poses of the Act. By these two simple provisions for local
administration and local combination, the people of each district were
made voluntarily contributory both in effort and in money, towards the
new practical developments, and given an interest in, and
responsibility for their success. It was of the utmost importance that
these new local authorities should be practically interested in the
business concerns of the country which the Department was to serve. Mr.
Gerald Balfour himself, in introducing the Local Government Bill, had
shown that he was under no illusion as to the possible disappointment to
which his great democratic experiment might at first give rise. He
anticipated that it would "work through failure to success." To put it
plainly, the new bodies might devote a great deal of attention to
politics and very little to business. I am told by those best qualified
to form an opinion (some of my informants having been, to say the least,
sceptical as to the wisdom of the experiment), that notwithstanding some
extravagances in particular instances, it can already be stated
positively that local government in Ireland, taken as a whole, has not
suffered in efficiency by the revolution which it has undergone. This is
the opinion of officials of the Local Government Board,[44] and refers
mainly to the transaction of the fiscal business of the new local
authorities. From a different point of observation I shall presently
bear witness to a display of administrative capacity on the part of the
many statutory committees, appointed by County, Borough, and District
Councils to co-operate with the Department, which is most creditable to
the thought and feeling of the people.

It would be quite unfair to a large body of farmers in Ireland if, in
describing the administrative machinery for carrying out an economic
policy based upon self-help and dependent for its success upon the
conciliatory spirit abroad in the country, I were to ignore the part
played by the large number of co-operative associations, the
organisation, work and multiplication of which have been described in a
former chapter. The Recess Committee, in their enquiries, found that, in
the countries whose competition Ireland feels most keenly, Departments
of Agriculture had come to recognise it as an axiom of their policy that
without organisation for economic purposes amongst the agricultural
classes, State aid to agriculture must be largely ineffectual, and e