our, and the ruined hearths of Clare.

The reader may take all this as fiction. I am sure no one will annoy me
by trying on any of the caps I have displayed on the counter of my
shop. What I do fear is that the picture of some of my duties which I
have given may have made a wrong impression of the Department's work
upon the reader's mind. He may have come to the conclusion that,
contrary to all the principles laid down, an attempt was being made to
do for the people things which the new movement was to induce the people
to do for themselves. The Department may appear to be using its official
position and Government funds to constitute itself a sort of Universal
Providence, exercising an authority and a discretion over matters upon
which in any progressive community the people must decide for
themselves. However near to the appearances such an impression might be,
nothing could be further from the facts. If I have helped the reader to
unravel the tangled skein of our national life, if I have sufficiently
revealed the mind of the new movement to show that there is in it 'a
scheme of things entire,' it should be quite clear that the deliberate
intentions both of Mr. Gerald Balfour and of those Irishmen whom he took
into his confidence are being fulfilled in letter and in spirit. It only
remains for me to attempt an adequate description of the work of the
Department created by that Chief Secretary, and, above all, of the way
in which the people themselves are playing the part which his
statesmanship assigned to them.

FOOTNOTES:

[44] See Report of the Local Government Board, 1901-2.

[45] See Annual General Report of the Department 1900-1901, pp. 25-27.

[46] _Cf. ante_, pp. 46-49.

[47] No fiction about this, nor about the following letter to the
Secretary:--

'The Scratatory, Vitny Dept.

'Honord Sir,

'I want to let ye know the terible state we're in now. Al the pigs about
here is dyin in showers. Send down a Vit at oncet.'

CHAPTER X.

GOVERNMENT WITH THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED.

In the preceding chapter I attempted to give to the reader a rough
impression of the general purpose and miscellaneous functions of the new
Department. I described in some detail the constitution and powers of
the Council of Agriculture--a sort of Business Parliament--which
criticises our doings and elects representatives on our Boards; and of
the two Boards which, in addition to their advisory functions, possess