[22]
The mere recital of these facts, indeed, gives but a faint impression
of the actual dawn of social hope across the St. George's Channel. In
order to make them realise this fully, it would be necessary to take my
readers over the ground covered by the Eighty Club last summer, in
light railways or motor-cars, through the north, west, east and south
of Ireland. Everywhere there is the same revival. New labourers'
cottages dot the landscape, and the old mud cabins are crumbling
back--"dust to dust"--into nothingness. Cultivation is improving. The
new peasant proprietors are putting real work into the land which they
now own, and there is an advance even in dress and manners. Drinking is
said to be on the decline, and the natural gaiety of the Irish people,
so sadly overshadowed during the last half-century, is beginning to
return.
It is like the clearing of the sky after long rain and storm. The
clouds have, for the moment, rolled away towards the horizon, and the
blue is appearing. Will the clouds return, or is this improvement to be
sure and lasting? That will depend on the events of the next few years.
* * * * *
What has produced this great change in the situation since 1893? To
answer that question we must look at the Statute Book.
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