at "no account
whatever is taken of the burden of pauperism, the magnitude of the local
rates, or the circumstances of the ratepayers and their ability to pay
rates in the different areas." Under this system the minimum of relief
is extended to the districts in which the weight of taxation is most
oppressive. The Commission proposed a scheme by which the old Union
grants within each county would be pooled and credited to the common
fund in aid of the poor rate in that county. The Viceregal Commission
also complained of inequality of expenditure, and advised a
reapportionment of the grants in aid of local taxation, on the basis of
the recommendations of the minority of the Royal Commission on Local
Taxation (1902). That Commission was unanimous in recommending increased
grants for Poor Law service in Ireland. The distribution of such new
grants would be a matter for discussion; of the necessity for them there
is no doubt. The Unionist Party must not rest content with reforming the
Irish Poor Law system; it must help the reformed system to pay its own
way. No fair-minded Englishman who reads Sir George O'Farrell's evidence
as to the distribution of the Irish Church surplus (Report of the Royal
Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded, page 468) will
dispute his country's obligations in this matter. The cost of Irish Poor
Law Reform is one of the strongest arguments against Home Rule. The
Unionist Party's full and generous recognition of its duty to Ireland in
this respect will establish a new argument for the Union.

One vital factor in Poor Law Reform remains to be considered--the Poor
Law Medical service. The 740 Dispensary districts of Ireland are now
administered by a little more than 800 Medical Officers. The salaries of
these doctors, amounting in all to nearly L100,000 per annum, are paid
as to one half by the Poor Law Guardians, and as to the other half out
of the Local Taxation (Ireland) account. Most of the doctors, in
addition to their public duties as servants of the poor, engage in
private practice, of which, in most of the rural areas, their official
position gives them a monopoly. A large--perhaps, a surprisingly
large--number of the Dispensary doctors are earnest and self-sacrificing
men; but the system is corrupted by one radical defect. Owing to the
security of private practice involved, there is a fierceness of
competition for these appointments out of all proportion to their
financial va