aining control over Customs and Excise. Let me only ask
the reader, in conclusion, to figure the situation. How could Ireland
frame a financial policy? Three-quarters of the revenue, as at present
levied, of a country profoundly dissimilar economically from Great
Britain, and in need of drastic reforms of expenditure and marked
changes in taxation, would be permanently outside the reach of an Irish
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and, in spite of the representation at
Westminster which Imperial control would entail, would in the long-run
fluctuate according to British needs and notions. In the long-run, I
repeat; but incidentally there would be sharp and damaging conflicts.
Occasions might occur like that of 1909, when the majority of Irishmen,
rightly or wrongly, resented the form of new taxation, and would have
secured the rejection of the Budget had not that step been hurtful to
the prospects of Home Rule. It will be useless to blame either Ireland
or Great Britain. Every country is bound to study its own circumstances.
A similar crisis would have imperilled even the strongest Federation. We
are not in the least concerned at the moment with the goodness or
badness of that famous Budget. We are concerned with the effect on the
relations of the two countries, and with the indefeasible right of
Ireland and Great Britain to do what they consider best for their own
interests.

With regard to (_b_), the Bill of 1893 differed from that of 1886 in the
provision of a suspensory period of six years, during which all existing
taxation in Ireland was to be under Imperial control, though Ireland
could impose additional taxes of her own. After six years--and, under
the Bill of 1886, from the outset--Ireland was to have control over all
taxation other than Customs and Excise. Where is the wisdom in
selecting direct taxation as peculiarly suitable to Irish control? It is
already higher in Ireland than in any country economically situated as
Ireland is. Yet Ireland's power to reduce it will be very small and very
difficult to use, if she is rigidly excluded from changes in the
indirect taxation which presses mainly on the poor. Would she naturally
be inclined to increase direct taxation? Land Value Duties produce next
to nothing in Ireland, and their extension would be unpopular. The
existing rates of Income-Tax and Estate Duties cannot be raised, though
their incidence might be extended to cover poorer elements of the
population, as, f