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.