e Recess Committee and the
formation of the Department of Agriculture. The result of its work,
crowned as it was by Mr. Wyndham's Purchase Act, is shown by the fact
that Irish trade has increased from 103 millions in 1904 to 130 millions
in 1910. The steady object which Sir Horace Plunkett has set before him
is to counteract the demoralising effect of paternal legislation on the
part of the Government, by reviving and stimulating a policy of
self-help. The I.A.O.S. has done valuable work in enabling the Irish
farmers, by co-operating, to secure a more stable position in the
English market, to secure themselves against illegitimate and fraudulent
competition and to standardise the quality of their product, but even
more important has been the work of the Society in releasing the farmers
from the bondage of the "Gombeen" man who has for so many years been the
curse of Irish agriculture. The "Gombeen" man is alike trader, publican,
and money-lender, and he is the backbone of official Nationalist
influence. By lending money to the peasant proprietors at exorbitant
rates, by selling inferior seeds and manures and by carrying on his
transactions with the farmers chiefly in kind, the "Gombeen" man has
grown fat upon the poverty and despair of the farmer. It is not
surprising that he views the liberating work of the I.A.O.S. with the
bitterest hostility--an hostility which has been translated into
effective action by the Nationalist Party in Parliament.

Sir Horace Plunkett was driven from office on the pretext that it should
be held by a member of Parliament. His successor, Mr. T.W. Russell, lost
his seat in the General Election of 1910, but he was retained in power
since he was willing to lend himself to the destructive intrigues of the
"Molly Maguires." The Unionist Party does not intend to interfere with
the independence of the I.A.O.S. which constitutes in their eyes its
greatest feature, but they are determined that it shall have fair play,
and that the hundred thousand Irish farmers which constitutes its
membership shall be enabled to increase their prosperity by co-operative
action. The Unionist Party will also have to undertake more active
measures in order to restore to Irish agriculture the position of
supremacy for which it is naturally fitted. Mr. Amery and Mr. Samuels
both discuss in outline the effects of Tariff Reform upon the future of
Ireland.

I do not intend at the present moment to go further into the deta