orrespond to the
respective estimated contributions to Imperial Services, Ireland,
instead of getting L418,000, would get nothing at all. The largest item
in the list--namely, the "Agricultural Grant," a fixed annual sum of
L728,000, dating from the Local Government Act of 1898--was designed
partly to reconcile Irish landlords to the passage of that Act. Nearly
half of it represented the remission of the landlord's half-share of the
poor-rate on agricultural land, as estimated in the standard year
1896-97. The English precedent for this was the Agricultural Rates Act
of 1896, which relieved the English owner of agricultural land in a
similar way. Irish conditions were so different, however, that it was
felt necessary in this case to balance the landlord's boon with an
equivalent boon to the tenant; so that half the tenant's share of the
county cess was also remitted. The result was a disproportionately large
grant as compared with those received by England and Scotland.[123] We
must remark, as one of the minor intricacies of Irish finance, that all
these grants do not actually go in relief of Local Taxation. Some of
them are diverted to public Departments, such as the Board of
Intermediate Education, the Congested Districts Board, and the
Department of Agriculture.

All these grants will cease, as such, after Home Rule, while their
amount must be reckoned as part of the cost of Irish Government. The
Irish Parliament will have to revise the whole system of relief to Local
Taxation and establish it on some simple and rational basis. Meanwhile,
it is important to remember that the Irish grants form the major part of
the Guarantee Fund set up by the Land Purchase Acts, and, until the last
amending Land Act of 1909, were chargeable--the Estate Duties Grant, hi
the first instance, the Agricultural Grant in the second instance--with
the increasingly heavy losses incurred in floating Land Stock below par.
In 1908-09 the sums so withdrawn amounted to L90,000. That liability was
removed by Mr. Birrell's Act, and they now remain chargeable only with
any arrears in the annuities paid by the purchasing tenants. This is a
negligible liability, and should properly be placed upon the Irish
Government as a whole, which, if it pleased, could recover the money
from localities.[124]

We now reach the category _(b)_ "Voted," and find in the Irish column
the truly enormous sum of L8,026,000--nearly double that of Scotland
(L4,180,500), whi