in this system, but they suggest different remedies.  The Royal Commission proposes that the election and control of all the Dispensary Medical Officers of a County shall be vested in the Public Assistance Authority for that County; and that little or no change be made in the present financial basis of the payment of salaries.  The Viceregal Commission suggests a bolder and more drastic remedy.  It advocates the establishment of a State Medical service on the lines of the existing services in Egypt and India.  This would require the payment by the State of the whole, instead of half, of the salaries of Medical Officers.  The Commission regards it as proper and equitable that such a service should be, in the beginning, at any rate, restricted to candidates educated in Ireland.  A representative Medical Council should elect the candidates by competitive examination, and deal with all important questions of promotion, removal and superannuation.  The Commission maintains that the creation of a State Medical service in Ireland would mean a very small increase in the Parliamentary grant in comparison with the benefits involved.  This I believe to be the ideal system, but one must recognise that its accomplishment is confronted with many difficulties.  The Irish Local Authorities would not willingly relinquish a privilege which is a primary element in their influence and prestige.  Irish medical opinion is acutely divided on the question, which is now further complicated by the prospect that the medical benefits under the National Insurance Act may soon be extended to Ireland.  It would be outrageous to expect the Dispensary Officers to add the heavy medical duties under the Act to their present responsibilities without adequate payment.  Indeed, the extension of the medical benefits to Ireland would make inevitable an early reform of the whole Poor Law system.  This is one reason why the Unionist Party, when it returns to office, should be ready to tackle the subject without delay.  To no department of the work will it be asked to apply greater sympathy, knowledge, tact and firmness, than to the problems of the Poor Law Medical service.

During the last three years the Irish Unionist Party has made three vain attempts to bring the reform of the Irish Poor Law before Parliament.  Its Bill, which now stands in the name of Sir John Lonsdale, asks for the appointment (as recommended by the Viceregal Commission) of a body of five persons with executive powers to carry out the recommendations made by that Commission.  These temporary Commissioners would have authority to draft all necessary schemes, to consolidate or divide existing institutions, and generally to reform the whole administration of the Irish Poor Law service.  The Bill assigns to them an executive lifetime of five years—­hardly, perhaps, an adequate time for the establishment of reforms which, in their making, must affect nearly every aspect of Irish life, and, in their operation, may reconstitute