m--the Wyndham Act of 1903--was worked out on
Irish soil by peaceable discussion among the parties concerned, and
Parliament acted at once upon their joint demand. It was in precisely
the same way that the Department of Agriculture came into being; nor did
the great measures of Local Government, of University education for
Catholics, of the Labourers' Acts, or the recognition extended to the
Gaelic movement, owe their origin to any other cause than the wholesome
influences of reason and goodwill.

The internal condition of Ireland already shows a marked response to the
altered state of things. It is visible, as many travellers have noticed,
in the face of the country; it is proved by official records and
statistics. Emigration has declined to its lowest point; education has
spread amongst the people. Irish emigrants, when they do leave their own
shores, take higher positions than ever before. A population of some
four millions, largely composed of small farmers, has lent forty-seven
millions sterling to the Government; and, what is still more
significant, the deposits in Post Office Savings Banks have risen from
six millions in 1896 to over thirteen millions the year before the war.
The new War Loan is reported to have had an extraordinary success in
Ireland. On the last day of subscription a single Dublin bank took in
one million sterling.[*] With some self-appointed champions of Ireland
abuse of the British Empire is a very popular amusement, but the Irish
farmer and the Irish trader put their money in it, and with it they
stand to win or lose.

[Footnote *: The Times, Feb. 17, 1917.]

Irish agriculture, partly owing to climatic conditions and partly to the
fact that Ireland has a monopoly of the export of live cattle to
England, has developed hitherto rather in the direction of
cattle-raising than of tillage; and cattle have increased since 1851
from three million to over five million head, and sheep from two
millions to three million six hundred thousand. Poultry have nearly
quadrupled in the same period. The gross railway receipts--another
significant symptom--were 2,750,000 pounds in 1886. In 1915 they had
risen to 4,831,000 pounds. The co-operative agricultural associations,
in which Ireland has shown the way to the English-speaking world, now
number about 1,000, and do a trade of well over five millions a year.
The thousands of labourers' cottages which have sprung up, each with its
plot of land, have been to