to be regarded as joint, and its charge was
to be borne by the two countries in the proportions of their respective
contributions (see below); but post-Union Debt contracted by Ireland for
domestic services was to be kept separate.

[100] Eight lectures delivered in the National University, Dublin, in
1911.

[101] Inhabited house duty, railway passenger tax, carriages, armorial
bearings, etc. The license for dogs is half the English scale.

[102] On Foster's Corn Law of 1784, see p. 51.

[103] The text of the unanimous conclusions was as follows:

1. That Great Britain and Ireland must, for the purpose of this inquiry,
be considered as separate entities.

2. That the Act of Union imposed upon Ireland a burden which, as events
showed, she was unable to bear.

3. That the increase of taxation laid upon Ireland between 1853 and 1860
was not justified by the then existing circumstances.

4. That identity of rates of taxation does not necessarily involve
equality of burden.

5. That, whilst the actual tax revenue of Ireland is about one-eleventh
of that of Great Britain, the relative taxable capacity of Ireland is
very much smaller, and is not estimated by any of us as exceeding
one-twentieth.

[104] Detailed criticism of the current Treasury accounts under this
head will be found on pp. 276-278.

[105] A referendum taken on April 13, 1910, defeated the new proposals.
See "Report of Premiers' Conference held at Brisbane, May, 1907"
(Commonwealth Parliamentary Sessional Paper, No. 13, 1907), and for a
clear statement of the whole subject, the "Year-Book (1911) of the
Commonwealth of Australia." (The relevant clauses of the Constitutional
Act are Nos. 88 to 93.) The reasons for the failure of the system were
summarized as follows:

"1. The trouble and expense which the necessary record entails.

"2. The practical impossibility of ensuring that in every case a
consuming State will be duly credited with revenue collected on its
behalf in a distributing State.

"3. The difficulty involved in equitably determining the amount to be
debited to the several States in respect of general Commonwealth
expenses.

"4. The uncertainty on the part of the State Governments as to the
amount which will become available.

"5. The impossibility of securing independent State and Commonwealth
finance."

See also pp. 295-299.

[106] See Proceedings of the Conference of Provincial Premiers, 1906, at
Ottawa (Canadian Sessional