y those who wish to grasp the inner
workings of the Irish mind. Briefly stated, the view prevails in Ireland
that in dealing with questions affecting our material well-being, the
government of our country by the English was, in the past, characterised
by an unenlightened self-interest. Thoughtful Englishmen admit this
charge, but they say that the past referred to is beyond living memory
and should now be buried. The Irish mind replies that the life of a
nation is not to be measured by the life of individuals, and that a
wrong inflicted by a Government upon a community entitles those who
inherit the consequences of the injury to claim reparation at the hands
of those who inherit the government. With this attitude on the part of
the Irish mind I am not only most heartily in sympathy, but I find every
Englishman who understands the situation equally so. In the later
portions of this book it will be shown that practical recognition, in no
small measure, has been given by England to the righteousness of this
part of the Irish case, and that if the effect thus produced has not
found as full an outward expression as might have been expected, the
Irish people have at any rate responded to the new treatment in a manner
which must, in no distant future, bring about a better understanding.

The only historical causes of our present discontents to which I need
now particularly refer, are the commercial restrictions and the land
system of the past, which stand out from the long list of Irish
grievances as those for which their victims were the least responsible.
No one can be more anxious than I am that we should cease to be for ever
seeking in the past excuses for our present failures. But it is
essential to a correct estimation of Irish agricultural and industrial
possibilities that we should notice the true bearings of these
historical grievances upon existing conditions.

In this connection there arises a question which is very pertinent to
the present inquiry and which must therefore be considered. I have seen
it argued by English economists that the industrial revolution which
took place at the end of the eighteenth and commencement of the
nineteenth century would in any case have destroyed, by force of open
competition, industries which, it is admitted, were previously
legislated away. They point out that the change from the order of small
scattered home industries to the factory system would have suited
neither the tempera