up with the County
or Borough Councils, by the legislation of Mr. Gerald Balfour, has done
an immense amount of educational and practical work in connection with
agriculture in all its branches, including dairying, poultry rearing,
fruit-growing, and other rural industries, not to speak of technical
instruction in matters suited for artisans and town workers.

These remarkable achievements, the work of successive Unionist
Governments from 1896 to 1906, have revolutionised the face of the
country, and are bringing about a new Ireland. The chief danger now lies
in the intrigues of discredited politicians, whose object is to divert
the eyes of the people from practical, remedial, and constructive
legislation, and to keep them fixed upon what Mr. John Morley has called
"the phantom of Irish legislative independence."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 3: J.R. Green, "Short History," chap. ix. sec. 8.]

[Footnote 4: "Dict. Nat. Biog.," sub.-tit. "Erskine, John, Earl of Mar,"
p. 430.]

[Footnote 5: "England," says Mr. James Bryce in his Introduction to "Two
Centuries of Irish History," "acted as conquering nations do act, and
better than some nations of that age."]

[Footnote 6: Wogan to Swift, Feb. 27th, 1732.]

[Footnote 7: Swift, "The Legion Club."]

[Footnote 8: "Life of Macartney," vol. ii, p. 136.]

[Footnote 9: "Tour in Ireland," vol. ii., p. 123 ff.]

[Footnote 10: Hamilton Rowan's "Autobiography," p. 340.]

[Footnote 11: "Wealth of Nations," Book V., Chap. III.]

[Footnote 12: "The End of the Irish Parliament," 1911, Edward Arnold.]

[Footnote 13: "Edmund Burke, a Historical Study," by John Morley, pp.
286 ff.]

[Footnote 14: "Pitt," by Lord Rosebery, p. 155.]

[Footnote 15: From the official returns embodied in "A Statement to the
Prime Minister," Irish Loyal and Patriotic Union, Dublin, 1886.]

[Footnote 16: "Ireland from the Union to Catholic Emancipation," by D.
A. Chart, M.A. A most valuable and instructive work.]

[Footnote 17: It is, I hope, no reflection on the memory of an eminent
public servant to suggest that in this, as in too many of the estimated
figures contained in his evidence before the Commission, and upon which
the Majority Report of the Commission was largely based, Sir Robert
seriously under-estimated the resources of Ireland. It is obvious when
the ascertained figures of 1910 are compared with the estimated figures
of 1895 that Sir Robert Giffen must have been several millions below the