As Irish leaders they have preferred to remain obscure, conscious that the most damaging criticism which could be applied to their work would be that it depended on their own personal qualities or acts for its permanent utility.

But most assuredly the real conquerors of the world are those who found upon human character their hopes of human progress.
FOOTNOTES: [37] The story of the conversion of some of the tenants on the Vandeleur estate into a co-operative community in 1831 by Mr.E.T.Craig, a Scotchman who took up the agency of the property, told in the _History of Ralahine_ (London, Truebner & Co., 1893) is worth reading.

The experiment, most hopeful as far as it went, was only two years in existence when the landlord gambled away his property at cards in a Dublin club and the Utopia was sold up.

But in the co-operative world Mr.Craig, who died as recently as 1894, is revered as the author of the most advanced experiment in the realisation of co-operative ideals.

The economic significance of the narrative is obviously not important, and I doubt whether joint ownership of land, except for the purpose of common grazing, is a practical ideal.