ds of adjustment, is perfectly sound if we
wish to arrive at a correct idea of the financial position of Ireland.
The L1,672,500 virtually represents the duties on goods exported from
Ireland, and consumed in Great Britain, or rather the excess of these
duties over those levied on goods exported from Great Britain and
consumed in Ireland. The consumer pays the tax on dutiable commodities,
and a financially independent Ireland could not raise revenue twice over
from the same commodity. She would, for example, have to give a drawback
from the Excise duty on spirits exported to England, since a Customs
duty would be levied on its import into England. On the other hand, she
would be entitled to every penny of revenue derived from the tea and
sugar imported into and consumed within her borders, and to the full
income tax on property held by Irishmen.

Now, for two reasons, I do not propose to make any exhaustive inquiry
into the accuracy of Treasury adjustments for "true" revenue. My first
reason is, that full material for calculation cannot be obtained by any
private individual, and could not be obtained and worked up even by the
Treasury without an enormous expenditure of time and trouble. The most
careful inquiry I have seen is embodied in an exceedingly able pamphlet
by "an Irishman," entitled "The Financial Relations of Ireland with the
Imperial Exchequer," and I mention below a few of the criticisms made by
the writer. His and other investigations seem to prove that Irish
revenue is considerably underestimated, perhaps by half a million.[134]
My second reason is that errors of adjustment in either direction cannot
affect in any substantial way the kind of financial scheme we are to
adopt in the Home Rule Bill.

Let us fix our attention, then, on the second of the two columns in the
table on p. 276, showing the aggregate "true" revenue of Ireland at the
present day. Disregard the non-tax revenue from the various postal
services (which represents payment for services rendered, and is
swallowed up by an excess on the expenditure side of L249,000), and
examine the heads of tax revenue shown in the upper half of the column.
It will be seen that 70-75 per cent. of Irish "true" revenue is derived
from Customs and Excise duties, which, with the exception perhaps of
licence duties, may be classed as indirect taxation. The deduction for
"true" revenue, it will be observed, has considerably modified the
proportion, which for "co