own.

Truly, it was a strange council over which I had the honour to preside.
All shades of politics were there--Lords Mayo and Monteagle, Mr. Dane
and Sir Thomas Lea (Tories and Liberal Unionist Peers and Members of
Parliament) sitting down beside Mr. John Redmond and his parliamentary
followers. It was found possible, in framing proposals fraught with
moral, social, and educational results, to secure the cordial agreement
of the late Rev. Dr. Kane, Grand Master of the Belfast Orangemen, and of
the eminent Jesuit educationist, Father Thomas Finlay, of the Royal
University. The O'Conor Don, the able Chairman of the Financial
Relations Commission, and Mr. John Ross, M.P., now one of His Majesty's
Judges, both Unionists, were balanced by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and
Mr. T.C. Harrington, M.P., who now occupies that post, both
Nationalists. The late Sir John Arnott fitly represented the commercial
enterprise of the South, while such men as Mr. Thomas Sinclair,
universally regarded as one of the wisest of Irish public men, Sir
William Ewart, head of the leading linen concern in the North, Sir
Daniel Dixon, now Lord Mayor of Belfast, Sir James Musgrave, Chairman of
the Belfast Harbour Board, and Mr. Thomas Andrews, a well-known
flax-spinner and Chairman of the Belfast and County Down Railway, would
be universally accepted as the highest authorities upon the needs of the
business community which has made Ulster famous in the industrial world.
Mr. T.P. Gill, besides undertaking investigation of the utmost value
into State aid to agriculture in France and Denmark, acted as Hon.
Secretary to the Committee, of which he was a member.

The story of our deliberations and ultimate conclusions cannot be set
forth here except in the barest outline. We instituted an inquiry into
the means by which the Government could best promote the development of
our agricultural and industrial resources, and despatched commissioners
to countries of Europe whose conditions and progress might afford some
lessons for Ireland. Most of this work was done for us by the late
eminent statistician, Mr. Michael Mulhall. Our funds did not admit of an
inquiry in the United States or the Colonies. However, we obtained
invaluable information as to the methods by which countries which were
our chief rivals in agricultural and industrial production have been
enabled to compete successfully with our producers even in our own
markets. Our commissioners were instruct