e wide differences of
opinion. I propose to set out here, so far as may be possible, a summary
of those reforms on which the various reports and Irish public opinion
are nearly, or quite, unanimous. Such a summary may at least help to
acquaint the rank and file of the Unionist Party with the primary
conditions and necessities of a work which, for historical, moral,
social and political reasons, must receive the Party's early and
practical attention when it returns to power.

The Unionist Party, as representing the best elements in British
Government, owes in this matter a great act of reparation to Ireland.
The present Poor Law system is based on the most fatal of all
blunders--the deliberate disregard of educated opinion in Ireland. The
story, a very remarkable and suggestive one, is told in the Viceregal
Commission's report. The Royal Commission of 1836 came to the conclusion
that the English workhouse system would be unsuitable for Ireland. The
Irish Royal Commissioners, including the famous Archbishop Whately, made
two sets of recommendations. One set involved a compulsory provision for
the sick, aged, lunatic and infirm. The other proposed to attack poverty
at the root by instituting a large series of measures for the general
development of Ireland. Looking back over nearly eighty years of Irish
history, we must be both humbled and astonished by the almost inspired
precision and statesmanship of these proposals. They included
reclamation of waste land and the enforcement of drainage; an increased
grant to the Board of Works; healthy houses for the labouring classes;
local instruction in agriculture; the enlargement of leasing powers with
the object of encouraging land improvement, and the transfer of the
fiscal powers of Grand Juries to County Boards. Here we have in embryo
the Irish Labourers Acts from 1860 to 1906, the Department of
Agriculture and Technical Instruction, the Irish Land Acts from 1860 to
1903, the Local Government Act of 1898--reforms which Ireland owes
almost entirely to the statesmanship (though it seems a rather belated
statesmanship) of Unionist Governments. These Irish recommendations were
ignored by the Government of the day. It sent an English Poor Law
Commissioner (Mr. Nicholls) to Ireland. He spent six weeks in the
country. On his return he recommended the establishment of the English
Poor Law system there, and it was accordingly established.

The first Poor Law Act for Ireland was passe