462 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL 



Visitor. " Where is your steward ? " 



Man. " We have no steward." 



Visitor. " Then who sent you to do this work ? " 



Man. " The Committee/ 3 * 



Visitor. u What Committee ? Who are the Commit- 

 tee?" 



Man. " Some of the members, Sir." 



Visitor. " What members do you mean ? " 



Man. " The members of the new system the plough- 

 men and labourers." 



This gentleman afterwards expressed his astonishment 

 at finding a solitary workman so industrious and doing 

 the work so well. Another visitor, Mr. John Finch of 

 Liverpool, who remained three days at Ralahine and 

 published the results of his inquiry in fourteen letters to 

 a Liverpool newspaper, makes the following statement : 



" A sensible labourer with whom I conversed, when at Ralahine, 

 in contrasting their present with their former condition under a 

 steward, said to me, ' We formerly had no interest, either in doing 

 a great deal of work, doing it well, or in suggesting improvements, 

 as all the advantages and all the praise were given to a tyrannical 

 taskmaster, for his attention and watchfulness. We were looked 

 upon as merely machines, and his business was to keep us in motion ; 

 for this reason it took the time of three or four of us to watch him, 

 and when he was fairly out of sight, you may depend upon it we 

 did not hurt ourselves by too much labour ; but now that our 

 interest and our duty are made to be the same we have no need of 

 a steward at all." 



The first members of the society were forty men and 

 women who had before worked on the estate, and twelve 

 children, but as there had been much difference of opinion 

 and some quarrels among them, and as it was desired to 

 start with a set of people who would work harmoniously 

 together, it was decided that each one should be balloted 

 for by the rest, and Mr. Craig insisted that he too, should 

 be balloted for. Before the ballot, in each case, a 

 personal criticism took place, and as a result none were 

 rejected, nor were any expelled afterwards for idleness or 

 bad conduct ; and this was really a striking example either 

 of the inherent goodness of the Irish peasant under reason- 

 ably fair conditions, or of the wonderful effect of associated 



