by Sir Horace Plunkett in 1889.  “Better farming, better business, better living”—­these were the principles which he and Mr. Anderson set out to establish in Ireland.  Their representatives were described as monsters in human shape, and they were adjured to cease their “hellish work.”  Now the branches of the Society number nearly 1000, with an annual turnover of upwards of 2-1/2 millions, and they include creameries, village banks, and societies for the purchase of seeds and manure and for the marketing of eggs.  It is not necessary to tell again the story of the Recess Committee and the formation of the Department of Agriculture.  The result of its work, crowned as it was by Mr. Wyndham’s Purchase Act, is shown by the fact that Irish trade has increased from 103 millions in 1904 to 130 millions in 1910.  The steady object which Sir Horace Plunkett has set before him is to counteract the demoralising effect of paternal legislation on the part of the Government, by reviving and stimulating a policy of self-help.  The I.A.O.S. has done valuable work in enabling the Irish farmers, by co-operating, to secure a more stable position in the English market, to secure themselves against illegitimate and fraudulent competition and to standardise the quality of their product, but even more important has been the work of the Society in releasing the farmers from the bondage of the “Gombeen” man who has for so many years been the curse of Irish agriculture.  The “Gombeen” man is alike trader, publican, and money-lender, and he is the backbone of official Nationalist influence.  By lending money to the peasant proprietors at exorbitant rates, by selling inferior seeds and manures and by carrying on his transactions with the farmers chiefly in kind, the “Gombeen” man has grown fat upon the poverty and despair of the farmer.  It is not surprising that he views the liberating work of the I.A.O.S. with the bitterest hostility—­an hostility which has been translated into effective action by the Nationalist Party in Parliament.

Sir Horace Plunkett was driven from office on the pretext that it should be held by a member of Parliament.  His successor, Mr. T.W.  Russell, lost his seat in the General Election of 1910, but he was retained in power since he was willing to lend himself to the destructive intrigues of the “Molly Maguires.”  The Unionist Party does not intend to interfere with the independence of the I.A.O.S. which constitutes in their eyes its greatest feature, but they are determined that it shall have fair play, and that the hundred thousand Irish farmers which constitutes its membership shall be enabled to increase their prosperity by co-operative action.  The Unionist Party will also have to undertake more active measures in order to restore to Irish agriculture the position of supremacy for which it is naturally fitted.  Mr. Amery and Mr. Samuels both discuss in outline the effects of Tariff Reform upon the future of Ireland.