of rural Ireland—­which, as I have said, is the Irish problem—­more is required than the conversion of the occupying tenant into a peasant proprietor.  The sense of ownership may be counted on to do much; but it will not make it possible for a family to live in decent comfort on an insufficient holding; neither will it enable the small farmer to compete with those foreign rivals who have at their command improved methods of production, improved methods of marketing their produce, facilities for obtaining capital adequate to their needs, and all the many advantages which superior education and organised co-operation bring in their train.

Looking back to-day, the wide field that in these directions was open to the beneficent action of the State, and to the equally beneficent action of voluntary associations, seems evident and obvious.  It was by no means so evident or obvious twenty years ago.  At that time the traditional policy of laisser faire had still a powerful hold over men’s minds, and to abandon it even in the case of rural Ireland was a veritable new departure in statesmanship.  The idea of establishing a voluntary association to promote agricultural co-operation was even more remote; and, as will be seen in the sequel, it was to the insight and devoted persistence of a single individual that its successful realisation has been ultimately due.

So far as State action was concerned, a beginning was naturally made with the poorest parts of the country.  Mr. Arthur Balfour led the way with two important measures.  One of these was the construction of light railways in the most backward tracts on the western seaboard.  These railways were constructed at the public expense, but worked by existing railway companies, and linked up with existing railway systems.  The benefits conferred on those parts of the country through which they passed have been great and lasting.

Mr. Balfour’s second contribution to Irish rural development was the creation of the Congested Districts Board in 1891.  The “congested districts” embraced the most poverty-stricken areas in the western counties, and the business of the Board was to devise and apply, within those districts, schemes for the amelioration of the social and economic condition of the population comprised in them.  For this purpose, the Board was invested with very wide powers of a paternal character, and an annual income of upwards of L40,000 was placed at their free disposal, a sum which has been largely increased by subsequent Acts.

The experiment was an absolutely novel one, but no one who is able to compare the improved condition of the congested districts to-day with the state of things that prevailed twenty years ago can doubt that it has been amply justified by results.