the pitiable failure
of the Act of 1909? Is it not certain that less money will be raised in
England, for Ireland, after Home Rule? And if raised in driblets, on
what will it be spent? Obviously, not on the policy of 1903, but on the
policy substituted by Mr. Dillon in 1909. It will be spent on expelling
landlords and graziers to make room for subscribers to the propaganda of
extremists. We must judge of what will happen to agriculture after Home
Rule by what has happened since the Treaty of 1903 was repudiated. Nor
must we forget that Mr. Dillon's destructive activity has ranged beyond
land purchase. That policy could have achieved little but for the
untiring and generous patriotism of Sir Horace Plunkett. He established
the Department of Agriculture and converted his countrymen to
co-operation, in the absence of which no system of small ownership can
succeed. He, too, based his efforts on a conference--the Recess
Committee. How has he been met? Mr. Redmond, a member of that Committee,
as later of the Land Conference, has, here again, succumbed to Mr.
Dillon, who seeks to defeat co-operation between farmers, in the
interests of his disciples; whilst Mr. Russell, with the hectic zeal of
a pervert, has refused Ireland's share of the new Development Grant in
order to spite Sir Horace Plunkett.

Such signs of the times are read in Ireland more quickly than in
England, and in several ways. To this man they spell speedy triumph for
the form of economic insanity in which he vindictively believes; to that
man, the retention of an office won by recanting his opinions. But there
are others in the saddest districts of Ireland who must also be taken
into account. To the few--for they are few--who thrive by deeds of
darkness whenever the Union is attacked, these signs of coming change
suggest a more tragic interpretation, from which the fanatic and the
place-hunter would recoil--when too late. The blatant publican who
strangles a neighbourhood in the toils of usury and illicit drink, and
the bestial survivor of half-forgotten murder-rings take note of these
signs. The atavism of cruelty returns. Emboldened by Mr. Birrell's bland
acquiescence in milder prologues to Home Rule, a new plan of campaign
is, even now, being devised, charged with sinister consequences from
which all men in 1903 trusted that Ireland would be for ever absolved.
The prospects of Irish Agriculture under Home Rule include the return,
after a brief chapter of "h