at a pace which has been ruinous to the
people." What have the Ulster people done which can compare with this
opposition to a measure that has admittedly effected a beneficial
revolution in Irish agrarian life? Yet Mr. John Dillon is acclaimed as a
true Irish patriot and we are denounced as the enemies of our country!

What greater blow to the continuance of land purchase than the Birrell
Act of 1909. Granted that some revision of the law was necessary in
respect of finance; yet, the Act of 1909 went far beyond finance. Any
one with a knowledge of land purchase law knows that the measure of 1909
contained innumerable provisions of a technical character calculated to
make the free sale between landlord and tenant difficult, and in respect
of a large portion of Ireland impossible. No wonder it was welcomed by
the Irish Nationalist Party, since it did so much to restore them to
their self-elected position of counsellors and arbiters in the affairs
of the tenants. And Ulster Unionists for declining to accede to this
re-establishment of the old supremacy of the agitators are regarded as
the opponents of liberty and freedom!

The same sad story of Nationalist opposition to Irish progress meets the
student of the co-operative movement at every period of its existence.
No one who knows Sir Horace Plunkett will believe for a moment that he
was actuated by other than the sole desire to do something for Ireland's
benefit. From the leaders of the Nationalist Party he has had no
assistance, although they claim to be the only workers for Irish
progress, and the co-operative movement was intended to complete the
agrarian revolution. In more recent times the hostility of the
Nationalist leaders has become bolder as they found a ready instrument
in Mr. T. W. Russell in his official capacity as Vice-President of the
Department of Agriculture.

The co-operative movement is flourishing in spite of the opposition of
the Nationalist leaders. From Ulster it has received considerable
support for the reason that Ulstermen believed it to be for the benefit
of Irish agriculture. Their support, unlike Nationalist hostility, has
not arisen from political motives. They do not believe that Sir Horace
Plunkett has given a moment's thought to politics in their relation to
the co-operative movement, and they have appreciated his movement either
as co-operators or as supporters and members of the Irish Agricultural
Organization Society. Contrast the Ul