the financial conditions of the country, and it may be expected to do
something to remedy the lamentable state of things which so far has but
little altered from that of twenty years ago, when it was estimated that
five-sixths of the total capital of the country was invested abroad. A
great opportunity presents itself at the present moment. It was stated a
few years ago that eleven millions of rent were spent out of the island.
At this day when, under the Land Purchase Act, an immense amount of
property is being realised, the patriotic Irish landlord seeking an
investment for his money can, by starting industries in Ireland, at one
and the same time do a patriotic work by providing against the stream of
emigration, and can secure a safe and profitable investment for his
purchase-money. There are very nearly eighty million pounds of capital
to be set free under the Act, and it is scarcely too much to expect that
a large proportion of it will be invested by the expropriated landlords
in their own country. The possibility of an industrial revival in
Ireland is well illustrated by the increase in the number of
co-operative societies, in which there are at the present day 100,000
members, while less than twenty years ago there were only fifty.

The effect of the Dairy, Agricultural, and Poultry Societies is very
important, but perhaps of still greater importance are the Raffeisin
banks, which aim at the promotion of farming by means of co-operative
credit. The loans which they make, at an interest of five per cent. or
six per cent., are dealing a death-blow at that curse of Irish life--the
gombeen man, whose usury used to mount up to thirty per cent. The
extremely rare cases of default in the repayment of these loans for
agricultural purposes will not be surprising to those who recall the
tribute paid by Mr. Wyndham, in connection with land purchase annuities,
to the Irish peasant as a debtor whose reliability is unimpeachable.
More than twenty years ago the Baroness Burdett Coutts made a loan of