nt a low rate of
interest on the purchase money, plus such contribution to a sinking fund
as will repay the principal in the term of years for which the annual
payments are to run. The practical effect of this arrangement is that
the occupier becomes the owner of his holding, subject to a terminable
annual payment to the State of a sum less in amount than the rent he has
had to pay heretofore.

The successful working of the scheme obviously depends on the credit of
the State, in other words, its power of borrowing at a low rate of
interest. In this respect the Imperial Government has an immense
advantage over any possible Home Rule Government: indeed, it is doubtful
whether any Home Rule Government could have attempted this great reform
without wholesale confiscation of the landlords' property. Here then in
Land Purchase and the abolition of dual ownership, we have one of the
twin pillars on which, on its constructive side, the Irish policy of the
Unionist party rests. But to solve the problem of rural Ireland--which,
as I have said, is _the_ Irish problem--more is required than the
conversion of the occupying tenant into a peasant proprietor. The sense
of ownership may be counted on to do much; but it will not make it
possible for a family to live in decent comfort on an insufficient
holding; neither will it enable the small farmer to compete with those
foreign rivals who have at their command improved methods of production,
improved methods of marketing their produce, facilities for obtaining
capital adequate to their needs, and all the many advantages which
superior education and organised co-operation bring in their train.

Looking back to-day, the wide field that in these directions was open to
the beneficent action of the State, and to the equally beneficent action
of voluntary associations, seems evident and obvious. It was by no means
so evident or obvious twenty years ago. At that time the traditional
policy of _laisser faire_ had still a powerful hold over men's minds,
and to abandon it even in the case of rural Ireland was a veritable new
departure in statesmanship. The idea of establishing a voluntary
association to promote agricultural co-operation was even more remote;
and, as will be seen in the sequel, it was to the insight and devoted
persistence of a single individual that its successful realisation has
been ultimately due.

So far as State action was concerned, a beginning was naturally made
with t