ystem in prisons, and it was he and another novelist who
put an end (for I hope the end has come) to the shameful abuses of private
lunatic asylums. And it was only the other day that, by a little domestic
story, Walter Besant, with the magic wand of art, raised a Palace of
Delight, where the labouring poor find refreshment and culture in the
dreary desert of East London--so fertilising and fruitful are good books.

Our books may not achieve any of these marvels, but there are results not
beyond their reach. England holds the sympathies of all the communities
which share her blood, less by obeying the same laws than by loving the
same books. And if we do not fail in our task the volumes of the Irish
Library will be read by the Irish settler in Canada, the Irish digger in
California and Australia, our missionaries and soldiers in India, the
adventurous pioneer in Africa, the exile far away in Florida, in Michigan,
in Egypt, or in Siam, with more love and enthusiasm than even in the
homesteads of Leinster and Munster.

BOOKS FOR THE IRISH PEOPLE.

It is nearly a year since I opened to this Society the design of inducing
young Irishmen of the present generation to take up anew a task which
famine and political disaster interrupted among their predecessors--the
task of teaching the Irish people to understand their own country. The
Irish people have never ceased to love their country, they have never
shrunk from any labour or sacrifice to serve her, but they do not
understand Ireland as the Swiss understand Switzerland; as the Flemings
understand the sandbank which their industry has turned into a model farm;
or as the Venetians understand the primitive quagmire which Italian genius
transformed into one of the wonders of the world.

A year may seem a long time to have employed in preliminary arrangements;
but it was not wasted. There were many difficulties to overcome and they
have been overcome. We are now in a position to announce that our first
volume is printed, and ready to be issued, that the second volume is in
the printer's hands, and successive volumes for more than a year are in
preparation. I may mention that the original design of acting through a
Limited Liability Company was abandoned in favour of a better plan; a
successful and experienced publisher, Mr. Fisher Unwin, takes the
responsibility of producing the books, leaving the men of letters to the
task for which they are fitter, that of devising and writ