However near to the appearances such an impression might be, nothing could be further from the facts.

If I have helped the reader to unravel the tangled skein of our national life, if I have sufficiently revealed the mind of the new movement to show that there is in it 'a scheme of things entire,' it should be quite clear that the deliberate intentions both of Mr.Gerald Balfour and of those Irishmen whom he took into his confidence are being fulfilled in letter and in spirit.

It only remains for me to attempt an adequate description of the work of the Department created by that Chief Secretary, and, above all, of the way in which the people themselves are playing the part which his statesmanship assigned to them.
FOOTNOTES: [44] See Report of the Local Government Board, 1901-2.
[45] See Annual General Report of the Department 1900-1901, pp.

25-27.
[46] _Cf.

ante_, pp.