It is obvious that with the development of trade which will follow on the adoption of Tariff Reform by England, Irish companies will be in a better position to help themselves, and the increase in the wealth and prosperity of Ireland must soon enable the railways to carry out constructive works which they all admit to be necessary.

Mr. Locker Lampson’s article on education undoubtedly shows the Irish Government in its less favourable light.  The neglect and starvation of Irish education has been a reproach to the intelligence and humanity of successive Irish administrations.  Mr. Locker Lampson shows, however, that financially and politically it would be impossible for any Irish administration to carry out the great and sweeping reforms in Irish education as are still necessary.  The mischievous principle of paying fees by results, although it has disappeared from the National schools, still clings to intermediate education in Ireland.  Before any other kind of reform is even considered the intermediate system in Ireland should be placed upon a proper foundation.  The secondary system is also deficient because—­what Mr. Dillon called “gaps in the law”—­there is no co-ordination between the primary and the secondary schools.  The establishment of higher grade schools in large centres and the institution of advanced departments in connection with selected primary schools in rural districts would only cost about L25,000 a year, and would go far to meet the disastrous effects of the present system.  But no system of education can possibly be successful that does not place the teachers in a position of dignity and comfort.  At the present moment the salaries of the secondary teachers are miserable; lay assistants in secondary schools are paid about L80 a year.  They have no security of tenure; they have no register of teachers as a guarantee of efficiency.

The other problems which immediately confront the Irish government are the establishment of a private bill legislation and a reform of the Irish Poor Law.  With regard to the private bill legislation I will say no more than that it has always formed part of the Unionist policy for Ireland, and that I agree fully with the arguments by which Mr. Walter Long shows the necessity and justice for such a reform.

Finally, having given to the Irish farmers the security of a freehold in their holdings at home, and a free entrance into the protected markets of Great Britain; having assisted the development of rural industries of the country; having placed Irish education on a sound and intelligible basis, it would be necessary for the Unionist Party to undertake a reform of the Poor Law in Ireland.  Whether this reform will be undertaken the same time as the larger social problems of England, with which the party is pledged to deal, may be a matter of political expediency, but there is no reason why the reform which is so urgently required in Ireland should have to await the adoption of a scheme