tration of the finance
for all the great Irish services, including those at present "reserved"
as well as those at present "transferred."

This brings us finally to the vexed problem of Customs and Excise. It
is notorious that the greater part of the Irish revenue--the revenue of
a poor country, derived for the most part through indirect taxation--is
drawn from Customs and Excise.[78]

It is not, perhaps, surprising, therefore, that the Bill of 1912 should
go some way towards meeting the demand that has sprung up in various
quarters, both in Ireland and in England, for the control of customs
and excise by the Irish Parliament. The proposal of the Government is
that we should extend to Ireland, with some variations, what is at
present the financial arrangement in regard to customs and excise
between the British Treasury and the Isle of Man. The first fact to be
remembered quite clearly is that the Irish Parliament is absolutely
debarred from creating any new duty. It will not be able to draw up any
new set of tariffs. In other words, it will have to adapt its revenue
to the general financial policy of the central government, whether that
be a free trade policy or a tariff reform policy. But Ireland is to be
allowed to vary her customs within certain limits. She may, for
instance, reduce her customs to the lowest point, on the only condition
that she loses thereby equivalent revenue. But on the main custom
duties which fall on such articles as tea, sugar, cocoa, tobacco, and
so forth, she cannot raise her customs beyond 10 per cent. The only
exceptions will be beer and spirits, on which Ireland may raise her
customs or her excise to any point that she desires. It will be
necessary, of course, to have rebates or countervailing duties in
regard to articles transferred from Great Britain to Ireland, or _vice
versa_, and to that very slight extent alone will these proposals
affect the trade relations between Ireland and England.

I may add that the same power of reduction or addition will extend both
to income tax and death duties up to the limit of 10 per cent. for
increase--a provision which will safeguard the industries of the North
from being sacrificed to the needs of the South.[79]

Such are the proposals of the 1912 Home Rule Bill. They appear to
present an ingenious compromise between the complete delegation of
customs and excise and the complete centralisation. There are very
serious objections to the complete se