to leave to Parliament an opportunity of
considering what may be fit to be done for His Majesty's Catholic
subjects, without seeking at present any rule to govern the Protestant
Establishment or to make any provision upon that subject." This
statement is not wholly clear; but it and its context undoubtedly opened
up a prospect of Catholic Emancipation such as Cornwallis had far more
clearly outlined. The significance of Pitt's declaration will appear in
the sequel.

On the subject of commerce Pitt laid down the guiding principle that
after the Union all Customs barriers between the two islands ought to be
swept away as completely as between England and Scotland. If at present
they swerved from this grand object, it was for the sake of reaching it
the more surely. In compliance with the demand of Ireland, they would
allow her to maintain a protective duty of 10 per cent. on cottons and
woollens, in the latter case for not more than twenty years. He then
added these words: "The manufacturers of this country do not, I believe,
wish for any protecting duties; all they desire is a free intercourse
with all the world; and, though the want of protecting duties may
occasion partial loss, they think that amply compensated by general
advantage." No more statesmanlike utterance had been heard in the House
of Commons. Only by degrees had Pitt worked his way to this conviction.
In his early Budgets, as we saw, he clung to the system of numerous
duties; but, despite the cramping influence of war, he now relied on the
effects of a two-shilling Income Tax and aimed at the abolition of
protective Customs dues. He was fated never to reach this ideal; but
there can be no doubt that he cherished it as one of the hopes of his
life.

Turning next to the question of Ireland's contribution to the Imperial
Exchequer, Pitt set forth his reasons for fixing it at two fifteenths of
the revenue of Great Britain; but, as this decision might in the future
unduly burden the smaller island, it would not be final; and he
suggested that at the end of twenty years the resources of each would so
far have developed as to admit of a more authoritative assessment. If,
however, in the meantime the amount paid by Ireland should be in excess
of what ought to be paid, the surplus should be applied either to the
extinction of her Debt or to local improvements. He further expressed
the hope that in course of time the Debts and the produce of taxation
would be so