ect trade with these
countries via Great Britain; _(c)_ direct local trade with Great
Britain. The statisticians of the Irish Department of Agriculture make
only an imperfect attempt to distinguish between these classes, but
their figures, so far as they go, prove beyond question that the great
bulk of Irish external commerce belongs to Class _(c)_--local trade with
Great Britain. The total value of Irish trade in 1909 is estimated at
L125,675,847, of which L63,947,155 was for imports, L61,728,692 for
exports. Probably 80 per cent., at least, of this trade was strictly
local. Certainly Great Britain is the market for very nearly the whole
of Irish agricultural produce, and for most of her exports of linen,
ships, tobacco, liquor, etc. Any aggressive action likely to provoke a
tariff war would be ruinous to Ireland, while it would hurt Great
Britain far less in proportion. But, in fact, both countries would
suffer, Great Britain from the loss of an easily accessible food-supply
of extraordinary value, not only for economic, but for strategical
reasons; Ireland from the loss of an excellent and indispensable
customer.

On the other hand, whatever Ireland's trade policy may be, she certainly
needs the power of fixing her own duties upon commodities like tea and
sugar, which are of foreign origin, and are now merely transported to
her through British ports. Taxation of this sort is a matter of the
deepest concern to a country where agricultural wages average only
eleven shillings a week, and which cannot reduce its exorbitant Old Age
Pensions Bill without giving some compensatory relief to the classes
concerned. Tobacco, of which in its manufactured forms Ireland is a
considerable producer as well as a large consumer, belongs to the same
category. Liquor is an important article of production in Ireland, as
well as of consumption, and the Irish Legislature ought to be able to
form and carry out its own liquor policy. Ireland is just as able and
willing to promote temperance as Great Britain, and just as competent to
reconcile a temperance policy with due regard to producing and
distributing interests.

The Customs tariff is an Irish question, not an Ulster question. The
interests of the Protestant farmers of North-East Ulster are identical
with those of the rest of Ireland, and obviously it will be a matter of
the profoundest importance for Ireland as a whole to safeguard the
interests of the shipbuilding and linen industr