art of the United Kingdom. Home Rulers think
otherwise: they prefer the local autonomy of Victoria to a share in the
United Kingdom. They may probably, however, say that taxation involves
representation, and that if Ireland is to take the disadvantages she
must also have the immunities of a colony. Here fair-minded men will
hold that the Home Rulers are right. The maxim, indeed, that taxation
involves representation need not deeply impress any one who remembers
that throughout the United Kingdom the property of every woman is taxed,
and that no woman has a share in Parliamentary representation. But a
formula which is not logically defensible may yet be the embodiment of a
just claim. If the very hazardous experiment of placing Ireland in the
position of Victoria is to be tried, it must be tried fairly and with
every circumstance which may increase its chances of success. Ireland on
assuming the position of a colony should, like other colonies, be freed
from Imperial taxation. England can afford the sacrifice of three or
four millions a year, and she would obtain a valuable _quid pro quo_ in
the increased homogeneity of the British Parliament. Ireland too would
gain something. A country impoverished, in part at least through bad
government, might think it no hard bargain to gain at once local
independence and exemption from a heavy weight of taxation. The absence
of anything like a tribute to Great Britain would be an immense
advantage, for it would remove one cause of certain discontent, and
would for once place England before the Irish people at any rate in the
light of a liberal ally. Let me not be misunderstood. I do not recommend
Home Rule under any form whatever: what I do assert is that of all its
forms the Colonial form is the least injurious to British interests, and
that the experiment of placing Ireland in the situation of Victoria can
be carried out neither with fairness nor with any chance of success,
unless Englishmen let Ireland, like Victoria, be exempt from Imperial
taxation. If any English taxpayer says that the price is too high to pay
for the success of an experiment of which I do not myself recommend the
trial, I am not concerned to consider whether he is right. My only
concern is to insist that the sacrifice of three or four millions per
annum is an essential feature of this particular scheme of Home Rule,
and that persons who say the sacrifice is too great have only added one
to the many arguments wh