To sum up, therefore, I trust that I have, even in this brief sketch, made it clear that the policy of the Unionist Government, taken as a whole, has been of immense benefit to the social and material prosperity of Ireland; and that the points in which it has failed have been those where their reforms have fallen under the power of the Nationalists, who have either thwarted them, or made use of them to further their own ideas.  I shall next proceed to examine the alternative policy, which is being carried out by the present Government.

CHAPTER XII.

THE GLADSTONIAN GOVERNMENT OF 1892.  THE POLITICAL SOCIETIES.

During the Gladstone-Rosebery Government—­from 1892 to 1895—­matters in Ireland were quiet.  The Nationalists were at first on their best behaviour, in consequence of the promised introduction of the Home Rule Bill; and after its rejection by the Upper House, the time was too short for anything serious to happen.  But the period was marked by the commencement of one great change in Irish administration.  It must be admitted by impartial observers that the old landlord party, with all their faults, made as a rule excellent magistrates.  A large proportion of them were retired military officers, who had gained some experience in duties of the sort in their regiments; others were men of superior education, who studied with care the laws they were to administer.  Living in the locality, they knew the habits and feelings of the people; and yet they were sufficiently separated from them to be able to act as impartial judges; and no charges of bribery were ever made against them.  And, the work being congenial, they gladly devoted their spare time to it.  Gladstone’s Chief Secretary (the present Lord Morley) determined to alter all this; he accordingly appointed to the Bench a large number of men drawn from a lower social stratum, less educated and intelligent than those previously chosen, but more likely to administer “Justice according to Irish ideas.”  Then the operation of the Local Government Act, by which Chairmen of Councils (all of course Nationalists) became ex officio magistrates, completed a social revolution by entirely altering the character of the Bench.  In some localities the magistrates previously appointed realizing that, being now in a minority, they could be of no further use on the Bench, withdrew; in others, though the old magistrates continued to sit, they found themselves persistently outvoted on every point; so what good they have done by remaining, it is hard to see.  Amongst the men appointed under the new system, there have been several instances of justices who have continued to act without the slightest shame or scruple although they have been convicted of such offences as drunkenness, selling drink on unlicensed premises, or corrupt practices at elections.  But worse than that:  the new order of justices do not regard their duties as magisterial, but political;