130 THE IRISH AGRARIAN PROBLJ 



at increasing that surplus by one's own exertions. 

 Ireland, for the first time, seemed to wish to set 

 to work, and to wait no longer for the legislative 

 miracles which every new Government promises, 

 and which, if it is in need of Irish votes, it must 

 endeavour to conjure up. After so many * final ' 

 land reforms, a movement for self-help had at last 

 arisen in Ireland. 



The Irish Chief Secretary knew well how to 

 make use of all these tendencies. Like others, 

 he had recognized that all future Irish land- 

 reform must take the shape of the promotion of 

 land-purchase, and in the year 1902 he brought 

 in a new land-purchase bill which however was 

 soon withdrawn in favour of a better one. 



Before the new Bill came into being, a sur- 

 prising event occurred. At the instance of 

 Captain Shawe-Taylor, a Conference of repre- 

 sentatives of the landlords and the tenants had 

 met in the Mansion House in Dublin, in order to 

 discuss the foundations of a new agrarian law. 1 

 The astonishment grew still greater when on the 

 3rd of January, 1903, the representatives of both 



1 The representatives of the landlords were Lord Dunraven, 

 Lord Mayo, Col. W. H. Hutcheson Poe, and Col. Nugent T. 

 Everard; those of the tenants were the M.P.'s John Redmond, 

 William O'Brien, T. W. Russell (for Ulster), and T. 

 Harrington. Later on Captain Shawe-Taylor summoned, 

 but unsuccessfully, a second Conference to solve the Irish 

 University question. One may feel assured that he was in 

 both cases merely an instrument of other powers, for the 

 representatives of large groups of interests are not commonly 



