for a time in which the manifestly absurd would be
abandoned. In the flame of either dictum the present "government" of
Ireland shrivels to ashes, and affairs are ripe for the application of
both. Here, as in the Colonies, the people must enter into its heritage.
The days are for ever dead in which a nation could be ruled in daily
disregard of its history, its ideals, its definite programme.

On the minutiae of administration I do not mean to touch. When the whole
spirit, atmosphere, and ethos are anti-moral it is idle to chronicle any
chance rectitude of detail. If a man is a murderer it is not much to his
credit to observe that he has triumphed over the primitive temptation to
eat peas with his knife. If a government is based on contempt for public
opinion, as its fundamental principle, no useful purpose is served by a
record of the occasions on which a policeman has been known to pass a
citizen in the street without beating him. But there is one further
confirmation of the view, here advanced, to omit which would be to
ignore the most significant fact of our time. Certain departments such
as the Congested Districts Board and the Department of Agriculture,
recent creations, have been freshened by the introduction of a
representative, non-official element. Others such as the Estates
Commission have been under the control of officials of a new type, able
men who do not conceal the fact that they believe in Ireland. All of
these new Boards have struck root in the national life to a depth never
reached by any of their predecessors. The lesson of this change is the
lesson of freedom. In the precise degree in which government trusts the
people will the people trust government. It remains to complete the
process by a scheme of autonomy that shall make every administrator a
trustee and executant of the will of the nation.

There are other organs of "government" in Ireland of which the reader
may reasonably expect to hear something. He will permit me to discharge
my obligations by copying out certain paragraphs from an old note-book:

"_Judges_.--It is a mistake to suppose that none of the Irish
Judges know any law. Our judiciary includes many masterly lawyers,
and many adroit men of the world. But all of them are political
appointments. Hence in ordinary cases a man will get clean justice.
But the moment politics flutter on the breeze, the masked battery
on the Bench is uncurtained to bellow for