ent force of organised self-help by
those who would estimate the degree in which the aims and sanguine
anticipations of the new movement in Ireland are likely to be realised.

And it is not only for its foundation upon self-reliance that the latest
development of Irish Government will have a living interest for
economists and students of political philosophy. They will see in the
facts under review a rapid and altogether healthy evolution of the Irish
policy so honourably associated with the name of Mr. Arthur Balfour. His
Chief Secretaryship, when all its storm and stress have been forgotten,
will be remembered for the opening up of the desolate, poverty-stricken
western seaboard by light railways, and for the creation of the
Congested Districts Board. The latter institution has gained so wide
and, as I think, well merited popularity, that many thought its
extension to other parts of Ireland would have been a simpler and safer
method of procedure than that actually recommended by the Recess
Committee, and adopted by Mr. Gerald Balfour. The Land Act of 1891
applied a treatment to the problem of the congested districts--a problem
of economic depression and industrial backwardness, differing rather in
degree than in kind from the economic problem of the greater part of
rural Ireland--as simple as it was new. A large capital sum of Irish
moneys was handed over to an unpaid commission consisting of Irishmen
who were acquainted with the local circumstances, and who were in a
position to give their services to a public philanthropic purpose. They
were given the widest discretion in the expenditure of the interest of
this capital sum, and from time to time their income has been augmented
from annually voted moneys. They were restricted only to measures
calculated permanently to improve the condition of the people, as
distinct from measures affording temporary relief.

I agree with those who hold that Mr. Arthur Balfour's plan was the best
that could be adopted at the moment. But events have marched rapidly
since 1891, and wholly new possibilities in the sphere of Irish economic
legislation and administration have been revealed. A new Irish mind has
now to be taken into account, and to be made part of any ameliorative
Irish policy. Hence it was not only possible, but desirable, to
administer State help more democratically in 1899 than in 1891. The
policy of the Congested Districts Board was a notable advance upon the
inaction