IRISH PROSPECTS.* Mn. STEPHEN GWYNN'S interesting collection of "essays on

Irish subjects "—which we are glad to see issued by a Dublin publisher, and well printed at the leading Irish press—deals throughout with "the influences material, intellectual, and spiritual which are to-day at work in Ireland." He writes in a very agreeable manner about the prospects of an Irish regeneration which are presented by such movements, on the one hand, as that propagated in the world of thought by the Irish Literary Society and kindred bodies; on the other hand, as that which Mr. Balfour initiated in the material world when he called the Congested Districts Board into being. We are disposed to disagree with Mr. Gwynn as to the relative import- ance of these movements. He—as is perhaps natural, and even praiseworthy, in a man of letters—attaches the greater value to the work of Mr. Yeats and Dr. Douglas Hyde and the Gaelic League. "I put last," he says, "what seems to me of less vital moment, the Industrial Revival. There is a moral side to it, the fostering of self-help, which is invaluable ; but when all is said, Ireland needs rather the development of a general than of a merely commercial intelligence." This is a very pretty generalisation, and heaven forbid that we, of all people, should incline to underrate the things of the spirit. But when it is translated into particulars, we are entitled to ask Mr. Gwynn whether he seriously maintains that to teach the Irish peasantry to make a respectable living out of their land is a less useful task than to encourage them to read about Finn MacCumhall and Cuchulaiu and the fatal beauty of Deirdre

in"the original Erse." Both are desirable accomplishments ; but the one is vital, the other secondary.

In a preface, which is happily the only polemical part of his book, Mr. Gwynn takes occasion to profess his enthusiasm for the cause of Home-rule, and his belief that, if it were granted, Ireland would at once become a loyal member of the Empire, which he admits that she does not show herself at present. We shall not, however, attempt to follow Mr. Gwynn in his excursion into the world of politics, except to make a quotation from the latest book of Captain Mahan—an authority who cannot be accused of being influenced by undue partiality to England—which puts the Unionist case with wonderful shortness and poignancy :—

" The considerations that swayed the mind of the Union in the Civil War," says the great American publicist, "apply with peculiar force to the connection between Great Britain and Ireland. And let it be distinctly noted • that the geographical relation of Ireland to Great Britain imposes as indispensable a political relation, which would be fatal to any scheme of federa- tion between the mother country and the remote great colonies. The legislative supremacy of the British parliament, against the assertion of which the American colonists revolted, and which to-day would be found intolerable in exercise in Canada and Australia, cannot be yielded in the case of an island where inde- pendent action might very well be attended with fatal conse- quences to its partner. The instrument for such action, in the shape of an independent parliament, could not safely be trusted even to avowed friends."

Whilst we disagree with Mr. Gwynn's political views, how- ever, we are entirely at one with him in his admiration for the

work which is being done in Ireland by the Congested Districts Board and the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society. The two essays which stand last in the book, and describe this work from practical observation, are, to our mind, by far the most charming and useful part of the work. We greatly

prefer Mr. Gwynn describing what he has seen for himself to Mr. Gwynn criticising the observations of others. Reprinted

reviews are never the most exhilarating of reading, and even among the literary discussions which form the bulk of this

• To-day and To-morrow in Ireland. By Stephen Gwynn. Dublin: Hodges, riggis, and Co. [5s. net.1 volume such bits of personal experience as" Literature among the Illiterates," and the author's personal account of what he

saw and heard at the London meetings of the Gaelic League, stand out with great distinction. But the freshness and value of the last two essays are quite exceptional, and Mr.

Gwynn must be counted among those persons who, like the bridegroom of Cana, or the old-fashioned dinner-giver, keep their best wine for the last. "Three Days in the ‘Granuaile" describes the admirable work which the Congested Districts Board has quietly but solidly done in developing the fishing industry on the West Coast of Ireland. The Granuaile' is the Board's official steamer, and Mr. Gwynn made a short cruise in her in the summer of 1899, and was thus able to describe the character of her propagandist work,—which he does admirably. More than thirty years ago Froude remarked that the Irish fisherman wanted but a market to change his skiff into a trawler, and to establish a second Brixham in more than one of his splendid bays. But poverty and laziness —that intellectual laziness which has long been the curse of Ireland, as her best friends sadly acknowledge—stood in the way. Mr. Balfour's Board determined to show the poverty.

stricken dwellers of the Donegal coast how to take their share in the harvest of the bounteous sea. In the face of much difficulty and opposition, they succeeded in persuading the men of one place after another to learn the business of fishing on a large scale, and to buy boats and nets which the Board supplied on the instalment principle. "The take is divided into nine shares : five go to the men, four to the Board as an instalment; so that ultimately the crew acquire their boats and nets when they have paid the price." As an example of what has thus been done in a very short time we may quote Mr. Gwynn's account of one station :—

" Cleggan is a place which five years ago was at the very back of God-speed, and a barren, desolate, poverty-stricken spot as you

could see. Now it bids fair to be a thriving centre 1899 was the fourth year of the fishing at Cleggan ; and the season's spring fishery had resulted in the payment down of 43,361 on the quay for fish taken. This was divided among the crews of 46 rowboats—yawls—say 240 men—and of 18 nobbles and hookers— say 100 hands. That means on an average 410 a head ; but the crews of the larger boats would naturally earn far more than those of the yawls. In addition to this, about 150 local people were employed on and off in the business of curing the fish, and. to them about £800 was paid, the wages varying from is. 6d. to 2s. a day. Altogether something over .24,000 in cash down was earned by the population of two very poor parishes in less than three months ; this says nothing of the money paid for carting fish the six miles to Clifden, nor of the increased earnings of the, railway. And Cleggan is only one of fourteen or fifteen new stations along the coast."

It must be remembered that the population who have thua benefited by the action of the Board lived previously on.

almost barren land, eking out the miserable returns of their tillage by the money which the men earned in harvest and other labour in England or Scotland. The returns of the

fishing industry, small as they seem, make all the difference to them between starvation and plenty. In his last paper, "A Month in Ireland," Mr. Gwynn describes the very similar work which has been done by the Agricultural Organisation Society to make farming profitable by the introduction of the co-operative principle. We have no space to deal with the' very interesting picture which he draws of the excellent work that has been, and is being, done by Mr. Plunkett and his friends, but we can cordially recommend these sympathetic' pages to all who care about the prospects of Ireland.