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EPILOGUE

It is supposed to be the mark of a statesman to be able to construct where others are only able to destroy. It is supposed to be the mark of a historian, who is worthy of the name, not only to be able to record and criticize the course of human activity in the past, but by the light of that experience to furnish philosophical matter for fruitful meditation in the future. In regard to Ireland, who would be so venturesome as to try to picture to himself, or so doubly bold as to hazard his reputation by suggesting to his readers a cut-and-dried and unalterable scheme of government for the sister isle? The author of this book is afflicted with more than one weakness of the flesh and of the spirit, but is resolved not to fall into that disgrace. No such scheme is worth contemplating, because, with the lapse of years and the progress of the world's drama, the wheel of Time must of necessity bring with it altered conditions and a different standpoint. What, however, can be done with modesty and circumspection, is to offer certain temperate considerations which are founded on the broad bottom of experience and probability. There are several considerations in the present case, the results of which, if worked out sagaciously, would undoubtedly have the effect of rendering the government of Ireland a more congenial and certainly a more honourable function than it is to-day.

There is a prodigious amount of spare cash in Great Britain and not a little enterprise, which have been sometimes known to squander themselves upon projects not altogether remunerative or wise. Were they turned to account, and a company encouraged by the State to tunnel the Irish Channel, in a short period the profits would be so great that the law of competition would be undermining in some other direction the silver streak of sea which separates the two islands.1 Englishmen would pour into the green valleys and upon the green slopes of Ireland in their hundreds of thousands for pleasure and for business, and Irishmen would visit the towns and workshops of England for the same reasons, The two streams of population would, within a few years, bind England and Ireland together with links of steel, those bands of common interest and affection which prove far stronger and more durable than the artificial fetters of legislative

1 The distance from Port Patrick to Donaghadee is about 22 miles and from the Mull of Cantyre to Benmore or Fair Head about 13.

enactments. The ignorant, priest-governed Celtic peasant would at last rub shoulders with the artisan of the Midlands, the London tradesman, and the Englishman in the street; and thousands of the lower and middle classes of Great Britain would in their turn penetrate into the inmost recesses of Irish life and manners, and comprehend for the first time in the history of the two countries the feelings and relations that exist between the Orangeman and the Catholic and between the landlord and the Irish tenant. The habits, the idiosyncrasies, the points of view of each would become reciprocally known. The two races would blend and intermarry vastly more than they do at present. Historical prejudices would gradually disappear and be forgotten. Mutual intercourse would take the edge off the weapon of the noisy agitator. Industries bringing their experts with them would find their way from one land to the other, and the very idea of two separate or discordant nationalities would become fainter and fainter with each succeeding age. In fact, the charm and the interest, the resources and the possibilities possessed by both countries would be appreciated by both peoples, and more, infinitely more, would be accomplished in this manner towards a final settlement of the Irish question than anything which has been effected or imagined for a hundred years.

There are several other considerations, only second in importance to the one already dealt with. Of what advantage are the Irish Viceroyalty and Dublin Castle? They are not even picturesque, and they are very costly. They are merely relics and symbols of a hated and discreditable past, and whenever the Celt thinks of the one and sees the other, the vision of struggle and persecution floats before his blue eyes and burns their memory deep into his brain. Divest Ireland of her LordLieutenant and his Chief Secretary. Rid her of all the useless and expensive paraphernalia of a Chief Governor. In their place substitute a Secretary for Ireland, as there is already one for Scotland. Make it a hard and fast rule that he be always a Celt, who has dwelt for a good portion of his life among his countrymen and thoroughly understands them, and this reform again would do more to grease the wheels of Irish administration and mollify the bitter spirit of opposition which is so easily fanned into flame by party adventurers than ten decades of sympathetic speeches.

There might also be a Parliamentary Committee sitting at Westminster, composed of the members representing Irish constituencies. This body could deal with private bill legislation, and such matters as Parliament would from time to time delegate to it. It would be inadvisable to attempt to define here the exact powers of such a body, but it would not be

beyond the wit of man to devise a scheme of this nature which would remove from the cockpit of party conflict and the overweighted shoulders of the Imperial Legislature such purely Irish business as could be more efficiently discussed apart.

There is no sympathy and no confidence between the great public Departments in Ireland and the bulk of the Irish people. Whatever is done by the former is regarded with suspicion, and therefore the best intentions in the world are barren of result. If mutual trust could be sown between the two, one of the chief difficulties in the government of Ireland would be overcome. The Irish people would then be brought into closer touch with every Department of Irish government, and into more intimate communion with the development of their history. They would feel that the interests of the two countries were common interests, and that they had a part and lot in the working out of their own welfare.

Some mention of the Congested Districts Board1 is not out of place in connection with the preceding paragraph, for it has proved an indubitable success in Ireland, very largely owing to the fact that it is not a Government Department, and does not therefore stir the animosity of the Irish people. It is, moreover, composed of men of all parties. Early, however, in the spring of 1904, the Board (as a result of the complications arising from the Agricultural Department and itself working in the same area, and of the Board operating without asking for any local help in the shape of rates, whilst the other made it a prima facie condition that the rates should contribute) transferred the agricultural portion of its work to the Department of Agriculture.

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1 The origin of the "Congested Districts" ("congested" in this case being a synonym for very poor") is probably partly to be found in the plantation of Ulster by James I, and in the Cromwellian and other settlements, which led to a vast migration from the good lands to the poorer lands of the West. The Board was created for the purpose of aiding migration as well as emigration from an electoral division, but the latter object has been neglected owing to the pressure of other work. Its chief function is to purchase land and improve it before selling it to the tenant; and it consists of ten members-the Chief Secretary, a member of the Land Commission, and five permanent and three temporary members, all of whom are unpaid in respect of their services. But it is not a Department in the ordinary sense of the word, for the Board is not represented by a minister responsible to Parliament, and the Chief Secretary is not, ex officio, chairman, but enjoys that position by the election of his colleagues. Neither is it subordinate to the Chief Secretary's office or to the Ministry of the day. For certain purposes, however, the Viceroy must be consulted, and all applications to the Treasury for expenditure out of the vote must pass through the Castle. With this exception, all correspondence, either with the Treasury or other Government Departments, may be conducted independently. The population of the "congested districts" is about half-a-million. There are about 85,000 holdings under a £5 valuation per family, that is to say, uneconomic, of which 55,000 are under a £4 valuation. Between 14,000 and 15,000 of these holdings have already been bought by the Board, and about 6000 of the latter resold to tenants. The total area of the "congested districts" is 3,626,381 acres. See the Minutes of Evidence in the Appendices to the first three reports of the Royal Commission on Congestion in Ireland, 1906 and 1907.

The consequence of this move has been that the transferred branch of economic effort has met with less approbation on the part of the Irish since that date. Throughout the evidence given in 1906 and 1907 before the Royal Commission on Congestion there are repeated tributes to the utility of the work which the Board has done, and, what is much more important, to the confidence reposed in it by the Irish, and for this latter reason, above every other, there are almost unlimited possibilities for it as an instrument of reform, and every endeavour ought to be made to render its efforts widespread and successful. Now, in the first place, there is a feeling at the present time that the Board is not sufficiently representative of local interests, Donegal only, and Mayo, being represented upon it, and there is no doubt that it would add to the authority and still further enhance the popularity of the Board were each congested district to be given representation. A representative man could be chosen by each locality, or nominated by the Government, and the probable success of such a policy may be measured by the favour already shown to the Board on account of its impartial and sympathetic attitude towards the interests of the people. In the second place, the limitation which results from the statutory definition of “congestion" ought to be abolished, and the activity of the Board, instead of being cramped within the restricted limits of the present scheduled areas, extended generally throughout the island. This is but reasonable, as there are a multitude of districts outside the scheduled area which are as destitute as those within it, and deserving of as much attention as any which have up till now received assistance. The Board ought, in the third place, to have larger funds placed at its disposal. It has now only about £11,000 a year to set apart in order to cover the loss arising on resale, after improvement, of the land which it purchases, this loss amounting on an average to about 8 per cent. That is to say, it can buy land to the value of only £140,000 a year. This sum is so small that the means of relieving congestion will slip through its hands if no further moneys are forthcoming, as land available for congestion is rapidly being sold and passing from the hands of the owners into those of purchasers, who intend to hold on to it. The Board, therefore, ought to be placed in a position to purchase untenanted land, which is the kind that is wanted most, in large quantities, and to buy out large graziers, and utilize the land so acquired for the enlargement of small holdings or the migration of tenants to new ones; and it might be found advisable to give the Board certain compulsory powers in this direction. In order to buy, say, £400,000 worth of land a year, and allow for a loss of 8 per cent. on resale, a provision of 8 per cent. on £400,000 would be necessary, or £20,000 a year more than is now available. Even this sum is inadequate for the

purchases that ought to be made. Some addition, however, is imperative, for if the Board cannot obtain an increase of funds, the work will have to be done by some other Department. There is a subsidiary but important consideration in connection with an augmentation of funds. The Board has found it almost impossible to persuade individual members of families to leave their homes when agricultural development on the spot is impracticable, and the policy of migration to other holdings becomes necessary. The Irishman cleaves to the family connection and the family home until starvation drives him out. The only way, therefore, out of this particular difficulty, in the future, seems to be to assist a little community of families, or even a townland, to migrate en bloc. To ensure the initial success of an undertaking of this sort, the Board should be given the power, which it does not at present possess, to satisfy local requirements by enlarging and rendering economic the holdings of those families already living on, or just outside, the purchased estate, before the arrival of the new owners, so as to allay any ill-feeling against the migrants. Such a policy would necessarily involve an ample supply of land, which cannot be obtained without increased expenditure; but surely the experiment is worth the expense. At present there is a considerable waste of public money, which might be saved towards this purpose. The loss suffered in respect of sanitary work is merely one small instance. The Parish Committees, which are the creation of the Board, have for a long time been usefully employed among other things in removing the cattle from the homes. and erecting outhouses for them, as well as in shifting the manure heaps from the immediate neighbourhood of the houses. But the sanitary inspectors appointed by the District Council are being paid by ratepayers and Imperial taxpayers under the Public Health Act to see that these very operations are carried

The sanitary inspectors, however, whose salaries are fixed by the Local Government Board, and have to be paid, do not do the work, and, as a matter of fact, are unable to get it done, and thus the Congested Districts Board is paying money for doing what has already been in part paid for out of public funds. In the fourth place, the relations between the Congested Districts Board and the Estates Commissioners stand in need of adjustment. There is considerable delay in the vesting of estates sold by landlords to the Board, due largely to the deficiency of staff in the Estates Commissioners' Office, which has to inquire into the title and complete the transfer, and also to the limited amount of money advanced for the purpose of purchase, to which attention has already been drawn. Moreover, the Estates Commissioners under the Act of 1903 can, with the consent of the landlord, deal with congested estates within the districts under

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