He has lived for forty-five years on the banks of a salmon +river, and he knows that I don't fish. But this much the conversation +reveals: his own knowledge of the subject is confined to the piece of +river he happens to own, the gossip he hears at his club, and the ideas +of the particular poacher he employs as his gillie. His suggested remedy +is the abolition of all netting. But I have <a name="Page_251"></a>to tell him that only the +day before I had a deputation from the net fishermen in the estuary of +this very river, whose bitter complaint was that this 'poor man's +industry' was being destroyed by the mackerel and herring nets round the +coast, and—I thought my friend would have a fit—by the way in which +the gentlemen on the upper waters neglect their duty of protecting the +spawning fish! Some belonging to the lower water interest carried their +scepticism as to the efficacy of artificial propagation to the length of +believing that hatcheries are partially responsible for the decrease. As +so often happens, the opposing interests, disagreeing on all else, find +that best of peacemakers, a common enemy, in the Government. The +Department is responsible—for two opposite reasons, it is true, but +somehow they seem to confirm each other. We must labour to find some +other common ground, starting from the recognition that the salmon +fisheries are a national asset which must be made to subserve the +general public interest. I assure my friend that when all parties make +their proper contribution in effort and in cash, the Department will not +be backward in doing their part.</p> + +<p>At the end of this interview a messenger brings a telegram for 'himself' +from a stockowner in a remote district.<a name="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47"><sup>[47]</sup></a> 'My pigs,' runs one of the +most businesslike <a name="Page_252"></a>communications I ever received, 'are all spotted. +What shall I do?' I send it to the Veterinary Branch, which, with the +Board of Agriculture in England, is engaged in a scheme for staying the +ravages of swine fever, a scheme into which the late Mr. Hanbury threw +himself with his characteristic energy. The problem is of immense +importance, and the difficulty is not mainly quadrupedal. Unless the +police 'spot' the spotted pigs, we too often hear nothing about them. I +am sure it must be daily brought home to the English Board, as it is to +the Irish Department, that an enormous addition might be made to the +wealth of the country if our veterinary officers were intelligently and +actively aided, in their difficult duties for the protection of our +flocks and herds, by those most immediately concerned.</p> + +<p>So far it has been an interesting morning bright with the activities out +of which the future is to be made. The element of hope has predominated, +but now comes a visitor who wishes to see me upon the one part of my +duties and responsibilities which is distasteful to me—the exercise of +patronage. He has been unloaded upon me by an influential person, upon +whom he has more legitimate claims than upon the Department. He has +prepared the way for a favourable reception by getting his friends to +write to my friends, many of whom have already fulfilled a promise to +interview me in his behalf. His mother and two maiden aunts have written +letters which have drawn from my poor Private Secretary, who has to read +them all, the dry quotation, 'there's such <a name="Page_253"></a>a thing as being so good as +to be good for nothing.' The young hopeful quickly puts an end to my +speculations as to the exact capacity in which he means to serve the +Department by applying for an inspectorship. I ask him what he proposes +to inspect, and the sum and substance of his reply is that he is not +particular, but would not mind beginning at a moderate salary, say £200 +a year. As for his qualifications, they are a sadly minus quantity, his +blighted career having included failure for the army, and a clerkship in +a bank, which only lasted a week when he proved to be deficient in the +second and dangerous in the third of the three R's. His case reminds me +of a story of my ranching days, which the exercise of patronage has so +often recalled to my mind that I must out with it. Riding into camp one +evening, I turned my horse loose and got some supper, which was a vilely +cooked meal even for a cow camp. Recognising in the cook a cowboy I had +formerly employed, I said to him, 'You were a way up cow hand, but as +cook you are no account. Why did you give up riding and take to cooking? +What are your qualifications as a cook any way?' 'Qualifications!' he +replied, 'why, don't you know I've got varicose veins?' My caller's +qualifications are of an equally negative description, though not of a +physical kind. He is one of the young Micawbers, to whom the Department +from its first inception has been the something which was to turn up. He +had, of course, testimonials which in any other country would have +commanded success by their terms and the position of the <a name="Page_254"></a>signatories, +but which in Ireland only illustrate the charity with which we condone +our moral cowardice under the name of good nature. I am glad when this +interview closes.</p> + +<p>One more type—a Nationalist Member of Parliament! He does not often +darken the door of a Government office—they all have the same +structural defect, no front stairs—he never has asked and never thought +he would ask anything from the Government. But he is interested in some +poor fishermen of County Clare who pursue their calling under cruel +disadvantages for want of the protection from the Atlantic rollers which +a small breakwater would afford. It is true that they were the worst +constituents he had—- went against him in 'The Split,'—but if I saw +how they lived, and so on. I knew all about the case. A breakwater to be +of any use would cost a very large sum, and the local authority, though +sympathetic, did not see their way to contribute their proportion, and +without a local contribution, I explained, the Department could not, +consistently with its principles, unless in most exceptional—Here he +breaks in: 'Oh! that red tape. You're as bad as the rest—exceptional, +indeed! Why, everything is exceptional in my constituency. I am a bit +that way myself. But, seriously, the condition of these poor people +would move even a Government official. Besides, you remember the night I +made thirteen speeches on the Naval Estimates—the Government wanted a +little matter of twenty millions—and you met me in the Lobby and told +me you wished to go to bed, <a name="Page_255"></a>and asked me what I really wanted, and—I +am always reasonable—I said I would pass the whole Naval Programme if I +got the Government to give them a boat-slip at Ballyduck.—"Done!" you +said, and we both went home.—I believe you knew that I had got +constituency matters mixed up, that Ballyduck was inland, and that it +was Ballycrow that I meant to say.—But you won't deny that you are +under a moral obligation.'</p> + +<p>Well, I would go into the matter again very carefully—for I thought we +might help these fishermen in some other way—and write to him. He +leaves me; and, while outside the door he travels over the main points +with my Private Secretary, the lights and shades in the picture which +this strange personality has left on my mind throw me back behind the +practical things of to-day. In Parliament facing the Sassanach, in +Ireland facing their police, he has for years—the best years of his +life—displayed the same love of fighting for fighting's sake. In the +riots he has provoked, and they are not a few, he is ever regardless of +his own skin, and would be truly miserable if he inflicted any serious +bodily harm on a human being—even a landlord. It is impossible not to +like this very human anachronism, who, within the limitations imposed by +the convenience of a citizenship to which he unwillingly belongs, does +battle</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>For Faith, and Fame, and Honour, and the ruined hearths of Clare.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The reader may take all this as fiction. I am sure no one will annoy me +by trying on any of the caps I have <a name="Page_256"></a>displayed on the counter of my +shop. What I do fear is that the picture of some of my duties which I +have given may have made a wrong impression of the Department's work +upon the reader's mind. He may have come to the conclusion that, +contrary to all the principles laid down, an attempt was being made to +do for the people things which the new movement was to induce the people +to do for themselves. The Department may appear to be using its official +position and Government funds to constitute itself a sort of Universal +Providence, exercising an authority and a discretion over matters upon +which in any progressive community the people must decide for +themselves. However near to the appearances such an impression might be, +nothing could be further from the facts. If I have helped the reader to +unravel the tangled skein of our national life, if I have sufficiently +revealed the mind of the new movement to show that there is in it 'a +scheme of things entire,' it should be quite clear that the deliberate +intentions both of Mr. Gerald Balfour and of those Irishmen whom he took +into his confidence are being fulfilled in letter and in spirit. It only +remains for me to attempt an adequate description of the work of the +Department created by that Chief Secretary, and, above all, of the way +in which the people themselves are playing the part which his +statesmanship assigned to them.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44">[44]</a><div class="note"><p> See Report of the Local Government Board, 1901-2.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45">[45]</a><div class="note"><p> See Annual General Report of the Department 1900-1901, pp. +25-27.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46">[46]</a><div class="note"><p> <i>Cf. ante</i>, pp. 46-49.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47">[47]</a><div class="note"><p> No fiction about this, nor about the following letter to +the Secretary:— +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">'The Scratatory, Vitny Dept.<br /></span> +<span>'Honord Sir,<br /></span> +<span>'I want to let ye know the terible state we're in now. Al<br /></span> +<span>the pigs about here is dyin in showers. Send down a Vit at<br /></span> +<span>oncet.'<br /></span> +</div></div> +</div> + + + +<a name="Page_257"></a> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_X"></a><h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h4>GOVERNMENT WITH THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED.</h4> + + +<p>In the preceding chapter I attempted to give to the reader a rough +impression of the general purpose and miscellaneous functions of the new +Department. I described in some detail the constitution and powers of +the Council of Agriculture—a sort of Business Parliament—which +criticises our doings and elects representatives on our Boards; and of +the two Boards which, in addition to their advisory functions, possess +the power of the purse. I laid special stress upon the important part +these instruments of the popular will were intended to play as a link +between the people and the Department. I gave a similar description and +explanation of the Committees of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, +appointed by local representative bodies, by means of which the people +were brought into touch with the local as distinct from the central +work, and made responsible for its success. The details were necessarily +dull; and so also must be those which will now be required in order to +indicate the general nature and scope of the work for the accomplishment +of which all this machinery was designed. Yet I am not without <a name="Page_258"></a>hope +that even the general reader may find a deep human interest in the +practical endeavour of the humbler classes of my fellow-countrymen to +reconstruct their national life upon the solid foundation of honest +work.</p> + +<p>The Department has at the time of writing been in existence for three +years, the term of office, it will be remembered, of the Council of +Agriculture and of the two Boards. It would be unreasonable to expect in +so short a time any great achievement; but the understanding critic will +attach importance rather to the spirit in which the work was approached +than to the actual amount of work which was accomplished. He may say +that no true estimate of its value can be formed until the enthusiasm +aroused by its novelty has had time to wear off. Those of us who know +the real character of the work are quite satisfied that the interest +which it aroused during the period in which the people had yet to grasp +its meaning and utility is not likely to become less real as the blossom +fades and the fruit begins to swell. The attitude of the Irish people +towards the Department and its work has not been that of a child towards +a new toy, but of a full-grown man towards a piece of his life's work, +upon which he feels that he entered all too late. Indeed, so quickly +have the people grasped the significance of the new opportunities for +material advancement now placed within their reach, that the Department +has had to carry out, and to assist the statutory local committees in +carrying out, a number and variety of schemes which, at any rate, proved +that <a name="Page_259"></a>public opinion did not regard it as a transitory experiment; but +as a much-needed institution which, if properly utilised, might do much +to make up for lost time, and which, in any case, had come to stay. The +amount of the work which we were thus constrained to undertake was +somewhat embarrassing; but so general and so genuine was the desire to +make a start that we have done our best to keep pace with the local +demands for immediate action. The staff of the Department caught the +spirit in which the task had been set by the country, and showed a keen +anxiety to get to work; and I am glad to have an opportunity of +acknowledging that both the indoor and outdoor support it has received +leaves the Department without excuse if it has not already justified its +existence.</p> + +<p>I shall deal as mercifully as I can with my readers in helping them +towards an understanding of what has been actually done in the three +years under review. I am aware that if I were to attempt a description +of all the schemes which the variety of local needs suggested, and in +the execution of which the assistance of the many-sided Department was +sought and obtained, I should lose the patient readers, who have not +already fainted by the way, in a jungle where they could not see the +wood for the trees. These things can be studied by those +interested,—and they I hope, in Ireland at any rate, are not few—in +the Annual Reports and other official publications of the Department. +For the general reader I must try to indicate in <a name="Page_260"></a>broad outline the +nature and scope of that side of the new movement which seeks to +supplement organised self-help and open the way for individual +enterprise by a well considered measure of State assistance. I shall be +more than satisfied if I succeed in giving him a clear insight into the +manner in which the delicate task of making State interference with the +business of the people not only harmless but beneficial has been set +about. It is obvious that the fulfilment of this object must depend upon +the soundness of the economic policy pursued, and upon the establishment +and maintenance of mutual confidence between the central authority and +the popular representative bodies through which the people utilise the +new facilities afforded by the State.</p> + +<p>I think the best way of giving the information which is required for an +understanding of our somewhat complicated scheme for agricultural and +industrial development under democratic control is first to explain the +line of demarcation which we have drawn between the respective functions +of the Department and the people's committees throughout the country; +and then I must give a rapid description of some of the most important +features of the Department's policy and programme. I shall add a +sufficiency of detail from the actual work accomplished in these +organising and experimental years, to illustrate both the difficulties +which are incidental to such a policy, and the manner in which these +difficulties may be surmounted.</p> + +<p>When it became manifest that both the country <a name="Page_261"></a>and the Department were +anxious to drive ahead, the first thing to do was to lay down a <i>modus +operandi</i> which would assign to the local and central bodies their +proper shares in the work and responsibilities and secure some degree of +order and uniformity in administration. This was quickly done, and the +plan adopted works smoothly. The Department gives the local committee +general information as to the kind of purpose to which it can legally +and properly apply the funds jointly contributed from the rates and the +central exchequer. The committee, after full consideration of the +conditions, needs and industrial environment of the community for which +it acts, selects certain definite projects which it considers most +applicable to its district, allocates the amount required to each +project, and sends the scheme to the Department for its approval. When +the scheme is formally approved, it becomes the official scheme in the +locality for the current year; and the local committee has to carry it +out.</p> + +<p>Although harmony now usually exists between the local and central +authorities to the advantage and comfort of both, a considerable amount +of friction was inevitable until they got to understand each other. The +occasional over-riding of local desires by the 'autocratic' Department, +which in the first rush of its work had to act in a somewhat peremptory +fashion, was, no doubt, irritating. Now, however, it is generally +recognised that the central body, having not only the advice of its +experts and access to information from similar Departments in other +<a name="Page_262"></a>countries to guide it, but also being in a position to profit by the +exchange of ideas which is constantly going on between it and all the +local committees in Ireland, is in a position of special advantage for +deciding as to the bearing of local schemes upon national interests, and +sometimes even as to their soundness from a purely local point of view.</p> + +<p>Passing now from the conditions under which the Department's work is +done, we come to review some typical portions of the work itself so far +as it has proceeded. This falls naturally, both as regards that which is +done by the central authority for the country at large and that which is +locally administered, into two divisions. The first consists of direct +aid to agriculture and other rural industries, and to sea and inland +fisheries. The second consists of indirect aid given to these objects, +and also to town manufactures and commerce, through education—a term +which must be interpreted in its widest sense. Needless to say, direct +aids, being tangible and immediately beneficial, are the more popular: a +bull, a boat, or a hand-loom is more readily appreciated than a lecture, +a leaflet, or an idea. Yet in the Department we all realise—and, what +is more important, the people are coming to realise—that by far the +most important work we have to do is that which belongs to the sphere of +education, especially education which has a distinctly practical aim. To +this branch of the subject I shall, therefore, first direct the reader's +attention.</p><a name="Page_263"></a> + +<p>It must be remembered that, for reasons fully set out in the earlier +portions of the book, I am treating the Irish Question as being, in its +most important economic and social aspects, the problem of rural life. +The Department's scheme of technical instruction, therefore, need not +here be detailed in its application to the needs of our few +manufacturing towns, but only in its application to agriculture and the +subsidiary industries. I do not suggest that the questions relating to +the revival of industry in our large manufacturing centres and +provincial towns are not of the first importance. The local authorities +in these places have eagerly come into the movement, and the Department +has already taken part in founding, in our cities and larger towns, +comprehensive schemes of technical education, as to the outcome of which +we have every reason to be hopeful. Not only that, but it is highly +necessary for the Department to consider these schemes in close relation +to its work upon the more specially rural problems, for, as I have said +elsewhere,<a name="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48"><sup>[48]</sup></a> the interdependence of town and country, and the +establishment of proper relations between their systems of industry and +education, is a prime factor in Irish prosperity. But the rural problem, +as I have so often reiterated, is the core of the Irish Question; and to +deal at all adequately with technical education, so far as we carry it +on upon lines common both to Great Britain and Ireland, would lead us +too far afield on the present occasion. I must, therefore, con<a name="Page_264"></a>tent +myself with indicating my reasons for leaving it rather on one side, and +pass on to a brief description of the Department's educational work in +respect of its two-fold aim of developing agriculture and the subsidiary +industries.</p> + +<p>In the case of agriculture our task is perfectly plain. We know pretty +well what we want to do, for we are dealing with an existing industry, +and with known conditions. The productivity of the soil, the demand of +the market, the means of transport from the one to the other, are all +easily ascertainable. What most needs to be provided in Ireland is a +much higher technical skill, a more advanced scientific and commercial +knowledge, as applied to agricultural production and distribution.<a name="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49"><sup>[49]</sup></a> +This, in our belief, depends, more than upon any other agency, upon the +soundness of the education which is provided to develop the capacities +of those in charge of these operations. Our chief difficulty is that of +co-ordinating our teaching of technical agriculture with the general +educational systems of the country—a difficulty which the other +educational authorities are all united with us in seeking to remove.</p> + +<p>When, on the other hand, education—again, I believe, the chief agency +for the purpose—is considered as a means for the creation of new +industries, we come face to face with a wholly different problem. We +have no <a name="Page_265"></a>longer an industry which we are seeking to foster and develop +going on under our eyes, steadying us in our theorising, and in our +experimenting upon the mind of the worker, by bringing us into close +touch with the actual conditions of his work. Our chief aim must be to +develop his adaptability for the ever-changing and, we hope, improving +economic industrial conditions amidst which he will have to work. But +unless we can satisfy parents that the schemes of development in which +their children are being educated to take their place have an assured +prospect of practical realisation, they will naturally prefer an +inferior teaching which seems to them to offer a better prospect of an +immediate wage or salary. The teachers in the secondary schools of the +country, who, so far, have shown a desire to assist us in giving an +industrial and commercial direction to our educational policy, would +also in that event have to meet the wishes of the parents; and thus +education would fall back into the old rut with its cramming, its +examinations and result fees—all leading to the multiplication of +clerks and professional men, and preventing us from turning the thoughts +and energies of the people towards productive occupations.</p> + +<p>The natural trend of our educational policy will now be clear. Leaving +out of account large towns, where our problem is, as I have said, the +same as that which confronts the industrial classes in the manufacturing +centres of Great Britain, we are chiefly concerned with the application +of science to the cultivation of the soil and <a name="Page_266"></a>the improvement of live +stock, and of business principles to the commercial side of farming; +with the teaching of dairying, horticulture, apiculture, and what has +been called farm-yard lore, outside the rural home, and with domestic +economy inside. On the industrial as distinct from the agricultural side +of the work in rural localities, technical instruction must be directed +towards the development of subsidiary rural industries.</p> + +<p>We early came to the conclusion that we could not expect to find a +system which we could simply transplant from some other country. The +system adopted in Great Britain, where each county or group of counties +maintains an agricultural college and an experimental farm, and many +more elaborate systems on the continent, were all found on examination +to be inapplicable to our own rural conditions, unsuitable to the +national character, and unrelated to the history of our agriculture. +Many of these schemes might have turned out a few highly qualified +authorities on the theory of agriculture, and even good practical +directors for those who farm on a large scale. But we are dealing with a +country with great possibilities from an agricultural point of view, but +where, nevertheless, agriculture in many parts is in a very backward +condition, and where it is probably safe to say that three-fifths of the +farms are crowded on one-fourth of the land. We are dealing with a +community with whom the systems of elementary, secondary and higher +education have not tended to prepare the student for agricultural +pursuits. A system <a name="Page_267"></a>of agricultural and domestic education suited to the +wants of those who are to farm the land must recognise and foster the +new spirit of self-help and hope which is springing up in the country, +and must be made so interesting as to become a serious rival to the race +meeting and the public-house. The daily drudgery of farm work must be +counteracted by the ambition to possess the best stock, the neatest +homestead and fences, the cleanest and the best tilled fields. The +unsolved problem of agricultural education is to devise a system which +will reach down to the small working farmers who form the great bulk of +the wealth producers of Ireland, to give them new hope, a new interest, +new knowledge and, I might add, a new industrial character.</p> + +<p>We were met at the outset by the difficulty which would apply to any +system—that of finding trained teachers. This deficiency was felt in +two directions—first, in the secondary school, in which the preliminary +scientific studies should be undertaken, which are necessary to enable a +lad to profit by more advanced instruction later on; and, secondly, in +the special training of technical agriculture. It would not have been +desirable to overcome these difficulties by any very extensive +importation of teachers from without. I certainly hold the occasional +importation of teachers with outside experience to be most desirable, +but these should not form more than a leaven of the pedagogic lump; for +it is a serious hindrance when to the task of familiarising <a name="Page_268"></a>students +with a new system of education there is added that of familiarising a +large body of teachers with the intellectual, social and economic +conditions of the people among whom they are to work.</p> + +<p>The manner in which the teacher difficulty was surmounted may be briefly +stated, first, as regards the school, and, secondly, as regards the +teaching of agriculture. Those already engaged in the teaching +profession could not be relegated again to the <i>status pupillaris</i>. +There was only one way in which they could assist us to overcome the +difficulty, and that involved a great sacrifice on their part, the +sacrifice of their well-earned vacation, but a sacrifice which they +willingly made. The teachers most urgently needed were those of +practical science, with knowledge of experimental work; and about five +hundred teachers from secondary schools, in order to qualify themselves, +have attended summer courses specially organised by the Department at +several centres in Ireland, while about four hundred have availed +themselves of special summer courses in such subjects as drawing, manual +instruction, domestic economy, building construction, wood-carving and +modelling.</p> + +<p>For the provision of a future supply of thoroughly trained teachers of +science and of technology, including agriculture, the Royal College of +Science has been re-organised. Although this institution was brought +under the new conditions little more than three years ago, it will be +seen that no time has been lost when I state that the first batch of men +who have received a three <a name="Page_269"></a>years' course of training under the new +programme are already at work under County Committees. For the training +of these teachers, scholarships had to be provided, and new professors +and teachers, particularly in agriculture, had to be appointed.</p> + +<p>In regard to agricultural instruction we had to begin by carefully +considering what, among many alternative plans, should be our immediate +as well as our more remote aims. The Department's officers had studied +Continental systems, and some of them had taken part in establishing +systems of agricultural education in Great Britain. But it was not until +the summer of 1901 that we had sufficiently studied the question in +Ireland itself, with direct reference to the history, the environment, +and the ideals of the people, to justify us in initiating a policy or +formulating a definite programme for its execution.<a name="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50"><sup>[50]</sup></a> The main object +was to secure for the youth of the present generation who will later be +concerned with agriculture, sound and thorough instruction in its +principles and practice. Everyone who has given any thought to the +subject knows how difficult it is to teach technical agriculture unless +provision has been made in the general education of the country for +instruction in those fundamental principles of science which, recognised +or unrecognised, lie at the root of, and profoundly influence +agricultural practice. This foundation, as I have shown, is now being +<a name="Page_270"></a>laid in Ireland. In our scheme the boy who has managed to avail himself +of a two or three years' course of practical science in one of the +secondary schools is then prepared to take full advantage of courses of +technology, and will have to make up his mind as to the career he is to +follow. We are now considering the case of a boy who is going to become +a farmer, the class to which we chiefly look for the future well-being +of Ireland. It is necessary that he should be taught the practical as +well as the technical side of agriculture. The practical work he can +learn upon his father's farm during spring and summer, and the technical +by continuing his studies during the winter months in a school of +agriculture. The establishment of such winter schools is in +contemplation. But, in the meanwhile, to bring home to farmers the +advantages of a first-class agricultural education for their sons, and +at the same time to teach these farmers the more practical application +of science to agriculture, the Department decided on a preliminary +period of Itinerant Instruction.</p> + +<p>The teacher difficulty, experienced on all sides of our work, was +probably felt more acutely in regard to the specialised teachers of +agriculture than in any other connection. Here it was necessary to take +the young men brought up upon farms and possessed of the normal +qualifications of the Irish practical farmer. We then had to make them +into teachers by adding to their inherited and home-manufactured +capacities a scientific training. In the training of agricultural +teachers the Albert<a name="Page_271"></a> Institute, Glasnevin, has been utilised by the +Department. This school has also been re-organised to meet the new +programme, and it will probably form in future a link between the winter +schools of agriculture and the Royal College of Science in the training +of our agricultural teachers.</p> + +<p>Partly by these methods, partly by the temporary engagement of lecturers +on special subjects, and partly by the appointment of trained teachers +from England or Scotland, the system of itinerant instruction has been +brought into operation as fully as could be expected in the time. +Already half the County Committees have been provided with County +instructors, while the remainder have nearly all drafted schemes and +allocated funds for a similar purpose, ready to go to work as soon as +more teachers have been trained.</p> + +<p>The Itinerant Instruction scheme, it may be pointed out, besides one +obvious, has another less immediately recognisable purpose. The direct +business of the itinerant instructor is, by the aid of experimental +plots, simple lectures, and demonstrations, to teach the farmers of his +district as much as they can take in without the scientific preparation +in which, as adults who have grown up under the old system of education, +they are still lacking. But he does more than that. He not only conducts +a school for adults, but in the very process of instruction he +necessarily makes them aware of the vital necessity of a school for the +young; and they begin, as parents, to understand and to desire the kind +of instruction in the <a name="Page_272"></a>schools of the country which will prepare their +children to take more advantage of the advanced teaching in agriculture +than they themselves can ever hope to do.</p> + +<p>This preparation is provided for as follows. To the Department, as has +already been explained, was handed over the administration of the +Science and Art Grants formerly administered by South Kensington. The +Department accordingly drew up a programme of experimental science and +drawing, carrying capitation grants, for day secondary schools. The +Intermediate Education Board, acting on the suggestion of the +Consultative Committee for Co-ordinating Education,<a name="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51"><sup>[51]</sup></a> adopted this +programme and at the same time undertook to accept the reports of the +Department's inspectors as the basis of their awards in the new +"subject." These steps insured the rapid and general introduction of +this practical teaching in secondary schools, and, owing particularly to +the spirit in which their authorities and teaching staffs accepted the +innovation, the work has been carried out with the happiest results.</p> + +<p>I now come to the subjects grouped together under the classification of +'domestic economy.' These differ only in detail in their application to +town and country. To these subjects the Department attaches great +importance. In the industrial life of manufacturing towns I am persuaded +that far too little thought has been given to this element of industrial +efficiency. From a purely economic point of view a <a name="Page_273"></a>saving in the +worker's income due to superior housewifery is equivalent to an increase +in his earnings; but, morally, the superior thrift is, of course, +immensely more important. "Without economy," says Dr. Johnson, "none can +be rich, and with it few can be poor," and the education which only +increases the productiveness of labour and neglects the principles of +wise spending will place us at a disadvantage in the great industrial +struggle. When we come to consider domestic economy as an agency for +improving the conditions of the peasant home, not only by thrift, but by +increasing the general attractiveness of home life, the introduction of +a sound system of domestic economy teaching becomes not only important, +but vital.</p> + +<p>The establishment of such a system and the task of making it operative +and effective in the country is beset with difficulties. The teacher +difficulty confronts us again, and also that of making pupils and their +parents understand that there are other objects in domestic training +than that of qualifying for domestic service. A corps of instructresses +in domestic economy is, however, already abroad throughout the country, +nearly all the County Councils having already appointed them. Some of +these teachers, who have made the best contributions towards the as yet +only partially determined question of the ultimate aim and present +possibilities of a course of instruction in hygiene, laundry work, +cookery, the management of children, sewing, and so forth, have told me +that the demand <a name="Page_274"></a>in rural districts seems to be chiefly for the class of +instruction which may lead to success in town life. I have heard of a +class of girls in a Connaught village who would not be content with +knowing the accomplishments of a farmer's wife until they had learned +how to make asparagus soup and cook sweetbreads. No doubt they had read +of the way things are done in the kitchens of the great. This tendency +should never be encouraged, but neither can it always be inflexibly +repressed without endangering the main objects of the class.</p> + +<p>Women teachers of poultry-keeping, dairying, domestic science and +kindred subjects are trained at the Munster Institute, Cork, and the +School of Domestic Economy, Kildare Street, Dublin, both of which have +been equipped to meet the needs of the new programme. The want of +teachers, and not any lack of interest on the part of the country, has +alone prevented all the counties from adopting schemes for encouraging +improvement in all these branches of work. I may add that more than one +hundred and fifty of these qualified teachers are now at work under +County Committees.</p> + +<p>I have already, in this chapter, indicated that outside large industrial +centres, our educational policy is, broadly speaking, twofold. We seek, +in the first place, through our programme in Experimental Science and +its allied subjects, now so generally adopted by secondary schools in +Ireland, to give that fundamental training in science and scientific +method which, most thinkers are agreed, constitutes a condition +precedent to sound specialised <a name="Page_275"></a>teaching of agriculture as well as other +forms of industry. We seek further, by methods less academic in +character—for example, by itinerant instruction which is of value +chiefly to those with whom 'school' is a thing of the past—to teach not +only improved agricultural methods but also simple industries, and to +promote the cultivation of industrial habits which are as essential to +the success of farming as to that of every other occupation. Classes in +manual work of various kinds—woodwork, carpentry, applied drawing and +building construction, lace and crochet making, needlework, dressmaking +and embroidery, sprigging, hosiery and other such subjects, have been +numerously and steadily attended.</p> + +<p>I do not ignore the argument that such home industries must in time give +way before the competition of highly-organised factory industries. The +simple answer is that it is desirable, and indeed necessary, to employ +the energy now running to waste in our rural districts—energy which +cannot in the nature of things be employed in highly-organised +industries. To the small farmer and his family, time is a realisable, +though too often unrealised, asset, and it is part of our aim to aid the +family income by employing their waste time. Even if we can only cause +them to do at home what they now pay someone else to do, we shall not +only have improved their budget but shall have contributed to the +elevation of the standard of home life, and thus, in no small measure, +to the solution of the difficult problem of rural life in Ireland.</p><a name="Page_276"></a> + +<p>I think the reader will now understand the general character of the +problem with which we were confronted and the means by which its +solution is being sought. Our policy was not one which was likely to +commend itself to the "man in the street." Indeed, to be quite candid, +it was a little disappointing even to myself that I could not +immortalise my appointment by erecting monuments both to my constructive +ability and to my educational zeal in the shape of stately edifices at +convenient railway centres, preferably along the tourist routes. We have +had to stand the fire of the critic fresh from his holiday on the +Continent where he had seen agricultural and technological institutions, +magnificently housed and lavishly equipped, fitting generations of young +men and young women for competition with our less fortunate countrymen. +It is hard to prevail in argument against the man who has gone and seen +for himself. It is useless to point out to the man with a kodak that the +Corinthian façade and the marble columns of the <i>aula maxima</i> which +aroused his patriotic envy are but a small part of the educational +structure which he saw and thought he understood. If he would read the +history of the systems and trace the successive stages by which the need +for these great institutions was established, he would have a little +more sympathy with the difficulties of the Department, a little more +patience with its Fabian policy.</p> + +<p>I must not, however, utter a word which suggests that the Department has +any ground of complaint against the <a name="Page_277"></a>country for the spirit in which it +has been met; especially as there was one factor to be taken into +account which made it difficult for public opinion to approve of our +policy. As I have already explained, a large capital sum of a little +over £200,000 was handed over to the Department at its creation. During +the first year, what with the organisation of the staff, the thinking +out of a policy on every side of the Department's work, the constitution +of the statutory committees to administer its local schemes in town and +country, the agreement, after long discussion, between the central body +and these committees upon the local schemes, and all the other +preparatory steps which had to be taken before money could wisely be +applied, it is obvious that the Department could not have spent its +income. In the second year, and even the third year, savings were +effected, and the original capital sum has been largely increased. What +more natural than that in a poor country a spending Department which was +backward in spending should appear to be lacking in enterprise, if not +in administrative capacity? But whether the policy was right or wrong it +has unquestionably been approved by the best thought in the country, a +fact which throws a very interesting light upon the constitutional +aspects of the Department. At each successive stage the policy was +discussed at the Council of Agriculture and its practical operation was +dependent upon the consent of the Boards which have the power of the +purse. A Vice-President who had not these bodies at his back would be +powerless, in fact would have to <a name="Page_278"></a>resign. Thoughtless criticism has now +and again condemned not only the parsimonious action of the Department, +but the invertebrate conduct of the Council of Agriculture and the +Boards in tolerating it. The time will soon come when the service +rendered to their country by the members of the first Council and +Boards, who gave their representative backing to a slow but sure +educational policy, and scorned to seek popularity in showy projects and +local doles, will be gratefully remembered to them.</p> + +<p>Already we have had some gratifying evidences that the country is with +us in the paramount importance we attach to education as the real need +of the hour. Most readers will be surprised to hear that in the short +time the Department has been at work it has aided in the equipment of +nearly two hundred science laboratories and of about fifty manual +instruction workshops, while the many-sided programme involved in the +movement as a whole is in operation in some four hundred schools +attended by thirty-six thousand pupils.</p> + +<p>Nothing can be more gratifying than the unanimous testimony of the +officers of the Department to the increasing practical intelligence and +reasonableness of the numerous Committees responsible for the local +administration of the schemes which the Department has to approve of and +supervise. The demand for visible money's worth has largely given place +to a genuine desire for schemes having a practical educational value for +the industry of the district. County<a name="Page_279"></a> Clare is not generally considered +the most advanced part of Ireland, nor can Kilrush be very far distant +from 'the back of Godspeed'; yet even from that storm-battered outpost +of Irish ideas I was memorialised a year ago to induce the County +Council to pay less attention to the improvement of cattle and more to +the technical education of the peasantry.</p> + +<p>Under the heading of direct aids to agriculture, rural industries, and +sea and inland fisheries, there is much important and useful work which +the Department has set in motion, partly by the use of its funds and +partly by suggestion and the organisation of local effort. The most +obvious, popular and easily understood schemes were those directed to +the improvement of live stock. The Department exercised its supervision +and control with the help of advisory committees composed of the best +experts it could get to volunteer advice upon the various classes of +live stock. It is unnecessary to give any details of these schemes. The +Department profited by the experience of, and received considerable +assistance from the Royal Dublin Society, which had for many years +administered a Government grant for the improvement of horses and +cattle. The broad principle adopted by the Department was that its +efforts and its available resources should be devoted rather to +improving the quality, than to increasing the quantity, of the stock in +the country, the latter function being regarded as belonging to the +region of private enterprise.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_280"></a>It is impossible to over-estimate the importance to the country of +having a widespread interest aroused and discussion stimulated on +problems of breeding which affect a trade of vast importance to the +economic standing of the country—a trade which now reaches in horned +cattle alone an annual export of nearly three quarters of a million +animals. All manner of practical discussions were set on foot, ranging +from the production of the ideal, the general purposes cow, to that +controversy which competes, in the virulence with which it is waged, +with the political, the educational, and the fiscal questions—the +question whether the hackney strain will bring a new era of prosperity +to Ireland, or whether it will irretrievably destroy the reputation of +the Irish hunter. The discussion of these problems has been accompanied +by much practical work which, in due time, cannot fail to produce a +considerable improvement upon the breed of different classes of live +stock. In one year over one thousand sires have been selected by the +experts of the Department for admission to the stock improvement +schemes. Probably an equal number of breeding animals offered for +inspection have been rejected. Many a <i>cause celèbre</i> has not +unnaturally arisen over the decisions of the equestrian tribunal, and +there have not been wanting threats that the attention of Parliament +should be called to the gross partiality of the Department which has +cast a reflection upon the form of stallion A or upon the constitutional +soundness of stallion B. On the whole, as far as I can gather, the best +authorities in the country <a name="Page_281"></a>are agreed that since the Department has +been at work there has been established a higher standard of excellence +in the bucolic mind as regards that vastly important national asset, our +flocks and herds.</p> + +<p>Again for details I must refer the reader to official documents. There +he will find as much information as he can digest about the vast variety +of agricultural activities which originate sometimes with the +Department's officers or with its <i>Journal</i> and leaflets, the +circulation of which has no longer to be stimulated from our Statistics +and Intelligence bureau, and sometimes emanate from the local +committees, whose growing interest in the work naturally leads to the +discovery of fresh needs and hitherto unthought of possibilities of +agricultural and industrial improvement. I may, however, indicate a few +of the subjects which have been gone into even in these years while the +new Department has been trying so far as it might, without sacrifice of +efficiency and sound economic principle, to keep pace with the feverish +anxiety of a genuinely interested people to get to work upon schemes +which they believe to be practical, sound, and of permanent utility.</p> + +<p>A question which has troubled administrators of State aid to every +progressive agricultural community, and which each country must settle +for itself, is by what form of object lesson in ordinary agriculture +intelligent local interest can best be aroused We have advocated widely +diffused small experimental plots, and they have done much good. +Probably the most useful <a name="Page_282"></a>of our crop improvement schemes have been +those which have demonstrated the profitableness of artificial manures, +the use of which has been enormously increased. The profits derivable in +many parts of Ireland from the cultivation of early potatoes has been +demonstrated in the most convincing manner. To what may be called the +industrial crops, notably flax and barley, a great deal of time and +thought has been applied and much information disseminated and +illustrated by practical experiments. In many quarters interest has been +aroused in the possibilities of profitable tobacco culture. Many +negative and some positive results have been attained by the Department +in the as yet incomplete experiments upon this crop. Much has been +learned about the functions of central and local agricultural and small +industry shows, those occasional aids to the year's work which +disseminate knowledge and stimulate interest and friendly rivalry among +the different producers. The reduction in the death-rate among young +stock, due to preventible causes such as white scour and blackleg, is +well worthy of the attention of those who wish to study the more +practical work of the Department.</p> + +<p>The branch of the Department's work which deals with the Sea-fisheries +can only be very briefly touched on. It falls into two main heads which +may roughly be termed the administrative and the scientific; the latter, +of course, having economic developments as its ultimate object. The +issue of loans to fishermen for the purchase of boats and gear, +contributing to the cost of fishery <a name="Page_283"></a>slips and piers, circulating +telegraphic intelligence, the making of by-laws for the regulation of +the fisheries, the patrolling of the Irish fishing grounds to prevent +illegalities, and the attempts which are being made to develop the +valuable Irish oyster fishery by the introduction, with modifications +suited to our own seaboard, of a system of culture comparable to those +which are pursued with success in France and Norway, may be mentioned as +falling under the more directly economic branch of our activities. Irish +oysters are already attaining considerable celebrity, owing to the +distance of our oyster beds from contaminating influences; and it is +hoped that when the Department's experiments are complete the Irish +oyster will be made subject to direct control for all its life, until it +is despatched to market. Attention is also being given to the relative +value of seed oysters, other than native, for relaying on Irish beds.</p> + +<p>On the more directly scientific side, the Department has undertaken the +survey of the trawling grounds around the coast to obtain an exact +knowledge of the movements of the marketable fish at different times of +their life, so that we may be guided in making by-laws and regulations +by a full knowledge of the times and places at which protection is +necessary. The biological and physical conditions of the western seas +are also being studied in special reference to the mackerel fishery, +with the object of correlating certain readily observable phenomena with +the movements of the fish, and so of <a name="Page_284"></a>predicting the probable success of +a fishery in a particular season. The routine observations of the +Department's fishery cruiser have been so arranged as to synchronise +with those of other nations, in order to assist the international scheme +of investigation now in progress, wherever its objects and those of the +Department are the same. While these various practical projects have +been in operation, we have done our best to keep abreast of the times by +sending missions to other countries, consisting of an expert accompanied +by practical Irishmen who would bring home information which was +applicable to the conditions of our own country. The first batch of +itinerant instructors in agriculture, whose training for the important +work of laying the foundations for our whole scheme of agricultural +instruction I have referred to, were taken on a continental tour by the +Professor of Agriculture at the Royal College of Science, in order to +give special advantages to a portion of our outdoor staff upon the +success of whose work the rate of our progress in agricultural +development might largely depend. And not only have we in our first +three years gleaned as much information as possible by sending qualified +Irishmen to study abroad the industries in which we were particularly +interested, but we also took steps to give the mass of our people at +home an opportunity of studying these industries for themselves. With +the somewhat unique experiment carried out for this object, I will +conclude the story of the new Department's activities in its early +years.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_285"></a>The part we took at the Cork Exhibition of 1902 was well understood in +Ireland, but not perhaps elsewhere. We secured a large space both in the +main Industrial Hall and in the grounds, and gave an illustration not of +what Ireland had done, but of what, in our opinion, the country might +achieve in the way of agricultural and industrial development in the +near future. Exhibiting on the one hand our available resources in the +way of raw material, we gave, on the other hand, demonstrations of a +large number of industries in actual operation. These exhibits, imported +with their workers, machinery and tools, from several European countries +and from Great Britain, all belonged to some class of industry which, in +our belief, was capable of successful development in Ireland. In the +indoor part of the exhibit there was nothing very original, except +perhaps in its close relation to the work of a government department. +But what attracted by far the greatest interest and attention was a +series of object lessons in many phases of farm activities, where, in +our opinion, great and immediate improvements might be made. Here were +to be seen varieties of crops under various systems of treatment, +demonstrations of sheep-dipping, calf-rearing on different foods, +illustrations of the different breeds of fowl and systems of poultry +management, model buildings and gardens for farmer and labourer; while +in separate buildings the drying and pressing of fruit and vegetables, +the manufacture of butter and cheese, and a very comprehensive <a name="Page_286"></a>forestry +exhibit enabled our visitors to combine profitable suggestion with, if I +may judge from my frequent opportunities of observing the sightseers in +whom I was particularly interested, the keenest enjoyment.</p> + +<p>We kept at the Exhibition, for six months, a staff of competent experts, +whose instructions were to give to all-comers this simple lesson. They +were to bring home to our people that, here in Ireland before their very +eyes, there were industries being carried on by foreigners, by +Englishmen, by Scotchmen, and in some instances by Irishmen, but in all +cases by men and women who had no advantage over our workers except that +they had the technical training which it was the desire of the +Department to give to the workers of Ireland. The officials of the +Department entered into the spirit of this scheme enthusiastically and +cheerfully, some of them, in addition to their ordinary work, turning +the office into a tourist agency for these busy months. With the +generous help of the railway companies they organised parties of +farmers, artisans, school teachers, members of the statutory committees, +and, in fact, of all to whom it was of importance to give this object +lesson upon the relations between practical education and the promotion +of industry. Nearly 100,000 persons were thus moved to Cork and back +before the Exhibition closed—an achievement largely due to the +assistance given by the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society and the +clergy throughout the country.</p> + +<p>This experiment, both in its conception and in its <a name="Page_287"></a>results, was perhaps +unique. There were not wanting critics of the new Department who stood +aghast at so large an expenditure upon temporary edifices and a passing +show; but those who are in touch with its educational work know that +this novel application of State assistance fulfilled its purpose. It +helped substantially to generate a belief in, and stimulate a demand +for, technical instruction which it will take us many years adequately +to supply.</p> + +<p>An American visitor who, as I afterwards learned, takes an active part +in the discussion of the rural problems of his own country, disembarked +at Queenstown in order to 'take in' the Cork Exhibition. In his rush +through Dublin he 'took in' the Department and the writer. 'Mr. +Vice-President,' he said, before the hand-shaking was completed, 'I have +visited all the great Expositions held in my time. I have been to the +Cork Exposition. I often saw more things, but never more ideas.'</p> + +<p>With this characteristically rapid appreciation of a movement which +seeks to turn Irish thought to action, my strange visitor vanished as +suddenly as he came.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Those whose sympathy with Ireland has induced them to persevere through +the mass of details with which this story of small beginnings is pieced +together may wonder why the bearing of hopeful efforts for bringing +prosperity and contentment to Ireland upon the mental attitude of +millions of Irishmen scattered throughout the British<a name="Page_288"></a> Empire and the +United States, and so upon the lives of the countries in which they have +made their homes, is apparently ignored. I fully recognise the vast +importance of the subject. A book dealing comprehensively with the +actual and potential influence of Irish intellect upon English politics +at home, and upon the politics of the United States, a carefully +reasoned estimate of the part which Irish intellect is qualified, and +which I firmly believe it is destined, to play wherever the civilisation +of the world is to be under the control of the English-speaking +peoples—more especially where these peoples govern races which speak +other tongues and see through other eyes—a clear and striking +exposition of the true relation between the small affairs of the small +island and that greater Ireland which takes its inspiration from the +sorrows, the passions, the endeavours, and the hopes of those who stick +to the old home—such a book would possess a deep human interest, and +would make a high and wide appeal. Nevertheless, I feel that at the +present time the most urgent need, from every point of view on which I +have touched, is to focus the thought available for the Irish Question +upon the definite work of a reconstruction of Irish life.</p> + +<p>Such is the purpose of this book. I do not wish to attach any +exaggerated importance to the scheme of social and economic reform of +which I have attempted to give a faithful account; nor is it in their +practical achievement, be it great or small, that the initiators <a name="Page_289"></a>and +organisers of the new movement take most pride. What these Irishmen are +proud of is the manner in which the people have responded to their +efforts to bring Irish sentiment into an intimate and helpful relation +with Irish economic problems. They had to reckon with that greatest of +hindrances to the spirit of enterprise, a rooted belief in the +potentiality of government to bring material prosperity to our doors. As +I have pointed out, the practical demonstration which Ireland had +received of the power of government to inflict lasting economic injury +gave rise to this belief; and I have noted the present influences to +which it seems to owe its continuance until to-day. I believe that, if +any enduring interest attaches to the story which I have told, it will +consist in the successive steps by which this initial difficulty has +been overcome.</p> + +<p>Let me summarise in a few words what has been, so far, actually +accomplished. Those who did the work of which I have written first +launched upon Irish life a scheme of organised self-help which, perhaps +more by good luck than design, proved to be in accordance with the +inherited instincts of the people, and, therefore, moved them to action. +Next they called for, and in due season obtained, a department of +government with adequate powers and means to aid in developing the +resources of the country, so far as this end could be attained without +transgressing the limits of beneficial State interference with the +business of the people. In its constitution this department was so +linked with the representative insti<a name="Page_290"></a>tutions of the country that the +people soon began to feel that they largely controlled its policy and +were responsible for its success. Meanwhile, the progress of economic +thought in the country had made such rapid strides that, in the +administration of State assistance, the principle of self-help could be +rigidly insisted upon and was willingly submitted to. The result is that +a situation has been created which is as gratifying as it may appear to +be paradoxical. Within the scope and sphere of the movement the Irish +people are now, without any sacrifice of industrial character, combining +reliance upon government with reliance upon themselves.</p> + +<p>That a movement thus conceived should so rapidly have overcome its +initial difficulties and should, I might almost add, have passed beyond +the experimental stage, will suggest to any thoughtful reader that above +and beyond the removal by legislation of obstacles to progress—and much +has been accomplished in this way of recent years—there must have been +new, positive influences at work upon the national mind. These will be +found in the growing recognition of the fact that the path of progress +lies along distinctively Irish lines, and that otherwise it will not be +trodden by the Irish people. Much good in the same direction has been +done, too, by the generous and authoritative admission by England that +the future development of Ireland should be assisted and promoted 'with +a full and constant regard to the special traditions of the +country.'<a name="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52"><sup>[52]</sup></a> But <a name="Page_291"></a>after all, while these concessions to Irish +sentiment, vitally important though they be, may speed us on our road to +national regeneration, they will not take us far. It remains for us +Irishmen to realise—and the chief value of all the work I have +described consists in the degree in which it forces us to realise—the +responsibility which now rests with ourselves. We have been too long a +prey to that deep delusion, which, because the ills of the country we +love were in past days largely caused from without, bids us look to the +same source for their cure. The true remedies are to be sought +elsewhere; for, however disastrous may have been the past, the injury +was moral rather than material, and the opportunity has now arrived for +the patient building up again of Irish character in those qualities +which win in the modern struggle for existence. The field for that great +work is clear of at least the worst of its many historic encumbrances. +Ireland must be re-created from within. The main work must be done in +Ireland, and the centre of interest must be Ireland. When Irishmen +realise this truth, the splendid human power of their country, so much +of which now runs idly or disastrously to waste, will be utilised; and +we may then look with confidence for the foundation of a fabric of Irish +prosperity, framed in constructive thought, and laid enduringly in human +character.</p> + +<p><b>THE END</b>.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48">[48]</a><div class="note"><p> Pages 38, 39.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49">[49]</a><div class="note"><p> It must be borne in mind that the Department is not +officially concerned with the question of the economic distribution of +land referred to on pp. 46-49.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50">[50]</a><div class="note"><p> For a full description of the Department's scheme of +agricultural education I may refer to a <i>Memorandum on Agricultural +Education in Ireland,</i> written by the author and published by the +Department, July, 1901.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51">[51]</a><div class="note"><p> See <i>ante</i>, pp. 236-238.</p></div> + +<a name="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52">[52]</a><div class="note"><p> Speech of the Lord Lieutenant to the Incorporated Law +Society, November 20th, 1902. See also p. 170.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="INDEX"></a><h2>INDEX</h2> + +<ul><li>A.E. (George W. Russell) <a href='#Page_200'>200</a></li> +<li>Agitation as a policy, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a></li> +<li>Agricultural Board, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>, <i>seq</i>. <a href='#Page_269'>269</a></li> +<li>Agriculture:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Agricultural Holdings:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Improvement of, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Transfer of peasants to new farms, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a> <i>seq</i>.</li></ul></li> + +<li> Agricultural Organisation:</li> +<li><ul><li> Denmark, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a></li> +<li> Department of Agriculture and farmers' societies, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a></li> +<li> England, Mr. Hanbury's and Lord Onslow's views, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li> +<li> Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (see that title)</li> +<li> Societies <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a></li></ul></li> + +<li> Co-operation (see that title).</li> +<li> Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (see that title)</li> +<li> Depression in, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a></li> +<li> Education in relation to, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a> <i>seq</i>. <a href='#Page_269'>269</a></li> +<li> Exodus of Rural Population, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a></li> +<li> State-Aid, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a></li> +<li> Tillage, decrease of, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a></li> +<li>Albert Institute, Glasnevin, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a></li> +<li>Altruism, appeal to in co-operation, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a></li> +<li>America, Irish in: <a href='#Page_72'>72</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Causes of their success and failure, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Irish in American politics, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Loss of religion in, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Anderson, R.A.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Co-operative movement, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a></li> +<li> Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Andrews, Mr. Thomas:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Anti-English Sentiment:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Irish in America and, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a></li> +<li> Nature and cause, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Anti-Treating League, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a></li> +<li>Arnott, Sir John:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Art, modern ecclesiastical art in Ireland, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a></li> +<li>Association, economic, value of, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a></li> +<li>Associative qualities of the Irish, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Bacon Curing:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Denmark, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Bagot, Canon:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Creamery movement, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Balfour, Arthur:--<a href='#Page_168'>168</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Irish policy, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Balfour, Gerald:--<a href='#Page_243'>243</a>, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a></li> +<li> Local Government Act, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a></li> +<li> Policy of explained, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a></li> +<li> Recess Committee Proposals; Bill, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Banks, agricultural credit, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li>Barley Experiments of the Department of Agriculture, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a></li> +<li>Belfast Chamber of Commerce and Home Rule, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a></li> +<li>Berkeley, Bishop:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Irish priests, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a></li> +<li> On "Mending our state," <a href='#Page_6'>6</a></li> +<li> "Parties" and "politics," <a href='#Page_63'>63</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Bessborough Commission, tenants improvements, &c. <a href='#Page_22'>22</a></li> +<li>Board of National Education, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a></li> +<li>Board of Technical Instruction, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a> <i>seq</i>. <a href='#Page_257'>257</a></li> +<li>Bodley's _France_, Madame Darmesteter's review, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li> +<li>Boer war and the Irish attitude, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a></li> +<li>Bogs, utilisation of, <a href='#Page_249'>249</a></li> +<li>Boycotting, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a></li> +<li>Bright, John:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Peasant proprietorship, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Brooke, Stopford, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a></li> +<li>Buckle, personal factor in history, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a></li> +<li>Bulwer Lytton, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a></li> +<li>Burke, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a></li> +<li>Butt, Isaac, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a></li> +<li>Butter, Danish, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Cadogan, Lord, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a></li> +<li>Catholic Association, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a></li> +<li>Catholic Emancipation Act, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a></li> +<li>Catholic University (see University Question).</li> +<li>Celtic Race, Harold Frederic's opinion, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li>Character:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Associative qualities of the Irish, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a></li> +<li> Education and character, <a href='#Page_144'>144</a></li> +<li> Gaelic Revival, effect of on national character, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a></li> +<li> Industrial character, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a></li> +<li> Irish inefficiency a problem of character, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a></li> +<li> Irish question a problem of character, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a></li> +<li> Lack of initiative in Irish character, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a></li> +<li> Moral timidity of Irish character, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a></li> +<li> Prosperity of Ireland, to be founded on character, <a href='#Page_291'>291</a></li> +<li> Roman Catholicism and Irish character, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>-<a href='#Page_105'>105</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Chesterfield, Lord:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Education as the cause of difference in the character of men, <a href='#Page_144'>144</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Christian Brothers' Schools, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a></li> +<li>Christian Socialists, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li>Church-building in Ireland,. <a href='#Page_107'>107</a></li> +<li>Church Disestablishment Act, 1869,--Land Purchase Clauses, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a></li> +<li>Clan-System in Ireland, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a></li> +<li>Clergy, Roman Catholic:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Action and attitude towards questions of the day <a href='#Page_105'>105</a></li> +<li> Authority, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Moral influence, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a></li> +<li> Political influence, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a></li> +<li> Temperance reform, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>College of Science and Department of Agriculture, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a></li> +<li>Colonies, history of the Irish in, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li>Commercial Restrictions--effect of on Irish industrial character, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li>Con O'Neal forbids his posterity to build houses, etc., <a href='#Page_57'>57</a></li> +<li>Congested Districts Board:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Agricultural banks, loans to <a href='#Page_197'>197</a></li> +<li> Department of Agriculture and, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a></li> +<li> Land Act (1903) and, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a></li> +<li> Success of, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Convents and Monasteries, increase of, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a></li> +<li>Co-operative Movement:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Agricultural Banks, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Agricultural depression, cause of, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a></li> +<li> Altruism, appeal to, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a></li> +<li> Anderson, R.A., <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a></li> +<li> Associative qualities of Irish, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a></li> +<li> Beginnings, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a></li> +<li> Combination, necessity of, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a></li> +<li> Co-operative Union, Manchester, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li> Craig, Mr. E.T., and the Vandeleur Estate, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li> Creameries, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Denmark, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a></li> +<li> Educating adults, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a></li> +<li> English co-operation, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li> Finlay, Father Thomas, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li> +<li> Gaelic Revival and, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Gray, Mr. T.C., <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li> Holyoake, Mr., <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li> Hughes, Mr. Tom, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li> Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (see that title).</li> +<li> _Irish Homestead_, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a></li> +<li> Ludlow, Mr., <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li> Marum, Mr. Mulhallen, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a></li> +<li> Middlemen, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a></li> +<li> Monteagle, Lord, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li> Moral effects, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a></li> +<li> Neale, Mr. Vansittart, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li> Necessity of co-operation for small landholders, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Production and distribution problems, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a></li> +<li> Roman Catholic clergy and, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a></li> +<li> State-aid side, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a></li> +<li> Success, causes of <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a></li> +<li> Vandeleur estate community, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li> Village libraries, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a></li> +<li> Wolff, Mr. Henry W., <a href='#Page_199'>199</a></li> +<li> Yerburgh, Mr., <a href='#Page_199'>199</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Cork:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Exhibition, Department's Exhibit, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a> <i>seq</i>.</li></ul></li> + +<li>Craig, Mr. E.T.--</li> +<li><ul><li> Co-operative Movement <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Creameries, co-operative, beginnings, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li>Crop improvement schemes of the Department, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a></li> +<li>Council of Agriculture, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a> <i>seq</i>. <a href='#Page_257'>257</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Dairying Industry--Co-operation and, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li>Dane, Mr.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Darmesteter, Madame, _Syndicats agricoles_, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li> +<li>Davis, Thomas:--<a href='#Page_137'>137</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Political Methods, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Denmark:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Co-operation in, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a></li> +<li> High Schools, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction:-- <a href='#Page_60'>60</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a></li> +<li> Agricultural Board, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a> _seq._ <a href='#Page_257'>257</a></li> +<li> Agricultural education, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a> _seq._ <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a></li> +<li> Agricultural Organisation, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a></li> +<li> Albert Institute, Glasnevin, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a></li> +<li> Balfour, Gerald, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a></li> +<li> Board of Technical Instruction, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a> _seq._ <a href='#Page_257'>257</a></li> +<li> College of Science and, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a></li> +<li> Congested Districts Board and Department, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a></li> +<li> Consultative Committee for Co-ordinating Education, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a></li> +<li> Constitution, etc., <a href='#Page_228'>228</a></li> +<li> Co-operative movement and the benefits of organisation, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a></li> +<li> Cork Exhibition exhibit, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a> _seq._</li> +<li> Council of Agriculture, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a> _seq._ <a href='#Page_257'>257</a></li> +<li> Crop improvement schemes <a href='#Page_282'>282</a></li> +<li> Domestic economy teaching, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a></li> +<li> Early days' experiences, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a> _seq._</li> +<li> Educational policy, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a></li> +<li> Educational work, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a></li> +<li> Endowment, etc., <a href='#Page_231'>231</a></li> +<li> Home Industries, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a></li> +<li> Industrial education and industrial life, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a></li> +<li> Intermediate Education Board and, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a></li> +<li> Itinerant instruction, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a></li> +<li> Irish Agricultural Organisation Society and, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a></li> +<li> Live Stock Schemes, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a></li> +<li> Local Committees, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a></li> +<li> Local Government Act and work of Department, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a></li> +<li> Metropolitan School of Art <a href='#Page_230'>230</a></li> +<li> Munster Institute, Cork, and, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a></li> +<li> Parliamentary representation, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a></li> +<li> Powers, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a> _seq._</li> +<li> Provincial Committees, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a></li> +<li> Purposes, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a></li> +<li> Recess Committee's Recommendations, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a></li> +<li> Royal Dublin Society and, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a></li> +<li> Rural life improvement, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a></li> +<li> Sea Fisheries, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a></li> +<li> Staff, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a></li> +<li> Teachers, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a></li> +<li> Technical instruction, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>, _seq._, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a>, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a></li> +<li> Work already accomplished, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a> _seq._</li></ul></li> + +<li>Desmolins, M.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> English love of home, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Devon Commission, tenants'</li> +<li><ul><li> improvements, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Dineen, Rev. P.S.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Editor O'Rahilly's poems, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Dixon, Sir Daniel:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Domestic economy teaching, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a></li> +<li>Drink Evil:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Anti-Treating League, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a></li> +<li> Causes, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a></li> +<li> Roman Catholic Clergy's influence, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Dudley, Lord, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a></li> +<li>Dufferin, Lord:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Effect of commercial restrictions in Ireland, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Duffy, Sir C.G. <a href='#Page_77'>77</a></li> +<li>Dunraven Conference, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Economic system in England, individualism of, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a></li> +<li>Economic thought:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Influence of Roman Catholicism, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Lack of in Ireland, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a> <i>seq</i>.</li></ul></li> + +<li>Education:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Agricultural instruction, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a> 264 <i>seq</i>. <a href='#Page_269'>269</a></li> +<li> Board of National Education, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a></li> +<li> Christian Brothers, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a></li> +<li> Commissioners of National Education, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a></li> +<li> Consultative Committee for co-ordinating Education, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a></li> +<li> Continental methods, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a></li> +<li> Defects of present system, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a></li> +<li> Denmark High Schools, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a></li> +<li> Department of Agriculture's policy and work, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a></li> +<li> Economic, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a></li> +<li> Education Bill, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a></li> +<li> English education in Ireland, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a></li> +<li> Influence of on national life, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a></li> +<li> Industrial, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a></li> +<li> Intermediate Education system, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a></li> +<li> Irish education schemes, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Itinerant instruction, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a></li> +<li> Keenan, Sir Patrick, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a></li> +<li> Kildare Street Society, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a></li> +<li> Literary Education, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a></li> +<li> Lord Chesterfield on Education <a href='#Page_144'>144</a></li> +<li> Manual and Practical Instruction in Primary Schools, Commission, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a></li> +<li> Maynooth, influence of, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>-<a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a></li> +<li> Monastic and Conventual institutions, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a></li> +<li> National factor in national education, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a></li> +<li> Practical, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Reports of Commissions, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a></li> +<li> Roman Catholics, higher education, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a></li> +<li> Royal University, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a></li> +<li> Technical instruction, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a> <i>seq</i>., <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a></li> +<li> Trinity College, influence of, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> University:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Place of the University in education, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a></li> +<li> Royal Commission on University Education, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a></li></ul></li> + +<li> Wyse's Scheme, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Education Bill, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a></li> +<li>Emigration, causes of, etc., <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a></li> +<li>England:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Anti-English sentiment in Ireland, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a></li> +<li> Co-operation in, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li> +<li> Economic system, individualism of, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a></li> +<li> Misunderstanding of Irish question, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a> <i>seq</i>.</li></ul></li> + +<li>Ewart, Sir William:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Experimental Plots of the Department, <a href='#Page_281'>281</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Ferguson, Sir Samuel:--</li> +<li><ul><li> National sentiment, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Field, Mr. William, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a></li> +<li>Finlay, Father Thomas:-- <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a></li> +<li> Recess Committee <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Fisheries--Department of Agriculture, development scheme, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a> <i>seq</i></li> +<li>Flax improvement Schemes, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a></li> +<li>_Fortnightly Review_:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Harold Frederic on Irish Question, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>France, _syndicats agricoles_, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li> +<li>Franchise extension in 1885, effects of on Irish political thought, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a></li> +<li>Frederic, Harold:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Views on Irish question, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a> <i>seq</i>.</li></ul></li> + +<li>Free Trade, effect of in Ireland, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Gaelic Revival:-- <a href='#Page_148'>148</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li><ul><li> Appeal to the individual <a href='#Page_155'>155</a></li> +<li> Co-operative movement and, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Gaelic League, aims and objects, <a href='#Page_150'>150</a></li> +<li> Hyde, Douglas, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a></li> +<li> Irish language as a commercial medium, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a></li> +<li> National factor in education, importance of, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a></li> +<li> Politics and the Gaelic revival, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a></li> +<li> Rural life, rehabilitation, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Gill, Mr. T.P.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Gladstone:-- <a href='#Page_85'>85</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Belfast Chamber of Commerce, Home Rule deputation, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a></li> +<li> Home Rule, attitude towards, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a></li> +<li> Tenants' improvements, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Glasnevin, Albert Institute, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a></li> +<li>Grattan, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a></li> +<li>Gray, Mr. J.C.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Co-operative movement, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Grazing, increase of, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a></li> +<li>Grundtvig, Bishop, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Hanbury, Mr.:-- <a href='#Page_251'>251</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Agricultural Societies, necessity of, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li> +<li> Suppression of Swine Fever, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Hannon, Mr. P.J.--I.A.O.S. <a href='#Page_200'>200</a></li> +<li>Harrington, Mr. T.C.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Healy, Archbishop, work for Ireland, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a></li> +<li>Hegarty, Father, work for Ireland, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a></li> +<li>Historical Grievances, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <i>seq</i>. <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a></li> +<li>Holdings, small, problem of, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a></li> +<li>Holyoake, Mr.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Co-operative Movement, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Domestic Economy Teaching, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a></li> +<li>Home: Improvement of, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Irish Conception of, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a></li> +<li> Irish, "homelessness at home," cause of <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Home Industries, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a></li> +<li>Home Rule:--Bill 1886, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Gladstone's attitude to the question <a href='#Page_3'>3</a></li> +<li> Nationalist tactics as a means of attaining <a href='#Page_84'>84</a></li> +<li> Rosebery, Lord, attitude to the question, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a></li> +<li> Ulster and Home Rule, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>. <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Unionist attitude towards, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Hughes, Tom, Co-operative Movement, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li>Hyde, Douglas, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Individualism of English economic system, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a></li> +<li>Industrial character of the Irish, effect of commercial restrictions, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a></li> +<li>Industrial leadership, and political leadership, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a></li> +<li>Industry:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Commercial Restrictions, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>-<a href='#Page_20'>20</a></li> +<li> Education and Industrial Life, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a></li> +<li> Free Trade, effect of, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a></li> +<li> Gaelic League and, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a></li> +<li> Home Rule and, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a></li> +<li> Peasant Industries <a href='#Page_52'>52</a></li> +<li> Protestantism and Industry <a href='#Page_100'>100</a></li> +<li> Roman Catholicism and Industry. <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> State-Aid <a href='#Page_45'>45</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Initiative, lack of in Irish character, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a></li> +<li>Intermediate Education <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a></li> +<li>Irish Agricultural Organisation Society:-- <a href='#Page_149'>149</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Agricultural Banks, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a> _seq._</li> +<li> Agricultural Organisation:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Denmark, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a></li> +<li> Department of Agriculture and Farmers' Societies, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a></li> +<li> England, Mr. Hanbury's view, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li> +<li> Onslow, Lord, opinion, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li> +<li> Welsh Co. Councils, and, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li></ul></li> + +<li> Anderson, R.A., <a href='#Page_200'>200</a></li> +<li> Central body, necessity for <a href='#Page_194'>194</a></li> +<li> Cork Exhibition, tours organised by, <a href='#Page_286'>286</a></li> +<li> Department of Agriculture and, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a></li> +<li> Federations, principal, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a></li> +<li> Finlay, Father Thomas, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li> +<li> Funds, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Gaelic revival and the co-operative movement, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a> _seq._</li> +<li> Hannon, Mr. P.J., <a href='#Page_200'>200</a></li> +<li> Inauguration, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a></li> +<li> _Irish, Homestead_, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a></li> +<li> Monteagle, Lord, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a></li> +<li> Roman Catholic clergy and the movement, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a></li> +<li> Rural life social movements, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a></li> +<li> Russell, George W. (A.E.), <a href='#Page_200'>200</a></li> +<li> Societies, number, etc. <a href='#Page_192'>192</a></li> +<li> Staff, &c. <a href='#Page_200'>200</a></li> +<li> Village libraries, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>_Irish Homestead_, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a></li> +<li>Irish language as a commercial medium, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a></li> +<li>"Irish night" in House of Commons, <a href='#Page_2'>2</a></li> +<li>Irish Question:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Anomalies, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a></li> +<li> Character, a problem of, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a></li> +<li> Emigration, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a></li> +<li> English misunderstanding, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a> _seq._</li> +<li> Frederic, Harold, diagnosis by, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Gaelic Revival and, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a></li> +<li> Historical grievances, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Home Rule (see that title)</li> +<li> Human problem, <a href='#Page_2'>2</a></li> +<li> Land Act marks a new era in, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a></li> +<li> Land system (see that title).</li> +<li> Our ignorance about ourselves <a href='#Page_32'>32</a></li> +<li> Parnell's death, effect of, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a></li> +<li> Political remedies, Irish belief in, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a></li> +<li> Rural life, problem, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a></li> +<li> Sentiment, force of, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a></li> +<li> Ulster's attitude important, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Itinerant Instructors, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>, <a href='#Page_284'>284</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Johnson, Dr., on "economy," <a href='#Page_278'>278</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Kane, Rev. R.R.:-- <a href='#Page_157'>157</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Keenan, Sir Patrick:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Itinerant instructors, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Kelly, Dr. (Bishop of Ross):--</li> +<li><ul><li> Work for Ireland, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Kildare Street School of Domestic Economy <a href='#Page_274'>274</a></li> +<li>Kildare Street Society, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>-<a href='#Page_125'>125</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Land Acts:--</li> +<li><ul><li> 1870, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>;</li> +<li> 1881, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>;</li> +<li> 1891, Congested Districts, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a></li> +<li> 1903:-- <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Marks a new era in Ireland, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a></li> +<li> Transfer of peasants to new farms, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a></li></ul></li></ul></li> + + +<li>Land Conference:-- <a href='#Page_93'>93</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Landed gentry not to be expatriated, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a></li> +<li> Nationalist leaders' attitude, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Land Purchase Acts, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a></li> +<li>Land Question and Tenure Question, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a></li> +<li>Land system:-- <a href='#Page_17'>17</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Causes of failure in Irish land system, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a></li> +<li> Dual ownership <a href='#Page_25'>25</a></li> +<li> Land Acts:</li> +<li><ul><li> 1870, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>;</li> +<li> 1881, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>;</li> +<li> 1891, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>;</li> +<li> 1903, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li> Land Purchase Acts, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a></li> +<li> Legislation, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Peasant proprietorship, germs of, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a></li> +<li> Tenure question, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Lawless, Emily:--</li> +<li><ul><li> "With the Wild Geese," <a href='#Page_92'>92</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Le Bon, "La Psychologie De la Foule," <a href='#Page_167'>167</a></li> +<li>Lea, Sir Thomas:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Leadership in Ireland, political and industrial, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a></li> +<li>Lecky, Mr.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Irish grievances, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a></li> +<li> Kildare Street Society, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Live stock improvement schemes, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a></li> +<li>Liverpool Financial Reform Association, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a></li> +<li>Local Government:-- <a href='#Page_83'>83</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Balfour, Mr. Gerald, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a></li> +<li> Department of Agriculture and local effort,</li> +<li> Educative effect of, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a></li> +<li> Nationalist leaders' attitude <a href='#Page_88'>88</a></li> +<li> Success in working, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Lucas, Mr., <a href='#Page_77'>77</a></li> +<li>Ludlow, Mr.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Co-operative movement, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li></ul></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>McCarthy, Mr. Justin:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Manchester, Co-operative Union <a href='#Page_181'>181</a></li> +<li>Manual and Practical Instruction in Primary Schools' Commission, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a></li> +<li>Manures, Artificial--</li> +<li><ul><li> Department of Agriculture's encouragement in the use of, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Marum, Mr. Mulhallen--Co-operative Movement <a href='#Page_189'>189</a></li> +<li>Maynooth, influence of, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a> 136, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a></li> +<li>Mayo, Lord:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>_Memorandum on Agricultural Education_ <a href='#Page_269'>269</a></li> +<li>Metropolitan School of Art, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a></li> +<li>Middlemen, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a></li> +<li>Monasteries and Convents, increase of, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a></li> +<li>Monteagle, Lord:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Co-operative movement, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li> I.A.O.S. President, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a></li> +<li> Recess Committee <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Moral timidity of Irish character, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a></li> +<li>Morals:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Roman Catholic Clergy's influence on, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Mulhall, Mr. Michael:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Munster Institute, Cork, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a></li> +<li>Musgrave, Sir James:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a></li></ul></li></ul> + + + +<ul><li>National Education Board, Agricultural Teaching, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a></li> +<li>Nationalist Party:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Home Rule, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a></li> +<li> Land Conference and, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a></li> +<li> Local Government and, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a></li> +<li> Policy, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a></li> +<li> Qualifications of leaders, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a></li> +<li> Recess Committee and, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a></li> +<li> Responsibility of leaders, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a></li> +<li> Tactics:-- <a href='#Page_84'>84</a> _seq._</li> +<li><ul><li> Effect of on Irish political character, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a></li></ul></li></ul></li> + + +<li>Nationality:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Education and nationality, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a> _seq._</li> +<li> Expansion of, outside party politics, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a></li> +<li> Modern conception of Irish nationality, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Neale, Vansittart:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Co-operative movement, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li></ul></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>O'Connell, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a></li> +<li>O'Conor Don:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>O'Dea, Dr.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> University Commission, statements, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>O'Donnell, Dr.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Ploughing up of grazing lands, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>O'Donovan, Father, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a></li> +<li>O'Dwyer, Dr.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Evidence before University Commission, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>O'Gara, Dr.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> On the cultivation of the land, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>O'Grady, Standish, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a></li> +<li>Onslow, Lord:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Agricultural organisation, benefit of, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>O'Rahilly, Egan:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Lament for the Irish clans, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Oyster Culture, <a href='#Page_283'>283</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Parnell:-- <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Downfall, effect on national idea and aims, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Peasant industries, necessity for, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a></li> +<li>Peasant Proprietary:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Agricultural organisation, necessity of, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Bright, John, and, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a></li> +<li> Peasant industries, necessity of, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a></li> +<li> Problem of next generation, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Penal laws, effect of, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a></li> +<li>Plantation system, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a></li> +<li>Politics:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Agitation as a policy, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a></li> +<li> America, Irish in politics in, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a> _seq,_</li> +<li> Gaelic revival and politics, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a></li> +<li> Irishmen as politicians,. <a href='#Page_69'>69</a> _seq._</li> +<li> "Irish night" in House of Commons, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a></li> +<li> Nationalist leaders' effect on Irish political character, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a></li> +<li> Obsession of the Irish mind by politics, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> "One-man" system, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a></li> +<li> Political leadership and industrial leadership, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a></li> +<li> Political remedies, Irish belief in, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a></li> +<li> Political "wilderness," <a href='#Page_91'>91</a></li> +<li> "Priest in politics," <a href='#Page_117'>117</a></li> +<li> Separation, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a></li> +<li> Ulster Liberal Unionist Association, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a></li> +<li> Unionists (Irish):--</li> +<li><ul><li> Industrial element and, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a></li> +<li> Influence in Irish life, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a> _seq._</li></ul></li></ul></li> + + +<li>Population.--</li> +<li><ul><li> Relation of population to area, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Potato culture improvement schemes, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a></li> +<li>Production and distribution, problems, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a></li> +<li>Protestantism:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Duty of, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a></li> +<li> Ulster, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a></li></ul></li></ul> + + + +<ul><li>Raiffeisen System of banking, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>-<a href='#Page_198'>198</a></li> +<li>Railways--Light railway system, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a></li> +<li>_Raimeis_, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a></li> +<li>Recess Committee:-- <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a> _seq._ <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Cadogan, Lord, and, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a></li> +<li> Constitution proposed, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a></li> +<li> Finlay, Father Thomas, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li> +<li> Gill, Mr. T.P. <a href='#Page_219'>219</a></li> +<li> Ideas leading to its formation, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a></li> +<li> M'Carthy, Mr. Justin, letter, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a></li> +<li> Members, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li> +<li> Mulhall, Mr. Michael, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a></li> +<li> Nationalist members, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a></li> +<li> Recommendations, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a></li> +<li> Redmond, Mr. John, and, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a></li> +<li> Report, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a></li> +<li> Results, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a> _seq._</li> +<li> State-aid question, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a></li> +<li> Tisserand's memorandum, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Redmond, Mr. John:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Religion:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Influence of on Irish life, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a> _seq._</li> +<li> Protestantism, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a></li> +<li> Roman Catholic Church (see that title).</li> +<li> Sectarian animosities, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a></li> +<li> Toleration, meaning of word, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Ritualistic movement, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a></li> +<li>Robertson, Lord:--</li> +<li><ul><li> University Commission, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Roman Catholic Church:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Church-building and increase of monasteries, etc., <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a></li> +<li> Clergy:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Action and attitude towards questions of the day, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Authority of, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a> _seq._</li></ul></li> + +<li> Co-operative movement, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a></li> +<li> Moral influence, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a></li> +<li> Political influence, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a></li> +<li> Temperance reform, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a></li> +<li> Economic conditions, influence on <a href='#Page_101'>101</a> _seq._</li> +<li> Effect on Irish character, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>-<a href='#Page_105'>105</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a></li> +<li> Higher education of Roman Catholics, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Rosebery, Lord:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Attitude towards Home Rule, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Ross, Mr. John:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Royal College of Science, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a></li> +<li>Royal Commission on University Education, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a></li> +<li>Royal Dublin Society, Aid to Department of Agriculture, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a></li> +<li>Royal University education, defects in, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a></li> +<li>Rural life:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Emigration, causes of, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a></li> +<li> Gaelic revival's influence on, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a></li> +<li> Industries, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>, <a href='#Page_266'>266</a></li> +<li> Problem of, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a></li> +<li> Rehabilitation, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Russell, George W. (A.E.), <a href='#Page_200'>200</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Salisbury, Lord:--</li> +<li><ul><li> "Twenty years of resolute government," <a href='#Page_61'>61</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Saunderson, Colonel:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Scotch-Irish in America, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a></li> +<li>Sea Fisheries--Department of Agriculture's improvement schemes, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a></li> +<li>Self-help movement (see Co-operative movement).</li> +<li>Sentiment:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Anti-English, cause of, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li> Force of in Irish question, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Separation, Home Rule and, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a></li> +<li>Shinnors, Rev. Mr.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Irish in America, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Sinclair, Thomas:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Social order, Irish attachment to, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a></li> +<li>_Spectator_:--English non-allowance for sentiment, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a></li> +<li>_Speed's Chronicle_:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Con O'Neal, etc. <a href='#Page_57'>57</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Spencer, Lord, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a></li> +<li>Starkie, Dr.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Mr. Wyse's education scheme, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>State-aid:-- <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a></li> +<li>Stephen, J.K. ("Cynicus") <a href='#Page_164'>164</a></li> +<li>Stopford Brooke, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a></li> +<li>Swine fever, <a href='#Page_251'>251</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Technical Instruction, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a> <i>seq</i>. <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a>, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a></li> +<li>Temperance Reform, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a> <i>seq</i>.</li> +<li>Tenure question and land question, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a></li> +<li>Tillage, decrease of, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a></li> +<li>Tisserand, M.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Recess Committee memorandum, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Tobacco culture, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a></li> +<li>Trinity College, influence of, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a> _seq._</li> +<li>Two Irelands, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Ulster:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Attitude towards the rest of Ireland, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a></li> +<li> Home Rule, objections to, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Ulster Liberal Unionist Association, political thought in, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a></li> +<li>Unionist (Irish) Party:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Industrial element in Irish life and, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a></li> +<li> Influence in Irish life, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>_seq._</li> +<li> Policy, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a></li> +<li> Ulster and Home Rule, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>,86 _seq._</li></ul></li> + +<li>United Ireland, first real conception of, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a></li> +<li>United Irish League, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a></li> +<li>University Question:-- <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a></li> +<li><ul><li> Catholic University:--</li> +<li><ul><li> O'Dea, Dr., on, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a></li> +<li> O'Dwyer, Dr., on, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a></li></ul></li> + +<li> Hyde, Dr., evidence before Commission, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a></li> +<li> Maynooth, influence of, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a></li> +<li> Place of the University in education, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a></li> +<li> Trinity College, influence of, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a> _seq._</li> +<li> University reform necessary, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a></li></ul></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Vandeleur Estate, co-operative community, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></li> +<li>Village libraries, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a></li></ul> + + +<ul><li>Wolff, Mr. Henry W.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> People's banks, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Wyndham, Mr.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Land Act. 1903, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a></li></ul></li> + +<li>Wyse, Mr. Thomas:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Scheme of Irish education, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a></li></ul></li></ul> + + + +<ul><li>Yeats, W.B. <a href='#Page_154'>154</a></li> +<li>Yerburgh, Mr. R.A.:--</li> +<li><ul><li> Agricultural banks, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a></li></ul></li></ul> + + + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Ireland In The New Century, by Horace Plunkett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IRELAND IN THE NEW CENTURY *** + +***** This file should be named 14342-h.htm or 14342-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/3/4/14342/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Susan Skinner and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ireland In The New Century + +Author: Horace Plunkett + +Release Date: December 13, 2004 [EBook #14342] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IRELAND IN THE NEW CENTURY *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Susan Skinner and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +IRELAND + +IN THE NEW CENTURY + + +BY THE RIGHT HON. + +SIR HORACE PLUNKETT, K.C.V.O., F.R.S. + + +LONDON + +JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. + +1904 + +_Printed by_ BROWNE AND NOLAN, LTD., _Dublin_ + + + +TO THE MEMORY OF + +W.E.H. LECKY, + + +I DEDICATE ALL IN THIS BOOK +THAT IS WORTHY OF THE FRIENDSHIP +WITH WHICH HE HONOURED ME, +AND OF THE COUNSEL WHICH HE GAVE ME +FOR MY GUIDANCE IN IRISH PUBLIC LIFE. + + + + +PREFACE + +Those who have known Ireland for the last dozen years cannot have failed +to notice the advent of a wholly new spirit, clearly based upon +constructive thought, and expressing itself in a wide range of fresh +practical activities. The movement for the organisation of agriculture +and rural credit on co-operative lines, efforts of various kinds to +revive old or initiate new industries, and, lastly, the creation of a +department of Government to foster all that was healthy in the voluntary +effort of the people to build up the economic side of their life, are +each interesting in themselves. When taken together, and in conjunction +with the literary and artistic movements, and viewed in their relation +to history, politics, religion, education, and the other past and +present influences operating upon the Irish mind and character, these +movements appear to me to be worthy of the most thoughtful consideration +by all who are responsible for, or desire the well-being of the Irish +people. + +I should not, however, in days when my whole time and energies belong to +the public service, have undertaken the task of writing a book on a +subject so complex and apparently so inseparable from heated +controversy, were I not convinced that the expression of certain +thoughts which have come to me from practical contact with Irish +problems, was the best contribution I could make to the work on which I +was engaged. I wished, if I could, to bring into clearer light the +essential unity of the various progressive movements in Ireland, and to +do something towards promoting a greater definiteness of aim and method, +and a better understanding of each other's work, among those who are in +various ways striving for the upbuilding of a worthy national life in +Ireland. + +So far the task, if difficult, was congenial and free from +embarrassment. Unhappily, it had been borne in upon me, in the course of +a long study of Irish life, that our failure to rise to our +opportunities and to give practical evidence of the intellectual +qualities with which the race is admittedly gifted, was due to certain +defects of character, not ethically grave, but economically paralysing. +I need hardly say I refer to the lack of moral courage, initiative, +independence and self-reliance--defects which, however they may be +accounted for, it is the first duty of modern Ireland to recognise and +overcome. I believe in the new movements in Ireland, principally because +they seem to me to exert a stimulating influence upon our moral fibre. + +Holding such an opinion, I had to decide between preserving a discreet +silence and speaking my full mind. The former course would, it appeared +to me, be a poor example of the moral courage which I hold to be +Ireland's sorest need. Moreover, while I am full of hope for the future +of my country, its present condition does not, in my view, admit of any +delay in arriving at the truth as to the essential principles which +should guide all who wish to take a part, however humble, in the work of +national regeneration. + +I desire to state definitely that I have not written in any +representative capacity except where I say so explicitly. I write on my +own responsibility, with the full knowledge that there is much in the +book with which many of those with whom I work do not agree. + +_December_, 1903. + + + + +CONTENTS + +PART I. + +_THEORETICAL._ + +CHAPTER I + +THE ENGLISH MISUNDERSTANDING. + + Fidelity of the Irish to the National Ideal + Disregard of Material Advantage in its Pursuit + Home Rule Movement under Gladstone + The Anti-Climax under Lord Rosebery + The Logic of Events and the Dawn of the Practical + The Mutual Misunderstanding of England and Ireland + The Dunraven Conference produces a Revolution in English Thought + about Ireland + The Actual Change Examined + Future Misunderstanding best averted by considering Nature of + Anti-English Feeling + Illustration from Irish-American Life + Importance of Sentiment in Ireland--English Habit of Ignoring + Historical Grievances Still Operative + The Commercial Restrictions--Remaining Effects of + Irish Land Tenure--Lord Dufferin on + Defects of Land Laws--Their Effect on Agriculture + Right Attitude towards Historic Grievances + Plea for Broader and more Philosophic View of Irish Question + Simple Explanations and Panaceas Deprecated + A Many-Sided Human Problem + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE IRISH QUESTION IN IRELAND. + + Misunderstanding of the Irish People by the English and by Themselves + Anomalies of Irish Life + The New Movement--Position of Nationalists and Unionists in it + North and South + The Question of Rural Life + Economic Side of the Question + Grazing versus Tillage + Peasant Organisation to be Supplemented by State-Aid + Uneconomic Holdings too Prevalent + Remedies Proposed + Salvation not by Agriculture Alone + Rural Industries and the Irish Home + Reasons for Arrested Development of Home Life + Inter-Dependence of the Sentimental and Practical in Ireland + Outlines of Succeeding Chapters + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE INFLUENCE OF POLITICS UPON THE IRISH MIND. + + Legislation as a Substitute for Work + Political Shortcomings of Unionism and Nationalism Compared + Action of the Unionist Party Reviewed + Two Main Causes of its Lack of Success + The Contribution of Ulster + The Nationalist Party + Are Irishmen Good Politicians? + The Irish and the Scotch-Irish in America + America's Interest in the Problem + Part Played by English Government in Producing Modern Irish Disabilities + Causes of the Growth of National Feeling + Retardation of Political Education by the One-Man System + And by Politicians of To-Day + Defence of Nationalist Policy on Ground of Tactics Considered + The Forces opposed to Home Rule--How Dealt with + Local Government--How it might have been utilised + After Home Rule? + Beginnings of Political Education + The Irish Parliamentary Party + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION UPON SECULAR LIFE IN IRELAND. + + Influences of Religion in Ireland + What is Toleration? + Protestantism in Irish Life + Roman Catholicism and Economics + Power of the Roman Catholic Clergy + Has it been Abused? + Church Building and Monastic Establishments + Clerical Education + Responsibility of the Clergy for Irish Character + The Church and Temperance + The Inculcation of Chastity + The Priest in Politics + New Movement among the Roman Catholic Clergy + Duty and Interest of Protestantism + What each Creed has to Learn from the other + + +CHAPTER V. + +A PRACTICAL VIEW OF IRISH EDUCATION. + + English Government and Education + The Kildare Street Society + Scheme of Thomas Wyse + Early Attempts at Practical Education + Recent Reports on Irish Systems + The Policy of the Department of Agriculture + The Example of Denmark + University Education for Roman Catholics + Maynooth and its Limitations + Trinity College + Its Lack of Influence on the Irish Mind + A Democratic University Called for + National and Economic in its Aims + Views of Roman Catholic Ecclesiastics + The Two Irelands + Lord Chesterfield on Education and Character + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THROUGH THOUGHT TO ACTION. + + A Word to my Critics + The Gaelic League + Compared with the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society + Objects and Constitution of the League + Filling the Gap in Irish Education + Patriotism and Industry + Nationality and Nationalism + A Possible Danger + Extravagances in the Movement + The Gaelic League and the Rural Home + Meeting with Harold Frederic + His Pessimistic Views on the Celt + A New Solution of the Problem--Organised Self-Help + English and Irish Industrial Qualities + Special Value of the Associative Qualities + Conclusion of Part I. + + * * * * * + +PART II. + +_PRACTICAL._ + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE NEW MOVEMENT; ITS FOUNDATION ON SELF-HELP. + + Distrust of Novel Schemes often well justified + The Story of the New Movement + Necessitated by Foreign Competition + Production and Distribution + Causes of Continental Superiority + Objects for which Combination is Desirable + How to Organise the Industrial Army + Help from England + Doubts and Difficulties + Some Favouring Conditions + The Beginning of the Work--Co-operative Creameries + The Social Problem + Early Efforts and Experiences + Foundation of the I.A.O.S. + Its Present Position + Agricultural Banks + The Brightening of Home Life + Staff of the Society + Philanthropy and Business + Enquiries from Abroad + Moral and Social Effects of the New Movement + Unknown Leaders + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE RECESS COMMITTEE. + + After Six Years + Opportunity for State-Aid + Combination of Political and Industrial Leadership + A Letter to the Press + Mr. Justin McCarthy's Reply + Mr. Redmond's Reply + Formation of the Committee + Investigations on the Continent + Recommendations of the Committee + Position of the Nationalist Members of the Committee + Chief Reliance on Local Effort + Public Opinion on the New Proposals + Adoption of the Bill to give effect to them + Mr. Gerald Balfour's Policy + Industrial Home Rule + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A NEW DEPARTURE IN IRISH ADMINISTRATION. + + Functions and Constitution of the New Department + How it is Financed + The Representative Element in its Constitution + The Right to Vote Supplies + Consultative Committee on Education + The Department Linked with the Local Government System + Successful Co-operation with Local Government Bodies + And with Voluntary Societies + The New Department and the Congested Districts Board + The Reception of the Department by the Country + Some Typical Callers + A Wrong Impression Anticipated + + +CHAPTER X. + +GOVERNMENT WITH THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED. + + Summary of Previous Chapter + The Attitude of the People towards the Department + Method of Co-operation with Local Bodies + State-Aid, Direct and Indirect + The Department and the Large Towns + The Department's Plans for Developing Agriculture + The Industrial Problem and Education + The Difficulty of Finding Trained Teachers + How Surmounted + Difficulties of Agricultural Education + Decision to Adopt Itinerant Instruction + Double Purpose of this Instruction + Relation of the Department with Secondary Schools + Importance of Domestic Economy Teaching + Provision of Teachers in Domestic Economy + Miscellaneous Industries + Competition of the Factory + The Department's Fabian Policy Justified + Its Support by the Country + Improvement of Live-Stock + Best Method of giving Object Lessons in Agriculture + Sea Fisheries + Continental Tours for Irish Teachers + Cork Exhibition of 1902 + Things and Ideas + Concluding Words + + +INDEX + + + + +PART I. + +_THEORETICAL_. + + + "It is hard to say where history ends, and where religion and + politics begin; for history, religion and politics grow on one stem + in Ireland, an eternal trefoil."--_Lady Gregory_. + + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE ENGLISH MISUNDERSTANDING. + + +Whatever may be the ultimate verdict of history upon the long struggle +of the majority of the Irish people for self-government, the picture of +a small country with large aspirations giving of its best unstintingly +to the world, while gaining for itself little beyond sympathy, will +appeal to the imagination of future ages long after the Irish Question, +as we know it, has been buried. It may then, perhaps, be seen that the +aspirations came to nought because they were opposed to the manifest +destiny of the race, and that it should never have been expected or +desired that the Dark Rosaleen should 'reign and reign alone.' +Nevertheless, the fidelity and fortitude with which the national ideal +had been pursued would command admiration, even if the ideal itself were +to be altogether abandoned, or if it were to be ultimately realised in a +manner which showed that the methods by which its attainment had been +sought were the cause of its long postponement. Whatever the future may +have in store for the remnant of the Irish people at home, the continued +pursuit of a separate national existence by a nation which is rapidly +disappearing from the land of all its hopes, and the cherishing of +these hopes, not only by those who stay but also by those who go, will +stand as a monument to human constancy. + +The picture will be all the more remarkable when emphasised by a +contrast which the historian will not fail to draw. Across a narrow +streak of sea another people, during the same period, increased and +multiplied and prospered mightily, spread their laws and institutions, +and achieved in every portion of the globe material success which they +can call their own. Yet, although Irishmen have done much to win that +success for the English people to enjoy, and are to-day foremost in +maintaining the great empire which their brain and muscle were ever +ready to augment, Ireland makes no claim for herself in respect of the +achievement. It is to her but a proof of what her sons will do for her +in the coming time; it does not bring her nearer to her heart's desire. + +Although the nineteenth century, with all its marvellous contributions +to human progress, left Ireland with her hopes unfulfilled; although its +sun went down upon the British people with their greatest failure still +staring them in the face, its last decade witnessed at first a change in +the attitude of England towards Ireland, and afterwards a profound +revolution in the thoughts of Ireland about herself. The strangest and +most interesting feature of these developments was that in practical +England the Irish Question became the great political issue, while in +sentimental Ireland there set in a reaction from politics and an +inclination to the practical. The twentieth century has already brought +to birth the new Ireland upon whose problems I shall write. If the human +interest of these problems is to be realized, if their significance is +not to be as wholly misunderstood as that of every other Irish movement +which has perplexed the statesmen who have managed our affairs, they +must be studied in their relation to the English and Irish events of the +period in which the new Ireland was conceived. + +In 1885 Gladstone, appealing to an electorate with a large accession of +newly enfranchised voters, transferred the struggle over the Irish +Question from Ireland to Great Britain. The position taken up by the +average English Home Ruler was, it will be remembered, simple and +intelligible. The Irish had stated in the proper constitutional way what +they wanted, and that, in the first flush of a victorious democracy, +when counting heads irrespective of contents was the popular method of +arriving at political truth, was assumed to be precisely what they ought +to have. A long but inconclusive contest ensued. At times it looked as +if the Liberal-Irish alliance might snatch a victory for their policy. +But when Gladstone was forced to break with the Irish Leader, and +Parnellism without Parnell became obviously impossible, the English +realised that the working of representative institutions in Ireland had +produced not a democracy but a dictatorship, and they began to attach a +lesser significance to the verdict of the Irish polls. Their faith in +democracy was unimpaired, but, in their opinion, the Irish had not yet +risen to its dignity. So most English Radicals came round to a view +which they had always reprobated when advanced by the English +Conservatives, and political inferiority was added to the other moral +and intellectual defects which made the Irish an inferior race! + +The anti-climax to the Gladstone crusade was reached when Lord Rosebery +in 1894 took over the premiership from the greatest English advocate of +the Irish cause. The position of the new leader was very simple. In +effect, he told the Irish Nationalists that the English party he was +about to lead had done its best for them. They must now regard +themselves as partners in the United Kingdom, with the British as the +predominant partner. Until the predominant partner could be brought to +take the Irish view of the partnership, the relations between them must +remain substantially as they were. And not only must the concession of +Home Rule await the conversion of the British electorate, but before the +demand could be effectively preferred, another leader must rise up among +the Irish; and he, for all Lord Rosebery knew, was at the moment being +wheeled in a perambulator. This apparently cynical avowal of the new +premier's own attitude towards Home Rule accurately stated the facts of +the situation, and fairly reflected the mind of the British electorate, +after Irish obstruction had given them an opportunity of studying the +bearing of the Irish Question on English politics. + +If the logic of events was thus making for the removal of Home Rule from +the region of practical politics in England, an even more momentous +change was taking place in Ireland. Whilst the Home Rule controversy was +at its height in the 'eighties and early 'nineties, some Irish +grievances were incidentally dealt with--not always under the best +impulses or in the best way. The concentration of all the available +thought and energy of Irish public men upon an appeal to the passions +and prejudices of English parties had led to the further postponement of +all Irish endeavour to deal rationally and practically with her own +problems at home. But during the welter of contention which prevailed +after the fall of Parnell, there grew up in Ireland a wholly new spirit, +born of the bitter lesson which was at last being learned. The Irish +still clung undaunted to their political ideal, but its pursuit to the +exclusion of all other national aims had received a wholesome check. +Thought upon the problems of national progress broadened and deepened, +in a manner little understood by those who knew Ireland from without, +and, indeed, by many of those accounted wise among the observers from +within. Was the realisation of a distinctive national existence, many +began to ask themselves, to be for ever dependent upon the fortunes of a +political campaign? In any scheme of a reconstructed national life to +which the Irish would give of their best, there must be +distinctiveness--that much every man who is in touch with Irish life is +fully aware of--but the question of existence must not be altogether +ignored. At the rate the people were leaving the sinking ship, the Irish +Question would be settled in the not distant future by the disappearance +of the Irish. Had we not better look around and see how other countries +with more or less analogous conditions fared? Could we not--Unionists +and Nationalists alike--do something towards material progress without +abandoning our ideals? Could we not learn something from a study of what +our people were doing abroad? One seemed to hear the voice of Bishop +Berkeley, the biting pertinence of whose _Queries_ is ever fresh, asking +from the grave in which he had been laid to rest nearly a century and a +half ago 'whether it would not be more reasonable to mend our state than +complain of it; and how far this may be in our own power?' + +These questionings, though not generally heard on the platform or even +in the street, were none the less working in the depths of the Irish +mind, and found expression not so much in words as in deeds. Yet though +the downfall of Parnell released many minds from the obsession of +politics, the influence of that event was of a negative character, and +it took time to produce a beneficial effect. That fruitful last decade +of the nineteenth century saw the foundation of what will some day be +recognised as a new philosophy of Irish progress. Certain new principles +were then promulgated in Ireland, and gradually found acceptance; and +upon those principles a new movement was built. It is partly, indeed, to +expound and justify some, at any rate, of the principles and to give an +intelligible account of the practical achievement and future +possibilities of this movement that I write these pages. + +For English readers, to whom this introductory chapter is chiefly +addressed, I may here reiterate the opinion, which I have always held +and often expressed, that there is no real conflict of interest between +the two peoples and the two countries, and that the mutual +misunderstanding which we may now hope to see removed is due to a wide +difference of temperament and mental outlook. The English mind has never +understood the Irish mind--least of all during the period of the 'Union +of Hearts.' It is equally true that the Irish have largely misunderstood +both the English character and their own responsibility. The result has +been that their leaders, despite the brilliant capacity they have shown +in presenting the unhappy case of their country to the rest of the +world, have rarely presented it in the right way to the English people. +There have been many occasions during the last quarter of a century when +a calm, well-reasoned statement of the economic disadvantages under +which Ireland labours would, I am convinced, have successfully appealed +to British public opinion. It could have been shown that the development +of Ireland--the development not only of the resources of her soil but of +the far greater wealth which lies in the latent capacities of her +people--was demanded quite as much in the interest of one country as in +that of the other. + +Here, indeed, is an untilled field for those to whom the Irish Question +is yet a living one. If I could think that each country fully realised +its own responsibility in the matter, if I could think that the +long-continued misunderstanding was at an end, nothing would induce me +to trouble the waters at this auspicious hour, when a better feeling +towards Ireland prevails in Great Britain, and when the Irish people are +fully appreciative of the obviously sincere desire of England to be +generous to Ireland. But an examination of the events upon which the +prevailing optimism is based will show that, unhappily, +misunderstanding, though of another sort, still exists, and that Ireland +is as much as ever a riddle to the English mind. + +Now this new optimism in the English view of Ireland seems to be based, +not upon a recognition of the development of what I have ventured to +dignify with the title of a new philosophy of Irish progress, but upon a +belief that the spirit of moderation and conciliation displayed by so +many Irishmen in connection with the Land Act is due to the fact that my +incomprehensible countrymen have, under a sudden emotion, put away +childish things and learned to behave like grown-up Englishmen. +Throughout the press comments upon the Dunraven Conference and in public +speeches both inside and outside Parliament there has run a sense that a +sort of portent, a transformation scene, a sudden and magical +alteration in the whole spirit and outlook of the Irish people, has come +to pass. + +I feel some hesitation in asking the reader to believe that a great and +lasting revolution in Irish thought has been brought about in such a +moment in the life of a people as twelve short years. But a lesser +number of months seemed to the English mind adequate for the +accomplishment of the change. And what a change it was that they +conceived! To them, less than a year ago, the Irish Question was not +merely unsolved, but in its essential features appeared unaltered. After +seven centuries of experimental statecraft--so varied that the English +could not believe any expedient had yet to be tried--the vast majority +of the Irish people regarded the Government as alien, disputed the +validity of its laws, and felt no responsibility for administration, no +respect for the legislature, or for those who executed its decrees. And +this in a country forming an integral part of the United Kingdom, where +the fundamental basis of government is assumed to be the consent of the +governed! Nor were any hopes entertained that the cloud would quickly +pass. During the Boer war the prophets of evil, in predicting the +calamity which was to fall upon the British Empire, took as their text +the failure of English government in Ireland. When they wanted to paint +in the darkest colours the coming heritage of woe, they wrote upon the +wall, 'Another Ireland in South Africa'; and if any exception was taken +to the appropriateness of the phrase, it was certainly not on the +ground that Ireland had ceased to be a warning to British statesmen. + +I believe, quite as strongly as the most optimistic Englishman, that +there has been a great change from this state of things in Irish +sentiment, and my explanation of that change, if less dramatic than the +transformation theory, affords more solid ground for optimism. This +change in the sentiment of Irishmen towards England is due, not to a +sudden emotion of the incomprehensible Celt, but really to the +opinion--rapidly growing for the last dozen years--that great as is the +responsibility of England for the state of Ireland, still greater is the +responsibility of Irishmen. The conviction has been more and more borne +in upon the Irish mind that the most important part of the work of +regenerating Ireland must necessarily be done by Irishmen in Ireland. +The result has been that many Irishmen, both Unionists and Nationalists, +without in any way abandoning their opposition to, or support of, the +attempt to solve the political problem from without, have been +trying--not without success--to solve some part of the Irish Question +from within. The Report of the Recess Committee, on which I shall dwell +later, was the first great fruit of this movement, and the Dunraven +Treaty, which paved the way for Mr. Wyndham's Land Act, was a further +fruit, and not the result of an inexplicable transformation scene. + +The reason why I dwell on the true nature of the undoubted change in +the Irish situation is not in order to exaggerate the importance of the +part played by the new movement in bringing it about, nor to detract +from the importance of Parliamentary action, but because a mistaken view +of the change would inevitably postpone the firm establishment of an +improved mutual understanding between the two countries, which I regard +as an essential of Irish progress. I confess that my apprehension of a +new misunderstanding was aroused by the debates on the Land Bill in the +House of Commons. As regards the spirit of conciliation and moderation +displayed by the Irish, and the sincere desire exhibited by the British +to heal the chief Irish economic sore, the speeches were, if not +epoch-making, at any rate epoch-marking; but they showed little sense of +perspective or proportion in viewing the Irish Question, and little +grasp or appreciation of the large social and economic problems which +the Land Act will bring to the front. Temporary phenomena and +legislative machinery have been endowed with an importance they do not +possess, and miracles, it is supposed, are about to be worked in Ireland +by processes which, whatever rich good may be in them, have never worked +miracles, though they have not seldom excited very similar enthusiasms +in the economic history of other European lands. + +I agree, then, with most Englishmen in thinking, though for a different +reason, that the passing of the Land Act marked a new era in Ireland. +They regard it as productive of, or co-incident in time with, the dawn +of the practical in Ireland. I antedate that event by some dozen years, +and regard the Land Act rather as marking a new era, because it removes +the great obstacle which obscured the dawn of the practical for so many, +and hindered it for all. + +Whatever may have been the expectations upon which this great measure +was based, I, in common with most Irish observers, watched its progress +with unfeigned delight. The vast majority regarded the hundred millions +of credit and the twelve millions of 'bonus' as a generous concession to +Ireland; and I sympathised with those who deprecated the mischievous +suggestion, not infrequently heard in English political circles, that +this munificence was the 'price of peace.' On one point all were agreed: +the Bill could never have become law had not Mr. Wyndham handled the +Parliamentary situation with masterly tact, temper, and ability. To him +is chiefly due the credit for the fact that the Land Question, in its +old form at any rate, no longer blocks the way, and that the large +problems which remain to be solved, and, above all, the spirit in which +they will have to be approached by those who wish the existing peace to +be the forerunner of material and social progress, can be freely and +frankly discussed. + +It is true, as I have said, that Ireland is becoming more and more +practical, and that England is becoming more anxious than ever to do her +substantial justice. But still the manner of the doing will continue to +be as important as the thing which is done. Of the Irish qualities none +is stronger than the craving to be understood. If the English had only +known this secret we should have been the most easily governed people in +the world. For it is characteristic of the conduct of our most important +affairs that we care too little about the substance and too much about +the shadow. It is for this reason that I have discussed the real nature +of one phase of Irish sentiment which has been largely misunderstood, +and it is for the same reason that I propose to preface my examination +of the Irish Question with some reference to the cause and nature of the +anti-English sentiment, for the long continuance of which I can find no +other explanation than the failure of the English to see into the Irish +mind. + +I am well acquainted with this sentiment because, in my practical work +in Ireland, it has ever been the main current of the stream against +which I have had to swim. Years spent in the United States had made me +familiar with its full and true significance, for there it can be +studied in an atmosphere not dominated by any present Irish +controversies or struggles. I have found this sentiment of hatred deeply +rooted in the minds of Irishmen who had themselves never known Ireland, +who had no connection, other than a sentimental one, with that country, +who were living quiet business lives in the United States, but who were +ever ready to testify with their dollars, and genuinely believed that +they only lacked opportunity to demonstrate in a more enterprising way, +their "undying hatred of the English name."[1] + +With such men I have reasoned, and sometimes not in vain, upon the +injustice and unreason of their attitude. I have not attempted to +controvert the main facts of Ireland's grievances, which they frequently +told me they had gleaned from Froude and Lecky. I used to deprecate the +unqualified application of modern standards to the policies of other +days, and to protest against the injustice of punishing one set of +persons for the misdoings of another set of persons, who have long since +passed beyond the reach of any earthly tribunal. I have given them my +reasons for believing that, even if such a course were morally +admissible, the wit of man could not devise any means of inflicting a +blow upon England which would not react injuriously with tenfold force +upon Ireland. I have gone on to show that the sentiment itself, largely +the accident of untoward circumstances, is alien to the character and +temperament of the Irish people. In short, I have urged that the policy +of revenge is un-Christian and unintelligent, and, that, as the Irish +people are neither irreligious nor stupid, it is un-Irish. I well +remember taking up this position in conversation with some very advanced +Irish-Americans in the Far West and the reply which one of them made. +"Wal," said my half-persuaded friend, "mebbe you're right. I have two +sons, whom I have raised in the expectation that they will one day +strike a blow for old Ireland. Mebbe they won't. I'm too old to change." + +I have chosen this incident from a long series of similar reminiscences +of my study of Irish life, to illustrate an attitude of mind, the +historical explanation of which would seem to the practical Englishman +as academic as a psychological exposition of the effect of a red rag +upon a bull. The English are not much to be blamed for resenting the +survival of the feeling, but it appears to me to argue a singular lack +of political imagination that they should still fail to appreciate the +reality, the significance, and the abiding force of a sentiment which +has so far successfully resisted the influence of those governing +qualities which have played a foremost part in the civilisation of the +modern world. The _Spectator_ some time ago came out bluntly with a +truth which an Irishman may, I presume, quote without offence from so +high an English authority:--"The one blunder of average Englishmen in +considering foreign questions is that with white men they make too +little allowance for sentiment, and with coloured men they make none at +all."[2] I am afraid it must be added that 'average Englishmen' make +exactly the same blunder in under-estimating the force of sentiment when +considering Irish questions, with the not unnatural consequence that +the Irish regard them as foreigners, and that, as those foreigners +happen to govern them, the sentiment of nationality becomes political +and anti-English. + +There is one reason why this sentiment is not allowed to die which +should always be remembered by those who wish to grasp the inner +workings of the Irish mind. Briefly stated, the view prevails in Ireland +that in dealing with questions affecting our material well-being, the +government of our country by the English was, in the past, characterised +by an unenlightened self-interest. Thoughtful Englishmen admit this +charge, but they say that the past referred to is beyond living memory +and should now be buried. The Irish mind replies that the life of a +nation is not to be measured by the life of individuals, and that a +wrong inflicted by a Government upon a community entitles those who +inherit the consequences of the injury to claim reparation at the hands +of those who inherit the government. With this attitude on the part of +the Irish mind I am not only most heartily in sympathy, but I find every +Englishman who understands the situation equally so. In the later +portions of this book it will be shown that practical recognition, in no +small measure, has been given by England to the righteousness of this +part of the Irish case, and that if the effect thus produced has not +found as full an outward expression as might have been expected, the +Irish people have at any rate responded to the new treatment in a manner +which must, in no distant future, bring about a better understanding. + +The only historical causes of our present discontents to which I need +now particularly refer, are the commercial restrictions and the land +system of the past, which stand out from the long list of Irish +grievances as those for which their victims were the least responsible. +No one can be more anxious than I am that we should cease to be for ever +seeking in the past excuses for our present failures. But it is +essential to a correct estimation of Irish agricultural and industrial +possibilities that we should notice the true bearings of these +historical grievances upon existing conditions. + +In this connection there arises a question which is very pertinent to +the present inquiry and which must therefore be considered. I have seen +it argued by English economists that the industrial revolution which +took place at the end of the eighteenth and commencement of the +nineteenth century would in any case have destroyed, by force of open +competition, industries which, it is admitted, were previously +legislated away. They point out that the change from the order of small +scattered home industries to the factory system would have suited +neither the temperament nor the industrial habits of the Irish. They +tell us that with the industrial revolution the juxtaposition of coal +and iron became an all-important factor in the problem, and they recall +how the north and west of England captured the industrial supremacy from +the south and east. Incidentally they point out that the people of the +English counties which suffered by these economic causes braced +themselves to meet the changes, and it is suggested that if the people +of Ireland had shown the same resourcefulness, they, too, might have +weathered the storm. And, finally, we are reminded that England, by her +stupid Irish policy, punished her own supporters, and even herself, +quite as much as the 'mere Irish.' + +Much of this may be true, but this line of argument only shows that +these English economists do not thoroughly understand the real grievance +which the Irish people still harbour against the English for past +misgovernment. The commercial restraints sapped the industrial instinct +of the people--an evil which was intensified in the case of the +Catholics by the working of the penal laws. When these legislative +restrictions upon industry had been removed, the Irish, not being +trained in industrial habits, were unable to adapt themselves to the +altered conditions produced by the Industrial Revolution, as did the +people in England. And as for commerce, the restrictions, which had as +little moral sanction as the penal laws, and which invested smuggling +with a halo of patriotism, had prevented the development of commercial +morality, without which there can be no commercial success. It is not, +therefore, the destruction of specific industries, or even the sweeping +of our commerce from the seas, about which most complaint is now made. +The real grievance lies in the fact that something had been taken from +our industrial character which could not be remedied by the mere removal +of the restrictions. Not only had the tree been stripped, but the roots +had been destroyed. If ever there was a case where President Kruger's +'moral and intellectual damages' might fairly be claimed by an injured +nation, it is to be found in the industrial and commercial history of +Ireland during the period of the building up of England's commercial +supremacy. + +The English mind quite failed, until the very end of the nineteenth +century, to grasp the real needs of the situation which had thus been +created in Ireland The industrial revolution, as I have indicated, found +the Irish people fettered by an industrial past for which they +themselves were not chiefly responsible. They needed exceptional +treatment of a kind which was not conceded. They were, instead, still +further handicapped, towards the middle of the century, by the adoption +of Free Trade, which was imposed upon them when they were not only +unable to take advantage of its benefits, but were so situated as to +suffer to the utmost from its inconveniences. + +I am convinced that the long-continued misunderstanding of the +conditions and needs of this country, the withholding, for so long, of +necessary concessions, was due not to heartlessness or contempt so much +as to a lack of imagination, a defect for which the English cannot be +blamed. They had, to use a modern term, 'standardised' their qualities, +and it was impossible to get out of their minds the belief that a +divergence, in another race, from their standard of character was +synonymous with inferiority. This attitude is not yet a thing of the +past, but it is fast disappearing; and thoughtful Englishmen now +recognise the righteousness of the claim for reparation, and are willing +liberally to apply any stimulus to our industrial life which may place +us, so far as this is possible, on the level we might have occupied had +we been left to work out our own economic salvation. Unfortunately, all +Englishmen are not thoughtful, and hence I emphasise the fact that +England is largely responsible for our industrial defects, and must not +hesitate to face the financial results of that responsibility. + +When we pass from the domain of commerce, where we have seen that +circumstances reduced to the minimum Ireland's participation in the +industrial supremacy of England, and come to examine the historical +development of Irish agrarian life, we find a situation closely related +to, and indeed, largely created by, that which we have been discussing. +'Debarred from every other trade and industry,' wrote the late Lord +Dufferin, 'the entire nation flung itself back upon the land, with as +fatal an impulse as when a river, whose current is suddenly impeded, +rolls back and drowns the valley which it once fertilised.' The +energies, the hopes, nay, the very existence of the race, became thus +intimately bound up with agriculture. This industry, their last resort +and sole dependence, had to be conducted by a people who in every other +avocation had been unfitted for material success. And this industry, +too, was crippled from without, for a system of land tenure had been +imposed upon Ireland that was probably the most effective that could +have been devised for the purpose of perpetuating and accentuating every +disability to which other causes had given rise. + +The Irish land system suffered from the same ills as we all know the +political institutions to have suffered from--a partial and intermittent +conquest. Land holding in Ireland remained largely based on the tribal +system of open fields and common tillage for nearly eight hundred years +after collective ownership had begun to pass away in England. The sudden +imposition upon the Irish, early in the seventeenth century, of a land +system which was no part of the natural development of the country, +ignored, though it could not destroy, the old feeling of communistic +ownership, and, when this vanished, it did not vanish as it did in +countries where more normal conditions prevailed. It did not perish like +a piece of outworn tissue pushed off by a new growth from within: on the +contrary, it was arbitrarily cut away while yet fresh and vital, with +the result that where a bud should have been there was a scar. + +This sudden change in the system of land-holding was followed by a +century of reprisals and confiscations, and what war began the law +continued. The Celtic race, for the most part impoverished in mind and +estate by the penal laws, became rooted to the soil, for, as we have +seen, they had, on account of the repression of industries, no +alternative occupation, and so became, in fact, if not in law, +_adscripti glebae_. Upon the productiveness of their labour the +landlord depended for his revenues, but he did little to develop that +productiveness, and the system which was introduced did everything to +lessen it.[3] The wound produced by the original confiscation of the +land was kept from healing by the way in which the tenants' improvements +were somewhat similarly treated. I do not mean that they were +systematically confiscated--the Devon and Bessborough Commissions, as +well as Gladstone, bore witness to the contrary--but the right and the +occasional exercise of the right to confiscate operated in the same way. +In the Irish tenant's mind dispossession was nine-tenths of the law. + +An enlightened system of land tenure might have made prosperity and +contentment the lot of the native race, and, perhaps, have rendered +possible such a solution of the Irish problem as was effected between +England and Scotland two centuries ago. What was chiefly required for +agrarian peace was a recognition of that sense of partnership in the +land--a relic of the tribal days--to which the Irish mind tenaciously +adhered. But, like most English concessions, it was not granted until +too late, and then granted in the wrong way. The natural result was +that, when at last the recognition of partnership was enacted, it became +a lever for a demand for complete ownership. But this was the aftermath, +for in the meantime, from the seed sown by English blundering, +Ireland--native population and English garrison alike--had reaped the +awful harvest of the Irish famine, which was followed by a long dark +winter of discontent. Upon the England that sowed the wind there was +visited a whirlwind of hostility from the Irish race scattered +throughout the globe. + +It would be altogether outside the scope or purpose of this chapter to +present a complete history of the remedial legislation applied to Irish +land tenure. That history, however, illustrates so vividly the English +misunderstanding, that a short survey of one phase of it may help to +point the moral. The English intellect at long last began to grasp the +agrarian, though not the industrial side of the wrong that had been done +to Ireland, and the English conscience was moved; there came the era of +concessions to which I have alluded, and for over a quarter of a century +attempts, often generous, if not very discriminating, were made to deal +with the situation. In 1870, dispossession was made very costly to the +landlord. In 1881, it became impossible, except on the tenant's default, +and the partnership was fully recognised, the tenant's share being made +his own to sell, and being preserved for his profitable use by a right +to have the rent payable to his sleeping partner, the landlord, fixed by +a judicial tribunal. These rights were the famous three F's--fixity of +tenure, free sale, and fair rent--of the Magna Charta of the Irish +peasant. If these concessions had only been made in time, they would +probably have led to a strengthening of the economic position and +character of the Irish tenantry, which would have enabled them to take +full advantage of their new status, and meet any condition which might +arise; and it is just possible that the system might have worked well, +even at the eleventh hour, had it been launched on a rising market. +Unhappily, it fell upon evil days. The prosperous times of Irish +agriculture, which culminated a few years before the passing of the +'Tenants' Charter,' were followed by a serious reaction, the result of +causes which, though long operative, were only then beginning to make +themselves felt, and some of which, though the fact was not then +generally recognised, were destined to be of no temporary character. The +agricultural depression which has continued ever since was due, as is +now well known, to foreign competition, or, in other words, to the +opening up of vast areas in the Far West to the plough and herd, and the +bringing of the products of distant countries into the home markets in +ever-increasing quantity, in ever fresher condition, and at an +ever-decreasing cost of transportation. Great changes were taking place +in the market which the Irish farmer supplied, and no two men could +agree as to the relative influence of the new factors of the problem, or +as to their probable duration. + +Whatever may be said in disparagement of the great experiment commenced +in 1881, there can be no doubt that it enormously improved the legal +position of the Irish tenantry, and I, for one, regard it as a +necessary contribution to the events whose logic was finally to bring +about the abolition of dual ownership. But what a curious instance of +the irony of fate is afforded by this genuine attempt to heal an Irish +sore, what a commentary it is upon the English misunderstanding of the +Irish mind! Mr. Gladstone found the land system intolerable to one +party; he made it intolerable to the other also. For half a century +_laissez-faire_ was pedantically applied to Irish agriculture, then +suddenly the other extreme was adopted; nothing was left alone, and +political economy was sent on its famous planetary excursion. + +When Mr. Gladstone was attempting to settle the land question on the +basis of dual ownership, the seed of a new kind of single +ownership--peasant proprietorship--was sown through the influence of +John Bright. The operations of the land purchase clauses in the Church +Disestablishment Act of 1869, and the Land Acts of 1870 and 1881, were +enormously extended by the Land Purchase Acts introduced by the +Conservative Party in 1885 and in 1891, and the success which attended +these Acts accentuated the defects and sealed the fate of dual +ownership, which all parties recently united to destroy. In other words, +Parliament has been undoing a generation's legislative work upon the +Irish land question. + +This is all I need say about that stage of the Irish agrarian situation +at which we have now arrived. What I wish my readers to bear in mind is +that the effect of a bad system of land tenure upon the other aspects of +the Irish Question reaches much further back than the struggles, +agitations, and reforms in connection with Irish land which this +generation has witnessed. The same may be said with regard to the other +economic grievances. No one can be more anxious than I am to fasten the +mind of my countrymen upon the practical things of to-day, and to wean +their sad souls from idle regrets over the sorrows of the past. If I +revive these dead issues, it is because I have learned that no man can +move the Irish mind to action unless he can see its point of view, which +is largely retrospective. I cannot ignore the fact that the attitude of +mind which causes the Irish people to put too much faith in legislative +cures for economic ills is mainly due to the belief that their ancestors +were the victims of a long series of laws by which every industry that +might have made the country prosperous was jealously repressed or +ruthlessly destroyed. Those who are not too much appalled by the +quantity to examine into the quality of popular oratory in Ireland are +familiar with the subordination of present economic issues to the dreary +reiteration of this old tale of woe. Personally I have always held that +to foster resentment in respect of these old wrongs is as stupid as was +the policy which gave them birth; and, even if it were possible to +distribute the blame among our ancestors, I am sure we should do +ourselves much harm, and no living soul any good, in the reckoning. In +my view, Anglo-Irish history is for Englishmen to remember, for Irishmen +to forget. + +I may now conclude my appeal to outside observers for a broader and more +philosophic view of my country and my countrymen with a suggestion born +of my own early mistakes, and with a word of warning which is called for +by my later observation of the mistakes of others. The difficulty of the +outside observer in understanding the Irish Question is, no doubt, +largely due to the fact that those in intimate touch with the actual +conditions are so dominated by vehement and passionate conviction that +reason is not only at a discount but is fatal to the acquisition of +popular influence. Of course the power of knowledge and thought, though +kept in the background, is not really eliminated. But it is in the +circumstances not unnatural that most of us should fall into the error +of attributing to the influence of prominent individuals or +organisations the events and conditions which the superficial observer +regards as the creation of the hour, but which are in reality the +outcome of a slow and continuous process of evolution. I remember as a +boy being captivated by that charming corrective to this view of +historical development, Buckle's _History of Civilization_, which in +recent years has often recurred to my mind, despite the fact that many +of his theories are now somewhat discredited. Buckle, if I remember +right, almost eliminates the personal factor in the life of nations. +According to his theory, it would not have made much difference to +modern civilisation if Napoleon had happened, as was so near being the +case, to be born a British instead of a French subject. It would also +have followed that if O'Connell had limited his activities to his +professional work, or if Parnell had chanced to hate Ireland as bitterly +as he hated England, we should have been, politically, very much where +we are to-day. The student of Irish affairs should, of course, avoid the +extreme views of historical causation; but in the search for the truth +he will, I think, be well advised to attach less significance to the +influence of prominent personality than is the practice of the ordinary +observer in Ireland. + +The warning I have to offer, I think, will be justified by a reflection +upon the history of the panaceas which we have been offered, and upon +our present state. To those of my British readers who honestly desire to +understand the Irish Question, I would say, let them eschew the sweeping +generalisations by which Irish intelligence is commonly outraged. I may +pass by the explanation which rests upon the cheap attribution of racial +inferiority with the simple reply that our inferior race has much of the +superior blood in its veins; yet the Irish problem is just as acute in +districts where the English blood predominates as where the people are +'mere Irish.' If this view be disputed, the matter is not worth arguing +about, because we cannot be born again. But there are three other common +explanations of the Irish difficulty, any one of which taken by itself +only leads away from the truth. I refer, I need hardly say, to the +familiar assertions that the origin of the evil is political, that it is +religious, or that it is neither one nor the other, but economic. In +Irish history, no doubt, we may find, under any of these heads, cause +enough for much of our present wrong-goings. But I am profoundly +convinced that each of the simple explanations to which I have just +alluded--the racial, the political, the religious, the economic--is +based upon reasoning from imperfect knowledge of the facts of Irish +life. The cause and cure of Irish ills are not chiefly political, +broaden or narrow our conception of politics as we will; they are not +chiefly religious, whatever be the effect of Roman Catholic influence +upon the practical side of the people's life; they are not chiefly +economic, be the actual poverty of the people and the potential wealth +of the country what they may. The Irish Question is a broad and deeply +interesting human problem which has baffled generation after generation +of a great and virile race, who complacently attribute their incapacity +to master it to Irish perversity, and pass on, leaving it unsolved by +Anglo-Saxons, and therefore insoluble! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] My own experience confirms Mr. Lecky's view of the chief cause of +this extraordinary feeling. "It is probable," he writes, "that the true +source of the savage hatred of England that animates great bodies of +Irishmen on either side of the Atlantic has very little real connection +with the penal laws, or the rebellion, or the Union. It is far more due +to the great clearances and the vast unaided emigrations that followed +the famine."--_Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland_, Vol. II., p, 177. + +[2] _Spectator_, 6th September, 1902. + +[3] The title to the greater part of Irish land is based on +confiscation. This is true of many other countries, but what was +exceptional in the Irish confiscations was that the grantees for the +most part did not settle on the lands themselves, drive away the +dispossessed, or come to any rational working agreement with them. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE IRISH QUESTION IN IRELAND. + + +Whilst attributing the long continued failure of English rule in Ireland +largely to a misunderstanding of the Irish mind, I have given +England--at least modern England--credit for good intentions towards us. +I now come to the case of the misunderstood, and shall from henceforth +be concerned with the immeasurably greater responsibility of the Irish +people themselves for their own welfare. The most characteristic, and by +far the most hopeful feature of the change in the Anglo-Irish situation +which took place in the last decade of the nineteenth century, and upon +the meaning of which I dwelt in the preceding chapter, is the growing +sense amongst us that the English misunderstanding of Ireland is of far +less importance, and perhaps less inexcusable, than our own +misunderstanding of ourselves. + +When I first came into practical touch with the extraordinarily complex +problems of Irish life, nothing impressed me so much as the universal +belief among my countrymen that Providence had endowed them with +capacities of a high order, and their country with resources of +unbounded richness, but that both the capacities and the resources +remained undeveloped owing to the stupidity--or worse--of British rule. +It was asserted, and generally taken for granted, that the exiles of +Erin sprang to the front in every walk of life throughout the world, in +every country but their own--though I notice that in quite recent times +endeavours have been made to cool the emigration fever by painting the +fortunes of the Irish in America in the darkest colours. To suggest that +there was any use in trying at home to make the best of things as they +were was indicative of a leaning towards British rule; and to attempt to +give practical effect to such a heresy was to draw a red herring across +the path of true Nationalism. + +It is not easy to account for the long continuance of this attitude of +the Irish mind towards Irish problems, which seems unworthy of the +native intelligence of the people. The truth probably is that while we +have not allowed our intellectual gifts to decay, they have been of +little use to us because we have neglected the second part of the old +Scholastic rule of life, and have failed to develop the moral qualities +in which we are deficient. Hence we have developed our critical +faculties, not, unhappily, along constructive lines. We have been +throughout alive to the muddling of our affairs by the English, and have +accurately gauged the incapacity of our governors to appreciate our +needs and possibilities. But we recognised their incapacity more readily +than our own deficiencies, and we estimated the failure of the English +far more justly than we apportioned the responsibility between our +rulers and ourselves. The sense of the duty and dignity of labour has +been lost in the contemplation of circumstances over which it was +assumed that we have no control. + +It is a peculiarity of destructive criticism that, unlike charity, it +generally begins and ends abroad; and those who cultivate the gentle art +are seldom given to morbid introspection. Our prodigious ignorance about +ourselves has not been blissful. Mistaking self-assertion for +self-knowledge, we have presented the pathetic spectacle of a people +casting the blame for their shortcomings on another people, yet bearing +the consequences themselves. The national habit of living in the past +seems to give us a present without achievement, a future without hope. +The conclusion was long ago forced upon me that whatever may have been +true of the past, the chief responsibility for the remoulding of our +national life rests now with ourselves, and that in the last analysis +the problem of Irish ineffectiveness at home is in the main a problem of +character--and of Irish character. + +I am quite aware that such a diagnosis of our mind disease--from which +Ireland is, in my belief, slowly but surely recovering--will not pass +unchallenged, but I would ask any reader who dissents from this view to +take a glance at the picture of our national life as it might unfold +itself to an unprejudiced but sympathetic outsider who came to Ireland +not on a political tour but with a sincere desire to get at the truth of +the Irish Question, and to inquire into the conditions about which all +the controversy continues to rage. + +This hypothetical traveller would discover that our resources are but +half developed, and yet hundreds of thousands of our workers have gone, +and are still going, to produce wealth where it is less urgently needed. +The remnant of the race who still cling to the old country are not only +numerically weak, but in many other ways they show the physical and +moral effects of the drain which emigration has made on the youth, +strength, and energy of the community. Our four and a quarter millions +of people, mainly agricultural, have, speaking generally, a very low +standard of comfort, which they like to attribute to some five or six +millions sterling paid as agricultural rent, and three millions of +alleged over-taxation. They face the situation bravely--and, +incidentally, swell the over-taxation--with the help of the thirteen or +fourteen millions worth of alcoholic stimulants which they annually +consume. The still larger consumption in Great Britain may seem to lend +at least a respectability to this apparent over-indulgence, but it looks +odd. The people are endowed with intellectual capacities of a high +order. They have literary gifts and an artistic sense. Yet, with a few +brilliant exceptions, they contribute nothing to invention and create +nothing in literature or in art. One would say that there must be +something wrong with the education of the country; and most people +declare that it is too literary, though the Census returns show that +there are still large numbers who escape the tyranny of books. The +people have an extraordinary belief in political remedies for economic +ills; and their political leaders, who are not as a rule themselves +actively engaged in business life, tell the people, pointing to ruined +mills and unused water power, that the country once had diversified +industries, and that if they were allowed to apply their panacea, +Ireland would quickly rebuild her industrial life. If our hypothetical +traveller were to ask whether there are no other leaders in the country +besides the eloquent gentlemen who proclaim her helplessness, he would +be told that among the professional classes, the landlords, and the +captains of industry, are to be found as competent popular advisers as +are possessed by any other country of similar economic standing. But +these men take only a dilettante part in politics, and no value is set +on industrial, commercial or professional success in the choice of +public men. Can it be that to the Irish mind politics are, what Bulwer +Lytton declared love to be, "the business of the idle, and the idleness +of the busy"? + +These, though only a few of the strange ironies of Irish life, are so +paradoxical and so anomalous that they are not unnaturally attributed to +the intrusion of an alien and unfriendly power; and this furnishes the +reason why everything which goes wrong is used to nourish the +anti-English sentiment. At the same time they give emphasis to the +growing doubt as to the wisdom of those to whom the Irish Question +presents itself only as a single and simple issue--namely, whether the +laws which are to put all these things right shall be made at St. +Stephen's by the collective wisdom of the United Kingdom, aided by the +voice of Ireland--which is adequately represented--or whether these laws +shall be made by Irishmen alone in a Parliament in College Green. + +It is obviously necessary that, in presenting a comprehensive scheme for +dealing with the conditions I have roughly indicated. I should make some +reference to the attitude towards Home Rule of both the Nationalists and +the Unionists who have joined in work which, whatever be its +irregularity from the standpoint of party discipline as enforced in +Ireland, has succeeded in some degree in directing the energies of our +countrymen to the development of the resources of our country. Many of +my fellow-workers were Nationalists who, while stoutly adhering to the +prime necessity for constitutional changes, took the broad view, which +was unpopular among the Irish Party, that much could be done, even under +present conditions, to build up our national life on its social, +intellectual, and economic sides. The well-known constitutional changes +which were advocated in the political party to which they belonged would +then, they believed, be more effectively demanded by Ireland, and more +readily conceded by England. Unionists who worked with me were similarly +affected by the changing mental outlook of the country. They, too, had +to break loose from the traditions of an Irish party, for they felt that +the exclusively political opposition to Home Rule was not less +demoralising than the exclusively political pursuit of Home Rule. Just +as the Nationalists who joined the movement believed that all progress +must make for self-government, so my Unionist fellow-workers believed +it would ultimately strengthen the Union. Each view was thoroughly sound +from the standpoint of those who held it, and could be regarded with +respect by those who did not. We were all convinced that the way to +achieve what is best for Ireland was to develop what is best in +Irishmen. And it was the conviction that this can be done by Irishmen in +Ireland that brought together those whose thought and work supplies +whatever there may be of interest in this book. + +If I have fairly stated the attitude towards each other of the workers +to whose coming together must be attributed as much of the change in the +Irish situation as is due to Irish initiation, it will be seen that what +had so long kept them apart in public affairs, outside politics, was a +difference of opinion, not so much as to the conditions to be dealt +with, nor, indeed, as to the end to be sought, but rather as to the +means most effective for the attainment of that end. I naturally regard +the view which I am putting forward as being broader than that which has +hitherto prevailed. Some Nationalists may, however, contend that it is +essential to progress that the thoughts and energies of the nation +should be focussed upon a single movement, and not dissipated in the +pursuit of a multiplicity of ideals. I quite admit the importance of +concentration. But I strongly hold that any movement which is closely +related to the main currents of the people's life and subservient to +their urgent economic necessities, and which gives free play to the +intellectual qualities, while strengthening the moral or industrial +character, cannot be held to conflict with any national programme of +work, without raising a strong presumption that there is something wrong +with the programme. The exclusively political remedy I shall discuss in +the next chapter, but here I propose to consider some of the problems +which the new movement seeks to solve without waiting for the political +millenium. + +It is a commonplace that there are two Irelands, differing in race, in +creed, in political aspiration, and in what I regard as a more potent +factor than all the others put together--economic interest and +industrial pursuit. In the mutual misunderstanding of these two +Irelands, still more than in the misunderstanding of Ireland by England, +is to be found the chief cause of the still unsettled state of the Irish +Question. I shall not seek to apportion the blame between the two +sections of the population; but as the mists clear away and we can begin +to construct a united and contented Ireland, it is not only legitimate, +but helpful in the extreme, to assign to the two sections of our +wealth-producers their respective parts in repairing the fortunes of +their country. In such a discussion of future developments chief +prominence must necessarily be given to the problems affecting the life +of the majority of the people, who depend directly on the land, and +conduct the industry which produces by far the greater portion of the +wealth of the country. It is, of course, essential to the prosperity of +the whole community that the North should pursue and further develop +its own industrial and commercial life. That section of the community +has also, no doubt, economic and educational problems to face, but these +are much the same problems as those of industrial communities in other +parts of the United Kingdom[4]; and if they do not receive, vitally +important as is their solution to the welfare of Ireland, any large +share of attention in this book, it is because they are no part of what +is ordinarily understood by the Irish Question. + +Nevertheless, the interest of the manufacturing population of Ulster in +the welfare of the Roman Catholic agricultural majority is not merely +that of an onlooker, nor even that of the other parts of the United +Kingdom, but something more. It is obvious that the internal trade of +the country depends mainly upon the demand of the rural population for +the output of the manufacturing towns, and that this demand must depend +on the volume of agricultural production. I think the importance of +developing the home market has not been sufficiently appreciated, even +by Belfast. The best contribution the Ulster Protestant population can +make to the solution of this question is to do what they can to bring +about cordial co-operation between the two great sections of the +wealth-producers of Ireland. They should, I would suggest, learn to take +a broader and more patriotic view of the problems of the Roman Catholic +and agricultural majority, upon the true nature of which I hope to be +able to throw some new light. My purpose will be doubly served if I +have, to some extent, brought home to the minds of my Northern friends +that there is in Ireland an unsettled question in which they are largely +concerned, a rightly unsatisfied people by helping whom they can best +help themselves. + +The Irish Question is, then, in that aspect which must be to Irishmen of +paramount importance, the problem of a national existence, chiefly an +agricultural existence, in Ireland. To outside observers it is the +question of rural life, a question which is assuming a social and +economic importance and interest of the most intense character, not only +for Ireland North and South, but for almost the whole civilised world. +It is becoming increasingly difficult in many parts of the world to keep +the people on the land, owing to the enormously improved industrial +opportunities and enhanced social and intellectual advantages of urban +life. The problem can be better examined in Ireland than elsewhere, for +with us it can, to a large extent, be isolated, since we have little +highly developed town life. Our rural exodus takes our people, for the +most part, not into Irish or even into British towns, but into those of +the United States. What is migration in other countries is emigration +with us, and the mind of the country, brooding over the dreary +statistics of this perennial drain, naturally and longingly turns to +schemes for the rehabilitation of rural life--the only life it knows. + +We cannot exercise much direct influence upon the desire to emigrate +beyond spreading knowledge as to the real conditions of life in America, +for which home life in Ireland is often ignorantly bartered.[5] We +cannot isolate the phenomenon of emigration and find a cure for it apart +from the rest of the Irish Question. We must recognise that emigration +is but the chief symptom of a low national vitality, and that the first +result of our efforts to stay the tide may increase the outflow. We +cannot fit the people to stay without fitting them to go. Before we can +keep the people at home we have got to construct a national life with, +in the first place, a secure basis of physical comfort and decency. This +life must have a character, a dignity, an outlook of its own. A +comfortable Boeotia will never develop into a real Hibernia Pacata. The +standard of living may in some ways be lower than the English standard: +in some ways it may be higher. But even if statesmanship and all the +forces of philanthropy and patriotism combined can construct a contented +rural Ireland for the people, it can only be maintained by the people. +It will have to accord with the national sentiment and be distinctively +Irish. It is this national aspiration, and the remarkable promise of the +movements making for its fruition, which give to the work of Irish +social and economic reform the fascination which those who do not know +the Ireland of to-day cannot understand. This work of reform must, of +course, be primarily economic, but economic remedies cannot be applied +to Irish ills without the spiritual aids which are required to move to +action the latent forces of Irish reason and emotion. + + * * * * * + +The task which we have to face is, then, a two-sided one, but its +economic and its purely practical aspects first demand consideration. +Many even of the agrarian aspects of the question have, so far, been +somewhat neglected in Ireland owing to a cause which is not far to seek. +It has often been asserted that the Irish Question is, at bottom, the +Land Question. There is a great deal of truth in this view, but almost +all those who hold it have fallen into the grave error of tacitly +identifying the land question with the tenure question--an error which +vitiates a great deal of current theorising about Ireland. It was, +indeed, inevitable that Irish agriculturists, with such an economic +history behind them as I have outlined in the previous chapter, should +have concentrated their attention during the latter half of the +nineteenth century upon obtaining a legislative cure for the ills +produced by legislation, to the comparative neglect of those equally +difficult, if less obvious economic questions, which have been brought +into special prominence by the agricultural depression of the last +quarter of a century. Now, however, that the Land Act of 1903 has been +passed and the solution of the tenure question is in sight, we in +Ireland are more free to direct our attention to what is at present the +most important aspect of the agrarian situation--the necessity for +determining the social and economic conditions essential to the +well-being of the peasant proprietary, which, though it is to be started +with as bright an outlook as the law can give, must stand or fall by its +own inherent merits or defects. Not only are we now free to give +adequate consideration to this question, but it is also imperative that +we should do so, for whilst I am hopeful that the Land Act will settle +the question of tenure, it will obviously not merely leave the other +problems of agricultural existence--problems some of which are not +unknown in other parts of the United Kingdom--still unsolved, but will +also increase the necessity for their solution, and will, moreover, +bring in its train complex difficulties of its own. + +The main features of the depressing outlook of rural life in the United +Kingdom are well known. The land steadily passes from under the plough +and is given over to stock raising. As the kine increase the men decay. +In Ireland the rural exodus takes, as I have already said, the shape, +mainly, not of migration to Irish urban centres, but rather the uglier +form of an emigration which not only depletes our population but drains +it of the very elements which can least be spared. + +The reason generally given for the widespread resort to the lotus-eating +occupation of opening and shutting gates, in preference to tilling the +soil, is that in the existing state of agricultural organisation, and +while urban life is ever drawing away labour from the fields, the +substitution of pasturage for tillage is the readiest way to meet the +ruinous competition of Eastern Europe, the Western Hemisphere, and +Australasia. Yet upon the economic merits of this process I have heard +the most diverse opinions stated with equal conviction by men thoroughly +well informed as to the conditions. One of the largest graziers in +Ireland recently gave me a picture of what he considered to be an ideal +economic state for the country. If two more Belfasts could be +established on the east coast, and the rest of the country divided into +five hundred acre farms, grazing being adopted wherever permanent grass +would grow, the limits of Irish productivity would be reached. On the +other hand, Dr. O'Donnell, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Raphoe, who may +be taken as an authoritative exponent of the trend of popular thought in +the country, not long ago advocated ploughing the grazing lands of +Leinster right up to the slopes of Tara.[6] Moreover, many theories have +been advanced to show that the decline of tillage, whatever be its +cause, involves an enormous waste of national resources. But of +practical suggestion, making for a remedy, there is very little +forthcoming. + +The solution of all such problems largely depends upon certain +developments which, for many reasons, I regard as absolutely essential +to the success of the new agrarian order. One of these developments is +the spread of agricultural co-operation through voluntary associations. +Without this agency of social and economic progress, small landholders +in Ireland will be but a body of isolated units, having all the +drawbacks of individualism, and none of its virtues, unorganised and +singularly ill-equipped for that great international struggle of our +time, which we know as agricultural competition. Moreover, there is +another equally important, if less obvious, consideration which renders +urgent the organisation of our rural communities. From Russia, with its +half-communistic Mir to France with its modern village commune, there is +no country in Europe except the United Kingdom where the peasant +land-holders have not some form of corporate existence. In Ireland the +transition from landlordism to a peasant proprietary not only does not +create any corporate existence among the occupying peasantry but rather +deprives them of the slight social coherence which they formerly +possessed as tenants of the same landlord. The estate office has its +uses as well as its disadvantages, and the landlord or agent is by no +means without his value as a business adviser to those from whom he +collects the rent. + +The organisation of the peasantry by an extension of voluntary +associations, which is a condition precedent of social and economic +progress, will not, however, suffice to enable them to face and solve +the problems with which they are confronted, and whose solution has now +become a matter of very serious concern to the British taxpayer. The +condition of our agrarian life clearly indicates the necessity for +supplementing voluntary effort with a sound system of State aid to +agriculture and industry--a necessity fully recognised by the +governments of every progressive continental country and of our own +colonies. An altogether hopeful beginning of combined self-help and +State assistance has been already made. Those who have been studying +these problems, and practically preparing the way for the proper care of +a peasant proprietary, have overcome the chief obstacles which lay in +their path. They have gained popular acceptance for the principle that +State aid should not be resorted to until organised voluntary effort has +first been set in motion, and that any departure from this principle +would be an unwarrantable interference with the business of the people, +a fatal blow to private enterprise.[7] + +The task before the people, and before the State, of placing the new +agrarian order upon a permanent basis of decency and comfort is no light +one. Indeed, I doubt whether Parliament realises one-tenth of the +problems which the latest land legislation--by far the best we have yet +had--leaves unsolved. This becomes only too clear the moment we consider +seriously the fundamental question of the relation of population to area +in rural Ireland, or, in other words, when we inquire how many people +the agricultural land will support under existing circumstances, or +under any attainable improvement of the conditions in our rural life. +Roughly speaking, the surface area of the island is 20,000,000 acres, of +which 5,000,000 are described in the official returns as 'barren +mountain, bog and waste.' This leaves us with some 15,000,000 acres +available for agriculture and grazing, which area is now divided into +some 500,000 holdings. Thus we have an average of thirty acres in extent +for the Irish agricultural holding. But, unhappily, the returns show +that some 200,000 of these holdings are from one to fifteen acres in +extent. Nor do the mere figures show the case at its worst. For it +happens that the small holdings in Ireland, unlike those on the +Continent, are generally on the poorest land, and the majority of them +cannot come within any of the definitions of an 'economic holding.' + +These 200,000 holdings, the homes of nearly a million persons, threaten +to prove the greatest danger to the future of agricultural Ireland. As +the majority of them, as at present constituted, do not provide the +physical basis of a decent standard of living, the question arises, how +are they to be improved? Putting aside emigration, which at one period +was necessary and ought to have been aided and controlled by the State, +but which is now no longer a statesman's remedy, there is obviously no +solution except by the migration of a portion of the occupiers, and the +utilisation of the vacated holdings in order to enable the peasants who +remain to prosper--much as a forest is thinned to promote the growth of +trees. In typical congested districts this operation will have to be +carried out on a much larger scale than is generally realised, for a +considerable majority of families will have to be removed, in order to +allow a sufficient margin for the provision of adequate holdings for +those who remain. In some cases, there are large grazing tracts in close +proximity to the congested area which might be utilised for the +re-settlement, but where this is not so and the occupiers of the vacated +holdings have to migrate a considerable distance, the problem becomes +far more difficult. I need not dwell upon the administrative +difficulties of the operation, which are not light. I may assume, also, +that there will be no difficulty in obtaining suitable land somewhere. I +do not myself attach much weight to the unwillingness of the people to +leave their old holdings for better ones, or to the alleged objection of +the clergy to allow their parishioners to go to another parish. More +serious is the possible opposition of those who live in the vicinity of +the unoccupied land about to be distributed, and who feel that they have +the first claim upon the State in any scheme for its redistribution with +the help of public credit. Mr. Parnell promoted a company with the sole +object of practically demonstrating how this problem could be solved. A +large capital was raised, and a large estate purchased; but the company +did not effect the migration of a single family. Still these are minor +considerations compared with the larger one, to which I must briefly +refer. + +Under the Land Act of 1903 much has been done to facilitate the transfer +of peasants to new farms, but it is obvious that land cannot be handed +over as a gift from the State to the families which migrate. They will +become debtors for the value of the land itself, less perhaps a small +sum which may be credited to them in respect of the tenant's interest in +the holdings they have abandoned. This deduction will, however, be lost +in the expenditure required upon houses, buildings, fences, and other +improvements which would have to be effected before the land could be +profitably occupied. Speaking generally they will have no money or +agricultural implements, and their live stock will in many cases be +mortgaged to the local shopkeeper who has always financed them. It will +be necessary for the future welfare of the country to give them land +which admits of cultivation upon the ordinary principles of modern +agriculture; but without working capital, and bringing with them neither +the skill nor the habits necessary for the successful conduct of their +industry under the new conditions, it will be no easy task to place them +in a position to discharge their obligations to the State. It is all +very easy to talk about the obvious necessity of giving more land to +cultivators who have not enough to live upon; and there is, no doubt, a +poetic justice in the Utopian agrarianism which dangles before the eyes +of the Connaught peasantry the alternative of Heaven or Leinster. But +when we come down to practical economics, and face the task of giving to +a certain number of human beings, in an extremely backward industrial +condition, the opportunity of placing themselves and their families on a +basis of permanent well-being, it will be evident that, so far, at any +rate, as this particular community is concerned, the mere provision of +an economic holding is after all but a part of an economic existence. + +I have touched upon this question of migration from uneconomic to +economic holdings because it signally illustrates the importance of the +human, in contradistinction to the merely material considerations +involved in the solution of the many-sided Irish Question. I must now +return to the wider question of the relation of population to area in +rural Ireland, as it affects the general scheme of agricultural and +industrial development. + +It is obvious that there must be a limit to the number of individuals +that the land can support. Allowing an average of five members for each +family, and allowing for a considerable number of landless labourers, it +seems that the land at present directly supports about 2,500,000 +persons--a view which, I may add, is fully borne out by the figures of +the recent census; and it is hard to see how a population living by +agriculture can be much increased beyond this number. Even if all the +land in Ireland were available for re-distribution in equal shares, the +higher standard of comfort to which it is essential that the condition +of our people should be raised would forbid the existence of much more +than half a million peasant proprietors.[8] Hence the evergreen query, +'What shall we do with our boys?' remains to be answered; for while the +abolition of dual ownership will enable the present generation to bring +up their children according to a higher standard of living, the change +will not of itself provide a career for the children when they have been +brought up. The next generation will have to face this problem:--the +average farm can support only one of the children and his family, what +is to become of the others? The law forbids sub-division for two +generations, and after that, _ex hypothesi_, the then prevailing +conditions of life will also prevent such partition. A few of the next +generation may become agricultural labourers, but this involves +descending to the lowest standard of living of to-day, and in any case +the demand for agricultural labourers is not capable of much extension +in a country of small peasant proprietors. + +Against this view I know it is pointed out that in the earlier part of +the nineteenth century the agricultural population of Ireland was as +large as is the total population of to-day; but we know the sequel. +Instances are also cited of peasant proprietaries in foreign countries +which maintain a high standard of living upon small, sometimes +diminutive, and highly-rented holdings. We must remember, however, that +in these foreign countries State intervention has undoubtedly done much +to render possible a prosperous peasant proprietary by, for example, the +dissemination of useful information, admirable systems of technical +education in agriculture, cheap and expeditious transport, and even +State attention to the distribution of agricultural produce in distant +markets. Again, in many of these countries rural life is balanced by a +highly industrial town life, as, for instance, in the case of Belgium; +or is itself highly industrialised by the existence of rural industries, +as in the case of Switzerland; while in one notable instance--that of +Wuerttemberg--both these conditions prevail. + +The true lesson to be drawn from these foreign analogies is that not by +agriculture alone is Ireland to be saved. The solution of the rural +problem embraces many spheres of national activity. It involves, as I +have already said, the further development of manufactures in Irish +towns. One of the best ways to stimulate our industries is to develop +the home market by means of an increased agricultural production, and a +higher standard of comfort among the peasant producers. We shall thus +be, so to speak, operating on consumption as well as on production, and +so increasing the home demand for Irish manufactures. Perhaps more +urgent than the creation or extension of manufactures on a larger scale +is the development of industries subsidiary to agriculture in the +country. This is generally admitted, and most people have a fair +knowledge of the wide and varied range of peasant industries in all +European countries where a prosperous peasantry exists. Nor is there +much difficulty in agreeing upon the main conditions to be satisfied in +the selection of the industries to meet the requirements of our case. +The men and boys require employment in the winter months, or they will +not stay, and the rural industries promoted should, as far as possible, +be those which allow of intermittent attention. The female members of +the family must have profitable and congenial employment. The +handicrafts to be promoted must be those which will give scope to the +native genius and aesthetic sense. But unless we can thus supply the +demand of the peasant-industry market with products of merit or +distinctiveness, we shall fail in competition with the hereditary skill +and old established trade of peasant proprietors which have solved this +part of the problem generations ago. This involves the vigorous +application of a class of instruction of which something will be said +in the proper place. + +So far the rural industry problem, and the direction in which its +solution is to be found, are fairly clear. But there is one disadvantage +with which we have to reckon, and which for many other reasons besides +the one I am now immediately concerned with, we must seek to remove. A +community does not naturally or easily produce for export that for which +it has itself no use, taste, or desire. Whatever latent capacity for +artistic handicrafts the Irish peasant may possess, it is very rarely +that one finds any spontaneous attempt to give outward expression to the +inward aesthetic sense. And this brings me to a strange aspect of Irish +life to which I have often wished, on the proper occasion, to draw +public attention. The matter arises now in the form of a peculiar +difficulty which lies in the path of those who endeavour to solve the +problem of rural life in Ireland, and which, in my belief, has +profoundly affected the fortunes of the race both at home and abroad. + +To a sympathetic insight there is a singular and significant void in the +Irish conception of a home--I mean the lack of appreciation for the +comforts of a home, which might never have been apparent to me had it +not obtruded itself in the form of a hindrance to social and economic +progress.[9] In the Irish love of home, as in the larger national +aspirations, the ideal has but a meagre material basis, its appeal being +essentially to the social and intellectual instincts. It is not the +physical environment and comfort of an orderly home that enchain and +attract minds still dominated, more or less unconsciously, by the +associations and common interests of the primitive clan, but rather the +sense of human neighbourhood and kinship which the individual finds in +the community. Indeed the Irish peasant scarcely seems to have a home in +the sense in which an Englishman understands the word. If he love the +place of his habitation he does not endeavour to improve or to adorn it, +or indeed to make it in any sense a reflection of his own mind and +taste. He treats life as if he were a mere sojourner upon earth whose +true home is somewhere else, a fact often attributed to his intense +faith in the unseen, but which I regard as not merely due to this cause, +but also, and in a large measure, as the natural outcome of historical +conditions, to which I shall presently refer. + +What the Irishman is really attached to in Ireland is not a home but a +social order. The pleasant amenities, the courtesies, the leisureliness, +the associations of religion, and the familiar faces of the neighbours, +whose ways and minds are like his and very unlike those of any other +people; these are the things to which he clings in Ireland and which he +remembers in exile. And the rawness and eagerness of America, the lust +of the eye and the pride of life that meet him, though with no welcoming +aspect, at every turn, the sense of being harshly appraised by new +standards of the nature of which he has but the dimmest conception, his +helplessness in the fierce current of industrial life in which he is +plunged, the climatic extremes of heat and cold, the early hours and few +holidays: all these experiences act as a rude shock upon the +ill-balanced refinement of the Irish immigrant. Not seldom, he or she +loses heart and hope and returns to Ireland mentally and physically a +wreck, a sad disillusionment to those who had been comforted in the +agony of the leave-taking by the assurance that to emigrate was to +succeed. + +The peculiar Irish conception of a home has probably a good deal to do +with the history of the Irish in the United States. It is well known +that whatever measure of success the Irish emigrant has there achieved +is pre-eminently in the American city, and not where, according to all +the usual commonplaces about the Irish race, they ought to have +succeeded, in American rural life. There they were afforded, and there +they missed, the greatest opportunity which ever fell to the lot of a +people agriculturally inclined. During the days of the great emigrations +from Ireland, a veritable Promised Land, rich beyond the dreams of +agricultural avarice, was gradually opened up between the Alleghanies +and the Rocky Mountains, which the Irish had only to occupy in order to +possess. Making all allowances for the depressing influences which had +been brought to bear upon the spirit of enterprise, and for their +impoverished condition, I am convinced that a prime cause of the failure +of almost every effort to settle them upon the land was the fact that +the tenement house, with all its domestic abominations, provided the +social order which they brought with them from Ireland, and the lack of +which on the western prairie no immediate or prospective physical +comfort could make good. + +Recently a daughter of a small farmer in County Galway with a family too +'long' for the means of subsistence available, was offered a comfortable +home on a farm owned by some better-off relatives, only thirty miles +away, though probably twenty miles beyond the limits of her utmost +peregrinations. She elected in preference to go to New York, and being +asked her reason by a friend of mine, replied in so many words, 'because +it is nearer.' She felt she would be less of a stranger in a New York +tenement house, among her relatives and friends who had already +emigrated, than in another part of County Galway. Educational science in +Ireland has always ignored the life history of the subject with which it +dealt. In no respect has this neglect been so unconsciously cruel as in +its failure to implant in the Irish mind that appreciation of the +material aspects of the home which the people so badly need both in +Ireland and in America If the Irishman abroad became 'a rootless +colonist of alien earth,' the lot of the Irishman in Ireland has been +not less melancholy. Sadness there is, indeed, in the story of 'the +sea-divided Gael,' but, to me, it is incomparably less pathetic than +their homelessness at home. + +There are, as I have said, historic reasons for the Celtic view of home +to which my personal observation and experience has induced me to devote +so much space. The Irish people have never had the opportunity of +developing that strong and salutary individualism which, amongst other +things, imperiously demands, as a condition of its growth, a home that +shall be a man's castle as well as his abiding place. In this, as in so +much else, a healthy evolution was constantly thwarted by the clash of +two peoples and two civilisations. The Irish had hardly emerged from the +nomad pastoral stage, when the first of that series of invasions, which +had all the ferocity, without the finality of conquest, made settled +life impossible over the greater part of the island. An old chronicle +throws some vivid light upon the way in which the idea of home life +presented itself to the mind of the clan chiefs as late as the days of +the Tudors. "Con O'Neal," we are told, "was so right Irish that he +cursed all his posterity in case they either learnt English, sowed wheat +or built them houses; lest the first should breed conversation, the +second commerce, and with the last they should speed as the crow that +buildeth her nest to be beaten out by the hawk."[10] The penal laws, +again, acted as a disintegrant of the home and the family; and, +finally, the paralysing effect of the abuses of a system of land tenure, +under which evidences of thrift and comfort might at any time become +determining factors in the calculation of rent, completed a series of +causes which, in unison or isolation, were calculated to destroy at its +source the growth of a wholesome domesticity. These causes happily, no +longer exist, and powerful forces are arising to overcome the defects +and disadvantages which they have bequeathed to us; and I have little +doubt that it will be possible to deal successfully with this obstacle +which adds so peculiar a feature to the problem of rural life in +Ireland. + +If I have dwelt at what may appear to be a disproportionate length upon +the Irishman's peculiar conception of a home, it is because this +difficulty, which Irish social and economic reformers still encounter, +and with which they must deal sympathetically if they are to succeed in +the work of national regeneration, strikingly illustrates the two-sided +character of the Irish Question and the never-to-be-forgotten +inter-dependence of the sentimental and the practical in Ireland. I +admit that this condition which adds to the interest of the problem, and +perhaps makes it more amenable to rapid solution, is an indication of a +weakness of moral fibre to which must be largely attributed our failure +to be master of our circumstances. Indeed, as I come into closer touch +with the efforts which are now being made to raise the material +condition of the people, the more convinced I become, much as my +practical training has made me resist the conviction, that the Irish +Question is, in its most difficult and most important aspects, the +problem of the Irish mind, and that the solution of this problem is to +be found in the strengthening of Irish character. + +With this enunciation of the main proposition of my book, I may now +indicate the order in which I shall endeavour to establish its truth. I +have said enough to show that I do not ignore the historical causes of +our present state; but with so many facts with which we can deal +confronting us, I propose to review the chief living influences to which +the Irish mind and character are still subjected. These influences fall +naturally into three distinct categories and will be treated in the +three succeeding chapters. The first will show the effect upon the Irish +mind of its obsession by politics. The next will deal with the influence +of religious systems upon the secular life of the people. I shall then +show how education, which should not only have been the most potent of +all the three influences in bringing our national life into line with +the progress of the age, but should also have modified the operation of +the other two causes, has aggravated rather than cured the malady. + +Whatever impression I may succeed in making upon others, I may here +state that, as the result of observation and reflection, the conclusion +has been forced upon me that the Irish mind is suffering from +considerable functional derangement, but not, so far as I can discern, +from any organic disease. This is the basis of my optimism. I shall +submit in another chapter, which will conclude the first, the critical +part of my book, certain new principles of treatment which are indicated +by the diagnosis; and I would ask the reader, before he rejects the +opinions which are there expressed, to persevere through the narrative +contained in the second part of the book. There he will find in process +of solution some of the problems which I have indicated, and the +principles for which a theoretical approval has been asked, in practical +operation, and already passing out of the experimental stage. The story +of the Self-help Movement will strike the note of Ireland's economic +hopes. The action of the Recess Committee will be explained, and the +concession of their demand by the establishment of a 'Department of +Agriculture and other rural industries and for Technical Instruction for +Ireland,' will be described. This will complete the story of a quiet, +unostentatious movement which will some day be seen to have made the +last decade of the nineteenth century a fit prelude to a future +commensurate with the potentialities of the Irish people. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] I speak from personal knowledge when I say that the leaders of Irish +industry and commerce are fully alive to the practical consideration +which they have now to devote to the new conditions by which they are +surrounded. They recognise that the intensified foreign competition +which harasses them is due chiefly to German education and American +enterprise. They are deep in the consideration of the form which +technical education should take to meet their peculiar needs; and I am +confident that Ulster will make a sound and useful contribution to the +solution of the commercial and industrial problems which confront the +manufacturers of the United Kingdom. + +[5] That such a knowledge is still required, though the need is becoming +less urgent, is shown by an incident which illustrates the pathos of the +Irish exodus. A poor woman once asked me to help her son to emigrate to +America, and I agreed to pay his passage. Early in the negotiations, +finding that she was somewhat vague as to her boy's prospects, I asked +her whether he wanted to go to North or South America. This detail she +seemed to consider immaterial. "Ach, glory be to God, I lave that to yer +honner. Why wouldn't I?" Had I shipped him to Peru she would have been +quite satisfied. Why wouldn't she? + +[6] Yet another view which seems to uproot most agrarian ideas in +Ireland has been put forward by Dr. O'Gara in _The Green Republic_ +(Fisher Unwin, 1902). His main conclusion is that the present disastrous +state of our rural economy is due to our treating land as an object of +property and not of industry. He advocates the cultivation of the land +by syndicates holding farms of 20,000 acres and tilling them by the +lavish application of modern machinery as the only way to meet American +competition. His book is able and suggestive, but it is perhaps, a work +of supererogation to discuss a theory the whole moral of which is the +expediency of absolutely divorcing the functions of the proprietor and +the manager of land at a time when the consensus of opinion in Ireland +is in favour of uniting them, and in view of the fact that under the new +Land Act the future of the country seems inevitably to lie for a long +time in the hands of a peasant proprietary. + +[7] The reader may wonder why I touch so lightly upon a fact of such +profound significance as the Irishman's acceptance of self-help as a +condition precedent of State aid in the development of agriculture and +industry. But such a cursory treatment, in the early chapters, of this +and of other equally important aspects of the Irish situation is +necessitated by the plan I have adopted. I am attempting to give in the +first part of the book a philosophic insight into the chief Irish +problems, and then, in the second part of the book, to present the facts +which appear to me to illustrate these problems in process of solution. + +[8] The best expert agricultural opinion tells me that under present +conditions a family cannot live in any decent standard of comfort--such +as I hope to see prevail in Ireland--on less than 30 acres of Irish +land, taking the bad land with the good. + +[9] It is, of course, unnecessary for me to dwell upon the part played +by the home in the standard of living, especially amongst a rural +community. But it may not be irrelevant to note that M. Desmolins, who, +in his remarkable book, _A quoi tient la superiorite des Anglo-saxons_? +hands over the future of civilisation to the Anglo-Saxons, ascribes to +the English rural home much of the success of the race. + +[10] Speed's Chronicle, quoted in _Calendar of State Papers, Ireland,_ +1611-14, p. xix. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE INFLUENCE OF POLITICS UPON THE IRISH MIND. + + +Among the humours of the Home Rule struggle, the story was current in +England that a peasant in Connemara ceased planting his potatoes when +the news of the introduction of the Home Rule Bill in 1886 seemed to +bring the millenium into the region of practical politics. Those who +used the story were not slow to suggest that, had the Bill become law, +the failure of spontaneous generation in the Connemara potato patch +might have been typical of much analogous disillusionment elsewhere. +Even to those who are familiar with our history, the faith of the Irish +people in the potentialities of government, which this little tale +illustrates by caricature, will give cause for reflection of another and +more serious kind. The moral to be drawn by Irish politicians is that we +in Ireland have yet to free ourselves from one of the worst legacies of +past misgovernment, the belief that any legislation or any legislature +can provide an escape from the physical and mental toil imposed through +our first parents upon all nations for all time. + +'The more business in politics, and the less politics in business, the +better for both,' is a maxim which I brought home from the Far West and +ventured to advocate publicly some years ago. Being still of the same +mind, I regret that I am compelled to introduce a whole chapter of +politics into this book, which is a study of Irish affairs mainly from a +social and economic point of view. But to ignore, either in the +diagnosis or in the treatment of the 'mind diseased,' the political +obsession of our national life would be about as wise as to discuss and +plan a Polar expedition without taking account of the climatic +conditions to be encountered. + +In such an examination of Irish politics as thus becomes necessary I +shall have to devote the greater part of my criticism to the influence +of the Nationalist party upon the Irish mind. But it will be seen that +this course is not taken with a view to making party capital for my own +side. As I read Irish history, neither party need expect very much +credit for more than good intentions. Whichever proves to be right in +its main contention, each will have to bear its share of the +responsibility for the long continuance of the barren controversy. Each +has neglected to concern itself with the settlement of vitally important +questions the consideration of which need not have been postponed +because the constitutional question still remained in dispute. +Therefore, though I seem to throw upon the Nationalist party the chief +blame for our present political backwardness, and, so far as politics +affect other spheres of national activity, for our industrial +depression, candour compels me to admit that Irish Unionism has failed +to recognise its obligation--an obligation recognised by the Unionist +party in Great Britain--to supplement opposition to Home Rule with a +positive and progressive policy which could have been expected to +commend itself to the majority of the Irish people--the Irish of the +Irish Question. + +To my own party in Ireland then, I would first direct the reader's +attention. I have already referred to the deplorable effects produced +upon national life by the exclusion of representatives of the landlord +and the industrial classes from positions of leadership and trust over +four-fifths of the country. I cannot conceive of a prosperous Ireland in +which the influence of these leaders is restricted within its present +bounds. It has been so restricted because the Irish Unionist party has +failed to produce a policy which could attract, at any rate, moderate +men from the other side, and we have, therefore, to consider why we have +so failed. Until this is done, we shall continue to share the blame for +the miserable state of our political life which, at the end of the +nineteenth century, appeared to have made but little advance from the +time when Bishop Berkeley asked 'Whether our parties are not a burlesque +upon politics.' + +The Irish Unionist party is supposed to unite all who, like the author, +are opposed to the plunge into what is called Home Rule. But its +propagandist activities in Ireland are confined to preaching the +doctrine of the _status quo_, and preaching it only to its own side. +From the beginning the party has been intimately connected with the +landlord class; yet even upon the land question it has thrown but few +gleams of the constructive thought which that question so urgently +demanded, and which it might have been expected to apply to it. Now and +again an individual tries to broaden the basis of Irish Unionism and to +bring himself into touch with the life of the people. But the nearer he +gets to the people the farther he gets from the Irish Unionist leaders. +The lot of such an individual is not a happy one: he is regarded as a +mere intruder who does not know the rules of the game, and he is treated +by the leading players on both sides like a dog in a tennis court. + +Two main causes appear to me to account for the failure of the Irish +Unionist party to make itself an effective force in Irish national life. +The great misunderstanding to which I have attributed the unhappy state +of Anglo-Irish relations kept the country in a condition of turmoil +which enabled the Unionist party to declare itself the party of law and +order. Adopting Lord Salisbury's famous prescription, 'twenty years of +resolute government,' they made it what its author would have been the +last man to consider it, a sufficient justification for a purely +negative and repressive policy. Such an attitude was open to somewhat +obvious objections. No one will dispute the proposition that the +government of Ireland, or of any other country, should be resolute, but +twenty years of resolute government, in the narrow sense in which it +came to be interpreted, needed for its success, what cannot be had under +party government, twenty years of consistency. It may be better to be +feared than to be loved, but Machiavelli would have been the first to +admit that his principle did not apply where the Government which sought +to establish fear had to reckon with an Opposition which was making +capital out of love. Moreover, the suggestion that the Irish Question is +not a matter of policy but of police, while by no means without +influential adherents, is altogether vicious. You cannot physically +intimidate Irishmen, and the last thing you want to do is morally to +intimidate a people whose greatest need at the moment is moral courage. + +The second cause which determined the character of Irish Unionism was +the linking of the agrarian with the political question; the one being, +in effect, a practical, the other a sentimental issue. The same thing +happened in the Nationalist party; but on their side it was intentional +and led to an immense accession of strength, while on the Unionist side +it made for weakness. If the influence of Irish Unionists was to be even +maintained, it was of vital importance that the interest of a class +should not be allowed to dominate the policy of the party. But the +organisation which ought to have rallied every force that Ireland could +contribute to the cause of imperial unity came to be too closely +identified with the landlord class. That class is admittedly essential +to the construction of any real national life. But there is another +element equally essential, to which the political leaders of Irish +Unionism have not given the prominence which is its due. The Irish +Question has been so successfully narrowed down to two simple policies, +one positive but vague, the other negative but definite, that to suggest +that there are three distinct forces--three distinct interests--to be +taken into account seems like confusing the issue. It is a fact, +nevertheless, that a very important element on the Unionist side, the +industrial element, has been practically left out of the calculation by +both sides. Yet the only expression of real political thought which I +have observed in Ireland, since I have been in touch with Irish life, +has emanated from the Ulster Liberal-Unionist Association, whose weighty +pronouncements, published from time to time, are worthy of deep +consideration by all interested in the welfare of Ireland. + +It will be remembered that when the Home Rule controversy was at its +height, the chief strength of the Irish opposition to Mr. Gladstone's +policy, and the consideration which most weighed with the British +electorate, lay in the business objection of the industrial population +of Ulster; though on the platform religious and political arguments were +more often heard. The intensely practical nature of the objection which +came from the commercial and industrial classes of the North who opposed +Home Rule was never properly recognised in Ireland. It was, and is still +unanswered. Briefly stated, the position taken up by their spokesmen was +as follows:--'We have come,' they said in effect, 'into Ireland, and not +the richest portion of the island, and have gradually built up an +industry and commerce with which we are able to hold our own in +competition with the most progressive nations in the world. Our success +has been achieved under a system and a polity in which we believe. Its +non-interference with the business of the people gave play to that +self-reliance with which we strove to emulate the industrial qualities +of the people of Great Britain. It is now proposed to place the +manufactures and commerce of the country at the mercy of a majority +which will have no real concern in the interests vitally affected, and +who have no knowledge of the science of government. The mere shadow of +these changes has so depressed the stocks which represent the +accumulations of our past enterprise and labour that we are already +commercially poorer than we were.'[11] + +My sole criticism of those leaders of commerce and industry in Belfast, +who, whenever they turn their attention from their various +pre-occupations, import into Irish politics the valuable qualities which +they display in the conduct of their private affairs, is that they do +not go further and take the necessary steps to give practical effect to +their views outside the ranks of their immediate associates and +followers. Had the industrial section made its voice heard in the +councils of the Irish Unionist party, the Government which that party +supports might have had less advice and assistance in the maintenance of +law and order, but it would have had invaluable aid in its constructive +policy. For the lack of the wise guidance which our captains of industry +should have provided, Irish Unionism has, by too close adherence to the +traditions of the landlord section, been the creed of a social caste +rather than a policy in Ireland. The result has been injurious alike for +the landlords, the leaders of industry, and the people. The policy of +the Unionist party in Ireland has been to uphold the Union by force +rather than by a reconciliation of the people to it. It has held aloof +from the masses, who, bereft of the guidance of their natural leaders, +have clung the more closely to the chiefs of the Nationalist party; and +these in their turn have not, as I shall show presently, risen to their +responsibility, but have retarded rather than advanced the march of +democracy in Ireland. If there is to be any future for Unionism in +Ireland, there must be a combination of the best thought of the country +aristocracy and that of the captains of industry. Then, and not till +then, shall we Unionists as a party exercise a healthful and stimulating +influence on the thought and action of the people. + +I cannot, therefore, escape from the conclusion that whilst the Irish +section of the party to which I belong is, in my opinion, right on the +main political question, its influence is now for the most part +negative. Hence I direct attention mainly to the Home Rule party, as the +more forceful element in Irish political life; and if it receives the +more criticism it is because it is more closely in touch with the +people, and because any reform in its principles or methods would more +generally and more rapidly prove beneficial to the country than would +any change in Unionist policy. + +In examining the policy of the Nationalist party my chief concern will +be to arrive at a correct estimate of the effect which is produced upon +the thought and action of the Irish people by the methods employed for +the attainment of Home Rule. I propose to show that these methods have +been in the past, and must, so long as they are employed, continue to be +injurious to the political and industrial character of the people, and +consequently a barrier to progress. I know that most of the Nationalist +leaders justify the employment of these methods on the ground that, in +their opinion, the constitutional reforms they advocate are a condition +precedent to industrial progress. I believe, on the contrary, and I +shall give my reasons for believing, that their tactics have been not +only a hindrance to industrial progress, but destructive even to the +ulterior purpose they were intended to fulfil. + +It is commonly believed--a belief very naturally fostered by their +leaders--that, if there is one thing the Irish do understand, it is +politics. Politics is a term obviously capable of wide interpretation, +and I fear that those who say that my countrymen are pre-eminently +politicians use the term in a sense more applicable to the conceptions +of Mr. Richard Croker than of Aristotle. In intellectual capacity for +discrimination upon political issues the average Irish elector is, I +believe, far superior to the average English elector. But there is as +yet something wanting in the character of our people which seems to +prohibit the exercise by them of any independent political thought and, +consequently, of any effective or permanent political influence. + +The assumption that Irishmen are singularly good politicians seems to +stand seriously in the way of their becoming so; and yet it is a matter +of the greatest importance that they should become good politicians in a +real sense, for in no country would sound political thought exercise a +more beneficial influence upon the life of the people than in Ireland. +Indeed I would go further and give it as my strong conviction that, +properly developed and freed from the narrowing influences of the party +squabbles by which it has been warped and sterilised, the political +thought of the Irish people would contribute a factor of vital +importance to the life of the British empire. But at the moment I am +dealing only with the influence of politics on Irish social and economic +life. + +I am aware that any political deficiencies which the Irish may display +at home, are commonly attributed to the political system which has been +imposed upon Ireland from without. If you want to see Irish genius in +its highest political manifestation, it must be studied, we are told, in +the United States, the widest and freest arena which has ever been +offered to the race. This view is not in accordance with the facts as I +have observed them. These facts are somewhat obscured by the natural, +but misleading habit of reckoning to the account of Ireland at large +achievements really due to the Scotch-Irish, who helped to colonise +Pennsylvania, and who undoubtedly played a dominant part in developing +the characteristic features of the American political system. The +Scotch-Irish, however, do not belong to the Ireland of the Irish +Question Descended, largely, as their names so often testify, from the +early Irish colonists of western Scotland, they came back as a distinct +race, dissociating themselves from the Irish Celts by refusing to adopt +their national traditions, or intermarry with them, and both here and in +America disclaiming the appellation of Irish.[12] + +Leaving, then, out of consideration the political achievements of the +Scotch-Irish, it appears to me that the part played in politics by the +Irish in America does not testify to any high political genius. They +have shown there an extraordinary aptitude for political organisation, +which, if it had been guided by anything approaching to political +thought, would have placed them in a far higher position in American +public life than that which they now occupy. But the fact is that it +would be much easier to find evidence of high political capacity and +success in the history of the Irish in British colonies; and the reason +for this fact is not only very germane to the purpose of this book, but +has a strong practical interest for Americans as well. Irishmen when +they go to America find themselves united by a bond which does not and +could not exist in the Colonies--though it does exist in Ireland--the +bond of anti-English feeling, and by the hope of giving practical effect +to this feeling through the policy of their adopted country. Imbued with +this common sentiment, and influenced by their inherited clannishness, +the Irish in America readily lend themselves to the system of political +groups, a system which the 'boss' for his own ends seeks to perpetuate. +The result is a sort of political paradox--it has made the Irish in +America both stronger and weaker than they ought to be. They suffer +politically from the defects of their political qualities: they are +strong as a voting machine, but the secret of their collective strength +is also the secret of their individual weakness. This organisation into +groups is much commoner among the Irish than among other American +immigrants, for the anti-English feeling with which so many of the Irish +land in America is carefully kept alive by the 'boss,' whose sedulous +fostering of the instinctive clannishness and inherited leader-following +habits of the Irish saps their independence of thought and prevents them +from ceasing to be mere political agents and developing a citizenship +which would furnish its due quota of statesmen to the service of the +Republic. They lack in the United States just what they lack at home, +the capacity, or at any rate the inclination, to use their undoubted +abilities in a large and foreseeing manner, and so are becoming less and +less powerful as a force in American politics. + +The fallacious views about the nature and sphere of politics, which the +Irish bring with them from Ireland, and which are perpetuated in +America, have the effect not only of debarring the Irish from real +political progress, but also, as at home, from gaining success in +industrial pursuits which their talents would otherwise win for them. +They succeed as journalists owing to their quick intelligence and +versatility, and as contractors mainly owing to their capacity for +organising gangs of workmen--a faculty which seems to be the only good +thing resulting from their political education. They are as brilliant +soldiers in the service of the United States as they are in that of +Britain--more it would be impossible to say--and they have produced +types of daring, endurance, and shrewdness like the 'Silver Kings' of +Nevada which testify to the exceptional powers always developed by the +Irish in exceptional circumstances. But in the humdrum business of +everyday life in the United States they suffer from defects which are +the outcome of their devotion to mistaken political ideals and of their +subordination of industry to politics, which are not always purely +American, but are often influenced by considerations of the country of +their birth. On the whole, a quarter of a century of not unsympathetic +observation of the Irish in the United States has convinced me that the +position they occupy there is not one which either they or the American +people can look on with entire satisfaction. The Irish immigrants are +felt to belong to a kind of _imperium in imperio_, and to carry into +American politics ideas which are not American, and which might easily +become an embarrassment if not a danger to America. Hence the powerful +interest which America shares with England, though of course in a less +degree, in understanding and helping to settle the complex difficulty +called the Irish Question. The Irish remember Ireland long after they +have left it. They are not in the same position as the German or English +immigrants who have no cause at home which they wish to forward. Every +echo in the States of political or social disturbance in Ireland rouses +the immigrant and he becomes an Irishman once more, and not a citizen of +the country of his adoption. His views and votes on international +questions, in so far as they affect these Islands, are thus often +dictated more by a passionate sympathy for and remembrance of the land +he no longer lives in, than by any right understanding of the interests +of the new country in which he and his children must live. + +The only reason why I have examined the assumption that Irishmen display +marked political capacity in the United States is to make it clear that +the political deficiencies they manifest at home are to be attributed +mainly to defects of character, and to a conception of politics for +which modern English government is very slightly responsible. I admit +that English government in the past had no small share in producing the +results we deplore to-day, but the motives and manner of its action +have, it seems to me, been very imperfectly understood. + +The fact is that the difficulties of English government in Ireland, +until a complete military conquest had been effected, were of a +peculiarly complex character. Before the English could impose upon +Ireland their own political organisation--and the idea that any other +system could work better among the Irish never entered the English +mind--it was obviously necessary that the very antithesis of that +organisation, the clan system, should be abolished. But there were +military and financial objections to carrying out this policy. Irish +campaigns were very costly, and England was in those days by no means +wealthy. English armies in Ireland, after a short period spent in +desultory warfare with light armed kernes in the fever-stricken Munster +forests, began to melt away. For many generations, therefore, England, +adopting a policy of _divide et impera_, set clan against clan. Later +on, statecraft may be said to have supervened upon military tactics. It +consisted of attempts made by alternate threats and bribes to induce the +chiefs to transform the clan organisation by the acceptance of English +institutions. But any systematic endeavours to complete the +transformation were soon rendered abortive by being coupled with huge +confiscations of land. The policy of converting the members of the clans +into freeholders was subordinated to the policy of planting British +colonists. After this there was no question of fusion of races or +institutions. Plantations on a large scale, self-supporting, +self-protecting, became the policy alike of the soldier and the +statesman. + +The inevitable result of these methods was that it was not until a +comparatively late date that a political conception of an Irish nation +first began to emerge out of the congeries of clans. In the State Papers +of the sixteenth century the clans are frequently spoken of as +'nations.' Even as late as the eighteenth century a Gaelic poet, in a +typical lament, thus identifies his country with the fortunes of her +great families:-- + + The O'Doherty is not holding sway, nor his noble race; + The O'Moores are not strong, that once were brave-- + O'Flaherty is not in power, nor his kinsfolk; + And sooth to say, the O'Briens have long since become English. + + Of O'Rourke there is no mention--my sharp wounding! + Nor yet of O'Donnell in Erin; + The Geraldines they are without vigour--without a nod, + And the Burkes, the Barrys, the Walshes of the slender ships.[13] + +The modern political idea of Irish nationality at length asserted itself +as the result of three main causes. The bond of a common grievance +against the English foe was created by the gradual abandonment of the +policy of setting clan against clan in favour of impartial confiscation +of land from friendly as well as from hostile chiefs. Secondly, when the +English had destroyed the natural leaders, the clan chiefs, and +attempted to proselytise their adherents, the political leadership +largely passed to the Roman Catholic Church, which very naturally +defended the religion common to the members of all the clans, by trying +to unite them against the English enemy. Nationality, in this sense, of +course applied only to Celtic Roman Catholic Ireland. The first real +idea of a United Ireland arose out of the third cause, the religious +grievances of the Protestant dissenters and the commercial grievances of +the Protestant manufacturers and artisans in the eighteenth century, who +suffered under a common disability with the Roman Catholics, and many of +whom came in the end to make common cause with them. But even long after +this conception had become firmly established, the local representative +institutions corresponding to those which formed the political training +of the English in law and administration either did not exist in Ireland +or were altogether in the hands of a small aristocracy, mostly of +non-Irish origin, and wholly non-Catholic. O'Connell's great work in +freeing Roman Catholic Ireland from the domination of the Protestant +oligarchy showed the people the power of combination, but his methods +can hardly be said to have fostered political thought. The efforts in +this direction of men like Gavan Duffy, Davis, and Lucas were +neutralised by the Famine, the after effects of which also did much to +thwart Butt's attempts to develop serious public opinion amongst a +people whose political education had been so long delayed. The prospect +of any early fruition of such efforts vanished with the revolutionary +agrarian propaganda, and independent thinking--so necessary in the +modern democratic state--never replaced the old leader-following habit +which continued until the climax was reached under Parnell. + +The political backwardness of the Irish people revealed itself +characteristically when, in 1884, the English and Irish democracies were +simultaneously endowed with a greatly extended franchise. In theory this +concession should have developed political thought in the people and +should have enhanced their sense of political responsibility. In England +no doubt this theory was proved by the event to be based on fact; but in +Ireland it was otherwise. Parnell was at the zenith of his power. The +Irish had the man, what mattered the principles? The new suffrages +simply became the figures upon the cheques handed over to the Chief by +each constituency, with the request that he would fill in the name of +the payee. On one or two occasions a constituency did protest against +the payee, but all that was required to settle the matter was a personal +visit from the Chief. Generally speaking, the electorate were quite +docile, and instances were not wanting of men discovering that they had +found favour with electors to whom their faces and even their names were +previously unknown. + +No doubt, the one-man system had a tactical value, of which the English +themselves were ever ready to make use. "If all Ireland cannot rule this +man, then let this man rule all Ireland," said Henry VII. of the Earl of +Kildare; and the echo of these words was heard when the Kilmainham +Treaty was negotiated with the last man who wore the mantle of the +chief. But whatever may be said for the one-man system as a means of +political organisation, it lacked every element of political education. +It left the people weaker, if possible, and less capable than it found +them; and assuredly it was no fit training for Home Rule. While +Parnell's genius was in the ascendant, all was well--outwardly. When a +tragic and painful disclosure brought about a crisis in his fate, it +will hardly be contended by the most devoted admirer of the Irish people +that the situation was met with even moderate ability and foresight. But +the logic of events began to take effect. The decade of dissension which +followed the fall of Parnell will, perhaps, some day be recognised as a +most fruitful epoch in modern Irish history. The reaction from the +one-man system set in as soon as the one man had passed away. The +independence which Parnell's former lieutenants began to assert when the +laurels faded upon the brow of the uncrowned King communicated itself to +some extent to the rank and file. The mere weighing of the merits of +several possible successors led to some wholesome questioning as to the +merits of the policies, such as they were, which they respectively +represented The critical spirit which was now called forth, did not, at +first, go very far; but it was at least constructive and marked a +distinct advance towards real political thought. I believe the day will +come, and come soon, when Nationalist leaders themselves will recognise +that while bemoaning faction and dissension and preaching the cause of +'unity' they often mistook the wheat for the tares. They will, I feel +sure, come to realise that the passing of the dictatorship, which to +outward appearances left the people as "sheep without a shepherd, when +the snow shuts out the sky," in fact turned the thoughts of Ireland in +some measure away from England into her own bosom, and gave birth there +to the idea of a national life to which the Irish people of all classes, +creeds, and politics could contribute of their best. + +I sometimes wonder whether the leaders of the Nationalist party really +understand the full effect of their tactics upon the political character +of the Irish people, and whether their vision is not as much obscured by +a too near, as is the vision of the Unionist leaders by a too distant, +view of the people's life. Everyone who seeks to provide practical +opportunities for Irish intellect to express-itself worthily in active +life--and this, I take it, is part of what the Nationalist leaders wish +to achieve--meets with the same difficulty. The lack of initiative and +shrinking from responsibility, the moral timidity in glaring contrast +with the physical courage--which has its worst manifestation in the +intense dread of public opinion, especially when the unknown terrors of +editorial power lurk behind an unfavourable mention 'on the paper,' +are, no doubt, qualities inherited from a primitive social state in +which the individual was nothing and the community everything. These +defects were intensified in past generations by British statecraft, +which seemed unable to appreciate or use the higher instincts of the +race; they remain to-day a prominent factor in the great human problem +known as the Irish Question--a factor to which, in my belief, may be +attributed the greatest of its difficulties. + +It is quite clear that education should have been the remedy for the +defects of character upon which I am forced to dwell so much; and I +cannot absolve any body of Irishmen, possessed of actual or potential +influence, of failure to recognise this truth. But here I am dealing +only with the political leaders, and trying to bring home to them the +responsibility which their power imposes upon them, not only for the +political development but also for the industrial progress of their +followers. They ought to have known that the weakness of character which +renders the task of political leadership in Ireland comparatively easy +is in reality the quicksand of Irish life, and that neither +self-government nor any other institution can be enduringly built upon +it. + +The leaders of the Nationalist party are, of course, entitled to hold +that, in existing political conditions, any non-political movement +towards national advancement, which in its nature cannot be linked, as +the land question was linked, to the Home Rule movement constitutes an +unwarrantable sacrifice of ends to means. And so holding, they are +further entitled to subject any proposal to elevate popular thought, or +to direct popular activities, to a strict censorship as to its remote as +well as to its immediate effect upon the electorate. I know, too, that +it is held by some thinking Nationalists who take no active part in +politics that the politicians are justified on tactical grounds in this +exclusive pursuit of their political aims, and in the methods by which +they pursue them. They consider the present system of government too +radically wrong to mend, and they can undoubtedly point to agrarian +legislation as evidence of the effectiveness of the means they employ to +gain their end. + +This view of things has sunk very deep into the Irish mind. The policy +of 'giving trouble' to the Government is looked upon as the one road to +reform and is believed in so fervently that, except for religion, which +sometimes conflicts with it, there is scarcely any capacity left for +belief in anything else. I am far from denying that the past offers much +justification for the belief that nothing can be gained by Ireland from +England except through violent agitation. Until recently, I admit, +Ireland's opportunity had to wait for England's difficulty. But, as +practised in the present day, I believe this doctrine to be mischievous +and false. For one thing, there is a new England to deal with. The +England which, certainly not in deference to violent agitation, +established the Congested Districts Board, gave Local Government to +Ireland, and accepted the recommendations of the Recess Committee for +far-reaching administrative changes, as well as those of the Land +Conference which involved great financial concessions, is not the +England of fifty years ago, still less the England of the eighteenth +century. Moreover, in riveting the mind of the country on what is to be +obtained from England, this doctrine of 'giving trouble,' the whole +gospel of the agitator, has blinded the Irish people to the many things +which Ireland can do for herself. Whatever may be said of what is called +'agitation' in Ireland as an engine for extorting legislation from the +Imperial Parliament, it is unquestionably bad for the much greater end +of building up Irish character and developing Irish industry and +commerce. 'Agitation,' as Thomas Davis said, 'is one means of redress, +but it leads to much disorganisation, great unhappiness, wounds upon the +soul of a country which sometimes are worse than the thinning of a +people by war.'[14] If Irish politicians had at all realised this truth, +it is difficult to believe that the popular movement of the last quarter +of a century would not have been conducted in a manner far less +injurious to the soul of Ireland and equally or more effective for +legislative reform as well as all other material interests. + +Now, modern Nationalism in Ireland is open to damaging criticism not +only from my Unionist point of view, which was also, in many respects, +the view of so strong a Nationalist as Thomas Davis; it is also open to +grave objection from the point of view of the effectiveness of the +tactics employed for the attainment of its end--the winning of Home +Rule. + +Before examining the effect of these tactics I may point out that this +conception of Nationalist policy, even if justifiable from a practical +point of view, does not relieve the leaders from the obligation of +giving some assurance that they are ready with a consistent scheme of +re-construction, and are prepared to build when the ground has been +cleared. In this connection I might make a good deal of Unionist +capital, and some points in support of my condemnation of the political +absorption of the Irish mind, out of the total failure of the +Nationalist party to solve certain all-important constitutional and +financial problems which months of Parliamentary debate in 1893 tended +rather to obscure than to elucidate. I am, however, willing for +argument's sake to postpone all such questions, vital as they are, to +the time when they can be practically dealt with. I am ready to assume +that the wit of man can devise a settlement of many points which seemed +insoluble in Mr. Gladstone's day. But even granting all this, I think it +can easily be shown that the means which the political thought +available on the Nationalist side has evolved for the attainment of +their end, and which _ex hypothesi_ are only to be justified on tactical +grounds, are the least likely to succeed; and that, consequently, they +should be abandoned in favour of a constructive policy which, to say the +least, would not be less effective towards advancing the Home Rule +cause, if that cause be sound, and which would at the same time help the +advancement of Ireland in other than political directions. + +Tactics form but a part of generalship, and half the success of +generalship lies in making a correct estimate of the opposing forces. +This is as true of political as it is of military operations. Now, of +what do the forces opposed to Home Rule consist? The Unionists, it may +be admitted, are numerically but a small minority of the population of +Ireland--probably not more than one-fourth. But what do they represent? +First, there are the landed gentry. Let us again make a concession for +the sake of argument and accept the view that this class so wantonly +kept itself aloof from the life of the majority of the people that the +Nationalists could not be expected to count them among the elements of a +Home Rule Ireland. I note, in passing, with extreme gratification that +at the recent Land Conference it was declared by the tenants' +representatives that it was desirable, in the interests of Ireland, that +the present owners of land should not be expatriated, and that +inducements should be afforded to selling owners to continue to reside +in the country. + +But I may ignore this as I wish here to recall attention to that other +element, which was, as I have already said, the real force which turned +the British democracy against Home Rule--I mean the commercial and +industrial community in Belfast and other hives of industry in the +north-east corner of the country, and in scattered localities elsewhere. +I have already admitted that the political importance of the industrial +element was not appreciated in Irish Unionist circles. No less +remarkable is the way in which it has been ignored by the Nationalists. +The question which the Nationalists had to answer in 1886 and 1893, and +which they have to answer to-day, is this:--In the Ireland of their +conception is the Unionist part of Ulster to be coerced or persuaded to +come under the new regime? To those who adopt the former alternative my +reply is simply that, if England is to do the coercion, the idea is +politically absurd. If we were left to fight it out among ourselves, it +is physically absurd. The task of the Empire in South Africa was light +compared with that which the Nationalists would have on hands. I am +aware that, at the time when we were all talking at concert pitch on the +Irish Question, a good deal was said about dying in the last ditch by +men who at the threat of any real trouble would be found more discreetly +perched upon the first fence. But those who know the temper and fighting +qualities of the working-men opponents of Home Rule in the North are +under no illusion as to the account they would give of themselves if +called upon to defend the cause of Protestantism, liberty, and imperial +unity as they understand it. Let us, however, dismiss this alternative +and give Nationalists credit for the desire to persuade the industrial +North to come in by showing it that it will be to its advantage to join +cordially in the building up of a united Ireland under a separate +legislature. + +The difficulties in the way of producing this conviction are very +obvious. The North has prospered under the Act of Union--why should it +be ready to enter upon a new 'variety of untried being'? What that state +of being will be like, it naturally gauges from the forces which are +working for Home Rule at present. Looking at these simply from the +industrial standpoint and leaving out of account all the powerful +elements of religious and race prejudice, the man of the North sees two +salient facts which have dominated all the political activity of the +Nationalist campaign. One is a voluble and aggressive disloyalty, not +merely to 'England' and to the present system of government, but to the +Crown which represents the unity of the three kingdoms, and the other is +the introduction of politics into business in the very virulent and +destructive form known as boycotting. + +Now, hostility to the Crown, if it means anything, means a struggle for +separation as soon as Home Rule has given to the Irish people the power +to organise and arm. And (still keeping to the sternly practical point +of view) that would, for the time being at least, spell absolute ruin to +the industrial North. The practice of boycotting, again, is the very +antithesis of industry--it creates an atmosphere in which industry and +enterprise simply cannot live. The North has seen this practice condoned +as a desperate remedy for a desperate ill, but it has seen it continued +long after the ill had passed away, used as a weapon by one Nationalist +section against another, and revived when anything like a really +oppressive or arbitrary eviction had become impossible. There seems to +have been in Nationalist circles, since the time of O'Connell, but +little appreciation of the deadly character of this social curse; and +the prospect of a Government which would tolerate it naturally fills the +mind of the Northern commercial man with alarm and aversion. + +Again, the democratisation of local government which gave the +Nationalist leaders a unique opportunity of showing the value, has but +served to demonstrate the ineffectiveness, of their political tactics. +North of Ireland opinion was deeply interested in this reform, and +appreciated its far-reaching importance. Elsewhere, I think it will be +safe to say, people generally were indifferent to it until it came, and +the leaders seemed to see in it only a weapon to be used for political +purposes. To the great vista of useful and patriotic work opened out by +the Act of 1898, to the impression that a proper use of that Act might +make on Northern opinion, they were blind. It is true that the Councils +when left to themselves did admirably, and fully justified the trust +reposed in them. But at the inauguration of local government it was +naturally not the work of the Councils but the attitude of the party +leaders which appeared to stamp the reception of the Act by the Irish +people. + +It is true, of course, that many thoughtful men among the Nationalist +party repudiate the idea that the methods of to-day would be continued +in a self-governed Ireland. I fail to see any reason why they should +not. Under any system of limited Home Rule questions would arise which +would afford much the same sort of justification for the employment of +such methods, and they could hardly be worse for the welfare of the +country then than they are now. There is abundant need and abundant work +in the present day for thoughtful and far-seeing men in a party +constitutionally so strong as that of the Irish Nationalists. If those +among them who possess, or at any rate can make effective use of +qualities of constructive statesmanship are as few as the history of +recent years would lead us to suppose, what assurance can Ulster +Unionists feel that such men would spring up spontaneously in an Ireland +under Home Rule? I admit, indeed, that a considerable measure of such +assurance might be derived from the attitude of the leaders of the party +at and since the Land Conference. But this adoption of statesmanlike +methods which cannot be too widely understood or too warmly commended is +a matter of very recent history; and though we may hope that the success +attending it will help materially in the political education of the +Irish people, that will not, by itself, undo the effect of a quarter of +a century of political agitation governed by ideas the very reverse of +those which are now happily beginning to find favour. + +I have thought it necessary to examine at some length the defence on the +ground of tactics which is often made for Nationalist politics, because +it is the only defence ever made by those apologists who admit the +disturbing influence upon our economic and social life of Nationalist +methods. A broader and saner view of political tactics than prevailed +ten years ago is now possible, for circumstances are becoming friendly +and helpful to the development of political thought. Though the United +Irish League apparently restored 'unity' to the ranks of the +Nationalists, the country is, I believe, getting restless under the +political bondage, and is seething with a wholesome discontent. In this +very matter of political education, the stir of corporate life, the +sense of corporate responsibility which in every parish of Ireland are +now being fostered by the reformed system of local government, must make +their influence felt in wider spheres. Even now I believe that the field +is ready for the work of those who would bid the old leader-following +habit, the product partly of the dead clan system, partly of dying +national animosities, depart as a thing that has had its day, and who +would endeavour to train up a race of free, self-reliant, and +independent citizens in a free state. + +In this work the very men whose mistaken conception of a united Ireland +I have criticised will, I doubt not, take a leading part. In many +respects, and these not the least important, no one could desire a +better instrument for the achievement of great reforms than the Irish +party. They are far beyond any similar group of English members in +rhetorical skill and quickness of intelligence and decision, qualities +which no doubt belong to the mechanism rather than the soul of politics, +but which the practical worker in public life will not despise. But even +when tried by a higher standard the Irish members need not fear the +judgment of history. They have often, in my opinion, misconceived the +true interests of their country, but they have been faithful to those +interests as they understood them, and have proved themselves notably +superior to sordid personal aims. These gifts and virtues are not +common, but still rarer is it to see such gifts and virtues cursed with +the doom of futility. The influence of the Irish political leaders has +neither advanced the nation's march through the wilderness nor taught +the people how they are to dispense with manna from above when they +reach the Promised Land. With all their brilliancy, they have thrown but +little helpful light on any Irish problem. In this want of political and +economic foresight Irish Nationalist politicians, with some exceptions +whom it would be invidious to name, have fallen lamentably short of what +might be expected of Irish intellect. For the eight years during which I +represented an Irish constituency I always felt that an Irish night in +the House of Commons was one of the strangest and most pathetic of +spectacles. There were the veterans of the Irish party hardened by a +hundred fights, ranging from Venezuela to the Soudan in search of +battlefields, making allies of every kind of foreign potentate, from +President Cleveland to the Mahdi, from Mr. Kruger to the Akhoom of Swat, +but looking with suspicion on every symptom of an independent national +movement in Ireland; masters of the language of hate and scorn, yet +mocked by inevitable and eternal failure; winners of victories that turn +to dust and ashes; devoted to their country, yet, from ignorance of the +real source of its malady, ever widening the gaping wound through which +its life-blood flows. While I recall these scenes, there rises before my +mind the picture vividly drawn by Miss Lawless of their prototypes, the +'Wild Geese,' who carried their swords into foreign service after the +final defeat of the Stuarts:-- + + War-battered dogs are we, + Fighters in every clime, + Fillers of trench and of grave, + Mockers, bemocked by Time; + War-dogs, hungry and grey, + Gnawing a naked bone, + Fighting in every clime + Every cause but our own.[15] + +Irishmen have been long in realising that the days of the 'Wild Geese' +are over, and that there are battles for Ireland to be fought and won in +Ireland--battles in which England is not the enemy she was in the days +of Fontenoy, but a friend and helper. But there will be little gain in +replacing the traditional conception of England as the inexorable foe by +the more modern conception, which threatened to become traditional in +its turn, of England as the source of all prosperity and her favour as +the condition of all progress in Ireland. In the recent Land Conference +I recognise something more valuable even than the financial and +legislative results which flowed from it, for it showed that the +conception of reliance upon Irishmen in Ireland, not under some future +and problematical conditions, but here and now, for the solution of +Irish questions, is gaining ground among us. If this conception once +takes firm hold, as I think it is beginning to do, of the Nationalist +party in Ireland, much of the criticism of this chapter will lose its +meaning. The mere substitution of a positive Irish policy for a negative +anti-English policy will elevate the whole range of Nationalist +political activity in and out of Ireland. And I am certain that if the +ultimate goal of Nationalist politics be desirable, and continue to be +desired, it will not be rendered more difficult, but on the contrary +very much easier of attainment if those who seek it take possession of +the great field of work which, without waiting for any concessions from +Westminster, is offered by the Ireland of to-day. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[11] This view of the case was powerfully stated by the deputation from +the Belfast Chamber of Commerce which waited on Mr. Gladstone in the +spring of 1893. They pointed out _inter alia_ that the members of the +deputation were poorer by thousands of pounds owing to the fall in Irish +stocks consequent upon the introduction of the Home Rule Bill in that +year. + +[12] The term 'Scotch-Irish' does not mean an amalgam of Scotch and +Irish, but a race of Scottish immigrants who settled in north-east +Ireland. I may point out that in these criticisms of Irish-American +politics I refer, of course, mainly to the Irish-born immigrants and not +to the Irish, Scotch-Irish or other, who are American-born. Nobody can +have a higher appreciation than I of the great part played by the +American-Irish once they have assimilated the full spirit of American +institutions. + +[13] _Poems of Egan O'Rahilly._ Edited, with translation, by the Rev. +P.S. Dinneen, M.A., for the Irish Texts Society, p. 11. O'Rahilly's +charge against Cromwell is that he "gave plenty to the man with the +flail," but beggared the great lords, p. 167. + +[14] _Prose Writings of Thomas Davis_, p. 284. 'The writers of _The +Nation_,' wrote Davis in another place, 'have never concealed the +defects or flattered the good qualities of their countrymen. They have +told them in good faith that they wanted many an attribute of a free +people, _and that the true way to command happiness and liberty was by +learning the arts and practising the culture that fitted men for their +enjoyment'_ (p. 176). The thing that especially distinguished Davis +among Nationalist politicians was the essentially constructive mind +which he brought to bear on Irish questions, as illustrated in the +passage I have italicised. It is, I am afraid, the part of his legacy of +thought which has been least regarded by his admirers. + +[15] _With the Wild Geese_. Poems by the Hon. Emily Lawless. I have +never read a better portrayal of the historic Irish sentiment than is +set forth in this little volume. By the way, there is a preface by Mr. +Stopford Brooke, which is singularly interesting and informing. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION UPON SECULAR LIFE IN IRELAND. + + +In the preceding chapter I attempted to estimate the influence of our +political leaders as a potential and as an actual force. I come now to +the second great influence upon the thought and action of the Irish +people, the influence of religion, especially the power exercised by the +priests and by the unrivalled organisation of the Roman Catholic Church. +I do not share the pessimism which sees in this potent influence nothing +but the shackles of mediaevalism restraining its adherents from falling +into line with the progress of the age. I shall, indeed, have to admit +much of what is charged against the clerical leaders of popular thought +in Ireland, but I shall be able to show, I hope, that these leaders are +largely the product of a situation which they themselves did not create, +and that not only are they as susceptible as are the political leaders +to the influences of progressive movements, but that they can be more +readily induced to take part in their promotion. In no other country in +the world, probably, is religion so dominant an element in the daily +life of the people as in Ireland, and certainly nowhere else has the +minister of religion so wide and undisputed an authority. It is obvious, +therefore, that, however foreign such a theme may _prima facie_ appear +to the scope and aim of the present volume, I have no choice but to +analyse frankly and as fully as my personal experience justifies, what I +conceive to be the true nature, the salutary limits, and the actual +scope of clerical influence in this country. + +But before I can discuss what I may call the religious situation, there +is one fundamental question--a question which will appear somewhat +strange to anyone not in touch with Irish life--which I must, with a +view to a general agreement on essentials, submit to some of my +co-religionists. In all seriousness I would ask, whether in their +opinion the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland is to be tolerated. If the +answer be in the negative, I can only reply that any efforts to stamp +out the Roman Catholic faith would fail as they did in the past; and the +practical minds among those I am now addressing must admit that in +toleration alone is to be found the solution of that part of the Irish +difficulty which is due to sectarian animosities. + +This brings us face to face with the question, What is religious +toleration--I do not mean as a pious sentiment which we are all +conscious of ourselves possessing in a truer sense than that in which it +is possessed by others, but rather toleration as an essential of the +liberty which we Protestants enjoy under the British Constitution, and +boast that all other creeds equally enjoy? Perhaps I had better state +simply how I answer this question in my own mind. Toleration by the +Irish minority, in regard to the religious faith and ecclesiastical +system of the Irish majority, implies that we admit the right of Rome to +say what Roman Catholics shall believe and what outward forms they shall +observe, and that they shall not suffer before the State for these +beliefs and observances. I do not think exception can be taken to the +statement that toleration in this narrow sense cannot be refused +consistently with the fundamental principles of British government. + +Now, however, comes a less obvious, but, as I think, no less essential +condition of toleration in the sense above indicated. The Roman Catholic +Hierarchy claim the right to exercise such supervision and control over +the education of their flock as will enable them to safe-guard faith and +morals as preached and practised by their Church. I concede this second +claim as a necessary corollary of the first. Having lived most of my +life among Roman Catholics--two branches of my own family belonging to +that religion--I am aware that this control is an essential part of the +whole fabric of Roman Catholicism. Whether the basis of authority upon +which that system is founded be in its origin divine or human is beside +the point. If we profess to tolerate the faith and religious system of +the majority of our countrymen we must at least concede the conditions +essential to the maintenance of both the one and the other, unless our +tolerance is to be a sham. + +So far all liberal-minded Protestants, who know what Roman Catholicism +is, will be with me; and for the main purposes of the argument contained +in this chapter it is not necessary to interpret toleration in any wider +sense than that which I have indicated. Many Protestants, among whom I +am one, do, it is true, make a further concession to the claim of our +Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen. We would give them in Ireland +facilities for higher education which we would not give them in England, +and we would advocate liberal endowment by the State to this end. But +this attitude is, I admit, based upon something more than tolerance, and +those who would withhold this concession need not be accused of bigotry +or intolerance for so doing. They may be, and often are, actuated by the +most liberal motives, by a perfectly legitimate conception of +educational principles, or by other considerations which are neither of +a narrow nor sectarian character. + +I need hardly say that in criticising religious systems and their +ministers I have not the faintest intention of entering on the +discussion of doctrinal issues. I am, of course, here concerned with +only those aspects of the religious situation which bear directly on +secular life. I am endeavouring, it must be remembered, to arrive at a +comprehensive and accurate appreciation of the chief influences which +mould the character, guide the thought, and, therefore, direct the +action of the Irish people as citizens of this world and of their own +country. From this standpoint let us try to make a dispassionate survey +of Protestantism and Roman Catholicism in Ireland, and see wherein +their votaries fulfil, or fail to fulfil, their mission in advancing our +common civilisation. Let us examine, in a word, not merely the direct +influence which the creed of each of the two sections of Irishmen +produces on the industrial character of its adherents, but also its +indirect effects upon the mutual relations and regard for each other of +Protestants and Roman Catholics. + +Protestantism has its stronghold in the great industrial centres of the +North and among the Presbyterian farmers of five or six Ulster counties. +These communities, it is significant to note, have developed the +essentially strenuous qualities which, no doubt, they brought from +England and Scotland. In city life their thrift, industry, and +enterprise, unsurpassed in the United Kingdom, have built up a +world-wide commerce. In rural life they have drawn the largest yield +from relatively infertile soil. Such, in brief, is the achievement of +Ulster Protestantism in the realm of industry. It is a story of which, +when a united Ireland becomes more than a dream, all Irishmen will be +proud. + +But there is, unhappily, another side to the picture. This industrial +life, otherwise so worthily cultivated, is disturbed by manifestations +of religious bigotry which sadly tarnish the glory of the really heroic +deeds they are intended to commemorate. It is impossible for any close +observer of these deplorable exhibitions to avoid the conclusion that +the embers of the old fires are too often fanned by men who are +actuated by motives, which, when not other than religious, are certainly +based upon an unworthy conception of religion. I am quite aware that it +is only a small and decreasing minority of my co-religionists who are +open to the charge of intolerance, and that the geographical limits of +the July orgy are now strictly circumscribed. But this bigotry is so +notorious, as for instance in the exclusion of Roman Catholics from many +responsible positions, that it unquestionably reacts most unfavourably +upon the general relations between the two creeds throughout the whole +of Ireland. The existence of such a spirit of suspicion and hatred, from +whatever motive it emanates, is bound to retard our progress as a people +towards the development of a healthy and balanced national life. + +Many causes have recently contributed to the unhappy continuance of +sectarian animosities in Ireland. The Ritualistic movement and the +struggle over the Education Bill in England, the renewed controversy on +the University Question in Ireland, instances of bigotry towards +Protestants displayed by County, District, and Urban Councils in the +three southern provinces of Ireland, the formation of the Catholic +Association, the question of the form of the King's oath, and, more +remotely, the protest against clericalism in such Roman Catholic +countries as France and Austria, have one and all helped to keep alive +the flame of anti-Roman feeling among Irish Protestants.[16] + +There are, happily, other influences now at work in a contrary +direction. Among the industrial leaders a better spirit prevails. A +well-known Ulster manufacturer told me recently that only a few years +ago, when an applicant for employment appeared at certain Northern +factories, which my friend named, the first question always put was, +'Are you a Protestant or Roman Catholic?' Now, he said, it is not what a +man believes, but what he can do, which is considered when engaging +workers. And outside the cities there are most gratifying signs of +better relations between the two creeds. We are on the eve of the +creation of a peasant proprietary, involving the rehabilitation of rural +life, and one essential condition of the successful inauguration of the +new agrarian order is the elimination of anything approaching to +sectarian bitterness in communities which will require every advantage +derivable from joint deliberation and common effort to enable them to +hold their own against foreign competition. I recall a trivial but +significant incident in the course of my Irish work which left a deep +impression on my mind. After attending a meeting of farmers in a very +backward district in the extreme west of Mayo, I arrived one winter's +evening at the Roman Catholic priest's house. Before the meeting I had +been promised a cup of tea, which, after a long, cold drive, was more +than acceptable. When I presented myself at the priest's house, what was +my astonishment at finding the Protestant clergyman presiding over a +steaming urn and a plate of home-made cakes, having been requested to do +the honours by his fellow-minister, who had been called away to a sick +bed. A cycle of homilies on the virtue of tolerance could add nothing to +the simple lesson which these two clergymen gave to the adherents of +both their creeds. I felt as I went on my way that night that I had had +a glimpse into the kind of future for Ireland towards which my +fellow-workers are striving. + +It is, however, with the religion of the majority of the Irish people +and with its influence upon the industrial character of its adherents +that I am chiefly concerned. Roman Catholicism strikes an outsider as +being in some of its tendencies non-economic, if not actually +anti-economic. These tendencies have, of course, much fuller play when +they act on a people whose education has (through no fault of their own) +been retarded or stunted. The fact is not in dispute, but the difficulty +arises when we come to apportion the blame between ignorance on the part +of the people and a somewhat one-sided religious zeal on the part of +large numbers of their clergy. I do not seek to do so with any precision +here. I am simply adverting to what has appeared to me, in the course of +my experience in Ireland, to be a defect in the industrial character of +Roman Catholics which, however caused, seems to me to have been +intensified by their religion. The reliance of that religion on +authority, its repression of individuality, and its complete shifting of +what I may call the moral centre of gravity to a future existence--to +mention no other characteristics--appear to me calculated, unless +supplemented by other influences, to check the growth of the qualities +of initiative and self-reliance, especially amongst a people whose lack +of education unfits them for resisting the influence of what may present +itself to such minds as a kind of fatalism with resignation as its +paramount virtue. + +It is true that one cannot expect of any church or religion, as a +condition of its acceptance, that it will furnish an economic theory; +and it is also true that Roman Catholicism has, at different periods of +history, advantageously affected economic conditions, even if it did not +act from distinctively economic motives--for example, by its direct +influence in the suppression of slavery[17] and its creation of the +mediaeval craft guilds. It may, too, be admitted that during the Middle +Ages, when Roman Catholicism was freer than now to manifest its +influence in many directions, owing to its practically unchallenged +supremacy, it favoured, when it did not originate, many forms of sound +economic activity, and was, to say the least, abreast of the time in its +conception of the working of economic causes. But from the time when +the Reformation, by its demand for what we Protestants conceive to be a +simpler Christianity, drove Roman Catholicism back, if I may use the +expression, on its first line of defence, and constrained it to look to +its distinctively spiritual heritage, down to the present day, it has +seemed to stand strangely aloof from any contact with industrial and +economic issues. When we consider that in this period Adam Smith lived +and died, the industrial revolution was effected, and the world-market +opened, it is not surprising that we do not find Roman Catholic +countries in the van of economic progress, or even the Roman Catholic +element in Protestant countries, as a rule, abreast of their +fellow-countrymen. It would, however, be an error to ignore some notable +exceptions to this generalisation. In Belgium, in France, in parts of +Germany and Austria, and in the north of Italy economic thought is +making headway amongst Roman Catholics, and the solution of social +problems is being advanced by Roman Catholic laymen and clergymen. Even +in these countries, however, much remains to be done. The revolution in +the industrial order, and its consequences, such as the concentration of +immense populations within restricted areas, have brought with them +social and moral evils that must be met with new weapons. In the +interests of religion itself, principles first expounded to a Syrian +community with the most elementary physical needs and the simplest of +avocations, have to be taught in their application to the conditions of +the most complex social organisation and economic life. Taking people +as we find them, it may be said with truth that their lives must be +wholesome before they can be holy, and while a voluntary asceticism may +have its justification, it behoves a Church to see that its members, +while fully acknowledging the claims of another life, should develop the +qualities which make for well-being in this life. In fact, I believe +that the influence of Christianity upon social progress will be best +maintained by co-ordinating these spiritual and economic ideals in a +philosophy of life broader and truer than any to which the nations have +yet attained. + +What I have just been saying with regard to Roman Catholicism generally, +in relation to economic doctrines and industrial progress, applies, of +course, with a hundred fold pertinence to the case of Ireland. Between +the enactment of the first Penal Laws and the date of Roman Catholic +Emancipation, Irish Roman Catholics were, to put it mildly, afforded +scant opportunity, in their own country, of developing economic virtues +or achieving industrial success. Ruthlessly deprived of education, are +they to be blamed if they did not use the newly acquired facilities to +the best advantage? With their religion looked on as the badge of legal +and social inferiority, was it any wonder that priests and people alike, +while clinging with unexampled fidelity to their creed, remained +altogether cut off from the current of material prosperity? Excluded, as +they were, not merely from social and political privileges, but from the +most ordinary civil rights, denied altogether the right of ownership of +real property, and restricted in the possession of personalty, is it +any wonder that they are not to-day in the van of industrial and +commercial progress? Nay, more, was it to have been expected that the +character of a people so persecuted and ostracised should have come out +of the ordeal of centuries with its adaptability and elasticity +unimpaired? That would have been impossible. Those who are intimate with +the Roman Catholic people of Ireland, and at the same time familiar with +their history, will recognise in their character and mental outlook many +an inheritance of that epoch of serfdom. I speak, of course, of the +mass, for I am not unmindful of many exceptions to this generalisation. + +But I must now pass on to a more definite consideration of the present +action and attitude of the Irish Roman Catholic clergy towards the +economic, educational, and other issues discussed in this book. The +reasons which render such a consideration necessary are obvious. Even if +we include Ulster, three quarters of the Irish people are Roman +Catholics, while, excluding the Northern province, quite nine-tenths of +the population belong to that religion. Again, the three thousand +clergymen of that denomination exercise an influence over their flocks +not merely in regard to religious matters, but in almost every phase of +their lives and conduct, which is, in its extent and character, quite +unique, even, I should say, amongst Roman Catholic communities. To a +Protestant, this authority seems to be carried very far beyond what the +legitimate influence of any clergy over the lay members of their +congregation should be. We are, however, dealing with a national life +explicable only by reference to a very exceptional and gloomy history of +religious persecution. What I may call the secular shortcomings of the +Roman Catholics in Ireland cannot be fairly judged except as the results +of a series of enactments by which they were successively denied almost +all means of succeeding as citizens of this world. + +From such study as I have been able to give to the history of their +Church, I have come to the conclusion that the immense power of the +Irish Roman Catholic clergy has been singularly little abused. I think +it must be admitted that they have not exhibited in any marked degree +bigotry towards Protestants. They have not put obstacles in the way of +the Roman Catholic majority choosing Protestants for political leaders, +and it is significant that refugees, such as the Palatines, from +Catholic persecutions in Europe, found at different times a home amongst +the Roman Catholic people of Ireland. My own experience, too, if I may +again refer to that, distinctly proves that it is no disadvantage to a +man to be a Protestant in Irish political life, and that where +opposition is shown to him by Roman Catholics it is almost invariably on +political, social, or agrarian, but not on religious grounds. + +A charge of another kind has of late been often brought against the +Roman Catholic clergy, which has a direct bearing upon the economic +aspect of this question. Although, as I read Irish history, the Roman +Catholic priesthood have, in the main, used their authority with +personal disinterestedness, if not always with prudence or discretion, +their undoubted zeal for religion has, on occasion, assumed forms which +enlightened Roman Catholics, including high dignitaries of that Church, +think unjustifiable on economic grounds, and discourage even from a +religious standpoint. Excessive and extravagant church-building in the +heart and at the expense of poor communities is a recent and notorious +example of this misdirected zeal. It has been, I believe, too often +forgotten that the best monument of any clergyman's influence and +earnestness must always be found in the moral character and the +spiritual fibre of his flock, and not in the marbles and mosaics of a +gaudy edifice. And without doubt a good many motives which have but a +remote connection with religion are, unfortunately, at work in the +church-building movement. It may, however, to some extent, be regarded +as an extreme re-action from the penal times, when the hunted _soggarth_ +had to celebrate the Mass in cabins and caves on the mountain side--a +re-action the converse of which was witnessed in Protestant England when +Puritanism rose up against Anglicanism in the seventeenth century. This +expenditure, however, has been incurred; and, no one, I take it, would +advocate the demolition of existing religious edifices on the ground +that their erection had been unduly costly! The moral is for the present +and the future, and applies not merely to economy in new buildings, but +also in the decoration of existing churches.[18] + +But it is not alone extravagant church building which in a country so +backward as Ireland, shocks the economic sense. The multiplication--in +inverse ratio to a declining population--of costly and elaborate +monastic and conventual institutions, involving what in the aggregate +must be an enormous annual expenditure for maintenance, is difficult to +reconcile with the known conditions of the country. Most of these +institutions, it is true, carry on educational work, often, as in the +case of the Christian Brothers and some colleges and convents, of an +excellent kind. Many of them render great services to the poor, and +especially to the sick poor. But, none the less, it seems to me, their +growth in number and size is anomalous. I cannot believe that so large +an addition to the 'unproductive' classes is economically sound, and I +have no doubt at all that the competition with lay teachers of celibates +'living in community' is excessive and educationally injurious. Strongly +as I hold the importance of religion in education, I personally do not +think that teachers who have renounced the world and withdrawn from +contact with its stress and strain are the best moulders of the +characters of youths who will have to come into direct conflict with the +trials and temptations of life. But here again we must accept the +situation and work with the instruments ready to hand. The practical and +statesmanlike action for all those concerned is to endeavour to render +these institutions as efficient educational agencies as may be possible. +They owe their existence largely to the gaps in the educational system +of this country which religious and political strife have produced and +maintained, and they deserve the utmost credit for endeavouring to +supply missing steps in our educational ladder.[19] If they now fully +respond to the spirit of the new movements and meet the demand for +technical education by the employment of the most approved methods and +equipment, and by the thorough training on sound lines of their staffs, +it is impossible that their influence on the young generation should not +be as salutary as it will be wide-reaching. + +But, after all, these criticisms are, for the purposes of my argument, +of minor relevance and importance. The real matter in which the direct +and personal responsibility of the Roman Catholic clergy seems to me to +be involved, is the character and _morale_ of the people of this +country. No reader of this book will accuse me of attaching too little +weight to the influence of historical causes on the present state, +social, economic and political, of Ireland, but even when I have given +full consideration to all such influences I still think that, with their +unquestioned authority in religion, and their almost equally undisputed +influence in education, the Roman Catholic clergy cannot be exonerated +from some responsibility in regard to Irish character as we find it +to-day. Are they, I would ask, satisfied with that character? I cannot +think so. The impartial observer will, I fear, find amongst a majority +of our people a striking absence of self-reliance and moral courage; an +entire lack of serious thought on public questions; a listlessness and +apathy in regard to economic improvement which amount to a form of +fatalism; and, in backward districts, a survival of superstition, which +saps all strength of will and purpose--and all this, too, amongst a +people singularly gifted by nature with good qualities of mind and +heart. + +Nor can the Roman Catholic clergy altogether console themselves with the +thought that religious faith, even when free from superstition, is +strong in the breasts of the people. So long, no doubt, as Irish Roman +Catholics remain at home, in a country of sharply defined religious +classes, and with a social environment and a public opinion so +preponderatingly stamped with their creed, open defections from Roman +Catholicism are rare. But we have only to look at the extent of the +'leakage' from Roman Catholicism amongst the Irish emigrants in the +United States and in Great Britain, to realise how largely emotional and +formal must be the religion of those who lapse so quickly in a +non-Catholic atmosphere.[20] + +It is not, of course, to the causes of the defections from a creed to +which I do not subscribe that my criticism is directed. I refer to the +matter only in order to emphasise the large share of responsibility +which belongs to the Roman Catholic clergy for what I strongly believe +to be the chief part in the work of national regeneration, the part +compared with which all legislative, administrative, educational or +industrial achievements are of minor importance. Holding, as I do, that +the building of character is the condition precedent to material, social +and intellectual advancement, indeed to all national progress, I may, +perhaps, as a lay citizen, more properly criticise, from this point of +view, what I conceive to be the great defect in the methods of clerical +influence. For this purpose no better illustration could be afforded +than a brief analysis of the results of the efforts made by the Roman +Catholic clergy to inculcate temperance. + +Among temperance advocates--the most earnest of all reformers--the Roman +Catholic clergy have an honourable record. An Irish priest was the +greatest, and, for a brief spell, the most successful temperance apostle +of the last century, and statistics, it is only fair to say, show that +we Irish drink rather less than people in other parts of the United +Kingdom. But the real question is whether we more often drink to +intoxication, and police statistics as well as common experience seem to +disclose that we do. Many a temperate man drinks more in his life than +many a village drunkard. Again, the test of the average consumption of +man, woman and child is somewhat misleading, especially in Ireland +where, owing to the excessive emigration of adults, there is a +disproportionately large number of very young and old. Moreover, we +Irish drink more in proportion to our means than the English, Scotch, +and Welsh, whose consumption is absolutely larger. Anyone who attempts +to deal practically with the problems of industrial development in +Ireland realises what a terribly depressing influence the drink evil +exercises upon the industrial capacity of the people. 'Ireland sober is +Ireland free,' is nearer the truth, than much that is thought and most +of what is said about liberty in this country. + +Now, the drink habit in Ireland differs from that of the other parts of +the United Kingdom. The Irishman is, in my belief, physiologically less +subject to the craving for alcohol than the Englishman, a fact which is +partially attributable, I should say, to the less animal dietary to +which he is accustomed. By far the greater proportion of the drinking +which retards our progress is of a festive character. It takes place at +fairs and markets, sometimes, even yet, at 'wakes,' those ghastly +parodies on the blessed consolation of religion in bereavement. It is +intensified by the almost universal sale of liquor in the country shops +'for consumption on the premises,' an evil the demoralising effects of +which are an hundredfold greater than those of the 'grocer's licences' +which temperance reformers so strenuously denounce. It is an evil in +defence of which nothing can be said, but it has somehow escaped the +effective censure of the Church. + +The indiscriminate granting of licences in Ireland, which has resulted +in the provision of liquor shops in a proportion to the population +larger than is found in any other country, is in itself due mainly to +the moral cowardice of magistrates, who do not care to incur local +unpopularity by refusing licences for which there is no pretence of any +need beyond that of the applicant and his relatives. Not long ago the +magistrates of Ireland met in Dublin in order to inaugurate common +action in dealing with this scandal. Appropriate resolutions were +passed, and much good has already resulted from the meeting, but had the +unvarnished truth been admissible, the first and indeed the only +necessary resolution should have run, "Resolved that in future we be +collectively as brave as we have been individually timid, and that we +take heart of grace and carry away from this meeting sufficient strength +to do, in the exercise of our functions as the licensing authority, what +we have always known to be our plain duty to our country and our God." +No such resolution was proposed, for though patriotism is becoming real +in Ireland, it is not yet very robust. + +I do not think it unfair to insist upon the large responsibility of the +clergy for the state of public opinion in this matter, to which the few +facts I have cited bear testimony. But I attribute their failure to deal +with a moral evil of which they are fully cognisant to the fact that +they do not recognise the chief defect in the character of the people, +and to a misunderstanding of the means by which that character can be +strengthened. There are, however, exceptions to this general statement. +It is of happy augury for the future of Ireland that many of the clergy +are now leading a temperance movement which shows a real knowledge of +the _causa causans_ of Irish intemperance. The Anti-Treating League, as +it is called, administers a novel pledge which must have been conceived +in a very understanding mind. Those enlisted undertake neither to treat +nor to be treated. They may drink, so far as the pledge is concerned, as +much as they like; but they must drink at their own expense; and others +must not drink at their expense. The good nature and sociability of +Irishmen, too often the mere result of inability to say 'no,' need not +be sacrificed. But even if they were, the loss of these social graces +would be far more than compensated by a self-respect and seriousness of +life out of which something permanent might be built. Still, even this +League makes no direct appeal to character, and so acts rather as a cure +for than as a preventive of our moral weakness. + +The methods by which clerical influence is wielded in the inculcation of +chastity may be criticised from exactly the same standpoint as that from +which I have found it necessary to deal with the question of temperance. +Here the success of the Irish priesthood is, considering the conditions +of peasant life, and the fire of the Celtic temperament, absolutely +unique. No one can deny that almost the entire credit of this moral +achievement belongs to the Roman Catholic clergy. It may be said that +the practice of a virtue, even if the motive be of an emotional kind, +becomes a habit, and that habit proverbially develops into a second +nature. With this view of moral evolution I am in entire accord; but I +would ask whether the evolution has not reached a stage where a gradual +relaxation of the disciplinary measures by which chastity is insured +might be safely allowed without any danger of lowering the high standard +of continence which is general in Ireland and which of course it is of +supreme importance to maintain. + +There are, however, many parishes where in this matter the strictest +discipline is rigorously enforced Amusements, not necessarily or even +often vicious, are objected to as being fraught with dangers which would +never occur to any but the rigidly ascetic or the puritanical mind. In +many parishes the Sunday cyclist will observe the strange phenomenon of +a normally light-hearted peasantry marshalled in male and female groups +along the road, eyeing one another in dull wonderment across the +forbidden space through the long summer day. This kind of discipline, +unless when really necessary, is open to the objection that it +eliminates from the education of life, especially during the formative +years, an essential of culture--the mutual understanding of the sexes. +The evil of grafting upon secular life a quasi-monasticism which, not +being voluntary, has no real effect upon the character, may perhaps +involve moral consequences little dreamed of by the spiritual guardians +of the people. A study of the pathology of the emotions might throw +doubt upon the safety of enforced asceticism when unaccompanied by the +training which the Church wisely prescribes for those who take the vow +of celibacy. But of my own knowledge I can speak only of another aspect +of the effect upon our national life of the restrictions to which I +refer. No Irishmen are more sincerely desirous of staying the tide of +emigration than the Roman Catholic clergy, and while, wisely as I think, +they do not dream of a wealthy Ireland, they earnestly work for the +physical and material as well as the spiritual well-being of their +flocks. And yet no man can get into the confidence of the emigrating +classes without being told by them that the exodus is largely due to a +feeling that the clergy are, no doubt from an excellent motive, taking +joy--innocent joy--from the social side of the home life. + +To go more fully into these subjects might carry me beyond the proper +limits of lay criticism. But, clearly, large questions of clerical +training must suggest themselves to those to whom their discussion +properly belongs--whether, for example, there is not in the instances +which I have cited evidence of a failure to understand that mere +authority in the regions of moral conduct cannot have any abiding +effect, except in the rarest combination of circumstances, and with a +very primitive people. Do not many of these clergy ignore the vast +difference between the ephemeral nature of moral compulsion and the +enduring force of a real moral training? + +I have dealt with the exercise of clerical influence in these matters as +being, at any rate in relation to the subject matter of this book, far +more important than the evil commonly described as "The Priest in +Politics." That evil is, in my opinion, greatly misrepresented. The +cases of priests who take an improper part in politics are cited without +reference to the vastly greater number who take no part at all, except +when genuinely assured that a definite moral issue is at stake. I also +have in my mind the question of how we should have fared if the control +of the different Irish agitations had been confined to laymen, and if +the clergy had not consistently condemned secret associations. But +whatever may be said in defence of the priest in politics in the past, +there are the strongest grounds for deprecating a continuance of their +political activity in the future. As I gauge the several forces now +operating in Ireland, I am convinced that if an anti-clerical movement +similar to that which other Roman Catholic countries have witnessed, +were to succeed in discrediting the priesthood and lowering them in +public estimation, it would be followed by a moral, social, and +political degradation which would blight, or at least postpone, our +hopes of a national regeneration. From this point of view I hold that +those clergymen who are predominantly politicians endanger the moral +influence which it is their solemn duty to uphold. I believe however, +that the over-active part hitherto taken in politics by the priests is +largely the outcome of the way in which Roman Catholics were treated in +the past, and that this undesirable feature in Irish life will yield, +and is already yielding to the removal of the evils to which it owed its +origin and in some measure its justification.[21] + +One has only to turn to the spirit and temper of such representative +Roman Catholics as Archbishop Healy and Dr. Kelly, Bishop of Ross--to +their words and to their deeds--in order to catch the inspiration of a +new movement amongst our Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen at once +religious and patriotic. And if my optimism ever wavers, I have but to +think of the noble work that many priests are to my own knowledge +doing, often in remote and obscure parishes, in the teeth of innumerable +obstacles. I call to mind at such times, as pioneers in a great +awakening, men like the eminent Jesuit, Father Thomas Finlay, Father +Hegarty of Erris, Father O'Donovan of Loughrea, and many others--men +with whom I have worked and taken counsel, and who represent, I believe, +an ever increasing number of their fellow priests.[22] + +My position, then, towards the influence of the Roman Catholic +clergy--and this influence is a matter of vital importance to the +understanding of Irish problems--- may now be clearly defined. While +recognising to the full that large numbers of the Irish Roman Catholic +clergy have in the past exercised undue influence in purely political +questions, and, in many other matters, social, educational, and +economic, have not, as I see things, been on the side of progress, I +hold that their influence is now, more than ever before, essential for +improving the condition of the most backward section of the population. +Therefore I feel it to be both the duty and the strong interest of my +Protestant fellow-countrymen to think much less of the religious +differences which divide them from Roman Catholics, and much more of +their common citizenship and their common cause. I also hold with equal +strength and sincerity to the belief, which I have already expressed, +that the shortcomings of the Roman Catholic clergy are largely to be +accounted for, not by any innate tendency on their part towards +obscurantism, but by the sad history of Ireland in the past. I would +appeal to those of my co-religionists who think otherwise to suspend +their judgment for a time. That Roman Catholicism is firmly established +in Ireland is a fact of the situation which they must admit, and as this +involves the continued powerful influence of the priesthood upon the +character of the people, it is surely good policy by liberality and fair +dealing, especially in the matter of education, to turn this influence +towards the upbuilding of our national life. + +To sum up the influence of religion and religious controversy in +Ireland, as it presents itself from the only standpoint from which I +have approached the matter in this chapter, namely, that of material, +social, and intellectual progress, I find that while the Protestants +have given, and continue to give, a fine example of thrift and industry +to the rest of the nation, the attitude of a section of them towards the +majority of their fellow-countrymen has been a bigoted and unintelligent +one. On the other hand, I have learned from practical experience amongst +the Roman Catholic people of Ireland that, while more free from bigotry, +in the sense in which that word is usually applied, they are apathetic, +thriftless, and almost non-industrial, and that they especially require +the exercise of strengthening influences on their moral fibre. I have +dealt with their shortcomings at much greater length than with those of +Protestants, because they have much more bearing on the subject matter +of this book. North and South have each virtues which the other lacks; +each has much to learn from the other; but the home of the strictly +civic virtues and efficiencies is in Protestant Ireland. The work of the +future in Ireland will be to break down in social intercourse the +barriers of creed as well as those of race, politics, and class, and +thus to promote the fruitful contact of North and South, and the +concentration of both on the welfare of their common country. In the +case of those of us, of whatever religious belief, who look to a future +for our country commensurate with the promise of her undeveloped +resources both of intellect and soil, it is of the essence of our hope +that the qualities which are in great measure accountable for the actual +economic and educational backwardness of so many of our +fellow-countrymen, and for the intolerance of too many who are not +backward in either respect, are not purely racial or sectarian, but are +the transitory growth of days and deeds which we must all try to forget +if our work for Ireland is to endure. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[16] The reproach which is brought upon Irish Christianity mainly by the +extravagances of a section of my co-religionists, to which I have been +obliged to refer, came home to me not long ago in a very forcible way. I +happened to remark to a friend that it was a disgrace to Christianity +that Mussulman soldiery were employed at the Holy Sepulchre to keep the +peace between the Latin and Greek Christians. He reminded me that the +prosperous and progressive municipality of Belfast, with a population +eminently industrious, and predominantly Protestant, has to be policed +by an Imperial force in order to restrain two sections of Irish +Christians from assaulting each other in the name of religion. + +[17] '_Pro salute animae meae_' was, I am reminded, the consideration +usually expressed in the old charters of manumission. + +[18] One of the unfortunate effects of this passion for building costly +churches is the importation of quantities of foreign art-work in the +shape of woodcarvings, stained glass, mosaics, and metal work. To good +foreign art, indeed, one could not, within certain limits, object. It +might prove a valuable example and stimulus. But the articles which have +actually been imported, in the impulse to get everything finished as +soon as possible, generally consist of the stock pieces produced in a +spirit of mere commercialism in the workshops of Continental firms which +make it their business to cater for a public who do not know the +difference between good art and bad. Much of the decoration of +ecclesiastical buildings, whether Roman Catholic or Protestant, might +fittingly be postponed until religion in Ireland has got into closer +relation with the native artistic sense and industrial spirit now +beginning to seek creative expression. + +[19] The following extract from a statement of the Most Rev. Dr. O'Dea, +the newly elected Bishop of Clonfert, is pertinent:--'There is another +cause also--i.e. in addition to the absence of university education for +Roman Catholic laymen--which has hindered the employment of the laity in +the past. Till very recently, the secondary Catholic schools received no +assistance whatever from the State, and their endowment from private +sources was utterly inadequate to supply suitable remuneration for lay +teachers. It is evident that a celibate clergy _can_ live on a lower +wage than the laity, and they are now charged with having monopolized +the schools, because they chose to work for a minimum allowance rather +than suffer the country to remain without any secondary education +whatever. Two causes, then, operated in the past, and in a large measure +still operate, to exclude the laity from the secondary schools,--first, +these schools were so poverty-stricken that they could not afford to pay +lay teachers at such a rate as would attract them to the teaching +profession, and, next, the Catholic laity as a body were uneducated, +and, therefore, unfit to teach in the schools.'--_Maynooth and the +University Question_, p. 109 (footnote). + +[20] See, _inter alia_, an article "Ireland and America," by Rev. Mr. +Shinnors, O.M., in the _Irish Ecclesiastical Record_, February, 1902. +'Has the Church,' asks Father Shinnors, 'increased her membership in the +ratio that the population of the United States has increased? No. There +are many converts, but there are many more apostates. Large numbers +lapse into indifferentism and irreligion. There should be in America +about 20,000,000 Catholics; there are scarcely 10,000,000. There are +reasons to fear that the great majority of the apostates are of Irish +extraction, and not a few of them of Irish birth.' + +[21] This view seems to be taken by the most influential spokesmen of +the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. See Evidence, _Royal Commission on +University Education in Ireland_, vol. iii., p. 238, Questions 8702-6. + +[22] I may mention that of the co-operative societies organised by the +Irish Agricultural Organisation Society there are no fewer than 331 +societies of which the local priests are the Chairmen, while to my own +knowledge during the summer and autumn of 1902, as many as 50,000 +persons from all parts of Ireland were personally conducted over the +exhibit of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction at +the Cork Exhibition by their local clergy. The educational purpose of +these visits is explained in Chap. x. Again, in a great number of cases +the village libraries which have been recently started in Ireland with +the assistance of the Department (the books consisting largely of +industrial, economic, and technical works on agriculture), have been +organised and assisted by the Roman Catholic clergy. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +A PRACTICAL VIEW OF IRISH EDUCATION. + + +A little learning, we are told, is a dangerous thing; and in their +dealings with Irish education the English should have discovered that +this danger is accentuated when the little learning is combined with +much native wit. In the days when religious persecution was +universal--only, be it remembered, a few generations ago--it was the +policy of England to avert this danger by prohibiting, as far as +possible, the acquisition by Irish Roman Catholics of any learning at +all. After the Union, Englishmen began to feel their responsibility for +the state of Ireland, a state of poverty and distress which culminated +in the Famine. Knowledge was then no longer withheld: indeed the English +sincerely desired to dispel our darkness and enable us to share in the +wisdom, and so in the prosperity, of the predominant partner. In their +attempts to educate us they dealt with what they saw on the surface, and +moulded their educational principles upon what they knew; but they did +not know Ireland. Even if we excuse them for paying scant attention to +what they were told by Irishmen, they should have given more heed to the +reports of their own Royal Commissions. + +We have so far seen that the Irish mind has been in regard to +economics, politics, and even some phases of religious influence, a mind +warped and diseased, deprived of good nutrition and fed on fancies or +fictions, out of which no genuine growth, industrial or other, was +possible. The one thing that might have strengthened and saved a people +with such a political, social, and religious history, and such racial +characteristics, was an educational system which would have had special +regard to that history, and which would have been a just expression of +the better mind of the people whom it was intended to serve. + +Now this is exactly what was denied to Ireland. Not merely has all +educational legislation come from England, in the sense of being based +on English models and thought out by Englishmen largely out of touch and +sympathy with the peculiar needs of Ireland, but whenever there has been +genuine native thought on Irish educational problems, it has been either +ignored altogether or distorted till its value and significance were +lost. And in this matter we can claim for Ireland that there was in the +country during the first half of the nineteenth century, when England +was trying her best to provide us with a sound English education, a +comparatively advanced stage of home-grown Irish thought upon the +educational needs of the people. Take, for example, the Society for +Promoting Elementary Education among the Irish Poor, know as the Kildare +Street Society, which was founded as early as the year 1811. The first +resolution passed by this body, which was composed of prominent Dublin +citizens of all religious beliefs, was set out as follows:-- + + (1.) Resolved--That promoting the education of the poor of Ireland + is a grand object which every Irishman anxious for the welfare and + prosperity of his country ought to have in view as the basis upon + which the morals and true happiness of the country can be best + secured. + +This Society, it is true, did not see or foresee that any system of +mixed religious education was doomed to failure in Ireland, but they +took a wide view of the place of education in a nation's development, +and the character of the education which their schools actually +dispensed was admirable. This hopeful and enterprising educational +movement is described by Mr. Lecky in a passage from which I take a few +extracts:-- + + The "Kildare Street Society" which received an endowment from + Government, and directed National education from 1812 to 1831, was + not proselytising, and it was for some time largely patronized by + Roman Catholics. It is certainly by no means deserving of the + contempt which some writers have bestowed on it, and if measured by + the spirit of the time in which it was founded it will appear both + liberal and useful.... The object of the schools was stated to be + united education, "taking common Christian ground for the + foundation, and excluding all sectarian distinctions from every + part of the arrangement;" "drawing the attention of both + denominations to the many leading truths of Christianity in which + they agree." To carry out this principle it was a fundamental rule + that the Bible must be read without note or comment in all the + schools. It might be read either in the Authorized or in the Douay + version.... In 1825 there were 1,490 schools connected with the + Society, containing about 100,000 pupils. The improvements + introduced into education by Bell, Lancaster, and Pestalozzi were + largely adopted. Great attention was paid to needlework.... A great + number of useful publications were printed by the Society, and we + have the high authority of Dr. Doyle for stating that he never + found anything objectionable [to Catholics] in them.[23] + +Take, again, as an evidence of the progressive spirit of the Irish +thinkers on education, the remarkable scheme of national education +which, after the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act, was +formulated by Mr. Thomas Wyse, of Waterford. In addition to elementary +schools, Mr. Wyse proposed to establish in every county, 'an academy for +the education of the middle class of society in those departments of +knowledge most necessary to those classes, and over those a College in +each of the four provinces, managed by a Committee representative of the +interests of the several counties of the provinces.' 'It is a matter of +importance,' wrote Mr. Wyse, 'for the simple and efficient working of +the whole system of national education, that each part should as much as +possible be brought into co-operation and accord with the others.' He +foresaw, too, that one of the needs of the Irish temperament was a +training in science which would cultivate the habits of 'education, +observation, and reasoning,' and he pointed out that the peculiar +manufactures, trades, and occupations of the several localities would +determine the course of studies. Mr. Wyse's memorandum on education led, +as is well known, to the creation of the Board of National Education, +but, to quote Dr. Starkie,[24] the present Resident Commissioner of the +Board, 'the more important part of the scheme, dealing with a university +and secondary education, was shelved, in spite of Mr. Wyse's warnings +that it was imprudent, dangerous, and pernicious to the social condition +of the country, and to its future tranquillity, that so much +encouragement should be given to the education of the lower classes, +without at the same time due provision being made for the education of +the middle and upper classes.' + +As still another evidence of the sound thought on educational problems +which came from Irishmen who knew the actual conditions of their own +country and people, the case of the agricultural instruction +administered by the National Board is pertinent. The late Sir Patrick +Keenan has told us that landlords and others who on political and +religious grounds distrusted the National system, turned to this feature +of the operations of the National Board with the greatest fervour. A +scheme of itinerant instruction in agriculture, which had a curious +resemblance to that which the Department of Agriculture is now +organising, was developed, and was likely to have worked with the +greatest advantage to the country at large. Sir Patrick Keenan, who +knew Ireland and the Irish people well, speaks of this part of the +scheme as 'the most fruitful experiment in the material interests of the +country that was ever attempted. It was,' he adds, 'through the agency +of this corps of practical instructors that green cropping as a +systematic feature in farming was introduced into the South and West, +and even into the central parts of Ireland.' But all the hopes thus +raised went down, not before any intrinsic difficulties in the scheme +itself, or before any adverse opinion to it in Ireland, but before the +opposition of the Liverpool Financial Reform Association, who had their +own views as to the limits of State interference with agriculture. These +examples, drawn from different stages of Irish educational history, +might easily be multiplied, but they will serve as typical instances of +that want of recognition by English statesmen of Irish thought on Irish +problems, and that ignoring of Irish sentiment--as distinguished from +Irish sentimentality--which I insist is the basal element in the +misunderstandings of Irish problems. + +I now come to a brief consideration of some facts of the present +educational situation, and I shall indicate, for those readers who are +not familiar with current events in Ireland, the significant evolution, +or revolution, through which Irish education is passing. Within the last +eight years we have had in Ireland three very remarkable reports--in +themselves symptoms of a widespread unrest and dissatisfaction--on the +educational systems of the country. I allude to the reports of two +Viceregal Commissions, one on Manual and Practical Instruction in our +Primary Schools, and the other on our Intermediate Education; and to the +recent report by a Royal Commission on University Education. These +reports cover the three grades of our educational system, and each of +them contains a strong denunciation and a scathing criticism of the +existing provision and methods of instruction in elementary, secondary, +and university education (outside Dublin University), respectively. One +and all showed that the education to be had in our primary and secondary +schools, as well as in the examining body known as the Royal University, +had little regard to the industrial or economic conditions of the +country. We find, for example, agriculture taught out of a text book in +the primary schools, with the result that the _gamins_ of the Belfast +streets secured the highest marks in the subject. In the Intermediate +system are to be found anomalies of a similar kind, which could not long +have survived if there had been a living opinion on educational matters +in Ireland. No careful reader of the evidence given before the +Commissions can fail to see that under our educational system the +schools were practically bribed to fall in with a stereotyped course of +studies which left scant room for elasticity and adaptation to local +needs; that the teacher was, to all intents and purposes, deprived of +healthy initiative; and that the Irish parents must as a body have been +in the dark as to the bearing of their children's studies on their +probable careers in life. A deep and wholesome impression was made in +Ireland by the exposure of the intrinsic evils of a system calculated in +my opinion to turn our youth into a generation of second-rate clerks, +with a distinct distaste for any industrial or productive occupation in +which such qualities as initiative, self-reliance, or judgment were +called for. + +I am told by competent authorities that there is not a single +educational principle laid down in either the report on Manual +Instruction or on Intermediate Education, which was not known and +applied at least half a century ago in continental countries. In fact, +in the Recess Committee investigations, as any reader of the report of +that body can see for himself, the Committee, guided by foreign +experience, foreshadowed practically every reform now being put into +operation. It is better, of course, that we should reform late than +never, but it is well to bear in mind also, so far as the problems of +this book are concerned, how far the education of the country has fallen +short of any sound standard, and how little could have been expected +from the working of our system. The curve of Irish illiteracy has indeed +fallen continuously with each succeeding census, but true education as +opposed to mere instruction has languished sadly. + +Together with my friends and fellow-workers in the self-help movement, I +believe that the problem of Irish education, like all other Irish +problems, must be reconsidered from the standpoint of its relation to +the practical affairs and everyday life of the people of Ireland. The +needs and opportunities of the industrial struggle must, in fact, mould +into shape our educational policy and programmes. We are convinced that +there is little hope of any real solution of the more general problem of +national education, unless and until those in direct contact with the +specific industries of the country succeed in bringing to the notice of +those engaged in the framing of our educational system the kind and +degree of the defects in the industrial character of our people which +debar them from successful competition with other countries. Education +in Ireland has been too long a thing apart from the economic realities +of the country--with what result we know. In the work of the Department +of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, an attempt is +being made to establish a vital relation between industrial education +and industrial life. It is desired to try, at this critical stage of our +development, the experiment--I call it an experiment only because it +does not seem to have been tried before in Ireland--of directing our +instruction with a conscious and careful regard to the probable future +careers of those we are educating. + +This attempt touches, of course, only one department of the whole +educational problem, much of which it would be quite outside my present +purpose to discuss. But I must guard against the supposition that in our +insistence upon the importance of the practical side of education we +are under any doubt as to the great importance of the literary side. My +friends and I have been deeply impressed by the educational experience +of Denmark, where the people, who are as much dependent on agriculture +as are the Irish, have brought it by means of organisation to a more +genuine success than it has attained anywhere else in Europe. Yet an +inquirer will at once discover that it is to the "High Schools" founded +by Bishop Grundtvig, and not to the agricultural schools, which are also +excellent, that the extraordinary national progress is mainly due. A +friend of mine who was studying the Danish system of State aid to +agriculture, found this to be the opinion of the Danes of all classes, +and was astounded at the achievements of the associations of farmers, +not only in the manufacture of butter, but in a far more difficult +undertaking, the manufacture of bacon in large factories equipped with +all the most modern machinery and appliances which science had devised +for the production of the finished article. He at first concluded that +this success in a highly technical industry by bodies of farmers +indicated a very perfect system of technical education. But he soon +found another cause. As one of the leading educators and agriculturists +of the country put it to him: 'It's not technical instruction, it's the +humanities.' I would like to add that it is also, if I may coin a term, +the 'nationalities,' for nothing is more evident to the student of +Danish education or, I might add, of the excellent system of the +Christian Brothers in Ireland, than that one of the secrets of their +success is to be found in their national basis and their foundation +upon the history and literature of the country. + +To sum up the educational situation in Ireland, it is not too much to +say that all our forms of education, technical and general, hang loose. +We lack a body of trained teachers; we have no alert and informed public +opinion on education and its function in regard to life; and there is no +proper provision for research work in all branches, a deficiency, which, +I am told by those who have given deep thought and long study to these +problems, inevitably reacts most disastrously on the general educational +system of the country. This state of things appears not unnatural when +we remember that the Penal Laws were not repealed till almost the close +of the eighteenth century, and that a large majority of the Irish people +had not full and free access to even primary and secondary education +until the passing of the Emancipation Act in 1829. At the present day, +the absence of any provision for higher education of which Roman +Catholics will avail themselves is not merely an enormous loss in +itself, but it reacts most adversely upon the whole educational +machinery, and consequently upon the whole public life and thought of +that section of the nation. + +One of the very first things I had to learn when I came into direct +touch with educational problems, was that the education of a country +cannot be divided into water-tight compartments, and each part +legislated for or discussed solely on its merits and without reference +to the other parts. I see now very clearly that the educational system +of a country is an organic whole, the working of any part of which +necessarily has an influence on the working of the rest. I had always +looked upon the lower, secondary, and higher grades as the first, +second, and third storeys of the educational house, and I am not quite +sure that I attached sufficient importance to the staircase. My view has +now changed, and I find myself regarding the University as a foundation +and support of the primary and secondary school. + +It was not on purely pedagogic grounds that I added to my other +political irregularities the earnest advocacy of such a provision for +higher education as Roman Catholics will avail themselves of. This great +need was revealed to me in my study of the Irish mind and of the +direction in which it could look for its higher development. My belief +is based on practical experience; my point of view is that of the +economist. When the new economic mission in Ireland began now fourteen +years ago, we had to undertake, in addition to our practical programme, +a kind of University extension work with the important omission of the +University. We had to bring home to adult farmers whose general +education was singularly poor, though their native intelligence was keen +and receptive, a large number of general ideas bearing on the productive +and distributive side of their industry. Our chief obstacles arose from +the lack of trained economic thought among all classes, and especially +among those to whom the majority looked for guidance. The air was thick +with economic fallacies or half-truths. We were, it is true, successful +beyond our expectations in planting in apparently uncongenial soil sound +economic principles. But our success was mainly due, as I shall show +later, to our having used the associative instincts of the Irish peasant +to help out the working of our theories; and we became convinced that if +a tithe of our priests, public men, national school teachers, and +members of our local bodies had received a university education, we +should have made much more rapid progress. + +I hardly know how to describe the mental atmosphere in which we were +working. It would be no libel upon the public opinion upon which we +sought to make an impression to say that it really allowed no question +to be discussed on its merits. Public opinion on social and economic +questions is changing now, but I cannot associate the change with any +influence emanating from institutions of higher education. In other +countries, so far as my investigations have extended, the universities +do guide economic thought and have a distinct though wholly unofficial +function as a court of appeal upon questions relating to the material +progress of the communities amongst which they are situated. Of such +institutions there are in Ireland only two which could be expected to +direct in any large way the thought of the country upon economic and +other important national questions--Maynooth, and Trinity College, +Dublin. Whether in their widely different spheres of influence these two +institutions could, under conditions other than those prevailing, have +so met the requirements of the country as to have obviated what is at +present an urgent necessity for a complete reorganisation of higher +education need not be discussed; but it is essential to my argument that +I should set forth clearly the results of my own observation upon their +influence, or rather lack of influence, upon the people among whom I +have worked. + +The influence of Maynooth, actual and potential, can hardly be +exaggerated, but it is exercised indirectly upon the secular thought of +the country. It is not its function to make a direct impression. It is +in fact only a professional--I had almost said a technical--school. It +trains its students, most admirably I am told, in theology, philosophy, +and the studies subsidiary to these sciences, but always, for the vast +majority of its students, with a distinctly practical and definite +missionary end in view. There is, I believe, an arts course of modest +scope, designed rather to meet the deficiencies of students whose +general education has been neglected than to serve as anything in the +nature of a university arts course. I am quite aware of the value of a +sound training in mental science if given in connection with a full +university course, but I am equally convinced that the Maynooth +education, on the whole, is no substitute for a university course, and +that while its chief end of turning out a large number of trained +priests has been fulfilled, it has not given, and could not be expected +to have given, that broader and more humane culture which only a +university, as distinguished from a professional school, can adequately +provide. + +Moreover, under the Maynooth system young clerics are constantly called +upon to take a part in the life of a lay community, towards which, when +they entered college, they were in no position of responsibility, and +upon which, so far as secular matters are concerned, when they emerge +from their theological training, they are no better adapted to exercise +a helpful influence. In my experience of priests I have met with many in +whom I recognised a sincere desire to attend to the material and social +well-being of their flocks, but who certainly had not that breadth of +view and understanding of human nature which perhaps contact with the +laity during the years in which they were passing from discipline to +authority might have given to them. However this may be, it is clear and +it is admitted that education as opposed to professional training of a +high order is still, generally speaking, a want among the priests of +Ireland, and I look forward to no greater boon from a University or +University College for Roman Catholics than its influence, direct and +indirect, on a body of men whose prestige and authority are necessarily +so unique. + +It is, therefore, to Trinity College, or the University of Dublin, that +one would naturally turn as to a great centre of thought in Ireland for +help in the theoretic aspects, at least, of the practical problems upon +whose successful solution our national well-being depends. Judged by +the not unimportant test of the men it has supplied to the service of +the State and country during its three centuries of educational +activity, by the part it took in one of the brightest epochs of these +three centuries--the days when it gave Grattan to Grattan's Parliament, +by the work and reputation of the _alumni_ it could muster to-day within +and without its walls, our venerable seat of learning need not fear +comparison with any similar institutions in Great Britain. It may also, +of course, be said that many men who have passed through Trinity College +have impressed the thought of Ireland, and, indeed, of the world, in one +way or another--such men as, to take two very different examples, Burke +and Thomas Davis--but on some of the very best spirits amongst these men +Trinity College and its atmosphere have exerted influence rather by +repulsion than by attraction; and certainly their characteristics of +temper or thought have not been of a kind which those best acquainted +with the atmosphere of Trinity College associate with that institution. +Still nothing can detract from the credit of having educated such men. +But these tests and standards are, for my present purpose, irrelevant. I +am not writing a book on Irish educational history, or even a record of +present-day Irish educational achievement. I am rather trying, from the +standpoint of a practical worker for national progress, to measure the +reality and strength of the educational and other influences which are +actually and actively operating on the character and intellect of the +majority of the Irish people, moulding their thought and directing +their action towards the upbuilding of our national life. + +From this point of view I am bound to say that Trinity College, so far +as I have seen, has had but little influence upon the minds or the lives +of the people. Nor can I find that at any period of the extraordinarily +interesting economic and social revolution, which has been in progress +in Ireland since the great catastrophe of the Famine period, Dublin +University has departed from its academic isolation and its aloofness +from the great national problems that were being worked out. The more +one thinks of it, indeed, and the more one realises the opportunities of +an institution like Trinity College in a country like Ireland, the more +one must recognise how small, in recent times, has been its positive +influence on the mind of the country, and how little it has contributed +towards the solution of any of those problems, educational, economic, or +social, that were clamant for solution, and which in any other country +would have naturally secured the attention of men who ought to have been +leaders of thought. + +Whatever the causes, and many may be assigned, this unfortunate lack of +influence on the part of Trinity College, has always seemed to me a +strong supplementary argument for the creation of another University or +University College on a more popular basis, to which the Roman Catholic +people of Ireland would have recourse. From the fact that Maynooth by +its constitution could never have developed into a great national +University,[25] and that Trinity College has never, as a matter of fact, +done so, and has thus, in my opinion, missed a unique opportunity, it +has come about that Ireland has been without any great centre of thought +whose influence would have tended to leaven the mass of mental +inactivity or random-thinking so prevalent in Ireland, and would have +created a body of educated public opinion sufficiently informed and +potent to secure the study and discussion on their merits of questions +of vital interest to the country. The demoralising atmosphere of +partisanship which hangs over Ireland would, I am convinced, gradually +give way before an organised system of education with a thoroughly +democratic University at its head, which would diffuse amongst the +people at large a sense of the value of a balanced judgment on, and a +true appreciation of, the real forces with which Ireland has to deal in +building up her fortunes. + +To discuss the merits of the different solutions which have been +proposed for the vexed problem of higher education in Ireland would be +beyond the scope of this book. The question will have to be faced, and +all I need do here is to state the conditions which the solution will +have to fulfil if it is to deal with the aspects of the Irish Question +with which the new movement is practically concerned. What is most +needed is a University that will reach down to the rural population, +much in the same way as the Scottish Universities do, and a lower scale +of fees will be required than Trinity College, with its diminished +revenues, could establish. Already I can see that the work of the new +Department, acting in conjunction with local bodies, urban and rural, +throughout the country, will provide a considerable number of +scholarships, bursaries, and exhibitions for young men who are being +prepared to take part in the very real, but rather hazily understood, +industrial revival which is imminent. Leaving sectarian controversies +out of the question, the type of institution which is required in order +to provide adequately for the classes now left outside the influence of +higher education is an institution pre-eminently national in its aims, +and one intimately associated with the new movements making for the +development of our national resources. + +Unfortunately, however, in Ireland, and indeed in England too, there is +a tendency to regard educational institutions almost solely as they will +affect religion. At least it is difficult to arouse any serious interest +in them except from this point of view. I welcome, therefore, the +striking answers given to the queries of Lord Robertson, Chairman of the +University Commission, by Dr. O'Dwyer, the Roman Catholic Bishop of +Limerick, who boldly and wisely placed the question before the country +in the light in which cleric and layman should alike regard it:-- + + _The Chairman_.--(413): "I suppose you believe a Catholic + University, such as you propose, will strengthen Roman Catholicism + in Ireland?"--"It is not easy to answer that; not so easy as it + looks." (414):--"But it won't weaken it, or you would not be + here?"--"It would educate Catholics in Ireland very largely, and, + of course, a religious denomination composed of a body of educated + men is stronger than a religious denomination composed of ignorant + men. In that sense it would strengthen Roman Catholicism." + (415):--"Is there any sense in which it won't?"--"As far as + religion is concerned, I do not know how a University would work + out. If you ask me now whether I think that that University in a + certain number of years would become a centre of thought, + strengthening the Catholic faith in Ireland, I cannot tell you. It + is a leap in the dark." (416):--"But it is in the hope that it will + strengthen your own Church that you propose it?"--"No, it is not, + by any means. We are Bishops, but we are Irishmen, also, and we + want to serve our country."[26] + +Equally significant were the statements of Dr. O'Dea, the official +spokesman of Maynooth, when he said, + + I regard the interest of the laity in the settlement of the + University Question as supreme. The clergy are but a small, however + important, part of the nation, and the laity have never had an + institution of higher education comparable to Maynooth in magnitude + or resources. I recognise, therefore, that the educational + grievances of the laity are much more pressing than those of the + clergy ... It is generally admitted that Irish priests hold a + position of exceptional influence, due to historical causes, the + intensely religious character of the people, and the want of + Catholic laymen qualified by education and position for social and + political leadership. What Bishop Berkeley said of them in 1749, in + his letter, _A Word to the Wise_, still holds true, 'That no set of + men on earth have it in their power to do good on easier terms, + with more advantage to others, and less pains or loss to + themselves.' It would be folly to expect that in a mixed community + the State should do anything to strengthen or perpetuate this + power; but this result will certainly not follow from the more + liberal education of the clergy, provided equal advantages are + extended to the laity. On the contrary, I am convinced that if the + void in the lay leadership of the country be filled up by higher + education of the better classes among the Catholic laity, the power + of the priests, so far as it is abnormal or unnecessary will pass + away; and, further, if I believed, with many who are opposed to the + better education of the priesthood, that their power is based on + falsehood or superstition, I would unhesitatingly advocate the + spread of higher education among the laity and clergy alike, as the + best means of effectually sapping and disintegrating it.[27] + +I had for long indulged a hope that a university of the type which +Ireland requires would have been the outcome of a great national +educational movement emanating from Trinity College, which might, at +this auspicious hour, have surpassed all the proud achievements of its +three hundred years. That hope was dispelled when the cry of 'Hands off +Trinity' was applied to the profane hands of the Royal Commission. +Perhaps that attitude may be reconsidered yet. There is one hopeful +sentiment which is often heard coming from that institution. An opinion +has been strongly expressed that nothing ought to be done to separate in +secular life two sections of Irishmen who happen to belong to different +creeds. Whatever may be the logical outcome of the position taken up +towards the University problem by those who give expression to this +pious opinion, I do not for a moment doubt their sincerity. But I often +think that too much importance is attached to the danger of building new +walls, and that there is too little appreciation of the wide and deep +foundation of the already existing walls between the two sections of +Irishmen who are so unhappily kept apart. In dealing with this, as with +all large Irish problems, it had better be frankly recognised that there +are in the country two races, two creeds, and, what is too little +considered, two separate spheres of economic interest and pursuit. +Socially two separate classes have naturally, nay inevitably, arisen out +of these distinctions. One class has superior advantages in many ways of +great importance. The other class is far more numerous, produces far the +greater proportion of the nation's wealth, and is, therefore, from the +national point of view, of greater importance. But both are necessary. +Both must be adequately provided for in the supreme matter of higher +education. Above all, the two classes must be educated to regard +themselves as united by the bond of a common country--a sentiment which, +if genuine, would treat differences arising from whatever cause, not as +a difficulty in the way of national progress, but rather as affording a +variety of opportunities for national expansion. + +I do not concern myself as to the exact form which the new institution +or institutions which are to give us the absolutely essential advantage +of higher education should take. If in view of the difference in the +requirements to which I have alluded, and the complicated pedagogic and +administrative considerations which have to be taken into account, +schemes of co-education of Protestants and Roman Catholics are difficult +of immediate accomplishment, let that ideal be postponed. The two creeds +can meet in the playground now: they can meet everywhere in after life. +Ireland will bring them together soon enough if Ireland is given a +chance, and when the time is ripe for their coming together in higher +education they will come together. If the time is not now ripe for this +ideal there is no justification for postponing educational reform until +the relations between the two creeds have been elevated to a plane +which, in my opinion, they will never reach except through the aid of +that culture which a widely diffused higher education alone can afford. + + * * * * * + +When I was beginning to write this chapter I chanced to pick up the +_Chesterfield Letters_. I opened the book at the two hundredth epistle, +and, curiously enough, almost the first sentence which caught my eye +ran: 'Education more than nature is the cause of that difference you see +in the character of men.' I felt myself at first in strong disagreement +with this aphorism. But when I came to reflect how much the nature of +one generation must be the outcome of the education of those which went +before it, I gradually came to see the truth in Lord Chesterfield's +words. I must leave it to experts to define the exact steps which ought +to be taken to make the general education of this country capable of +cultivating the judgment, strengthening the will, and so of building up +the character. But every day, every thought, I give to the problems of +Irish progress convinces me more firmly that this is the real task of +educational reform, a task that must be accomplished before we can prove +to those who brand us with racial inferiority that, in Ireland, it was +not nature that has been unkind in causing the difference we find in the +character of men. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[23] _Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland_, II., 122-4. + +[24] _Recent Reforms in Irish Education_, p. 7. + +[25] It was not authorised to give degrees to lay students; and even the +admission of lay students to an Arts course was prohibited by +Government, lest Catholic students should be drawn away from Trinity +College. See Cornwallis Correspondence, III., 366-8. + +[26] Appendix to First Report, p. 37. + +[27] Appendix to Third Report, pp. 283, 296. + + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THROUGH THOUGHT TO ACTION. + + +I have now completed my survey of the main conditions which, in my +opinion, must be taken into account by anyone who would understand the +Irish mind, and still more by those who seek to work with it in +rebuilding the fortunes of the country. The task has been one of great +difficulty, as it was necessary to tell, not only the truth--for that +even an official person may be excused--but also the whole truth, which, +unless made compulsory by the kissing of the book, is regarded as a +gratuitous kissing of the rod. From the frying pan of political dispute, +I have passed into the fire of sectarian controversy. I have not +hesitated to poach on the preserves of historians and economists, and +have even bearded the pedagogues in their dens. Before my stock of +metaphors is exhausted, let me say that I have one hope of escape from +the cross-fire of denunciation which independent speaking about Ireland +is apt to provoke. I once witnessed a football match between two +villages, one of which favoured a political party called by the name of +a leader, with an 'ism' added to indicate a policy, the other adopting +the same name, still further elongated by the prefix 'anti.' When I +arrived on the scene the game had begun in deadly earnest, but I noticed +the ball lying unmolested in another quarter of the field. In Irish +public life I have often had reason to envy that ball, and perhaps now +its lot may be mine, while the game goes on and the critics pay +attention to each other. + +To my friendly critics a word of explanation is due. The opinions to +which I have given expression are based upon personal observation and +experience extending over a quarter of a century during which I have +been in close touch with Irish life at home, and not unfamiliar with it +abroad. I have referred to history only when I could not otherwise +account for social and economic conditions with which I came into +contact, or with which I desired practically to deal. Whether looking +back over the dreary wastes of Anglo-Irish history, or studying the men +and things of to-day, I came to conclusions which differed widely from +what I had been taught to believe by those whose theories of Irish +development had not been subjected to any practical test. Deeply as I +have felt for the past sufferings of the Irish people and their heritage +of disability and distress, I could not bring myself to believe that, +where misgovernment had continued so long, and in such an immense +variety of circumstances and conditions, the governors could have been +alone to blame. I envied those leaders of popular thought whose +confidence in themselves and in their followers was shaken by no such +reflections. But the more I listened to them the more the conviction was +borne in upon me that they were seeking to build an impossible future +upon an imaginary past. + +Those who know Ireland from within are aware that Irish thought upon +Irish problems has been undergoing a silent, and therefore too lightly +regarded revolution. The surface of Irish life, often so inexplicably +ruffled, and sometimes so inexplicably calm, has just now become smooth +to a degree which has led to hasty conclusions as to the real cause and +the inward significance of the change. To chime in with the thoughtless +optimism of the hour will do no good; but a real understanding of the +forces which have created the existing situation will reveal an +unprecedented opportunity for those who would give to the Irish mind +that full and free development which has been so long and, as I have +tried to show, so unnaturally delayed. + +Among these new forces in Irish life there is one which has been greatly +misunderstood; and yet to its influence during the last few years much +of the 'transformation scene' in the drama of the Irish Question is +really due. It deserves more than a passing notice here, because, while +its aims as formulated appear somewhat restricted, it unquestionably +tends in practice towards that national object of paramount importance, +the strengthening of character. I refer to the movement known as the +Gaelic Revival. Of this movement I am myself but an outside observer, +having been forced to devote nearly all my time and energies to a +variety of attempts which aim at the doing in the industrial sphere of +very much the same work as that which the Gaelic movement attempts in +the intellectual sphere--the rehabilitation of Ireland from within. But +in the course of my work of agricultural and industrial development I +naturally came across this new intellectual force and found that when it +began to take effect, so far from diverting the minds of the peasantry +from the practical affairs of life, it made them distinctly more +amenable to the teaching of the dry economic doctrine of which I was an +apostle. The reason for this is plain enough to me now, though, like all +my theories about Ireland, the truth came to me from observation and +practical experience rather than as the result of philosophic +speculation. For the co-operative movement depended for its success upon +a two-fold achievement. In order to get it started at all, its +principles and working details had to be grasped by the Irish peasant +mind and commended to his intelligence. Its further development and its +hopes of permanence depend upon the strengthening of character, which, I +must repeat, is the foundation of all Irish progress. + +The Irish Agricultural Organisation Society[28] exerts its influence--a +now established and rapidly-growing influence--mainly through the medium +of associations. The Gaelic movement, on the other hand, acts more +directly upon the individual, and the two forces are therefore in a +sense complementary to each other. Both will be seen to be playing an +important part--I should say a necessary part--in the reconstruction of +our national life. At any rate, I feel that it is necessary to my +argument that I should explain to those who are as ill-informed about +the Gaelic revival as I was myself until its practical usefulness was +demonstrated to me, what exactly seems to be the most important outcome +of the work of that movement. + +The Gaelic League, which defines its objects as 'The preservation of +Irish as the national language of Ireland and the extension of its use +as a spoken tongue; the study and publication of existing Irish +literature and the cultivation of a modern literature in Irish,' was +formed in 1893. Like the Agricultural Organisation Society, the Gaelic +League is declared by its constitution to be 'strictly non-political and +non-sectarian,' and, like it, has been the object of much suspicion, +because severance from politics in Ireland has always seemed to the +politician the most active form of enmity. Its constitution, too, is +somewhat similar, being democratically guided in its policy by the +elected representatives of its affiliated branches. It is interesting to +note that the funds with which it carries on an extensive propaganda are +mainly supplied from the small contributions of the poor. It publishes +two periodicals, one weekly and another monthly. It administers an +income of some L6,000 a year, not reckoning what is spent by local +branches, and has a paid staff of eleven officers, a secretary, +treasurer, and nine organisers, together with a large number of +voluntary workers. It resembled the agricultural movement also in the +fact that it made very little headway during the first few years of its +existence. But it had a nucleus of workers with new ideas for the +intellectual regeneration of Ireland. In face of much apathy they +persisted with their propaganda, and they have at last succeeded in +making their ideas understood. So much is evident from the +rapidly-increasing number of affiliated branches of the League, which in +March, 1903, amounted to 600, almost treble the number registered two +years before. But even this does not convey any idea of the influence +which the movement exerts. Within the past year the teaching of the +Irish language has been introduced into no less than 1,300 National +Schools. In 1900 the number of schools in which Irish was taught was +only about 140. The statement that our people do not read books is +generally accepted as true, yet the sale of the League publications +during one year reached nearly a quarter of a million copies. These +results cannot be left unconsidered by anybody who wishes to understand +the psychology of the Irish mind. The movement can truly claim to have +effected the conversion of a large amount of intellectual apathy into +genuine intellectual activity. + +The declared objects of the League--- the popularising of the national +language and literature--do not convey, perhaps, an adequate conception +of its actual work, or of the causes of its popularity. It seeks to +develop the intellectual, moral, and social life of the Irish people +from within, and it is doing excellent work in the cause of temperance. +Its president, Dr. Douglas Hyde, in his evidence given before the +University Commission,[29] pointed out that the success of the League +was due to its meeting the people half way; that it educated them by +giving them something which they could appreciate and assimilate; and +that it afforded a proof that people who would not respond to alien +educational systems, will respond with eagerness to something they can +call their own. The national factor in Ireland has been studiously +eliminated from national education, and Ireland is perhaps the only +country in Europe where it was part of the settled policy of those, who +had the guidance of education to ignore the literature, history, arts, +and traditions of the people. It was a fatal policy, for it obviously +tended to stamp their native country in the eyes of Irishmen with the +badge of inferiority and to extinguish the sense of healthy self-respect +which comes from the consciousness of high national ancestry and +traditions. This policy, rigidly adhered to for many years, almost +extinguished native culture among Irishmen, but it did not succeed in +making another form of culture acceptable to them. It dulled the +intelligence of the people, impaired their interest in their own +surroundings, stimulated emigration by teaching them to look on other +countries as more agreeable places to live in, and made Ireland almost a +social desert. Men and women without culture or knowledge of literature +or of music have succeeded a former generation who were passionately +interested in these things, an interest which extended down even to the +wayside cabin. The loss of these elevating influences in Irish society +probably accounts for much of the arid nature of Irish controversies, +while the reaction against their suppression has given rise to those +displays of rhetorical patriotism for which the Irish language has found +the expressive term _raimeis_, and which (thanks largely to the Gaelic +movement) most people now listen to with a painful and half-ashamed +sense of their unreality. + +The Gaelic movement has brought to the surface sentiments and thoughts +which had been developed in Gaelic Ireland through hundreds of years, +and which no repression had been able to obliterate altogether, but +which still remained as a latent spiritual inheritance in the mind. And +now this stream, which has long run underground, has again emerged even +stronger than before, because an element of national self-consciousness +has been added at its re-emergence. A passionate conviction is gaining +ground that if Irish traditions, literature, language, art, music, and +culture are allowed to disappear, it will mean the disappearance of the +race; and that the education of the country must be nationalised if our +social, intellectual, or even our economic position is to be permanently +improved. + +With this view of the Gaelic movement my own thoughts are in complete +accord. It is undeniable that the pride in country justly felt by +Englishmen, a pride developed by education and a knowledge of their +history, has had much to do with the industrial pre-eminence of England; +for the pioneers of its commerce have been often actuated as much by +patriotic motives as by the desire for gain. The education of the Irish +people has ignored the need for any such historical basis for pride or +love of country, and, for my part, I feel sure that the Gaelic League is +acting wisely in seeking to arouse such a sentiment, and to found it +mainly upon the ages of Ireland's story when Ireland was most Irish. + +It is this expansion of the sentiment of nationality outside the domain +of party politics--the distinction, so to speak, between nationality and +nationalism--which is the chief characteristic of the Gaelic movement. +Nationality had come to have no meaning other than a political one, any +broader national sentiment having had little or nothing to feed upon. +During the last century the spirit of nationality has found no unworthy +expression in literature, in the writings of Ferguson, Standish O'Grady +and Yeats, which, however, have not been even remotely comparable in +popularity with the political journalism in prose and rhyme in which the +age has been so fruitful. It has never expressed itself in the arts, and +not only has Ireland no representative names in the higher regions of +art, but the national deficiency has been felt in every department of +industry into which design enters, and where national +art-characteristics have a commercial value. The national customs, +culture, and recreations which made the country a pleasant place to live +in, have almost disappeared, and with them one of the strongest ties +which bind people to the country of their birth. The Gaelic revival, as +I understand it, is an attempt to supply these deficiencies, to give to +Irish people a culture of their own; and I believe that by awakening the +feelings of pride, self-respect, and love of country, based on +knowledge, every department of Irish life will be invigorated. + +Thus it is that the elevating influence upon the individual is exerted. +Politics have never awakened initiative among the mass of the people, +because there was no programme of action for the individual. Perhaps it +is as well for Ireland that such should have been the case, for, as it +has been shown, we have had little of the political thought which should +be at the back of political action. Political action under present +conditions must necessarily be deputed to a few representatives, and +after the vote is given or the cheering at a meeting has ceased, the +individual can do nothing but wait, and his lethargy tends to become +still deeper. In the Gaelic revival there is a programme of work for the +individual; his mind is engaged, thought begets energy, and this energy +vitalises every part of his nature. This makes for the strengthening of +character, and so far from any harm being done to the practical +movement, to which I have so often referred, the testimony of my +fellow-workers, as well as my own observation, is unanimous in affirming +that the influence of the branches of the Gaelic League is distinctly +useful whenever it is sought to move the people to industrial or +commercial activity. + +Many of my political friends cannot believe--and I am afraid that +nothing that I can say will make them believe--that the movement is not +necessarily, in the political sense, separatist in its sentiment. This +impression is, in my opinion, founded on a complete misunderstanding of +Anglo-Irish history. Those who look askance at the rise of the Gaelic +movement ignore the important fact that there has never been any +essential opposition between the English connection and Irish +nationality. The Elizabethan chiefs of the sixteenth and the Gaelic +poets of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the relations +between the two countries were far worse than they are to-day, knew +nothing of this opposition. The true sentiment of nationality is a +priceless heritage of every small nation which has done great things, +and had it not largely perished in Ireland, separatist sentiment, the +offspring, not of Irish nationality, but of Irish political nationalism, +could hardly have survived until to-day. + +But undoubtedly we strike here on a danger to the Gaelic movement, so +far at least as that movement is bound up with the future of the Gaelic +League; a danger which cannot be left out of account in any estimate of +this new force in Irish life. The continuance of the League as a +beneficent force, or indeed a force at all, seems to me, as in the case +of the co-operative organisation to which I have compared it, to be +vitally dependent on a scrupulous observance of that part of its +constitution which keeps the door open to Irishmen of every creed or +political party. Only thus can the League remain a truly national body, +and attract from all classes Irishmen who are capable of forwarding its +true policy. I do not think there is much danger of a spirit of +sectarian exclusiveness developing itself in a body mainly composed of +Roman Catholics whose President is a Protestant. But it cannot be denied +that there has been an occasional tendency to interpret the 'no +politics' clause of the constitution in a manner which seems hardly fair +to Unionists or even to constitutional Home Rulers who may have joined +the organisation on the strength of its declaration of political +neutrality. If this is not a mere transitory phenomenon its effect will +be serious. As a political body the League would immediately sink into +insignificance and probably disappear amid a crowd of contending +factions. It would certainly cease to fulfil its great function of +creating a nationality of the thought and spirit, in which all Irishmen +who wish to be anything else than English colonists might aspire to +share. Its early successes in bringing together men of different +political views were remarkable. At the very outset of its career it +enlisted the support of so militant a politician as the late Rev. R.R. +Kane, who declared that though a Unionist and an Orangeman he had no +desire to forget that he was an O'Cahan. On this basis it is difficult +to set a limit to the fruitfulness of the work which this organisation +might do for Ireland, and I cannot regard any who would depart from the +letter and spirit of its constitution as sincere, or if sincere as wise, +friends of the movement with which they are associated. + +Of minor importance are certain extravagances in the conduct of the +movement which time and practical experience can hardly fail to correct. +I have borne witness to the value of the cultivation of the language +even from my own practical standpoint, but I cannot think that to sign +cheques in Irish, and get angry when those who cannot understand will +not honour them, is a good way of demonstrating that value. I should, +speaking generally, regard it as a mistake, supposing it were +practicable, to substitute Irish for English in the conduct of business. +If any large development of the trade in pampooties, turf and potheen +between the Aran Islands and the mainland were in contemplation, this +attempt might be justified. But on behalf of those Philistines who +attach paramount importance to the development of Irish industry, trade +and commerce on a large and comprehensive scale, I should regret a +course which, from a business point of view, would be about as wise as +the advocacy of distinctive Irish currency, weights and measures. And I +protest more strongly against the reasons which have been given to me +for this policy. I have been told that, in order to generate sufficient +enthusiasm, a young movement of the kind must adopt a rigorous +discipline and an aggressive policy. Not only are we thus confronted +with a false issue, but by giving countenance to the outward acceptance +of what the better sense rejects, these over-zealous leaguers are +administering to the Irish character the very poison which all Irish +movements should combine to eliminate from the national life. + +The position which I have given to the Gaelic Revival among the new +influences at work and making for progress in Ireland will hardly be +understood by those who have never embraced the idea of combining all +such forces in a constructive and comprehensive scheme of national +advancement. One instance of the potential utility of the Gaelic League +will appeal to those of my readers who attach as much importance as I do +to the improvement of the peasant home. Concerted action to this end is +being planned while I write. It is proposed to take a few districts +where the peasants are members of one of the new co-operative societies, +and where the clergy have taken a keen interest in the economic and +social advancement of the members of the Society, but where the cottages +are in the normal condition. The new Department will lend the services +of its domestic economy teachers. The Organisation Society, the clergy, +and the Department thus working together will, I hope, be able to get +the people of the selected districts to effect an improvement in their +domestic surroundings which will act as an invaluable example for other +districts to follow. But in order that this much needed contribution to +the well-being of the peasant proprietary, upon which all our thoughts +are just now concentrated, may be assisted with the enthusiasm which +belongs in Ireland to a consciously national effort, it is hoped that +common action with the Gaelic League may be possible, so that this force +also may be enlisted in the solution of this part of our central +problem, the rehabilitation of rural life in Ireland. + +It is, however, on more general grounds that I have, albeit as an +outside observer, watched with some anxiety and much gratification the +progress of the Gaelic Revival. In the historical evolution of the Irish +mind we find certain qualities atrophied, so to speak, by disuse; and to +this cause I attribute the past failures of the race in practical life +at home. I have shown how politics, religion, and our systems of +education have all, in their respective influences upon the people, +missed to a large extent, the effect upon character which they should +have made it their paramount duty to produce. Nevertheless, whenever the +intellect of the people is appealed to by those who know its past, a +recuperative power is manifested which shows that its vitality has not +been irredeemably impaired. It is because I believe that, on the whole, +a right appeal has been made by the Gaelic League that I have borne +testimony to its patriotic endeavours. + +The question of the Gaelic Revival seems to be really a form of the +eternal question of the interdependence of the practical and the ideal +in Ireland. Their true relation to each other is one of the hardest +lessons the student of our problems has to learn. I recall an incident +in the course of my own studies which I will here recount, as it appears +to me to furnish an admirable illustration of this difficulty as it +presented itself to a very interesting mind. During the years covering +the rise and fall of Parnell, when interest in the Irish Question was at +its zenith, the newspapers of the United States kept in London a corps +of very able correspondents, who watched and reported to their +transatlantic readers every move in the Home Rule campaign. An American +public, by no means limited to the American-Irish, devoured every morsel +of this intelligence with an avidity which could not have been surpassed +if the United States had been engaged in a war with Great Britain. Among +these correspondents perhaps the most brilliant was the late Harold +Frederic. Not many months before he died I received a letter from him, +in which he said that, although we were unknown to each other, he +thought, from some public utterances of mine, that we must have many +views in common. He had often intended to get an introduction to me, and +now suggested that we should 'waive things and meet.' We met and spent +an evening together, which left some deep impressions on my mind. He +told me that the Irish Question possessed for him a fascination for +which he could give no rational explanation. He had absolutely no tie of +blood or material interest with Ireland, and his friendship for it had +brought him the only quarrels in which he had ever been engaged. + +What chiefly interested me in Harold Frederic's philosophy of the Irish +Question was that he had arrived at a diagnosis of the Irish mind not +substantially different from my own. Since that evening I have come +across a passage in one of his novels, which clothes in delightful +language his view of the chaotic psychology of the Celt: + + There, in Ireland, you get a strange mixture of elementary early + peoples, walled off from the outer world by the four seas, and + free to work out their own racial amalgam on their own lines. They + brought with them at the outset a great inheritance of Eastern + mysticism. Others lost it, but the Irish, all alone on their + island, kept it alive and brooded on it, and rooted their whole + spiritual side in it. Their religion is full of it; their blood is + full of it.... The Ireland of two thousand years ago is incarnated + in her. They are the merriest people and the saddest, the most + turbulent and the most docile, the most talented and the most + unproductive, the most practical and the most visionary, the most + devout and the most pagan. These impossible contradictions war + ceaselessly in their blood.[30] + +In our conversation what struck me most was the influence which politics +had exercised even on his philosophic mind, notwithstanding a low +estimate of our political leaders. In one of a series of three notable +articles upon the Irish Question, which appeared anonymously in the +_Fortnightly Review_[31] in the winter of 1893-4, and of which he told +me he was the writer, he had given a character sketch of what he called +'The Rhetoricians.' Their performances since the Union were summarised +in the phrase 'a century of unremitting gabble,' and he regarded it as a +sad commentary on Irish life that such brilliant talents so largely ran +to waste in destructive criticism. + +I naturally turned the conversation on to my own line of thought, and +discussed the practical conclusions to which his studies had led him. I +tried to elicit from him exactly what he had in his mind when, in one of +the articles to which I have referred, he advocated 'a reconstruction of +Ireland on distinctive national lines.' I hoped to find that his +psychological study of my countrymen would enable him to throw some +light upon the means by which play could be given at home to the latent +capacities of the race. I found that he was in entire accord with my +view, that the chief difficulty in the way of constructive statesmanship +was the defect in the Irish character about which I have said so much. I +was prepared for that conclusion, for I had already seen the lack of +initiative admirably appreciated in the following illuminating sentence +of his:--'The Celt will help someone else to do the thing that other has +in mind, and will help him with great zeal and devotion; but he will not +start to do the thing he himself has thought of.'[32] But I was +disappointed when he bade me his first and last good-bye that I had not +convinced him that there was any way out of the Irish difficulty other +than political changes, for which, at the same time, he appeared to +think the people singularly unfitted. + +The fact is we had arrived at the point where the student of Irish life +usually finds himself in a _cul de sac_. If he has accurately observed +the conditions, he is face to face with a problem which appears to be in +its nature insoluble. For at every turn he finds things being done wrong +which might so easily be done right, only that nobody is concerned that +they should be done right. And what is worse, when he has learned, in +the course of his investigations, to discount the picturesque +explanation of our unsuccess in practical life which in Ireland veils +the unpleasant truth, he will find that the people are quite aware of +their defects, although they attribute them to causes beyond their power +to remove. Then, too, the sympathetic inquirer is shocked by the lack of +seriousness in it all. With all their past griefs and their high +aspirations, the Irish people seem to be play-acting before the world. +The inquirer does not, perhaps, reflect that, if play-acting be +inconsistent with the deepest emotions, and with the pursuit of high +ideals, then he condemns a little over one half of the human race.[33] +He probably comes to the main conclusion adopted in these pages, and +realises that the Irish Question is a problem of character. And as Irish +character is the product of Irish history, which cannot be re-enacted, +he leaves the problem there. Harold Frederic left it there, and there it +has been taken up by those whose endeavour forms the story which I have +to tell. + +I now come to the principles which, it appears to me, must underlie the +solution of this problem. The narrative contained in the second part of +this book is a record of the efforts made during the last decade of the +nineteenth and the first two years of the twentieth century by a small, +but now rapidly augmenting group of Irishmen, to pluck the brand of +Irish intellect from the burning of the Irish Question. The problem +before us was, my readers will now understand, how to make headway in +view of the weakness of character to which I have had to attribute the +paralysis of our activities in the past. We were quite aware that our +progress would at first be slow. But as we were satisfied that the +defects of character which stood in the way of economic advancement were +due to causes which need no longer be operative, and that the intellect +of the people was unimpaired, we faced the problem with confidence. + +The practical form which our work took was the launching upon Irish life +of a movement of organised self-help, and the subsequent grafting upon +this movement of a system of State-aid to the agriculture and industries +of the country. I need not here further elaborate this programme, for +the steps by which it has been and is being adopted will be presently +described in detail. But there is one aspect of the new movement in +Ireland which must be understood by those who would grasp the true +significance and the human interest of an evolution in our national +life, the only recent parallel for which, as far as I am aware, is to be +found in Japan: though to my mind the conscious attempt of the Irish +people to develop a civilisation of their own is far more interesting +than the recent efforts of the Japanese to westernise their +institutions. + +The problem of mind and character with which we had to deal in Ireland +presented this central and somewhat discouraging fact. In practical life +the Irish had failed where the English had succeeded, and this was +attributed to the lack of certain English qualities which have been +undoubtedly essential to success in commerce and in industry from the +days of the industrial revolution until a comparatively recent date. It +was the individualism of the English economic system during this period +which made these qualities indispensable. The lack of these qualities in +Irishmen to-day may be admitted, and the cause of the deficiency has +been adequately explained. But those who regard the Irish situation as +industrially hopeless probably ignore the fact that there are other +qualities, of great and growing importance under modern economic +conditions, which can be developed in Irishmen and may form the basis of +an industrial system. I refer to the range of qualities which come into +play rather in association than in the individual, and to which the term +'associative' is applied.[34] So that although much disparaging +criticism of Irish character is based upon the survival in the Celt of +the tribal instincts, it is gratifying to be able to show that even from +the practical English point of view, our preference for thinking and +working in groups may not be altogether a _damnosa hereditas_. If, owing +to our deficiency in the individualistic qualities of the English, we +cannot at this stage hope to produce many types of the 'economic man' of +the economists, we think we see our way to provide, as a substitute, the +economic association. If the association succeeds, and by virtue of its +financial success becomes permanent, a great change will, in our +opinion, be produced on the character of its members. The reflex action +upon the individual mind of the habit of doing, in association with +others, things which were formerly left undone, or badly done, may be +relied upon to have a tonic effect upon the character of the individual. +This is, I suppose, the secret of discipline, which, though apparently +eliminating volition, seems in weak characters to strengthen the will. + +There is, too, as we have learned, in the association a strange +influence which develops qualities and capacities that one would not +expect on a mere consideration of the character of its members. This +psychological phenomenon has been admirably and most entertainingly +discussed by the French psychologist, Le Bon,[35] who, in the attractive +pursuit of paradox, almost goes to the length of the proposition that +the association inherently possesses qualities the opposite of those +possessed by its members. My own experience--and I have had +opportunities of observing hundreds of associations formed by my friends +upon the principles above laid down--does not carry me quite so far. +But, unquestionably, the association in Ireland does often become an +entity as distinct from the individualities of which it is composed, as +is a new chemical compound from its constituent elements. + +Associations of the kind we had in our minds, which were to be primarily +for purely business purposes, were bound to have many collateral +effects. They would open up outside of politics and religion, but not in +conflict with either, a sphere of action where an independence new to +the country would have to be exercised. In Ireland public opinion is +under an obsession which, whether political, religious, historical, or +all three combined, is probably unique among civilised peoples. Until +the last few years, for example, it was our habit--one which immensely +weakened the influence of Ireland in the Imperial Parliament--to form +extravagant estimates of men, exalting and abasing them with irrational +caprice, not according to their qualities so much as by their attitude +towards the passion of the hour. The ups and downs of the reputations of +Lord Spencer and Mr. Arthur Balfour in Ireland are a sufficient +illustration of our disregard of the old Latin proverb which tells us +that no man ever became suddenly altogether bad. Even now public opinion +is too prone to attach excessive value to projects of vague and +visionary development, and to underrate the importance of serious +thought and quiet work, which can be the only solid foundation of our +national progress. In these new associations--humble indeed in their +origin, but destined to play a large part in the people's +lives--projects, professing to be fraught with economic benefit, have to +be judged by the cruel precision of audited balance sheets, and the +worth of men is measured by the solid contribution they have made to the +welfare of the community. + + * * * * * + +I have now accomplished one long stage of my journey towards the +conclusion of this discussion of the needs of modern Ireland. Were I to +stop here, probably most of those who had been induced to open yet +another book upon the Irish Question would accuse me, and not without +justice, of being responsible for a barren graft upon a barren +controversy. I fear no such criticism, whatever other shortcomings may +be detected, from those who have the patience to read on. For when I +pass from my own reflections to record the work to which many thousands +of my countrymen have addressed themselves in building up the Ireland of +the twentieth century, I shall have a story to tell which must inspire +hope in all who can be persuaded that Ireland in the past has not often +been treated fairly and has never been understood. I have shown--and it +was necessary to show, if a repetition of misunderstanding was to be +avoided--that the Irish people themselves are gravely responsible for +the ills of their country, and that the forces which have mainly +governed their action hitherto are rapidly bringing about their +disappearance as a distinct nationality. But I shall now have to tell of +the widespread and growing adoption of certain new principles of action +which I believe to be consonant with the genius and traditions of the +race, and the acceptance of which seems to me vitally necessary if the +Irish people are to play a worthy part in the future history of the +world. That part is a far greater one than they could ever hope to play +as an independent and separate State, yet their success in playing it +must closely depend upon their remaining a distinct nationality, in the +sense so clearly and wisely indicated by his Majesty when, in his reply +to the address of the Belfast Corporation, he spoke of the 'national +characteristics and ideals' which he desired his kingdoms to cherish in +the midst of their imperial unity.[36] The great experiment which I am +about to relate is, in its own province, one of the many applications +which we see around us of the conception here put forward. And I believe +that a few more years of quiet work by those who are taking part in this +movement, with its appeal to Irish intellect, and its reliance upon +Irish patriotism, is all that is needed to prove that by developing the +industrial qualities of the Celt on associative lines we can in politics +as well as in economics, add strength to the Irish character without +making it less Irish or less attractive than of old. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[28] This body is fully described in the next chapter. + +[29] See Appendix to Third Report, p. 311. + +[30] _The Damnation of Theron Ware_. This was the title of the book I +read in the United States. I am told he published it in England under +the title of _Illuminations_--a nice discrimination! + +[31] They appeared under the signature of 'X.' in Nov. and Dec., 1893, +and Jan., 1894. + +[32] _Fortnightly Review_, Jan. 1894, pp. 11, 12. + +[33] The difficulties of the writer who is not a writer are great. I +sent this chapter to two literary friends, one of whom, with the help of +a globe, disputed my accuracy in a learned ethnological disquisition +with which he favoured me. The other warned me to be even more obscure +and sent me the following verses, addressed by 'Cynicus' (J.K. Stephen) +to Shakespeare, + +"You wrote a line too much, my sage, Of seers the first, the first of +sayers; For only half the world's a stage, And only all the women +players." + + + +[34] These qualities, as will be explained later, happen to have a +special economic value in the farming industry, and so are available for +the elevation of rural life, with whose problems we are now so deeply +concerned in Ireland. Their applicability to urban life need not be +discussed here. But my study of the co-operative movement in England has +convinced me that, if the English had the associative instincts of the +Irish, that movement would play a part in English life more commensurate +with its numerical strength and the volume of its commercial +transactions, than can be claimed for it so far. + +[35] _La Psychologie de la Foule_. + +[36] July 27th, 1903,--His Majesty thus confirmed the striking utterance +of imperial policy contained in Lord Dudley's speech to the Incorporated +Law Society, on the 20th of November, 1902. His Excellency, after +protesting against the conception of empire as a 'huge regiment' in +which each nation was to lose its individuality, said--"Lasting +strength, lasting loyalty, are not to be secured by any attempt to force +into one system or to remould into one type those special +characteristics which are the outcome of a nation's history and of her +religious and social conditions, but rather by a full recognition of the +fact that these very characteristics form an essential part of a +nation's life; and that under wise guidance and under sympathetic +treatment they will enable her to provide her own contribution and to +play her own special part in the life of the empire to which she +belongs." + + + + +PART II. + +_PRACTICAL_. + + +"For a country so attractive and a people so gifted we cherish the +warmest regard, and it is, therefore, with supreme satisfaction that I +have during our stay so often heard the hope expressed that a brighter +day is dawning upon Ireland. I shall eagerly await the fulfilment of +this hope. Its realisation will, under Divine Providence, depend largely +upon the steady development of self-reliance and co-operation, upon +better and more practical education, upon the growth of industrial and +commercial enterprise, and upon that increase of mutual toleration and +respect which the responsibility my Irish people now enjoy in the public +administration of their local affairs is well-fitted to +teach."--_Message of the King to the Irish People_, 1st August, 1903. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE NEW MOVEMENT: ITS FOUNDATION ON SELF-HELP. + + +The movement for the reorganisation of Irish agricultural and industrial +life, to which I have already frequently referred, must now be described +in practical operation. Before I do this, however, there are two lines +of criticism which the very mention of a new movement may suggest, and +which I must anticipate. Every year has its tale of new movements, +launched by estimable persons whose philanthropic zeal is not balanced +by the judgment required to discriminate between schemes which possess +the elements of permanence, and those which depend upon the enthusiasm +or financial support of their promoters, and are in their nature +ephemeral. There is, consequently, a widespread and well justified +mistrust of novel schemes for the industrial regeneration of Ireland. I +confess to having had my ingenuity severely taxed on some occasions to +find a sympathetic circumlocution wherewith to show cause for declining +to join a new movement, my real reason being an inward conviction that +nothing except resolutions would be moved. In the complex problem of +building up the economic and social life of a people with such a +history as ours, we must resist the temptation to multiply schemes +which, however well intended, are but devices for enabling individuals +to devolve their responsibilities upon the community or upon the +Government, and which owe their bubble reputation and brief popularity +to this unconscious humouring of our chief national defect. On the +contrary, we must seek to instil into the mind of each individual the +too little recognised importance of his own contribution to the sum of +national achievement. The building of character must be our paramount +object, as it is the condition precedent of all social and economic +reform in Ireland. To explain the principles by the observance of which +the agency of the association may be utilised as an economic force, +while at the same time the industrial character of the individual may be +developed, was one of the chief aims I had in view in the foregoing +analysis of the Irish mind and character, as they have emerged from +history and are stunted in their growth by present influences. The facts +about to be recited will, I hope, suffice to prove that the reformer in +Ireland, if he has a true insight into the great human problem with +which he is dealing, may find in the association not only a healthy +stimulus to national activities, but also a means whereby the assistance +of the State may be so invoked and applied that it will concentrate, and +not dissipate, the energies of the people. + +The other criticism which I think it necessary to anticipate would, if +ignored, leave room for a wrong impression as to much of the work which +is being done both on the self-help and on the State-aid sides of the +new movement. Education, it will be said, is the only real solvent to +the range of problems discussed in this book, most other agencies of +social and economic reform being of doubtful efficacy and, if they tend +to postpone educational effort, positively harmful. There is much truth +in this view. But it must be remembered that the backward condition of +our economic life is due mainly to the fact that our educational systems +have had little regard to our history or economic circumstances. We +must, therefore, at this stage in our national development give to +education a much wider interpretation than that which is usually applied +to the term. We cannot wait for a generation to grow up which has been +given an education calculated to fit it for the modern economic +struggle, even if there were any probability that the necessary reforms +would soon be carried against the prejudices which are aroused by any +proposal to train the minds, or even the hands and eyes, of the rising +generation. In the meantime much of the work, both voluntary and +State-aided, now initiated in Ireland, must consist of educating adults +to introduce into their business concerns the more advanced economic and +scientific methods which the superior education of our rivals in +agriculture and industry abroad has enabled them to adopt, and which my +experience of Irish work convinces me our people would have adopted long +ago if they had had similar educational advantages. And I would further +point out that there is no better way of promoting the reform of +education in the ordinary, the pedagogic, sense, than by bringing to +bear upon the minds of parents those educational influences which are +calculated to convince them of the advantage of improved practical +education for their children. So to the economist and to the +educationist alike I would submit that the new work of economic and +social reform should be judged as a whole, and not prejudged by that +hypercriticism of details which ignores the fact that the conditions +with which it is attempted to deal are wholly unprecedented. I am quite +content that the movement which I am about to describe should be +ultimately known and judged by its fruits. Meanwhile, I think that to +the intelligent critic it will sufficiently justify its existence if it +continues to exist. + + * * * * * + +The story of the new movement, which must now be told, begins in the +year 1889, when a few Irishmen, the writer of these pages among them, +set themselves the task of bringing home to the rural population of +Ireland the fact that their prosperity was in their own hands much more +than they were generally led to believe. I have already pointed out that +in order to direct the Irish mind towards practical affairs and in order +effectively to arouse and apply the latent capacities of the Irish +people to their chief industry, agriculture, we must rely upon +associative, as distinct from individual effort; or, in other words, we +must get the people to do their business together rather than +separately as the English do. Fortunately for us, it happened that this +course, which was clearly indicated by the character and temperament of +the people, was equally prescribed by economic considerations. The +population and wealth of Ireland are, I need hardly say, so +predominantly agricultural that the welfare of the country must depend +upon the welfare of the farming classes. It is notorious that the +industry by which these classes live has for the last quarter of a +century become less and less profitable. It is also recognised that the +prime cause of agricultural depression, foreign competition, is not +likely to be removed, while that from the colonies is likely to +increase. The extraordinary development of rapid and cheap transit, +together with recently invented processes of preservation, have enabled +the more favoured producers in the newly developed countries of both +hemispheres successfully to enter into competition in the British +markets with the farmers of these islands. The agricultural producers in +other European countries, although to some extent protected by tariffs, +have had to face similar conditions; but in most of these countries, +though not in the United Kingdom, the farmers have so changed their +methods, to meet the altered circumstances, that they seem to have +gained by improvement at home as much as they have lost by competition +from abroad Thus our farmers find themselves harassed first by the +cheaper production from vast tracts of virgin soil in the uttermost +parts of the earth, and secondly by a nearer and keener competition +from the better organised and better educated producers of the +Continent. + +While the opening up of what the economists call the 'world market,' has +necessitated, as a condition of successful competition, improved methods +of production for, and carriage to, the market, a third and less obvious +force has effected an important change in the method of distribution in +the market. The swarming populations, which the factory system has +brought together in industrial centres, have to be supplied with food by +a system of distribution which must above all things be expeditious. +This requirement can only be met by the regular consignment of food in +large quantities, of such uniform quality that the sample can be relied +upon to be truly indicative of the quality of the bulk. Thus the rapid +distribution of produce in the markets becomes as important a factor in +agricultural economy as improved methods of production or cheap and +expeditious carriage. + +Now this new market condition is being met in two ways. In the United +States, and, in a less marked degree, at home, an army of middlemen +between the producer and the consumer attends to this business for a +share of the profits accruing from it, whilst in many parts of the +Continent the farmers themselves attend, partially at any rate, to the +business side of their industry instead of paying others to do it all +for them. I say all, for middlemen are necessary at the distributive +end: but it is absolutely essential, in a country like Ireland, that at +the producing end the farmers should be so organised that they +themselves can manage the first stages of distribution, and exercise +some control over the middlemen who do the rest. The foreign +agricultural producers have long been alive to this necessity, for their +superior education enabled them to grasp the economic situation and even +to realise that the matter is not one of acute political controversy. + +Here, then, was a definite practical problem to the solution of which +the promoters of the new movement could apply their principle of +co-operative effort. The more we studied the question the more apparent +it became that the enormous advantage which the Continental farmers had +over the Irish farmers, both in production and in distribution, was due +to superior organisation combined with better education. State-aid had +no doubt done a great deal abroad, but in every case it was manifest +that it had been preceded, or at least accompanied, by the organised +voluntary effort without which the interference of the Government with +the business of the people is simply demoralising. + +Generally speaking, the task before us in Ireland was the adaptation to +the special circumstances of our country of methods successfully pursued +by communities similarly situated in foreign countries. We had to urge +upon farmers that combination was just as necessary to their economic +salvation as it was recognised to be by their own class, and by those +engaged in other industries, elsewhere. They must combine, so we urged +on them, for example, to buy their agricultural requirements at the +cheapest rate and of the best quality in order to produce more +efficiently and more economically; they must combine to avail themselves +of improved appliances beyond the reach of individual producers, whether +it be by the erection of creameries, for which there was urgent need, or +of cheese factories and jam factories which might come later; or in +ordinary farm operations, to secure the use of the latest agricultural +machinery and the most suitable pure-bred stock; they must combine--not +to abolish middle profits in distribution, whether those of the carrying +companies or those of the dealers in agricultural produce--but to keep +those profits within reasonable limits, and to collect in bulk and +regularise consignments so that they could be carried and marketed at a +moderate cost; they must combine, as we afterwards learned, for the +purpose of creating, by mutual support, the credit required to bring in +the fresh working capital which each new development of their industry +would demand and justify. In short, whenever and wherever the +individuals in a farming community could be brought to see that they +might advantageously substitute associated for isolated production or +distribution, they must be taught to form themselves into associations +in order to reap the anticipated advantages. + +This brief statement of our general aims will furnish a rough idea of +the economic propaganda which we initiated, and if I give a few +illustrations of the practical application of the new principle to the +farming industry, I shall have done all that will be required to leave +on the reader's mind a true though perhaps an incomplete impression of +the character and scope of the self-help side of the new movement. I +shall first give a sketch of the unrecorded struggles of its pioneers, +because these struggles prove to those engaged in social and economic +work in Ireland that, in the wholly abnormal condition of our national +life, no project which is theoretically sound need be rejected because +everybody says it is impracticable. The work of the morrow will largely +consist of the impossible of to-day. If this adds to the difficulty, it +also adds to the fun. + +When we arrived at the conclusion that the introduction of the principle +of agricultural co-operation was a vital necessity, the first practical +question which had to be decided was how the industrial army, which was +to do battle for Ireland's position in the world market, should be +organised and disciplined for the task. It is evident that before a body +of men who have never worked together can form a successful commercial +combination, they must be provided with a constitution and set of rules +and regulations for the conduct of their business. These must be so +skilfully contrived that they will harmonise all the interests involved. +And when an arrangement has been come to which is, not only in fact but +also obviously, equitable, it remains as part of the process of +organisation to teach the participants in the new project the meaning, +and to imbue them with the spirit, of the joint enterprise into which +they have been persuaded to enter with perhaps no very clear +understanding of all that is involved. There were in Ireland no +precedents to guide us and no examples to follow, but the co-operative +movement in England appeared to furnish most of the principles involved +and a perfect machinery for their application.[37] So Lord Monteagle and +Mr. R.A. Anderson, my first two associates in the New Movement, joined +me as regular attendants at the annual Co-operative congresses. We were +assiduous seekers after information at the head-quarters of the +Co-operative Union in Manchester. We had the good fortune to fall in +with Vansittart Neale, and Tom Hughes, both of whom have passed away, +and with Mr. Holyoake, who, with the exception of Mr. Ludlow, is now the +sole survivor of that noble group of practical philanthropists, the +Christian Socialists. Mr. J.C. Gray, who succeeded Mr. Vansittart Neale +as the General Secretary of the Co-operative Union, gave us invaluable +help and continues to do so to this day. The leaders of the English +movement sympathised with our efforts. The Union paid us the compliment +of constituting our first converts its Irish Section. Liberal support +was given out of the central English funds towards the cost of the +missionary work which was to spread co-operative light in the sister +isle. We can never forget the generosity of the workingmen in England in +giving their aid to the Irish farmers, especially when it is remembered +that they had no sanguine anticipations for the success of our efforts +and no prospect of advantages to themselves if we did succeed. + +It must be admitted that the outlook was not altogether rosy. +Agricultural co-operation had never succeeded in England, where it +seemed to be accepted as one of the disappointing limitations of the +co-operative movement that it did not apply to rural communities in +these islands. There were also in Ireland the peculiar difficulties +arising from ceaseless political and agrarian agitation. It was +naturally asked--did Irish farmers possess the qualities out of which +co-operators are made? Had they commercial experience or business +education? Had they business capacity? Would they display that +confidence in each other which is essential to successful association, +or indeed that confidence in themselves without which there can be no +business enterprise? Could they ever be induced to form themselves into +societies, and to adopt, and loyally adhere to those rules and +regulations by which alone equitable distribution of the responsibility +and profit among the participants in the joint undertaking can be +assured, and harmony and successful working be rendered possible? Then, +our best-informed Irish critics assured us that voluntary association +for humdrum business purposes, devoid of some religious or political +incentive, was alien to the Celtic temperament and that we should wear +ourselves out crying in the wilderness. We were told that Irishmen can +conspire but cannot combine. Economists assured us that even if we +succeeded in getting farmers to embark on the projected enterprises, +financial disaster would be the inevitable result of our attempts to +substitute in industrial undertakings, ever becoming more technical and +requiring more and more commercial knowledge and experience, democratic +management for one-man control. + +On the other hand there were some favouring conditions, the importance +of which our studies of the human problems already discussed will have +made my readers realise. Isolated, the Irish farmer is conservative, +sceptical of innovations, a believer in routine and tradition. In union +with his fellows, he is progressive, open to ideas, and wonderfully keen +at grasping the essential features of any new proposal for his +advancement. He was, then, himself eminently a subject for co-operative +treatment, and his circumstances were equally so. The smallness of his +holding, the lack of capital, and the backwardness of his methods made +him helpless in competition with his rivals abroad. The process of +organisation was also, to some extent, facilitated by the insight the +people had been given by the Land League into the power of combination, +and by the education they had received in the conduct of meetings. It +was a great advantage that there was a machinery ready at hand for +getting people together, and a procedure fully understood for giving +expression to the sense of the meeting. On the other hand, the +domination of a powerful central body, which was held to be essential to +the success of the political and agrarian movement, had exercised an +influence which added enormously to the difficulty of getting the people +to act on their own initiative. + +Though the economic conditions of the Irish farmer clearly indicated a +need for the application of co-operative effort to all branches of his +industry, it was necessary at the beginning to embrace a more limited +aim. It happened at the time we commenced our Irish work that one branch +of farming, the dairying industry, presented features admirably adapted +to our methods. This industry was, so to speak, ripe for its industrial +development, for its change from a home to a factory industry. New +machinery, costly but highly efficient, had enabled the factory product, +notably that of Denmark and Sweden, to compete successfully with the +home-made article, both in quality and cost of production. Here, it will +be observed, was an opportunity for an experiment in co-operative +production, under modern industrial conditions, which would put the +associative qualities of the Irish farmer to a test which the British +artisan had not stood quite as well as the founders of the co-operative +movement had anticipated. To add to the interest of the situation, +capitalists had seized upon the material advantages which the abundant +supply of Irish milk afforded, and the green pastures of the "Golden +Vein" were studded with snow white creameries which proclaimed the +transfer of this great Irish industry from the tiller of the soil to the +man of commerce. The new-comers secured the milk of the district by +giving the farmer much more for his milk than it was worth to him, so +long as he pursued the old methods of home manufacture. This induced +farmers to go out of the butter-making business. After a while the price +was reduced, and the proprietor, finding it necessary to give the +suppliers only what they could make out of their milk without his modern +equipment, realised profits altogether out of proportion to his share of +the capital embarked or the labour involved in the production of the +butter. + +The economic position was ideal for our purpose, and we had no +difficulty in explaining it to the farmers themselves. The social +problem was the real difficulty. To all suggestions of co-operative +action they at first opposed a hopeless _non possumus_. Their objections +may be summed up thus:--They had never combined for any business +purpose. How could they trust the Committee they were asked to elect +from amongst themselves to expend their money and conduct their +business? It was all very well for the proprietor with his ample +capital, free hand, and business experience, to work with complicated +machinery and to consign his butter out of the reach of the local butter +buyer, and to save the waste and delay of the local butter market. But +they knew nothing of the business and would only make fools of +themselves. The promoters--they were not putting anything into the +scheme--how much did they intend to take out?[38] + +There was nothing in this attitude of mind which we had not fully +anticipated. We were confident that, as we were on sound economic +ground, no matter what difficulties might confront us it was only a +question of time for the attainment of our ends. All that was required +was that we should keep pegging away. My own experience was not +encouraging at first. I was, and am, a poor speaker, and in Ireland a +man who cannot express his thoughts with facility, whether he has got +them or not, accentuates the difficulties under which a prophet labours +in his own country. I made up for my deficiencies in the first essential +of Irish public life by engaging a very eloquent political speaker, the +late Mr. Mulhallen Marum, M.P., to stump the country. He gave to the +propaganda a relish which my prosaic economics altogether lacked. The +nationalist band sometimes came out to meet him. We all know the +efficiency of the drum in politics and religion, but it seemed to me a +little out of place in economics. However, he created an excellent +impression, but unhappily he died of heart disease before he had +attended more than three or four meetings. This was a severe blow to us, +and we toiled away under some temporary discouragement. My own diary +records attendance at fifty meetings before a single society had +resulted therefrom. It was weary work for a long time. These gatherings +were miserable affairs compared with those which greeted our political +speakers. On one occasion the agricultural community was represented by +the Dispensary Doctor, the Schoolmaster, and the Sergeant of Police. +Sometimes, in spite of copious advertising of the meeting, the prosaic +nature of the objects had got abroad, and nobody met. + +Mr. Anderson, who sometimes accompanied me and sometimes went his rounds +alone, had similar experiences. I may quote a passage from some of his +reminiscences, recently published in the _Irish Homestead_, the organ of +the co-operative movement in Ireland. + + It was hard and thankless work. There was the apathy of the people + and the active opposition of the Press and the politicians. It + would be hard to say now whether the abuse of the Conservative + _Cork Constitution_ or that of the Nationalist _Eagle_, of + Skibbereen, was the louder. We were "killing the calves," we were + "forcing the young women to emigrate," we were "destroying the + industry." Mr. Plunkett was described as a "monster in human + shape," and was adjured to "cease his hellish work." I was + described as his "Man Friday" and as "Rough-rider Anderson." Once, + when I thought I had planted a Creamery within the precincts of the + town of Rathkeale, my co-operative apple-cart was upset by a local + solicitor who, having elicited the fact that our movement + recognised neither political nor religious differences--that the + Unionist-Protestant cow was as dear to us as her + Nationalist-Catholic sister--gravely informed me that our programme + would not suit Rathkeale. "Rathkeale," said he, pompously, "is a + Nationalist town--Nationalist to the backbone--and every pound of + butter made in this Creamery must be made on Nationalist + principles, or it shan't be made at all." This sentiment was + applauded loudly, and the proceedings terminated. + +On another occasion a similar project was abandoned because the flow of +water to the disused mill which it was proposed to convert into a +creamery, passed through a conduit lined with cement originally +purchased from a man who now occupied a farm from which another had been +evicted. To some minds these little complications would have spelled +failure. To my associates they but accentuated the need for the movement +which they had so laboriously thought out, and the very nature of the +difficulties confirmed them in their belief that the economic doctrine +they were preaching was adapted to meet the requirements of the case. +And so the event proved. + +In the year 1894 the movement had gathered volume to such an +extent--although the societies then numbered but one for every twenty +that are in existence to-day--that it became beyond the power of a few +individuals to direct its further progress. In April of that year a +meeting was held in Dublin to inaugurate the Irish Agricultural +Organisation Society, Ltd. (now commonly known as the I.A.O.S.), which +was to be the analogue of the Co-operative Union in England. In the +first instance it was to consist of philanthropic persons, but its +constitution provided for the inclusion in its membership of the +societies which had already been created and those which it would itself +create as time went on. It had, and has to-day, a thoroughly +representative Committee. I was elected the first President, a position +which I held until I entered official life, when Lord Monteagle, a +practical philanthropist if ever there was one, became my successor. +Father Finlay, who joined the movement in 1892, and who has devoted the +extraordinary influence which he possesses over the rural population of +Ireland to the dissemination of our economic principles, became +Vice-President. Both he and Lord Monteagle have been annually re-elected +ever since. + +The growth of the movement in the last nine years under the fostering +care of the I.A.O.S. is highly satisfactory. By the autumn of this year +(1903) considerably over eight hundred societies had been established, +and the number is ever growing; of these 360 were dairy, and 140 +agricultural societies, nearly 200 agricultural banks, 50 home +industries societies, 40 poultry societies, while there were 40 others +with miscellaneous objects. The membership may be estimated--I am +writing towards the end of the Society's statistical year--at about +80,000, representing some 400,000 persons. The combined trade turnover +of these societies during the present year will reach approximately +L2,000,000, a figure the meaning of which can only be appreciated when +it is remembered that the great majority of the associated farmers are +in so small a way of business that in England they would hardly be +classed as farmers at all. + +These societies consist, as has been explained, of groups of farmers who +have been taught by organisers that certain branches of their business +can be more profitably conducted in association than by individuals +acting separately. The principle of agricultural co-operation with its +economic advantages will, as time goes on, be further extended by the +combined action of societies. With this end in view federations are +constantly being formed with a constitution similar to that of the +societies, the only difference being that the members of the federation +are not individuals but societies, the government of the central body +being carried on by delegates from its constituent associations. The two +largest of these federations, one for the sale of butter, and another +for the combined purchase by societies of their agricultural +requirements, have been working successfully for several years. +Federations, too, are being formed, as societies find that their +business can be conducted more economically, for example, in dairying by +centralising the manufacture of butter, or in the egg export trade by +the alliance of many districts to enable large contracts to be +undertaken. In the near future a further development of federation will +be required to complete a scheme now under consideration for the mutual +insurance of live stock. Such a scheme involves the existence of two +prime conditions, a local organisation for the purpose of effective +supervision, and the spreading of the risk over a large area. + +In all such enterprises and economic changes the Organisation Society is +either the initiator, or is called in for advice, and its continued +existence in a purely advisory capacity as a link between the societies +where concerted action is required, will be necessary even when the +organisation of farmers into societies is completed. The economic life +of rural communities is in continual need of adjustment. Now it is an +invention like a steam separator which revolutionises an industry. At +another time the crisis created by a change in the tariff of a foreign +country forces the producer either to find a new outlet for his wares, +or to abandon a hitherto profitable employment. A striking instance of +the value of organisation and connection with a central advisory body +occurred in 1887, when swine fever broke out in Denmark, and the exports +of live swine fell from 230,000 in one year to 16,000 in the next. The +organisation of the farmers, however, enabled them easily to consult +together how best to meet the emergency, and their decision to start +co-operative bacon-curing factories was the foundation of their present +great export trade in manufactured bacon. + +I must not overburden with details a narrative intended for readers to +whom I merely wish to give a deeper and wider understanding of Irish +life than most of them probably possess. But there is just one form of +agricultural co-operation to which I can usefully devote a few +paragraphs, because it throws much light upon the associative qualities +of the people and also upon the educational and social value of the +movement. I refer to the Agricultural Banks, more properly called Credit +Associations, which have been organised upon the Raiffeisen system. +Before the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society was formed we had +read of these institutions, and of the marvellously beneficial effect +they had produced upon the most depressed rural communities abroad. But +only in the last few years have we fully realised that they are even +more required and are likely to do more good in Ireland than in any +other country; for on the psychological side of our work we formerly but +dimly saw things which we now see clearly. + +The exact purpose of these organisations is to create credit as a means +of introducing capital into the agricultural industry. They perform the +apparent miracle of giving solvency to a community composed almost +entirely of insolvent individuals. The constitution of these bodies, +which can, of course, be described only in broad outline here, is +somewhat startling. They have no subscribed capital, but every member is +liable for the entire debts of the association. Consequently the +association takes good care to admit men of approved character and +capacity only. It starts by borrowing a sum of money on the joint and +several security of its members. A member wishing to borrow from the +association is not required to give tangible security, but must bring +two sureties. He fills up an application form which states, among other +things, what he wants the money for. The rules provide--and this is the +salient feature of the system--that a loan shall be made for a +productive purpose only, that is, a purpose which, in the judgment of +the other members of the association as represented by a committee +democratically elected from among themselves, will enable the borrower +to repay the loan out of the results of the use made of the money lent. + +Raiffeisen held, and our experience in Ireland has fully confirmed his +opinion, that in the poorest communities there is a perfectly safe basis +of security in the honesty and industry of its members. This security is +not valuable to the ordinary commercial lender, such as the local joint +stock bank. Even if such lenders had the intimate knowledge possessed by +the committee of one of these associations as to the character and +capacity of the borrower, they would not be able to satisfy themselves +that the loan was required for a really productive purpose, nor would +they be able to see that it was properly applied to the stipulated +object. One of the rules of the co-operative banks provides for the +expulsion of a member who does not apply the money to the agreed +productive purpose. But although these "Banks" are almost invariably +situated in very poor districts, there has been no necessity to put this +rule in force in a single instance. Social influences seem to be quite +sufficient to secure obedience to the association's laws. + +Another advantage conferred by the association is that the term for +which money is advanced is a matter of agreement between the borrower +and the bank. The hard and fast term of three months which prevails in +Ireland for small loans is unsuited to the requirements of the +agricultural industry--as for instance, when a man borrows money to sow +a crop, and has to repay it before harvest. The society borrows at four +or five per cent, and lends at five or six per cent. In some cases the +Congested Districts Board or the Department of Agriculture have made +loans to these banks at three per cent. This enables the societies to +lend at the popular rate of one penny for the use of one pound for a +month. The expenses of administration are very small. As the credit of +these associations develops, they will become a depository for the +savings of the community, to the great advantage of both lender and +borrower. The latter generally makes an enormous profit out of these +loans, which have accordingly gained the name of 'the lucky money,' and +we find, in practice, that he always repays the association and almost +invariably with punctuality. + +The sketch I have given of the agricultural banks will, perhaps, be +sufficient to show what an immense educational and economic benefit they +are likely to confer when they are widely extended throughout Ireland, +as I hope they will be in the near future. Under this system, which, to +quote the report of the Indian Famine Commission, 1901, 'separates the +working bees from the drones,' the industrious men of the community who +had no clear idea before of the meaning or functions of capital or +credit, and who were generally unable to get capital into their industry +except at exorbitant rates of interest and upon unsuitable terms, are +now able to get, not always, indeed, all the money they want, but all +the money they can well employ for the improvement of their industry. +There is no fear of rash investment of capital in enterprises believed +to be, but not in reality productive--the committee take good care of +that. The whole community is taught the difference between borrowing to +spend and borrowing to make. You have the collective wisdom of the best +men in the association helping the borrower to decide whether he ought +to borrow or not, and then assisting him, if only from motives of +self-interest, to make the loan fulfil the purpose for which it was +made. I was delighted to find when I was making an enquiry into the +working of the system that, whereas the debt-laden peasants had formerly +concealed their indebtedness, of which they were ashamed, those who were +in debt to the new banks were proud of the fact, as it was the best +testimonial to their character for honesty and industry.[39] + +One other sphere of activity worked by the co-operative associations +needs a passing notice. The desire that, together with material +amelioration, there should be a corresponding intellectual advancement +and a greater beauty in life has prompted many of the farmers' societies +to use their organisation for higher ends. A considerable number of them +have started Village Libraries, and by an admirable selection of books +have brought to their members, not only the means of educating +themselves in the more difficult technical problems of their industry, +but also a means of access to that enchanted world of Irish thought +which inspires the Gaelic Revival to which I have already referred. +Social gatherings of every kind, dances, lectures, concerts, and such +like entertainments, which have the two-fold effect of brightening rural +life and increasing the attachment of the members to their society, are +becoming a common feature in the movement, and this more human aspect +has attracted to it the attention of many who do not understand its +economic side. We have gratifying evidence from many of the clergy that +the movement thus developed has kept at home young people who would +otherwise have fled from the continued hardship and intellectual +emptiness of rural life at home. + +These results are in no small measure due to the zeal and devotion of +the governing body and staff of the I.A.O.S. The general policy of the +society is guided by a committee of twenty-four members, one-half of +whom are elected by the individual subscribers and the other half by the +affiliated societies. It is representative in the best sense and +influential accordingly. The success of the Committee is no doubt mainly +due to the wisdom which they have displayed in the selection of the +staff. In the most important post, that of Secretary, they have kept on +my chief fellow-worker in the early struggle, Mr. R.A. Anderson, who has +devoted himself to the cause with all the energy of a nature at once +enthusiastic, unselfish, and practical, and who has succeeded in +inspiring his staff of organisers and experts with his own spirit. Among +these, two deserve special mention, Mr. George W. Russell, one of the +Assistant Secretaries, who has, under the _nom de plume_ "A.E.," +attained fame for a poetry of rare distinction of thought and diction, +and Mr. P.J. Hannon, the other Assistant Secretary, who has proved +himself a splendid propagandist. Each of these gentlemen has brought to +the movement a zeal and ability which could only come of a devotion to +high ideals of patriotism, curiously combined with a shrewd practical +instinct for carrying on varied and responsible business undertakings. + +With the growing work the staff has been repeatedly augmented to enable +the central society to keep pace with the demand made by groups of +farmers to be initiated into the principles of co-operative +organisation and the details of its application to the particular +branches of farming carried on in their several districts. At the same +time the societies which have been established need, during their +earlier years, and with each extension of their operations, constant +advice and supervision. Hence skilled organisers have to be kept to form +co-operative dairy societies, inspect creameries, and give technical +advice upon the manufacture and sale of butter, the care of machinery, +the adequacy of the water supply, the drainage system, and many similar +technical questions. Others are employed to start poultry societies, +which when organised have still to be instructed by a Danish expert in +the proper method of packing, selecting, and grading the eggs for +export. In tillage districts there is a constant demand for organisers +of purely agricultural societies, which aim at the joint purchase of +seeds and manures, of implements and other farm requisites, and at the +better disposal of produce; while the growing importance of an improved +system of agricultural credit keeps four organisers of agricultural +banks constantly at work Home industries, bee-keeping, and horticulture, +may be added to the objects for which societies have been formed and +which require separate expert organisers. And in addition to all this +work, the central association has found it necessary to keep a staff of +accountants, versed in the principles of co-operative organisation, to +instruct these miscellaneous societies in simple and efficient systems +of bookkeeping, and in the general principles of conducting business. +To complete the description of the propagandist activities of the +central body, there is a ceaseless flow of leaflets and circulars +containing advice and direction to bodies of farmers who, for the first +time in their lives, have combined for business purposes; while a little +weekly paper, the _Irish Homestead_, acts as the organ of the movement, +promotes the exchange of ideas between societies scattered throughout +the country, furnishes useful information upon all matters connected +with their business operations, and keeps constantly before the +associated farmers the economic principles which must be observed, and, +above all, the spirit in which the work must be approached, if the +movement is to fulfil its mission.[40] + +One of the difficulties incidental to a movement of this kind, which, +for the reasons already set forth, had to be rapidly and widely +extended, was the enormous cost to its supporters. It is needless to say +that such a staff as I have described could not be kept continuously +travelling by rail and road for so many years without the provision of a +large fund. These officers must obviously be men with exceptional +qualifications, if they are not only to impress the thought of their +agricultural audiences, but also to move them to action, and to sustain +the newly organised societies through the initial difficulties of their +unfamiliar enterprise. Such men are not to be found idle, and if they +preach this gospel, they are entitled to live by it. They are not by any +means overpaid, but their salaries in the aggregate amount to a large +annual sum. Before the creation of the Department of Agriculture and +Technical Instruction in 1900 large sums were spent by the I.A.O.S. not +only in its proper work of organisation, but also in giving technical +instruction, which was found to be essential to commercial success. When +the Society was relieved of this educational work many of its supporters +withdrew their subscriptions under the impression that there was now no +longer any need for its continued existence. But so far from the +Society's usefulness having ceased, it has now become more important +than ever that the doctrine of organised self-help, which must be the +foundation of any sound Irish economic policy, should be insisted upon +and put into practical operation as widely as possible. All those who +are devoting their lives to the firm establishment of this self-help +movement among the chief wealth-producers of the country are agreed that +no better educational work can be done at the moment than that which is +bringing about so salutary a change in the economic attitude of the +Irish mind. + +It is not to be wondered at that the greater part of the necessary funds +should have been drawn from a very limited circle of public-spirited men +capable of grasping the significance of a movement the practical effect +of which would appear to be permanent only to those who had a deep +insight into Irish problems.[41] The difficulty of a successful appeal +to a wider public has been the impossibility of giving in brief form an +adequate explanation, such as that which it is hoped these pages will +afford, of the part the movement was to play in Irish life. We were +asked whether our scheme was business or philanthropy. If philanthropy, +it would probably do more harm than good. If business, why was it not +self-supporting? I remember hearing the movement ridiculed in the House +of Commons by a prominent Irish member on the ground that the accounts +of the I.A.O.S. showed that L20,000 (L40,000 would be nearer the mark +now) had been put into the 'business,' and that this large capital had +been entirely lost! When we proved that agricultural co-operation +brought a large profit to the members of the societies we formed, it was +suggested that a small part of this profit would give us all we required +for our organising work. So it will in time, but if instead of merely +refusing financial assistance to our converts, we were, on the other +hand, to demand it from them, we certainly should not lessen the +difficulty of launching our movement among the farmers of Ireland. Some +of our critics denounced the expenditure of so much money for which, in +their opinion, there was nothing to show, and said that the time had +come to stop this 'spoon-feeding.' When those for whose exclusive +benefit the costly work had been undertaken learned that all we had to +offer was the cold advice that they should help themselves, they not +infrequently raised a wholly different objection to our economic +doctrine. Spoonfeeding they might have tolerated, but there was nothing +in the spoon! The movement has survived all these criticisms. The lack +of moral and of financial support which retarded its progress in the +early years, has been so far surmounted The movement may now, I think, +appeal for further help as one that has justified its existence. The +opinion that it has done so is not held only by those who are engaged in +promoting it, nor by Irish observers alone. The efforts of the Irish +farmers so to reorganise their industry that they may hopefully approach +the solution of the problems of rural life are being watched by +economists and administrators abroad. Enquirers have come to Ireland +during the last two years from Germany, France, Canada, the United +States, India, South Africa, Cyprus and the West Indies, having been +drawn here by the desire to understand the combination of economic and +human reform. It was not alone the economic advantages of the movement +which interested them, but the way in which the organisation at the same +time acted upon the character and awoke those forces of self-help and +comradeship in which lies the surety of any enduring national +prosperity. A native governor from a famine district in the Madras +Presidency, who, perhaps, better than any one realised the importance +of these human factors, because the lethargy of his own people had +forced it on his notice, said, when he was referred to the Department of +Agriculture and Technical Instruction for information, "Oh, don't speak +to me about Government Departments. They are the same all over the +world. I come here to learn what the Irish people are doing to help +themselves and how you awaken the will and the initiative." I hope to +show later that State assistance properly applied is not necessarily +demoralising but very much the reverse. It is consoling, too, to our +national pride, long wounded by contemptuous references to our +industrial incapacity as compared with our neighbours, to find that our +latest efforts are regarded by them as worthy of imitation. From the +other side of the Channel no less than five County Councils have sent +deputations of farmers to Ireland to study the progress of the movement, +and already an English Organisation Society, expressly modelled upon its +Irish namesake, has been established and is endeavouring to carry out +the same work. + +It is not surprising that the facts which I have cited should be +interesting to the honest inquirer. A summary of actual achievement will +show that this movement has spread all over Ireland, that its principle +of organised self-help has been universally accepted, and that nothing +but time and the necessary funds are required by its promoters to give +it, within the range of its applicability, general effect. It is no +exaggeration to say that there has been set in motion and carried +beyond the experimental stage a revolution in agricultural methods which +will enable our farmers to compete with their rivals abroad, both in +production and in distribution, under far more favourable conditions +than before. Alike in its material and in its moral achievements this +movement has provided an effective means whereby the peasant proprietary +about to be created will be able to face and solve the vital problems +before it, problems for which no improvement in land tenure, no rent +reductions actual or prospective, could otherwise provide an adequate +solution. Furthermore, nothing could be more evident to any close +observer of Irish life than the fact that had it not been for the new +spirit which the workers in this movement, mostly humble unknown men, +had generated, the attitude of the Irish democracy towards England's +latest concession to Ireland would have been very different from what it +is. In the last dozen years hundreds and thousands of meetings have been +held to discuss matters of business importance to our rural communities. +At these meetings landlord and tenant-farmer have often met each other +for the first time on a footing of friendly equality, as fellow-members +of co-operative societies. It is significant that all through the +negotiations which culminated in the Dunraven Treaty, landlords who had +come into the life of the people in connection with the co-operative +movement took a prominent part in favour of conciliation. + +I would further give it as my opinion, whatever it may be worth, that +the movement has exercised a profound influence in those departments of +our national life where, as I have shown in previous chapters, new +forces must be not only recognised but accepted as essential to national +well-being, if we are to cherish what is good and free ourselves from +what is bad in the historical evolution of our national life. In the +domain of politics it is hard to estimate even the political value of +the exclusion of politics from deliberations and activities where they +have no proper place. In our religious life, where intolerance has +perpetuated anti-industrial tendencies, the new movement is seen to be +bringing together for business purposes men who had previously no +dealings with each other, but who have now learned that the doctrine of +self-help by mutual help involves no danger to faith and no sacrifice of +hope, while it engenders a genuinely Christian interpretation of +charity.[42] + +I cannot conclude the story of this movement without paying a brief +tribute of respect and gratitude to those true patriots who have borne +the daily burden of the work. I hope the picture I have given of their +aims and achievements will lead to a just appreciation of their services +to their country. By these men and women applause or even recognition +was not expected or desired: they knew that it was to those who had the +advantages of leisure, and what the world calls position, that the +credit for their work would be given. But it is of national importance +that altruistic service should be understood and given freedom of +expansion. I have, therefore, presented as faithfully as I could the +origin and development of one of the least understood, but in my +opinion, most fruitful movements which has ever been undertaken by a +body of social and economic reformers. As Irish leaders they have +preferred to remain obscure, conscious that the most damaging criticism +which could be applied to their work would be that it depended on their +own personal qualities or acts for its permanent utility. But most +assuredly the real conquerors of the world are those who found upon +human character their hopes of human progress. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[37] The story of the conversion of some of the tenants on the Vandeleur +estate into a co-operative community in 1831 by Mr. E.T. Craig, a +Scotchman who took up the agency of the property, told in the _History +of Ralahine_ (London, Truebner & Co., 1893) is worth reading. The +experiment, most hopeful as far as it went, was only two years in +existence when the landlord gambled away his property at cards in a +Dublin club and the Utopia was sold up. But in the co-operative world +Mr. Craig, who died as recently as 1894, is revered as the author of the +most advanced experiment in the realisation of co-operative ideals. The +economic significance of the narrative is obviously not important, and I +doubt whether joint ownership of land, except for the purpose of common +grazing, is a practical ideal. The ready response, however, of the Irish +peasants to Mr. Craig's enthusiasm and the way in which they took up the +idea form an interesting study of the Irish character. + +[38] The late Canon Bagot had done good service in explaining the value +of the new machinery; but unhappily the vital importance of co-operative +organisation was not then understood. He formed some joint stock +companies with the result that, having no co-operative spirit to offset +their commercial inexperience, they all proved, instead of co-operative +successes, competitive failures. This fact added to our early +difficulties. + +[39] It should be noted that this form of association for credit +purposes, owing to its peculiar constitution, applies only to a grade of +the community whose members all live on about the same scale and that a +fairly low one. It is obvious that unlimited liability would lose its +efficacy in developing the sense of responsibility if some members of +the association were so substantial that its creditors would make them +primarily responsible in the event of failure. The fact, however, that +the scheme has worked with unvarying success among the poorest of the +poor, and the most Irish of the Irish, renders it as good an +illustration as can be found of what may be done by sympathetic and +intelligent treatment of Irish economic problems. Mr. Henry W. Wolff, +the foremost authority on People's Banks in these islands, and Mr. R.A. +Yerburgh, M.P., a generous subscriber to the Irish Agricultural +Organisation Society, have taken great interest in this part of the +movement and have rendered much assistance. + +[40] Those who wish to go more fully into the details of the +co-operative agricultural movement in Ireland should write to the +Secretary Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, 22 Lincoln-place, +Dublin. The publications of the Society are somewhat voluminous, and the +inquirer should intimate any particular branches of the subject in which +he is especially interested. Those wishing to keep _au courant_ with the +further development of the movement would do well to take in the _Irish +Homestead_, post free _6s. 6d._ per annum. + +[41] The chief donors belong to the class of philanthropists who do not +care to advertise their beneficence. I, therefore, respect their wishes +and withhold their names. + +[42] I recall an occasion when the Vice-President of the I.A.O.S. (a +Nationalist in politics and a Jesuit priest), who has been ever ready to +lend a hand as volunteer organiser when the prior claims of his +religious and educational duties allowed, found himself before an +audience which he was informed, when he came to the meeting, consisted +mainly of Orangemen. He began his address by referring to the new and +somewhat strange environment into which he had drifted. He did not, +however, see why this circumstance should lead to any misunderstanding +between himself and his audience. He had never been able to understand +what a battle fought upon a famous Irish river two centuries ago had got +to do with the practical issues of to-day which he had come to discuss. +The dispute in question was, after all, between a Scotchman and a +Dutchman, and if it had not yet been decided, they might be left to +settle it themselves--that is if too great a gulf did not separate them. + + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE RECESS COMMITTEE. + + +The new movement, six years after its initiation, had succeeded beyond +the most sanguine expectations of its promoters. All over the country +the idea of self-help was taking firm hold of the imagination of the +people. + +Co-operation had got, so to speak, into the air to such an extent that, +whereas at the beginning, as I well remember, our chief difficulty had +been to popularise a principle to which one section of the community was +strongly opposed, and in which no section believed, it was now no longer +necessary to explain or support the theory, but only to show how it +could be advantageously applied to some branch of the farmer's industry. +It was not, strange to say, the economic advantage which had chiefly +appealed to the quick intelligence of the Irish farmer, but rather the +novel sensation that he was thinking for himself, and that while +improving his own condition he was working for others. This attitude was +essential to the success of the movement, because had it not been for a +vein of altruism, the "strong" farmers would have held aloof, and the +small men would have been discouraged by the abstention of the +better-off and presumably more enlightened of their class. + +Perhaps, too, we owed something to the recognition on the part of the +working farmers of Ireland that they were showing a capacity to grasp an +idea which had so far failed to penetrate the bucolic intelligence of +the predominant partner. Whatever the causes to which the success of the +movement was attributable, those who were responsible for its promotion +felt in the year 1895 that it had reached a stage in its development +when it was but a question of time to complete the projected revolution +in the farming industry, the substitution of combined for isolated +methods of production and distribution. It was then further brought home +to them that the principle of self-help was destined to obtain general +acceptance in rural Ireland, and that the time had come when a sound +system of State aid to agriculture might be fruitfully grafted on to +this native growth of local effort and self-reliance. + +From time to time our public men had included in the list of Irish +grievances the fact that England enjoyed a Board of Agriculture while +Ireland had no similar institution. As a matter of fact a mere replica +of the English Board would not have fulfilled a tithe of the objects we +had in view. That much at least we knew, but beyond that our information +was vague. What, having regard to Irish rural conditions, should be the +character and constitution of any Department called into being to +administer the aid required? Here indeed was a vital and difficult +problem. Even those of us who had given the closest thought to the +matter did not know exactly what was wanted; nor, if we had known our +own minds, could we have formulated our demand in such a way as to have +obtained a backing from representative public bodies, associations, and +individuals sufficient to secure its concession. Instead, therefore, of +agitating in the conventional manner we determined to try to direct the +best thought of the country to the problem in hand, with a view to +satisfying the Government, and also ourselves, as to what was wanted. We +had confidence that a demand presented to Parliament, based upon calm +and deliberate debate among the most competent of Irishmen, would be +conceded. The story of this agitation, its initiation, its conduct, and +its final success will, I am sure, be of interest to all who feel any +concern for the welfare of Ireland. + +I have accepted the common characterisation of the Irish as a +leader-following people. When we come to analyse the human material out +of which a strong national life may be constructed, we find that there +are in Ireland--in this connection I exclude the influence of the +clergy, with which I have dealt specifically in another chapter--two +elements of leadership, the political and the industrial. The political +leaders are seen to enjoy an influence over the great majority of the +people which is probably as powerful as that of any political leaders in +ancient or modern times; but as a class they certainly do not take a +prominent, or even an active part in business life. This fact is not +introduced with any controversial purpose, and I freely acknowledge can +be interpreted in a sense altogether creditable to the Nationalist +members. The other element of leadership contains all that is prominent +in industrial and commercial life, and few countries could produce +better types of such leaders than can be found in the northern capital +of the country. But, unhappily, these men are debarred from all +influence upon the thought and action of the great majority of the +people, who are under the domination of the political leaders. This is +one of the strange anomalies of Irish life to which I have already +referred. Its recognition, and the desire to utilise the knowledge of +business men as well as politicians, took practical effect in the +formation of the Recess Committee. + +The idea underlying this project was the combination of these two forces +of leadership--the force with political influence and that of proved +industrial and commercial capacity--in order to concentrate public +opinion, which was believed to be inclining in this direction, on the +material needs of the country. The General Election of 1895 had, by +universal admission, postponed, for some years at any rate, any +possibility of Home Rule, and the cessation of the bitter feelings +aroused when Home Rule seemed imminent provided the opportunity for an +appeal to the Irish people in behalf of the views which I have +adumbrated. The appeal took the form of a letter, dated August 27th, +1895, by the author to the Irish Press, under the quite sincere, if +somewhat grandiloquent, title, "A proposal affecting the general welfare +of Ireland." + +The letter set out the general scope and purpose of the scheme. After a +confession of the writer's continued opposition to Home Rule, the +admission was made that if the average Irish elector, who is more +intelligent than the average British elector, were also as prosperous, +as industrious, and as well educated, his continued demand, in the +proper constitutional way, for Home Rule would very likely result in the +experiment being one day tried. On the other hand, the opinion was +expressed that if the material conditions of the great body of our +countrymen were advanced, if they were encouraged in industrial +enterprise, and were provided with practical education in proportion to +their natural intelligence, they would see that a political development +on lines similar to those adopted in England was, considering the +necessary relations between the two countries, best for Ireland; and +then they would cease to desire what is ordinarily understood as Home +Rule. A basis for united action between politicians on both sides of the +Irish controversy was then suggested. Finding ourselves still opposed +upon the main question, but all anxious to promote the welfare of the +country, and confident that, as this was advanced, our respective +policies would be confirmed, it would appear, it was suggested, to be +alike good patriotism and good policy to work for the material and +social advancement of the people. Why then, it was asked, should any +Irishman hesitate to enter at once upon that united action between men +of both parties which alone, under existing conditions, could enable +either party to do any real and lasting good to the country? + +The letter proceeded to indicate economic legislation which, though +sorely needed by Ireland, was hopelessly unattainable unless it could be +removed from the region of controversy. The _modus co-operandi_ +suggested was as follows:--a committee sitting in the Parliamentary +recess, whence it came to be known as the Recess Committee, was to be +formed, consisting in the first instance, of Irish Members of Parliament +nominated by the leaders of the different sections. These nominees were +to invite to join them any Irishmen whose capacity, knowledge, or +experience might be of service to the Committee, irrespective of the +political party or religious persuasion to which they might belong. The +day had come, the letter went on to say, when "we Unionists, without +abating one jot of our Unionism, and Nationalists, without abating one +jot of their Nationalism, can each show our faith in the cause for which +we have fought so bitterly and so long, by sinking our party differences +for our country's good, and leaving our respective policies for the +justification of time." + +Needless to say, few were sanguine enough to hope that such a committee +would ever be brought together. If that were accomplished some +prophesied that its members would but emulate the fame of the Kilkenny +cats. A severe blow was dealt to the project at the outset by the +refusal of Mr. Justin McCarthy, who then spoke for the largest section +of the Nationalist representatives, to have anything to do with it. His +reply to the letter must be given in full:-- + + MY DEAR MR. PLUNKETT, + + I am sure I need not say that any effort to promote the general + welfare of Ireland has my fullest sympathy. I readily acknowledge + and entirely believe in the sincerity and good purpose of your + effort, but I cannot see my way to associate myself with it. Your + frank avowal in your letter of August 27th is the expression of a + belief that if your policy could be successfully carried out the + Irish people "would cease to desire Home Rule." Now, I do not + believe that anything in the way of material improvement conferred + by the Parliament at Westminster, or by Dublin Castle, could + extinguish the national desire for Home Rule. Still, I do not feel + that I could possibly take part in any organisation which had for + its object the seeking of a substitute for that which I believe to + be Ireland's greatest need--Home Rule. + + Yours very truly, + + JUSTIN MCCARTHY. + + 73, Eaton-terrace, S.W., October 22nd, 1895. + +I had not much hope that I could influence Mr. McCarthy's decision; but +it was so serious an obstacle to further action that I made one more +appeal. I wrote to my respected and courteous correspondent, pointing +out the misconception of my proposal, which had arisen from the use made +of the six words quoted by him, which were hardly intelligible without +the context. I asked him to reconsider his refusal to join in the +proposal for promoting the material improvement of our country, on +account of a contingency which he confidently declared could not arise. +But in those days economic seed fell upon stony political ground. + +The position was rendered still more difficult by the action of Colonel +Saunderson, the leader of the Irish Unionist party, who wrote to the +newspapers declaring that he would not sit on a Committee with Mr. John +Redmond. On the other hand, Mr. Redmond, speaking then for the +"Independent" party, consisting of less than a dozen members, but +containing some men who agreed with Mr. Field's admission in the House +of Commons that "man cannot live on politics alone," joined the +Committee and acted throughout in a manner which was broad, +statesmanlike, conciliatory, and as generous as it was courageous. His +letter of acceptance ran as follows:-- + + DEAR MR. PLUNKETT, + + I received your letter, in which you ask me to co-operate with you + in bringing together a small Committee of Members of Parliament to + discuss certain measures to be proposed next Session for the + benefit of Ireland. While I cannot take as sanguine a view as you + do of the benefits likely to flow from such a proceeding, I am + unwilling to take the responsibility of declining to aid in any + effort to promote useful legislation for Ireland. + + I will, under the circumstances, co-operate with you in bringing + such a Committee as you suggest together. Very truly yours, + + J.E. REDMOND. + + October 21st, 1895. + +Before these decisions were officially announced the idea had "caught +on." Public bodies throughout the country endorsed the scheme. The +parliamentarians, who formed the nucleus of the Committee, came +together and invited prominent men from all quarters to join them. A +committee which, though informal and self-appointed, might fairly claim +to be representative in every material respect, was thus constituted on +the lines laid down. + +Truly, it was a strange council over which I had the honour to preside. +All shades of politics were there--Lords Mayo and Monteagle, Mr. Dane +and Sir Thomas Lea (Tories and Liberal Unionist Peers and Members of +Parliament) sitting down beside Mr. John Redmond and his parliamentary +followers. It was found possible, in framing proposals fraught with +moral, social, and educational results, to secure the cordial agreement +of the late Rev. Dr. Kane, Grand Master of the Belfast Orangemen, and of +the eminent Jesuit educationist, Father Thomas Finlay, of the Royal +University. The O'Conor Don, the able Chairman of the Financial +Relations Commission, and Mr. John Ross, M.P., now one of His Majesty's +Judges, both Unionists, were balanced by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and +Mr. T.C. Harrington, M.P., who now occupies that post, both +Nationalists. The late Sir John Arnott fitly represented the commercial +enterprise of the South, while such men as Mr. Thomas Sinclair, +universally regarded as one of the wisest of Irish public men, Sir +William Ewart, head of the leading linen concern in the North, Sir +Daniel Dixon, now Lord Mayor of Belfast, Sir James Musgrave, Chairman of +the Belfast Harbour Board, and Mr. Thomas Andrews, a well-known +flax-spinner and Chairman of the Belfast and County Down Railway, would +be universally accepted as the highest authorities upon the needs of the +business community which has made Ulster famous in the industrial world. +Mr. T.P. Gill, besides undertaking investigation of the utmost value +into State aid to agriculture in France and Denmark, acted as Hon. +Secretary to the Committee, of which he was a member. + +The story of our deliberations and ultimate conclusions cannot be set +forth here except in the barest outline. We instituted an inquiry into +the means by which the Government could best promote the development of +our agricultural and industrial resources, and despatched commissioners +to countries of Europe whose conditions and progress might afford some +lessons for Ireland. Most of this work was done for us by the late +eminent statistician, Mr. Michael Mulhall. Our funds did not admit of an +inquiry in the United States or the Colonies. However, we obtained +invaluable information as to the methods by which countries which were +our chief rivals in agricultural and industrial production have been +enabled to compete successfully with our producers even in our own +markets. Our commissioners were instructed in each case to collect the +facts necessary to enable us to differentiate between the parts played +respectively by State aid and the efforts of the people themselves in +producing these results. With this information before us, after long and +earnest deliberation we came to a unanimous agreement upon the main +facts of the situation with which we had to deal, and upon the +recommendations for remedial legislation which we should make to the +Government. + +The substance of our recommendations was that a Department of Government +should be specially created, with a minister directly responsible to +Parliament at its head. The central body was to be assisted by a +Consultative Council representative of the interests concerned. The +Department was to be adequately endowed from the Imperial Treasury, and +was to administer State aid to agriculture and industries in Ireland +upon principles which were fully described. The proposal to amalgamate +agriculture and industries under one Department was adopted largely on +account of the opinion expressed by M. Tisserand, late Director-General +of Agriculture in France, one of the highest authorities in Europe upon +the administration of State aid to agriculture.[43] The creation of a +new minister directly responsible to Parliament was considered a +necessary provision. Ireland is governed by a number of Boards, all, +with the exception of the Board of Works (which is really a branch of +the Treasury), responsible to the Chief Secretary--practically a whole +cabinet under one hat--who is supposed to be responsible for them to +Parliament and to the Lord Lieutenant. The bearers of this burden are +generally men of great ability. But no Chief Secretary could possibly +take under his wing yet another department with the entirely new and +important functions now to be discharged. What these functions were to +be need not here be described, as the Department thus 'agitated' for has +now been three years at work and will form the subject of the next two +chapters. + +On August 1st, 1896, less than a year from the issue of the invitation +to the political leaders, the Report was forwarded to the Chief +Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant for Ireland, with a covering letter, +setting out the considerations upon which the Committee relied for the +justification of its course of action. Attention was drawn to the terms +of the original proposal, its exceptional nature and essential +informality, the political conditions which appeared to make it +opportune, the spirit in which it was responded to by those who were +invited to join, and the degree of public approval which had been +accorded to our action. We were able to claim for the Committee that it +was thoroughly representative of those agricultural and industrial +interests, North and South, with which the Report was concerned. + +There were two special features in the brief history of this unique +coming together of Irishmen which will strike any man familiar with the +conditions of Irish public life. The first was the way in which the +business element, consisting of men already deeply engaged in their +various callings--and, indeed, selected for that very reason--devoted +time and labour to the service of their country. Still more significant +was the fact that the political element on the Committee should have +come to an absolutely unanimous agreement upon a policy which, though +not intended to influence the trend of politics, was yet bound to have +far-reaching consequences upon the political thought of the country, and +upon the positions of parties and leaders. It was thought only fair to +the Nationalist members of the Committee that every precaution should be +taken to prevent their being placed in a false position. 'To avoid any +possible misconception,' the covering letter ran, 'as to the attitude of +those members of the Committee who are not supporters of the present +Government, it is right here to state that, while under existing +political conditions they agreed in recommending a certain course to the +Government, they wish it to be understood that their political +principles remain unaltered, and that, were it immediately possible, +they would prefer that the suggested reforms should be preceded by the +constitutional changes of which they are the well-known advocates.' + +It is interesting to note that the Committee claimed favourable +consideration for their proposals on the ground that they sought to act +as 'a channel of communication between the Irish Government and Irish +public opinion.' Little interest, they pointed out, had been hitherto +aroused in those economic problems for which the Report suggested some +solution. They expressed the hope that their action would do something +to remedy this defect, especially in view of the importance which +foreign Governments had found it necessary to attach to public opinion +in working out their various systems of State aid to agriculture and +industries. At the same time the Committee emphasised, in the covering +letter, their reliance on individual and combined effort rather than on +State aid. They were able to point out that, in asking for the latter, +they had throughout attached the utmost importance to its being granted +in such a manner as to evoke and supplement, and in no way be a +substitute for self-help. If they appeared to give undue prominence to +the capabilities of State initiation, it was to be remembered that they +were dealing with economic conditions which had been artificially +produced, and which, therefore, might require exceptional treatment of a +temporary nature to bring about a permanent remedy. + +I fear those most intimately connected with the above occurrences will +regard this chapter as a very inadequate description of events so +unprecedented and so full of hope for the future. My purpose is, +however, to limit myself, in dealing with the past, to such details as +are necessary to enable the reader to understand the present facts of +Irish life, and to build upon them his own conclusions as to the most +hopeful line of future development. I shall, therefore, pass rapidly in +review the events which led to the fruition of the labours of the Recess +Committee. + +Public opinion in favour of the new proposals grew rapidly. Before the +end of the year (1896) a deputation, representing all the leading +agricultural and industrial interests of the country, waited upon the +Irish Government, in order to press upon them the urgent need for the +new department. The Lord Lieutenant, after describing the gathering as +'one of the most notable deputations which had ever come to lay its case +before the Irish Government,' and noting the 'remarkable growth of +public opinion' in favour of the policy they were advocating, expressed +his heartfelt sympathy with the case which had been presented, and his +earnest desire--which was well known--to proceed with legislation for +the agricultural and industrial development of the country at the +earliest moment. The demand made upon the Government was, +argumentatively, already irresistible. But economic agitation of this +kind takes time to acquire dynamic force. Mr. Gerald Balfour introduced +a Bill the following year, but it had to be withdrawn to leave the way +clear for the other great Irish measure which revolutionised local +government. The unconventional agitation went on upon the original +lines, appealing to that latent public opinion which we were striving to +develop. In 1899 another Bill was introduced, and, owing to its masterly +handling by the Chief Secretary in the House of Commons, ably seconded +by the strong support given by Lord Cadogan, who was in the Cabinet, it +became law. + +I cannot conclude this chapter without a word upon the extraordinary +misunderstanding of Mr. Gerald Balfour's policy to which the obscuring +atmosphere surrounding all Irish questions gave rise. In one respect +that policy was a new departure of the utmost importance. He proved +himself ready to take a measure from Ireland and carry it through, +instead of insisting upon a purely English scheme which he could call +his own. These pre-digested foods had already done much to destroy our +political digestion, and it was time we were given something to grow, to +cook, and to assimilate for ourselves. It will be seen, too, in the next +chapter, that he had realised the potentiality for good of the new +forces in Irish life to which he gave play in his two great linked +Acts--one of them popularising local government, and the other creating +a new Department which was to bring the government and the people +together in an attempt to develop the resources of the country. Yet his +eminently sane and far-seeing policy was regarded in many quarters as a +sacrifice of Unionist interests in Ireland. Its real effect was to endow +Unionism with a positive as well as a negative policy. But all reformers +know that the further ahead they look, the longer they have to wait for +their justification. Meanwhile, we may leave out of consideration the +division of honour or of blame for what has been done. The only matter +of historic interest is to arrive at a correct measure of the progress +made. + +The new movement had thus completed the first and second stages of its +mission. The idea of self-help had become a growing reality, and upon +this foundation an edifice of State aid had been erected. When a +Nationalist member met a Tory member of the Recess Committee he laughed +over the success with which they had wheedled a measure of industrial +Home Rule out of a Unionist Government. None the less they cordially +agreed that the people would rise to their economic responsibility. The +promoters of the movement had faith that this new departure in English +government would be more than justified by the English test, and that in +the new sphere of administration the government would be accorded, +without prejudice, of course, to the ultimate views either of Unionists +or Home Rulers, not only the consent, but the whole-hearted co-operation +of the governed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[43] The memorandum which he kindly contributed to the Recess Committee +was copied into the Annual Report of the United States Department of +Agriculture for 1896. + + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A NEW DEPARTURE IN IRISH ADMINISTRATION. + + +To the average English Member of Parliament, the passing of an Act "for +establishing a Department of Agriculture and other Industries and +Technical Instruction in Ireland and for other purposes connected +therewith," probably signified little more than the removal of another +Irish grievance, which might not be imaginary, by the concession to +Ireland of an equivalent to the Board of Agriculture in England. In +reality the difference between the two institutions is as wide as the +difference between the two islands. The chief interest of the new +Department consists in the free play which it gives to the pent-up +forces of a re-awakening life. A new institution is at best but a new +opportunity, but the Department starts with the unique advantage that, +unlike most Irish institutions, it is one which we Irishmen planned +ourselves and for which we have worked. For this reason the opportunity +is one to which we may hope to rise. + +Before I can convey any clear impression of the part which the +Department is, I believe, destined to play on the stage of Irish public +life, it will be necessary for me to give a somewhat detailed +description of its functions and constitution. The subject is perhaps +dull and technical; but readers cannot understand the Ireland of to-day +unless they have in their minds not only an accurate conception of the +new moral forces in Irish life and of the movements to which these +forces have given rise, but also a knowledge of the administrative +machinery and methods by which the people and the Government are now, +for the first time since the Union, working together towards the +building up of the Ireland of to-morrow. + +The Department consists of the President (who is the Chief Secretary for +the time being) and the Vice-President. The staff is composed of a +Secretary, two Assistant Secretaries (one in respect of Agriculture and +one in respect of Technical Instruction), as well as certain heads of +Branches and a number of inspectors, instructors, officers and servants. +The Recess Committee, it will be remembered, had laid stress upon the +importance of having at the head of the Department a new Minister who +should be directly responsible to Parliament; and, accordingly, it was +arranged that the Vice-President should be its direct Ministerial head. +The Act provided that the Department should be assisted in its work by a +Council of Agriculture and two Boards, and also by a Consultative +Committee to advise upon educational questions. But before discussing +the constitution of these bodies, it is necessary to explain the nature +of the task assigned to the new Department which began work in April, +1900. It was created to fulfil two main purposes. In the first place, +it was to consolidate in one authority certain inter-related functions +of government in connection with the business concerns of the people +which, until the creation of the Department, were scattered over some +half-dozen Boards, and to place these functions under the direct control +and responsibility of the new Minister. The second purpose was to +provide means by which the Government and the people might work together +in developing the resources of the country so far as State intervention +could be legitimately applied to this end. + +To accomplish the first object, two distinct Government departments, the +Veterinary Department of the Privy Council and the Office of the +Inspectors of Irish Fisheries, were merged in the new Department. The +importance to the economic life of the country of having the laws for +safeguarding our flocks and herds from disease, our crops from insect +pests, our farmers from fraud in the supply of fertilisers and feeding +stuffs and in the adulteration of foods (which compete with their +products), administered by a Department generally concerned for the +farming industry need not be laboured. Similarly, it was well that the +laws for the protection of both sea and inland fisheries should be +administered by the authority whose function it was to develop these +industries. There was also transferred from South Kensington the +administration of the Science and Arts grants and the grant in aid of +technical instruction, together with the control of several national +institutions, the most important being the Royal College of Science and +the Metropolitan School of Art; for they, in a sense, would stand at the +head of much of the new work which would be required for the +contemplated agricultural and industrial developments. The Albert +Institute at Glasnevin and the Munster Institute in Cork, both +institutions for teaching practical agriculture, were, as a matter of +course, handed over from the Board of National Education. + +The desirability of bringing order and simplicity into these branches of +administration, where co-related action was not provided for before, was +obvious. A few years ago, to take a somewhat extreme case, when a +virulent attack of potato disease broke out which demanded prompt and +active Governmental intervention, the task of instructing farmers how to +spray their potatoes was shared by no fewer than six official or +semi-official bodies. The consolidation of administration effected by +the Act, in addition to being a real step towards efficiency and +economy, relieved the Chief Secretary of an immense amount of detailed +work to which he could not possibly give adequate personal attention, +and made it possible for him to devote a greater share of his time to +the larger problems of general Irish legislation and finance. + +The newly created powers of the Department, which were added to and +co-ordinated with the various pre-existing functions of the several +departments whose consolidation I have mentioned above, fairly fulfilled +the recommendation of the Recess Committee that the Department should +have 'a wide reference and a free hand.' These powers include the +aiding, improving, and developing of agriculture in all its branches; +horticulture, forestry, home and cottage industries; sea and inland +fisheries; the aiding and facilitating of the transit of produce; and +the organisation of a system of education in science and art, and in +technology as applied to these various subjects. The provision of +technical instruction suitable to the needs of the few manufacturing +centres in Ireland was included, but need not be dealt with in any +detail in these pages, since, as I have said before, the questions +connected therewith are more or less common to all such centres and have +no specially Irish significance. + +For all the administrative functions transferred to the new Department +moneys are, as before, annually voted by Parliament. Towards the +fulfilment of the second purpose mentioned above--the development of the +resources of the country upon the principles of the Recess Committee--an +annual income of L166,000, which was derived in about equal parts from +Irish and imperial sources, and is called the Department's Endowment, +together with a capital sum of about L200,000, were provided. + +It will be seen that a very wide sphere of usefulness was thus opened +out for the new Department in two distinct ways. The consolidation, +under one authority, of many scattered but co-related functions was +clearly a move in the right direction. Upon this part of its +recommendations the Recess Committee had no difficulty in coming to a +quick decision. But the real importance of their Report lay in the +direction of the new work which was to be assigned to the Department. +Under the new order of things, if the Department, acting with as well as +for the people, succeeds in doing well what legitimately may and ought +to be done by the Government towards the development of the resources of +the country, and, at the same time, as far as possible confines its +interference to helping the Irish people to help themselves, a wholly +new spirit will be imported into the industrial life of the nation. + +The very nature of the work which the Department was called into +existence to accomplish made it absolutely essential that it should keep +in touch with the classes whom its work would most immediately affect, +and without whose active co-operation no lasting good could be achieved. +The machinery for this purpose was provided by the establishment of a +Council of Agriculture and two Boards, one of the latter being concerned +with agriculture, rural industries, and inland fisheries, the other with +technical instruction. These representative bodies, whose constitution +is interesting as a new departure in administration, were adapted from +similar continental councils which have been found by experience, in +those foreign countries which are Ireland's economic rivals, to be the +most valuable of all means whereby the administration keeps in touch +with the agricultural and industrial classes, and becomes truly +responsive to their needs and wishes. + +The Council of Agriculture consists of two members appointed by each +County Council (Cork being regarded as two counties and returning four +members), making in all sixty-eight persons. The Department also appoint +one half this number of persons, observing in their nomination the same +provincial proportions as obtained in the appointments by the popular +bodies. This adds thirty-four members, and makes in all one hundred and +two Councillors, in addition to the President and Vice-President of the +Department, who are _ex-officio_ members. Thus, if all the members +attended a Council meeting, the Vice-President would find himself +presiding over a body as truly representative of the interests concerned +as could be brought together, consisting, by a strange coincidence, of +exactly the same number as the Irish representatives in Parliament. + +The Council, which is appointed for a term of three years, the first +term dating from the 1st April, 1900, has a two-fold function. It is, in +the first place, a deliberative assembly which must be convened by the +Department at least once a year. The domain over which its deliberations +may travel is certainly not restricted, as the Act defines its function +as that of "discussing matters of public interest in connection with any +of the purposes of this Act." The view Mr. Gerald Balfour took was that +nothing but the new spirit he laboured to evoke would make his machine +work. Although he gave the Vice-President statutory powers to make +rules for the proper ordering of the Council debates, I have been well +content to rely upon the usual privileges of a chairman. I have +estimated beforehand the time required for the discussion of matters of +inquiry: the speakers have condensed their speeches accordingly, the +business has been expeditiously transacted, and in the mere exchange of +ideas invaluable assistance has been given to the Department. + +The second function of the Council is exercised only at its first +meeting, and consequently but once in three years. At this first +triennial meeting it becomes an Electoral College. It divides itself +into four Provincial Committees, each of which elects two members to +represent its province on the Agricultural Board and one member to +represent it on the Board of Technical Instruction. The Agricultural +Board, which controls a sum of over L100,000 a year, consists of twelve +members, and as eight out of the twelve are elected by the four +Provincial Committees--the remaining four being appointed by the +Department, one from each province--it will be seen that the Council of +Agriculture exercises an influence upon the administration commensurate +with its own representative character. The Board of Technical +Instruction, consisting of twenty-one members, together with the +President and Vice-President of the Department, has a less simple +constitution, owing to the fact that it is concerned with the more +complex life of the urban districts of the country. As I have said, the +Council of Agriculture elects only four members--one for each province. +The Department appoints four others; each of the County Boroughs of +Dublin and Belfast appoints three members; the remaining four County +Boroughs appoint one member each; a joint Committee of the Councils of +the large urban districts surrounding Dublin appoint one member; one +member is appointed by the Commissioners of National Education, and one +member by the Intermediate Board of Education. + +The two Boards have to advise upon all matters submitted to them by the +Department in connection, in the one case, with agriculture and other +rural industries and inland fisheries, and, in the other case, in +connection with Technical Instruction. The advisory powers of the Boards +are very real, for the expenditure of all moneys out of the Endowment +funds is subject to their concurrence. Hence, while they have not +specific administrative powers and apparently have only the right of +veto, it is obvious that, if they wished, they might largely force their +own views upon the Department by refusing to sanction the expenditure of +money upon any of the Department's proposals, until these were so +modified as practically to be their own proposals. It is, therefore, +clear that the machinery can only work harmoniously and efficiently so +long as it is moved by a right spirit. Above all it is necessary that +the central administrative body should gain such a measure of popular +confidence as to enable it, without loss of influence, to resist +proposals for expenditure upon schemes which might ensure great +popularity at the moment, but would do permanent harm to the industrial +character we are all trying to build up. I need not fear contradiction +at the hands of a single member of either Board when I say that up to +the present perfect harmony has reigned throughout. The utmost +consideration has been shown by the Boards for the difficulties which +the Department have to overcome; and I think I may add that due regard +has been paid by the administrative authority to the representative +character and the legitimate wishes of the bodies which advise and +largely control it. + +The other statutory body attached to the Department has a significance +and potential importance in strange contrast to the humble place it +occupies in the statute book. The Agriculture and Technical Instruction +(Ireland) Act, 1899, has, like many other Acts, a part entitled +'Miscellaneous,' in which the draughtsman's skill has attended to +multifarious practical details, and made provision for all manner of +contingencies, many of which the layman might never have thought of or +foreseen. Travelling expenses for Council, Boards, and Committees, +casual vacancies thereon, a short title for the Act, and a seal for the +Department, definitions, which show how little we know of our own +language, and a host of kindred matters are included. In this miscellany +appears the following little clause:-- + + For the purpose of co-ordinating educational administration there + shall be established a Consultative Committee consisting of the + following members:-- + + (a.) The Vice-President of the Department, who shall be chairman + thereof; + + (b.) One person to be appointed by the Commissioners of National + Education; + + (c.) One person to be appointed by the Intermediate Education + Board; + + (d.) One person to be appointed by the Agricultural Board; and + + (e.) One person to be appointed by the Board of Technical + Instruction. + +Now the real value of this clause, and in this I think it shows a +consumate statesmanship, lies not in what it says, but in what it +suggests. The Committee, it will be observed, has an immensely important +function, but no power beyond such authority as its representative +character may afford. Any attempt to deal with a large educational +problem by a clause in a measure of this kind would have alarmed the +whole force of unco-ordinated pedagogy, and perhaps have wrecked the +Bill. The clause as it stands is in harmony with the whole spirit of the +new movement and of the legislation provided for its advancement. The +Committee may be very useful in suggesting improvements in educational +administration which will prevent unnecessary overlapping and lead to +co-operation between the systems concerned. Indeed it has already made +suggestions of far-reaching importance, which have been acted upon by +the educational authorities represented upon it. As I have said in an +earlier chapter when discussing Irish education from the practical +point of view, I have great faith in the efficacy of the economic factor +in educational controversy, and this Committee is certainly in a +position to watch and pronounce on any defects in our educational system +which the new efforts to deal practically with our industrial and +commercial problems may disclose. + +There remains to be explained only one feature of the new administrative +machinery, and it is a very important one. The Recess Committee had +recommended the adaptation to Ireland of a type of central institution +which it had found in successful operation on the Continent wherever it +had pursued its investigations. So far as schemes applicable to the +whole country were concerned, the central Department, assuming that it +gained the confidence of the Council and Boards, might easily justify +its existence. But the greater part of its work, the Recess Committee +saw, would relate to special localities, and could not succeed without +the cordial co-operation of the people immediately concerned. This fact +brought Mr. Gerald Balfour face to face with a problem which the Recess +Committee could not solve in its day, because, when it sat, there still +existed the old grand jury system, though its early abolition had been +promised. It was extremely fortunate that to the same minister fell the +task of framing both the Act of 1898, which revolutionised local +government, and the Act of 1899, now under review. The success with +which these two Acts were linked together by the provisions of the +latter forms an interesting lesson in constructive statesmanship. Time +will, I believe, thoroughly discredit the hostile criticism which +withheld its due mead of praise from the most fruitful policy which any +administration had up to that time ever devised for the better +government of Ireland. + +The local authorities created by the Act of 1898 provided the machinery +for enabling the representatives of the people to decide themselves, to +a large extent, upon the nature of the particular measures to be adopted +in each locality and to carry out the schemes when formulated. The Act +creating the new Department empowered the council of any county or of +any urban district, or any two or more public bodies jointly, to appoint +committees, composed partly of members of the local bodies and partly of +co-opted persons, for the purpose of carrying out such of the +Department's schemes as are of local, and not of general importance. +True to the underlying principle of the new movement--the principle of +self-reliance and local effort--the Act lays it down that 'the +Department shall not, in the absence of any special considerations, +apply or approve of the application of money ... to schemes in respect +of which aid is not given out of money provided by local authorities or +from other local sources.' To meet this requirement the local +authorities are given the power of raising a limited rate for the +purposes of the Act. By these two simple provisions for local +administration and local combination, the people of each district were +made voluntarily contributory both in effort and in money, towards the +new practical developments, and given an interest in, and +responsibility for their success. It was of the utmost importance that +these new local authorities should be practically interested in the +business concerns of the country which the Department was to serve. Mr. +Gerald Balfour himself, in introducing the Local Government Bill, had +shown that he was under no illusion as to the possible disappointment to +which his great democratic experiment might at first give rise. He +anticipated that it would "work through failure to success." To put it +plainly, the new bodies might devote a great deal of attention to +politics and very little to business. I am told by those best qualified +to form an opinion (some of my informants having been, to say the least, +sceptical as to the wisdom of the experiment), that notwithstanding some +extravagances in particular instances, it can already be stated +positively that local government in Ireland, taken as a whole, has not +suffered in efficiency by the revolution which it has undergone. This is +the opinion of officials of the Local Government Board,[44] and refers +mainly to the transaction of the fiscal business of the new local +authorities. From a different point of observation I shall presently +bear witness to a display of administrative capacity on the part of the +many statutory committees, appointed by County, Borough, and District +Councils to co-operate with the Department, which is most creditable to +the thought and feeling of the people. + +It would be quite unfair to a large body of farmers in Ireland if, in +describing the administrative machinery for carrying out an economic +policy based upon self-help and dependent for its success upon the +conciliatory spirit abroad in the country, I were to ignore the part +played by the large number of co-operative associations, the +organisation, work and multiplication of which have been described in a +former chapter. The Recess Committee, in their enquiries, found that, in +the countries whose competition Ireland feels most keenly, Departments +of Agriculture had come to recognise it as an axiom of their policy that +without organisation for economic purposes amongst the agricultural +classes, State aid to agriculture must be largely ineffectual, and even +mischievous. Such Departments devote a considerable part of their +efforts to promoting agricultural organisation. Short a time as this +Department has been in existence it has had some striking evidence of +the justice of these views. As will be seen from the First Annual Report +of the Department, it was only where the farmers were organised in +properly representative societies that many of the lessons the +Department had to teach could effectually reach the farming classes, or +that many of the agricultural experiments intended for their guidance +could be profitably carried out. Although these experiment schemes were +issued to the County Councils and the agricultural public generally, it +was only the farmers organised in societies who were really in a +position to take part in them. Some of these experiments, indeed, could +not be carried out at all except through such societies. + +Both for the sake of efficiency in its educational work, and of economy +in administration, the Department would be obliged to lay stress on the +value of organisation.[45] But there are other reasons for its doing so: +industrial, moral, and social. In an able critique upon Bodley's +_France_ Madame Darmesteter, writing in the _Contemporary Review_, July, +1898, points out that even so well informed an observer of French life +as the author of that remarkable book failed to appreciate the steadying +influence exercised upon the French body politic by the network of +voluntary associations, the _syndicats agricoles_, which are the +analogues and, to some extent, the prototypes, in France of our +agricultural societies in Ireland. The late Mr. Hanbury, during his too +brief career as President of the Board of Agriculture, frequently dwelt +upon the importance of organising similar associations in England as a +necessary step in the development of the new agricultural policy which +he foreshadowed. His successor, Lord Onslow, has fully endorsed his +views, and in his speeches is to be found the same appreciation of the +exemplary self-reliance of the Irish farmers. I have already referred to +the keen interest which both agricultural reformers and English and +Welsh County Councils have been taking in the unexpectedly progressive +efforts of the Irish farmers to reorganise their industry and place +themselves in a position to take advantage of State assistance. I +believe that our farmers are going to the root of things, and that due +weight should be given to the silent force of organised self-help by +those who would estimate the degree in which the aims and sanguine +anticipations of the new movement in Ireland are likely to be realised. + +And it is not only for its foundation upon self-reliance that the latest +development of Irish Government will have a living interest for +economists and students of political philosophy. They will see in the +facts under review a rapid and altogether healthy evolution of the Irish +policy so honourably associated with the name of Mr. Arthur Balfour. His +Chief Secretaryship, when all its storm and stress have been forgotten, +will be remembered for the opening up of the desolate, poverty-stricken +western seaboard by light railways, and for the creation of the +Congested Districts Board. The latter institution has gained so wide +and, as I think, well merited popularity, that many thought its +extension to other parts of Ireland would have been a simpler and safer +method of procedure than that actually recommended by the Recess +Committee, and adopted by Mr. Gerald Balfour. The Land Act of 1891 +applied a treatment to the problem of the congested districts--a problem +of economic depression and industrial backwardness, differing rather in +degree than in kind from the economic problem of the greater part of +rural Ireland--as simple as it was new. A large capital sum of Irish +moneys was handed over to an unpaid commission consisting of Irishmen +who were acquainted with the local circumstances, and who were in a +position to give their services to a public philanthropic purpose. They +were given the widest discretion in the expenditure of the interest of +this capital sum, and from time to time their income has been augmented +from annually voted moneys. They were restricted only to measures +calculated permanently to improve the condition of the people, as +distinct from measures affording temporary relief. + +I agree with those who hold that Mr. Arthur Balfour's plan was the best +that could be adopted at the moment. But events have marched rapidly +since 1891, and wholly new possibilities in the sphere of Irish economic +legislation and administration have been revealed. A new Irish mind has +now to be taken into account, and to be made part of any ameliorative +Irish policy. Hence it was not only possible, but desirable, to +administer State help more democratically in 1899 than in 1891. The +policy of the Congested Districts Board was a notable advance upon the +inaction of the State in the pre-famine times, and upon the system of +doles and somewhat objectless relief works of the latter half of the +nineteenth century; but the policy of the new departure now under review +was no less notable a departure from the paternalism of the Congested +Districts Board. When that body was called into existence it was thought +necessary to rely on persons nominated by the Government. When the +Department was created eight years later it was found possible, owing to +the broadening of the basis of local government and to the moral and +social effect of the new movement, to rely largely on the advice and +assistance of persons selected by the people themselves. + +The two departments are in constant consultation as to the co-ordination +of their work, so as to avoid conflict of administrative system and +sociological principle in adjoining districts; and much has already been +done in this direction. My own experience has not only made me a firm +believer in the principle of self-help, but I carry my belief to the +extreme length of holding that the poorer a community is the more +essential is it to throw it as much as possible on its own resources, in +order to develop self-reliance. I recognise, however, the undesirability +of too sudden changes of system in these matters. Meanwhile, I may add +in this connection that the Wyndham Land Act enormously increases the +importance of the Congested Districts Board in regard to its main +function--that of dealing directly with congestion, by the purchase and +resettlement of estates, the migration of families, and the enlargement +of holdings.[46] + +I have now said enough about the aims and objects, the constitution and +powers, and the relations with other Governmental institutions, of the +new Department, to enable the reader to form a fairly accurate estimate +of its general character, scope and purpose. From what it is I shall +pass in the next chapter to what it does, and there I must describe its +everyday work in some detail. But I wish I could also give the reader an +adequate picture of the surge of activities raised by the first plunge +of the Department into Irish life and thought. After a time the torrent +of business made channels for itself and went on in a more orderly +fashion; practical ideas and promising openings were sifted out at an +early stage of their approach to the Department from those which were +neither one nor the other; time was economised, work distributed, and +the functions of demand and supply in relation to the Department's work +throughout Ireland were brought into proper adjustment with each other. +Yet, even at first, to a sympathetic and understanding view, the waste +of time and thought involved in dealing with impossible projects and +dispelling false hopes was compensated for by the evidence forced upon +us that the Irish people had no notion of regarding the Department as an +alien institution with which they need concern themselves but little, +however much it might concern itself with them. They were never for a +moment in doubt as to its real meaning and purpose. They meant to make +it their own and to utilise it in the uplifting of their country. No +description of the machinery of the institution could explain the real +place which it took in the life of the country from the very beginning. +But perhaps it may give the reader a more living interest in this part +of the story, and a more living picture of the situation, if I try to +convey to his mind some of the impressions left on my own, by my +experiences during the period immediately following the projection of +this new phenomenon into Irish consciousness. + +When in Upper Merrion-street, Dublin, opposite to the Land Commission, +big brass plates appeared upon the doors of a row of houses announcing +that there was domiciled the Department of Agriculture and Technical +Instruction, the average man in the street might have been expected to +murmur, 'Another Castle Board,' and pass on. It was not long, however, +before our visiting list became somewhat embarrassing. We have since got +down, as I have said, to a more humdrum, though no less interesting, +official life inside the Department. But let the reader imagine himself +to have been concealed behind a screen in my office on a day when some +event, like the Dublin Horse Show, brought crowds in from the country to +the Irish capital. Such an experience would certainly have given him a +new understanding of some then neglected men and things. While I was +opening the morning's letters and dealing with "Files" marked "urgent," +he would see nothing to distinguish my day's work from that of other +ministers, who act as a link between the permanent officials of a +spending Department and the Government of the day. But presently a +stream of callers would set in, and he would begin to realise that the +minister is, in this case, a human link of another kind--a link between +the people and the Government. A courteous and discreet Private +Secretary, having attended to those who have come to the wrong +department, and to those who are satisfied with an interview with him or +with the officer who would have to attend to their particular business, +brings into my not august presence a procession of all sorts and +conditions of men. Some know me personally, some bring letters of +introduction or want to see me on questions of policy. Others--for these +the human link is most needed--must see the ultimate source of +responsibility, which, in Ireland, whether it be head of a family or of +a Department, is reduced from the abstract to the concrete by the +pregnant pronoun 'himself.' I cannot reveal confidences, but I may give +a few typical instances of, let us say, callers who might have called. + +First comes a visitor, who turns out to be a 'man with an idea,' just +home from an unpronounceable address in Scandinavia. He has come to tell +me that we have in Ireland a perfect gold mine, if we only knew it--in +extent never was there such a gold field--no illusory pockets--good +payable stuff in sight for centuries to come--and so on for five +precious minutes, which seem like half a day, during which I have +realised that he is an inventor, and that it is no good asking him to +come to the point. But I keep my eye riveted on his leather bag which is +filled to bursting point, and manifest an intelligent interest and +burning curiosity. The suggestion works, and out of the bag come black +bars and balls, samples of fabrics ranging from sack-cloth to fine +linen, buttons, combs, papers for packing and for polite correspondence, +bottles of queer black fluid, and a host of other miscellaneous wares. I +realise that the particular solution of the Irish Question which is +about to be unfolded is the utilisation of our bogs. Well, this _is_ +one of the problems with which we have to deal. It is physically +possible to make almost anything out of this Irish asset, from moss +litter to billiard balls, and though one would not think it, aeons of +energy have been stored in these inert looking wastes by the apparently +unsympathetic sun, energy which some think may, before long, be +converted into electricity to work all the smokeless factories which the +rising generation are to see. Indeed, the vista of possibilities is +endless, the only serious problem that remains to be solved being 'how +to make it pay,' and upon that aspect of the question, unhappily, my +visitor had no light to throw. + +The next visitor, who brings with him a son and a daughter, is himself +the product of an Irish bog in the wildest of the wilds. His Parish +Priest had sent him to me. A little awkwardness, which is soon +dispelled, and the point is reached. This fine specimen of the 'bone and +sinew' has had a hard struggle to bring up his 'long family'; but, with +a capable wife, who makes the most of the _res angusta domi_--of the +pig, the poultry, and even of the butter from the little black cows on +the mountain--he has risen to the extent of his opportunities. The +children are all doing something. Lace and crochet come out of the +cabin, the yarn from the wool of the 'mountainy' sheep, carded and spun +at home, is feeding the latest type of hosiery knitting machine and the +hereditary handloom. The story of this man's life which was written to +me by the priest cannot find space here. The immediate object of his +visit is to get his eldest daughter trained as a poultry instructress to +take part in some of the 'County Schemes' under the Department, and to +obtain for his eldest son, who has distinguished himself under the +tuition of the Christian Brothers, a travelling scholarship. For this he +has been recommended by his teachers. They had marked this bright boy +out as an ideal agricultural instructor, and if I could give the reader +all the particulars of the case it would be a rare illustration of the +latent human resources we mean to develop in the Ireland that is to be. +I explain that the young man must pass a qualifying examination, but am +glad to be able to admit that the circumstances of his life, which would +have to be taken into account in deciding between the qualified, are in +his case of a kind likely to secure favourable consideration. + +And now enters a sporting friend of mine, a 'practical angler,' who +comes with a very familiar tale of woe. The state of the salmon +fisheries is deplorable: if the Department does not fulfil its obvious +duties there will not be a salmon in Ireland outside a museum in ten +years more. He has lived for forty-five years on the banks of a salmon +river, and he knows that I don't fish. But this much the conversation +reveals: his own knowledge of the subject is confined to the piece of +river he happens to own, the gossip he hears at his club, and the ideas +of the particular poacher he employs as his gillie. His suggested remedy +is the abolition of all netting. But I have to tell him that only the +day before I had a deputation from the net fishermen in the estuary of +this very river, whose bitter complaint was that this 'poor man's +industry' was being destroyed by the mackerel and herring nets round the +coast, and--I thought my friend would have a fit--by the way in which +the gentlemen on the upper waters neglect their duty of protecting the +spawning fish! Some belonging to the lower water interest carried their +scepticism as to the efficacy of artificial propagation to the length of +believing that hatcheries are partially responsible for the decrease. As +so often happens, the opposing interests, disagreeing on all else, find +that best of peacemakers, a common enemy, in the Government. The +Department is responsible--for two opposite reasons, it is true, but +somehow they seem to confirm each other. We must labour to find some +other common ground, starting from the recognition that the salmon +fisheries are a national asset which must be made to subserve the +general public interest. I assure my friend that when all parties make +their proper contribution in effort and in cash, the Department will not +be backward in doing their part. + +At the end of this interview a messenger brings a telegram for 'himself' +from a stockowner in a remote district.[47] 'My pigs,' runs one of the +most businesslike communications I ever received, 'are all spotted. +What shall I do?' I send it to the Veterinary Branch, which, with the +Board of Agriculture in England, is engaged in a scheme for staying the +ravages of swine fever, a scheme into which the late Mr. Hanbury threw +himself with his characteristic energy. The problem is of immense +importance, and the difficulty is not mainly quadrupedal. Unless the +police 'spot' the spotted pigs, we too often hear nothing about them. I +am sure it must be daily brought home to the English Board, as it is to +the Irish Department, that an enormous addition might be made to the +wealth of the country if our veterinary officers were intelligently and +actively aided, in their difficult duties for the protection of our +flocks and herds, by those most immediately concerned. + +So far it has been an interesting morning bright with the activities out +of which the future is to be made. The element of hope has predominated, +but now comes a visitor who wishes to see me upon the one part of my +duties and responsibilities which is distasteful to me--the exercise of +patronage. He has been unloaded upon me by an influential person, upon +whom he has more legitimate claims than upon the Department. He has +prepared the way for a favourable reception by getting his friends to +write to my friends, many of whom have already fulfilled a promise to +interview me in his behalf. His mother and two maiden aunts have written +letters which have drawn from my poor Private Secretary, who has to read +them all, the dry quotation, 'there's such a thing as being so good as +to be good for nothing.' The young hopeful quickly puts an end to my +speculations as to the exact capacity in which he means to serve the +Department by applying for an inspectorship. I ask him what he proposes +to inspect, and the sum and substance of his reply is that he is not +particular, but would not mind beginning at a moderate salary, say L200 +a year. As for his qualifications, they are a sadly minus quantity, his +blighted career having included failure for the army, and a clerkship in +a bank, which only lasted a week when he proved to be deficient in the +second and dangerous in the third of the three R's. His case reminds me +of a story of my ranching days, which the exercise of patronage has so +often recalled to my mind that I must out with it. Riding into camp one +evening, I turned my horse loose and got some supper, which was a vilely +cooked meal even for a cow camp. Recognising in the cook a cowboy I had +formerly employed, I said to him, 'You were a way up cow hand, but as +cook you are no account. Why did you give up riding and take to cooking? +What are your qualifications as a cook any way?' 'Qualifications!' he +replied, 'why, don't you know I've got varicose veins?' My caller's +qualifications are of an equally negative description, though not of a +physical kind. He is one of the young Micawbers, to whom the Department +from its first inception has been the something which was to turn up. He +had, of course, testimonials which in any other country would have +commanded success by their terms and the position of the signatories, +but which in Ireland only illustrate the charity with which we condone +our moral cowardice under the name of good nature. I am glad when this +interview closes. + +One more type--a Nationalist Member of Parliament! He does not often +darken the door of a Government office--they all have the same +structural defect, no front stairs--he never has asked and never thought +he would ask anything from the Government. But he is interested in some +poor fishermen of County Clare who pursue their calling under cruel +disadvantages for want of the protection from the Atlantic rollers which +a small breakwater would afford. It is true that they were the worst +constituents he had--- went against him in 'The Split,'--but if I saw +how they lived, and so on. I knew all about the case. A breakwater to be +of any use would cost a very large sum, and the local authority, though +sympathetic, did not see their way to contribute their proportion, and +without a local contribution, I explained, the Department could not, +consistently with its principles, unless in most exceptional--Here he +breaks in: 'Oh! that red tape. You're as bad as the rest--exceptional, +indeed! Why, everything is exceptional in my constituency. I am a bit +that way myself. But, seriously, the condition of these poor people +would move even a Government official. Besides, you remember the night I +made thirteen speeches on the Naval Estimates--the Government wanted a +little matter of twenty millions--and you met me in the Lobby and told +me you wished to go to bed, and asked me what I really wanted, and--I +am always reasonable--I said I would pass the whole Naval Programme if I +got the Government to give them a boat-slip at Ballyduck.--"Done!" you +said, and we both went home.--I believe you knew that I had got +constituency matters mixed up, that Ballyduck was inland, and that it +was Ballycrow that I meant to say.--But you won't deny that you are +under a moral obligation.' + +Well, I would go into the matter again very carefully--for I thought we +might help these fishermen in some other way--and write to him. He +leaves me; and, while outside the door he travels over the main points +with my Private Secretary, the lights and shades in the picture which +this strange personality has left on my mind throw me back behind the +practical things of to-day. In Parliament facing the Sassanach, in +Ireland facing their police, he has for years--the best years of his +life--displayed the same love of fighting for fighting's sake. In the +riots he has provoked, and they are not a few, he is ever regardless of +his own skin, and would be truly miserable if he inflicted any serious +bodily harm on a human being--even a landlord. It is impossible not to +like this very human anachronism, who, within the limitations imposed by +the convenience of a citizenship to which he unwillingly belongs, does +battle + + For Faith, and Fame, and Honour, and the ruined hearths of Clare. + +The reader may take all this as fiction. I am sure no one will annoy me +by trying on any of the caps I have displayed on the counter of my +shop. What I do fear is that the picture of some of my duties which I +have given may have made a wrong impression of the Department's work +upon the reader's mind. He may have come to the conclusion that, +contrary to all the principles laid down, an attempt was being made to +do for the people things which the new movement was to induce the people +to do for themselves. The Department may appear to be using its official +position and Government funds to constitute itself a sort of Universal +Providence, exercising an authority and a discretion over matters upon +which in any progressive community the people must decide for +themselves. However near to the appearances such an impression might be, +nothing could be further from the facts. If I have helped the reader to +unravel the tangled skein of our national life, if I have sufficiently +revealed the mind of the new movement to show that there is in it 'a +scheme of things entire,' it should be quite clear that the deliberate +intentions both of Mr. Gerald Balfour and of those Irishmen whom he took +into his confidence are being fulfilled in letter and in spirit. It only +remains for me to attempt an adequate description of the work of the +Department created by that Chief Secretary, and, above all, of the way +in which the people themselves are playing the part which his +statesmanship assigned to them. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[44] See Report of the Local Government Board, 1901-2. + +[45] See Annual General Report of the Department 1900-1901, pp. 25-27. + +[46] _Cf. ante_, pp. 46-49. + +[47] No fiction about this, nor about the following letter to the +Secretary:-- + +'The Scratatory, Vitny Dept. + +'Honord Sir, + +'I want to let ye know the terible state we're in now. Al the pigs about +here is dyin in showers. Send down a Vit at oncet.' + + + + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +GOVERNMENT WITH THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED. + + +In the preceding chapter I attempted to give to the reader a rough +impression of the general purpose and miscellaneous functions of the new +Department. I described in some detail the constitution and powers of +the Council of Agriculture--a sort of Business Parliament--which +criticises our doings and elects representatives on our Boards; and of +the two Boards which, in addition to their advisory functions, possess +the power of the purse. I laid special stress upon the important part +these instruments of the popular will were intended to play as a link +between the people and the Department. I gave a similar description and +explanation of the Committees of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, +appointed by local representative bodies, by means of which the people +were brought into touch with the local as distinct from the central +work, and made responsible for its success. The details were necessarily +dull; and so also must be those which will now be required in order to +indicate the general nature and scope of the work for the accomplishment +of which all this machinery was designed. Yet I am not without hope +that even the general reader may find a deep human interest in the +practical endeavour of the humbler classes of my fellow-countrymen to +reconstruct their national life upon the solid foundation of honest +work. + +The Department has at the time of writing been in existence for three +years, the term of office, it will be remembered, of the Council of +Agriculture and of the two Boards. It would be unreasonable to expect in +so short a time any great achievement; but the understanding critic will +attach importance rather to the spirit in which the work was approached +than to the actual amount of work which was accomplished. He may say +that no true estimate of its value can be formed until the enthusiasm +aroused by its novelty has had time to wear off. Those of us who know +the real character of the work are quite satisfied that the interest +which it aroused during the period in which the people had yet to grasp +its meaning and utility is not likely to become less real as the blossom +fades and the fruit begins to swell. The attitude of the Irish people +towards the Department and its work has not been that of a child towards +a new toy, but of a full-grown man towards a piece of his life's work, +upon which he feels that he entered all too late. Indeed, so quickly +have the people grasped the significance of the new opportunities for +material advancement now placed within their reach, that the Department +has had to carry out, and to assist the statutory local committees in +carrying out, a number and variety of schemes which, at any rate, proved +that public opinion did not regard it as a transitory experiment; but +as a much-needed institution which, if properly utilised, might do much +to make up for lost time, and which, in any case, had come to stay. The +amount of the work which we were thus constrained to undertake was +somewhat embarrassing; but so general and so genuine was the desire to +make a start that we have done our best to keep pace with the local +demands for immediate action. The staff of the Department caught the +spirit in which the task had been set by the country, and showed a keen +anxiety to get to work; and I am glad to have an opportunity of +acknowledging that both the indoor and outdoor support it has received +leaves the Department without excuse if it has not already justified its +existence. + +I shall deal as mercifully as I can with my readers in helping them +towards an understanding of what has been actually done in the three +years under review. I am aware that if I were to attempt a description +of all the schemes which the variety of local needs suggested, and in +the execution of which the assistance of the many-sided Department was +sought and obtained, I should lose the patient readers, who have not +already fainted by the way, in a jungle where they could not see the +wood for the trees. These things can be studied by those +interested,--and they I hope, in Ireland at any rate, are not few--in +the Annual Reports and other official publications of the Department. +For the general reader I must try to indicate in broad outline the +nature and scope of that side of the new movement which seeks to +supplement organised self-help and open the way for individual +enterprise by a well considered measure of State assistance. I shall be +more than satisfied if I succeed in giving him a clear insight into the +manner in which the delicate task of making State interference with the +business of the people not only harmless but beneficial has been set +about. It is obvious that the fulfilment of this object must depend upon +the soundness of the economic policy pursued, and upon the establishment +and maintenance of mutual confidence between the central authority and +the popular representative bodies through which the people utilise the +new facilities afforded by the State. + +I think the best way of giving the information which is required for an +understanding of our somewhat complicated scheme for agricultural and +industrial development under democratic control is first to explain the +line of demarcation which we have drawn between the respective functions +of the Department and the people's committees throughout the country; +and then I must give a rapid description of some of the most important +features of the Department's policy and programme. I shall add a +sufficiency of detail from the actual work accomplished in these +organising and experimental years, to illustrate both the difficulties +which are incidental to such a policy, and the manner in which these +difficulties may be surmounted. + +When it became manifest that both the country and the Department were +anxious to drive ahead, the first thing to do was to lay down a _modus +operandi_ which would assign to the local and central bodies their +proper shares in the work and responsibilities and secure some degree of +order and uniformity in administration. This was quickly done, and the +plan adopted works smoothly. The Department gives the local committee +general information as to the kind of purpose to which it can legally +and properly apply the funds jointly contributed from the rates and the +central exchequer. The committee, after full consideration of the +conditions, needs and industrial environment of the community for which +it acts, selects certain definite projects which it considers most +applicable to its district, allocates the amount required to each +project, and sends the scheme to the Department for its approval. When +the scheme is formally approved, it becomes the official scheme in the +locality for the current year; and the local committee has to carry it +out. + +Although harmony now usually exists between the local and central +authorities to the advantage and comfort of both, a considerable amount +of friction was inevitable until they got to understand each other. The +occasional over-riding of local desires by the 'autocratic' Department, +which in the first rush of its work had to act in a somewhat peremptory +fashion, was, no doubt, irritating. Now, however, it is generally +recognised that the central body, having not only the advice of its +experts and access to information from similar Departments in other +countries to guide it, but also being in a position to profit by the +exchange of ideas which is constantly going on between it and all the +local committees in Ireland, is in a position of special advantage for +deciding as to the bearing of local schemes upon national interests, and +sometimes even as to their soundness from a purely local point of view. + +Passing now from the conditions under which the Department's work is +done, we come to review some typical portions of the work itself so far +as it has proceeded. This falls naturally, both as regards that which is +done by the central authority for the country at large and that which is +locally administered, into two divisions. The first consists of direct +aid to agriculture and other rural industries, and to sea and inland +fisheries. The second consists of indirect aid given to these objects, +and also to town manufactures and commerce, through education--a term +which must be interpreted in its widest sense. Needless to say, direct +aids, being tangible and immediately beneficial, are the more popular: a +bull, a boat, or a hand-loom is more readily appreciated than a lecture, +a leaflet, or an idea. Yet in the Department we all realise--and, what +is more important, the people are coming to realise--that by far the +most important work we have to do is that which belongs to the sphere of +education, especially education which has a distinctly practical aim. To +this branch of the subject I shall, therefore, first direct the reader's +attention. + +It must be remembered that, for reasons fully set out in the earlier +portions of the book, I am treating the Irish Question as being, in its +most important economic and social aspects, the problem of rural life. +The Department's scheme of technical instruction, therefore, need not +here be detailed in its application to the needs of our few +manufacturing towns, but only in its application to agriculture and the +subsidiary industries. I do not suggest that the questions relating to +the revival of industry in our large manufacturing centres and +provincial towns are not of the first importance. The local authorities +in these places have eagerly come into the movement, and the Department +has already taken part in founding, in our cities and larger towns, +comprehensive schemes of technical education, as to the outcome of which +we have every reason to be hopeful. Not only that, but it is highly +necessary for the Department to consider these schemes in close relation +to its work upon the more specially rural problems, for, as I have said +elsewhere,[48] the interdependence of town and country, and the +establishment of proper relations between their systems of industry and +education, is a prime factor in Irish prosperity. But the rural problem, +as I have so often reiterated, is the core of the Irish Question; and to +deal at all adequately with technical education, so far as we carry it +on upon lines common both to Great Britain and Ireland, would lead us +too far afield on the present occasion. I must, therefore, content +myself with indicating my reasons for leaving it rather on one side, and +pass on to a brief description of the Department's educational work in +respect of its two-fold aim of developing agriculture and the subsidiary +industries. + +In the case of agriculture our task is perfectly plain. We know pretty +well what we want to do, for we are dealing with an existing industry, +and with known conditions. The productivity of the soil, the demand of +the market, the means of transport from the one to the other, are all +easily ascertainable. What most needs to be provided in Ireland is a +much higher technical skill, a more advanced scientific and commercial +knowledge, as applied to agricultural production and distribution.[49] +This, in our belief, depends, more than upon any other agency, upon the +soundness of the education which is provided to develop the capacities +of those in charge of these operations. Our chief difficulty is that of +co-ordinating our teaching of technical agriculture with the general +educational systems of the country--a difficulty which the other +educational authorities are all united with us in seeking to remove. + +When, on the other hand, education--again, I believe, the chief agency +for the purpose--is considered as a means for the creation of new +industries, we come face to face with a wholly different problem. We +have no longer an industry which we are seeking to foster and develop +going on under our eyes, steadying us in our theorising, and in our +experimenting upon the mind of the worker, by bringing us into close +touch with the actual conditions of his work. Our chief aim must be to +develop his adaptability for the ever-changing and, we hope, improving +economic industrial conditions amidst which he will have to work. But +unless we can satisfy parents that the schemes of development in which +their children are being educated to take their place have an assured +prospect of practical realisation, they will naturally prefer an +inferior teaching which seems to them to offer a better prospect of an +immediate wage or salary. The teachers in the secondary schools of the +country, who, so far, have shown a desire to assist us in giving an +industrial and commercial direction to our educational policy, would +also in that event have to meet the wishes of the parents; and thus +education would fall back into the old rut with its cramming, its +examinations and result fees--all leading to the multiplication of +clerks and professional men, and preventing us from turning the thoughts +and energies of the people towards productive occupations. + +The natural trend of our educational policy will now be clear. Leaving +out of account large towns, where our problem is, as I have said, the +same as that which confronts the industrial classes in the manufacturing +centres of Great Britain, we are chiefly concerned with the application +of science to the cultivation of the soil and the improvement of live +stock, and of business principles to the commercial side of farming; +with the teaching of dairying, horticulture, apiculture, and what has +been called farm-yard lore, outside the rural home, and with domestic +economy inside. On the industrial as distinct from the agricultural side +of the work in rural localities, technical instruction must be directed +towards the development of subsidiary rural industries. + +We early came to the conclusion that we could not expect to find a +system which we could simply transplant from some other country. The +system adopted in Great Britain, where each county or group of counties +maintains an agricultural college and an experimental farm, and many +more elaborate systems on the continent, were all found on examination +to be inapplicable to our own rural conditions, unsuitable to the +national character, and unrelated to the history of our agriculture. +Many of these schemes might have turned out a few highly qualified +authorities on the theory of agriculture, and even good practical +directors for those who farm on a large scale. But we are dealing with a +country with great possibilities from an agricultural point of view, but +where, nevertheless, agriculture in many parts is in a very backward +condition, and where it is probably safe to say that three-fifths of the +farms are crowded on one-fourth of the land. We are dealing with a +community with whom the systems of elementary, secondary and higher +education have not tended to prepare the student for agricultural +pursuits. A system of agricultural and domestic education suited to the +wants of those who are to farm the land must recognise and foster the +new spirit of self-help and hope which is springing up in the country, +and must be made so interesting as to become a serious rival to the race +meeting and the public-house. The daily drudgery of farm work must be +counteracted by the ambition to possess the best stock, the neatest +homestead and fences, the cleanest and the best tilled fields. The +unsolved problem of agricultural education is to devise a system which +will reach down to the small working farmers who form the great bulk of +the wealth producers of Ireland, to give them new hope, a new interest, +new knowledge and, I might add, a new industrial character. + +We were met at the outset by the difficulty which would apply to any +system--that of finding trained teachers. This deficiency was felt in +two directions--first, in the secondary school, in which the preliminary +scientific studies should be undertaken, which are necessary to enable a +lad to profit by more advanced instruction later on; and, secondly, in +the special training of technical agriculture. It would not have been +desirable to overcome these difficulties by any very extensive +importation of teachers from without. I certainly hold the occasional +importation of teachers with outside experience to be most desirable, +but these should not form more than a leaven of the pedagogic lump; for +it is a serious hindrance when to the task of familiarising students +with a new system of education there is added that of familiarising a +large body of teachers with the intellectual, social and economic +conditions of the people among whom they are to work. + +The manner in which the teacher difficulty was surmounted may be briefly +stated, first, as regards the school, and, secondly, as regards the +teaching of agriculture. Those already engaged in the teaching +profession could not be relegated again to the _status pupillaris_. +There was only one way in which they could assist us to overcome the +difficulty, and that involved a great sacrifice on their part, the +sacrifice of their well-earned vacation, but a sacrifice which they +willingly made. The teachers most urgently needed were those of +practical science, with knowledge of experimental work; and about five +hundred teachers from secondary schools, in order to qualify themselves, +have attended summer courses specially organised by the Department at +several centres in Ireland, while about four hundred have availed +themselves of special summer courses in such subjects as drawing, manual +instruction, domestic economy, building construction, wood-carving and +modelling. + +For the provision of a future supply of thoroughly trained teachers of +science and of technology, including agriculture, the Royal College of +Science has been re-organised. Although this institution was brought +under the new conditions little more than three years ago, it will be +seen that no time has been lost when I state that the first batch of men +who have received a three years' course of training under the new +programme are already at work under County Committees. For the training +of these teachers, scholarships had to be provided, and new professors +and teachers, particularly in agriculture, had to be appointed. + +In regard to agricultural instruction we had to begin by carefully +considering what, among many alternative plans, should be our immediate +as well as our more remote aims. The Department's officers had studied +Continental systems, and some of them had taken part in establishing +systems of agricultural education in Great Britain. But it was not until +the summer of 1901 that we had sufficiently studied the question in +Ireland itself, with direct reference to the history, the environment, +and the ideals of the people, to justify us in initiating a policy or +formulating a definite programme for its execution.[50] The main object +was to secure for the youth of the present generation who will later be +concerned with agriculture, sound and thorough instruction in its +principles and practice. Everyone who has given any thought to the +subject knows how difficult it is to teach technical agriculture unless +provision has been made in the general education of the country for +instruction in those fundamental principles of science which, recognised +or unrecognised, lie at the root of, and profoundly influence +agricultural practice. This foundation, as I have shown, is now being +laid in Ireland. In our scheme the boy who has managed to avail himself +of a two or three years' course of practical science in one of the +secondary schools is then prepared to take full advantage of courses of +technology, and will have to make up his mind as to the career he is to +follow. We are now considering the case of a boy who is going to become +a farmer, the class to which we chiefly look for the future well-being +of Ireland. It is necessary that he should be taught the practical as +well as the technical side of agriculture. The practical work he can +learn upon his father's farm during spring and summer, and the technical +by continuing his studies during the winter months in a school of +agriculture. The establishment of such winter schools is in +contemplation. But, in the meanwhile, to bring home to farmers the +advantages of a first-class agricultural education for their sons, and +at the same time to teach these farmers the more practical application +of science to agriculture, the Department decided on a preliminary +period of Itinerant Instruction. + +The teacher difficulty, experienced on all sides of our work, was +probably felt more acutely in regard to the specialised teachers of +agriculture than in any other connection. Here it was necessary to take +the young men brought up upon farms and possessed of the normal +qualifications of the Irish practical farmer. We then had to make them +into teachers by adding to their inherited and home-manufactured +capacities a scientific training. In the training of agricultural +teachers the Albert Institute, Glasnevin, has been utilised by the +Department. This school has also been re-organised to meet the new +programme, and it will probably form in future a link between the winter +schools of agriculture and the Royal College of Science in the training +of our agricultural teachers. + +Partly by these methods, partly by the temporary engagement of lecturers +on special subjects, and partly by the appointment of trained teachers +from England or Scotland, the system of itinerant instruction has been +brought into operation as fully as could be expected in the time. +Already half the County Committees have been provided with County +instructors, while the remainder have nearly all drafted schemes and +allocated funds for a similar purpose, ready to go to work as soon as +more teachers have been trained. + +The Itinerant Instruction scheme, it may be pointed out, besides one +obvious, has another less immediately recognisable purpose. The direct +business of the itinerant instructor is, by the aid of experimental +plots, simple lectures, and demonstrations, to teach the farmers of his +district as much as they can take in without the scientific preparation +in which, as adults who have grown up under the old system of education, +they are still lacking. But he does more than that. He not only conducts +a school for adults, but in the very process of instruction he +necessarily makes them aware of the vital necessity of a school for the +young; and they begin, as parents, to understand and to desire the kind +of instruction in the schools of the country which will prepare their +children to take more advantage of the advanced teaching in agriculture +than they themselves can ever hope to do. + +This preparation is provided for as follows. To the Department, as has +already been explained, was handed over the administration of the +Science and Art Grants formerly administered by South Kensington. The +Department accordingly drew up a programme of experimental science and +drawing, carrying capitation grants, for day secondary schools. The +Intermediate Education Board, acting on the suggestion of the +Consultative Committee for Co-ordinating Education,[51] adopted this +programme and at the same time undertook to accept the reports of the +Department's inspectors as the basis of their awards in the new +"subject." These steps insured the rapid and general introduction of +this practical teaching in secondary schools, and, owing particularly to +the spirit in which their authorities and teaching staffs accepted the +innovation, the work has been carried out with the happiest results. + +I now come to the subjects grouped together under the classification of +'domestic economy.' These differ only in detail in their application to +town and country. To these subjects the Department attaches great +importance. In the industrial life of manufacturing towns I am persuaded +that far too little thought has been given to this element of industrial +efficiency. From a purely economic point of view a saving in the +worker's income due to superior housewifery is equivalent to an increase +in his earnings; but, morally, the superior thrift is, of course, +immensely more important. "Without economy," says Dr. Johnson, "none can +be rich, and with it few can be poor," and the education which only +increases the productiveness of labour and neglects the principles of +wise spending will place us at a disadvantage in the great industrial +struggle. When we come to consider domestic economy as an agency for +improving the conditions of the peasant home, not only by thrift, but by +increasing the general attractiveness of home life, the introduction of +a sound system of domestic economy teaching becomes not only important, +but vital. + +The establishment of such a system and the task of making it operative +and effective in the country is beset with difficulties. The teacher +difficulty confronts us again, and also that of making pupils and their +parents understand that there are other objects in domestic training +than that of qualifying for domestic service. A corps of instructresses +in domestic economy is, however, already abroad throughout the country, +nearly all the County Councils having already appointed them. Some of +these teachers, who have made the best contributions towards the as yet +only partially determined question of the ultimate aim and present +possibilities of a course of instruction in hygiene, laundry work, +cookery, the management of children, sewing, and so forth, have told me +that the demand in rural districts seems to be chiefly for the class of +instruction which may lead to success in town life. I have heard of a +class of girls in a Connaught village who would not be content with +knowing the accomplishments of a farmer's wife until they had learned +how to make asparagus soup and cook sweetbreads. No doubt they had read +of the way things are done in the kitchens of the great. This tendency +should never be encouraged, but neither can it always be inflexibly +repressed without endangering the main objects of the class. + +Women teachers of poultry-keeping, dairying, domestic science and +kindred subjects are trained at the Munster Institute, Cork, and the +School of Domestic Economy, Kildare Street, Dublin, both of which have +been equipped to meet the needs of the new programme. The want of +teachers, and not any lack of interest on the part of the country, has +alone prevented all the counties from adopting schemes for encouraging +improvement in all these branches of work. I may add that more than one +hundred and fifty of these qualified teachers are now at work under +County Committees. + +I have already, in this chapter, indicated that outside large industrial +centres, our educational policy is, broadly speaking, twofold. We seek, +in the first place, through our programme in Experimental Science and +its allied subjects, now so generally adopted by secondary schools in +Ireland, to give that fundamental training in science and scientific +method which, most thinkers are agreed, constitutes a condition +precedent to sound specialised teaching of agriculture as well as other +forms of industry. We seek further, by methods less academic in +character--for example, by itinerant instruction which is of value +chiefly to those with whom 'school' is a thing of the past--to teach not +only improved agricultural methods but also simple industries, and to +promote the cultivation of industrial habits which are as essential to +the success of farming as to that of every other occupation. Classes in +manual work of various kinds--woodwork, carpentry, applied drawing and +building construction, lace and crochet making, needlework, dressmaking +and embroidery, sprigging, hosiery and other such subjects, have been +numerously and steadily attended. + +I do not ignore the argument that such home industries must in time give +way before the competition of highly-organised factory industries. The +simple answer is that it is desirable, and indeed necessary, to employ +the energy now running to waste in our rural districts--energy which +cannot in the nature of things be employed in highly-organised +industries. To the small farmer and his family, time is a realisable, +though too often unrealised, asset, and it is part of our aim to aid the +family income by employing their waste time. Even if we can only cause +them to do at home what they now pay someone else to do, we shall not +only have improved their budget but shall have contributed to the +elevation of the standard of home life, and thus, in no small measure, +to the solution of the difficult problem of rural life in Ireland. + +I think the reader will now understand the general character of the +problem with which we were confronted and the means by which its +solution is being sought. Our policy was not one which was likely to +commend itself to the "man in the street." Indeed, to be quite candid, +it was a little disappointing even to myself that I could not +immortalise my appointment by erecting monuments both to my constructive +ability and to my educational zeal in the shape of stately edifices at +convenient railway centres, preferably along the tourist routes. We have +had to stand the fire of the critic fresh from his holiday on the +Continent where he had seen agricultural and technological institutions, +magnificently housed and lavishly equipped, fitting generations of young +men and young women for competition with our less fortunate countrymen. +It is hard to prevail in argument against the man who has gone and seen +for himself. It is useless to point out to the man with a kodak that the +Corinthian facade and the marble columns of the _aula maxima_ which +aroused his patriotic envy are but a small part of the educational +structure which he saw and thought he understood. If he would read the +history of the systems and trace the successive stages by which the need +for these great institutions was established, he would have a little +more sympathy with the difficulties of the Department, a little more +patience with its Fabian policy. + +I must not, however, utter a word which suggests that the Department has +any ground of complaint against the country for the spirit in which it +has been met; especially as there was one factor to be taken into +account which made it difficult for public opinion to approve of our +policy. As I have already explained, a large capital sum of a little +over L200,000 was handed over to the Department at its creation. During +the first year, what with the organisation of the staff, the thinking +out of a policy on every side of the Department's work, the constitution +of the statutory committees to administer its local schemes in town and +country, the agreement, after long discussion, between the central body +and these committees upon the local schemes, and all the other +preparatory steps which had to be taken before money could wisely be +applied, it is obvious that the Department could not have spent its +income. In the second year, and even the third year, savings were +effected, and the original capital sum has been largely increased. What +more natural than that in a poor country a spending Department which was +backward in spending should appear to be lacking in enterprise, if not +in administrative capacity? But whether the policy was right or wrong it +has unquestionably been approved by the best thought in the country, a +fact which throws a very interesting light upon the constitutional +aspects of the Department. At each successive stage the policy was +discussed at the Council of Agriculture and its practical operation was +dependent upon the consent of the Boards which have the power of the +purse. A Vice-President who had not these bodies at his back would be +powerless, in fact would have to resign. Thoughtless criticism has now +and again condemned not only the parsimonious action of the Department, +but the invertebrate conduct of the Council of Agriculture and the +Boards in tolerating it. The time will soon come when the service +rendered to their country by the members of the first Council and +Boards, who gave their representative backing to a slow but sure +educational policy, and scorned to seek popularity in showy projects and +local doles, will be gratefully remembered to them. + +Already we have had some gratifying evidences that the country is with +us in the paramount importance we attach to education as the real need +of the hour. Most readers will be surprised to hear that in the short +time the Department has been at work it has aided in the equipment of +nearly two hundred science laboratories and of about fifty manual +instruction workshops, while the many-sided programme involved in the +movement as a whole is in operation in some four hundred schools +attended by thirty-six thousand pupils. + +Nothing can be more gratifying than the unanimous testimony of the +officers of the Department to the increasing practical intelligence and +reasonableness of the numerous Committees responsible for the local +administration of the schemes which the Department has to approve of and +supervise. The demand for visible money's worth has largely given place +to a genuine desire for schemes having a practical educational value for +the industry of the district. County Clare is not generally considered +the most advanced part of Ireland, nor can Kilrush be very far distant +from 'the back of Godspeed'; yet even from that storm-battered outpost +of Irish ideas I was memorialised a year ago to induce the County +Council to pay less attention to the improvement of cattle and more to +the technical education of the peasantry. + +Under the heading of direct aids to agriculture, rural industries, and +sea and inland fisheries, there is much important and useful work which +the Department has set in motion, partly by the use of its funds and +partly by suggestion and the organisation of local effort. The most +obvious, popular and easily understood schemes were those directed to +the improvement of live stock. The Department exercised its supervision +and control with the help of advisory committees composed of the best +experts it could get to volunteer advice upon the various classes of +live stock. It is unnecessary to give any details of these schemes. The +Department profited by the experience of, and received considerable +assistance from the Royal Dublin Society, which had for many years +administered a Government grant for the improvement of horses and +cattle. The broad principle adopted by the Department was that its +efforts and its available resources should be devoted rather to +improving the quality, than to increasing the quantity, of the stock in +the country, the latter function being regarded as belonging to the +region of private enterprise. + +It is impossible to over-estimate the importance to the country of +having a widespread interest aroused and discussion stimulated on +problems of breeding which affect a trade of vast importance to the +economic standing of the country--a trade which now reaches in horned +cattle alone an annual export of nearly three quarters of a million +animals. All manner of practical discussions were set on foot, ranging +from the production of the ideal, the general purposes cow, to that +controversy which competes, in the virulence with which it is waged, +with the political, the educational, and the fiscal questions--the +question whether the hackney strain will bring a new era of prosperity +to Ireland, or whether it will irretrievably destroy the reputation of +the Irish hunter. The discussion of these problems has been accompanied +by much practical work which, in due time, cannot fail to produce a +considerable improvement upon the breed of different classes of live +stock. In one year over one thousand sires have been selected by the +experts of the Department for admission to the stock improvement +schemes. Probably an equal number of breeding animals offered for +inspection have been rejected. Many a _cause celebre_ has not +unnaturally arisen over the decisions of the equestrian tribunal, and +there have not been wanting threats that the attention of Parliament +should be called to the gross partiality of the Department which has +cast a reflection upon the form of stallion A or upon the constitutional +soundness of stallion B. On the whole, as far as I can gather, the best +authorities in the country are agreed that since the Department has +been at work there has been established a higher standard of excellence +in the bucolic mind as regards that vastly important national asset, our +flocks and herds. + +Again for details I must refer the reader to official documents. There +he will find as much information as he can digest about the vast variety +of agricultural activities which originate sometimes with the +Department's officers or with its _Journal_ and leaflets, the +circulation of which has no longer to be stimulated from our Statistics +and Intelligence bureau, and sometimes emanate from the local +committees, whose growing interest in the work naturally leads to the +discovery of fresh needs and hitherto unthought of possibilities of +agricultural and industrial improvement. I may, however, indicate a few +of the subjects which have been gone into even in these years while the +new Department has been trying so far as it might, without sacrifice of +efficiency and sound economic principle, to keep pace with the feverish +anxiety of a genuinely interested people to get to work upon schemes +which they believe to be practical, sound, and of permanent utility. + +A question which has troubled administrators of State aid to every +progressive agricultural community, and which each country must settle +for itself, is by what form of object lesson in ordinary agriculture +intelligent local interest can best be aroused We have advocated widely +diffused small experimental plots, and they have done much good. +Probably the most useful of our crop improvement schemes have been +those which have demonstrated the profitableness of artificial manures, +the use of which has been enormously increased. The profits derivable in +many parts of Ireland from the cultivation of early potatoes has been +demonstrated in the most convincing manner. To what may be called the +industrial crops, notably flax and barley, a great deal of time and +thought has been applied and much information disseminated and +illustrated by practical experiments. In many quarters interest has been +aroused in the possibilities of profitable tobacco culture. Many +negative and some positive results have been attained by the Department +in the as yet incomplete experiments upon this crop. Much has been +learned about the functions of central and local agricultural and small +industry shows, those occasional aids to the year's work which +disseminate knowledge and stimulate interest and friendly rivalry among +the different producers. The reduction in the death-rate among young +stock, due to preventible causes such as white scour and blackleg, is +well worthy of the attention of those who wish to study the more +practical work of the Department. + +The branch of the Department's work which deals with the Sea-fisheries +can only be very briefly touched on. It falls into two main heads which +may roughly be termed the administrative and the scientific; the latter, +of course, having economic developments as its ultimate object. The +issue of loans to fishermen for the purchase of boats and gear, +contributing to the cost of fishery slips and piers, circulating +telegraphic intelligence, the making of by-laws for the regulation of +the fisheries, the patrolling of the Irish fishing grounds to prevent +illegalities, and the attempts which are being made to develop the +valuable Irish oyster fishery by the introduction, with modifications +suited to our own seaboard, of a system of culture comparable to those +which are pursued with success in France and Norway, may be mentioned as +falling under the more directly economic branch of our activities. Irish +oysters are already attaining considerable celebrity, owing to the +distance of our oyster beds from contaminating influences; and it is +hoped that when the Department's experiments are complete the Irish +oyster will be made subject to direct control for all its life, until it +is despatched to market. Attention is also being given to the relative +value of seed oysters, other than native, for relaying on Irish beds. + +On the more directly scientific side, the Department has undertaken the +survey of the trawling grounds around the coast to obtain an exact +knowledge of the movements of the marketable fish at different times of +their life, so that we may be guided in making by-laws and regulations +by a full knowledge of the times and places at which protection is +necessary. The biological and physical conditions of the western seas +are also being studied in special reference to the mackerel fishery, +with the object of correlating certain readily observable phenomena with +the movements of the fish, and so of predicting the probable success of +a fishery in a particular season. The routine observations of the +Department's fishery cruiser have been so arranged as to synchronise +with those of other nations, in order to assist the international scheme +of investigation now in progress, wherever its objects and those of the +Department are the same. While these various practical projects have +been in operation, we have done our best to keep abreast of the times by +sending missions to other countries, consisting of an expert accompanied +by practical Irishmen who would bring home information which was +applicable to the conditions of our own country. The first batch of +itinerant instructors in agriculture, whose training for the important +work of laying the foundations for our whole scheme of agricultural +instruction I have referred to, were taken on a continental tour by the +Professor of Agriculture at the Royal College of Science, in order to +give special advantages to a portion of our outdoor staff upon the +success of whose work the rate of our progress in agricultural +development might largely depend. And not only have we in our first +three years gleaned as much information as possible by sending qualified +Irishmen to study abroad the industries in which we were particularly +interested, but we also took steps to give the mass of our people at +home an opportunity of studying these industries for themselves. With +the somewhat unique experiment carried out for this object, I will +conclude the story of the new Department's activities in its early +years. + +The part we took at the Cork Exhibition of 1902 was well understood in +Ireland, but not perhaps elsewhere. We secured a large space both in the +main Industrial Hall and in the grounds, and gave an illustration not of +what Ireland had done, but of what, in our opinion, the country might +achieve in the way of agricultural and industrial development in the +near future. Exhibiting on the one hand our available resources in the +way of raw material, we gave, on the other hand, demonstrations of a +large number of industries in actual operation. These exhibits, imported +with their workers, machinery and tools, from several European countries +and from Great Britain, all belonged to some class of industry which, in +our belief, was capable of successful development in Ireland. In the +indoor part of the exhibit there was nothing very original, except +perhaps in its close relation to the work of a government department. +But what attracted by far the greatest interest and attention was a +series of object lessons in many phases of farm activities, where, in +our opinion, great and immediate improvements might be made. Here were +to be seen varieties of crops under various systems of treatment, +demonstrations of sheep-dipping, calf-rearing on different foods, +illustrations of the different breeds of fowl and systems of poultry +management, model buildings and gardens for farmer and labourer; while +in separate buildings the drying and pressing of fruit and vegetables, +the manufacture of butter and cheese, and a very comprehensive forestry +exhibit enabled our visitors to combine profitable suggestion with, if I +may judge from my frequent opportunities of observing the sightseers in +whom I was particularly interested, the keenest enjoyment. + +We kept at the Exhibition, for six months, a staff of competent experts, +whose instructions were to give to all-comers this simple lesson. They +were to bring home to our people that, here in Ireland before their very +eyes, there were industries being carried on by foreigners, by +Englishmen, by Scotchmen, and in some instances by Irishmen, but in all +cases by men and women who had no advantage over our workers except that +they had the technical training which it was the desire of the +Department to give to the workers of Ireland. The officials of the +Department entered into the spirit of this scheme enthusiastically and +cheerfully, some of them, in addition to their ordinary work, turning +the office into a tourist agency for these busy months. With the +generous help of the railway companies they organised parties of +farmers, artisans, school teachers, members of the statutory committees, +and, in fact, of all to whom it was of importance to give this object +lesson upon the relations between practical education and the promotion +of industry. Nearly 100,000 persons were thus moved to Cork and back +before the Exhibition closed--an achievement largely due to the +assistance given by the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society and the +clergy throughout the country. + +This experiment, both in its conception and in its results, was perhaps +unique. There were not wanting critics of the new Department who stood +aghast at so large an expenditure upon temporary edifices and a passing +show; but those who are in touch with its educational work know that +this novel application of State assistance fulfilled its purpose. It +helped substantially to generate a belief in, and stimulate a demand +for, technical instruction which it will take us many years adequately +to supply. + +An American visitor who, as I afterwards learned, takes an active part +in the discussion of the rural problems of his own country, disembarked +at Queenstown in order to 'take in' the Cork Exhibition. In his rush +through Dublin he 'took in' the Department and the writer. 'Mr. +Vice-President,' he said, before the hand-shaking was completed, 'I have +visited all the great Expositions held in my time. I have been to the +Cork Exposition. I often saw more things, but never more ideas.' + +With this characteristically rapid appreciation of a movement which +seeks to turn Irish thought to action, my strange visitor vanished as +suddenly as he came. + + * * * * * + +Those whose sympathy with Ireland has induced them to persevere through +the mass of details with which this story of small beginnings is pieced +together may wonder why the bearing of hopeful efforts for bringing +prosperity and contentment to Ireland upon the mental attitude of +millions of Irishmen scattered throughout the British Empire and the +United States, and so upon the lives of the countries in which they have +made their homes, is apparently ignored. I fully recognise the vast +importance of the subject. A book dealing comprehensively with the +actual and potential influence of Irish intellect upon English politics +at home, and upon the politics of the United States, a carefully +reasoned estimate of the part which Irish intellect is qualified, and +which I firmly believe it is destined, to play wherever the civilisation +of the world is to be under the control of the English-speaking +peoples--more especially where these peoples govern races which speak +other tongues and see through other eyes--a clear and striking +exposition of the true relation between the small affairs of the small +island and that greater Ireland which takes its inspiration from the +sorrows, the passions, the endeavours, and the hopes of those who stick +to the old home--such a book would possess a deep human interest, and +would make a high and wide appeal. Nevertheless, I feel that at the +present time the most urgent need, from every point of view on which I +have touched, is to focus the thought available for the Irish Question +upon the definite work of a reconstruction of Irish life. + +Such is the purpose of this book. I do not wish to attach any +exaggerated importance to the scheme of social and economic reform of +which I have attempted to give a faithful account; nor is it in their +practical achievement, be it great or small, that the initiators and +organisers of the new movement take most pride. What these Irishmen are +proud of is the manner in which the people have responded to their +efforts to bring Irish sentiment into an intimate and helpful relation +with Irish economic problems. They had to reckon with that greatest of +hindrances to the spirit of enterprise, a rooted belief in the +potentiality of government to bring material prosperity to our doors. As +I have pointed out, the practical demonstration which Ireland had +received of the power of government to inflict lasting economic injury +gave rise to this belief; and I have noted the present influences to +which it seems to owe its continuance until to-day. I believe that, if +any enduring interest attaches to the story which I have told, it will +consist in the successive steps by which this initial difficulty has +been overcome. + +Let me summarise in a few words what has been, so far, actually +accomplished. Those who did the work of which I have written first +launched upon Irish life a scheme of organised self-help which, perhaps +more by good luck than design, proved to be in accordance with the +inherited instincts of the people, and, therefore, moved them to action. +Next they called for, and in due season obtained, a department of +government with adequate powers and means to aid in developing the +resources of the country, so far as this end could be attained without +transgressing the limits of beneficial State interference with the +business of the people. In its constitution this department was so +linked with the representative institutions of the country that the +people soon began to feel that they largely controlled its policy and +were responsible for its success. Meanwhile, the progress of economic +thought in the country had made such rapid strides that, in the +administration of State assistance, the principle of self-help could be +rigidly insisted upon and was willingly submitted to. The result is that +a situation has been created which is as gratifying as it may appear to +be paradoxical. Within the scope and sphere of the movement the Irish +people are now, without any sacrifice of industrial character, combining +reliance upon government with reliance upon themselves. + +That a movement thus conceived should so rapidly have overcome its +initial difficulties and should, I might almost add, have passed beyond +the experimental stage, will suggest to any thoughtful reader that above +and beyond the removal by legislation of obstacles to progress--and much +has been accomplished in this way of recent years--there must have been +new, positive influences at work upon the national mind. These will be +found in the growing recognition of the fact that the path of progress +lies along distinctively Irish lines, and that otherwise it will not be +trodden by the Irish people. Much good in the same direction has been +done, too, by the generous and authoritative admission by England that +the future development of Ireland should be assisted and promoted 'with +a full and constant regard to the special traditions of the +country.'[52] But after all, while these concessions to Irish +sentiment, vitally important though they be, may speed us on our road to +national regeneration, they will not take us far. It remains for us +Irishmen to realise--and the chief value of all the work I have +described consists in the degree in which it forces us to realise--the +responsibility which now rests with ourselves. We have been too long a +prey to that deep delusion, which, because the ills of the country we +love were in past days largely caused from without, bids us look to the +same source for their cure. The true remedies are to be sought +elsewhere; for, however disastrous may have been the past, the injury +was moral rather than material, and the opportunity has now arrived for +the patient building up again of Irish character in those qualities +which win in the modern struggle for existence. The field for that great +work is clear of at least the worst of its many historic encumbrances. +Ireland must be re-created from within. The main work must be done in +Ireland, and the centre of interest must be Ireland. When Irishmen +realise this truth, the splendid human power of their country, so much +of which now runs idly or disastrously to waste, will be utilised; and +we may then look with confidence for the foundation of a fabric of Irish +prosperity, framed in constructive thought, and laid enduringly in human +character. + +THE END. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[48] Pages 38, 39. + +[49] It must be borne in mind that the Department is not officially +concerned with the question of the economic distribution of land +referred to on pp. 46-49. + +[50] For a full description of the Department's scheme of agricultural +education I may refer to a _Memorandum on Agricultural Education in +Ireland,_ written by the author and published by the Department, July, +1901. + +[51] See _ante_, pp. 236-238. + +[52] Speech of the Lord Lieutenant to the Incorporated Law Society, +November 20th, 1902. See also p. 170. + + + + +INDEX + +A.E. (George W. Russell) 200 +Agitation as a policy, 82, 83 +Agricultural Board, 228, 234, _seq_. 269 +Agriculture:-- + Agricultural Holdings:-- + Improvement of, 46 _seq_. + Transfer of peasants to new farms, 48 _seq_. + Agricultural Organisation: + Denmark, 131 + Department of Agriculture and farmers' societies, 211 + England, Mr. Hanbury's and Lord Onslow's views, 242 + Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (see that title) + Societies 44, 45 + Co-operation (see that title). + Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (see that title) + Depression in, 179 + Education in relation to, 126, 264 _seq_. 269 + Exodus of Rural Population, 39 + State-Aid, 45, 211 + Tillage, decrease of, 42 +Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, 224, 227, 236, 238 +Albert Institute, Glasnevin, 230, 271 +Altruism, appeal to in co-operation, 210 +America, Irish in: 72 + Causes of their success and failure, 55 _seq_. + Irish in American politics, 70 _seq_. + Loss of religion in, 111 +Anderson, R.A.:-- + Co-operative movement, 184, 190 + Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, 200 +Andrews, Mr. Thomas:-- + Recess Committee, 219 +Anti-English Sentiment:-- + Irish in America and, 72 + Nature and cause, 13 +Anti-Treating League, 114 +Arnott, Sir John:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +Art, modern ecclesiastical art in Ireland, 108 +Association, economic, value of, 167 +Associative qualities of the Irish, 166 + +Bacon Curing:-- + Denmark, 131, 194 +Bagot, Canon:-- + Creamery movement, 189 +Balfour, Arthur:--168 + Irish policy, 243, 244 +Balfour, Gerald:--243, 256 + Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, 225, 233 + Local Government Act, 224, 238, 240 + Policy of explained, 225 + Recess Committee Proposals; Bill, 224 +Banks, agricultural credit, 195 _seq._ +Barley Experiments of the Department of Agriculture, 282 +Belfast Chamber of Commerce and Home Rule, 67 +Berkeley, Bishop:-- + Irish priests, 141 + On "Mending our state," 6 + "Parties" and "politics," 63 +Bessborough Commission, tenants improvements, &c. 22 +Board of National Education, 126 +Board of Technical Instruction, 228, 234 _seq_. 257 +Bodley's _France_, Madame Darmesteter's review, 242 +Boer war and the Irish attitude, 9 +Bogs, utilisation of, 249 +Boycotting, 87 +Bright, John:-- + Peasant proprietorship, 25 +Brooke, Stopford, 92 +Buckle, personal factor in history, 27 +Bulwer Lytton, 34 +Burke, 137 +Butt, Isaac, 78 +Butter, Danish, 131 + +Cadogan, Lord, 224 +Catholic Association, 99 +Catholic Emancipation Act, 104, 125, 132 +Catholic University (see University Question). +Celtic Race, Harold Frederic's opinion, 161 _seq_. +Character:-- + Associative qualities of the Irish, 166 + Education and character, 144 + Gaelic Revival, effect of on national character, 148, 155 + Industrial character, 18 + Irish inefficiency a problem of character, 32 + Irish question a problem of character, 32, 59, 164 + Lack of initiative in Irish character, 163 + Moral timidity of Irish character, 64, 65, 80, 81 + Prosperity of Ireland, to be founded on character, 291 + Roman Catholicism and Irish character, 101-105, 110 +Chesterfield, Lord:-- + Education as the cause of difference in the character of men, 144 +Christian Brothers' Schools, 131 +Christian Socialists, 184 +Church-building in Ireland,. 107 +Church Disestablishment Act, 1869,--Land Purchase Clauses, 25 +Clan-System in Ireland, 75 +Clergy, Roman Catholic:-- + Action and attitude towards questions of the day 105 + Authority, 96, 105 _seq_. + Moral influence, 115, 116 + Political influence, 117 + Temperance reform, 112, 114 +College of Science and Department of Agriculture, 229 +Colonies, history of the Irish in, 72 _seq_. +Commercial Restrictions--effect of on Irish industrial character, 17 _seq_. +Con O'Neal forbids his posterity to build houses, etc., 57 +Congested Districts Board:-- + Agricultural banks, loans to 197 + Department of Agriculture and, 245 + Land Act (1903) and, 245 + Success of, 243, 244 +Convents and Monasteries, increase of, 108 +Co-operative Movement:-- + Agricultural Banks, 195 _seq_. + Agricultural depression, cause of, 179 + Altruism, appeal to, 210 + Anderson, R.A., 184, 190, 200 + Associative qualities of Irish, 166, 178, 186 + Beginnings, 178 + Combination, necessity of, 181 + Co-operative Union, Manchester, 184 + Craig, Mr. E.T., and the Vandeleur Estate, 184 + Creameries, 187 _seq_. + Denmark, 131, 194 + Educating adults, 177 + English co-operation, 166, 184 + Finlay, Father Thomas, 119, 192, 218 + Gaelic Revival and, 149 _seq_. + Gray, Mr. T.C., 184 + Holyoake, Mr., 184 + Hughes, Mr. Tom, 184 + Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (see that title). + _Irish Homestead_, 190, 202 + Ludlow, Mr., 184 + Marum, Mr. Mulhallen, 189 + Middlemen, 180 + Monteagle, Lord, 184 + Moral effects, 207, 208 + Neale, Mr. Vansittart, 184 + Necessity of co-operation for small landholders, 44 _seq_. + Production and distribution problems, 179, 180 + Roman Catholic clergy and, 119 + State-aid side, 45, 165 + Success, causes of 210, 211 + Vandeleur estate community, 184 + Village libraries, 199 + Wolff, Mr. Henry W., 199 + Yerburgh, Mr., 199 +Cork:-- + Exhibition, Department's Exhibit, 119, 285 _seq_. +Craig, Mr. E.T.-- + Co-operative Movement 184 +Creameries, co-operative, beginnings, 187 _seq_. +Crop improvement schemes of the Department, 282 +Council of Agriculture, 228, 232 _seq_. 257 + +Dairying Industry--Co-operation and, 187 _seq_. +Dane, Mr.:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +Darmesteter, Madame, _Syndicats agricoles_, 242 +Davis, Thomas:--137 + Political Methods, 77, 83 +Denmark:-- + Co-operation in, 131, 194 + High Schools, 131 +Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction:-- 60 + Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, 224, 227, 236, 238 + Agricultural Board, 228, 234 _seq._ 257 + Agricultural education, 236, 237, 264 _seq._ 269, 272 + Agricultural Organisation, 241 + Albert Institute, Glasnevin, 230, 271 + Balfour, Gerald, 225, 233 + Board of Technical Instruction, 228, 234 _seq._ 257 + College of Science and, 229 + Congested Districts Board and Department, 245 + Consultative Committee for Co-ordinating Education, 236, 237, 272 + Constitution, etc., 228 + Co-operative movement and the benefits of organisation, 241 + Cork Exhibition exhibit, 119, 285 _seq._ + Council of Agriculture, 228, 232 _seq._ 257 + Crop improvement schemes 282 + Domestic economy teaching, 272 + Early days' experiences, 217 _seq._ + Educational policy, 236, 237, 272, 274 + Educational work, 262 + Endowment, etc., 231 + Home Industries, 275 + Industrial education and industrial life, 130 + Intermediate Education Board and, 235, 237 + Itinerant instruction, 126, 270 + Irish Agricultural Organisation Society and, 203 + Live Stock Schemes, 279 + Local Committees, 261 + Local Government Act and work of Department, 239 + Metropolitan School of Art 230 + Munster Institute, Cork, and, 230, 274 + Parliamentary representation, 220, 228 + Powers, 229 _seq._ + Provincial Committees, 234 + Purposes, 228 + Recess Committee's Recommendations, 220 + Royal Dublin Society and, 279 + Rural life improvement, 159 + Sea Fisheries, 282 + Staff, 228 + Teachers, 267 + Technical instruction, 130, 228, 234, _seq._, 257, 263, 267, 279 + Work already accomplished, 278 _seq._ +Desmolins, M.:-- + English love of home, 53 +Devon Commission, tenants' + improvements, 22 +Dineen, Rev. P.S.:-- + Editor O'Rahilly's poems, 76 +Dixon, Sir Daniel:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +Domestic economy teaching, 272 +Drink Evil:-- + Anti-Treating League, 114 + Causes, 112 + Roman Catholic Clergy's influence, 112, 114 +Dudley, Lord, 170, 290 +Dufferin, Lord:-- + Effect of commercial restrictions in Ireland, 20 +Duffy, Sir C.G. 77 +Dunraven Conference, 8, 10, 207 + +Economic system in England, individualism of, 166 +Economic thought:-- + Influence of Roman Catholicism, 101 _seq_. + Lack of in Ireland, 133 _seq_. +Education:-- + Agricultural instruction, 126 264 _seq_. 269 + Board of National Education, 126 + Christian Brothers, 131 + Commissioners of National Education, 235 + Consultative Committee for co-ordinating Education, 236, 237, 272 + Continental methods, 129 + Defects of present system, 128 + Denmark High Schools, 131 + Department of Agriculture's policy and work, 236, 237, 262, 272, 274 + Economic, 130, 133 + Education Bill, 99 + English education in Ireland, 122 + Influence of on national life, 59 + Industrial, 130, 264 + Intermediate Education system, 128, 235, 237 + Irish education schemes, 123 _seq_. + Itinerant instruction, 126, 270 + Keenan, Sir Patrick, 126 + Kildare Street Society, 123 + Literary Education, 131 + Lord Chesterfield on Education 144 + Manual and Practical Instruction in Primary Schools, Commission, 128, 129 + Maynooth, influence of, 134-136, 138, 139 + Monastic and Conventual institutions, 108 + National factor in national education, 152, 153 + Practical, 129 _seq_. + Reports of Commissions, 127 + Roman Catholics, higher education, 97, 132, 133 + Royal University, 128 + Technical instruction, 228, 231 _seq_., 257, 263 + Trinity College, influence of, 134, 136 _seq_. + University:-- + Place of the University in education, 133 + Royal Commission on University Education, 128 + Wyse's Scheme, 125 +Education Bill, 99 +Emigration, causes of, etc., 40, 116 +England:-- + Anti-English sentiment in Ireland, 13, 72 + Co-operation in, 166, 184, 192, 206, 242 + Economic system, individualism of, 166 + Misunderstanding of Irish question, 7 _seq_. +Ewart, Sir William:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +Experimental Plots of the Department, 281 + +Ferguson, Sir Samuel:-- + National sentiment, 154 +Field, Mr. William, 217 +Finlay, Father Thomas:-- 119, 208 + Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, 192 + Recess Committee 218 +Fisheries--Department of Agriculture, development scheme, 282 _seq_ +Flax improvement Schemes, 282 +_Fortnightly Review_:-- + Harold Frederic on Irish Question, 162 +France, _syndicats agricoles_, 242 +Franchise extension in 1885, effects of on Irish political thought, 78 +Frederic, Harold:-- + Views on Irish question, 161 _seq_. +Free Trade, effect of in Ireland, 19 + +Gaelic Revival:-- 148 _seq_. + Appeal to the individual 155 + Co-operative movement and, 149 _seq_. + Gaelic League, aims and objects, 150 + Hyde, Douglas, 151 + Irish language as a commercial medium, 158 + National factor in education, importance of, 153 + Politics and the Gaelic revival, 156, 187 + Rural life, rehabilitation, 159 +Gill, Mr. T.P.:-- + Recess Committee, 219 +Gladstone:-- 85 + Belfast Chamber of Commerce, Home Rule deputation, 67 + Home Rule, attitude towards, 3, 66, 67 + Tenants' improvements, 22 +Glasnevin, Albert Institute, 230, 271 +Grattan, 137 +Gray, Mr. J.C.:-- + Co-operative movement, 181 +Grazing, increase of, 42 +Grundtvig, Bishop, 131 + +Hanbury, Mr.:-- 251 + Agricultural Societies, necessity of, 242 + Suppression of Swine Fever, 252 +Hannon, Mr. P.J.--I.A.O.S. 200 +Harrington, Mr. T.C.:-- + Recess Committee 218 +Healy, Archbishop, work for Ireland, 118 +Hegarty, Father, work for Ireland, 119 +Historical Grievances, 14, 17, 59, 104, _seq_. 120, 147 +Holdings, small, problem of, 46 +Holyoake, Mr.:-- + Co-operative Movement, 184 +Domestic Economy Teaching, 272 +Home: Improvement of, 159 + Irish Conception of, 53 + Irish, "homelessness at home," cause of 57, 58 +Home Industries, 192, 275 +Home Rule:--Bill 1886, 61 + Gladstone's attitude to the question 3 + Nationalist tactics as a means of attaining 84 + Rosebery, Lord, attitude to the question, 4 + Ulster and Home Rule, 66, 86. _seq_. + Unionist attitude towards, 35 +Hughes, Tom, Co-operative Movement, 184 +Hyde, Douglas, 151 + +Individualism of English economic system, 166 +Industrial character of the Irish, effect of commercial restrictions, 18 +Industrial leadership, and political leadership, 212 +Industry:-- + Commercial Restrictions, 16-20 + Education and Industrial Life, 130 + Free Trade, effect of, 19 + Gaelic League and, 135 + Home Rule and, 87 + Peasant Industries 52 + Protestantism and Industry 100 + Roman Catholicism and Industry. 100, 103 _seq_. + State-Aid 45 +Initiative, lack of in Irish character, 163 +Intermediate Education 128, 235, 237 +Irish Agricultural Organisation Society:-- 149 + Agricultural Banks, 195 _seq._ + Agricultural Organisation:-- + Denmark, 131 + Department of Agriculture and Farmers' Societies, 241 + England, Mr. Hanbury's view, 242 + Onslow, Lord, opinion, 242 + Welsh Co. Councils, and, 242 + Anderson, R.A., 200 + Central body, necessity for 194 + Cork Exhibition, tours organised by, 286 + Department of Agriculture and, 203 + Federations, principal, 193 + Finlay, Father Thomas, 119, 192, 208, 218 + Funds, 202 _seq_. + Gaelic revival and the co-operative movement, 149 _seq._ + Hannon, Mr. P.J., 200 + Inauguration, 191 + _Irish, Homestead_, 190, 202 + Monteagle, Lord, 192 + Roman Catholic clergy and the movement, 119 + Rural life social movements, 159, 199 + Russell, George W. (A.E.), 200 + Societies, number, etc. 192 + Staff, &c. 200 + Village libraries, 199 +_Irish Homestead_, 190, 202 +Irish language as a commercial medium, 158 +"Irish night" in House of Commons, 2 +Irish Question:-- + Anomalies, 33 + Character, a problem of, 32, 59, 164 + Emigration, 40 + English misunderstanding, 7 _seq._ + Frederic, Harold, diagnosis by, 161 _seq_. + Gaelic Revival and, 148 + Historical grievances, 16 _seq_. + Home Rule (see that title) + Human problem, 2 + Land Act marks a new era in, 11 + Land system (see that title). + Our ignorance about ourselves 32 + Parnell's death, effect of, 5 + Political remedies, Irish belief in, 33 + Rural life, problem, 39, 57, 263 + Sentiment, force of, 15 + Ulster's attitude important, 38 +Itinerant Instructors, 126, 127, 271, 284 + +Johnson, Dr., on "economy," 278 + +Kane, Rev. R.R.:-- 157 + Recess Committee, 218 +Keenan, Sir Patrick:-- + Itinerant instructors, 126, 127 +Kelly, Dr. (Bishop of Ross):-- + Work for Ireland, 118 +Kildare Street School of Domestic Economy 274 +Kildare Street Society, 123-125 + +Land Acts:-- + 1870, 23; + 1881, 23, 24; + 1891, Congested Districts, 243 + 1903:-- 10, 11, 42, 48, 245 + Marks a new era in Ireland, 11 + Transfer of peasants to new farms, 48 +Land Conference:-- 93 + Landed gentry not to be expatriated, 85 + Nationalist leaders' attitude, 89 +Land Purchase Acts, 25 +Land Question and Tenure Question, 41, 42 +Land system:-- 17 + Causes of failure in Irish land system, 21 + Dual ownership 25 + Land Acts: + 1870, 23; + 1881, 23, 24; + 1891, 243; + 1903, 10, 11, 42, 48, 246. + Land Purchase Acts, 25 + Legislation, 23 _seq_. + Peasant proprietorship, germs of, 25 + Tenure question, 41, 42 +Lawless, Emily:-- + "With the Wild Geese," 92 +Le Bon, "La Psychologie De la Foule," 167 +Lea, Sir Thomas:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +Leadership in Ireland, political and industrial, 212 +Lecky, Mr.:-- + Irish grievances, 14 + Kildare Street Society, 124 +Live stock improvement schemes, 279 +Liverpool Financial Reform Association, 127 +Local Government:-- 83 + Balfour, Mr. Gerald, 224, 238, 240 + Department of Agriculture and local effort, + Educative effect of, 90 + Nationalist leaders' attitude 88 + Success in working, 88, 240 +Lucas, Mr., 77 +Ludlow, Mr.:-- + Co-operative movement, 184 + +McCarthy, Mr. Justin:-- + Recess Committee, 215 +Manchester, Co-operative Union 181 +Manual and Practical Instruction in Primary Schools' Commission, 128, 129 +Manures, Artificial-- + Department of Agriculture's encouragement in the use of, 282 +Marum, Mr. Mulhallen--Co-operative Movement 189 +Maynooth, influence of, 134 136, 138, 139 +Mayo, Lord:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +_Memorandum on Agricultural Education_ 269 +Metropolitan School of Art, 230 +Middlemen, 180 +Monasteries and Convents, increase of, 108 +Monteagle, Lord:-- + Co-operative movement, 184 + I.A.O.S. President, 192 + Recess Committee 218 +Moral timidity of Irish character, 65, 80, 81 +Morals:-- + Roman Catholic Clergy's influence on, 115, 116 +Mulhall, Mr. Michael:-- + Recess Committee, 219 +Munster Institute, Cork, 230, 274 +Musgrave, Sir James:-- + Recess Committee, 219 + +National Education Board, Agricultural Teaching, 126 +Nationalist Party:-- + Home Rule, 35, 84 + Land Conference and, 89 + Local Government and, 88 + Policy, 69 + Qualifications of leaders, 90, 91 + Recess Committee and, 222 + Responsibility of leaders, 81 + Tactics:-- 84 _seq._ + Effect of on Irish political character, 80 +Nationality:-- + Education and nationality, 152 _seq._ + Expansion of, outside party politics, 154 + Modern conception of Irish nationality, 76 +Neale, Vansittart:-- + Co-operative movement, 184 +O'Connell, 77 +O'Conor Don:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +O'Dea, Dr.:-- + University Commission, statements, 109, 141 +O'Donnell, Dr.:-- + Ploughing up of grazing lands, 43 +O'Donovan, Father, 119 +O'Dwyer, Dr.:-- + Evidence before University Commission, 140 +O'Gara, Dr.:-- + On the cultivation of the land, 43 +O'Grady, Standish, 154 +Onslow, Lord:-- + Agricultural organisation, benefit of, 242 +O'Rahilly, Egan:-- + Lament for the Irish clans, 27 +Oyster Culture, 283 + +Parnell:-- 48, 78 + Downfall, effect on national idea and aims, 5, 79, 80 +Peasant industries, necessity for, 52 +Peasant Proprietary:-- + Agricultural organisation, necessity of, 44 _seq_. + Bright, John, and, 25 + Peasant industries, necessity of, 52 + Problem of next generation, 50, 51 +Penal laws, effect of, 104, 132 +Plantation system, 76 +Politics:-- + Agitation as a policy, 82, 83 + America, Irish in politics in, 70 _seq,_ + Gaelic revival and politics, 156, 157 + Irishmen as politicians,. 69 _seq._ + "Irish night" in House of Commons, 92 + Nationalist leaders' effect on Irish political character, 80 + Obsession of the Irish mind by politics, 59, 61 _seq_. + "One-man" system, 79 + Political leadership and industrial leadership, 212 + Political remedies, Irish belief in, 33 + Political "wilderness," 91 + "Priest in politics," 117 + Separation, 87 + Ulster Liberal Unionist Association, 66 + Unionists (Irish):-- + Industrial element and, 67, 68 + Influence in Irish life, 63 _seq._ +Population.-- + Relation of population to area, 49 +Potato culture improvement schemes, 282 +Production and distribution, problems, 179, 180 +Protestantism:-- + Duty of, 119 + Ulster, 98, 99 + +Raiffeisen System of banking, 195-198 +Railways--Light railway system, 243 +_Raimeis_, 153 +Recess Committee:-- 83, 210 _seq._ 238, 241 + Cadogan, Lord, and, 224, 225 + Constitution proposed, 215 + Finlay, Father Thomas, 218 + Gill, Mr. T.P. 219 + Ideas leading to its formation, 213 + M'Carthy, Mr. Justin, letter, 215 + Members, 218 + Mulhall, Mr. Michael, 219 + Nationalist members, 222 + Recommendations, 220 + Redmond, Mr. John, and, 217 + Report, 10, 129, 221 + Results, 223 _seq._ + State-aid question, 223 + Tisserand's memorandum, 220 +Redmond, Mr. John:-- + Recess Committee, 217 +Religion:-- + Influence of on Irish life, 59, 94 _seq._ + Protestantism, 98, 99, 119 + Roman Catholic Church (see that title). + Sectarian animosities, 98, 99 + Toleration, meaning of word, 95 +Ritualistic movement, 99 +Robertson, Lord:-- + University Commission, 140 +Roman Catholic Church:-- + Church-building and increase of monasteries, etc., 107, 108, 109 + Clergy:-- + Action and attitude towards questions of the day, 105 _seq_. + Authority of, 98, 105 _seq._ + Co-operative movement, 119 + Moral influence, 115, 116 + Political influence, 77, 117 + Temperance reform, 112, 114 + Economic conditions, influence on 101 _seq._ + Effect on Irish character, 101-105, 110 + Higher education of Roman Catholics, 97, 132 +Rosebery, Lord:-- + Attitude towards Home Rule, 4 +Ross, Mr. John:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +Royal College of Science, 229, 268, 270 +Royal Commission on University Education, 118, 128, 140 +Royal Dublin Society, Aid to Department of Agriculture, 279 +Royal University education, defects in, 128 +Rural life:-- + Emigration, causes of, 40, 116 + Gaelic revival's influence on, 159 + Industries, 52, 262, 266 + Problem of, 39, 51, 263 + Rehabilitation, 159, 199 +Russell, George W. (A.E.), 200 + +Salisbury, Lord:-- + "Twenty years of resolute government," 61 +Saunderson, Colonel:-- + Recess Committee, 217 +Scotch-Irish in America, 71 +Sea Fisheries--Department of Agriculture's improvement schemes, 282 +Self-help movement (see Co-operative movement). +Sentiment:-- + Anti-English, cause of, 13 _seq_. + Force of in Irish question, 15, 127 +Separation, Home Rule and, 87 +Shinnors, Rev. Mr.:-- + Irish in America, 111 +Sinclair, Thomas:-- + Recess Committee, 218 +Social order, Irish attachment to, 54 +_Spectator_:--English non-allowance for sentiment, 15 +_Speed's Chronicle_:-- + Con O'Neal, etc. 57 +Spencer, Lord, 168 +Starkie, Dr.:-- + Mr. Wyse's education scheme, 126 +State-aid:-- 45, 211, 219, 220, 223 +Stephen, J.K. ("Cynicus") 164 +Stopford Brooke, 92 +Swine fever, 251 + +Technical Instruction, 130, 228, 234 _seq_. 257, 263, 267, 279 +Temperance Reform, 112 _seq_. +Tenure question and land question, 41 +Tillage, decrease of, 42 +Tisserand, M.:-- + Recess Committee memorandum, 220 +Tobacco culture, 282 +Trinity College, influence of, 134, 136 _seq._ +Two Irelands, 37 + +Ulster:-- + Attitude towards the rest of Ireland, 38 + Home Rule, objections to, 66, 86, 87 +Ulster Liberal Unionist Association, political thought in, 66 +Unionist (Irish) Party:-- + Industrial element in Irish life and, 67, 68, 86 + Influence in Irish life, 63_seq._ + Policy, 68 + Ulster and Home Rule, 66,86 _seq._ +United Ireland, first real conception of, 77 +United Irish League, 90 +University Question:-- 99, 109 + Catholic University:-- + O'Dea, Dr., on, 141 + O'Dwyer, Dr., on, 140 + Hyde, Dr., evidence before Commission, 151 + Maynooth, influence of, 134, 136, 138, 139 + Place of the University in education, 133 + Trinity College, influence of, 134, 136 _seq._ + University reform necessary, 138 + +Vandeleur Estate, co-operative community, 184 +Village libraries, 119, 199 + +Wolff, Mr. Henry W.:-- + People's banks, 199 +Wyndham, Mr.:-- + Land Act. 1903, 10, 12 +Wyse, Mr. Thomas:-- + Scheme of Irish education, 125 + +Yeats, W.B. 154 +Yerburgh, Mr. R.A.:-- + Agricultural banks, 199 + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Ireland In The New Century, by Horace Plunkett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IRELAND IN THE NEW CENTURY *** + +***** This file should be named 14342.txt or 14342.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/3/4/14342/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Susan Skinner and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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