of high Protection, even from Grattan's commercially free
Parliament. The question of a low protective or purely revenue tariff on
imports has not received any serious investigation. Let us frankly admit
at the outset that no country in the world, economically situated as
Ireland is, dispenses with a general tariff of some sort, and
undoubtedly there are to-day a good many Irishmen outside political life
who advocate the encouragement of infant Irish manufacturing industries
by sufficient protective duties directed against Great Britain as well
as against the outside world. It would be strange if there were not, in
view of the distressing past history of Ireland's throttled industries,
and in view of the strenuous efforts now being made by the Development
Associations to push the manufacture and sale of Irish goods in all
parts of the world. There are many avowed Free Traders also; nor are the
Development Associations themselves officially protectionist. The
opinion is sometimes expressed that Ireland, which could easily be
self-supporting in the matter of food, occupies an unhealthy position in
exporting a large proportion of her own agricultural produce, butter,
bacon, meat, etc., and in importing for her own consumption inferior
British and foreign qualities of some of the principal foodstuffs; but,
so far as it is possible to ascertain it, the predominant opinion seems
to be that an agricultural tariff would not be a good remedy for this
weakness, if it be one, and that Ireland's future development, like that
of Denmark, lies in the increasingly scientific organization of her
agricultural industries, and in the better cultivation of her own soil.
"Better farming, better business, better living," to use the admirable
motto invented by Sir Horace Plunkett for the I.A.O.S. In the absence of
an Irish Legislature, no special importance can be attached to
individual expressions of opinion. Yet a measure of prophecy is
permissible. The Irish Legislature will have to study the national
interest, and it is possible to say with certainty at least this--that
Ireland's interest lies in maintaining close and friendly trade
relations with Great Britain. Unfortunately, we have no means of
accurately ascertaining the amount of trade done by Ireland with Great
Britain and with foreign and colonial countries respectively. Irish
commerce takes, of course, three forms: _(a)_ Direct trade with
countries outside Great Britain; _(b)_ indir