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ENGLAND'S WEALTH IBELANUS 
 POVERTY 
 
ENGLAND'S Wealth 
 IRELAND'S Poverty 
 
 i\ I I M I V 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS LOUGH, M.P 
 
 WITH NINE DIAGRAMS 
 
 LONDON 
 
 T. FISHER UNWIN, Paternoster Square 
 
 NEW YORK 
 G. p. PUTNAM'S SONS, 29 West 23RD Street 
 
 DUBLIN 
 HODGES, FIGGIS & Co., Ltd. | M. H. GILL & SON 
 

 All rights reserved. 
 
 M 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 It may be thought that the present is not an 
 opportune time to issue a book upon the Irish 
 question. The subject is supposed, for the 
 moment, to have sunk somewhat into the back- 
 ground. I do not think that this opinion will 
 prove to be correct, but it can only exist 
 with regard to grievances which have been dis- 
 cussed. In Ireland, as in other places, a claim 
 irresistible in its urgency may arise at any 
 moment, and, if such a claim should prove easy 
 to understand and to deal with, there is nothing 
 in the state of public business to prevent its 
 being considered. 
 
 An issue of this nature has been raised since 
 the last Parliament was dissolved, in the facts 
 which have been disclosed with regard to 
 the taxation of Ireland. Since 1801 the re- 
 sources of English statesmanship have been 
 strained by the difficulty of adjusting the 
 burden of taxation between two communities, 
 one of which has increased in wealth and in 
 
Vlll PBEFACE. 
 
 numbers so rapidly as the British, and the 
 other of which has diminished in these re- 
 spects so rapidly as the Irish. But in recent 
 years the extraordinary growth of expenditure 
 has rendered this question so urgent that it is 
 certain that Parliament will be compelled to deal 
 with it quickly. 
 
 Why should it not be taken in hand at once? 
 The most prominent British question is a proposed 
 amendment of the Education Laws. The spirit 
 in which the English are addressing themselves 
 to that question illustrates the magnitude of this 
 Irish difl&culty. The Prime Minister is under- 
 stood to have said that a bate op theeepence in 
 THE pound should be sufficient for all the pur- 
 poses of National Education in England. But 
 in Ireland there exists a bate op ovee theee 
 SHILLINGS IN THE POUND, and this not for edu- 
 cation, but for a light railway which is ill- 
 constructed, uncomfortable, even dangerous. 
 Heavy as this burden is, it is only one example 
 of the whole financial system which has grown 
 up unnoticed during recent years. 
 
 There will be no disposition to evade inquiry 
 into a situation so grave. On the contrary, there 
 will be anxiety to know how such evils could 
 have arisen, and to what extent they may ex- 
 plain the impoverishment, the discontent, and the 
 depopulation of Ireland. 
 
 In the following pages it has been my effort to 
 
PEEFACE. IX 
 
 discuss these questions in as short a space as 
 possible, without introducing any spirit of party 
 controversy, and to make some suggestions as to 
 the direction along which any efiective reform 
 must proceed. 
 
 THOMAS LOUGH. 
 
 29, Hyde Paek Gate, London, S.W. 
 February 3, 1896. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Inteoductoey ...... 1-22 
 
 Contrasts ofthe General Election of 1895 — The Bevelations — The 
 Witnesses — Efforts to obtain Figures — ^Nature of the Inquiry — 
 Increases in Taxation — A Steady Policy — Peel's Policy — Divergent 
 Wants — British Prosperity — The Issue Simplified. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 The Stoey of the Exactions . . . 23-57 
 
 Irish Industry — Agriculture Early in the Century — Irish Authori- 
 ties — liooal Manufactures — Taxation a Hundred Years Ago — 
 Growing Expenditure — Close of the War — Progress of the Irish 
 Debt — Failure in the Yield of Taxes — Important Pacts Obscured 
 — The Tobacco Tax — Commercial Contrasts — The Change of 1853 
 — The Whiskey Tax — Local Taxing Authorities — The Grand Jury 
 Cess — The Poor Bate — Pinal Besult of the Century. 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 The Duties and the Aemed Foeces . . 58-96 
 
 Alcohol in the Two Islands— Alcohol as a Medicine — The Tax on 
 Tea and Tobacco — Fiscal Unity still Incomplete — Mr. Pitt's Con- 
 ditions — British Exports wrszis Irish — The Imperial Contribution 
 — Might makes Eight — Irish Protests — How Parliament Treated 
 the Question — The Military— The Police- The Policeman's Pay— 
 The Castle System — Lost Local Eesources — The Irish Eailway 
 System— The Tramways (1883) Act— The Light Eailways of 1889— 
 Labourers' Houses. 
 
XU CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Purses and the Payments . • ■ 97-123 
 
 Cumulative Results— The Bent Question— The British Annual 
 Income— The Irish Annual Income— Taxable Capacity— The Pay- 
 ments of the Poor — No Exemptions — The Depreciation in the 
 Value of Produce— Sir James Caird's View— No need to Despond 
 — Fluctuations and Famines — Relative Proportion of Taxes — The 
 Loss to British Trade. 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 The Plight ...... 124-148 
 
 The Population Question — A Rapid Decrease — The Board of 
 Trade Statistics— The British Emigrant — Irish Female Emi- 
 grants — Standpoint of the Irish Emigrant — Magnitude of the 
 Movement — Shrinkage of Ireland — The Experience of Ulster 
 Counties — Losses and Gains — The Opinion of France — Emigra- 
 tion and Distress. 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 The Ebsidue ...... 149-173 
 
 The Housing Question — Prosperity of Railways — Savings in the 
 Banks — Amount of the Savings — Opinion of Mr. Charles Booth — 
 Progress of various classes — Condition of the Country Towns — 
 Growth of Pauperism — An Irish Workhouse — Statistics of Births 
 
LIST OF TABLES IN THE APPENDIX. 
 
 Table I. Peoduction. — Showing the Average Amount of Pro- 
 duce and the Value of Crops grown in Ireland between 
 1851 and 1894 (Dr. Grimshaw). 
 
 Table II. Eevenue. — Showing the Amount of the true Eevenue 
 of, and the Expenditure in, Ireland, and the Irish Con- 
 tribution to Imperial Expenditure in every tenth year 
 from 1819 to 1889, and in 1894. 
 
 Table III. Taxation. — Showing the Population, Eevenue, 
 Local Taxation, total Taxes, and amount paid per head 
 of the population in Ireland in 1785, and every fifth 
 year afterwards to 1895. 
 
 Table IV. Fobces. — Showing the Number and the Cost of the 
 Establishment of Eegular Eorces and Militia in Great 
 Britain and Ireland. 
 
 Table V. Light Eailways. — Showing the Names of the 
 Lines, the Counties in which they are situated, and the 
 liability incurred by the Treasury and the ratepayers 
 respectively under the Tramways (Ireland) Act, 1888, 
 for the half-year terminating December, 1893. The 
 nominal value and the price of the Shares. 
 
 Table VI. Light Eailways. — Showing the Name, Gauge, and 
 Mileage of the Lines, and the amount granted by the 
 Government or guaranteed by the locality under the 
 Light Eailways (Ireland) Act, 1889. 
 
XIV LIST OF TABLES IN THK APPENDIX. 
 
 Table VII. Population. — Showing the total number and the 
 sexes of the population of Ireland in 1851, and the 
 decrease of population and the number of Emigrants in 
 each year up to 1894. 
 
 Table VIII. Teade. — Showing the loss to the trade of Great 
 Britain in one article (Tea), through the diminution of 
 the population of Ireland. 
 
 Table IX. Emigeants. — Showing the destination (numbers 
 and percentages) of Emigrants for the years 1890-94. 
 
 Table X. Emigeants. — Showing (1) the percentage of Emi- 
 grants of various ages during the year 1894, and (2) 
 the percentage of Emigrants between the ages of 15 and 
 35 for the fifteen years ended by 1894. 
 
 Table XI. Paupeeism. — Showing the daily average and the 
 total number of Paupers in each year, and the increase 
 of pauperism in Ireland between 1864 and 1894. 
 
LIST OF DIAGEAMS. 
 
 DiAGBAM I. Showing the Population and the amount of the 
 Taxation in Ireland in each decade of the last hundred 
 years. 
 
 DiAQBAM II. Showing the Imperial Taxation, and the Debt 
 
 incurred in Ireland from 1790-1825. 
 DiAGEAM III. Showing the total Local and Imperial Taxation 
 
 of Ireland, and the taxation per head of the population 
 
 during the last hundred years. 
 
 DiAGEAM IV. Showing the growth in numbers and expense of 
 the Eoyal Irish Constabulary, the numbers of policemen, 
 and the cost per head of the population. 
 
 DiAGBAM V. Showing the taxable income of Great Britain and 
 Ireland, and the amount taken in taxes in each country. 
 
 DiAGEAM VI. Showing the shrinkage of population in Ireland 
 between 1841 and 1891. 
 
 DiAGBAM VII. Showing the annual number of Births for every 
 thousand of the population in Ireland, and eight other 
 European countries during the last thirty years. 
 
 DiAGEAM VIII. Showing the annual number of Marriages for 
 every thousand of the population in Ireland and eight 
 other European countries. 
 
 DiAGEAM IX. Showing the annual Death rate in Ireland and in 
 Great Britain during the last thirty years. 
 
CHAPTEE I. 
 
 INTEODUCTOEY. 
 
 Among the many strange phenomena of the 
 General Election of 1895 nothing is so remark- 
 able as the contrast between the results in Great 
 Britain on the one hand ,and in Ireland on the 
 other. In every part of Great Britain the 
 Unionists made extraordinary gains. Out of one 
 hundred and ninety seats in eighteen Southern 
 and Metropolitan Counties they carried one 
 hundred and seventy against twenty retained by 
 their opponents. Almost every borough throughout 
 the Kingdom followed the example set by London, 
 and it would seem as if all the great cities had 
 definitely cast in their lot with the Conservative 
 Party. Such strongholds of Eadicalism as Brad- 
 ford and Newcastle declined to return a single 
 Liberal. In Scotland the influence of the wave of 
 opinion was felt almost as strongly, thirty-three 
 Unionists being returned against twenty-two in 
 the previous election while, notwithstanding the 
 efforts of the Liberal Government on behalf of 
 the Welsh people, the Conservative minority in 
 the Principality rose from three to ten. The close 
 of the fight placed a Conservative Government in 
 
 2 1 
 
2 ENGLAND'S WEALTH IRELAND'S POVEBTY. 
 
 power by a majority over their opponents of two 
 hundred and fourteen British seats. 
 
 If there were even one unobserved channel of 
 sympathy from Great Britain which could influ- 
 ence public opinion in the smaller island on her 
 Western shores, undoubtedly it would have made 
 itself evident on this occasion. But there is none, 
 and the result of the election in Ireland was that 
 the great Home Eule majority of the previous 
 Parhament came back stronger than before and 
 the Conservatives, who had previously held twenty- 
 three seats, were able to retain only twenty-one, so 
 that the British majority of Unionists was pulled 
 down to one hundred and fifty-two. This re- 
 sult is the more remarkable because the contest 
 on behalf of the Nationalist Cause took place 
 under the most gloomy auspices. There was 
 no united appeal to the country as in the days 
 of Parnell, The once solid army was divided 
 into three sections, not so much because of differ- 
 ences of principle, as because the rival leaders could 
 not work with one another. Little remained to 
 show to the constituencies for the great exertions 
 of the late Parliament. Home Eule seemed as far 
 off as ever. Beyond a favourable report from a 
 Committee nothing had been done to advance the 
 settlement of the Land question or the Evicted 
 Tenants grievances. Even the Education Question 
 upon which, it had so often been said, that all 
 parties were agreed, had not been advanced one step 
 
THE HOME BULE VOTE. 3 
 
 towards solution. All this made riot the slightest 
 difference to the people. Ireland registered her 
 opinion at the polls in favour of a separate system 
 of domestic government by 357,912 votes against 
 151,094 votes recorded for the existing institutions. 
 This is the fifth occasion during ^fifteen years upon 
 which the same result has been declared, and any 
 fair-minded person must admit that, within con- 
 stitutional limits, no demand can be stronger or 
 more emphatic than that which has now once 
 more been registered. 
 
 This persistency of the sister Island is highly 
 perplexing to the British. Although through long 
 training their minds are admirably calculated to 
 understand political problems, especially those 
 which are expressed in a quiet and constitutional 
 foim, they feel that this is a mystery which they 
 cannot fathom. Ten years have passed out of the 
 twenty of firm government which Lord Salisbury 
 demanded in 1885, yet no ideal which the Irish 
 people had then formed has been altered or 
 weakened. Such firmness at elections is felt to 
 be more difficult to deal with than the rebellious 
 movements of past times. If, then, any new light 
 can be thrown on this mysterious problem, the 
 occasion is a happy one on which to make such 
 an effort. There is a strong Government in power 
 claiming to be well disposed to Ireland, and the 
 Opposition is pledged to support any well-con- 
 sidered reform. Let us, then, turn and see whether. 
 
4 England's, wealth ibeland's povebty. 
 
 without introducing party feeling, some step may 
 not be taken that may bring us nearer to under- 
 standing what is the real evil in Ireland, where 
 public opinion has not been changed or even shaken. 
 It will be considered unpromising to hint that 
 in the evidence collected by a Eoyal Commission 
 which has now been sitting for two years, many 
 who have not been persuaded by Mr. Gladstone 
 or the eloquence of great Irishmen may find a clue 
 which will interest them in the grievances of 
 Ireland. But the truth is that Eoyal Commis- 
 sions may be roughly divided into two classes. 
 One is appointed to stave ofi the political exigency 
 of a moment; its "reference" is vague, its witnesses 
 are contradictory, its Blue Books are dull, and, 
 long before its final Eeport appears, every 
 one has lost interest in the matter. In con- 
 trast to this, some Eoyal Commissions are 
 appointed, with the consent of all parties, to deal 
 with a problem which politicians have come to 
 recognise will admit of no further delay. Even to 
 these more useful bodies the "reference" is often 
 faulty, and the report may not be all that is 
 expected. But neither of these difficulties is 
 fatal. The necessary facts are brought to light, 
 the true nature of the evil is discovered, and it is 
 often found to be of such serious moment, that, 
 Parliament gladly lays aside partisan feeling and 
 accepts the guidance which is thus afforded for 
 useful legislation. 
 
THE WITNESSES. 5 
 
 The Irish Eoyal Commission, which is bring- 
 ing its labours to a close, belongs to the second 
 of these two classes. The Commissioners are 
 men of business, well calculated to elucidate 
 the problem set before them. Only eighteen 
 witnesses have been examined, and these, with 
 scarcely an exception, are high authorities oii 
 the matters dealt with. There has been little 
 contradictory evidence. Out of the eighteen 
 witnesses fifteen are paid servants of the Crown, 
 in the highest ranks of the Civil Service. The 
 testimony of such men may therefore be ac- 
 cepted as accurate and reliable, and as being free 
 from exaggeration, if so much may be said by one 
 who himself gave evidence. Those who refer to it 
 will find in the opinions there stated at consider- 
 able length, several of the points which will be put 
 forward in these pages in a more accessible form. 
 Although the proceedings have stretched over a long 
 period, they are comprised in two Blue Books, and 
 the delay was caused by the necessity for absolute 
 accuracy. Above all, the proceedings have not been 
 dull. One might think that the Commissioners 
 had been drawing pictures of Ireland, naturally of 
 a somewhat sombre character, yet full of graphic 
 and thrilling interest. 
 
 The period reviewed may be roughly stated as 
 a complete hundred years, for the Commissioneirs 
 found it necessai'y to go back sufficiently far to 
 allow their first picture to be of Ireland in its 
 
6 England's wealth Ireland's poveety. 
 
 normal condition, before the fear of the approach 
 ing Union began to settle upon the country. 
 From this the reader may assume that they have 
 been contributing one more version of the many 
 faulty histories of Ireland since the Union, and 
 he may feel inclined to turn in disgust from a 
 re-hash of that thrice-told tale. Let him be reas- 
 sured; nothing can be farther from the truth. 
 The Commissioners only state one single small 
 fact, which everybody can understand, which 
 nobody had hitherto accurately ascertained, and 
 which will be found to reach down to depths 
 of the Irish question which have not been 
 sounded in our time. What is this fact? In 
 a single phrase it is — How much the Poll 
 tax is in Ireland. In other words, how much 
 Government charges the individual, whether by 
 rates or taxes, for permission to live in that 
 country. 
 
 Over this simple problem the Commissioners 
 have been labouring for many a weary day. 
 The question will be asked — How is there any 
 mystery about the matter? Surely it is easy to 
 tell the Irishman how much he pays, to look at 
 what the whole country contributes, and to con- 
 sider at annual intervals whether the burden on 
 the individual and on the nation is just. So 
 one would think, but he is soon undeceived. It 
 was not easy to answer any one of these ques- 
 tions. For purposes of high policy all these 
 
EFFOBTS TO OBTAIN FIGUEES. 7 
 
 matters have been obscured in the most com- 
 plete manner throughout two generations. So 
 much was this the case that, when at last states- 
 men began to inquire into them, nothing was 
 dear except that no information existed, and 
 even after serious attempts had been made and 
 the Commissioners had been appointed, there was 
 the greatest difficulty in ascertaining the yearly 
 exaction. In the year 1890, Mr. Goschen, then 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, first ordered an 
 inquiry into the matter. The answers that Were 
 given after some years of toil were found on 
 further examination to be quite unreliable. 
 Then another attempt was made ; and it will be 
 remembered how the Financial Clauses of the 
 Home Eule Bill had to be withdrawn in 1893 
 because vast errors were once more discovered, 
 so that even then no one exactly knew the truth. 
 Finally, the Koyal Commission was appointed, and 
 no light part of its labour has been to answer this 
 simple question which, however, it has at last 
 succeeded in doing. 
 
 The term "Poll tax" is used to express the 
 view of the human being whose lot is cast in 
 Ireland, of what is to him one of the gravest facts 
 of existence. His environment is so different from 
 that of his fellow-subject in Great Britain that a 
 word of explanation may be necessary. In Great 
 Britain 78 per cent, of the people live in cities, and 
 they understand by experience the advantage and the 
 
8 England's wealth Ireland's poverty. 
 
 necessity for the existence of rates as well as taxes, 
 and the difference between the two. In Ireland 78 
 per cent, of the people live in agricultural districts, 
 which are yet very different from the agricultural 
 districts of Great Britain. The cottage of the 
 Irish farmer is " detached" in a sense not known 
 in any other country of Western Europe ; it is 
 often placed alone amid fields where there is 
 no road, and where the mysteries of modem 
 sanitation have not pierced, so that a person 
 residing in one of these remote and humble 
 dwellings sees little around him to make him 
 understand why he should be asked for rates. In 
 fact, he does not understand it. To him it is a 
 problem dark as death ; he cannot see why he 
 should pay at all ; no one tells him, and no one 
 oared to know until now, what he really did pay. 
 He takes his burden as he does the weather and 
 the other mysteries of his hard lot, as a thing 
 that he must bear and not inquire into. The 
 only serious question therefore, for him is, what is 
 the total that he must contribute in order that 
 he and his family may be allowed to live. Thus 
 the term "Poll tax" is used to convey to the 
 British mind the standpoint of the Irishman. It is 
 brought in for the sake of lucidity, it can be com- 
 pared to the same figure in Great Britain, and 
 it is round this simple question that much of the 
 interest of the story hangs. 
 
 The Royal Commission was appointed " to in- 
 
NATURE OF THE INQUIBY. 9 
 
 quire into the Financial Eelations between Great 
 Britain and Ireland and their relative taxable 
 capacity." This " inquiry " is at once seen to 
 be of a startling nature. We have been accus- 
 tomed to speak of the Kingdom as " United," and 
 united not only in name but in reality ; one part 
 sharing the other's fortune, whether it be good or 
 ill. At the very threshold then, this solid ground 
 crumbles away beneath our feet, the two islands 
 fall apart, and we are asked to consider " rela- 
 tions " between them. When we follow the 
 inquiry as it proceeds, our astonishment increases. 
 We find that the two islands fall apart quite 
 easily, destiny dealing differently with each. If 
 the Eoyal Commission may be trusted, there is 
 no union between them except in name. No 
 word or idea seems common to both. If popula- 
 tion, wealth, commerce, contentment increase 
 in the one it will be found safe to assume 
 that they decrease in the other. Indeed, we 
 are whirled along so rapidly as the evidence un- 
 folds, that our standpoint changes, and we wonder 
 that we should ever have tried to regard the two 
 islands as one country. 
 
 One must commend the excellent method 
 under which the evidence of the Commission 
 is arranged. It is purely impersonal; no one 
 is praised; no one is attacked. Wherever it is 
 possible to avoid doing so no name whatever is 
 mentioned. The progress of the hundred years is 
 
10 England's wealth Ireland's poverty. 
 
 recorded period by period, like the story of the 
 Creation, as if things had been quietly evolved 
 without the intrusive hand of man. This plan 
 enables us to think and speak quite freely. There 
 are no ties of party to bind our imaginations or 
 consciences ; we may follow the excellent example 
 that is set us, and seek only to find how things 
 stand in truth, and then form a Just opinion con- 
 cerning them. 
 
 The beginning of the work is found in a set of 
 tables issued by the Treasury for the Commission, 
 which give the population and the total taxation 
 in each year of the two islands respectively. We 
 must grasp at least the outline of what these 
 tables tell. Let us first take Ireland, which con- 
 tained about four and a half millions of people 
 in 1795. These people were then in a compara- 
 tively prosperous condition, and the taxes for all 
 purposes laid on them amounted to 9s. per head 
 annually. 
 
 Before that time the taxes never exceeded that 
 sum. Then came the Union, and with it steady 
 and regular increase in the amount of tax, accom- 
 panied by evidence in various forms that the 
 payments were pressing heavily on the people 
 who, however, continued rapidly to increase in 
 numbers until 1845. Then the failure of a single 
 crop plunged the country into famine, which led 
 to a rapid decrease in population. Still the taxes 
 increased. By 1850 they were about £1 per 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 1795 
 
 1805 
 
 1815 
 
 1825 
 
 1835 
 
 1845 
 
 1855 
 
 1865 
 
 1875 
 
 1885 
 
 1895 
 
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 12 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 L 
 
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 12 
 
 il 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 ^ 
 
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 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 9 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 ^7 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 QkT. / 
 
 
 
 
 /'7(/ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 7 
 
 
 
 25 
 
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 ■= 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 -J 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 2 
 
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 1 
 
 DIAGRAM I. 
 
 Showing the Population and the amount of Taxation in Ireland in each decade 
 of the last 100 years. The figures at the sides are millions. The dates are 
 along the top. In each decade the blue column represents the population and 
 the red column the amount of the taxation, the figures at the top of the latter 
 showing the taxes paid per head of the inhabitants in shillings. 
 
INCEEASK IN TAXATION. H 
 
 head ; in 1880 £2 ; to-day the total charges are 
 £2 9s. per head, and there is no prosperity amongst 
 the population, which has sunk in numbers to the 
 same level as it was a hundred years since. This 
 outline of the eventful progress of Ireland, as 
 given by the Commission, is shown in Diagram I. 
 In each decennial period of the century stand the 
 two columns ; one is pounds, the other is people ; 
 in the latter there is the same number at the end 
 as at the beginning ; in the former is a tax nearly 
 six times greater. 
 
 We now turn to Great Britain. In the three 
 respects that have been named there is a pleasant 
 contrast. Figures have been provided since 1800, 
 which show that population has increased from ten 
 and a half to thirty-four millions. Prosperity has 
 increased in a manner which cannot be summarised 
 in a single expression. The Imperial taxation has 
 steadily diminished, but the local rates have in- 
 creased. In London alone the latter amount to 
 two-thirds as much as the whole taxation of 
 Ireland. Yet, including all taxes and rates, the 
 annual charge per head of population in Great 
 Britain has diminished since the beginning of the 
 century. 
 
 This extraordinary contrast would seem to 
 suggest some close connection between the growth 
 of taxation and population into which we need 
 not enter at any length. It will be seen that the 
 whole burden of taxes in Great Britain is so small 
 
12 England's wealth ieeland's povebty. 
 
 as compared with the national wealth that such a 
 question can have only an academic interest in 
 that country, while in Ireland there is so little 
 wealth that it is of vital interest. 
 
 Many contend that good use is made of the 
 Irish taxes in developing the welfare of the 
 community. This subject was fully inquired 
 into, and as regards the question whether 
 the prosperity of Ireland has developed in pro- 
 portion to its taxation, the graphic pictures pre- 
 sented by the evidence leave nothing to be 
 desired. Probably for the first time during two 
 or three generations, Englishmen have an 
 opportunity of seeing Ireland as she is, a 
 country with a single industry, agriculture, 
 every detail of which is spread out before the 
 eyes of the observer. Moreover, it is the sim- 
 plest form of agriculture. There are no vines, 
 or hops, or any other crop of great value grown, 
 scarcely any wheat, and year after year a stock- 
 taking has been made, each time with increasing 
 accuracy. The husbandmen of the present gene- 
 ration have been tempted by the banking facilities 
 to take their hoardings out of the stocking and 
 the roof and put them into the banks, and every 
 penny of the sum is reviewed with jealous eye. 
 
 The few figures quoted, and also the diagram, 
 show that the main increases of taxation are of 
 recent growth. Only two-fifths of the present 
 exactions were wrung out forty-five years ago. 
 
A STEADY POLICY. 13 
 
 Even during the last fifteen years, a period that 
 is easily recalled, the increase of burden is con- 
 siderable. 
 
 During those fifteen years the ofiice of Chief 
 Secretary has been held by a series of distinguished 
 Englishmen, including Mr. W. E. Forster, Mr. 
 (now Sir George) Trevelyan, Sir C. Bannerman, 
 Sir W. Hart-Dyke, Mr. Morley, Mr. A. J. 
 Balfour, Mr. Jackson, and Mr. Gerald Balfour. 
 We are accustomed to think of these statesmen 
 as representing different and even hostile political 
 creeds, but the history of their several periods of 
 rule in Ireland, as written by the Eoyal Commis- 
 sion, does not confirm this view. On the contrary, 
 they are one and all seen to pursue an identical 
 policy, as simple as it is severe, which may be 
 summed up as one of driving the people from the 
 country as fast as possible, whilst acquiescing in the 
 continuous demand that a larger amount of money 
 than the undiminished nation had ever previously 
 contributed should still be paid by the residue. 
 This policy never halts or varies. So uniformly 
 has it ''been prosecuted that the two sides of it are 
 found 'to proceed in precise mathematical propor- 
 tions, one-seventh of the people having been 
 swept out during the last fifteen years, and one- 
 seventh, in amount, having been added to the 
 burden under which the residue struggles. 
 
 It is gradually perceived that the present 
 plan of the taxation of Ireland, which every- 
 
14 England's wealth ibeland's poviitTT. 
 
 body regards as an integral portion of the system 
 of Pitt's Union, had no part or lot in that 
 historic treaty. It is a thing gradually and yet 
 hastily evolved by Parliament without much 
 discussion. There was no fiscal Union in 1801. 
 If on examination the plan of equal duties 
 should be found to be faulty or oppressive, the 
 blame does not rest on the shoulders of Pitt. 
 His scheme was that Ireland should be taxed 
 according to what she could bear, and that 
 there should be a periodic review of the cost 
 of her government. Until 1817 there were an 
 Irish Chancellor, an Irish Debt and a separate 
 Irish Budget every year. These then disappeared 
 for reasons that will hereafter be explained, but 
 the separate fiscal treatment of Ireland practically 
 continued. For the thirty-five years, after 1818 
 to 1853, taxation increased little. To a certain 
 extent a sympathetic spirit was shown, and it was 
 not until these latter days of "remedial legislation" 
 that the burden was rolled up which the Irishman 
 finds so oppressive. 
 
 Much of the credit for refraining from increasing 
 taxation will be found to belong to Sir Eobert Peel. 
 He seems to have had a firm grasp of the idea, that 
 the one thing that Ireland could not stand was 
 reckless increase of burdens. Thus he refrained 
 from levying the Income Tax there when it was 
 imposed on Great Britain in 1841. It was a 
 principle with him that the tax on Irish whiskey 
 
peel's policy. 15 
 
 should not be unduly raised ; and when the police 
 force was created, he arranged that one half of 
 its cost should be paid out of Imperial taxes, and 
 in 1846 he made this arrangement apply to the 
 other half. 
 
 But immediately after Sir Eobert Peel's death 
 a new order of things was introduced. The prin- 
 ciple was asserted for the first time that all 
 articles should pay the same duties in each 
 country. Thus at one blow were abolished the 
 precautions which had been inserted in the Act 
 of Union for the protection of Ireland. Such 
 separate consideration as was there provided for 
 will be felt at once to have been a necessary 
 part of Pitt's scheme. Pitt could only compare 
 Ireland with Great Britain as the two stood in 
 the year 1800, and base the contributions on the 
 capacity of each at that time. But the one 
 might develop more rapidly than the other, or 
 the one might go back while the other went 
 forward. Either of such movements would compel 
 a new fiscal arrangement to be made if the plan was 
 to be maintained. At that date the prosperity of 
 both islands depended mainly on agriculture, and 
 Ireland contained a population half as large as 
 that of Great Britain. By 1851 these proportions 
 had altered in a manner very adverse to Ireland, 
 30 that it became urgent to put into operation 
 the provision that had been retained for her 
 relief. 
 
16 England's wealth dieland's povebty. 
 
 A very different policy was then adopted; instead 
 of the fixed contribution and periodic review, it was 
 assumed, under the arrangement of 1853, that 
 justice would be done by levying the same rates 
 of duty on the same commodities. It was not 
 realised that a channel for oppression might be 
 opened up by the mere selection of the commo- 
 dities no less than by the amount of the tax that 
 would be imposed. Yet, in dealing with two 
 countries where the industries, habits, customs 
 and resources are so different, an apparently small 
 consideration may involve matters of the gravest 
 complexity. 
 
 A prominent idea in the new system was to lay 
 the heavy taxes on luxuries rather than on necessi- 
 ties. This appears fair superficially ; but the 
 article which is a luxury in one country may be a 
 necessity in the other. Another plausible con- 
 sideration, to which effect was given, was to place 
 weighty iinposts on intoxicants, so that the double 
 advantage might be secured of raising revenue and 
 making the people sober. But in the one the 
 intoxicant most widely used might be taxed out 
 of proportion to that of the other, and uncon- 
 sciously the lighter burden might be laid on the 
 beverage of the larger and richer island. A 
 greater difficulty still is the impossibility of finding, 
 in two communities so different, any articles of 
 consumption which will occupy the same relation 
 to the dietary and to the purchasing power of 
 
DIVERGENT WANTS. 17 
 
 each as to make the same tax equally just. To 
 illustrate this point, let us take the example of 
 England and France, two countries lying closer 
 to one another, and much more alike in many 
 respects, than Great Britain and Ireland. Sup- 
 pose then, that a common fiscal system were 
 established between these two, and that it were 
 decided to levy a large portion of the national 
 income by a duty on tea, the French would escape, 
 because they use hardly any tea ; and if, on the 
 contrary, coffee were selected, the English would 
 escape. If wine were chosen, the Frenchman and 
 his great national industry might be ruined, while 
 the Englishman would feel hardly any burden. 
 
 Without going at greater length into these 
 considerations, it will be seen that grave risks 
 were incurred when the system of 1853 was 
 adopted, and that the Union was carried further 
 than Pitt, or any of the statesmen of the fifty 
 years after him, intended. Up to the present the 
 results have never been seriously reviewed, but 
 it is now inevitable that the work of doing so 
 should be taken in hand. When all the facts are 
 brought to notice, it may be found that the year 
 1853 was even a more momentous epoch in the 
 history of Ireland than 1801. 
 
 No complete view can be obtained without also 
 having regard to the progress of local taxation. 
 In considering this the difference between the 
 local burdens in each of the two islands must 
 
 3 
 
18, England's wealth ibeland's poveety. 
 
 always be borne in mind. The rates in Grrea]b 
 Britain are absolutely controlled by the locality, 
 the bulk of them being imposed by urban authori- 
 ties, which are based on a broad and equal franchise. 
 In Ireland there is no popular control, there- 
 fore practically the government is entirely re- 
 sponsible. It will be seen that a progressive 
 increase has taken place in local taxation of even 
 graver dimensions than we have had to notice in 
 Imperial taxation. In 1845 the total local taxes 
 were a million and a half ; in 1895 they had risen 
 to four millions. 
 
 Eeturning, then, to the consideration of the 
 amount of burdens of all kinds, we find that in 
 the last fifty years the Poll tax has risen from 
 17s. to 49s., being an increase of 32s. per head. The 
 system which produced this result was persevered 
 in, although statistics presented annually showed 
 that the population had fallen to half, that 
 pauperism had doubled, and that the nation was 
 simply withering away. The history of the period 
 might be summed up by saying that the fewer the 
 people grew, the larger their burden became, and 
 the more they were sunk in poverty, the more they 
 were made to pay. 
 
 Evidence has been furnished as to the material 
 progress of Great Britain. Probably Sir Eobert 
 Griffen, head of the Statistical Department of the 
 Board of Trade, will be accepted as one of the most 
 cautious interpreters of the signs of national deve- 
 
BRITISH PROSPERITY. 19 
 
 lopment. He showed that during practically the 
 whole of the century, but particularly during the 
 past twenty-five years, the most extraordinary 
 increase of British wealth and prosperity has 
 been taking place. The British population has 
 increased as rapidly as the population of Ireland 
 has diminished, the figures of pauperism and 
 all the vital statistics presenting the most pleas- 
 ing contrast. So great has this movement been, 
 that Ireland has become, in every respect, so 
 far as material advantage goes, of compara- 
 tively httle importance to Great Britain. Not- 
 withstanding the great increases of taxation, the 
 nominal contribution towards Imperial expenses is 
 only two millions a year. But this sum, like 
 aU the rest of Irish taxation, is really spent in 
 Ireland, for the authorities of the War Office 
 admit that the cost of the Curragh and other 
 camps exceeds two millions per annum. 
 
 Since the time of the Union the military esta- 
 blishment in Ireland has gradually increased until 
 it has become a matter of course that an army 
 of close on thirty thousand men, under the 
 most brilliant commander, should be maintained 
 there. Even if the exigencies of invasion or 
 rebellion have to be guarded against, the main- 
 tenance of this force in a time of profound peace 
 is quite unnecessary ; about three thousand troops; 
 the same number as are kept in Scotland, 
 would be amply sufficient for all purposes. Thus 
 
20 England's wealth ibelanc's poveety. 
 
 the whole sum collected in Ireland is spent 
 there, and if it should be resolved to abolish 
 altogether what is here called the Imperial con- 
 tribution, the means are at hand for saving the 
 whole amount and more, so that no loss would 
 accrue to the Imperial Exchequer. 
 
 It is characteristic of the Irish people that in agi- 
 tating, especially in recent years, the grievances 
 under which the country suffers, great prominence 
 has not been given to the question of taxation. 
 Mr. Parnell preferred to appeal to principles of 
 justice, apparently in the belief that if these would 
 not move the heart of the oppressor, there was no 
 use in going into details of finance. The English- 
 man is sceptical about principles of justice, and he 
 would at least like them to be illustrated by some 
 clear grievance which he can understand and put 
 right. No form of grievance is so intelligible 
 to him as that connected with taxation. The 
 great revolutions of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
 centuries arose out of such questions, and oppres- 
 sion in this form has always excited, amongst 
 Anglo-Saxons, the keenest resentment. Surely, 
 then, it can never be inopportune to appeal to such 
 a people to consider the question of the national 
 burdens which they have, in quite recent times, 
 forced upon a country towards which there is at 
 bottom no feeling but one of kindness so far as 
 intention goes. 
 
 After the excellent work that has been done by 
 
THE ISSUE SIMPLIFIED. 21 
 
 the Royal Commission, the issue has been reduced 
 to simple dimensions. Every question which one 
 might feel inclined to ask in order to guide his 
 opinion to a right judgment, has been asked and 
 answered. The matter is one of small compass, 
 if we avoid tracing evils to remote periods in 
 history, or to aspects of the national character 
 or rehgion, and confine ourselves to the simple 
 question of the justice of our own dealings at 
 the moment. It is not the difficulty of the Irish 
 question which embarrasses the Englishman, but 
 its simplicity. There is no part of the great 
 problem with regard to which one should be so 
 willing to hear every complaint patiently, as in 
 connection with the questions which it is here 
 proposed to raise. 
 
 If, then, the contrast between the movement of 
 opinion in the two islands has impressed the popular 
 imagination, let us turn the opportunity to good 
 account. It must candidly be admitted that there 
 is some justification for the perplexity which even 
 the well disposed in Great Britain feel. The Irish 
 grievance has never been stated in a form which 
 is completely intelligible to them. Eor one thing, 
 too much emphasis has been laid upon the Land 
 Question. The British readily admit that an 
 agricultural difficulty exists, because they have 
 experience of one at home ; but they cannot see how 
 the wide conclusion drawn by some friends of the 
 Irish movement can be based on the Land Ques- 
 
22 England's wealth ibeland's poverty. 
 
 tion alone. To some extent that was a war 
 between classes, and outsiders might well feel 
 reluctant to take sides. Even if all that is claimed 
 with regard to land were conceded, it is felt that 
 this would hardly be sufficient to create such a 
 crisis as existed. Again, it was felt that something 
 had been done to meet the land difficulty, and as 
 various steps in this direction had been taken, the 
 Irish demand did not grow weaker but stronger. 
 
 May not an explanation, sufficiently large to 
 cover the whole ground, be found in the question 
 now raised ? If, on fuU examination, the impartial 
 judgment is led to accept the conclusion towards 
 which Irish statistics point, it will be seen that this 
 grievance has arisen largely during the present 
 generation, that it is getting more acute each year, 
 and that it is of a sufficiently serious character to 
 account for many of the phenomena of discontent 
 which the island presents. The causes are not 
 fully understood even in Ireland, but it is there 
 that the shoe pinches, and without any explanation 
 the people feel that the burden is intolerable ; 
 whereas in Great Britain there is no widespread 
 feeling of oppression, and most classes are sharing 
 in a prosperity such as has never been equalled in 
 any country. 
 
CHAPTEE II. 
 
 THE STOEY OP THE EXACTIONS. 
 
 It is now necessary to substantiate the case that 
 has been stated. In this task no httle difficulty 
 is caused by the want of knowledge of the country 
 which besets every person in England who tries to 
 understand Irish matters. To this must be added 
 the second and if possible, greater difficulty caused 
 by acquaintance with Great Britain, which is 
 probably the country of all others in the world 
 most different from Ireland. There is an honest 
 and friendly disposition towards Ireland, which 
 however, does not carry one far unless accurate 
 thought about the conditions of life there is possible. 
 At the beginning of the century this was easier 
 than it is to-day. The highly organised system by 
 which the commercial prosperity of Great Britain 
 has been brought to such perfection had not come 
 into existence, and the conditions of life in both 
 countries were, to a great extent, alike. If the 
 population of Great Britain should suddenly decline 
 to half and her great cities fall into ruins, her 
 manufactures, mines, and commerce suddenly dis- 
 appear, then the misery that would ensue would 
 enable the people to sympathise instinctively 
 
24 England's wealth Ireland's poverty. 
 
 with the difficulties of Ireland. We must 
 endeavour to shut out from view those circum- 
 stances which make it almost impossible to see 
 rightly, and conceive as best we can from the 
 facts that are presented a condition of things 
 which, it must be hoped, Great Britain may 
 never have to realise. 
 
 In the present chapter we shall see that Ireland, 
 as a country, is absolutely dependent on agricul- 
 ture, all other employments being in comparison, 
 quite unimportant ; that the difficulties which have 
 overtaken this great industry in every European 
 country have, owing to special circumstances, fallen 
 upon her with exaggerated weight ; and finally that 
 the country has been, and is, without the assistance 
 which might possibly have been rendered by a 
 legislature familiar with her circumstances, so that 
 even well-meant efforts to alleviate the situation 
 only had the effect of increasing the volume and 
 intensity of the suffering, especially in recent 
 years. 
 
 Few who have even the slightest acquaintance 
 with Ireland will seriously question the first propo- 
 sition. True, in many parts of the world a few 
 articles of Irish manufacture may be found which 
 might possibly suggest that the country had some 
 claim to commercial importance, but when we 
 come to consider them they are few in number 
 and trifling in the advantage which they confer 
 on the bulk of the population. There is first 
 
THE LINEN INDUSTRY. 25 
 
 the linen industry which now exists around Belfast 
 and a few other places in the north. This 
 is, no doubt, still a manufacture of some im- 
 portance, but the benefit which it confers on the 
 country has from many causes rapidly diminished. 
 At the beginning of the century a great trade was 
 done all over Ireland by the hand weavers, and the 
 excellent linens of native manufacture were used 
 in every house ; but now the hand looms have 
 disappeared, cheap calicoes are worn, the work has 
 been concentrated in factories in a small number 
 of localities, and machinery has greatly diminished 
 the extent of the emplo3anent. Including with 
 linen the workers in wool, silk^ and other textile 
 industries, in 1841 there were six hundred and 
 ninety-six thousand people employed. By 1891 
 this number had sunk to a hundred and thirty 
 thousand, probably not more than may be found 
 in a single second-rate city in many parts of 
 Europe. Since then there has been no improve- 
 ment. 
 
 Perhaps after linen the most famous product is 
 whiskey, a real or counterfeit spirit bearing the 
 name of the island being found, in every land. 
 This, however, is a trifling manufacture, the total 
 value of the twelve million gallons exported or 
 used in the country as raw spirit being not 
 much over half a million sterling, and the 
 number of men employed probably not exceeding 
 five, thousand. The stout industry is hardly so 
 
26 England's wealth ikeland's povektt. 
 
 important. The great firm of Guinness probably 
 turns out two-thirds of the whole quantity manu- 
 factured; its annual net profits are nearly a million, 
 yet it gives employment to less than two thousand 
 men. The only other trade worth mentioning is 
 shipbuilding, which has been carried on with great 
 success for about forty years in Belfast. Some 
 ten thousand men are pretty regularly employed 
 there in the two or three great yards, and there 
 can be no doubt that this industry has contributed 
 greatly to the progress of that city, but the ship- 
 building yard in Londonderry has recently been 
 closed, and there is no other part of the country 
 in which the business is carried on to any appreci- 
 able extent. 
 
 All these, and any other manufactures which 
 may be found throughout the country, are but 
 trifling in extent when compared with the single 
 great occupation of agriculture on which the 
 whole country depends. There is no way in 
 which we can realise this fact more vividly than 
 by observing the way in which the progress of 
 Belfast is confined to the narrow limits of the city. 
 The population had increased from seventy thou- 
 sand in 1841 to two hundred and fifty thousand 
 in 1891, but notwithstanding this the population 
 of the two counties, Antrim and Down, in 
 which Belfast is situated, and including the city, 
 decreased. The adjacent district did not draw 
 sufficient advantage from the growth of the great 
 
AGBICULTUBE EAELT IN THE CENTUBY. 27 
 
 market in its midst to enable it to elude the agri- 
 cultural decline which was desolating the other 
 thirty counties into which Ireland is divided. 
 
 We turn now from the manufactures to review 
 briefly the progress which the farmers were making 
 during the century. One of the best authorities 
 on the conditions of things in Ireland at the time 
 of the Union is a series of books printed by the 
 Koyal Irish Society, called " Statistical Surveys." 
 The intention was that one should be printed for 
 each county, but only some twenty volumes were 
 issued, each of which was written in the county to 
 which it referred by the most capable person the 
 Society could find. One draws from these volumes 
 the impression of a country in a fairly prosperous 
 condition, and as a type of many wide districts, 
 a passage or two concerning the County Cavah 
 may be quoted: — 
 
 " The farms range from 3 to 20 acres, very few 
 of them exceed 20 acres, but on all these farms are 
 one or more cottiers who are bound to work, not in 
 the fields but at the loom, for a regular day's hire, 
 according to agreement. . . . The farmer, or the 
 employer, who is more commonly called the 
 manufacturer, lives well, and has a good profit 
 from the industry of his cottiers. A pig, a small 
 tub of butter, and a calf pay his rent, for these 
 people hold their land on very easy terms ; a 
 manufacturer who is able to work four looms in his 
 
.28 England's wealth ibeland's poveety. 
 
 own house and employ his cottiers soon acquires a 
 comfortable independence." 
 
 " The men are principally employed in hus- 
 bandry, though some few manufacture linens., 
 The women and children spin both yarn and wool. 
 Their markets are distant and discouraging ; labour 
 may average 7d. per day through the year, but 
 they have everything cheap, provisions in abun- 
 dance, and turf quite convenient, and only for the 
 cost of rearing. Clothing is mostly furnished at 
 home, so that their expenditure is trifling if their 
 incomes are small. In fact, they rely on them- 
 selves chiefly for their necessaries, and are in a 
 great degree independent and confined to their otvti 
 concerns. Few are without a cow, and the greater 
 proportion have two or three cows." 
 
 A little further on we find the following descrip- 
 tion of a village which is now about as neglected a 
 place as one could find in a civilised country : — 
 
 " The population is yet very considerable, and 
 the linen manufacture more engaged in, and much 
 encouraged by the market at Killeshandra, where 
 coarse linens are purchased every week to the 
 average value of £1,500. The appearance of this 
 town is engaging, being neat and clean, and 
 industry and its rewards are very conspicuous, 
 everything appears comfortable ; a good market- 
 house and a brisk trade." 
 
IBISH AUTHOEITIES. 29 
 
 The first quotation gives a picture of the farmer, 
 the second of the agricultural labourer, and the 
 third of the country village at the beginning of 
 the century, each of which to-day presents a 
 melancholy contrast. 
 
 A closer inquiry still into the condition of Ireland 
 was subsequently made by a Mr. Mason, who sent a 
 series of questions to every clergyman who was resi- 
 dent in the country districts. Only some hundred 
 replies have been printed, but these describe the 
 state of three or four parishes out of every county, 
 and returns tabulated from them show that there 
 was little poverty, and practically no crime or 
 drunkenness throughout the country. These books 
 also agree with the others that have been quoted 
 in testifying to a considerable degree of comfort 
 and prosperity. Everything that the people used 
 was made at home, and after supplying their 
 wants with the excellent food produced in the 
 country, there was a considerable surplus each 
 year for export. 
 
 Exact figures are not available before the year 
 1850, but since that time the total production of 
 the principal crops shows a terrible decline. The 
 average annual production of wheat has fallen 
 since 1850 from 5-7 to 1*2 million cwts. ; oats 
 from 30"6 to 18-3 million cwts. ; turnips, 
 potatoes, and other crops exhibiting a similar 
 decline.* Evidence was given before the Eoyal 
 • See Appendix, Table I., p. 201. 
 
30 England's wealth iebland's poverty. 
 
 Commission which proved that the decrease in 
 crops during the last forty years amounts in value 
 tb twenty-four millions sterling per annum. Many 
 think that this loss has been, to a great extent, 
 made up by an increase in the value of cattle, but 
 the figures under this head show that the total 
 value of cattle is less than it was in 1869. 
 
 One of the most striking illustrations of the 
 severe distress which has affected the agricultural 
 population is found in the export of the good food 
 produced in the country, and the import of food of 
 a lower class. The great examples of this are 
 American bacon and Indian com. Irish pigs are 
 well known for their excellence, but the people who 
 rear them rarely eat the meat which they produce. 
 The American bacon, which is substituted amongst 
 the poor, is a most repulsive food, being simply a 
 solid mass of fat, often about seven inches thick. 
 Instead of the oatmeal which used to be produced 
 in such abundance, and which down to the time 
 of the famine was the staple food, Indian corn is 
 largely imported, and this forms throughout the 
 greater part of Ireland one of the principal items in 
 the food of the people for about six months out of 
 the twelve. Probably conditions of this kind can be 
 found in no other country. 
 
 There is no relief to be found from this gloomy 
 picture. The opening up of the country by 
 railways has contributed to the destruction of even 
 the local markets for home-made goods. In the 
 
LOCAL MANUFACTUBES. 31 
 
 small country town which is best known to me, 
 leather itself, and all the boots, saddlery, harness, 
 and other articles made of it, tobacco, snuS, hats, 
 candles, nails, much of the furniture, soap, rope, 
 twine, meal, flour, bread, and a great deal of linen 
 and woollen goods were made at home within my 
 own memory. Now there is not a vestige of any 
 manufacture. Thus the country districts have 
 participated to the full in the movement which 
 has swept all small industries into towns which are 
 unfortunately situated outside the island. It will 
 be necessary to allude later to the effect of the 
 depreciation in value of agricultural produce, but 
 here it may be pointed out that one of the most 
 serious aspects of this tendency is the extent to 
 which comparatively small items, such as wool, 
 hides, horns, hoofs, fat and the "waste products" 
 of the animals which are so largely produced, 
 have depreciated. Formerly these were a great 
 source of income, but now the competition of new 
 markets has reduced their value, or their place 
 has been taken altogether by new discoveries. 
 
 These details are, not a mere complaint about 
 agricultural depression. When we resume the 
 consideration of finance, it will be seen that 
 the movement of taxation has been such as 
 one might expect to find in a country that was 
 advancing in prosperity. Before entering on 
 that matter therefore, it was indispensable that 
 the ground should be sufficiently clear for the 
 
32 England's wealth ibeland's povebtt. 
 
 reader to Have in his mind a true idea of what 
 the tend^cy had really been. 
 ~ ~ The intention has not been to write a history, but 
 to put before the reader briefly the facts which have 
 been examined by the Eoyal Commissioners. These 
 may be summed up as showing that local manu- 
 factures have disappeared; and the produce of 
 agriculture, which is all the country has to depend 
 on, has so depreciated that the well-being of the 
 people has considerably diminished. 
 
 Probably this conclusion would have been ac- 
 cepted without argument as being in accordance 
 with the general experience of agricultural countries 
 in Europe. But it would not have been desirable 
 to admit it here without examination, because the 
 object is not to make any complaint of the in- 
 fluence of inevitable laws which have helped to 
 bring about this state of affairs, nor even to ask 
 assistance for the people who have to grapple with 
 such difficulties. The object is rather to suggest 
 that those who had to discharge the duty of pro- 
 viding the necessary government, should have 
 proceeded with strict economy, having regard to 
 the terrible ordeal through which the people were 
 passing. Whether attention has been paid to this 
 obligation we must now discuss. 
 
 The facts with regard to the taxation of Ireland 
 since the time of the Union can be placed before 
 the reader in short compass. Two dates must be 
 borne in mind : the first of these is the year 1817, 
 
Showing the Imperial Taxation of 
 
 and the amount of debt incurred iif very 
 
 Mas 
 
 in each year is shown in red, 
 fifth year is given * the 
 
TAXATION A HUNDRED YEAES SINCE. 33 
 
 in which the separate Debt and Chancellor disap- 
 peared ; and the second is the year 1853, in which 
 the present system came into operation. The pro- 
 ceedings during the earlier period will be eluci- 
 dated by reference to Diagram II., which is 
 divided into three parts, and comprises a period 
 of thirty-five years. The first of the three 
 divisions shows the taxation from 1790-1800; 
 the second shows the following eighteen years 
 when the Imperial Parliament had assumed the 
 responsibility of government, to 1817, and the 
 third, the next nine years. The diagram is divided, 
 so that the total imposition of burden, the amount 
 of money actually furnished, and the debt that 
 was incurred in each year, can be seen. 
 
 In the first four years the figures are small, not 
 exceeding a million or a million and a half in any 
 one year, and there is hardly any debt. Even 
 down to the Eebellion in 1798 the taxation never 
 exceeded two millions per annum. For the require- 
 ments of a country conducted on the scale to which 
 the British are accustomed these seem trumpery 
 figures. Yet let us bear in mind that down to the 
 last year in which her own Parliament governed the 
 country, Ireland knew no higher amounts . However 
 trumpery the figures may be, they represented 
 the full contribution which, under great pressure, 
 a population as large and as rich as now exists in 
 the island was asked to furnish while such matters 
 remained under the guidance of her own states- 
 
 4 
 
34 England's wealth ieeland's povebty. 
 
 men. These Budgets were introduced into the 
 Council of the nation, and were discussed with 
 all the human passions which play around 
 such matters by men whose eloquence and 
 genius would have adorned any senate. Small as 
 the sums were, the record of a period in which 
 larger contributions have been somehow exacted 
 makes one wonder whether men were not wiser in 
 those old days than we are now. 
 
 The beginning of British misconceptions may 
 be traced to this period. Owing to the French 
 War, from about 1794 the expenses of the 
 country had considerably increased. Then the 
 suppression of the Irish Rebellion swelled the 
 national burdens still more. During the two 
 years after the Eebellion the country was kept 
 full of soldiers, and finally the Act of Union 
 itself, which cost a million and a half to carry, 
 made the fourth great abnormal charge. Any 
 one of these expenses would have been very 
 serious, but taken together they created a burden 
 such as Ireland never had to bear before. The last 
 three of these great items should certainly have 
 been mainly borne by Great Britain. It was by 
 her troops and in her interest that the rebellion 
 was stamped out; and this remark applies still 
 more to the charges for the army for the next 
 two years and to the cost of carrying the Union., 
 Yet all were flung upon the shoulders of Ireland, 
 and their efiect was to raise the taxation from 
 
GROWING EXPENDITURE. 35- 
 
 less than one to two and a half millions, and the 
 expenditure to five or six millions, and to saddle 
 Ireland in seven years with a debt of twenty-six 
 millions. 
 
 The placing of this load on the back of Ireland 
 was not the worst part of the business. When 
 Pitt, Castlereagh, and the other statesmen who- 
 fixed the financial terms of the Act of Union were 
 considering what Ireland should pay, they did not 
 take the normal years from 1790-1794, but the 
 most abnormal, 1799-1800. They assumed that 
 Ireland could continue to pay the amount she had 
 then paid. This was the fatal error against which 
 both countries have been struggling ever since. 
 Some curiosity will be felt to know what contribu- 
 tion Ireland made in those days towards Imperial 
 taxation. This was settled under the Irish Act 
 of 1769, by which three thousand men were pro- 
 vided for the foreign service of Great Britain. 
 About 1793 a new understanding was arrived at, 
 by which the number was increased to five thou- 
 sand, and a money contribution was provided. 
 This arrangement should be borne in mind, as it 
 is the most that experience justifies us in saying^ 
 the island could undertake and at the same time 
 pay her own way. 
 
 The moment we enter upon the first eighteen 
 years of the century, any complaint about trumpery 
 figures ceases. From the first the payment each 
 year exceeded three millions ; by 1805 it had risen 
 
36 England's wealth Ireland's poverty. 
 
 to four ; by 1807 to five ; and by 1814 to six and 
 a half millions, which was about the largest sum 
 which could be squeezed out in any single year. 
 In every one of the years an amount of debt was 
 incurred equal to the whole sum realised by 
 taxation until, in the year 1815, we have ten and 
 a half millions of debt in addition to the taxation, 
 or altogether Ireland incurring an expenditure in 
 the one year of seventeen millions. 
 
 One cannot review even this small section of the 
 liabilities which the Imperial Parliament then 
 undertook without trying to realise the greatness 
 of the movement in which it was taking such a 
 brilliant part. At Waterloo its armies attained 
 their most splendid triumph, but for twenty years 
 previously the fame of its generals on land was 
 only rivalled by the great achievements of its 
 admirals at sea. Financial obligations of the most 
 onerous character had to be incurred, but the 
 wonderful development of British prosperity en- 
 couraged those who were responsible to undertake 
 them with a light heart. Out of the stress and 
 turmoil of these times there came a long peace, 
 and the expansion, as if by magic, of the Empire, 
 with its untold wealth and possessions, scattered 
 over all the world. 
 
 The story of all these victories only reached Ire- 
 land as a vague legend in which she had no share. 
 The close of the war and the fall in prices, which 
 brought so much happiness and rehef to the people 
 
CLOSE OF THE WAB. 37 
 
 in Great Britain, brought the first touches of 
 disaster to her. In Ireland no revival of trade 
 followed the close of the war. On the contrary, 
 the country had only been able to struggle along 
 xmder the great burden of taxation by the help of 
 the war prices for provisions, and the peace fell like 
 a crushing calamity on every section of the popu- 
 lation. 
 
 Some true idea of the critical position in which 
 the island stood seems to have penetrated the 
 mind of the Government. With the end of the 
 year 1817 the extraordinary system of financing 
 which had been followed since the time of the 
 Union was abandoned, and a fall in taxation 
 took place to the extent of about a million per 
 annum, so that the total sum exacted gradually 
 fell to about five millions, an amount which was 
 not much exceeded during the next thirty years. 
 The practice of charging Imperial debt to Ireland 
 was abandoned, and English statesmen appear to 
 have realised that the limit of what could be 
 exacted from her had been reached. Before pro- 
 ceeding to the period after 1817 it is necessary to 
 understand clearly on what principle the various 
 charges against Ireland which we have described 
 were made, and what was the real effect of the 
 change in the system of that year. 
 
 The Act of Union provided that Ireland should 
 pay (a) the annual charge upon her debt contracted 
 before the Union, and (6) two-seventeenths of the 
 
38 bkgland's wealth ibeland's poveety. 
 
 joint expenditure of the United Kingdom. The 
 total of these amounts was therefore charged each 
 year, but the sum was so large that, notwithstand- 
 ing every efEort, the taxes could not be made to pro^ 
 duce it. Only the sums which have been set out 
 were actually collected, the balance being added to 
 her pre-union debt. In the seventeen years the 
 total amount required for her separate charges 
 and her share of the joint expenditure was, 
 roundly, a hundred and sixty-two millions ; of this 
 sum she paid about half, and the other moiety was 
 added to her debt, which amounted at the close 
 of the period altogether to about a hundred and 
 thirteen millions. 
 
 Throughout the century controversy has raged 
 around the question whether Parliament inter- 
 preted the financial clauses of the Act of Union 
 justly. Many Irishmen of great authority have 
 urged that this has not been done. The main 
 charge is that, instead of the debt which had 
 to be incurred being raised jointly, and then the 
 burden being laid on the two countries in the pro- 
 portion fixed, large amounts of separate debt were 
 raised and charged to Ireland. Certainly it would 
 seem, from the terms of the Act that the former 
 method should have been pursued. The latter course 
 made that increase in the Irish debt inevitable 
 which the statesmen of 1812 to 1816 seized on as 
 a pretext for doing away with the separate financial 
 system. Colour is given to the Irish contention 
 
PROGRESS OF THE IRISH DEBT. 39 
 
 by the evidence submitted by the Treasury, which 
 ishows that during the seventeen years Ireland's 
 debt increased in far larger proportion than did 
 the debt of Great Britain. 
 
 At the commencement the debt of Ireland 
 was to the debt of Great Britain as one is 
 to fifteen and a half ; the amounts added to 
 €ach during the seventeen years were as one 
 is to six and a half; and the increase was 294 
 per cent, in the Irish debt, while it was only 
 €5 per cent, in the debt of Great Britain. 
 On the other hand, a powerful and ingenious 
 defence has been made in one or two long state- 
 ments put in by Sir Edward Hamilton, and it 
 must be admitted that the growth of debt might 
 be explained by the taxes in each year falling 
 short. It seems almost incredible that anything 
 unfair should have been done intentionally ; 
 and, if we are able rightly to apprehend the 
 real question, the matter possesses mainly an 
 historic interest. The long defence of the Treasury 
 is simply to the effect that the contract of the Act 
 of Union had to be carried out, and that this, so 
 far as possible, was done. 
 
 The important question for Ireland is, whether 
 the scheme of the Act was just or practicable. 
 Let us try to realise what the situation was. The 
 opposition to the idea of the Union arose from a 
 spirit of antagonism to a political union. Ireland 
 was thinking of her historic position, her liberties, 
 
40 England's wealth ieeland's povebty. 
 
 and her life as a nation. If these had to be 
 sacrificed, what mattered the wretched stipulations 
 as to money. All the storm raged about these 
 high considerations, and when on these the battle 
 was lost, few in Ireland were in any humour to 
 fight out the details of a Just financial scheme. 
 But, even if there had been every wish to do so, 
 was it practicable? It is a sufficiently difficult 
 work in each separate year to provide, in a poor 
 country, the necessary resources without imposing 
 burdens unjust or intolerable in their nature. But 
 in this case we are asked to suppose that men were 
 suddenly so gifted, that they were able to insert 
 in a clause of a great Act of Parliament a 
 scheme so fair and just that it would form a 
 sound foundation for the finance of Ireland for 
 ever. Surely the thing is ludicrous. We may 
 admit then the Treasury defence to the full, that 
 the contract should be observed. This was Shy- 
 lock's defence, and it does not concern us. No 
 one will deny that when the momentous step of 
 depriving Ireland of her own Parliament was 
 taken, the obligation remained to substitute a 
 just and humane system instead of that which 
 had been destroyed. Justice and humanity may 
 or may not be considerations that influence the 
 arguments submitted by departments of State, 
 but they are considerations that cannot be per- 
 manently ignored. 
 The evidence furnished by the Royal Commis- 
 
FAILURE IN THE YIELD OF TAXES. 41 
 
 sion makes it perfectly clear that not only were 
 the plain obligations which we have named for- 
 gotten, but that the restraints which ordinary pru- 
 dence might have imposed were overstepped, and 
 that the exactions of the period fell with crushing 
 effect on Ireland. To provide the heavier burdens 
 all the taxes had to be increased, but at the higher 
 rates they not only failed to produce the ratio of 
 increase, but they actually produced less in many 
 years than they had done at the lower rates. 
 The taxes of 1801 produced ^6400,000 less than 
 the taxes of 1800. The year 1802 was short by 
 a similar amount, 1804 and 1811 by much larger 
 sums. This occurred notwithstanding that the 
 duties on spirits, malt, teas, and tobacco were 
 doubled. This is the most conclusive evidence 
 that the limits of prudence had been far over- 
 stepped, and that those deadly blows were begin- 
 ning to fall on Ireland which have so seriously 
 affected her prosperity through the century. 
 
 With regard to 1817 it is necessary to appreciate 
 accurately what was the idea that had then deve- 
 loped, and how far it was carried out. Since, 
 owing to its increase, Ireland's debt had come 
 within the ratio of two to seventeen to the debt of 
 Great Britain, Parliament arrived at the conclusion 
 that fiscal distinctions might be abolished, and 
 that the protection which had hitherto been 
 given to Ireland by the Act might be withdrawn. 
 This was the most formidable step that had yet 
 
42 England's wealth Ireland's povebtt. 
 
 been taken against Ireland. It is hard to see by 
 what chain of reasoning statesmen arrived at such 
 a momentous decision. How could the fact that 
 Ireland's debt had become greater, make her 
 any more fit to bear equal taxation with the richer 
 country ? It will be seen hereafter that Pitt had 
 many reasons entirely unconnected with the debt 
 for not attempting fiscal unity between the two 
 islands, but Parliament, owing to his untimely 
 death, was left without the guidance which he 
 might have afforded. 
 
 Undoubtedly the intention in 1817 was to 
 carry the Union farther than Pitt had done 
 in 1801, and by doing away with the separate 
 Chancellor and Exchequer to establish com- 
 plete fiscal union between the two kingdoms. 
 But the idea was not fully carried out. There 
 was a clearer grasp then of the situation than 
 remained possible later, and statesmen had a 
 sense of the restrictions which the facts of Irish 
 life imposed upon their desires. Therefore, 
 though the recommendations which were finally 
 moved in the House were adopted almost unani- 
 mously, practically fiscal union was not attempted. 
 Several taxes were reduced, and on some articles 
 of great importance to her, Ireland was treated 
 differently from Great Britain. The assimi- 
 lation of certain duties led to one practical 
 result of great importance. The Customs cordon 
 between the two islands was abolished, and it 
 
IMPORTANT FACTS OBSCURED. 43 
 
 became extremely difficult afterwards to discover 
 what was the true revenue of the country. A 
 great deal of the ignorance which has since arisen 
 in connection with the financial relations may be 
 traced to this incidental result of the new system. 
 The period from 1817 to 1853 may be quickly 
 disposed of. With one or two great exceptions no 
 change, hostile to Ireland, was made in her taxation 
 throughout all that time. Irish Imperial taxa- 
 tion, which amounted to an average of 14s. 5d. 
 per head in the year 1820, stood at 13s. lid. 
 per head in 1850. These figures, however, com- 
 pare very inadequately with the reduction which 
 took place in G-reat Britain. There Imperial 
 taxation stood at £3 10s. per head in 1820, 
 and it had fallen to ^62 7s. 8d. in 1850. It 
 wiU thus be seen that one-third of the taxation 
 per head was taken off in Britain, while prac- 
 tically nothing at all was taken ofE in Ireland. 
 The explanation of this is, that advantage was 
 taken of the change of ideas in 1817 to equalise 
 the Tobacco Duty between the two countries. 
 Next to the duty on spirits this is the most im- 
 portant tax which is levied in Ireland. Until 
 1819 the wise tradition of her own statesmen 
 in favour of a low duty had been observed. On 
 the other hand high duties were the rule in 
 England. The result of the equalisation was, 
 that the duty on unmanufactured tobacco was 
 raised from Is. to 3s. per lb., and the duty 
 
44 England's wealth ieeland's povebty. 
 
 on manufactured tobacco and cigars from Is. to 
 16s. In 1825 4s. per lb. were imposed; in 1840 
 there was an increase of 5 per cent. ; in 1842 a 
 further 3d. in the pound was added. It is difficult 
 to make a wealthy people, who have long easily 
 borne such charges themselves, realise the cruelty 
 of these exactions. The figures given above may 
 help a little to do so. To make possible the 
 frugal existence, which appears to be all that 
 can be hoped for in Ireland, there are a very few 
 absolute necessities, and of these tobacco seems 
 to be one. 
 
 The evidence of Mr. W. L. Micks, secretary to 
 the Congested District Board, shows that in the 
 most poverty-stricken parts a large proportion of 
 the small incomes invariably goes in the purchase 
 of tobacco and snufE. The average cost was placed 
 at one shilling, out of a total expenditure for the 
 family of six or eight shillings per week. " The 
 consumption is great . . . that is a fair average. 
 ... It is rather higher in some parts of Donegal. 
 . . . There are about one and a half smokers in 
 a family. . . . The very old women smoke as a 
 rule. . . . Many of the women snuff." The prin- 
 ciple of the enormous duty is justified by the 
 argument that the article is a luxury. But is 
 it not foolish to suppose that such people have 
 any luxuries. The attempt to justify charging 
 such a population a duty of eight times the value 
 of the article seems to rest on no better foundation 
 
THE TOBACCO TAX. 45 
 
 than any other form of tyranny. The incapacity of 
 the British Parliament to appreciate this practically 
 deprived Ireland of all the advantage she might have 
 gained from the abolition of the War taxes, and did 
 much to prepare the way for the calamities that fell 
 upon the country towards the end of the period 
 with which we are dealing. The evil effects could 
 not be statistically observed as the Customs 
 cordon had been abolished, and it is only in 1895 
 that it has been found possible to ascertain how 
 much Ireland was paying under the new rates. 
 The tobacco toll gradually mounted up to a million 
 and a quarter per annum, which is about the sum 
 paid, before this single comfort can be enjoyed. 
 
 Apart from this and an equalisation of the Stamp 
 Duty in 1842, which exacted about an additional 
 JE120,000 a year, the tradition that equal taxa- 
 tion must not be attempted and that the course of 
 safety demanded that Ireland should be relieved, 
 received many illustrations. The most remarkable 
 instances were in 1842, when Sir Eobert Peel im- 
 posed the Income Tax on Great Britain without 
 extending it to Ireland, and in the following 
 year when he took ofi an additional duty of Is. 
 per gallon which he had imposed upon Irish 
 whiskey. One might have hoped that this concilia- 
 tory disposition, if not sufficient to restore some of 
 the prosperity which had existed before the Union 
 took place, might at least have staved off any 
 serious calamity. Any such hope was doomed 
 
46 England's wealth Ireland's poveett. 
 
 to disappointment. During the years 1846 and 
 1847 the whole island was desolated by famine 
 and nearly two millions of people were swept 
 away within a short period by death or emigration. 
 The famine, like every other incident that occurs 
 in Ireland, is explained away in a somewhat easy 
 fashion in Great Britain, and no doubt the failure 
 of the potato, which was the immediate cause, 
 gives an air of plausibility, in this instance, to the 
 explanations. But the question remains why the 
 population of the island should have been, to such 
 a large extent,, dependent upon the potato, which 
 is about the lowest form of subsistence upon which 
 a nation can rely. 
 
 In dealing with the last of the three periods 
 it is still necessary to bear in mind the contrast 
 between the two islands. In the year 1853 in 
 Great Britain the growing commercial prosperity 
 had been stimulated into the greatest activity 
 by the repeal of the Corn Laws. One interest 
 alone in the country, agriculture, had received 
 a blow and was even then becoming dimly con- 
 scious of the bad times that were in store for 
 it. But the ports had been opened, the ships 
 of all nations had commenced to crowd into 
 them to deposit at the doors of the artizans 
 food of every kind, plentiful and cheap, and to 
 carry away in return the manufactures of the 
 country. Eailwaya were developing, the work- 
 men were busy, not only at home but in many 
 
COMMEECIAIi CONTBASTS. 47 
 
 other countries, building the lines and providing 
 the rolling stock and machinery to work them. 
 If a few country towns were languishing, a 
 dozen great cities were expanding, each one with 
 trade and population sufficient to rival the capitals 
 of other nations. 
 
 Perhaps it was the pulsation of this great move- 
 ment, or the reaction after the painful feeling which 
 had been evoked by the sufferings of the country 
 during the years of famine, that made statesmen 
 lose touch with Ireland. However it may be ex- 
 plained, we cannot help being struck with the in- 
 opportuneness of the fiscal policy which Parliament 
 now adopted. Ireland had just passed through 
 the most terrible ordeal to which any nation can 
 be subjected. One-fourth of her population had 
 been swept away, and every interest in the country 
 had been shaken to its foundation. After this 
 dark period the dawn was breaking, and Irish 
 hearts, ever hopeful, were beginning the slow 
 work of getting the social system reconstituted. 
 But as the famine receded the effects of the 
 Pree Trade Policy began to operate, and the 
 country had not long to wait to discover, in 
 the movement which was carrying riches and 
 prosperity to G-reat Britain, the certain signs of 
 further trial and disaster for her. The popu- 
 lation, insufficiently fed and housed, could not be 
 expected to refuse admission to the cheap and 
 inferior food and clothes which began to be thrust 
 
48 England's wealth ieeland's povebtt. 
 
 in at all the ports. The growing of wheat com- 
 menced to decay, the corn mills in every village, 
 which had supplied the wants of the people from 
 time immemorial, became idle and fell into ruins. 
 The local industries which had abounded in every 
 part of the country were destroyed by the compe- 
 tition of the manufacturing towns in Great Britain. 
 Every class of Irish producer saw its prosperity 
 undermined and ruin staring it in the face. One 
 cannot look back at that period in which the fate of 
 the country for the next half-century was decided, 
 without seeing what good might have been accom- 
 plished if even a little consideration had been 
 extended. The nation collectively could have 
 lived better, if not more cheaply, if it had con- 
 tinued to grow its own food and make its own 
 clothes. But the trader with cheap foreign goods 
 to offer appealed to the individual consumer, and 
 thus the home market for each class of producers 
 was gradually spoiled. 
 
 There might have been, at any rate, a more patient 
 effort to continue the production of flour and meal 
 made from their own home-grown wheat and oats. 
 These and the excellent woollen manufactures of 
 the country would, in the long run, have been 
 more economical than the bad substitutes which 
 were so hastily accepted. But nothing was 
 done. Not even an encouraging word was 
 spoken. No one in Parliament seemed capable 
 of recognising that there was a crisis or any 
 
THE CHANGE OF 1863. 49 
 
 need for ameliorative measures. The moment was 
 seized as auspicious for breaking away from the 
 pohcy which had lasted since 1817, and adopting 
 complete fiscal Union. The effect of this was to 
 deprive the country of all hope of recovery and 
 to lay the foundations for the Ireland which this 
 generation has seen, with its declining wealth 
 and population, constantly recurring famines, and 
 ever-increasing pauperism and discontent. 
 
 The Income Tax, which was reimposed in Eng- 
 land in the year 1842, had never been extended 
 to Ireland. But in 1853 Parliament was induced 
 to take this step by the specious argument that 
 the impost would only fall upon the richer classes. 
 If the object had been to relieve the poor of an 
 amount corresponding to that exacted from the 
 rich, this policy might be approved. There is 
 no country in the world that benefits more by the 
 substitution of direct for indirect taxation than 
 Ireland. Therefore the criticism of the extension 
 of the tax is limited to the impolicy of making 
 any addition whatever to taxation. Considering 
 the contrast at this period between the two 
 countries, one is astounded that such a heavy 
 burden should have been inflicted so recklessly. 
 By the imposition of the Income Tax in Great 
 Britain in 1842 five and a half millions were col- 
 lected, but this made possible a relief to the extent 
 of twelve millions by the removal of the corn 
 duty and other taxes. Scarcely any of this relief 
 
 5 
 
60 England's wealth ibeland's poveety. 
 
 reached Ireland, while the abolition of the Corn 
 Laws dealt her single resource a deadly blow. 
 The " springs of industry " which were set loose 
 in Britain did not exist in Ireland, and the least 
 that might have been expected was, that no 
 new burdens should have been imposed in those 
 dark days, when she was striving to live through 
 the trial which Free Trade had made necessary. 
 No such consideration, however, was shown. 
 An Income Tax of sevenpence was levied by 
 Mr. Gladstone in 1853 ; in 1855 it was raised to 
 fourteen-pence, and in 1856 to sixteen-pence, in 
 accordance with the changes in Great Britain. 
 Perhaps nothing exhibits the bad results of this 
 policy more clearly than the fact that the seven- 
 pence then realised nearly two hundred thousand 
 pounds more than eightpence realises now. 
 
 In 1853 Mr. Gladstone also imposed an addi- 
 tional duty of 8d. per gallon on Irish whiskey, 
 lightly remarking that "he could not see that it 
 was a part of the rights of man that the Irishman 
 should be able to make himself drunk more cheaply 
 than the inhabitant of Great Britain." This 
 suggestion, that the chief use of whiskey in Ireland 
 is to get drunk with, will be fully examined later, 
 with the kindred argument that springs from it, 
 that Irishmen might relieve themselves altogether 
 from burdensome taxation by being sober. In 
 the year 1854, recognising that the consumption 
 of whiskey had not fallen off, another 8d. was put 
 
THE WHISKEY TAX. 51 
 
 on. These tentative efforts were eclipsed in the 
 year 1855 by Sir G-. C. Lewis, who added 2s. 2d. 
 more ; and in 1858 Mr. DisraeH assimilated, for 
 the first time, the duty on whiskey in the two 
 islands by raising it to 8s. In the year 1860 it 
 was further raised to 10s. The result of these 
 continuous increases may be summed up by 
 saying that the Tax for Imperial purposes, 
 which had stood at 13s. lid. per head in the 
 year 1850, had been raised to 26s. 7d. ten years 
 later. The whiskey tax stood at 10s. until the 
 year 1890, when it was raised to 10s. 6d., and in 
 1894 it was again increased to lis., the additional 
 6d., however, being struck off in the spring of 1896. 
 The careful tables now issued bring out one other 
 fact on this important subject. By the hasty and 
 excessive increases of duty the Irish contributions 
 to Imperial expenses were increased by nearly 
 three millions per annum. But this apparent 
 advantage was only temporary and illusory ; by 
 1870 nearly a million of it had disappeared, owing 
 to the increased expenditure in Ireland, no doubt 
 made necessary by the new policy of exaction ; in 
 1880 another million and a quarter had gone, 
 and by 1894, so far had the foolish establish- 
 ment swollen, that, although the tax had been 
 raised to lis. per gallon as compared with 2s. 8d., 
 the net contribution to Imperial charges was 
 ^847,684 per annum less than in the year 1850. 
 * See Appendix, Table II , p. 202. 
 
62 ekgland's wealth Ireland's poverty. 
 
 Thus the well-known law asserts itself, and the 
 impolitic and exorbitant increase of a tax is 
 found not to raise but to diminish available 
 revenue. 
 
 In reviewing this period before the Royal Com- 
 mission, Sir Edward Hamilton admitted that 
 Ireland had been " hard hit " between 1853 and 
 1864, but in subsequent evidence he drew a some- 
 what artificial distinction between these eleven years 
 and the thirty-one years following; Seeing that 
 both the Income Tax and the high whiskey duty 
 have been levied ever since, one is unable to 
 recognise how the hardship, admitted in the first 
 period, has not extended down to the present 
 time. The chief incident in Ireland of the last 
 forty years has been the decrease in her population. 
 Surely the burdens which hit the many hard are 
 not easy for the few to bear. 
 
 Since the year 1860, whilst every effort has been 
 made to keep Imperial taxation up to the high point 
 then reached, the chief additions to the annual 
 payments of the people have taken place in local 
 taxation.* Down to 1840 the total local taxation 
 was under a million and a half; in 1895 it was 
 nearly four millions. Parliament is to all intents and 
 purposes responsible for this expenditure. In the 
 British sense no local authorities exist : the various 
 institutions throughout the counties are devised at 
 Westminster and are controlled, so far as there is 
 * See Appendix, Table III., p. 203. 
 
LOCAL TAXING AUTHOEITIES. 63 
 
 any control, by the administration which is seated 
 in Dublin. 
 
 The two chief spending organisations are the 
 Boards of Guardians and the Grand Juries, about 
 the same rate, two shillings in the pound, being 
 levied by each. The amount received in grants 
 from the Imperial taxes is nearly four hundred 
 thousand a year, but in spite of this the local 
 burdens continue to increase, and they now amount 
 to over sixteen shillings per head of the population 
 annually, against three shillings in 1840. 
 
 There are 159 Poor Law unions with work- 
 houses, but instead of being controlled by 
 Guardians freely elected by the people, each 
 Board is dominated by ex-officio Guardians. 
 Under the old system, which was swept away 
 in 1894 in Great Britain, ex-officio Guardians 
 generally recognised their anomalous position, 
 and either supported the policy of the repre- 
 sentatives of the people or, at any rate, did 
 not control the machine in a manner hostile to 
 popular wishes. But in Ireland no such restraints 
 are observed. The chief occasions on which the 
 ex-officio Guardians crowd the Boards are when 
 there is patronage to be disposed of, and so the 
 national burden swells. It is gradually being recog- 
 nised that the system of maintaining great work- 
 houses on an expensive scale is most extravagant 
 and unsuitable for agricultural districts. In Ireland 
 the cumbrous machinery, hurriedly created in the 
 
54 England's wealth Ireland's povEETy. 
 
 years before the famine, is now pressing the life 
 out of the counties which it was designed to 
 reheve. The population has fallen to half, but the 
 workhouses are stiU maintained on a more extra- 
 vagant scale than ever. Children are happily 
 being cleared "out of the dreary institutions, yet 
 the teachers of various faiths are still paid 
 for attending to scholars that are gone. Under 
 any wise system there would be practically 
 no pauperism in the country districts. The 
 produce of the harvest is meagre, but it is com- 
 paratively regular, and the cruel fluctuations that 
 arise in crowded industrial centres, which are 
 the chief cause of pauperism, are unknown. The 
 recipients of relief are representatives, not of a par- 
 ticular class, but of the bulk of the population, 
 who are so pressed by the burdens of rent and 
 taxes that they often have to accept, in one portion 
 of the year, relief from the source to which they 
 themselves have contributed in another portion. 
 
 The Grand Jury system of Ireland is a mystery 
 to the people who are oppressed by it, so that it 
 is not easy to make it intelligible to others. A 
 high sheriff nominated by the Lord-Lieutenant 
 selects twenty- three gentlemen, of whom one in 
 each barony must have a ^50 freehold or leasehold 
 -qualification, and these form the body which 
 exercises the greatest power in the Irish county. 
 There is no principle of selection ; the names are 
 not published beforehand, and a different body is 
 
12 
 
 10 
 
 8/6 8/'f 
 
 8/z 
 
 % 
 
 1795 
 
 % 
 
 1820 
 
 ^ 
 
 1850 
 
 3^ 
 
 32io 
 
 m 
 
 I8» 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 DIAGRAM III. 
 
 I 
 
 ^ 
 
 Showing the total Taxation of Ireland for each year from 1790-1795, and for 
 1 80 1 and every tenth year until 1 890, and for 189 1, '92, '93, and '94. The 
 Imperial taxation is shown in red, the Local taxation in blue. The figures at 
 the top of the columns represent the taxation per head of the population in each 
 year. The figures at each side of the Diagram are millions. The figures along 
 the top are the years to which the columns refer, and underneath is printed the 
 population at certain periods. The Tifirnl fiHiiiiiiii in inimiitrf^ ];"■?"■■'' t9.in 
 
THE GEAND JUET CESS. 55 
 
 constituted every six months, when one meeting 
 is held in which the business is hastily transacted. 
 The Judge of Assize approves the recommendations, 
 and there is no further appeal, no control by any 
 department of State, no power of surcharge. Eoads 
 and bridges are the chief sources of expenditure, 
 accounting for three-quarters of a million, or as 
 much as the whole expenditure amounted to fifty 
 years ago. When one remembers that during this 
 period all heavy traf&c has been taken off the roads 
 and carried on railways, and that the population 
 has fallen to half, this item seems very extra- 
 ordinary. An "abstract" of a single county for 
 one six months, throws no light on the mystery. 
 It contains nine hundred " presentments " elabo- 
 rately set out in a form which defies examination. 
 There is no summary of the works, no average 
 cost per mile of road, not even the number of the 
 bridges, or roads, to be repaired in the county, no 
 useful detail or general statement of any kind. 
 
 The incidence of the various changes made in the 
 century are exhibited in Diagram III., which shows 
 the total taxation in each year from 1790-1796, and 
 then in every tenth year until 1885, and during each 
 year from 1890-1895. All the figures which are 
 shown on the diagram, give the true revenue as 
 contributed, and not the amount collected in 
 Ireland, some part of which might afterwards be 
 refunded by Great Britain.* A singular example of 
 • See Appendix, Table III., p. 203. 
 
66 England's wealth Ireland's poveett. 
 
 the robustness of wrong ideas is afforded by the 
 mistakes which are current with regard to this 
 matter. Once in the House of Commons a promi- 
 nent member observed to me that Irishmen paid 
 no taxes at all, as everything they were under the 
 impression they paid was afterwards refunded by 
 England and Scotland. This story gives, in 
 exaggerated form, a popular mistake which the 
 work of the Eoyal Commission should silence. 
 
 With regard to Imperial, which is distin- 
 guished from local, taxation, it wiU be seen that 
 although the increases are for the most part limited 
 to two war periods, yet the heavy impositions then 
 made were always sustained afterwards in times 
 of profound peace. The diagram exhibits, in a clear 
 form, the steady and continuous progress from a 
 total tax of nine shillings to one of forty-nine 
 shillings per head. In this respect there is a 
 strong contrast with Great Britain, where the 
 average taxation paid per head of the popu- 
 lation during the first sixteen years of the 
 century was £4 13s. 4d. against an Irish average 
 of 14s. ,6d. Under these respective burdens 
 the larger island continually advanced in pros- 
 perity, while the smaller island had her pro- 
 gress checked and the foundations laid for those 
 evils which developed so rapidly afterwards. By 
 the end of the century the Imperial taxation in 
 G-reat Britain had fallen to ^2 4s. lOd. per head, 
 while the amount paid in Ireland had risen to 
 
FINAL EESULT OF THE CENTURY. 67 
 
 £1 8s. lOd. per head ; thus the result of the progress 
 of the whole century is that the inhabitant of Great 
 Britain has had his Imperial taxation cut down to 
 half, while the inhabitant of Ireland has had his 
 doubled. 
 
 The local taxation has increased in still greater 
 proportions as the Government have no faculty 
 whatever for diminishing the burdens. It is 
 here that the most serious part of the tragedy- 
 is revealed. The statesmen who control the 
 destinies of Ireland are not only unable to apply 
 themselves with a single eye to one of the most 
 terrible problems which can arise in a nation, but 
 they do not seem to have the faculty of perceiving 
 that there is a problem. Owing to causes which 
 are largely within human control, the country is 
 retrograding ; its population has fallen to half ; 
 there is no sign of this movement being checked, 
 the decrease in the year 1896 being twice as much 
 as it was during 1894. No step is apparently taken 
 to meet these circumstances. It is the refinement 
 of cruelty to demand that a population cut down 
 to half shall pay double the burdens which the un- 
 diminished nation formerly contributed. 
 
CHAPTBE III. 
 
 THE DUTIES AND THE AHMED FOECES. 
 
 Peehaps the most interesting of the subjects 
 suggested in the last chapter is the current idea 
 that Irishmen could remove all the hardships of 
 the situation by abstaining from the use of whiskey. 
 As successive increases of the duty took place, the 
 quantity of whiskey consumed did not diminish. 
 From this it is urged that the story of distress in 
 the country is exaggerated. But there is another 
 equally simple interpretation of the fact, and that 
 is that the nation was using as little whiskey as it 
 could use, taking all the circumstances into 
 account, and that therefore it had to pay the price 
 that was exacted. There is no desire to suggest 
 that with improvement in the circumstances of 
 Ireland the consumption of whiskey might not be 
 expected to diminish. But there has not been 
 such improvement, and we must take account of 
 facts as they are. 
 
 When one compares the condition of the people in 
 Ireland with those in Great Britain there are three 
 circumstances which go some way to excuse the 
 consumption of stimulants by the Irishman. His 
 food is worse, the climate is damper and more 
 
 58 
 
ALCOHOL IN THE TWO ISLANDS. 59 
 
 inclement, and he is more exposed to the weather 
 by his occupations. Bearing these facts in mind, 
 it remains true that a great deal more alcoholic 
 stimulant, per head of the population, is consumed 
 in Great Britain than in Ireland. One of the valu- 
 able parts of the work of the Royal Commission 
 is the comparison of the drinking habits of the 
 two nations, which they have based on accurate 
 statistical returns. According to these tables 
 thirty gallons of beer and one gallon of spirits are 
 consumed annually in Great Britain by each 
 person ; as against sixteen gallons of beer and one 
 gallon of spirits in Ireland. The total quantity 
 of wine consumed is not large, but the British 
 consumption stands to the Irish as 8 to 5 per 
 head of the population. We thus see that, as 
 regards two out of the three great intoxicants, the 
 average Irishman only drinks about half as much 
 as the average Briton, and that as regards the 
 third, spirits, he only drinks the same quantity. 
 Surely on this record there is no cause to reproach 
 Ireland. 
 
 But the broad fact remains that each person on 
 the average consumes one gallon of spirits per 
 annum, and it is contended that he might 
 refrain from doing so, and so save 10s. 6d. of 
 the PoU tax which he now must pay. Let us 
 then consider what this single gallon per head 
 actually represents. Each person who drinks 
 spirits regularly, even if moderately, probably 
 
60 England's wealth ieeland's poveety. 
 
 takes one glass in the day. One glass each day 
 is eight gallons in the year. This means that 
 for every person who drinks spirits in Ireland 
 there are seven persons who never touch spirits. 
 It may be said that some take more than one 
 glass each day. If so, the total consumption 
 being what it is, we may even be induced to 
 look with some complaisance on the excessive 
 drinker, because he forces an increased number 
 to abstain altogether. 
 
 In this examination we must not forget the use 
 of spirits as a medicine. The actual facts of one 
 case are before my mind, which may be taken as 
 a fair and moderate example. Two years ago 
 a friend of mine residing in Ireland, then seventy- 
 five years of age, who had been a strict abstainer 
 all through life, had a severe illness in which the 
 heart was affected. Several doctors agreed that 
 a moderate use of a good stimulant was the only 
 means of restoring and prolonging health. Several 
 stimulants were tried, but none was found to 
 answer so well as old whiskey, and of this a 
 tablespoonful had to be taken three times a day. 
 This comes to ten gallons in the year. In other 
 words, the Government levy a tax of £5 5s. per 
 annum on the means of preserving the life of this 
 aged person, who has brought up a large family and 
 has in many ways done his duty by the State. In 
 a poor country such an exaction is an extremely 
 weighty burden. There are many such old 
 
AlCOHOL AS A MEDICINE. 61 
 
 persons in Ireland for whom the best medicine is 
 this product of the country. For each one there 
 must be nine entire abstainers.* 
 
 We may, then, fairly sum up this matter on the 
 facts elicited. As compared with the British the 
 Irish are moderate drinkers. Bearing in mind the 
 severe climate, their exposed occupations, and the 
 wretched diet on which they have to subsist, they 
 may even be described as abstemious. The exces- 
 sive increase of the duty on a native manufacture 
 in many ways, and considering all the circum- 
 stances, a necessity for them, has not increased 
 sobriety which, like other virtues, will only de- 
 velop when the well-being of the nation is care- 
 fully guarded. The cruel exactions of the last 
 forty years would not have been possible under 
 any of the statesmen of the earlier part of the 
 century, and they have not increased the Imperial 
 contribution, while they have largely tended to 
 the ruin of the nation. 
 
 It may be necessary to state how far it is prac- 
 ticable, in Ireland, to raise revenue by the taxation 
 of alcoholic beverages. In Great Britain at pre- 
 sent 63 per cent, of the national income is raised 
 by indirect taxes, and about 35 per cent, of the 
 amount collected by this means is raised by taxes 
 
 * Wherever any facility exists for providing substitutes for 
 spirits the people of every class readily take advantage of them. 
 But, unfortunately, the population is so scattered that it is hard 
 to make coffee-houses self-supporting, a fact brought home to 
 me by thirteen years' effort to do so in one remote district. 
 
62 England's wealth ieeland's poveety. 
 
 on alcoholic beverages. In Ireland the whole 
 amount which it is necessary to collect by in- 
 direct taxation could easily be levied on such 
 beverages. The argument is against excessive 
 taxation ; there is no suggestion that they should 
 be freed from duty. 
 
 The question may arise whether the arguments 
 used in favour of a reduction of the tax on spirits 
 in Ireland do not apply equally to Great Britain. 
 The answer is that each person on the average in 
 Great Britain uses a much larger quantity of other 
 stimulants, is better housed, and eats a more 
 sustaining diet, particularly a larger quantity of 
 animal food, than the Irishman does, therefore he 
 can more easily dispense with spirits. It must be 
 also borne in mind that the pressure of a tax 
 depends upon the size of the income that has to 
 bear it and, as it will be seen hereafter, that the 
 average income available for taxation in Great 
 Britain is ten times larger than the average 
 taxable income in Ireland, in such circumstances 
 an equally good case for reduction cannot be made 
 out. 
 
 The clue to this whole problem, as between the 
 two islands, is found in the consideration whether 
 what is taken to a great extent as a luxury in one 
 is not a necessity in the other. When we consider- 
 the articles of daily consumption in Ireland we 
 cannot help being struck by the prominent position 
 which tea and tobacco, as well as spirits, occupy. 
 
THE TAX ON TEA AND TOBACCO. 65 
 
 Notwithstanding his comparative poverty, the evi- 
 dence shows that the Irishman pays 7s. 7d. per 
 annum tax on tea and tobacco, whilst every person 
 in Great Britain, on the average, pays only 7s. In 
 the larger island all these articles are simply items 
 more or less important among an ample and varied 
 diet. In the other they are staples in what is 
 probably the most restricted dietary of any civilised 
 nation. Surely then, it is reasonable to conclude 
 that the Irishman uses such articles so largely 
 because he finds that with their help he can 
 manage to subsist on the very small income which 
 is allotted to him and, if this be so, they are 
 necessities to him in a much greater sense than 
 they are to the inhabitant of Great Britain. 
 
 The position was well summed up by Sir Eobert 
 Giffen :— 
 
 "It is only evident that in matters of taxation 
 Ireland is virtually discriminated against by the 
 character of the direct taxes which happen to be 
 on articles of Irish consumption." 
 
 The point was further elucidated in a sentence in 
 the evidence of Mr. Murrough O'Brien : — 
 
 " The standard of taxation for drink is its 
 alcoholic strength; but an exception is made in 
 favour of beer, the Englishman's principal drink ; 
 the tax upon this at the usual specific gravity of 
 
64 England's wealth ibeland's poverty. 
 
 1-055 degrees would, in proportion to its alcohol, 
 be Is. per gallon instead of 2d." 
 
 When it is remembered that three-fourths of 
 the joint population of the United Kingdom are 
 Englishmen whose consumption of beer is thirty- 
 seven gallons per head, it will be seen that this 
 discrimination in their favour exempts their great 
 national beverage and manufacture from an ex- 
 tremely large annual contribution at the expense 
 of Ireland and Scotland. 
 
 When the poor, unchanging fare which is daily 
 consumed in the cottages is considered, it wiU 
 seem little less than miraculous that over five mil- 
 lions per annum should have been levied upon these 
 necessities of life during the last five years. That 
 it forms an unequal burden is proved by the fact 
 that 76 per cent, of the whole taxation is paid in 
 Ireland, against 53 per cent, paid on the same items 
 in Great Britain. 
 
 It is useless to expect that this large matter can 
 be adequately considered without the whole ques- 
 tion of the fiscal unity of the two countries being 
 discussed. The Eoyal Commission rather refrained 
 from going into that question, as not being in- 
 cluded in the reference, but the evidence presents 
 all the materials that should enable Parliament to 
 arrive at a sound decision upon it. We have seen 
 that in 1817, while every wish to effect a fiscal 
 union was expressed and the Customs cordon 
 
FISCAL UNITY STILL INCOMPLETE. 66 
 
 was swept away, statesmen recognised that it was 
 impracticable to equalise duties with, those levied in 
 Great Britain. Even in 1863 complete fiscal unity 
 was not secured, as the Land Tax, the Inhabited 
 House duty, the Eailway Passengers duty, the 
 taxes on horses, carriages, patent medicines, 
 armorial bearings, and other assessed taxes do not 
 even now exist in Ireland, and the amount of the 
 dog tax differs in the two countries. It will be 
 said that this is evidence of a considerate dis- 
 position. Unfortunately for such a contention 
 Ireland is deprived of her share of the portion of 
 the receipts from licenses which should go to local 
 authorities, and this balances all these small 
 exemptions. 
 
 Thus we see that the taxes are still differen- 
 tiated, though at a point which gives no practical 
 relief to Ireland, and this fact is valuable evidence 
 of the impossibility of establishing complete fiscal 
 unity. It leaves the field open to discuss whether 
 the steps which have been taken were wise. In 
 connection with this matter nothing can be more 
 interesting than the opinion of Mr. Pitt himself, 
 the author of the Union. Eecognising the impor- 
 tance of his views, the Commission have printed 
 the statement of what his intentions were. The 
 first extract runs : — 
 
 " To avoid suspicion of unduly loading our sister 
 kingdom with more than her share of the expenses 
 
 6 
 
66 England's wealth ieeland's povebtt. 
 
 of the State, to obviate all imputation of partiality 
 . . . the parliaments of both countries have fixed 
 proportions to be paid by each for a limited time, 
 at the expiration of which it is presumed the 
 finances of each may so far approximate that they 
 may be assimilated and identified." 
 
 This quotation will be found to contain the gist 
 of Mr. Pitt's views on this difiicult part of the 
 problem on which he was engaged. It shows his 
 desire that the proportion fixed might not operate 
 unfairly, and that it should be reconsidered at the 
 end of a limited time ; and his remarks about the 
 finances of each of the countries approximating 
 lays down the condition which, in his view, would 
 alone justify the establishment of a fiscal union. 
 His argument developed as follows : — 
 
 " The object of the financial arrangements was 
 to eSect the gradual abolition of all distinction in 
 finance and revenue between the two countries, 
 and to accelerate the time when both countries 
 form but one fund and pay one uniform proportion 
 of taxes throughout each. It is obvious while there 
 remains a disproportion of debt they cannot form 
 one fund. That event cannot take place till, by 
 the operation of circumstances, that disproportion 
 is destroyed. ... If our sinking fund will discharge 
 our larger debt before the debt of Ireland can be 
 discharged, though not of equal magnitude, the 
 
ME. Pitt's conditions. 67 
 
 greater debt discharged in the shorter time may 
 not surpass the less debt remaining a longer time 
 unpaid ; and whenever the real value shall be 
 alike the finances of both countries may be 
 assimilated and identified, and it will remain in the 
 discretion of the United Parliaments to abolish all 
 distinctions of quotas and contributions, and to 
 fix one rate of taxation throughout the United 
 Kingdom, subject merely to such abatements as 
 from circumstances may become necessary." 
 
 From this it is clear that Mr. Pitt's intention 
 was that fiscal union should not take place until 
 the debt of Great Britain had been reduced, so as 
 to approximate to the debt of Ireland. Exactly the 
 opposite is what took place. The debt of Great 
 Britain was not reduced but nearly doubled, and 
 the debt of Ireland was increased in still greater 
 proportion, so that the approximation, which the 
 statesmen of 1812-1817 considered such as to 
 justify the union of the finances between the two 
 countries, came in a manner entirely different from 
 what Mr. Pitt had expected. Moreover, in a third 
 passage, he clearly states what must be the condi- 
 tions of fiscal union : — 
 
 "It were a consummation much to be wished 
 that the finances of both countries were so nearly 
 ahke that the system of both could be identified ; 
 but from the different proportions of debt, and 
 
68 England's wealth ieeland's poveety. 
 
 the different stages of civilisation and commerce, 
 and the different wealth of the nations, that desir- 
 able object is rendered impracticable." 
 
 Nothing can be more precise than these words. 
 It is clear that unless the differences which are 
 here so expressly stated should disappear, Mr. 
 Pitt would never have recommended fiscal union 
 between the two islands. 
 
 The question is, therefore, Have these differences 
 disappeared? Surely not. In each one of these 
 respects there is a greater contrast between Great 
 Britain and Ireland than there was in 1801. 
 Then the population of Ireland was to the popula- 
 tion of Great Britain as 2 to 5, and the capital 
 was, according to the best estimates, as 1 to 3. 
 Now the population is as 1 to 8, and the capital 
 is as 1 to 30. It is impossible to make any com- 
 parison between the commerce of the two countries, 
 because that of Ireland is so trivial. In the whole 
 of the United Kingdom the imports exceed the 
 exports as 408 exceeds 274, but when Ireland is 
 separated from the rest of the kingdom, the ex- 
 ports are found to exceed the imports as 26 exceeds 
 20. It is, however, in the quality and character of 
 these movements that the hopelessness of contrast- 
 ing the wealth of the two islands is most clearly 
 exhibited. The Irish exports are mainly the 
 excellent food of the country which, in a healthy 
 condition of affairs, would be consumed at home, 
 
BBITISH EXPOKTS verSUS lEISH. 69 
 
 while the imports are made up in great mass of 
 low-class food which the people bring in to replace 
 their own produce. The British exports, on the 
 other hand, are mainly the highly developed manu- 
 factures of the country and the produce of her rich 
 mines. It is evident, therefore, that if a comparison 
 at the beginning of the century of the different 
 stages of civilisation, commerce, and wealth in 
 each country respectively, made a fiscal union 
 impracticable, that union was more impracticable 
 twenty years later, still more so in 1853, and it 
 is a thousand times more impracticable to-day, 
 judged by all the tests which Mr. Pitt applied. 
 
 It is difl&cult to keep this matter quite separate 
 from the ideas suggested by a policy of protection, 
 yet it is absolutely necessary to do so. In the year 
 1824 the last of the preferential duties which were 
 maintained against Irish commerce were swept 
 away. Such duties should not be restored for or 
 against either island. On the other hand, so long 
 as indirect taxation for revenue purposes continues 
 to be necessary, each should be at liberty to levy 
 such amount of duty as might be necessary for its, 
 own financial obligations, and. only that amount, 
 on any articles of production or import. Such a 
 policy would not prejudicially afiect trade so long 
 as protection is absolutely excluded. At pre- 
 sent a great bulk of dutiable articles passes from 
 one to the other under bond. There are bonded 
 warehouses at all the principal ports. If the whole 
 
70 England's wealth ieeland's poveety. 
 
 quantity had to pass in bond, after some slight 
 adjustments at the commencement, it would make 
 no difference to commerce. The Irish would use 
 not less but more tea, tobacco, coffee, or dried 
 fruits, if they were allowed to distribute them 
 without duty in their own country. On the 
 other hand, the trade in Irish whiskey or Irish 
 manufactured tobacco or beer done with Great 
 Britain would not be any more prejudiced than 
 it is at present. There would be little, if any, 
 additional cost in making these arrangements. 
 
 At present the duties on beer and spirits in the 
 Isle of Man are lower than in Great Britain, yet 
 the duties are collected by the Imperial Customs 
 House. The prosperity of the Channel Islands to 
 a great extent depends on the fact that little or no 
 duties are levied on such important articles of 
 consumption. The description of these small 
 communities is such as we might wish were true 
 of Ireland, " Taxation is trifling, customs duty 
 very light,^ living cheap, pauperism unknown. . . . 
 The bulk of the holdings contain only five to eight 
 stores ; twenty acres is a large farm. The exports 
 to England amount to JBIO for every acre of land ; 
 the Imperial contribution was £415 per annum for 
 the five years ending in 1885. The population 
 keeps on increasing. In 1821 it was 49,427, in 
 1891 85,716." An Imperial contribution on the 
 same scale from Ireland would amount to JE20,000 
 pier annum, and the rich inhabitants of the Channel 
 
THE IMPERIAL CONTRIBUTION. 71 
 
 Islands in their exposed position are no more 
 entitled to escape this levy lightly than the poor 
 inhabitants of Ireland, who have to pay a hundred 
 times as much in proportion to the size of the 
 country. So far as taxation goes, size can make 
 no difference, and one can see no reason why 
 good results should not arise in Ireland from a 
 frank adoption of the same policy. There would 
 be some slight inconvenience to travellers, but 
 a consideration of this sort cannot be placed 
 against the benefit to the whole nation. Finally, 
 it must be remembered that this question is not 
 one affecting the political union between the two 
 islands. It is the original policy planned by Pitt ; 
 it was partially carried out until the year 1853 ; 
 there was some prosperity in Ireland while it con- 
 tinued ; there has been continuous decline since it 
 has been abandoned. 
 
 From these questions of the spirit duty and the 
 fiscal union between the two islands we are able to 
 trace the operation of the law under which all the 
 increases of taxation have been made. The pro- 
 cedure is founded on two principles, which have 
 grown more inflexible each year. The first prin- 
 ciple is, that in considering the time at which a 
 tax should be laid on Ireland, its amount, and its 
 form, regard shall be had only to the suitability, in 
 iill these respects, of the tax to Great Britain, and 
 secondly, that no consideration whatever shall be 
 given to objections or protests that may be made 
 
72 England's wealth Ireland's poveety. 
 
 on behalf of Ireland. Both these principles would 
 be intelhgible if the happiness of the larger numbers 
 in Great Britain were in any respect secured by 
 the financial oppression of the few in Ireland. But 
 it is not so. Great Britain does not now gain the 
 slightest advantage, as more than the amount 
 collected in Ireland is spent in that country. 
 
 Again, if Great Britain had not been able to pay 
 her own way, and yet had been strong enough to 
 exact these sums, or if the country had been 
 engaged all through the century in such a terrible 
 struggle as lasted for the first fifteen years of it, 
 one could understand, if he could not approve, 
 the course which events have taken. But how 
 different are. the actual facts. Great Britain is 
 far the richest nation in the world. Except for 
 the Crimea and the Indian Mutiny, there has been 
 no disturbance of the long peace. In a speech 
 from which we have already quoted, delivered in 
 April, 1800, Mr. Pitt said : " But it has been said, 
 'What security can you give to Ireland for the per- 
 formance of the conditions ? ' If I were asked what 
 security were necessary, without hesitation I would 
 answer, ' None.' The liberality, the Justice, the 
 honour of the people of Great Britain have never 
 yet been found deficient." One can hardly read 
 these Words without feeling that, taking them in 
 connection with all the great Prime Minister said 
 on the subject, if it had been possible for him to have 
 been in power all through the century, the course 
 
MIGHT MAKES BIGHT. 73. 
 
 of events would have been very different. His 
 imagination would have enabled him to interpret 
 the cruel situation of Ireland, and the same spirit 
 of moderation and fairness that prompted him at 
 first, would have enabled him to take steps 
 adequate to meet her difficulty. 
 
 Most people in Great Britain are so familiar 
 with the idea of Government repressing the ex- 
 pression of Irish opinion, whether in Parliament 
 or in the country, that they readily approve such 
 action. This approval is only conceded because 
 the people honestly believe that they are sanction- 
 ing the repression of turbulence and lawlessness. 
 As a matter of fact this repression has had the effect 
 of trampling down protests made in the most con-, 
 stitutional manner with the object of securing, let 
 us not say a system of honest finance, but at least 
 friendly consideration for mere money difficulties. 
 Attentioh must therefore be drawn to examples, 
 which illustrate this point. 
 
 In 1822 Sir John Newport made an emphatic 
 protest in Parliament which, no doubt, was elicited 
 by the exactions under the new Tobacco Duty. 
 He reminded the House that he had told it on 
 a former occasion that the debt which was so 
 foolishly being charged to Ireland would never be 
 repaid, a prophecy which he said had now been 
 fulfilled by the abolition of the debt. He now 
 foretold that the result of the new impositions 
 would be that Great Britain would reap a "harvest 
 
74 England's wealth Ireland's po-veety. 
 
 of discontent, not of revenue." * In 1833 Mr. 
 O'Connell called attention to the decreased con- 
 sumption of necessaries since the time of the 
 Union, and illustrated his speech with many 
 striking figures from the first fifteen years of the 
 century,! but the abolition of the Customs cordon 
 made it impossible for him to bring his arguments 
 up to date. These expostulations evoked what 
 has become the stereotyped answer of the English 
 ministers, that things were going fairly well in 
 Great Britain, and that nothing particular was 
 known about Ireland, but it must be assumed that 
 all was well there too. 
 
 In 1853 Colonel Dunne called attention to 
 the policy which was being inaugurated, and 
 pressed for the appointment of a Committee to 
 consider the condition of Ireland and the possi- 
 bility of her paying the proposed increased taxa- 
 tion. I His expostulations were brushed aside by Mr. 
 Gladstone, who said : " The Motion was extremely 
 unfortunate in respect to its form and to the time 
 in which it was made ... he could not see that 
 any Committee was wanted. . . . The matter was 
 as clear as daylight at that very moment." § Ten 
 years afterwards Colonel Dunne made the same 
 proposal, 1 1 but ultimately withdrew the motion. He 
 renewed it, however, in 1864, and this time the 
 
 * Hansard, Second Series, vol. 6, c. 1740. 
 
 t Ibid., vol. 22, c. 1136. J Ibid., vol. 27, c. 504. 
 
 § Ibid., c. 615. II Ibid., vol. 171, c. 816. 
 
IRISH PEOTESTS. 75 
 
 Committee was appointed.* Notwithstanding his 
 efEorts, beyond collecting rather inconclusive evi- 
 dence of the poverty of Ireland, no practical good 
 was achieved. This should excite no surprise. 
 Only a few select classes of the population of the 
 country were represented in Parliament at that 
 time. The people who had experienced the pangs 
 of poverty, were still shut out by the high franchise 
 and the system of open voting. Not only was 
 popular opinion unrepresented upon the Committee, 
 but the majority of its members were entirely 
 ignorant of the state of affairs in Ireland, and 
 represented, in a somewhat exaggerated form, the 
 current British ideas upon the subject. Practi- 
 cally, no figures were available such as the present 
 Eoyal Commission has had the advantage of 
 considering, and in the absence of such facts it will 
 be felt that the inquiry must have proved futile. 
 
 The name of Sir Joseph McKenna will always 
 be prominently associated with efforts to procure 
 juster financial treatment for Ireland, and he 
 has added to his many services by the evidence 
 which he gave before the present Eoyal Com- 
 mission. In 1867 he made a striking state- 
 ment in Parliament of the increase in taxation 
 which had taken place, and summed up the result 
 of Mr. Gladstone's policy as giving "one shilling 
 of relief for every pound he took out in taxes." t 
 
 * Hansard, vol. 173, c. 1199. 
 f Ibid., vol. 188, c. 1292. 
 
76 England's wealth ieeland's poveety. 
 
 In 1875, in another debate inaugurated by Sir 
 Joseph,* Mr. A. M. Sullivan aptly reminded the 
 House of G-rattan's prophecy " that Ireland would 
 stagger under a weight which was a feather on the 
 shoulders of a wealthier people." On that occasion 
 the task of replying fell to Mr. Robert Lowe, who 
 said '^that it must be shown that the individual 
 is more heavily taxed in similar circumstances in 
 Ireland than in Great Britain." This exactly 
 describes the valuable work which has now been 
 accomplished. 
 
 In 1882 and 1886 Sir Joseph McKenna 
 returned to the question, f and in the latter 
 year, for the first time, a sympathetic ear 
 was lent to his complaints. Naturally, in the 
 Home Eule debates of the same year, much 
 attention was given to the financial question, as 
 well as in 1892, but it will probably be found in 
 the long run, that the turning-point with regard to 
 the sympathy as well as the intelligence of the 
 British Parliament was reached in 1890, when Mr. 
 Goschen, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, granted 
 a Committee which was to report, among other 
 points, upon the equity of the financial relations 
 in regard to resources and population.! The work 
 which this Committee failed to accomplish has 
 been carried to a more successful conclusion by 
 
 * Hansard, vol. 222, c. 1703. 
 
 t Ibid., vol, 268, o. 912; vol. 302. c. 1089. 
 
 I Ibid., vol. 348, 0. 922. 
 
HOW PARLIAMENT TBEATS THE QUESTION. 77 
 
 the present Eoyal Commission. Still no practical 
 step has been taken and, while Parliament keeps 
 on discussing and considering the question, the 
 unfortunate people in Ireland have to pay the 
 taxes and face the ruin which the exaction of 
 them imposes. 
 
 The adoption of the ballot system in 1871 
 conferred upon Ireland, for the first time, the 
 machinery indispensable for the free expression of 
 popular opinion, and the Franchise Act of 1884 
 completed the work. Before 1884 in Grreat Britain 
 there was one vote for every nine of the popula- 
 tion ; since, there has been one for every seven. 
 But in Ireland before 1884 there was only one vote 
 for every twenty -four of the population ; to-day the 
 ratio of the representation almost corresponds with 
 the rest of the United Kingdom. These great 
 changes have necessarily produced an immense 
 effect in Parliament, yet little help has been given 
 to Ireland, by the constitutional rights which she 
 enjoys, in discussing this matter of taxation. Her 
 members are 103 in a Parliament of 670. It 
 requires little effort of the imagination to realise 
 how hopeless it is for them to try to explain their 
 particular grievances to colleagues who do not 
 suffer from them. When any plea is put forward 
 the answering cry is "What about England?" 
 — "What about Scotland ?" — " What about 
 Wales? " If, as it often happens, the question is 
 the relief of distress caused by famine in Ireland, 
 
78 England's wealth Ireland's poveety. 
 
 it is of no avail that the Irishmen endeavour to 
 explain that there is no famine in England, or 
 Scotland, or Wales. This little difference between 
 the countries is overlooked. Thus, with no sepa- 
 rate opportunity for discussing Irish finance, with 
 no figures to show what the people have had to 
 pay, and with the House not unnaturally im- 
 patient, it will readily be understood that Parlia- 
 ment seemed to hold out little hope of reform. 
 
 If the idea that the force of British opinion is 
 used to repress the demand of Ireland in favour 
 of economic administration be received with re- 
 luctance, we shall be still less likely to accept the 
 suggestion that the physical force in the country 
 is chiefly exercised to collect the unreasonable 
 demands in the shape of taxes and rent. Yet a 
 review of the course of affairs during the last half- 
 century almost necessarily leads to this con- 
 clusion. The last movement which can be dig- 
 nified by the name of an outbreak occurred in 
 1848, and it was of the most trifling character. 
 Nothing happened in connection with Fenianism 
 in 1866 which a few policemen were not able to 
 cope with, and that is thirty years ago. Therefore 
 it must be admitted that there has been a great 
 improvement in the observance of peace and 
 order, and that the people have shown an in- 
 creasing reluctance to resort to measures of violence 
 ever since they have been permitted to express 
 their desires in a constitutional manner. This is 
 
THE MILITAEY. 79 
 
 not to be wondered at. After all, the ballot is 
 more efficient than the bludgeon and, for the 
 last fifteen years at any rate, the populace 
 have seemed to be quite willing to wait patiently 
 for the results of constitutional action. While, 
 however, the peaceful condition of the country has 
 improved, the numbers of soldiers and of police 
 employed, and the expenditure in connection with 
 these forces, has steadily increased. 
 
 Some allusion has already been made to the 
 standing army that is kept up. It is only 
 necessary here to add that its annual cost 
 amounts to nine shillings per head of the in- 
 habitants, so that the expenditure on the army 
 to-day is as great as the total taxation of the 
 country was a hundred years ago.* So far no 
 disposition has been shown at any time to reduce 
 this force. During the Crimean War the army 
 in Ireland was maintained at almost its full 
 strength, and now it consists of twenty-nine thou- 
 sand men, which gives twice as large a proportion 
 of soldiers to the population of the country as was 
 formerly maintained. 
 
 For the purposes of our present inquiry the 
 Eoyal Irish Constabulary is an even more inte- 
 resting body. This celebrated force possesses 
 every characteristic of a standing army, having 
 scarcely any features in common with the police 
 forces which are known in Great Britain. Although 
 * See Appendix, Table IV., p. 204. 
 
80 England's wealth ieeland's povebty. 
 
 its squadrons are scattered over every county, they 
 are all under the command of an Inspector-General, 
 who is seated in Dublin, and the localities have no 
 control over them. The force was established in 
 1836, and it then numbered seven thousand four 
 hundred men, or one to about every one thou- 
 sand and eighty of the population, and its cost 
 was lOfd. per head of the population. Ten 
 years afterwards the numbers had increased by 
 three thousand, and by 1856, although a great 
 decrease had then taken place in the popu- 
 lation, another thousand had been added. The 
 men are armed not like British police, but 
 in accordance with our notions of soldiery. 
 They carry rifles with an appropriate supply 
 of ball cartridge, and they are housed in 
 strongly-built, we might almost say fortified, 
 barracks in every district. Those who, like my- 
 self, are familiar with these men from infancy, 
 cannot repress an expression of admiration of the 
 good qualities which they have often displayed. 
 Physically they are tall and good-looking, the pick 
 of the peasantry, well drilled and perfectly dis- 
 ciplined, and their conduct, so far as the range of 
 their duties and training extends, is highly credit- 
 able. 
 
 But here our chief concern is the question of 
 cost. Viewed from this standpoint, there is no 
 country in the world with such limited resources as 
 Ireland, which indulges in such an expensive luxury. 
 
THE POLICE. 81 
 
 In the year 1876 a system of superannuation was 
 more generally adopted, which led to the creation 
 of an army of pensioners, quite as important in 
 their effect on the resources of the country as the 
 police proper. In that year the number of men in 
 the force was just over eleven thousand, but the 
 pensioners numbered four thousand. To-day, 
 while the population is less, the force is seven 
 hundred and fifty more, and the number of 
 pensioners has grown to six thousand one hundred 
 and seventy-six, or altogether the body consists of 
 eighteen thousand men, and its annual cost is 
 6s. 4d. per head of the population ; so that this 
 secondary army costs almost as much as the 
 whole taxation of the country amounted to a 
 century ago, and there is one policeman for every 
 two hundred and fifty-seven people. It is difficult to 
 compare this cost and the numbers with the forces 
 in Great Britain, where so many of the people live 
 in cities. Perhaps the nearest approach to com- 
 parison may be made with Scotland, which has a 
 larger urban, but nearly the same total population, 
 where there is about one policeman for every thou- 
 sand people ; the cost is about 2s. 3d. per head of the 
 inhabitants, and the total cost of the force is little 
 more than the pensioners cost in Ireland, say one- 
 third of the Irish amount. 
 
 Whether there is extravagance connected with 
 the police force cannot be decided without 
 considering the nature of the work that they 
 
 7 
 
82 England's wealth Ireland's poverty. 
 
 have to perform. Perhaps this will be best 
 understood if it is looked at on a small scale 
 
 from a local standpoint. In the village of K , 
 
 which contains six hundred inhabitants, there 
 is a barrack containing ten men, including the 
 officer. According to the figures which have been 
 stated, this costs the village a thousand a year. 
 In Great Britain one policeman would be sufficient 
 for two such villages. But it will be said there is 
 more crime in Ireland, and there is probably 
 enough work for them all to do. This, however, is 
 a question not of opinion but of fact, and statistics 
 show that out of every hundred thousand people 
 there are 69"7 in prison in England, 69-6 in 
 Scotland, and only 58*4 in Ireland. In the 
 neighbourhood of this village there has been 
 no serious crime for the last half century, 
 and during that time the population of the 
 district has fallen to half, but the number of the 
 police steadily increases. The members of the force 
 are the only prosperous people in the place. They 
 are well fed and clothed, and their duties are ex- 
 ceedingly light. They collect agricultural statistics ; 
 prepare the small cases for the petty sessions held 
 each fortnight. Two await the arrival of every 
 train, and two others watch with interest its de- 
 parture. They have bicycles, dogs, and a boat for 
 fishing. 
 
 Perhaps this picture does not convey, in the 
 most vivid manner, an idea of extravagance. At 
 
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THE policeman's PAY. 83 
 
 least two villages within a few miles of the same 
 neighbourhood have disappeared, and the only 
 thing that remains is the police barrack. This, 
 however, still contains five men, the smallest 
 number allotted to any barrack, and is well main- 
 tained. 
 
 After six months' probation the pay of the 
 policeman is 21s. a week, increasing triennially to 
 25s., in addition to house-room, clothes, boots, 
 and other allowances. Promotion is rapid, and 
 during the twenty-five years of their service a 
 large proportion advance to the maximum of 
 about ^2 per week. As the men join the force 
 at about twenty-one years of age, they are able to 
 retire in the prime of life, at forty-six, on pensions 
 which range up to nearly £90 per annum. It will 
 be seen that this is a splendid opening for the 
 peasantry of a poor country, and the only pity 
 is that all cannot do as well. The wages of 
 the agricultural labourer are about 9s. per week 
 throughout Ireland : rather an unfortunate contrast 
 with the sum which the policeman receives. At 
 the end of his service the pensioner is able to 
 compete with the civilian in business, or for any 
 situation that may be vacant, with the advantage 
 of having at his back an assured income. Dia- 
 gram IV. shows the growth in numbers and 
 expense of the constabulary since the force was 
 founded in 1836. 
 
 These two armies of military and police taken 
 
84 England's wealth Ireland's poverty. 
 
 together number forty-eight thousand, one per cent, 
 of the whole population, or allowing five persons 
 to each family, one armed man to every twenty 
 peasants. The total cost amounts to three and a 
 half millions, or about sixteen shillings per head of 
 the population. Considering the extreme poverty 
 of the people, and the small amount of crime 
 as compared with Great Britain, it is difficult to 
 conclude that these forces are maintained for the 
 legitimate requirements of government. 
 
 It may be worth while to add that every means 
 of offering any resistance to the law has been long 
 since carefully withdrawn from the people. It is 
 exceedingly difficult for the farmer to obtain per- 
 mission to keep even a fowling-piece. Axms of 
 every kind have been rigorously cleared out of the 
 country, and the Act forbidding their use is renewed 
 every year. If these restrictions and the existence 
 of effective forces were combined with the main- 
 tenance of a Just and fair system of government, 
 there might be less complaint to urge ; but in the 
 face of the facts that have been brought to hght, it 
 is impossible to resist the conclusion that there is 
 some connection between this display of strength, 
 and the ruthless manner in which so great a pro- 
 portion of the resources of the people are annually 
 swept into the coffers of the State. 
 
 Every one of the central establishments main- 
 tained by the Crown exhibit similar features of 
 extravagance. If the cost of these were in pro- 
 
THE CASTLK SYSTEM. 85 
 
 portion to population, they would amount to one- 
 seventh of what is spent for the same purpo:;e 
 in England, making no allowance for the greater 
 poverty of the country. But the Local Grovern- 
 ment Board* in Ireland costs four-fifths of the 
 English expenditure ; the Board of Works two- 
 thirds ; Law charges more than half ; the Superior 
 Court one-third ; prisons one-fifth ; so that within 
 the whole range of the Government institutions 
 there is not even one conducted with due regard to 
 economy or the resources of the country. By such 
 extravagances the cost of the Irish Civil Service 
 was raised from 4s. 6d. per head of the population 
 in the year 1820 to ^£1 3s. lid. in the year 1893. 
 All the examples of the increase of expenditure 
 which have been considered have related to what is 
 called Imperial taxation. It is quite as necessary 
 to examine the incidence of local burdens. Re- 
 quirements in the rural districts were formerly met, 
 almost exclusively, by property belonging to the 
 local corporations or to the public ; nearly all 
 such public property has been gradually alienated, 
 except in four or five towns, and no resource 
 remains but the imposition of rates and taxes. 
 In a commercial community which may suddenly 
 arise on a spot possessing no natural resources, 
 but suitably situated for trade, rates fairly levied 
 are a most convenient means for sustaining 
 local government, and often the only means 
 * Evidence E. C, vol. ii. q. 10,532. 
 
86 England's wealth ieeland's poverty. 
 
 that are available. Yet even in such communities 
 prosperity is accompanied by the acquisition of 
 public property, the application of tolls to public 
 uses, and the suppression of private monopolies 
 by the municipality. In remote rural districts 
 some such sources of wealth are almost indispen- 
 sable. Money is at all times hard to find; if 
 the people are to prosper it must be to a large 
 extent by living on the commodities which they 
 produce. A somewhat similar restriction must 
 control their humble public establishments, and 
 rates, even comparatively small in amount, form a 
 most oppressive burden. 
 
 There is no country in which this was better 
 appreciated formerly than in Ireland. In the 
 various " plantations," when a town was founded 
 property was given to it for public uses. The ex- 
 pression "town park" remains, an interesting 
 monument of these wise grants, and a witness 
 against the bad system under which these lands 
 have been lost to the public. At the present time 
 successive governments have always exempted 
 these lands from the control of the Land Acts. 
 It was not land alone that was secured to the 
 community by these ancient charters. A copy of 
 one in my possession sets out that the town hall, 
 market dues and tolls of every kind, as well as all 
 land within a mile of the town on every side, 
 shall remain the property of the town for ever. 
 The country town to which it refers has not to- 
 
LOST LOCAL KESOUKCES. 87 
 
 day a scrap of all this property. One or two 
 others known to me are more fortunate, as some 
 remnant still remains to them. 
 
 The two periods which afford the best illustra- 
 tions during the century of how the localities were 
 stripped of public property are 1834 to 1841 and 
 1869. In the former period the Irish Municipal 
 Eeform Acts were before Parliament, but instead 
 of passing as the British Acts had passed, they 
 were postponed on various pretexts from year to 
 year, or rejected by the Lords. Meantime in 
 Ireland old charters disappeared, and public pro- 
 perty was acquired by private individuals until 
 1841, when a mutilated Act was allowed to pass, 
 which conferred nothing on the people but the 
 power to tax themselves. In 1869, under the 
 Church Act, the tithes which had from time im- 
 memorial belonged to the parishes, were swept 
 into a common fund, and the use and control of 
 them by the localities ceased. 
 
 Outside the towns and villages there was also a 
 public inheritance. Waste lands, forests, moun- 
 tains, boglands, rivers, and the seashore belonged 
 to the people. While this was so the poor were 
 able to live on their own resources, and all such 
 property in one way or another helped to maintain 
 life. When this was altered no resource remained 
 but rates, banishment, or death. In one of the 
 most ferocious Irish clearances of the olden time, 
 the fate of the fugitives was summed up in the sen- 
 
88, England's wealtpi ibeland's poverty. 
 
 tence " Hell or Connaught." Leaving out of sight 
 the next world, it must be recognised gratefully, 
 that Connaught remained open in this. So it was in 
 every persecution, something was left to the people. 
 Now all this is altered. Connaught is subject to 
 t^ixes and rent in every part. There is not a 
 patch of common, scarcely a village green. On 
 the bog known as Achill Island, which remained 
 till this century a safe refuge, where the little 
 fields stretch up the wild mountains like squares 
 on a^ chessboard, there the collector goes. We 
 have even heard of strong expeditionary forces 
 sent out into the Atlantic to gather the tribute 
 of the Isles of Aran. 
 
 It will be said that this is the growth of civilisa- 
 tion, and that things have changed. Because new 
 circumstances have arisen in Great Britain we 
 assume that they have arisen in Ireland. But 
 in it there is little change. It is more dependent 
 on agriculture than it was a hundred years ago ; 
 its wealth is less ; its population is no greater. The 
 chief new condition which affects its power to sus- 
 tain life is the attempt to collect nearly twelve 
 instead of two millions of taxes. 
 
 Some of the new local burdens imposed seem 
 to be so clearly beneficent in their character, that 
 it is right to give them a little consideration. 
 Probably, the one to which least exception has 
 been taken is the imposition of taxes upon 
 localities for the construction of railways. The 
 
THE lEISH EAILWAY SYSTEM. 89 
 
 relation of the railway system to the prosperity of 
 the country is so close that some examination of 
 this matter can scarcely be avoided. In the year 
 1836 a Royal Commission was appointed to con- 
 sider a general scheme by which railways might be 
 developed throughout Ireland. Practically it re- 
 ported in favour of the railways being constructed 
 by, and belonging to, the State. Resolutions in 
 the sense of its proposals were adopted by the 
 House of Commons, but soon afterwards the un- 
 toward influence of Great Britain asserted itself, 
 and the work was left in the hands of private 
 companies. There is now a consensus of opinion 
 that this was a great mistake, and experience 
 has shown that the system of the larger island 
 has not been successful in the smaller. The net- 
 work of railways which covers the country has not 
 been able to get itself constructed without state 
 and local aid. 
 
 As early as 1842 an advance was made to the 
 company which connects Dublin and Belfast. In 
 1847 the Great Southern and Western got six 
 hundred and twenty thousand pounds, and in 1849 
 half a million was lent to the Midland Great Wes- 
 tern. Altogether there have been advanced over 
 four millions, of which three have been repaid. 
 Local guarantees, previous to the Acts of the 
 last twelve years, cover another million of capital. 
 During 1896 a railway on which ^660,000 had been 
 advanced, half on the security of the undertaking 
 
90 ENGLAND^S WEALTH IRELAND'S POVEBTY. 
 
 alone, and half on the Baronial cess, as well as the 
 undertaking, was sold for £5,000, and a second line, 
 on which £15,000 had been advanced, was sold for 
 £2,000.* The effect of leaving matters, as regards 
 the great trunk lines, in the hands of private com- 
 panies is, that in return for very considerable 
 public aid no effective control has been secured, 
 the system is ill planned and disconnected, rates 
 are high, the agricultural wants are not supphed, 
 and the local industries have been allowed to die. 
 We have seen how the country has depreciated, 
 yet most of the great railway companies have 
 prospered, a fact which taken together with the 
 criticisms that are constantly levelled at their 
 managenaent, may be accepted as proving that this 
 prosperity is not inconsistent with the decline of 
 the general community. 
 
 Since the year 1883 facilities have existed for 
 the construction, by private companies, of railways 
 based on the principle of the locality through 
 which the line passes, giving a guarantee of 
 5 per cent, interest on a certain amount of 
 capital, and receiving a contribution from the 
 Treasury not exceeding 2 per cent., or half 
 the annual payment. Under these Acts eighteen 
 lines have been constructed, three hundred and 
 fifty-three miles long, at a total cost of nearly 
 a million and a half. In later cases the interest 
 
 ' Sixty-third Report of the Commissioners of Public Works 
 in Ireland (1894-S), p. 20. 
 
THE TRAMWAYS ACT. 91 
 
 has been reduced to 4 per cent. One or two 
 examples may be given of how the plan has worked 
 out in practice. 
 
 The first line constructed was in the Clogher 
 valley, which lies between Armagh and Ennis- 
 killen, two towns served by the Great Northern 
 Eailway. This company, which looked with some 
 jealousy upon the new line, refused to give proper 
 terminal facilities, and there were no means of 
 compelling it to do so. After seven years' work- 
 ing of the Clogher Valley line, the expenses are 
 found to exceed the total takings, with a ten- 
 dency rather to increase. Notwithstanding these 
 features of the undertaking, the price of the ten- 
 pound share in Dublin is fourteen pounds ten. 
 The full guarantee has to be paid by the Treasury, 
 and a heavy tax by the locality. 
 
 The circumstances of the second light railway 
 are almost similar. It runs through the counties 
 of Cavan, Leitrim, and Eoscommon. Here again 
 the balance is on the wrong side, and the Treasury 
 has to make its full contribution, and the locality 
 has to pay a tax of twenty-one pence in the pound. 
 Nevertheless the five-pound shares sell on the 
 Dublin Stock Exchange at seven pounds five 
 shillings. 
 
 These are far from being the worst cases. Be- 
 fore Parhament agreed to make any grant it bound 
 the locality to work the lines if the owners should 
 fail to do so. In one case in the south the 
 
92 England's wealth ieeland's povbbty. 
 
 Grand Jury has had to undertake this duty, 
 the company having failed. Thus the unfortu- 
 nate ratepayers have to provide nearly eighteen 
 hundred pounds a year loss on working, in addition 
 to paying interest on the capital. Yet the £1 
 shares continued to sell for £1 7s. In 1893, ten 
 out of eighteen of these lines showed a loss on 
 working. In one case, owing to a collision, this 
 amounted to nine thousand pounds. The tax for 
 interest on capital was paid in every instance, and 
 it ranged up to two shillings and fourpence in the 
 pound on the rates. Perhaps it will be assumed 
 that, as the ratepayers find so much money, these 
 lines carry them for nothing. But it is not so ; the 
 trains are few, slow, unpunctual and uncomfortable ; 
 the fares and rates for goods are exorbitant. Where 
 the Grand Juries have to work the lines at a loss, 
 they might possibly protect the interest of the rate- 
 payers if they closed them altogether. This would 
 not in the least affect the value of the shares. The 
 rails might be pulled up, cattle might be housed 
 in the waiting rooms, the whole property might 
 be destroyed, yet the capitalist would continue to 
 deal merrily in the stock of the phantom under- 
 taking, knowing that he had the local guarantee 
 at his back. With such ruinous results has 
 Parliament launched these unhappy districts into 
 speculation, in spite of the protests of many Irish 
 members.* 
 
 * See Appendix, Table V., p. 206. 
 
THE LIGHT RAILWAYS OF 1889. 93 
 
 The oppressive nature of this system was so 
 clearly seen after a few years' experience, that a 
 new plan was adopted. Instead of the guarantee, 
 a free grant has been made by the Treasury to 
 some existing railway company, on condition that 
 it would make a branch in the required direction. 
 
 Twelve new lines, two hundred and thirty-six 
 miles long, have recently been opened under such 
 arrangements. The total grants amount to eleven 
 hundred and thirty thousand pounds. In addition, 
 the localities have given a guarantee for a quarter 
 of a million. There has hardly been sufficient 
 opportunity of observing the results, and this will 
 not at any time be easy, as there is no obligation 
 to furnish particulars. Yet it is obvious that 
 this vast sum has been used to construct a 
 valuable property which is handed over freely 
 by the State to private individuals. These are 
 very different from the detached undertakings 
 just described. Some of them have already de- 
 veloped a good traffic, and others promise well. 
 If these small lines, constructed in connection 
 with a great company's system, should not in 
 themselves pay, taken separately, they may yet 
 prove remunerative to the company through the 
 advantage they will bring to its system taken 
 as a whole.* 
 
 This Eailway policy, hastily pressed through 
 Parliament, has never been sufficiently considered. 
 
 ' See Appendix, Table VI., p. 206. 
 
94 England's wealth Ireland's poveety. 
 
 A system built and managed by the State is in- 
 telligible, but this plan, by which the State makes a 
 free grant is novel and likely to lead to many abuses. 
 The public benefit is by no means clear. An 
 example may be quoted of a spur, five miles long, 
 built out from the Midland G-reat Western main 
 line to Killeshandra, to secure which accommoda- 
 tion the County Cavan undertook a liability of six 
 hundred pounds per annum. The service is most 
 inadequate and the fares are high. Trains run to 
 the Junction station where there is often no con- 
 nection with the county town four miles further, 
 and on fair or race days hundreds of people are 
 kept waiting at this desolate wayside station for 
 two hours. There is a very early train every 
 ordinary day when it is not much wanted, but 
 on fair days when it would be useful, it is with- 
 drawn. Eepresentations from the Grand Jury, 
 Board of Guardians, or Magistrates are not even 
 acknowledged, but the payment of the guarantee 
 has still to be made. This review of the Irish 
 Eailway System must lead to the inference that 
 the possibility of obtaining such grants is certain 
 to arrest the development of railways by private 
 enterprise. The great expenditure which has 
 already been incurred has benefited individuals 
 and not the community, which has borne so much 
 of the cost. If the enterprise proves profitable, 
 the benefits accrue solely to the company; if it 
 fails, the loss falls entirely on the public. 
 
labourers' houses. 95 
 
 Another source of expense has arisen in con- 
 nection with workmen's dwellings in the agricul- 
 tural districts. Nearly thirteen thousand houses 
 have heen built since 1884, at a cost of a million 
 and a half. Less than a hundred of these are in 
 Ulster, about the same number in Connaught, and 
 all the others in Munster and Leinster. Owing to 
 the cumbrous machinery of the Acts, great diffi- 
 culty and delay have arisen in carrying them into 
 effect, and a heavy charge has fallen upon the 
 ratepayers. The Union of Kilmallock built four 
 hundred and sixty cottages ; the cost averaged 
 ,£130 each, the rent £2 8s. per annum, and there 
 is a loss of five pounds a year on each house. 
 In Cavan Union the cost of twenty-one cottages 
 was £170 each, and the loss is over six pounds. 
 These may be taken as fair average cases. This 
 extravagance arises from the heavy charge for 
 land, professional fees, and official expenses; in the 
 Cavan case these expenses amounted to as much 
 as the buildings. Occupants are not always of 
 the poorest class, but such as could pay their 
 own rent. Employers who have helped to get 
 houses built are sometimes able to deduct the rent 
 from the wages of their labourers. Altogether a 
 great expenditure has been incurred, an immense 
 and rapidly growing burden has been carelessly 
 thrown upon the people, and there is reason to 
 fear that the economic effects are far from satis- 
 factory. 
 
96 England's wealth ieeland's poverty. 
 
 These illustrations are sufficient to indicate 
 the causes of the increase in local taxation. 
 The examples, although important, are only a 
 few out of the wide range of extravagant, im- 
 pohtic, and unfruitful outlay which may be 
 found in every part of Ireland. Under all the 
 heads expenditure steadily grows larger, as the 
 administrative authority is remote and only im- 
 perfectly informed of the circumstances. Con- 
 sideration of the nature and results of these 
 enterprises should go a long way to convince 
 every impartial person that such outlay should 
 not be regarded as a set-off against over-taxation. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE PUESES AND THE PAYMENTS. 
 
 In previous chapters the amount of the total taxa- 
 tion has been stated, and some examination has 
 been made of the principles upon which it is 
 levied. The argument, so far, shows that while 
 Ireland has made no progress in population 
 or in wealth during the hundred years, nearly 
 ten miUions more of taxes are being exacted. 
 Or if a period of fifty years be examined, the 
 island has decreased in population to nearly 
 half, and the taxes have been increased by about 
 five millions, practically doubled. There is very 
 little difference between these two statements. 
 If exactions which were sanctioned down to 
 the time of Sir Robert Peel had been reduced 
 in proportion to the reduction in population, the 
 total sum taken now would approximate to what 
 was levied at the beginning of the century. 
 
 It is not intended to suggest that it is 
 possible to return to such an amount as was 
 sufficient from 1790-1795. New wants have 
 arisen since then which must be provided for. 
 But, making full allowance for these, the 
 suggestion is that the annual taxation of Ireland 
 
 8 »^ 
 
98 England's wealth iheland's poverty. 
 
 might soon be reduced by six millions, and 
 that something like 20s. or 22s. per head for 
 all local and Imperial purposes is as large a 
 sum as the nation, with its present wealth, can 
 fairly be expected to pay ; and moreover, that this 
 sum would be amply sufficient to provide every- 
 thing that is required for an effective central 
 government, as well as for good local administra- 
 tion throughout the counties ; and that therefore 
 the efforts of statesmen should be devoted towards 
 taking, at the earliest possible moment, the steps 
 that may be necessary to reduce the existing Poll 
 tax of 49s. to such a sum. 
 
 Those who may think that the suffering of 
 Ireland under the imposition of these taxes has 
 been exaggerated, should read the evidence sub- 
 mitted to the Eoyal Commission by Mr. Murrough 
 O'Brien, one of the Land Purchase Commis- 
 sioners. The nature of Mr. O'Brien's duties 
 are such as to bring him into touch with the 
 condition of things in the agricultural districts, 
 and his position is such that reliance may be 
 placed on the moderation of his views. He 
 showed that the loss to the country by the 
 exaction of this taxation is constantly accumu- 
 lating ; and looking over the whole period, he 
 said that " If you take the excess at two millions 
 a year, payable for ninety years since the Union, 
 at 3 per cent, compound interest, it would amount 
 to over a thousand millions, and if you take it 
 
CUMULATIVE RESULTS. 99 
 
 as four millions for thirty years at the same rate, 
 it would amount to three hundred millions with- 
 drawn, which under a just system, would have 
 been spent in the country, increasing its capital 
 value, developing its resources, and enabling it 
 to supply the wants of its people." This view 
 of the matter gives additional weight to the 
 reasons brought forward here in favour of a 
 serious effort being made to cut down the amount 
 levied each year to one half of what it is now. 
 
 The full case in favour of such a reduction 
 cannot be appreciated without remembering that 
 taxation, although the most serious, is only one part 
 of the burden that the agricultural population has 
 to bear. They have also to pay rent for lands, 
 and according to the best evidence, this amounts 
 to over ten millions throughout the whole of the 
 covmtry. 
 
 At the present moment there is more harmony 
 of feeling between men of every shade of thought 
 with regard to the Irish Land Question than 
 has existed at any other time during the cen- 
 tury. The subject was carefully inquired into a 
 year or two ago by a Committee of the House of 
 Commons, and a Bill was drawn to give effect to 
 the recommendations of this Committee by the 
 late Grovemment, which passed the Second 
 Beading in the House of Commons without a 
 division. The present Government is pledged 
 to proceed with a similar measure, and in its 
 
100 England's wealth Ireland's povekty. 
 
 ranks is Mr. T. W. Eussell, who has made 
 himself the advocate of the tenants, so far as 
 Ulster is concerned. Without going into too 
 much detail, it may be explained that the purport 
 of this legislation is to remedy defects which 
 have been discovered in the Land Act of 1881, to 
 provide means for reducing the rents which were 
 settled between that year and 1886, to secure 
 rights of turbary to tenants, immunity from being 
 rented on their own improvements, a more frequent 
 re-consideration of their rentals and other advan- 
 tages which all now admit should be conferred on 
 them. Practically it is a question of reduction of 
 rent. The farmers cannot bear the existing burden; 
 the more reasonable landlords admit this and are 
 making voluntary reductions, and the object of the 
 legislation will be to secure an adequate ameliora- 
 tion of the situation in the directions named for the 
 whole body of tenants throughout Ireland. We 
 may therefore state this question, on which so 
 much harmony exists, broadly, by suggesting that 
 its settlement, through the medium of purchase or 
 whatever shape the new legislation may take, will 
 result in a reduction of three millions per annum in 
 the rent now paid by the agricultural tenants. If 
 we add this to the amount which is drawn out 
 in excessive taxation, the total is something like 
 nine millions from the whole population. 
 
 This is making the demand for reduction of rent 
 a national one, and putting it on the same level as 
 
THE RENT QUESTION. 101 
 
 the claim for reduction of taxation. The reason for 
 this is that agriculture in Ireland is the national 
 occupation. To help it is to help the whole 
 country. This fact was brought out clearly in the 
 evidence laid before the Commission, which showed 
 that three and a half millions out of the whole 
 population of the country depend directly upon 
 agriculture for their support. The case may there - 
 fore now be fully stated that this reduction of nine 
 millions in the annual burden is the most urgent 
 relief which the Irish people require. Whatever 
 may be done with regard to the question of national 
 or local government, whether the Unionists may 
 continue in ofl&ce or the Liberals should come into 
 power, no political party, responsible for the good 
 order and welfare of the kingdom, can neglect 
 the case for relief that has been made out. 
 
 No complaint can be made about the form in 
 which the question is presented by the evidence of 
 the Eoyal Commission. It does not raise difficult 
 questions about history, religion, nationality, or law 
 and order. It touches a matter absolutely and 
 completely in the hands of the British Govern- 
 ment. Viewed from this standpoint there may be 
 some cause for congratulation that obstinate local 
 authorities do not exist in Ireland to interfere with 
 a reasonable reduction of the local taxation, nor 
 will there be any opposition on the part of the Irish 
 members to cutting down Imperial taxation. What- 
 ever trouble may have been given in regard to other 
 
102 England's wealth Ireland's povebty. 
 
 matters^ here there is nothing but plain sailing 
 before the ., Chancellor who resolves to approach 
 the facts in some adequate manner and cut away 
 the abuses that have grown up. 
 
 Possibly the feeling that the whole question is 
 a bagatelle, and that even if nine millions were 
 struck off the burdens, it would make no material 
 difference in the well-being of the Irish people, 
 ipight prevent action being taken. To the 
 inhabitant of Great Britain such an amount of 
 taxation is a bagatelle : he can think of a score of 
 his fellow-countrymen whose joint incomes amount 
 to it ; perhaps he lives near London where the rates 
 of one city reach to nearly this figure ; in the last 
 nine years he has seen this sum added to the 
 annual expenditure on war-ships, and possibly he 
 is willing to see as much more spent on them. 
 The question therefore arises whether this sum, so 
 trifling in the annual income of one island, can 
 really mean the difference between happiness and 
 misery to the other. 
 
 No question was more fully inquired into by the 
 Eoyal Commission than that which is here raised. 
 The wealth of Great Britain was carefully analysed, 
 its growth throughout the century was- marked, 
 and an estimate of the present national income 
 was obtained from the highest authorities. The 
 same care was devoted to Ireland, and in her case 
 the task was simpler. The possibility of obtaining 
 accurate statistics of national resources is now 
 
THE BKITISH ANNUAL INCOME. 103 
 
 much greater than it ever has been. Income Tax 
 has been collected throughout Great Britain since 
 1842 and in Ireland since 1853. In connection 
 with the tax there has been brought into existence, 
 in both countries, the most elaborate machinery for 
 marking the growth of profits in every business and 
 for securing the share that belongs to the State. A 
 large section of the people do not pay Income Tax, 
 but the standard of exemption has been altered 
 at different times, so that fairly accurate means 
 exist for estimating the earnings of the class 
 between the Income Tax payers and the working 
 classes. Statistics with reference to the working 
 classes have been greatly improved. Their 
 numbers, rates of wages and total earnings may 
 now be said to have been ascertained. The tol^l 
 income of the nation, then, has been arrived at by 
 adding to the assessments to Income Tax safe 
 estimates, of the smaller incomes which do not 
 contribute, and the wages of the working classes. 
 Boughly, the two latter may be said to approach to 
 the same amount as the former. 
 
 Such calculations have had considerable fascina- 
 tion for the people of Great Britain, and for nearly 
 two hundred years estimates have constantly been 
 made of the total wealth of the country by persons 
 more or less qualified for the work. There 
 is no one living who has given more thought 
 to the matter than Sir Eobert Giffen. His 
 position at the head of the Statistical Depart- 
 
104 England's wealth ieeland's povebty. 
 
 ment of the Board of Trade gives him access to 
 the best information obtainable, and on his au- 
 thority we may place the total income of the 
 United Kingdom at sixteen hundred millions per 
 annum.* 
 
 The total income of Ireland must be separated 
 and deducted from this amount. The gross assess- 
 ments to Income Tax there are thirty-eight 
 millions. After careful examination of figures 
 Submitted by the Irish Eegistrar-General, and by 
 the Board of Trade, and after taking the opinion 
 of various witnesses, it was agreed that the highest 
 point at which the Irish total income could be 
 placed was seventy-six millions. The best autho- 
 rities felt that this was an overestimate, and Sir 
 Robert GifEen could only submit figures, satis- 
 factory to himself, which made the amount about 
 sixty-three millions, but he said that it might be 
 desirable to add something to this figure. A safe 
 mean to take between these two extremes is seventy 
 millions. This amount cannot err on the side of 
 being too low. A rather full estimate is included 
 in it of the value of every species of commodity 
 which the Irishman produces on his land and 
 consumes at home. Thus all the milk, fowl, and 
 eggs are valued, and a price put upon the potatoes, 
 
 " An elaborate paper, highly spoken of by Sir Robert Giffen, 
 was read to the Royal Statistical Society in June, 1895, by Mr. 
 A. L. Bowley, where the detailed calculation on which this 
 figure rests may be fully examined. The table is printed in the 
 second volume of the Evidence of the Royal Commission. 
 
THE lEISH ANNUAL INCOME. 105 
 
 Bay, and grain crops of every kind. It is not un- 
 fair to suppose that these calculations will tend 
 rather to exceed the actual value of the produce 
 than otherwise, as the cultivation and management 
 on the smaller farms and in the poorer districts, 
 from which the returns can hardly be collected, 
 will probably be rather under than over the average ; 
 and there is small margin for failure of crops or 
 decline in agricultural prices. It will thus be seen 
 that the gross income of Ireland is to that of Great 
 Britain as 70 to 1,530, or 1 to 22. 
 
 Having arrived at the gross income of the two 
 countries, it must not be assumed that their tax- 
 able capacity stands in the same relation. This 
 point was very fuUy inquired into, and there ap- 
 peared to be perfect unanimity in the minds of 
 the principal witnesses and of the high authorities 
 which were quoted by them, that in order to arrive 
 at the taxable income it was necessary to deduct, 
 from the gross income, an amount that would be 
 sufficient to provide subsistence for every person 
 in the population. There was probably a more 
 complete consensus of opinion as to this being the 
 only true method, and as to the allowance that 
 should be made for subsistence, than on any other 
 point on which evidence was taken. 
 
 One of the most interesting authorities quoted 
 was a speech by Mr. Pitt in 1785 : — 
 
 " The smallest burthen on a poor country was 
 
106 England's wealth Ireland's poverty. 
 
 to be considered, when compared with those of a 
 rich one, by no means in a proportion with their 
 several abilities ; for if one country exceeded 
 another in wealth, population, and estabhshed 
 commerce in a proportion of 2 to 1, he was con- 
 vinced that that country would be able to bear 
 near ten times the burthens that the other would 
 be equal to." 
 
 If Mr. Pitt's ratio were applied to two countries 
 which stand to one another, not in the relation of 
 1 to 2, but so far as capital is concerned as 1 to 30, 
 population as 1 to 8, and income as 1 to 22, his 
 standard would work out that the proportion of the 
 smaller country should be about as 1 is to 75. 
 The opinion of J. S. Mill sanctions the allow- 
 ance of a margin for subsistence, and there was 
 no question of the principle by any witness who 
 was examined. Sir Eobert Giffen suggested that 
 it would not be safe to make any less allowance 
 for subsistence than £12 per head per annum, and 
 Sir Edward Hamilton, representing the Treasury, 
 accepted this figure as reasonable. 
 
 When the allowance of £12 per head of the 
 population is deducted from the total income in 
 Great Britain, the taxable income of the country 
 stands at ten hundred and ninety-tw^o millions, or 
 about i630 per head of the population ; when the 
 same allowance is made from the total income in 
 Ireland, the taxable income is fifteen millions, or 
 
IRELAND 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN 
 
 DIAGRAM V. — Showing the Taxable Income of Great Britain and Ireland, and 
 the amount taken in taxes in each country. Each square represents a million. 
 The amount taken in taxes is shown in blue. The gross income of Great Britain 
 is taken at fifteen hundred and thirty millions and Ireland at seventy millions, 
 and from each is deducted j^ 1 2 per head of the population for subsistence. The 
 balance in each country is the taxable income. 
 
TAXABLE CAPACITY. 107 
 
 about £B per head of the population. Therefore 
 the taxable capacities of the two countries stand to 
 one another as 15 does to 1,092, or ,1 to 73. The 
 population being as 1 to 7^, if the Briton and the 
 Irishman were to be taxed with exact fairness, 
 according to their separate capacity, each Briton 
 should pay ten times as much as each Irishman. 
 
 In order to make the comparison between the 
 two countries complete it is necessary to take into 
 consideration the amount of the taxes in each case. 
 In Ireland this is easily ascertained, and the figure, 
 rather over eleven and a half millions, has been 
 frequently mentioned. In Great Britain there is 
 some difficulty in adding the proper allowance for 
 local rates to the Imperial taxation, but it is thought 
 that a hundred and seventeen millions will be nearly 
 correct. It will be seen that an error of a few 
 millions is not material by reference to Diagram 
 v., where the total taxable income, as well as the 
 amount taken for taxes in each island, is shown. 
 In Great Britain the total taxation does not amount 
 to quite one-ninth, in Ireland it amounts to four- 
 fifths of the taxable income. 
 
 It will now be seen how material the sum of nine 
 millions per annum may be to Ireland although it 
 is so trifling to Great Britain. In the latter country 
 there is a margin of nearly a thousand millions a 
 year after providing subsistence and paying all the 
 taxes. Therefore the statement that nine millions 
 is a trifle is simply the statement of a rudimentary 
 
108 England's wealth ibeland's povebty. 
 
 fact, considering the resources of the country. For 
 any adequate reason Great Britain could provide 
 ten times as much each year, and far more, without 
 materially affecting her strength. 
 
 Therefore those who may have the good fortune 
 to live under the protection of a power like this 
 must make an unusual and a considerable effort to 
 realise the condition of a country in which such a 
 sum measures the whole difference between pros- 
 perity and gradual ruin. Nevertheless the fact 
 to which we have drawn attention should enable 
 every one to understand the situation with which 
 the Irishman is face to face every day of his life. 
 His taxable margin under a favourable estimate is 
 about three and a half millions. Small at the best, 
 this margin is utterly insufficient for a nation en- 
 gaged in the precarious business of agriculture. If 
 prices fall, if there is failure of one or two staple 
 crops, or if, as so often happens, his small harvest 
 is swept away or seriously damaged by inclement 
 weather, this margin disappears, and the question 
 of whether he must pay this nine millions, or 
 whether he can escape it, becomes vital to his 
 existence, and it has proved so for many a year. 
 
 Some may assume that the payments of rent 
 and taxation, however serious, do not rest with 
 their full weight upon that section of the popu- 
 lation which suffers most in times of distress. 
 This doubt will be entirely removed by the reports 
 of the Congested Districts Board. This Board has 
 
THE PAYMENTS OF THE POOE. 109 
 
 been at work for four or five years in the West of 
 Ireland, and its secretary, Mr. W. L. Micks, was 
 examined before the Commission. The field of the 
 Board's operations covers one-sixth of Ireland, and 
 contains nearly a hundred thousand families, each 
 averaging five and a half persons. The Poor Law 
 valuation is one pound and twopence per head. 
 Yet some of the poorest * localities are shut out 
 because they cannot be treated as " Congested 
 Districts " unless their population is 20 per cent, 
 of the county, and their average valuation under 
 thirty shillings per head. The total income of the 
 Board enables it to spend eight shillings a year on 
 each family in the "Districts." Although this is 
 a narrow pittance it enables useful assistance to be 
 given in many directions, and has helped to pro- 
 mote important industries. 
 
 In the first of several valuable accounts of its 
 work which this body has issued, there appear 
 twelve Tables of Receipts and Expenditure of 
 typical families. The work is done by different 
 persons and with great care. The types of fami- 
 lies range over practically every class residing in 
 the districts. The budget of the poorest family 
 mentioned shows an income of £8 per annum, or 
 something over 3s. a week, and an expenditure of 
 £11 per annum, the duty on the articles of con- 
 
 * Among the localities not included in the operations of the 
 Board are the County Clare, and large parts of Mayo and 
 Galway. 
 
110 England's wealth ibeland's povertt. 
 
 sumption purchased amounting to Sfl 15s. Then 
 there is a budget of about 7s. per week, raised from 
 the sale of eggs, pigs, and a little stock, with an 
 expenditure of about £17 per annum, £3 5s. being 
 absorbed by duty. The next amounts to JE28, or 
 lis. a week, with £6 5s. for duty each year. The 
 lowest amount of duty paid was SX Os. 9d. ; the 
 highest £6 lis. 3d. Spirits only appear in one of 
 the budgets. In every case there appears also in 
 the expenditure items for rent and rates.* 
 
 Aiiswering the Commissioners' questions, Mr. 
 Micks said " that the remission of duty " would 
 be a great improvement ; " the families would 
 be so much better o£E"; "it would be equal to 
 giving them their land rent free " ; it would be 
 a "tremendous thing for them." In other parts 
 of Ireland the ordinary labourer was " worse 
 off," and " the greatest poverty possible existed 
 among small occupiers of land in non-congested 
 districts." He " never saw any sign of drink- 
 ing or drink in any of the houses"; "most 
 of the people in Donegal are abstainers " ; 
 " many families are made solvent by small indus- 
 tries " ; "rents are relatively high; every man 
 buys grass for his cow, or hay in winter." The 
 facts, so carefully acquired by this Board in the 
 West, may be taken as representing every district 
 in Ireland ; there is not a family that can escape 
 from these burdens, and relief given in taxation 
 
 * See evidence of Mr. W. L. Micks, Eoyal Commission Eeport. 
 
NO EXEMPTIONS. Ill 
 
 would reach every poor person as quickly as the 
 daylight does. The channel through which the 
 very poor pay most is the tobacco duty ; then 
 would come tea. But the feature of the whole 
 system of taxation and rent is the marvellous 
 ingenuity with which it is devised so that none 
 can elude it. The meshes of the net are too 
 small to leave "even the tiniest fish its freedom. 
 
 A good deal of attention was devoted by the Com- 
 mission towards ascertaining the total income of the 
 farming class all over the country. Elaborate 
 evidence on this point was given by Dr. Grimshaw 
 and other Irish witnesses, and this was afterwards 
 subjected to the criticism of Sir Eobert Giffen. 
 The final conclusion arrived at was, that the total 
 agricultural income cannot safely be estimated at 
 over forty millions per annum. The population 
 which has to live on this amount numbers more 
 than three millions, but if we assume that this is 
 the right number of those who have no other 
 means of subsistence the average gross income of 
 each individual over the whole country is 5s. l|d. 
 per week. The rent which the landlords receive 
 is included, and as this falls to a few persons, we 
 must take ofE one-fourth of the total subsistence 
 money, without any appreciable diminution of the 
 numbers. This would leave 3s. lOd. per head per 
 week. The share of local and Imperial taxation 
 which falls on agriculture cannot be less than eight 
 millions. We must therefore deduct from each 
 
112 England's wealth ibeland's povebty. 
 
 income one-fifth of the total, say Is. per head, and 
 this will leave the actual available income of the 
 people engaged in agriculture over Ireland at 2s. lOd. 
 per head per week. This makes for a family of five 
 14s. 2d. per week. When we remember that this 
 amount is an average, and that everything in excess 
 of it, which the rich receive, must be deducted from 
 the share remaining to the poor, it is clear that there 
 is a vast population, probably two or two and a half 
 millions, eking out a bare subsistence on some- 
 thing like 5s. or 6s. for the support of the family 
 per week. There is no class in Great Britain 
 whose wages are sufficiently low for us to be able 
 to make any just comparison between them and 
 this moiety of the Irish nation. 
 
 We may now summarise the relief which would 
 be given to this large population by the diminution 
 claimed in taxation and in rent. Three-fourths 
 of the total taxation is paid by the agricultural 
 classes, therefore they would receive three-fourths 
 of the relief, as well as the full reduction in the 
 rent of land. This would amount to about seven 
 and a half millions, sufficient to add j62 10s. per 
 annum to the income of every individual, which 
 would surely make a very substantial improvement 
 in their condition. 
 
 The burdens which press on these poor farmers 
 have been greatly increased during the progress of 
 the century by the depreciation in agricultural 
 values. No doubt the decline in the price of wheat. 
 
BEPBECIATION IN THE VALUE OF PRODUCE, 113 
 
 as well as of other produce, hit agriculturalists in 
 Great Britain severely. But there, as well as in 
 many European countries, the development of 
 manufactures, mining or other industries, afforded 
 some refuge for those who were driven off the land. 
 In Ireland there was no such alternative, and the 
 farmers had to face every exigency as it arose. 
 From 1795-1815 wheat averaged about 81s. 
 per quarter, therefore £4 of taxation could be 
 paid with one quarter of wheat. Last year the 
 price of wheat was 26s. 4d. per quarter, therefore 
 it would now require three quarters of wheat to pay 
 the same amount of taxation. To grow the three 
 quarters would require three times as much land 
 and labour, and wages have doubled in price. It 
 may be said that wheat is not so much grown at 
 present in Ireland, but it is used largely, and the 
 country is poorer because it is not grown. Oats, 
 which is the chief grain crop, has not depreciated 
 so much, still it also has fallen in value. Barley, 
 here, and rye have fallen as much as wheat. During 
 the last few years, owing to imports from Aus- 
 tralia and the Continent, butter has fallen greatly. 
 Poverty has prevented the farmers acquiring the 
 machinery necessary to keep abreast of the com- 
 petition in Denmark, Normandy, and other Euro- 
 pean countries in dairy produce, so that they have 
 suffered even more than the great fall would have 
 made necessary. Viewing the whole range of pro- 
 duce it may be estimated moderately that prices 
 
 9 
 
114 England's wealth Ireland's poveett. 
 
 have fallen to half. In other words, the farmer 
 must now furnish twice the amount of produce 
 to pay every pound of taxation or rent which he 
 had to furnish formerly. 
 
 So far as these two great items are concerned 
 there is no amelioration for the farmer in the 
 situation. As regards food, clothes, and even 
 machinery, when he has the money to huy it, 
 the fall in prices has helped him as well as every 
 other class of the community. But rent and 
 taxes have to be paid in specie. The Irish farmer 
 has no new means of acquiring it, therefore it simply 
 results in his bringing, at the least, twice as much 
 of his produce to pay the same amount of money. 
 
 It is supposed that there is little sympathy be- 
 tween the Irish farmer and his landlord, but the 
 landlord has had to acknowledge the force of these 
 circumstances and to reduce his rent. Probably the 
 present rent is not more than two-thirds of what 
 the rent was in the beginning of the century, 
 and two millions less than it was thirty years 
 ago, but no corresponding decrease has been 
 made in taxation. Therefore this proves that, if 
 taxes had not been increased in amount, they would 
 now be twice as onerous upon the Irish farmer as 
 they were in past times owing to the fall in prices. 
 But, seeing that the taxes have been doubled within 
 the last fifty years, during which this fall has taken 
 place, practically the farmers have to pay four 
 times as much. 
 
SIR JAMES CAIRD's VIEW. 115 
 
 A difficulty may be suggested from another 
 standpoint. It will be said, "The case is hope- 
 less; it is impossible in the face of such diffi- 
 culties to enable these people to get a hving." 
 Such was the argument used by Sir James Caird 
 in the year 1886, when he said that rent had 
 disappeared from two-thirds of the Irish holdings. 
 This attitude of mind is to be deprecated as much 
 as the other. The Irish are well able to pay some 
 rent and some taxes. They require no assistance 
 from outside. Their only claim is that demands 
 under those two heads should be reasonable and 
 such as the conditions of life in their country 
 sanction. 
 
 In suggesting the reduction that is likely to take 
 place in the amount of rent three millions were 
 mentioned. This would have the effect of reducing 
 the present agricultural rent to something like 
 seven millions. It may seem a paradox to say that 
 such a rent will be worth more to the landlord than 
 what he now obtains. Yet this is true. Irish land- 
 lords, through trying to exact more than was pos- 
 sible, have depreciated the capital value of the 
 excellent property which they hold. This will easily 
 be seen if regard is had to the number of years' 
 purchase which the tenants have been willing to 
 pay in buying out their farms. There are no 
 keener buyers of land than the Irish. In various 
 parts of the country purchase has been going on 
 freely since 1870. During that period the rent on 
 
116 England's wealth ibeland's poveett. 
 
 which the purchase was based had diminished, 
 yet the number of years' purchase which the 
 tenant was wilhng to pay has still more rapidly 
 decreased. At first he was willing to give twenty- 
 five years' purchase, and many of the Church hold- 
 ings were bought at that price. Then he dropped 
 to twenty-two and a half, then to twenty. Now 
 about sixteen years' purchase is as much as he 
 will give for a holding, and there is no sign that 
 it has reached the lowest point. What is the 
 meaning of this? The meaning is that the rent 
 which the landlord now exacts is more out of pro- 
 portion to the value of the land than it was ten or 
 twenty years ago. The true interest of the landlord, 
 especially if he wishes to sell his Irish property, 
 is to make the rental such as can easily be paid. 
 What he may sacrifice immediately by doing this 
 he will far more than regain in the long run by 
 the additional value which the property will 
 acquire. 
 
 It is just the same with taxation. The system 
 of exacting too much has greatly increased the 
 expenses of collection, and in many ways made the 
 country unprofitable to Great Britain. If the 
 farmers were not so impoverished they would buy 
 more machinery. This would make the quality of 
 their produce better and more suitable for the 
 purchaser in Great Britain, while they themselves 
 would become better and larger purchasers of 
 manufactures in exchange. 
 
NO NEED TO DESPOND. 117 
 
 All these facts tend to one conclusion — that 
 economy is necessary. It must not be assumed 
 that nothing can be paid. The whole experience 
 of the country, even during the recent bad times, 
 proves the contrary. If the Irishman's harvest is 
 poor, taking one year with another, it is steady. 
 He knows within narrow limits what he may 
 expect out of the land, and he gets it. Since 
 the time of the famine there has been no far- 
 reaching national calamity which has destroyed 
 subsistence. There are bad crops occasionally. 
 Indeed, there is scarcely a year in which the pro- 
 duce of some one of the staples on which the 
 farmer depends is not disappointing. When even 
 these comparatively minor incidents arise now, their 
 effect is far more serious than it ought to be. In 
 some districts a state of affairs is produced which 
 would lead to famine if extraordinary aid were not 
 at once provided by the State ; but this is not 
 because the incident itself is serious, or such as 
 may not be expected to arise, from time to time, 
 amongst a community which has to depend on a 
 narrow range of crops for subsistence in such a 
 climate. It is owing to the fact that there 
 is no margin to provide against such casualties. 
 Let us look at an example which illustrates this 
 point. 
 
 Although there is very proper reluctance on the 
 part of the Irish Government to admit that a 
 famine is imminent in any part of the country, 
 
116 England's wealth ieeland's poveety. 
 
 which the purchase was based had diminished, 
 yet the number of years' purchase which the 
 tenant was willing to pay has still more rapidly 
 decreased. At first he was willing to give twenty- 
 five years' purchase, and many of the Church hold- 
 ings were bought at that price. Then he dropped 
 to twenty-two and a half, then to twenty. Now 
 about sixteen years' purchase is as much as he 
 will give for a holding, and there is no sign that 
 it has reached the lowest point. What is the 
 meaning of this? The meaning is that the rent 
 which the landlord now exacts is more out of pro- 
 portion to the value of the land than it was ten or 
 twenty years ago. The true interest of the landlord, 
 especially if he wishes to sell his Irish property, 
 is to make the rental such as can easily be paid. 
 What he may sacrifice immediately by doing this 
 he will far more than regain in the long run by 
 the additional value which the property will 
 acquire. 
 
 It is just the same with taxation. The system 
 of exacting too much has greatly increased the 
 expenses of collection, and in many ways made the 
 country unprofitable to Great Britain. If the 
 farmers were not so impoverished they would buy 
 more machinery. This would make the quality of 
 their produce better and more suitable for the 
 purchaser in Great Britain, while they themselves 
 would become better and larger purchasers of 
 manufactures in exchange. 
 
NO NEED TO DESPOND. 117 
 
 All these facts tend to one conclusion — that 
 economy is necessary. It must not be assumed 
 that nothing can be paid. The whole experience 
 of the country, even during the recent bad times, 
 proves the contrary. If the Irishman's harvest is 
 poor, taking one year with another, it is steady. 
 He knows within narrow limits what he may 
 expect out of the land, and he gets it. Since 
 the time of the famine there has been no far- 
 reaching national calamity which has destroyed 
 subsistence. There are bad crops occasionally. 
 Indeed, there is scarcely a year in which the pro- 
 duce of some one of the staples on which the 
 farmer depends is not disappointing. When even 
 these comparatively minor incidents arise now, their 
 effect is far more serious than it ought to be. In 
 some districts a state of affairs is produced which 
 would lead to famine if extraordinary aid were not 
 at once provided by the State ; but this is not 
 because the incident itself is serious, or such as 
 may not be expected to arise, from time to time, 
 amongst a community which has to depend on a 
 narrow range of crops for subsistence in such a 
 climate. It is owing to the fact that there 
 is no margin to provide against such casualties. 
 Let us look at an example which illustrates this 
 point. 
 
 Although there is very proper reluctance on the 
 part of the Irish Government to admit that a 
 famine is imminent in any part of the country, 
 
118 England's wealth Ireland's povebty. 
 
 yet we find that in the years 1879 and 1880, 1886, 
 1891 and 1894, it was obliged to take steps in view 
 of such a catastrophe. These steps are taken 
 under Acts which are called Belief of Distress 
 Acts. The form which the assistance takes is 
 relief works, and the distribution of food or, what 
 is the same thing, seed — generally potatoes. This 
 has to be provided because the Government recog- 
 nises the fact that the farmers have been reduced 
 so low that they have been obliged to eat the 
 quantity of potato or other seed which every 
 agriculturist must reserve from one year for 
 another. Let us take for our example the latest 
 of these famines, which occurred in 1894. In 
 that year there had been an excellent harvest 
 in Ireland so far as regards all crops except 
 the potato, which was about one-third below 
 the average. This was the case all over the 
 country. Accurate returns were obtained before 
 any relief was given, which showed that not a 
 single county had escaped. But the value of the 
 potato crop is only about seven millions per annum. 
 The crop of hay, which is more important and 
 valuable, was exceptionally good, so that the total 
 loss over the country by the deficiency in the 
 potato could not amount to more than two millions 
 if we make some allowance for the excessive yield 
 of other crops. This is 5 per cent, of the value 
 of the agricultural produce of the island, so that 
 in this year an irregularity in yield amounting to 
 
FLUCTUATIONS AND FAMINES. 119 
 
 5 per cent, produced a famine. Surely this is a 
 lamentable state of affairs. 
 
 In Great Britain during the same year there was 
 probably a much greater proportion of loss than 
 this, owing to the short prices realised for wheat 
 and other grain, yet there was no famine. Why 
 should there be one in Ireland ? The cause must 
 be traced, not to the shortness of the potato crop, 
 but to the narrow margin of subsistence on which 
 the farming population is kept, owing to the huge 
 exactions of rent and taxes each year. In this 
 year, 1894, eighteen millions or 45 per cent, of 
 the total produce had to be paid in rent and taxes. 
 Surely it is folly to trace the calamity exclusively 
 to the 5 per cent, without recognising that the 45 
 per cent, may have had something to do with it. 
 If instead of the 45 per cent, only 25 per cent, of 
 the total produce had been withdrawn for rent and 
 taxes, then there would have been no famine. 
 Would it not be better to take measures of this 
 kind rather than to resort to constant Relief Acts 
 when famine is imminent ? 
 
 The loss of 5 per cent, which we have described 
 in the year 1894 is about the measure of any 
 deficiency which has arisen during recent years. 
 If the farmers had margin sufficient to enable them 
 to bear such a variation in the average yield of 
 the country, improvement would set in. On the 
 experience, therefore, of the last half century there 
 is no reason to suppose that the Irish crops vary 
 
120 England's wealth ibeland's poveett. 
 
 to any great extent. On the contrary the yield is 
 regular, and it approximates to what is expected 
 if a reasonable allowance be made for inevitable 
 fluctuations. 
 
 Enough has been said to establish the proposi- 
 tions with which this chapter opened. No one 
 can have regard to the serious difficulties under 
 which agriculture has been carried on, or to the 
 extent of the fall in prices, or to the cumulative 
 influence of the annual exactions, or to the small 
 taxable margin, without feeling that such an 
 amount of relief as has been mentioned would 
 make a profound difference to the condition of 
 the whole country. 
 
 If the full relief which is suggested were 
 afforded, and the total taxation were reduced 
 to something like five millions, the proportion 
 of taxable income which the country would still 
 have to pay would be greater than at any 
 time in which the country was making satis- 
 factory progress, and probably larger than is 
 exacted in any other civilised country. In Great 
 Britain the proportion of the taxable income taken 
 for local and Imperial purposes does not exceed 
 one-ninth of the whole. Doubtless this is an 
 exceptionally low ratio, due to the marvellous 
 wealth of the country and other favourable circum- 
 stances. The theory of the government of the 
 two islands under one system is, that like benefits 
 should be enjoyed by both. Therefore according 
 
BELATIVE PEOPOBTION OP TAXES. 121 
 
 to this theory one-ninth of the taxable income is 
 all that should be denaanded in Ireland. Let it 
 not be said that this would be nothing for 
 the people to pay. It would be just as much as 
 the people now pay in Great Britain, and as 
 much as they paid in Ireland when her own 
 statesmen controlled the destinies of the country. 
 Nevertheless, admitting that a poor country like 
 Ireland cannot fare so well in this matter as one 
 so rich as Great Britain, if the demand which is 
 here made could be realised, Ireland would still 
 have to pay nearly one-third of her taxable income, 
 while Great Britain pays only one-ninth of hers. 
 
 It may be worth repeating that this relief to 
 Ireland means no extra burden to Great Britain. 
 More than the whole sum collected is spent in the 
 island, therefore the full saving could be made 
 there. But this is not a complete statement. 
 Not only would Great Britain suffer no loss, she 
 would make an immense gain. The ties which 
 must ever unite the two countries are of too close 
 a nature for it to be possible that one should suffer 
 and yet that the other should escape uninjured. 
 The chief interests Great Britain has in Ireland, as 
 well as in every other country, are commercial 
 interests. When we consider the extent to which 
 these must have suffered by the oppression of 
 Ireland, it will be conceded that this aspect of the 
 question is not too strongly stated. Let us take 
 a single illustration. 
 
122 England's wealth ibeland's povebtt. 
 
 The Irish drink a finer quality of tea than any- 
 other part of the population of the United Kingdom. 
 They first discovered the excellent properties of 
 Indian tea, and practically their whole consump- 
 tion is of that sort. Let us take the year 1871, 
 which was the middle of the half-century of con- 
 tinuous decay. The population had then fallen 
 by three-eighths, which should surely be accepted 
 as a considerable reduction. If the decline had 
 then been checked and the population had com- 
 menced to increase in proportion to the increase 
 in the rest of the United Kingdom, Ireland would 
 now be paying London one million more each year 
 for tea alone than she is paying. But we must 
 also take account of how much would have been 
 received during the past twenty-five years. This 
 cannot be placed at less than twelve millions. 
 All this money would have been clear profit to 
 Great Britain. The tea is grown and made in 
 her chief dependency, carried in her ships, and 
 distributed from London, where a good share of 
 the profit would have accumulated. This is only 
 an example in a single trade.* Large figures might 
 be shown by adding such items as coal, iron, 
 tin, slates, hardware, cotton goods, cloths, sugar, 
 and other colonial and home productions. To 
 the loss on this side of the account must be added 
 the loss sustained by the depreciation in value and 
 quantity of the produce of Ireland. The additional 
 * See Appendix, Table VIII., p. 208. 
 
THE LOSS TO BEITISH TBADE. 123 
 
 workers which we have imagined there would 
 have largely increased the annual out-put. Thus 
 the great cities of Britain would have been 
 enabled to get more poultry, dairy and other farm 
 produce from Ireland in exchange for their own 
 productions, instead of getting them, as is now the 
 case, from European countries which compete 
 largely with Great Britain's manufactures, and 
 which take as little as possible in exchange. 
 
 Therefore Great Britain has suffered as much 
 pecuniary and other loss as Ireland by the 
 oppression which has been described; but owing 
 to her vast resources of every kind, this loss, 
 comparatively small to her, has not been observed. 
 It is none the less real for this. Every step of 
 advance which Ireland might be able to make out 
 of the state of poverty and depression into which 
 she has fallen would re-act through the channels 
 of commerce, finance, and mutual friendly inter- 
 course, with even larger benefits to Great Britain. 
 
CHAPTEE V. 
 
 THE FLIGHT. 
 
 Exactions, such as we have described, cannot be 
 levied on a nation for a hundred years without 
 having left an indelible mark upon it. Therefore 
 we must turn now to see whether any such testi- 
 mony, in favour of the position taken up, is aSorded 
 by the present condition of Ireland. In reviewing 
 the progress of affairs from this standpoint, there 
 are the same obstacles to be encountered as 
 were described with reference to taxation. The 
 chief difficulty is the want of clear information. 
 Every statistic is a witness to the sufferings 
 which the people have endured. But these 
 statistics are mixed up with those of an island, 
 infinitely greater, which is not suffering, so that 
 the cry of the smaller community is lost in the 
 noise and stir of the happy and progressive one. 
 
 If we think for a moment of the direction in 
 which we should look for evidence that the burden 
 has been too heavy, it will occur to us that the 
 decrease or increase of population will give indica- 
 tions. This illustrates the statement just made. 
 The statistics of population in the United Kingdom 
 are called satisfactory. Every inhabitant looks 
 
 124 
 
THE POPULATION QUESTION. 125^ 
 
 with much complaisance from his country, say, 
 to France: he sees that constant increase is 
 taking place at home, while no increase at all is 
 shown in the figures of his powerful neighbour, if 
 there is not a slight decrease. But when we come 
 to separate the two islands of Great Britain and 
 Ireland, we find evidence under this head of 
 population, of the existence of a tragedy such as 
 cannot be found in Prance or in any other civilised 
 country. 
 
 It was not only at the time of the famine, when 
 one-fourth of the nation disappeared in four years, 
 that a -terrible decrease took place. All the 
 sufferings then endured by the people who went 
 away, and by those who were left behind, were 
 somewhat lightly regarded in Great Britain, It 
 was said that there were too many people in the 
 island, and that this reduction would probably do 
 it good. 
 
 If this theory were true, it must be admitted 
 that events had gone a long way to give effect 
 to it in the years between 1846 and 1851. The 
 examples in history are few indeed in which 
 one-fourth of the inhabitants of a nation have 
 disappeared in four years, so that if the theory 
 were sound, it would have been reasonable to expect 
 progress in Ireland in the period immediately 
 ensuing. Let us then not inquire too closely into 
 the famine years. There had been a terrible 
 catastrophe, but nature had been responsible 
 
126 England's wealth ibeland's poveett. 
 
 for it to a considerable extent. If the ordeal 
 was bitter it was short. Let us rather turn to 
 the subsequent periods, and consider what light 
 the statistics of population may throw on the 
 problem before us. 
 
 In the year 1851 the reduced population amounted 
 to 6,652,385. By 1861, instead of any signs of 
 revival having appeared, we find that another three- 
 quarters of a million had gone. Coming to the 
 census of 1871, we observe at once that there is a 
 check in the rate of decrease, which was 6-67 per 
 cent, instead of 11*50 per cent, during the previous 
 decade. The tendency towards arresting the de- 
 cline was still more apparent during the next 
 ten years, in which the proportion of decrease 
 fell to 4-39 per cent. By that time thirty 
 years had passed of the period which we are 
 reviewing and, although the fall continued, yet 
 its extent had shown such a tendency to diminish 
 as might have led us to hope that in the last 
 decade the decrease would have ceased altogether. 
 Unfortunately the figures of the population in 
 1891 did not justify this hopeful conclusion. On 
 the contrary, the rate of decrease was found to be 
 9*08 per cent., or more than twice as much as in 
 the previous decade. The facilities for making 
 estimates each year have so much improved that 
 it is possible to bring the story further down, and 
 we find that by 1894 a further fall had taken 
 place. Owing to the great increase in emigration 
 
A EAPID DECEEASE. 127 
 
 during the year 1895, the estimate now shows 
 that a somewhat rapid decrease has again set 
 in, and the population on the 1st of January, 
 1896, was 4,571,019.* 
 
 It will be seen that this number is almost pre- 
 cisely two millions less than that of 1851 ; some 
 persistent causes have therefore operated for a 
 period of forty-five years to produce a result in these 
 vital statistics similar to that which the unkindly 
 hand of nature had effected in the four years im- 
 mediately preceding them. Can the same view be 
 taken of the longer period as that which has already 
 been expressed of the shorter one ? We know that 
 many do so, but probably the bulk of these 
 trouble themselves little about the whole matter. 
 It is extremely difficult to take a cheerful view 
 of the condition of a nation which exhibits such 
 phenomena over a period so prolonged. It must 
 surely be admitted that, if a decrease in popu- 
 lation is necessary, there ought to be some limit 
 to it : there should be some time at which it 
 ought to cease; and the philosopher who was 
 calmly regarding the condition of the country 
 through the trying ordeal, should know when 
 to look for the evidences of that better state 
 of things which it was supposed to bring about. 
 The facts which we have recited exhibit none of 
 these features. There appears to be no point at 
 which the movement is going to cease unless some 
 * See Appendix, Table III., p. 203. 
 
128 England's wealth Ireland's poveety. 
 
 new influences, quite different from any that have 
 yet been tried, can be brought to bear on it. By 
 1881 the great series of Acts, which have been 
 dignified by the name of remedial legislation, had 
 been applied to Ireland. What result did they 
 produce ? Their effect was to double the rate 
 at which the people were clearing out of the 
 country. By 1891 the population had fallen to 
 such a low point that there was a farm of thirty or 
 forty acres for every one who wanted land. Yet 
 somehow, after a momentary hesitation, while the 
 spell of the 1892 election and the consequent 
 efforts to enact the Home Eule Bill were being 
 made, a return to the old expansive figures of 
 decrease has set in. Surely this is no trivial 
 matter, and we may well pause to examine the 
 features of such a movement, which is leaving a 
 mighty mark, not only on a single country, but on 
 the history of the world. 
 
 To appreciate rightly this marvellous phenomenon 
 by which a growth, which had gone on for two 
 centuries in the numbers of a people, has been 
 suddenly arrested and the population made to 
 diminish with greater rapidity than it had pre- 
 viously increased, it will be necessary to observe 
 the precise channels which the movement has 
 taken. The largest part of the decrease is ac- 
 counted for by emigration. It will be seen here- 
 after that the marriage-rate and birth-rate are low, 
 and that an unfavourable change has taken place 
 
THE BOAED OP TEADE STATISTICS. 129 
 
 in the death-rate. In fact, every characteristic 
 feature by which the nation had estabhshed a 
 reputation for elasticity and the power to recupe- 
 rate itself, appears to have departed. But we 
 shall more conveniently review this aspect of the 
 case when we come to speak of the remainder of 
 the population in the next chapter, and here we 
 must make a somewhat careful analysis of the 
 facts with regard to emigration. 
 
 The number of emigrants in each year is care- 
 fully recorded by the Irish Eegistrar-General. But 
 his figures secure little attention. In England the 
 generally accepted account of the movement is that 
 given by the quarterly returns issued in London 
 by the Board of Trade. This is commented upon 
 in all the papers, and if any particular tendency 
 should begin to be apparent in the returns, the 
 attention of the nation would be arrested. But it 
 wiU be seen in a moment that all the features 
 which make the Irish movement so pathetic and 
 so grave are, by their nature, obliterated when its 
 record is amalgamated with that of Great Britain. 
 It is therefore necessary to understand this matter 
 clearly. 
 
 The Board of Trade has gradually developed a 
 theory, which is based to some extent on the figures 
 of immigration, that large emigration generally 
 takes place in a period of brisk trade, and that it 
 is a healthy sign of the nation's development. 
 Prom the gigantic figures of the wealth of Great 
 
 10 
 
130 England's WEAiiTH ibeland's poverty. 
 
 Britain which have been given, as well as from 
 the accurate manner in which its trade statistics 
 are recorded, it can easily be understood how 
 much her commerce rests on the progress of the 
 world. If gold is discovered in Australia, and 
 the latent resources of that continent begin to 
 develop, the influence of the movement there is 
 not greater than its effect on Great Britain. If 
 it be found possible to produce tea or tobacco, 
 cotton or wheat in India, the control, to a 
 large extent, of each industry will rest in the 
 hands of a few individuals in one of the cities of 
 Great Britain. Or if mineral oil should be dis- 
 covered in America or in Eussia, pipes will be laid 
 to the nearest ports, and British ships will com- 
 mence to carry and distribute it to such an extent 
 that Great Britain will probably derive as much 
 advantage from the discovery as the people who 
 made it. The opening up of Africa presented a 
 still larger field. To a great extent its diamonds 
 and gold and resources of every kind, are in the 
 hands of the British and are controlled from 
 London as effectively as a farm or a factory in 
 Essex might be. 
 
 With facts such as these before us, which 
 might be multiplied indefinitely, it can easily be 
 seen that, so far as Great Britain is concerned, the 
 theory of the Board of Trade is perfectly sound. 
 Good trade in England is always contemporaneous 
 with, if not produced by, briskness abroad. It is 
 
THE BRITISH EMIGRANT. 131 
 
 the openings which are thus made which induce 
 her sons to emigrate. Their departure is noticed 
 without any misgiving. Wherever they go they 
 extend the influence and the prestige of Great 
 Britain ; they prepare homes to which others may 
 follow them, and look forward to returning again 
 to the land which they still claim as their own. 
 
 It will seem astonishing to the future historian 
 that it could have been possible for forty years 
 to mix up the story of the emigration from 
 Ireland with such movements as these. There 
 is no feature common to both. To begin with, 
 the word emigrant is defined by the Board of 
 Trade as meaning a person who goes to some place 
 outside of Europe. But the Irish Eegistrar-General 
 defines it as one who permanently removes away 
 from Ireland. Under the definition of the Board 
 of Trade no account would be taken, so far as 
 Ireland was concerned, of that considerable section 
 of her population which emigrates to Great Britain 
 or to other parts of Europe. In the fifteen years 
 preceding 1891, 70,786, or 9-2 per cent., of all 
 emigrants went to Great Britain. Surely these are 
 as much lost to Ireland, so far as her agricultural, 
 industrial, or social development is concerned, as 
 if they had gone to America. But they are not 
 enumerated by the Board of Trade, and therefore 
 the numbers do not correspond with those furnished 
 by the Irish Eegistrar General. In 1876 the Irish 
 emigrants, according to the Board of Trade, were 
 
132 ENGLAND'S WEALTH IBELAND's POVERTY. 
 
 26,976; the actual number was 37,587. In the 
 two following and many subsequent years there 
 was a still greater variation. There is no immi- 
 gration into Ireland. The movement is one-sided, 
 a draining away of the people that has now 
 gone on for a full half-century. Sometimes the 
 number of immigrants into Great Britain exceeds 
 the number of the emigrants ; this occurred in 
 1877. In 1894 the figures practically balanced. 
 
 There was one great contrast between the two 
 movements that might have served to put the 
 Board of Trade on its guard. This was the 
 number of emigrants compared with the popula- 
 tions of the countries respectively. From the 1st 
 of Mayj 1851, to the 1st of January, 1896, the 
 number that left Ireland was 3,651,425, or about 
 70 per cent, out of an average population of about 
 five and a half millions, which was constantly de- 
 creasing. Only 4,877,390 left Great Britain out 
 of a population five times as large, and which was 
 increasing with phenomenal rapidity. One would 
 have thought that this contrast in bulk alone 
 would have prompted some fuller inquiry into the 
 different characteristics of the two movements 
 than appears to have been made. 
 
 Perhaps their different nature is brought into still 
 stronger contrast by considering the number of 
 females and the number of cabin passengers which 
 go from each country, and the destinations. 
 From Great Britain, as a rule, about twice as 
 
IBISH FEMALE EMIGEAHTS. 133 
 
 many males go as females. This is in accordance 
 with what might be expected. The first object is 
 to find business openings, and in many cases, if the 
 emigrant is not successful in this, he returns. Men 
 at first go alone, and then those who decide to 
 remain in the foreign country are followed by their 
 wives or families. The course of the movement, 
 not merely from Great Britain, but from other 
 European nations in a normal condition, illustrates 
 this rule. But in Ireland in the forty-three years 
 from 1851-1894, the figures of males and females 
 almost balance. In 1884, 1885, 1898, and 1894, 
 there were more females than males ; this applies 
 to the single as well as to the married. No fact 
 would appear to furnish stronger evidence that the 
 movement is one of necessity rather than of choice. 
 With regard to the number of cabin passengers 
 the difference is very striking. On examining the 
 figures of the six great ports at which emigrants 
 embark, we find two exclusively English, London 
 and Southampton. From the former the cabin 
 passengers in the year 1894 were three-fourths of 
 the total emigrants, and from the latter they were 
 two-fifths. There are two ports, Liverpool and 
 Glasgow, from which a great many Irish as well 
 as British passengers embark, therefore here the 
 average is lower. Erom the former one-third, and 
 from the latter only one-fifth were cabin passen- 
 gers. But when we come to the two exclusively 
 Irish ports, we find that only seventy-three cabin 
 
134 England's wealth ibeland's poveety. 
 
 passengers left Queenstown out of a total of twenty- 
 six thousand emigrants, and no cabin passengers 
 embarked at Galway. 
 
 With regard to the difference in the occupations 
 of the emigrants : in 1894 nearly ten thousand who 
 left Grreat Britain were described as " gentlemen, 
 professional men and merchants," but of this class 
 only twenty-one left Ireland. The contrast between 
 the two countries is further elucidated by the des- 
 tination of the emigrants from each. From Great 
 Britain eyery year large proportions go to various 
 countries, as attractions may be ofiered. In the 
 early part of the period Canada and Australia 
 were the favourite places, during the forty years 
 about half of the emigrants going there. In 
 1894, however, only 5 per cent, went to these 
 two countries. The number going to Africa has 
 greatly increased in recent years, but there is the 
 greatest variation in the destination from time 
 to time. In the Irish figures there is no such 
 evidence of selection. During the forty years over 
 five-sixths of the total emigration went to the 
 United States ; in 1894 out of thirty-three thou- 
 sand people sailing from Irish ports thirty-two 
 thousand went to the United States. Thus the 
 proportion going there of the whole number 
 of the Irish emigrants in 1894 was 92-2 per 
 cent. ; the three previous years giving a similar 
 percentage. This shows that the Irish emigrants 
 did not study the attractions of various countries. 
 
STANDPOINT OF, THE IBISH EMIGEANT.. 136 
 
 Tiiey knew nothing about them ; they simply went 
 where they could go most easily, anxious about 
 nothing except to escape from Ireland, with a 
 pathetic confidence that any place would be better 
 than home.* 
 
 The last point of contrast to which we need 
 draw attention is, that if we take England and 
 Scotland separately for a moment, the movement 
 of emigration from these two countries marches 
 together in every respect mentioned, show- 
 ing that the generalisation may be accurate as 
 regards the whole island of Great Britain. But 
 the figures of particular years in Ireland, as well as 
 the tendency of the whole period, are different, and 
 often contradictory to what might be expected from 
 both of the others. Out of the many examples, it 
 may be pointed out that in 1877 emigration de- 
 creased by one-fifth both in England and in 
 Scotland, but it increased in Ireland. In 1880 
 there was an increase all round in the figures, but 
 this amounted in England to 7 per cent., in Scot- 
 land to 14 per cent., but in Ireland to 101 per 
 cent., so that Irish emigration more than doubled 
 in that year. 
 
 Surely it is reasonable to conclude from aU these 
 facts that no common explanation will account for 
 the emigration from the two islands. As regards 
 Great Britain, no doubt the theory of the Board of 
 Trade is accurate, but the figures by which it is 
 * See Appendix, Table IX., p. 209. 
 
136 England's wealth Ireland's poveett. 
 
 supported must be greatly depreciated by the fact 
 that the Irish figures are mixed up with them. As 
 regards Ireland, the efforts of the Board of Trade 
 have only succeeded in obscuring one of the most' 
 important movements which have ever taken place 
 in these islands. 
 
 Apart from the position taken up by Govern- 
 ment Departments, there is a common belief 
 throughout Great Britain that the emigration from 
 Ireland is only a movement of a similar nature 
 to that which has slightly diminished the popu- 
 lation of its own rural districts. This theory will 
 not stand examination any better than the other. 
 Even in the most rural districts of Great Britain 
 the towns have gained what the country has lost. 
 If any wide rural district be taken, including the 
 towns which are situated in it, it will be found that 
 the population has not only not diminished^ since 
 1841, but that it shows a considerable increase, in 
 almost every case fairly proportionate to the increase 
 throughout the whole country. In Ireland this is 
 not so. Each one of the four Provinces, including 
 the towns, has suffered as much as the other. 
 There is only one county, Antrim, owing to the 
 growth of Belfast, that has increased. The county 
 Dublin has just held its own, and with these ex- 
 ceptions the diminution is spread with wonderful 
 regularity over all the island. No comparison 
 therefore can be made with the migration in Great 
 Britain. If the two islands are contrasted, it will 
 
MAGNITUDE OF THE MOVEMENT. 137 
 
 be seen that the conditions in one have enabled the 
 population to increase with phenomenal rapidity, 
 while the conditions in the other have caused the 
 catastrophe which has been described. 
 
 The magnitude, scope, and effects of this move- 
 ment make the last half-century the most melan- 
 choly epoch in the history of Ireland, and we must 
 hope that some day it will be adequately described. 
 The sad picture of the never-ending stream of 
 people who are going away for ever has become 
 familiar to those who are left behind. In many 
 villages the most attractive advertisements on 
 the walls are those of the rival companies com- 
 peting with one another in the facilities which 
 they offer for carrying away the people. A 
 lucrative occupation is found in selling passages. 
 The intending emigrants are accompanied to the 
 railway station by groups of friends, clinging to 
 them, anxious still to stand by them till the last 
 moment of their life in the old country is over, and 
 when the train steams off the most piteous exhibi- 
 tions of grief are witnessed. 
 
 At Galway the quays and the deserted streets 
 of that once prosperous city are often filled with 
 an eager crowd of peasants, who have come to 
 wait till the emigrant ship appears. When the 
 vessel steams into the beautiful but desolate bay 
 there are hurried partings, and a wild rush in 
 which only the fortunate few succeed in getting 
 on board ; hundreds who cannot find accommo- 
 
138 England's wealth Ireland's povebty. 
 
 •dation being forced to go back for awhile with 
 their weeping relatives. Such bitter incidents 
 afford evidence of passion and suffering which 
 dignify this tragedy of Irish life. 
 
 In the ten years ending in 1881, the total number 
 of emigrants was 630,000, but in the succeeding 
 ten years this number increased to 770,000. This 
 great company was made up of the bone and 
 sinew of the island. No less than 85 per cent, 
 of the whole number were between the ages of ten 
 and forty-five, only 5 per cent, being above the 
 latter age.* Thus the old are left to die in Ireland, 
 while those who should be the support and com- 
 fort of their declining years are forced to seek a 
 shelter in other lands. In only five out of the 
 thirty -two counties during the twenty years, 
 from 1871-1890, was the average annual pro- 
 portion of emigrants less than 10 per thousand 
 of the population. In fourteen counties it was 
 between 10 and 16, and in thirteen counties 
 between 15 and 20 per thousand. Thus every 
 district contributes its quota, so that it is not 
 possible to lay the finger on any congested or other 
 poverty-stricken part from which the stream pro- 
 ceeds ; it flows from all portions of the island. 
 The effect of the movement on the whole country 
 as well as on each particular county is shown more 
 completely in Diagram YI. The difference in size 
 of the two maps exhibits the shrinkage of the 
 • See Appendix, Table X., p 210. 
 
Ireland 1841. 
 
 Population 8,175,124. 
 
 I9'8 — II' 5 — 6"j — 4 '4 — 9' I 
 
Ireland 1891. 
 
 Poptdation 4,704,750. 
 
 DIAGRAM VI. 
 
 Showing the shrinkage of population in Ireland down to 1 891. The larger 
 map gives the population of each county in 1841, and the percentage of decrease 
 in each subsequent decade. The smaller map shows the population of each 
 
 county in 1891. 
 
SHEINKAGE OF IBBLAND. 139 
 
 population. The figures placed within the borders 
 of each county in the larger map show the popu- 
 lation of that county in the year 1841, and the 
 ratio of decrease in each of the census periods 
 since then. The figures within the counties in the 
 smaller map show the population in the year 1891. 
 These returns seem to point to the conclusion 
 that the counties which are supposed to be pros- 
 perous, furnish the largest percentage of emigrants. 
 The part of Ireland which is best known to me 
 is the wide agricultural district in the south of 
 Ulster, which is made up of the three counties of 
 Cavan, Fermanagh and Monaghan. Even within 
 my memory all this was a fairly prosperous district 
 containing a large population of well-to-do gentle- 
 men, farmers, and shopkeepers. In 1841 the three 
 counties contained 600,000 people. By 1891 this 
 had fallen to 272,000, so that the decrease was 63 
 per cent., while all over Ireland it was only 42 per 
 cent. No country could possess more orderly, in- 
 dustrious, or intelligent citizens than many of the 
 farmers who were afterwards driven to emigrate. 
 They were fairly equipped with capital, on the 
 whole they made little complaint of their rents, 
 and their landlords were often only too anxious to 
 retain them as tenants; but one could see how 
 these sturdy men felt themselves surrounded by 
 difficulties which they could not understand. 
 They carried on the battle hopefully for years, but 
 in nearly every case with the same result. Good 
 
140 England's wealth ieeland's poveety. 
 
 farmhouses which had belonged to the same fami- 
 lies for over a century have, within the last fifty 
 years, had three and four difierent occupants. Of 
 the three counties Cavan is the most familiar to 
 me. In it the population in 1845 reached nearly 
 two hundred and fifty thousand. To-day it is little 
 more than one hundred thousand, so that only two 
 people remain for every five who were there within 
 living memory. 
 
 Monaghan is a more striking example of the 
 influence which is blighting everything; This 
 county contains some of the best land in Ireland, 
 and it ranks fourth in order of fertility. Its 
 population was over two hundred thousand 
 at the beginning of the period, by 1881 it 
 had fallen to one hundred thousand, but in 
 the following decade its ratio doubled, and it 
 showed a greater decrease in population than 
 any other Irish county, the percentage being 
 16, against an average of 9-08 all over Ireland. 
 In the year 1836, when the Ulster Bank was 
 founded, there were three places named in its 
 Charter which enjoyed special facilities as head 
 offices. They were Belfast, Dubhn, and Monaghan. 
 This county town was then one of the most 
 busy centres of active life to be found in rural 
 Ireland, but now it is diminished in size, and its 
 importance in every way has sunk in proportion 
 to the decay of the country around it. The inci- 
 dent that we have mentioned in connection with 
 
THE EXPEEIENCE OF COUNTY MONAGHAN. 141 
 
 the Ulster Bank, affords striking evidence of how, 
 even so recently as sixty years ago, business 
 men, well qualified to judge, embarked in enter- 
 prises and founded high hopes on the continued 
 prosperity of these agricultural districts. The 
 figures we have given show how soon those hopes 
 were doomed to be blighted. The philosophic 
 Briton who finds enough to eat, and knows how 
 to employ his energies irrespective of agriculture, 
 will exclaim, " Naturally enough, it is the repeal 
 of the Corn Laws, agricultural depression, nothing 
 else could be expected." But surely this is not 
 an answer that touches the matter from the 
 Irishman's point of view. He can never look 
 with any complacency on a theory which implies 
 that a country, dependent on agriculture, can 
 anticipate nothing but decay. Every true instinct 
 compels him to deny this. Agriculture always 
 has been, is, and will be, his only resource, and his 
 reasonable claim is that such conditions should 
 be established in the country as will enable this 
 despised industry to be successfully prosecuted. 
 
 The results in the county of Fermanagh are 
 similar. The population has fallen 53 per cent, 
 against 42 per cent, in the whole of Ireland. 
 In many respects this is the most charming 
 county in Ireland. It is watered by the magni- 
 ficent Upper and Lower Loughs Erne, stretching 
 nearly fifty miles, with their thousand islands. 
 At the junction of these two lakes is Enniskillen, 
 
142 England's wealth ieeland's poveett. 
 
 a place of some historic interest, admirably situ- 
 ated for trade. The movement, however, so 
 pithily summarised in the figures we have given, 
 has grievously affected its fortunes. There is no 
 longer the peasantry in the district to promote its 
 prosperity. Small towns and villages have disap- 
 peared; and wherever the traveller goes on the 
 lakes, he is saddened with the silence and deso- 
 lation of the beautiful scenes through which he 
 passes. It is more like an unexplored region 
 than a civilised country in Europe, which in the 
 last generation was full of the human interests 
 of busy and happy life. 
 
 Details such as these could be provided with 
 regard to every county, but enough has been said 
 to show that the emigrants who have been allowed 
 to leave Ireland unnoticed without an efiort being 
 made to arrest their departure, were the flower of 
 the land : men and women in the prime of life, 
 qualified in every way to carry on the only 
 industry that is possible in the country, and 
 anxious to do so if they had been permitted. 
 They have been driven out before our eyes with 
 sorrow in their hearts, the very type of a popu- 
 lation which a wise or provident government 
 would have strained every effort to retain. Surely 
 these would have been a richer possession than 
 any amount that could have been gathered in taxes. 
 But the pathetic part of the story is that these 
 have been lost and there is no gain whatever to 
 
LOSSES AND GAINS. 143' 
 
 counterbalance the sacrifice. If we have told th& 
 story of the Eoyal Commission to any purpose, 
 it is clear that the money gathered by the cruel 
 exactions which made life impossible for them, was 
 recklessly flung away in the most wasteful manner. 
 
 The engrossing character of affairs in Great 
 Britain affords some explanation of the neglectful 
 treatment which this silent revolution has received, 
 so far as any just consideration of its effects is 
 concerned. Yet it is impossible to leave the 
 matter without considering one or two of its 
 economic aspects. The British are supposed to 
 be a nation of shopkeepers. How can they re- 
 concile it with the instincts of good business men 
 to let these three millions of possible customers 
 go? 
 
 A common description covers the financial con- 
 dition of every emigrant as he went away. They 
 took nothing with them,* or, if anything, the 
 smallest sum that would bring them to their 
 destination and provide a few necessary equip- 
 ments there. All the substantial farmers, whose 
 circumstances have been familiar to me, carried 
 on their work until it was impossible to continue 
 it longer. Few cases have come to my knowledge 
 
 * The poverty with which many embark is not unhappily 
 illustrated by the story of one who was hurrying on board just 
 as the ship was about to leave. The sailor who was helping 
 him said, " Where is your trunk ? " ' ',What trunk ? " " Why, 
 the trunk with your clothes." " Would you have me come on 
 board naked ? " replied the Irishman. 
 
144 England's wealth ieeland's poverty. 
 
 of any one leaving unpaid debts behind him. They 
 were not runaway bankrupts anxious to elude their 
 creditors. The general story is the same — circum- 
 stances gradually darkening around until the 
 struggle could no longer be carried on, then 
 realisation of a few assets which paid the rent 
 and every outstanding liability, and then, with 
 whatever remained, the sad leave-taking. Though 
 the amount of money taken by each emigrant be 
 small, yet when we remember the great numbers 
 of them, the total becomes a very considerable 
 drain on the resources of the country. 
 
 It has passed into a proverb that the great 
 majority have done well in their new homes. Sad 
 evidence of the strength of the bitter feelings 
 which many carried away is afforded by the 
 help they sent back to friends who remained at 
 home, often chiefly intended to enable these to 
 follow. Can it be wondered if some unkindly 
 feeling lingers in their hearts against the system 
 of misgovernment to which, in their somewhat 
 vague yet perfectly accurate reasoning, they trace 
 the necessity for their exile? Surely this aspect 
 of the question shows the folly of a country, which 
 has commercial and other relations with every 
 foreign nation, sowing the world, if not with 
 enemies, with so many millions who have a 
 grievance against her. 
 
 It cannot be said that nothing could have 
 been done to arrest this movement. Many things 
 
THE OPINION OF PE.ANCE. 146 
 
 were possible all along, and the case for action at 
 present is urgent. Compared with this exigency 
 there has been nothing in the circumstances of 
 France to make her statesmen uneasy. Yet 
 vigorous action has been taken there to prevent 
 the dreaded decline of population. What amounts 
 to an annual allowance is made to the parents 
 of large families in the shape of immunity from 
 certain taxes. On the part of the British authori- 
 ties there has not been even an expression of con- 
 cern at the dimensions which the decrease in 
 Ireland has permanently assumed. On the con- 
 trary, attempts have been made to show that the 
 movement is of an entirely healthy and satisfactory 
 character. Acting on this belief. Parliament be- 
 tween 1880 and 1891, as well as in earlier periods, 
 has provided money to facilitate emigration.* 
 Surely this opinion and the consequent action 
 wiU stand as an historic example of the unwis- 
 dom and callousness of an intelligent people. 
 
 If the extent and variation in these figures 
 of emigration had been studied from year to 
 year, they would have afforded a true and inte- 
 resting history of affairs in Ireland compared 
 with what has actually been received. They 
 
 * In 1838 the Poor Law Act provided for assisted emigration 
 out of the rates. In 1849 the Poor Law Amendment Act 
 authorised loans for the same purpose. In 1881 (Land Act) 
 £200,000, in 1882 (Arrears Act) £100,000, in 1883 (Tramways 
 Act) £100,000, in 1891 (Land Purchase Act) 30s. per head are 
 also provided. 
 
 11 
 
146 England's wealth Ireland's povebty, 
 
 reflect the suSerings that the people have endured; 
 they mark the extent as well as the recurrence 
 of eVery period of extreme depression. The sudden 
 fall in prices, the bad season, the incidence of 
 new burdens, all tell upon the sensitive record. 
 The rule is almost unvarying that in the year 
 after a famine there is a greatly increased emigra- 
 tion. Let us look back now, when the noise of 
 controversy has ceased, at the light that this 
 eloquent and irresistible testimony sheds on one 
 or two epochs. 
 
 In the years from 1876 to 1879 the emigration 
 had reached the lowest point in Ireland since 1846, 
 the average for each year being about forty thou- 
 sand. But after this comparatively restful period, in 
 the year 1880 the figures of the previous year, were 
 doubled, and we find ninety-nine thousand people 
 were compelled to go. Practically the figures kept 
 up to this higher level in the two succeeding years, 
 and in the year 1883 108,000 were driven out. We 
 can still remember the feelings with which afiairs 
 in Ireland were then regarded in Great Britain by 
 every party. It was the period of Mr. W. E. 
 Forster's administration. We heard of the " village 
 tyrants ; " of the buckshot being served out to the 
 constabulary; of Irish members turned out of 
 the House of Commons and most of them safely 
 locked up in Irish gaols; of the police force increased 
 by over three thousand men, and its cost raised by 
 over £400,000 a year. This outline of what Great 
 
EMIGEATION AND DISTRESS. 147 
 
 Britain saw and thought is sufficient to contrast with 
 the agony that is so powerfully expressed in the iact 
 of the sudden development of emigration. These 
 people, at any rate, were not " village tyrants " or 
 criminals of any kind. They were simply fellow 
 human beings who were being starved, and the 
 terrible increase in the number of them in every 
 county shows that the distress was not feigned but 
 real and widespread, and will make every person 
 disposed to regret that some more kindly interpre- 
 tation of the facts did not occur to the mass of the 
 people in Great Britain. 
 
 Or, take the interval subsequent to 1885-86. 
 Then, again, circumstances had somewhat ame- 
 liorated, and instead of the very large number 
 mentioned in 1883, only sixty-two thousand emi- 
 grants left Ireland in each of the two years. But it 
 wiU be remembered how passion was excited in 
 Great Britain, towards the end of the year 1886, by 
 the demands that Irish members were making for 
 consideration of the agricultural difficulties that 
 were then settling down upon the country. The 
 British feeling assumed the usual form. There was 
 a Coercion Act, and more members of Parliament 
 were locked up. But the Emigration Eetums, which 
 are quiet facts that would have disturbed no one, 
 were entirely neglected. In the year 1887 we find 
 that the number increased by twenty-two thousand; 
 practically this increase was maintained in 1888, 
 and it was 1890 before there was a return even to 
 
148 England's wealth Ireland's poverty. 
 
 the figures of 1885-86. While this decrease of 
 population was taking place, the annual expenditure 
 gradually increased by over ^6600,000. These are 
 examples of the evil destiny which seems to pre- 
 side over the relations between the two countries. 
 Sometimes it is the Liberals, sometimes the Con- 
 servatives, but there is always some one to say, 
 and to do, the wrong thing at the time when it 
 appears to be most cruel to the people. 
 
 The incidents of 1895 show that we are in the 
 midst of another period of depression. Eeference 
 has already been made to the Belief Act of the 
 end of 1894, which was rendered necessary by the 
 approach of famine in many districts and by great 
 suffering in others. Proof of the seriousness of 
 the crisis is found in the remarkable increase of 
 emigration ; the returns showing that nearly fifty 
 thousand emigrants have left, as against thirty- 
 five thousand in the previous year. Let us hope 
 that even now some adequate consideration may 
 be given to the causes which lead to so much 
 suffering. 
 
CHAPTBK VI. 
 
 THE BESIDUE. 
 
 The argument of the Board of Trade, that a large 
 number of emigrants is a sign of progress, is not 
 the only example of ingenious efforts to place a 
 hopeful interpretation on the phenomena which 
 modern Ireland presents. We have glanced at 
 the theory that when population diminishes the 
 residue increases in well-being. It is now neces- 
 sary to see how far the condition of things 
 justifies this belief. We can only examine the 
 question fully by arriving at some agreement as 
 to what tests of the well-being of the community 
 shaU be accepted without dispute. Three circum- 
 stances are invariably brought forward as proof 
 that the nation is making progress. These are an 
 alleged improvement in the cottages throughout 
 the country, good dividends paid by the railway 
 companies, and large deposits in the banks. 
 
 It must be pointed out in the first place that 
 even if these allegations be true they are not con- 
 clusive upon the question. It is necessary that 
 the inquiry should be carried much further. The 
 vital statistics of the country must be examined 
 in comparison with other countries. It must be 
 
 149 
 
150 England's wealth ikeland's poverty. 
 
 seen whether pauperism is increasing, and figures 
 which will show the growth or diminution of 
 industry must be taken into account. The con- 
 dition of the towns and of all classes of the 
 community must be inquired into. With the 
 admirable statistics which have been provided 
 during recent years, a candid consideration 
 of such facts as these may lead us to some 
 definite conclusion. Probably this is the most 
 important question which we have had to con- 
 sider. Hundreds of thousands have died of star- 
 vation; millions have been banished; armies are 
 maintained at great cost; millions of money 
 are spent in Government establishments. If, as 
 a result of all this, an intelligent, prosperous 
 and contented nation has been developed, well 
 and good. But if we should find that this has 
 not been done, it would not be unreasonable to 
 conclude that something different is needed. 
 
 Taking the points mentioned in order, we must 
 first consider the question of house accommoda- 
 tion. None of the statistics which are issued by 
 the Government in Dublin are more elaborate than 
 those dealing with this subject. A rather ingenious 
 system has come into use, by which the houses in 
 which the people lived at different periods through- 
 out the century are divided into four classes. 
 "In the fourth class are comprised those built 
 of mud or perishable material, having only one 
 room and window ; in the third a better descrip- 
 
THE HOUSING QUESTION. 161 
 
 tion of house, varying from one to four rooms and 
 windows ; in the second what might be considered 
 a good farmhouse, having from five to nine rooms 
 and windows ; and in the first class all houses of a 
 better description." * It is represented that these 
 distinctions have been in use since 1841, and 
 impressive figures are produced which show the 
 disappearance of the fourth class and the larger 
 number of people who are accommodated in the 
 third and other classes. This is brought forward 
 as proof of the improved condition of the people. 
 
 In estimating the value of these figures it must 
 be borne in mind that seven hundred thousand 
 families left the country during the period to 
 which they refer, therefore a proportionately 
 smaller number now require accommodation. 
 Naturally, then, many houses became useless, 
 but they did not disappear as quickly as the 
 inhabitants, so that, from 1841 to 1891, the 
 reduction in the number of inhabited houses 
 was only two-thirds of the number of families 
 which had gone. Houses of all sorts were empty, 
 and the residue of the people drifted into the 
 larger, while the smaller and more fragile struc- 
 tures disappeared. The classification gives no 
 facility for judging of the character of accommo- 
 dation, except as to size and the number of 
 windows. There is no record as to sanitary con- 
 ditions, or as to whether the houses contained 
 * Census Eeport. 
 
152 England's weajlth ieeland's poverty. 
 
 floors, or as to whether the roof was watertight, 
 or even as to whether the windows contained 
 glass. In all these respects there were notorious 
 deficiences. If these statistics may be trusted, 
 they show that the improvement claimed was 
 accomplished by 1881. The change had been 
 almost completed by that year ; indeed, for twenty 
 years before that, these figures had been the boast of 
 Government apologists. The question then arises,^ 
 why it was necessary, in 1886-86, to pass Acts of 
 a most onerous character on ratepayers, to provide 
 proper labourers' dwellings ? Either the figures 
 were utterly fallacious or these Acts were not 
 required. Twelve thousand of these new houses 
 have been built since the 1891 census throughout 
 the two southern provinces ; they are now rapidly 
 being erected in Ulster and Coniiaught, the 
 Government using every influence to press them 
 forward. There could be no more complete ex- 
 posure of the pretence, elaborately set out in each 
 of the last four census reports, that the housing of 
 the people was in a satisfactory condition. 
 
 Let us pass now to the question of the pros- 
 perity of the railway companies. Some light 
 has already been thrown on this matter, and 
 it has been seen that those which pay the 
 best dividends and in which the stock has 
 risen most rapidly to the highest premium are 
 lines which, in a better regulated community, 
 would be described as bankrupt undertakings. 
 
PROSPEKITY OF KAILWxVYS. 153 
 
 All their takings are swallowed up in working 
 expenses, and they pay their dividend out of 
 the guarantee provided by the State or by the 
 locality. So far from developing the well-being 
 of the community, they form a new and in- 
 genious tax upon an already overburdened people. 
 Of course this does not apply to the great trunk 
 lines. But it suggests how necessary it is to 
 be cautious in accepting the solvency of private 
 undertakings as proof of the progress of such a 
 nation. 
 
 In Great Britain railway companies occupy a 
 quite different position from that which they hold 
 amongst agricultural communities. Pour-fifths 
 of the population dwell in cities. The ex- 
 istence of these cities often depends on the 
 facilities of transit which railways provide. The 
 rapid growth of Birmingham, Manchester, Brad- 
 ford, Leeds, and many other places far away from 
 the sea, during the last half-century, would not have 
 been possible if the most highly developed facilities 
 did not exist for bringing food and raw material 
 to them and for distributing their manufactures. 
 The organisation which performs this necessary 
 function, in such a community, will naturally 
 achieve a great predominance. So that the pros- 
 perity of such a system^ no less than the statistics 
 of its trafiic, may be accepted as a rough indication 
 of the progress of the country. 
 
 That railways occupy no such important position 
 
154 England's wealth ibeland's poverty. 
 
 in a poor country depending solely on agriculture, 
 may be seen by contrasting the statistics of the 
 railway system in Scotland with the Irish statistics. 
 The mileage in Scotland is three hundred miles 
 greater although the country is smaller in size and 
 in population. Other figures for 1894, in millions, 
 were : Paid-up capital, Scotch 135, Irish 39 ; 
 passengers, Scotch 83, Irish 25 ; tonnage of goods, 
 Scotch 40, Irish 5 ; total takings, Scotch 9, Irish 
 8 J. The large figures go far to prove that the 
 railways occupy an important place in Scotland, 
 while the small figures show that they occupy no 
 such place in Ireland. While interest must be paid 
 on three and a half times as much capital, while 
 three and a half times as many passengers and 
 eight times as much goods are carried in Scotland, 
 the total takings are only two and a half times 
 greater than in Ireland. Probably this dispropor- 
 tion in the takings is due to the exorbitant Irish 
 charges, and explains, to some extent, the good 
 dividends and prosperity of the companies amidst 
 the general decay. 
 
 On the whole it must be acknowledged that 
 the returns of the one system may give true 
 indications of national progress, but that it is 
 ridiculous to found any such wide generalisation 
 on the returns of the other. Probably agricul- 
 ture throughout Ireland has not been helped at 
 all by her railway system. Possibly it has been 
 greatly injured by the haphazard development; 
 
SAVINGS IN THE BANKS. 156 
 
 although, no doubt, it might have been materially 
 assisted by a more carefully considered scheme. 
 
 The most popular fallacy of all is that the 
 country must be making satisfactory progress 
 because deposits in the Savings and other banks 
 may increase. The explanation, both of the readi- 
 ness with which this idea is accepted and of its 
 fallaciousness, is the same. The British, with the 
 instincts of a commercial people, only put their 
 money in banks when they have not got anything 
 else to do with it. They much prefer to invest it 
 in solid trading enterprises, for which facilities 
 abound in their country. It may therefore be 
 taken for granted that enterprises are being 
 developed as far as possible, and that there are 
 few more useful openings when funds begin to 
 accumulate largely in the banks. Therefore with 
 such a nation these accumulations may give some 
 hint of a satisfactory state of affairs. 
 
 The Irish approach these matters from a dif- 
 ferent standpoint. The Celt has a passion for 
 saving. Probably the vicissitudes of the country 
 have greatly increased this feeling. Everybody 
 desires to have something, however trifling, against 
 the rainy day which is only too certain to arrive. 
 For this reason the greatest sacrifices are made to 
 accumulate even a small amount. There is nothing 
 new in the facts. Savings always existed in Ireland, 
 but they were kept in the houses until within the 
 last generation, when the people have gradually. 
 
156 England's wealth ieeland's poverty. 
 
 and slowly, been induced to place them in banks, 
 Cases of well-to-do people are familiar to me who 
 still keep their money in their cottages, and nothing 
 would induce them to part with it. The efforts 
 to save, made by domestic servants throughout 
 the country districts who receive wages of only 
 £S or £10 a year, are simply astonishing. Almost 
 every one who has a permanent situation, even 
 with such trifling remuneration, has got a little in 
 the bank. No girl can get married without such 
 an attraction. Fifteen pounds is considered a 
 fortune, but a girl who has even got five pounds 
 has an advantage over a rival who has nothing. 
 To judge whether this affords the slightest 
 proof of well-being one must inquire how the 
 resources of the country are being developed. 
 Has cultivation been brought to a high state. 
 "Are the farms well drained, fences, gates, and 
 homesteads in good order. All this work in 
 Ireland has to be done by the tenant if it is done 
 at all. It must also be ascertained whether, now 
 that the population has disappeared to such an 
 extent, labour-saving appliances are being used. 
 Is the separator in the dairy. Or is the antiquated 
 churn still in use. Are the various breeds of the, 
 animals being improved as rapidly as possible. 
 If all these questions could be answered satisfac- 
 torily, then savings of any material amount in the 
 banks might be accepted as some sign of progress, 
 but seeing that Ireland is behind every other agri- 
 
AMOUNT OF THE SAVINGS. 157 
 
 cultural nation in the world in all the respects that 
 have been mentioned, some other explanation must 
 be found for the growth of these savings. The 
 truth is, it requires very little explanation in addi- 
 tion to what has been given. They do not amount 
 to a sufficient sum, spread over all the people, to be 
 seriously considered. The deposits in joint stock 
 banks increased five and a half millions, and those 
 in savings banks four and a half millions between 
 1875 and 1895. But investments in Government 
 securities diminished by seven and three-quarter 
 millions ; so that the net increase in the twenty 
 years is two and a quarter millions. Such as they 
 are, these savings are probably due, in no small 
 degree, to a feeling of distrust ^vith regard to the 
 agricultural system which prevents the people from 
 investing them to better advantage. So far as the 
 savings banks are concerned, the comparatively 
 high interest of 3 per cent, no doubt explains the 
 growth of deposits. 
 
 For these reasons we are unable to derive, 
 from the statistics of houses, railways, or banks, 
 any comfort so far as the condition of things 
 is concerned, and we must carry our researches 
 farther afield. A valuable contribution to this 
 inquiry is made in a paper by Mr. C. Booth, which 
 was published in the Statistical Journal in the 
 year 1886, on the occupations of the people of the 
 United Kingdom, 1801-1881. Mr. Booth con- 
 cluded his picture of England by saying " That her 
 
158 England's wealth Ireland's poveety. 
 
 position is, on the whole, one that may be regarded 
 with satisfaction. Every hne of it shows vitality and 
 a great power of meeting changes of circumstances 
 which seems to give promise of continued pros- 
 perity." Then dealing with Scotland he observed 
 "that the points of similarity with England are 
 much more noticeable than the points of difference. 
 . . . The figures show that the two countries share 
 each other's fortune and make the union of feeling 
 between them easy to understand." 
 
 Then Mr. Booth turns to Ireland. "But it is 
 far different with the sister island. The whole con- 
 dition of Ireland is gloomy. . . . No evidence of 
 improvement is to be found in the occupation 
 returns which, on the contrary, point to a demora- 
 lisation of industry likely to be the cause, as well as 
 consequence, of poverty and waning trade. ... In 
 the picture of desolation which the Irish figures 
 afford there seems little room for delusion. When 
 industries decay, those who have been supported 
 by them cling to their employment as long as 
 possible. Such has certainly occurred in Ireland. 
 In such a case the facts are assuredly worse than 
 the figures disclose." 
 
 In this paper, which those who desire to pursue 
 the subject into detail will do well to consult, 
 Mr. Booth refers to the figures with regard to 
 the textile industries which have been already 
 quoted. He examines every other occupation 
 pursued in the country, and each leads him to 
 
OPINION OP ME. CHAELES BOOTH. 159 
 
 a somewhat similar conclusion. He finds that 
 even the few occupations which appear to 
 ofier more openings than in former periods only 
 tend to confirm the evidence of the country's 
 decay. Thus a larger percentage of the people 
 describe themselves as dealers — those who live by 
 buying and selling. There is an increase in the 
 numbers of Civil servants and domestic servants. 
 None of these classes are wealth-producers, and so 
 Mr. Booth concludes, " I have found no loophole 
 of escape, and the comparison of the successive 
 decades shows how gradually the position of 
 Ireland was reversed from being the most econo- 
 mical to being the most extravagant in domestic 
 service. The only explanation that suggests itself 
 is that servants are more numerous where poverty 
 makes service cheap." 
 
 In most countries which have a landed aris- 
 tocracy as well as a very poor peasantry, the 
 condition of the former afiords, in respect of wealth 
 at least, some relief to the picture of general suffer- 
 ing. Even this is scarcely found in Ireland. The 
 circumstances of many of the landlords are in some 
 respects as embarrassed as those of their tenants. 
 They inherited their property encumbered with 
 heavy charges and mortgages, so that only a small 
 margin for subsistence remained to them. Out of 
 this they have had to meet the heavy reductions 
 of rent consequent upon the agricultural de- 
 cline. While in many cases this leaves them 
 
160 England's wealth ieeland's poveety. 
 
 little to live on, they refuse to sell the 
 property, as it would hardly realise sufficient to 
 pay off the mortgages. They are as hard hit by 
 the increases of taxation as the tenants. The 
 various Land Acts have given them no relief from 
 the payments they have to make ; they have also 
 the satisfaction of seeing that for every pound their 
 rent has been reduced the Government has in- 
 creased the taxes two pounds, so that their tenants 
 are worse off than before. Owing to such causes, 
 absenteeism is increasing, and beautiful residences 
 are falling into ruins in every county. All timber 
 which could be sold has been cut down, and the 
 desolate appearance and poverty of the country has 
 been thus greatly increased. Some small owners 
 never receive a penny of rent, and it has been 
 found necessary to establish a Society for the 
 relief of Irish landladies who have no other means 
 of subsistence. 
 
 The difficulties of the farming class throughout 
 the century have been sufficiently described. It is 
 only necessary here to add that the outlook is still 
 unpromising for them. Fifty years ago the repeal 
 of the Corn Laws and the adoption of Free Trade 
 gave the cultivation of grain crops a deadly blow. 
 During the last twenty-five years improved com- 
 munication with distant countries has gradually 
 spoiled the market for cattle and dairy produce. 
 Evidence laid before the Eoyal Commission proved 
 that between 1864 and 1893 " store cattle have 
 
CONDITION OF THE OOUNTEY TOWNS. 161 
 
 fallen 32 per cent. ; fat cattle 22 per cent. ; sheep 
 32 per cent. ; mutton 22 per cent. ; butter 18 per 
 cent. ; pork 20 per cent. ; flax 30 per cent. ; and 
 since then the prices are on the whole lower." 
 
 One of the most melancholy evidences of poverty 
 is found in the condition of the country towns. It 
 is hardly an exaggeration to speak of many of them 
 as in ruins. The principal streets are dirty and 
 iU-kept, old and decaying houses are not removed 
 from them, and there is no comfortable hotel. The 
 bad market accommodation gives little inducement 
 to buyers or sellers to attend. The shopkeepers 
 have a constant struggle to make ends meet, and a 
 great deterioration has taken place in the variety 
 and in the quality of goods which are offered for 
 sale. It is impossible to buy woollens or linens, 
 suitable for clothing, of the same durability as the 
 old homespuns. While the shops are full of shoddy, 
 few of the strong and useful articles formerly 
 made in the locality are now offered for sale in the 
 streets. Few varieties of fruit are grown or 
 brought into the markets, and among these it is 
 impossible to buy anything of really excellent 
 quality. There are no industries of any kind, and 
 it is hard to find a good tradesman or artizan. 
 
 The great decrease in the number of labourers 
 would appear at first sight to give promise of better 
 conditions for those that remain. The balance of 
 evidence given before the Eoyal Commission tends, 
 however, to show that any progress made by this 
 
 12 
 
162 England's wealth Ireland's povbety. 
 
 class some twenty years ago is now checked. Work 
 can only be safely reckoned upon during about eight 
 months out of the twelve, so that any improvement 
 in wages is lost by irregularity in employment. 
 The difficulties of the farmers prevent them from 
 undertaking tillage, or even from properly fencing 
 their holdings. In the towns there is the greatest 
 suffering amongst casual workers, as little money 
 is spent, and there is no enterprise of any kind. 
 The new labourers' houses have given substantial 
 relief for the moment, but the charge of £5 or £6 a 
 year on the ratepayers for each is likely to prevent 
 these acts from permanently improving the situa- 
 tion. 
 
 Perhaps no evidence of progress or decay 
 should be so readily accepted as the statistics 
 with regard to pauperism furnished by the 
 Boards of Guardians. For facility of reference 
 a comparative table * prepared by the Local 
 Government Board is printed in the Appendix, 
 showing the fluctuations which have taken place 
 within the last thirty years. This table, ahke 
 in its general result and in the terrible state 
 of afiairs in particular years which it reveals, 
 is sufficient in itself to banish any hopeful view 
 that might have been entertained of the condi- 
 tion of the nation. By the year 1864, in the 
 opinion of many, the worst difficulties of the 
 country were over. The famine had been left well 
 • See Appendix, Table XI., p. 211. 
 
GBOWTH OF PAUPERISM. 163 
 
 behind and the period of remedial legislation was 
 about to commence. Yet the result of events in 
 the period since then has been to double the 
 proportion of paupers in Ireland for every thousand 
 of the population. In the year 1864 the total 
 number of indoor and outdoor paupers was 62 per 
 thousand; in 1894 it had increased to 95 per 
 thousand. In the end of the year 1886 the figures 
 rose from 89 to 129 per thousand. 
 
 Until 1879 the figures had risen no higher 
 than 62 per thousand, but there was a steady 
 rise through Mr. W. E. Forster's period till, 
 at the beginning of 1881, they stood at 115, the 
 highest point they touched until Mr. Balfour 
 came into office. It is the periods of compara- 
 tive rest after these bad times that leave the most 
 gloomy impression on the mind, for a glance at 
 the table will show that in the early seventies 
 the average pauperism in a good year was about 
 60, but after Mr. Forster's administration it never 
 sinks below 80, and after Mr. Balfour's it never 
 sinks below 90 per thousand. 
 
 In Great Britain in 1864 the mean number of 
 paupers was 49, in 1894 it had fallen to 26 per 
 thousand. Thus while one island was steadily 
 improving the other was as steadily declining, 
 and the relative position of Ireland gets worse as 
 the years proceed. 
 
 No complaint against the management of the 
 affairs of the country is so well founded as the 
 
164 England's wealth Ireland's poveety. 
 
 complaint against the system of poor relief. It 
 is not too much to say that nine-tenths of the 
 poverty in the rural districts is annually pro- 
 duced by artificial means. Pauperism should 
 only arise from fluctuations in employment, or 
 in the average amount of subsistence avail- 
 able. In Ireland there are few fluctuations ; such 
 little employment as there is remains steady, and 
 there is not too large an industrial population. 
 There are slight fluctuations in the amount of 
 subsistence, but these are probably less than in 
 any other agricultural country. Therefore the 
 pauperism must be traced to the maintenance of 
 a costly and oppressive system which grinds the 
 people down to the edge of subsistence, so that the 
 smallest incident forces them to apply for rehef. 
 Instead of having a simple organisation to deal 
 with an emergency, if such should arise, there is 
 maintained, at immense cost in every county, a 
 most elaborate system suited to a population five 
 times as large. Some details of one workhouse, 
 as a type of the whole 169, may be mentioned. 
 It was built about 1845 to accommodate twelve 
 hundred people. The rooms are large, draughty, 
 and unceiled, and the boards are so badly laid 
 that you can see down between them into the 
 room below. Since 1851 there have never been 
 more than three hundred in it. Latterly this 
 number has largely diminished. A great propor- 
 tion of the inmates were formerly children; now 
 
AN lEISH WOKKHOUSE. 165 
 
 all these except thirty-two have been removed; 
 but school teachers are still provided for five 
 times the number. There are chaplains, doctors, 
 clerk, master, matron, nurses, collectors, reliev- 
 ing-officers ; the whole place is a nest of officials. 
 There are five such institutions in the county, 
 where the population is now only two-fifths of 
 what it was when they were built. The whole 
 of this cumbrous and expensive machinery might 
 be swept away to the advantage of everybody 
 within two or three years, if there were any 
 possibility of introducing a sane system. 
 
 Another feature of the melancholy statistics is 
 the extraordinary increase in lunatics. The total 
 number returned on the census forms in 1851 was 
 equal to a proportion of 1 in 657 of the population. 
 In 1861 this had increased to 1 in 411, in 1881 to 
 1 in 281, and in 1891 to 1 in 222. The Board of 
 Commissioners attribute this remarkable increase, 
 amongst other causes, to " the innutritions dietary 
 of the poorer population and the acute agricultural 
 depression and dislocation so widely experienced in 
 recent years." In Great Britain the returns show 
 a greater number of female lunatics than males, 
 whereas the opposite is the case in Ireland, which 
 adds to the probability of the theory that one of 
 the main causes is the difficulty arising from 
 the agricultural situation. A suggestion has been 
 made that excessive tea-drinking is one of the 
 causes of this increase in lunacy. Perhaps this 
 
166 England's wealth Ireland's poveety. 
 
 is only one of the frivolous generalisations 
 which so often crop up, and need not be taken 
 seriously. There are, however, many answers. 
 The consumption of tea is shown by the Com- 
 missioners to be larger in Great Britain, and in 
 Australia 50 per cent, more is taken per head 
 of the population than in Ireland. Yet the 
 percentage of lunacy in both countries is lower 
 than in Ireland. No definite case has been traced 
 to this cause. 
 
 There is a great disproportion in the numbers 
 of those who sufier from mental derangement 
 between the two islands. In every hundred thou- 
 sand of population there are in England 335, in 
 Scotland 384, in Ireland 450. To this may be 
 added the figures of deaf and dumb : England 48, 
 Scotland 52, Ireland 71 ; and of blind : England 
 80, Scotland 69, Ireland 113, per hundred thousand 
 persons. When one remembers the ancient reputa- 
 tion of the Irish people for gaiety and high spirits, 
 it is impossible to repress a feeling of sadness over 
 this unenviable reputation which the country has 
 gained in modern times. 
 
 The statistics of births, deaths, and marriages 
 in Ireland have only been recorded in the present 
 form since 1864. Considerable attention has been 
 drawn in late years to the question of how far 
 these returns give a true indication of the progress 
 of the nation. The approved theory appears to 
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STATISTICS OF BIBTHS. 167 
 
 birth-rate which gives the most satisfactory indi- 
 cations, but the steady maintenance of a fairly 
 good record with a low death-rate. 
 
 Diagram VII. shows the rates of births in 
 Ireland and in eight countries with which a 
 comparison may be most justly made. It 
 will be seen that Ireland occupies an almost 
 unique position at the bottom of the diagram, 
 the only country in Europe whose record is 
 at all similar being France. The worst feature 
 in these figures is the steady decline which 
 they exhibit during the last twenty years. In 
 1864 the birth-rate was 24 per thousand, against 
 rather over 35 per thousand in Great Britain. A 
 fairly steady improvement takes place on these 
 figures until 1872, when the highest point of 28 per 
 thousand is reached. From that year until 1890 
 there is steady decline, naturally most noticeable 
 in periods which have already been referred to as 
 times of great suffering. The figures have now 
 fallen to 23 per thousand of the population against 
 34 in Scotland and 31 in England, and there is no 
 other European country which is under 27 except 
 France, which appears to preserve about the same 
 ratio as Ireland. Seeing that the island used 
 formerly to be famous for large and healthy 
 families amongst every class of the people, and 
 for the rapid increase of population, these figures 
 of progressive decline during the past generation 
 become still more ominous. 
 
i68 England's wealth ibeland's povebty. 
 
 Diagram VIII. shows the number of marriages 
 which have taken place annually among the 
 whole population during the same period. In 
 1864 there were rather over 9 marriages in Ire- 
 land against 17 in England for every thousand 
 of the population. Some improvement may be 
 noticed in both countries until 1866, when the rate 
 was 11 in Ireland to 17 in England. Since then 
 there has been a like tendency to decline ; in 
 Ireland the decrease being very marked in the 
 years 1879, 1880, and 1886-87. In every year 
 Ireland is considerably below any other country 
 in Europe. There are scarcely any fluctuations, 
 except of a downward tendency. This afEords 
 conclusive evidence of the difficulty of obtaining 
 subsistence. 
 
 Diagram IX. exhibits the death-rate as com- 
 pared with G-reat Britain. At the beginning 
 of the period the death-rate in Great Britain 
 was 24 per thousand against only 16 per thou- 
 sand in Ireland. This contrast gives some idea 
 of the unhealthy condition of the great manu- 
 facturing cities of Great Britain. So far as that 
 country is concerned, the progress made since is 
 such as to cause the greatest satisfaction. There 
 is, on the whole, a steady decline in the death-rate 
 until 1894, when it stands at 19 per thousand. The 
 Irish figures, on the other hand, record a steady 
 tendency towards increase, very marked in the 
 period between 1877 and 1881, in the former the 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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STATISTICS OF DEATHS. 169 
 
 rate being only 17 per thousand, while in the latter 
 it was nearly 20. The final result shown by this 
 table is, that the death-rates of the two islands 
 approximate closely at 18 and 19 per thousand of 
 the population, this approximation having been 
 secured by a decrease in the British rate of 5, 
 and by an increase in the Irish rate of 2. Here, 
 then, we arrive at the one sphere amongst all that 
 we have examined in which the result of existing 
 institutions has been to secure the same condition 
 of things. 
 
 Summing up the conclusion that should be 
 drawn from these tables. Sir E. GifEen said : 
 " The best indication of wholesome conditions is 
 furnished by a considerable excess of births over 
 deaths along with a moderate birth-rate and a low 
 death-rate. The proportion of the excess of births 
 over deaths in Ireland is 5'0, in England 11 "4, and 
 in Scotland 11 '5, per thousand of the population. 
 This indicates inferiority of general condition in 
 Ireland, and that the community is not progress- 
 ing or advancing." * 
 
 Mulhall t publishes figures on two or three points 
 different from any of those dealt with in the 
 Government statistics. He gives a pictorial 
 diagram showing the production of meat per 
 head of the inhabitants in certain countries. 
 In this Australia comes first with 300 lbs., Ar- 
 
 • Evidence E. C, vol. ii., qs. 7643-7. 
 t " Dictionary of Statistics," p. 284. 
 
170 England's wealth Ireland's poverty. 
 
 gentina second with 200 lbs., the United States 
 third with 178 lbs., and Ireland fourth with 160 
 lbs., Great Britain being sixteenth on the list 
 and producing 53 lbs. per head of the inhabitants. 
 In the same diagram he shows the consumption 
 of meat per inhabitant in these various meat-pro- 
 ducing countries. With only one exception of any 
 moment, this proves that the largest consumption 
 exists where there is the largest production, and 
 the countries stand in almost the same order on 
 the two tables. The one exception is Ireland, 
 which is sixteenth on this list instead of being in 
 the fourth place, which her production would 
 entitle her to occupy. But strangely enough the 
 place which Ireland vacates is occupied by Great 
 Britain, which stands fourth in order of consump- 
 tion, although only sixteenth in order of produc- 
 tion. It will probably be found, not only as 
 regards meat but most other commodities, that 
 the general rule is in accordance with that broadly 
 shown by this table. More wine will be consumed 
 per head of the inhabitants where grapes are easily 
 grown; more rice where it is the staple crop, so 
 that the hard situation of Ireland in being unable 
 to partake of the excellent food which she pro- 
 duces in such abundance is probably unique. 
 
 Dealing with the figures of deaths from famine 
 or starvation, Mulhall shows that in the year 1879 
 there were 312 deaths in England, 260 in France, 
 101 in London, and in Ireland no less than 3,789, 
 
DEATHS FKOM STAEVATION. 171 
 
 or 37 "6 per thousand of the entire number of 
 deaths.* One must hope that there is some in- 
 accuracy here, though the increase of poverty and 
 emigration then showed that the country was 
 passing through a terrible ordeal. 
 
 In the year 1812 the total amount of capital in 
 Ireland was placed at five hundred and sixty- 
 three millions by Mr. Colquhoun, and now Sir 
 Eobert Giffen suggests that about four hundred 
 millions is a sufiiciently large amount to assume. 
 During the same period the capital of Great 
 Britain has increased from fifteen hundred to 
 twelve thousand millions. Therefore this figure 
 also, although it rests on no very strict basis, 
 confirms the tendency of all the others. Perhaps 
 the conclusion that may be drawn from the 
 particulars which have been given up to the 
 present is best set out in one of the many 
 excellent tables which accompany the Census 
 Eeport of 1891, which shows the average valuation 
 per head of the population for aU Ireland to be 
 jC2 19s. 8d. In the year 1894 an Act was passed 
 through Parliament called the Equalisation of 
 Eates Act (London). This Bill dealt with the 
 thirty Poor Law Unions into which the Metropolis 
 is divided. The object was to obtain relief for the 
 poorer at the expense of the richer Unions. The 
 dividing line between rich and poor throughout the 
 Metropolis was discovered to be an average valua- 
 
 • " Dictionary of Statistics," p. 257. 
 
172 England's wealth Ireland's poveett. 
 
 tion of £7 18s. per head. All the Unions which 
 exceeded this figure were treated as rich and had 
 to pay, and the Unions under were treated as poor 
 and had to receive. The average valuation of 
 the poorest Union in the East End of London 
 corresponds almost exactly with the average 
 valuation for the whole of Ireland. Perhaps it is 
 impossible to find any fact which will illustrate 
 more clearly than this does the extraordinary 
 contrast between the two islands, and the low 
 level at which subsistence is maintained in 
 Ireland. 
 
 In previous chapters the details of other re- 
 sources have been fully set out, and it will be 
 remembered that during the last half-century the 
 total value of the crops and cattle has decreased 
 by more than twenty-five millions sterling. The 
 various trades have been analysed and the total 
 income set out fairly accurately. The great bulk 
 of these figures are taken from annual Govern- 
 ment returns, which may now be accepted as 
 being as nearly perfect as it is possible to make 
 them. They are regularly published in Blue 
 Books, but in that somewhat dull and chaotic 
 form they have not yet received the attention 
 they deserve. 
 
 Glancing over the whole field it is difficult to 
 see that anything, essential to forming a right 
 judgment, is wanting in the picture that has been 
 presented of the condition of the residue of 
 
NO IMPROVEMENT IN THE RESIDUE. 173 
 
 population in Ireland. All the facts lead to the 
 conclusion that no improvement has been effected 
 in the condition of the few inhabitants left 
 in the country relatively to other communities 
 similarly placed. Probably there is far greater 
 contrast, disadvantageous to Ireland, between its 
 rural population and that of Great Britain than 
 there was fifty or a hundred years ago. But 
 whether this be so or not two facts stand out 
 clearly. The first is that the condition of things 
 is bad, and that it affords evidence that the 
 country is struggling under a load which it cannot 
 bear. The second is that each successive decade- 
 is worse than the former ; we can almost mark 
 the growth of oppression from year to year. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE CONCLUSION. 
 
 The story of the financial result to Great Britain 
 of the taxation of Ireland is naturally divided into 
 two parts, one of which ended and the other of 
 which commenced with the famine of 1847-9. 
 Bach of the two parts is alike as to the steps that 
 were taken by the Government, and as to the 
 effects that were produced. In the beginning of 
 each period a load of taxation was flung upon the 
 country which it was gradually found to be im- 
 possible to exact, but the efforts to do so produced 
 frightful national suffering. 
 
 The details of the sums actually obtained are 
 shown in a short table prepared by the Eoyal 
 Commission which is printed in the Appendix.* 
 This statement gives the true amount of the 
 contributions to the Imperial Exchequer after 
 paying all the Irish charges t in 1820, in every 
 tenth year afterwards and in 1894. The century 
 
 * See Appendix, Table II., p. 202. 
 
 f Under the head of Irish charges is included all outlay in 
 Ireland, whether for the Viceregal Court, Judges, Law charges, 
 police, loans, grants. Government offices, or any kind of 
 central or local expenditure, excepting only the cost of the 
 army and the navy. 
 
 174 
 
WHAT GEEAT BEITAIN BECEIVES. 175 
 
 commenced with the imposition of war taxes, 
 and though the net revenue then yielded by Ire- 
 land is not shown, it must have been very large 
 if we omit charges for the army and the supposed 
 debt. The table makes it clear that when the 
 war ended the relief was only temporary, for by 
 1830 the nett amount of contributions to the 
 Imperial Exchequer had gradually increased to 
 nearly four and a quarter millions. This could 
 not be maintained ; by 1840 it had fallen half 
 a million ; then came the famine, and by 1849 the 
 contribution had fallen to a little over two and a 
 half millions. So at the end of the first period 
 this return shows that the effort to maintain the 
 exactions at the high point reached in 1830 had 
 failed, and that two millions of population had 
 been lost in the attempt to do so. 
 
 In three years this experience was forgotten. 
 Once more in 1853, and this time without any 
 ostensible reason, fresh taxes were imposed. By 
 1860 almost five and a half millions were being 
 drawn out annually, this being the high-water 
 mark of the period. Every tenth year shows 
 a dechne of a million, and by 1894 the contribu- 
 tion to Imperial purposes is under two millions. 
 Thus the gloomy history repeats itself in every 
 detail ; the same number of people have gone, and 
 the effort to exact the money has, for the second 
 time, failed. 
 
 While Great Britain has thus been unable to 
 
176 England's wealth Ireland's poveety. 
 
 reap any considerable advantage, the result to 
 Ireland is as disastrous as if she had succeeded. 
 What is the reason that the nett Imperial con- 
 tribution constantly falls short ? The reason is, 
 that too heavy a tax is not productive. The Irish 
 pay, but the British do not receive. The cost of 
 the machinery of oppression, and of patching up 
 the social fabric which is injured, exhausts the 
 proceeds of the oppression, so that there is a con- 
 stant tendency for the profit to diminish. But, 
 after all, two millions are even now being collected. 
 This sum, however, is not sufficient to maintain 
 the military establishments at the Curragh Camp 
 and elsewhere, so that in the strict sense there 
 is no Imperial contribution now obtained from 
 Ireland. If it is necessary to maintain an army 
 in Ireland, and this is very much open to ques- 
 tion, is not the cost, amounting to nine shillings 
 per head of the population, altogether unreason- 
 able. The prosperous people in the Channel 
 Islands, in their exposed position, pay only a 
 penny halfpenny per head; surely sixpence per 
 head would be ample contribution from the Irish 
 peasantry. So far as the principle of the Integrity 
 of the Empire is concerned, sixpence is as good as 
 six pounds. The sum suggested would amount 
 to over a hundred thousand pounds per annum, 
 and it would be the largest contribution received 
 by Great Britain from any outside source. 
 
 If the present growth of expenditure in Ireland 
 
WHAT IBELAND PATS. 177 
 
 is continued, in fifteen more years this contribu- 
 tion to the Imperial Exchequer will have entirely 
 disappeared. Between 1880 and 1894 the growth 
 in cost of Irish services was sixteen hundred 
 thousand pounds per annum. In the same period 
 the population governed diminished by six hun- 
 dred thousand persons. The corrupt expenditure at 
 the Union is often denounced'; it has recently been 
 described as " blackguardly." Yet it only cost a 
 million and a half. At least three times that suna 
 is now* wasted each year in sinecures, salaries, 
 pensions, and fruitless expenditure of every kind 
 all through the country. 
 
 The amount, the nature, and the efiects of the 
 taxation upon Ireland have already been fully set 
 out, and this summary in regard to the share 
 Great Britain receives, should enable us to form 
 an opinion on the wisdom of making a radical 
 change in the whole system. That system consists 
 in levying all the main taxes in Ireland as in Eng- 
 land, and of assisting Ireland by granting loans 
 and by carrying out certain expenditure of a 
 special character in that country. Instead of this 
 method which, it is contended, has failed, the 
 simple plan is submitted of only levying taxes 
 sufficient to provide a suitable government for the 
 country without appealing for any outside help. 
 The one plan is, for the sake of a common system, 
 to take more than is necessary and then to give 
 * See pp. 195 and 196. 
 13 
 
178 England's wealth ibeland's povertt. 
 
 something back. The other plan is to take only 
 what is necessary. Most of the arguments in 
 favour of the existing method have already been 
 considered, but one or two matters have been 
 reserved for discussion at this stage before we 
 suggest how much is necessary, and by what means 
 the sum could most easily be obtained. 
 
 It should now be perfectly clear why through- 
 out this sketch the artificial distinctions between 
 local and Imperial taxes, or between these and 
 the Imperial contribution, have been treated as 
 meaningless. In reality there is no local tax in 
 the country districts. The roads are repaired and 
 the labourer's cottage is built under a system 
 devised and manipulated from time to time in 
 Westminster, just as the amount that shall be 
 levied on tea or tobacco is fixed. 
 
 The thirty-two high sheriffs, one for each 
 county, are nominated each year by the Lord 
 Lieutenant. On these individuals falls the duty 
 of choosing the grand jury, who levy one-half of 
 the local rates. If a strong man of business were 
 selected as High Sheriff, he could do much to 
 facilitate the reduction of those rates. No care is 
 taken that such a man shall be chosen ; generally 
 an absentee landlord is appointed, on the well- 
 understood condition that he shall do nothing but 
 keep the machine going in its present mischievous 
 manner. Probably there is not a High Sheriff in 
 Ireland who knows how many miles of road there 
 
ARTIFICIAL DISTINCTIONS IN THE TAXES. 179 
 
 are in his own county, or who has any idea of 
 the amount of traffic upon them, or of the 
 average cost of repairing them, or of the fre- 
 quency with which they should be repaired : yet 
 the High Sheriff (as nominator of the local 
 authority) is the road-maker of the county. 
 
 Just in the same way, if the Boards of Guar- 
 dians, which levy almost the other half of the 
 local rates, hesitate to put into operation any 
 order they receive, they are superseded and a 
 new Board, at the cost of the Union, is sent 
 down from Dublin to carry out] the order, and a 
 charge is hung round the necks of the ratepayers. 
 The Boards of Guardians are like branch shops of 
 a central establishment maintained in Dublin; 
 their work is to administer, without effective 
 popular initiative, restraint, or control, a most 
 complicated series of laws made by men who had 
 no knowledge of the circumstances in which the 
 Boards are placed. 
 
 One example will make the artificial nature 
 of these distinctions still clearer. In describing 
 the light railways it was explained that part of 
 the cost was paid by the Treasury and part by 
 the locality. The share paid by the locality is 
 levied by the Grand Jury in the County Cess, 
 but the share paid by the Treasury is charged 
 against Ireland and paid out of the Irish Customs, 
 or other, so-called Imperial, tax. Thus it is with 
 every grant or concession. Great Britain gives 
 
180 England's wealth Ireland's poverty. 
 
 nothing. When it is said that something is given 
 to relieve a famine]^ or for any other purpose, it 
 only means that the sum is levied upon Ireland as 
 a whole, probably because it would be impossible to 
 levy it upon the area afifected. If these facts are 
 borne in mind together with the explanation of the 
 varying amount which the Imperial Exchequer 
 may receive in any year,|[it will be realised how 
 profoundly unimportant to the Irishman aU the 
 distinctions are. He only knows that they all end 
 in making him pay for everything, and the serious 
 question to him is, how much shall the payment 
 be. 
 
 In a former chapter Mr. Pitt was quoted as 
 the great authority^'in favour of different fiscal 
 treatment and of a just consideration, from time 
 to time, of Ireland's capacity. As a specimen 
 of the result of methods which have been substi- 
 tuted for this original plan, one case may be 
 examined. In 1853, when raising the duty on 
 spirits and imposing^ the Income Tax, Mr. Glad- 
 stone said, that to enable Ireland to meet these 
 new burdens, he*'would relieve her of certain 
 
 ' .ii.t 
 
 charges, amounting to two hundred and forty 
 thousand a year, which had been incurred in con- 
 nection with famine relief. This shows that the 
 great Chancellor had some scruples in imposing 
 these taxes, and that he felt that some aid must 
 be given to enable Ireland to bear them. Prac- 
 tically this was the only concession made during 
 
BELIEF BY LOAKS. 181 
 
 all that period. Let us see what the amount of 
 the relief was and compare it with the tax 
 imposed. 
 
 The total amount of the famine loans was four 
 and a half millions, and they had been made to 
 Ireland in her time of greatest difficulty. Much 
 attention has properly been paid by the Eoyal 
 Commission to this question of charging interest 
 and a sinking fund on sums advanced in this way, 
 so as finally to secure their repayment. It is a 
 system of relieving Ireland at Ireland's cost. 
 Many high authorities utterly disapprove of it, 
 and the sound principle appears to be that Parlia- 
 ment should only grant such relief in cases of 
 extreme emergency, and that it should be given 
 only if it is thought beneficial to the whole king- 
 dom to do so, and no attempt should be made to 
 recover the amount from one particular portion 
 more than another. If ever there was a case to 
 which this rule should have applied, surely it was 
 to the famine relief of 1847. No such considera- 
 tion was shown. The help took the form of a 
 loan, and the repayment, with interest, commenced 
 forthwith, and had proceeded a good way when, 
 in consideration of the new taxes, the balance 
 was " remitted." We can now form an opinion 
 on the equity of this transaction. The taxes 
 imposed between 1853 and 1860 have produced 
 at least three millions a year for forty years. 
 This sum capitalised would amount to well over 
 
182 England's wealth ibeland's povebty. 
 
 two hundred millions, and this is the price that 
 Ireland has paid for the trivial relief of four and a 
 half millions received in 1846-7. 
 
 In reviewing such matters it must be remembered 
 that Ireland has no book-keeper. The accounts 
 between her and Great Britain are not audited by 
 any independent authority. A further analysis 
 will make the whole loan system between the two 
 islands clear. Everything that Ireland gets is 
 charged against her, and the Treasury was able 
 to submit a list stretching from the days of 
 William IV, to 1894, which showed the sums 
 advanced, repaid, now owing, and remitted. Out 
 of a total of thirty-nine millions advanced, twenty- 
 two millions have been repaid, with interest 
 which amounted to six millions. Eight millions 
 which are still due are being punctually repaid, 
 and the same amount, over the whole period, has 
 been " remitted," as it is called, including the 
 famine loan already described. Such is the 
 account which England keeps. So clearly are 
 the sums set out that none of those " remitted " 
 items ever drop out. Under this heading, which 
 has a soothing sound, every shilling is still brought 
 forward and exhibited as if it were a gift. 
 
 Now let us turn to the account which England 
 does not keep. There is no record, not even a 
 summary, stretching back through William's reign 
 to 1801, of the sum that Great Britain has drawn 
 from Ireland. Surely if it is fair to write down 
 
HOW THE LOANS ABE BEPAID. 183 
 
 the figures on one side of the account, the other 
 side should not be left blank. It is not necessary 
 to suppose that anything wrong has been done ; 
 the only thing that suggests suspicion is conceal- 
 ing the figures. But if the loss is set out so 
 boldly, why should not the profit be set out ? It 
 is to be regretted that the Eoyal Commission did 
 not prepare and issue such a table in a complete 
 form. It has, however, given us, on the authority 
 of the Treasury, the means of obtaining the sum 
 with approximate accuracy. The short table 
 already referred to shows the contribution to the 
 Imperial exchequer in one year of each decade 
 throughout the century, excepting only the first 
 decade. The average of the nine annual amounts 
 therein * shows a little over three and a half 
 millions for each year. If this is multiplied by 
 ninety-four it gives a total since 1801 of three 
 hundred and twenty-nine millions. If it were capi- 
 talised at £3 lis. per cent., which is the average 
 interest Great Britain charges Ireland, it would 
 work out at a very large amount, which might 
 fairly be put against the eight millions altogether 
 " remitted " during the century. Large as this 
 sum is, it does not show Ireland's loss, because 
 all this is quite apart from the cost of the services 
 inside the country. This is the amount handed 
 over after paying every charge f for the central 
 
 • For exact figjures see Appendix, Table III., p. 203. 
 + Except the Military expenditure. 
 
184 England's wealth ieeland's poveety. 
 
 establishments, the police, the waste and folly of 
 Grand Juries and of Guardians. Do not such 
 figures go a long way towards accounting for the 
 pauperism, the famines, and the flight from the 
 country. 
 
 The unnecessarily high rate of interest charged 
 by Great Britain on the various loans increases 
 the burdens of the country, and tends to create a 
 very sore feeling. The largest loan was on the 
 security of the Church property, on which at one 
 time eight millions were advanced. Half of this 
 is now paid ofi, so that the security, always 
 excellent, has greatly increased in value ; yet 3} 
 per cent, on part, and 3| interest on another part, 
 is charged on the four millions outstanding. The 
 average rate of interest charged on the whole 
 eight millions of loan outstanding in the country 
 is £B lis. per cent. In this way about eighty 
 thousand a year is exacted beyond the sum which 
 the National Debt Commissioners pay on the 
 British debt. The hardship is increased because 
 the Government will not facilitate localities or cor- 
 porations in borrowing on their own account. It 
 insists on doing the business on terms which may 
 almost be described as usurious. The funds for the 
 Congested Districts Boards are found by allotting 
 one and a half million of the capital of the Church 
 fund to that purpose. On this sum the Govern- 
 ment only allow 2|- per cent, interest, although 
 they collect 1 per cent. more. Eecently, by a 
 
TJSUEIOUS INTEREST. 185 
 
 special Act, the City of Dublin effected a great 
 economy by consolidating its loans, and one would 
 suppose that similar advantages might be obtained 
 for the whole of Ireland. 
 
 The fact that the goose is now dead that laid 
 the golden eggs, removes the last diflflculty out of 
 the way of reform. No such amounts are to be 
 had out of Ireland any more. Her prosperity and 
 her people alike have fled, and as nothing more 
 is to be made by oppression, we may reasonably 
 consider whether the time has not come to make 
 a new start. 
 
 The reform suggested is to look at matters from 
 a simple standpoint, and if we are agreed that the 
 evil is heavy taxation, to make taxation light. There 
 is running through the whole policy of the English 
 Parliament since the Union a recognition of the 
 truth that taxation on anything like the British 
 scale would ruin Ireland, but yet one Chancellor 
 after another hankers after equal duties, then 
 finally overcomes his scruples, and ends by laying 
 on the burden which his reason told him would be 
 disastrous. It is easier to understand the fascina- 
 tion of the idea of common duties under Protection 
 than under Free Trade. In a country where 
 the policy is one of Protection, similar duties in 
 the various parts become a necessity because, all 
 duties being imposed with the view, in the first 
 place, of protecting commerce, it is practically 
 impossible to permit variations without creating 
 
186 England's wealth ieeland's poveety. 
 
 a feeling that undue advantages are being con- 
 ferred. That is the reason why common duties 
 are enforced in all the states of federations, 
 such as America and Germany, and the same 
 reason probably explains why the statesmen of 
 the early part of the century, when Protection 
 existed here, were so anxious for equal duties 
 with Ireland. 
 
 The principle of Free Trade is to give the utmost 
 freedom everywhere to commerce by imposing duties 
 solely for purposes of revenue. Therefore to lay 
 a duty on a country simply because such a duty 
 exists in another country so different as Great 
 Britain is from Ireland is not in accordance with 
 the principles of Free Trade, and is only too likely 
 to result in the evils of Protection. The present 
 duties partake to some extent of a protec- 
 tive character in favour of England. Beer is 
 taxed lightly because it is the favourite beverage 
 of that country ; spirits heavily for the opposite 
 reason. Tobacco is also an article which, in 
 relation to purchasing power, occupies a much 
 more important place, and its manufacture was 
 in former times much more widely diffused 
 in Ireland than in England, therefore a high 
 duty upon it which may carry no ill effect 
 to England produces a baneful influence on 
 the commerce of Ireland. There may have been 
 no precise intention to produce these results, 
 but they are exactly what might be expected 
 
EQUAIi DUTIES UNDEE FBEE TRADE. 187 
 
 to arise in favour of the community which 
 has five or six representatives in Parliament for 
 every one the other can command. So far, 
 then, as the principles of Free Trade are con- 
 cerned, there is no obstacle in the way of reform. 
 
 The scruples of Temperance reformers must also 
 be considered. There are many who think that 
 the imposition of a duty, however high, upon any 
 form of intoxicating beverage must be beneficial 
 because it promotes sobriety. Still, this is a ques- 
 tion of degree. A duty may be high without being 
 placed at such a figure as to impoverish the people. 
 It has already been pointed out that the consump- 
 tion of intoxicants in Ireland is moderate compared 
 with Great Britain, and that the high duties have 
 not diminished it. If the proportion between the 
 wealth of the two countries were observed, a duty 
 of one-ninth of what is paid in Great Britain would 
 be just in Ireland. There is no proposal to make 
 such a reduction. The suggestion is that all the 
 indirect taxation necessary for the country's re- 
 quirements should be levied on intoxicants, and it 
 is difficult to see what more the most ardent tem- 
 perance reformer could desire. 
 
 The alternatives to reducing the taxes, which 
 consist in giving back a small portion of what has 
 been wrongfully exacted, are easily disposed of. 
 Infinite harm has been done in Ireland in this 
 way, of which sufficient examples have been given 
 in the description of the oppressive nature of the 
 
188 England's wealth ieeland's poyebty. 
 
 railways, built and sustained out of the taxpayers' 
 pockets. There is also a system of Grovernment 
 loans to individuals in operation in every part 
 of the country. That such efforts have not 
 arrested the decay of Ireland is apparent 
 from the terrible results shown by the annual 
 statistics. The schemes have never been ade- 
 quately considered, nor have their results been 
 inquired into. They have come into existence 
 owing to the unsatisfactory manner in which all 
 Irish legislation is transacted. The little time 
 available in Parliament for these purposes is 
 wasted in discussing schemes which come to 
 nothing, and all that is practically accomplished 
 is pushed through when every one is weary. The 
 greatest objections to these enterprises are that 
 they do not relieve the general community which 
 is oppressed by the taxation, but rather add to its 
 burdens ; they increase the number of individuals 
 who flourish without producing wealth; they are 
 costly and corrupt. 
 
 The aim of a good government should be to 
 smooth the way for the industrious and the inde- 
 pendent man. These schemes are generated in 
 the idea that the maintenance of the settled 
 order of things causes distress. When such an 
 idea is accepted the settled order stands self- 
 condemned. One of the most popular of these 
 new experiments in Ireland is the Congested 
 Districts Board. The funds for this body are 
 
BELIEF BY EXPENDITUEE. 189 
 
 largely found by diverting the small remnant of 
 local tithes into those districts instead of restor- 
 ing them to the use of the localities which pay 
 them. Thus the localities, poor themselves, from 
 which the tithe is taken, are injured to a far greater 
 degree than the others are helped. The distribu- 
 tion of the fund encourages begging, and this 
 artificial help from outside renders impossible the 
 development of the districts on a sound economic 
 basis. This is done in the teeth of the clearest. 
 evidence that all the poverty in the selected areas 
 is caused by too high taxes on necessaries, toO' 
 high rents, and the exclusion of the people from 
 productive lands which exist in abundance around 
 them. These evils cannot be dealt with by the 
 Board, which already feels so keenly how little 
 it can do that it has unanimously passed a resolu- 
 tion demanding more funds. It will not be easy 
 to satisfy it; more and more funds will still be 
 necessary if this substitution of almsgiving for 
 good government is to be continued, and it can 
 only be a question of a short time until all Ireland 
 becomes one congested district.* 
 
 Within the area of the Board's operations 
 help is given towards improving the breeds of 
 cattle, horses, pigs and poultry; waste lands are 
 
 * A "congested district" is defined as an area which con- 
 tains not less than 20 per cent, of the population of the county 
 in which it is situated, and in which the average valuation per 
 head of the population does not exceed £1 lOs. 
 
190 England's wealth ibeland's povebty. 
 
 afforested; model farms are exhibited; and, so far 
 as the Board's restricted means permit, an attempt 
 is made to give at least a reflection of what a S3an- 
 pathetio government might do for an agricultural 
 community. Can it be wondered that these efforts, 
 laudable in themselves, produce deep chagrin in the 
 minds of farmers outside the Congested Districts. 
 These ask why all such good things should not 
 be shared with them. Are only the bleak lands 
 of the West to be improved. Is nothing to be 
 done for their breeds of cattle. The excellence 
 of these experiments only exhibits the poverty of 
 the national system, and creates a widespread 
 discontent. 
 
 The machinery by which all this system of sops 
 and doles is worked is very expensive. A class has 
 arisen in the country, midway between civil servants 
 and the general public, whose occasional services 
 must be utilised for this work. Is it to be 
 wondered that a good deal of the money ad- 
 ministered in this fashion should be wasted. It 
 is not to the interest of those who distribute it 
 that a complete cure should be effected. So long 
 as the patient is kept lingering on they will stiU 
 have to supply the medicine. 
 
 The suggestion that if the taxes in Ireland are 
 reduced the taxation of Great Britain must be 
 increased need not detain us. It has been shown 
 that nothing * any longer reaches the Imperial ex- 
 
 • Nothing beyond the cost of the Irish military establish- 
 ment — not quite that now. 
 
GEOWTH OP THE IRISH GHABGES. 191 
 
 chequer, and that if some step is not taken to stop 
 the progress of decay it will soon be necessary to 
 make a grant towards meeting the Irish charges. 
 Still it is not desired that this argument should 
 exclude the others which have been formulated to 
 the efEect that a sense of justice and expediency will 
 induce the British to recognise the need of the 
 change of system, and that the commercial advan- 
 tages will far more than outweigh any pecuniary 
 loss, or risk of loss, which may arise. When the 
 English are fully convinced of the wisdom, on 
 broad grounds, of taking a certain course, it is not 
 their habit to count the cost too closely. The 
 differences with Ireland have never taken a form 
 which clearly raised this issue. The financial 
 oppression has arisen incidentally, and more from 
 want of knowledge than from any deliberate inten- 
 tion. In recent times it has arisen from hurried 
 legislation, from a confused feeling that principles 
 of Free Trade were involved, and, more than either, 
 from the feeling that the Unity of the Empire was 
 at stake. 
 
 Perhaps this last-named consideration should be 
 discussed briefly. There is separation involved in 
 the suggestion, but only of the accounts. Ireland 
 will have to be dealt with either in different clauses 
 of the Budget, or else on a different occasion. 
 Those who accept the idea that it is possible to 
 do justice for the country at Westminster, should 
 be willing to see a just fiscal system elaborated. 
 
192 England's wealth ieeland's poverty. 
 
 Many will discern in the proposal a first step 
 towards Home Eule. But Unionists may honestly 
 feel that nothing will set back Home Eule more 
 than to show both the willingness and the capacity 
 to do, in these money matters, everything that 
 can reasonably be required. 
 
 Three principles should be embodied in any new 
 system that might be adopted ; there should be no 
 financial aid from England ; the existing Direct 
 taxes should be continued ; and whatever might 
 be considered fair as an Imperial contribution 
 should be paid, but apart from that the revenues 
 of Ireland should be applied to Ireland and any 
 economies should accrue there. 
 
 From this review of the existing system, and 
 from the examination of the principle of the 
 proposed new plan, we may now proceed to 
 consider the details of the reformed scheme of 
 taxation, and to inquire what promise of relief 
 it may offer to the people. For purposes of 
 comparison, and as a useful summary of what 
 has been said, it will be of assistance to set 
 out in the first place the present taxation. To 
 avoid mentioning large figures we shall deal only 
 with rates per head of the population. The total 
 burdens being 49s. per head, it is only necessary to 
 show what is paid in each tax towards making up 
 this amount, and then what is spent on each ' ser- 
 vice to make up the same expenditure. All the items 
 may be conveniently arranged under four heads. 
 
AMOUNT ANNUALLY COLLECTED. 193 
 
 Direct Taxation. — Income Tax, 3s. ; Stamps, 
 which include Death Duties, &c., 3s. lOd. 
 Total direct taxation per head of population, 
 6s. lOd. 
 
 Indirect Taxation. — Tea, Cofiee, Fruit, &c., 2s. 
 5d. ; Tobacco, 5s. 2d. Total non-alcoholic, 7s. 7d. 
 "Whiskey, 9s. 3d. ; Foreign Spirits, Is. 6d. ; Beer, 
 2s. 6d. ; Wine, 5d. ; Licenses, 9d. Total alco- 
 hoKc, 14s. 5d. Total indirect taxation per head 
 of population, 22s. 
 
 Non-Tax and Miscellaneous Revenue. — Post 
 Office, &c., per head of population, 4s. 4d. 
 
 Local Taxation. — Grand Jury cess, 6s. 4d. ; 
 Board of Guardian Rate, 4s. 4d. ; Town Taxes, 
 8s. 9d. ; Harbours, Is. 7d. ; Sundries, lOd. Total 
 local per head of population, 15s. lOd. Making 
 the Total Taxation of the country, 49s. 
 
 There are many points of interest in this bill, 
 which every Irishman has to pay annually for 
 himself and for each member of his family. The 
 figures vary slightly from year to year ; for example, 
 the bill of 1895 is sixpence larger, growth in that 
 direction never pausing, but for all practical pur- 
 poses this is at present quite accurate. The 
 relation of the Direct to the Indirect taxes is 
 highly important. Direct taxation is not levied 
 on those who have no means ; it is capable of easy 
 adjustment, so that there is little possibility of 
 oppression in it. On the other hand, indirect 
 
 14 
 
194 England's wealth Ireland's poveety. 
 
 taxation, when it is largely laid on the necessaries 
 of life, is the severest form of oppression. There- 
 fore the merits of a system of government may, 
 to a large extent, be gauged by ascertaining what 
 proportion of its revenues are obtained by these 
 methods respectively. Indirect taxes produce 
 76 per cent, of the Imperial burdens in Ireland, 
 while in Great Britain they only produce 53 per 
 cent. These figures make it clear that it is 
 only in the Indirect taxes that a strong case 
 for reform exists, and that, if they are to be 
 brought into harmony with the proportion exist- 
 ing in Great Britain, there must be at least a 
 reduction from 22s. to 6s. lOd. per head of the 
 population. 
 
 The local taxation appears to be extravagant in 
 every one of the main items, and it ofEers a severe 
 criticism of the bureaucratic system of govern- 
 ment. The authorities in towns are chosen by 
 a restricted franchise; the Guardians are either 
 nominated, or elected by ratepayers with high 
 valuations, and the Grand Juries are all nomi- 
 nated. The main defence for this exclusive 
 system is that it protects the ratepayers ; but there 
 is little evidence that it possesses any such merit, 
 and it is obvious that economy will be necessary 
 in these three items if any real improvement is to 
 be introduced. 
 
 We may now turn to the account of expenditure, 
 which also falls under four heads. 
 
AMOUNT ANNUALLY EXPENDED. 195 
 
 Education. — Per head of the population, 4s. 3d. 
 
 Armed Forces. — Soldiers, 9s.; Police, 6s. 4d. ; 
 per head of population, 15s. 4d. 
 
 Government Charges. — Post Office, 3s. 7d. ; Law 
 charges, 2s. 2d.; Local Government Board, 7d. ; 
 other Government offices, 9d. ; Public Works, 
 Eates, Surveys, Is. 3d. ; Prisons, 6d. ; Keforma- 
 tories, 6d. ; Collecting Taxes, Is. ; Lunatics, 7d. ; 
 Sundry charges, Is. 8d. Total central charges 
 per head of population, 12s. 7d. 
 
 Local Administration. — Poor, 3s. 9d. ; Eoads, 
 3s. 3d. ; Streets in towns, Is. 8d. ; Medical Belief 
 and Sanitation, Is. 8d. ; Lunatics, 8d. ; Water 
 supply, 6d. ; Labourers' Houses, 6d. ; Interest on 
 loans, salaries and " unclassed," 4s. lid. Total 
 local per head of population, 16s. lOd. Total 
 expenditure of the country, 49s. 
 
 Even a cursory glance at this list shows where 
 the extravagance is and where economies might 
 be eflEected. Dealing with the first three items 
 which make up the Imperial taxation, 8s. 6d. 
 might be saved from the cost of the military, 
 3s. 4d. from the cost of police, and 4s. 2d. from 
 the government charges. This would enable a re- 
 duction of taxation to be made amounting to 16s. 
 per head of the population. Such a reduction 
 should precede the attempt to deal with the 
 expenditure. As things are now arranged, the 
 people of Ireland would not receive the least 
 
196 England's wealth Ireland's poveety, 
 
 benefit from such economies ; therefore the first 
 step is obviously to alter the incidence of taxation. 
 This great outlay on central establishments shows 
 that reform is practicable, and that after the aboli- 
 tion of half the present taxation sufficient would 
 remain to meet the requirements of an efEective 
 national government well suited to the needs of 
 the country. 
 
 There is no less room for curtailment in the 
 expenses of Local administration. By the con- 
 solidation of loans, by economies in the " un- 
 classed" charges, and by the restriction of the 
 Grand Jury and the Poor Law expense, a third 
 might at once be struck off this outlay. Thus, 
 to start with, the means can be seen of reducing 
 the total taxation by five millions, or 21s. 6d. per 
 head of the population. Economy in the same 
 spirit for a very few years would open up the 
 way to increase still further the relief, when the 
 people, no less than their rulers, had commenced 
 to appreciate the advantages of the reformed 
 system, and thus before the end of the century 
 the burdens on the country might be reduced 
 by six millions to something like half their 
 present amount. It is Just as easy to take ofE 
 these taxes as it was to lay them on. No one 
 anticipated the policy of 1853, or the inflictions 
 that have since then been so quietly imposed by 
 successive Chancellors. An idea occurred probably 
 to one man ; he made a Budget speech, to which 
 
SIMPLICITY OF BEDUCTION. 197 
 
 few listened : the tax, however, that followed was 
 a reality, and two millions of people have had to 
 leave their homes in Ireland. Surely it is equally 
 possible for the merciful idea of relief to operate. 
 There need not be the least disorganisation of the 
 carefully balanced system of British finance. This 
 small matter is a thing apart, which would adjust 
 itself. 
 
 The amount of the Imperial contribution might 
 well be arranged from time to time. Considering 
 the present wretched condition of the country 
 probably £20,000 a year now would be fair, and it 
 might, if things improved, gradually be raised to 
 J6100,000. The principle of the Union between 
 the countries would be just as effectively secured 
 by a pajonent of that kind as by any larger sum, 
 and it is time that this great matter should be 
 placed on some just and reasonable basis. 
 
 The reductions in Imperial taxation which would 
 give the greatest relief would be to abolish the 
 duties on tobacco and what are called the breakfast- 
 table duties, and to fix the duty on spirits at 5s. 
 per gallon and beer at Is. 6d. per barrel. This 
 would reduce the taxation by three and three- 
 quarter millions. With such economies as have 
 been suggested in the local taxation, this would 
 give a total relief of five millions. If there are 
 nine hundred thousand families in Ireland, this 
 would be equal to a contribution of £5 10s. per 
 annum towards the support of each family. An 
 
198 England's wealth Ireland's poveety. 
 
 effective reduction in rents would give an average 
 of £6 to the relief of each family engaged in agri- 
 culture. There will be few to doubt that such 
 concessions would go a long way towards improv- 
 ing the outlook in Ireland. 
 
 The question will arise how much would be left 
 with which to carry on the government of the 
 country. The direct taxation and the non-tax 
 revenue amount to lis. 2d. per head of the popula- 
 tion, and the remaining alcoholic duties would 
 produce about 5s. lOd. per head, so that the 
 Imperial taxation would still be 17s. per head 
 and produce about four millions each year : surely 
 a sufficient amount for every reasonable require- 
 ment. 
 
 The revenue of Sweden is five millions four 
 hundred thousand. The population is two hundred 
 thousand more than that of Ireland, a million and 
 a half are"spent on the army and navy, there is a 
 good deal 'joi commerce and mineral wealth, and 
 there is one of the largest merchant navies of 
 Europe to protect. It is with such a country 
 rather than with Great Britain that Ireland 
 should be ^compared, and making fair allowances 
 for the greater advantages which Sweden enjoys, 
 it will be recognised that four millions would be 
 a. large revenue to exact from Ireland, and that 
 it should provide amply for all the requirements 
 of government. 
 
 The emphasis which has been given to the one 
 
THE BEVENUE OF SWEDEN. 199 
 
 question of over-taxation must not be understood 
 to convey the opinion that it is the sole evil under 
 "which the Irish suffer. Over-taxation has been 
 dealt with exclusively because it is too often for- 
 gotten, and because it is sufficient, apart from all 
 else, to account for the permanent and increasing 
 estrangement of the public opinion of Ireland from 
 that of Great Britain. There is no feeling of 
 enmity against the Grovernment of one party any 
 '• more than against its political opponents in Ireland. 
 It may be said that there are historic wrongs, 
 religious jealousies, animosities of race. But all 
 through the Ireland which Government never sees 
 there is an evil which makes all these ill-feelings, 
 notwithstanding their magnitude, sink into insig- 
 nificance. There is knocking at many a door not 
 merely the dread, but the reality of starvation. 
 
 The story which has been told does not owe 
 anything to its telling. It is but a dull, and 
 often obscure, recital of facts which should be 
 known to any one in authority. They are known 
 to many who try to conceal them, but they are of 
 a nature which makes them difficult to hide. All 
 these facts point to the simple conclusion that 
 Ireland is a nation starved in the midst of plenty. 
 Why should Irishmen rely upon either of the 
 English Parties; what have they received from 
 either but heavier burdens and lightening of the 
 means to bear them. Let the British, then, with 
 their abounding wealth and their strong Govern- 
 
200 England's wealth Ireland's poverty. 
 
 ment, not be amazed that the Irish are a littl© 
 indifferent to it all. It is not want of strength so 
 much as want of a Just appreciation of the cir- 
 cumstances that they have had to complain of 
 in their rulers so far. But if a Government 
 should arise more richly endowed in this way, 
 the road of reform is open to it, whatever its 
 principles may be. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
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APPENDIX. 
 
 208 
 
 TABLE III. 
 
 Showing the Population, Revenue, Local Taxation, total 
 Taxes and amount paid per head of the population in 
 Ireland in 1785, and every fifth year afterwards to 1895. 
 
 (000 omitted from Numbei-s and Values.) 
 
 Year. 
 
 Population. 
 
 Eevenue. 
 
 Local 
 Taxation. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Per Head. 
 
 1785 
 
 3,820 
 
 £ 
 1,128 
 
 £ 
 
 400* 
 
 £ 
 1,528 
 
 £ s. d. 
 8 
 
 1790 
 
 4,140 
 
 1,313 
 
 450* 
 
 1,763 
 
 8 6 
 
 1795 
 
 4,485 
 
 1,551 
 
 500* 
 
 2,051 
 
 9 2 
 
 1800 
 
 5,126 
 
 3,018 
 
 550« 
 
 3,568 
 
 13 10 
 
 1805 
 
 5,500 
 
 3,902 
 
 600*' 
 
 4,502 
 
 16 4 
 
 1810 
 
 5,878 
 
 4,687 
 
 700« 
 
 5,387 
 
 18 3 
 
 1815 
 
 6,281 
 
 6,599 
 
 750« 
 
 7,349 
 
 1 3 5 
 
 1820 
 
 6,712 
 
 5,256 
 
 800'> 
 
 6,056 
 
 18 1 
 
 1825 
 
 7,173 
 
 5,300« 
 
 860* 
 
 6,160 
 
 17 2 
 
 1830 
 
 7,665 
 
 5,502 
 
 950« 
 
 6,452 
 
 IG 11 
 
 1835 
 
 7,937 
 
 5,500* 
 
 1,000« 
 
 6,500 
 
 16 3 
 
 1840 
 
 8,155 
 
 5,415 
 
 1,400» 
 
 6,815 
 
 16 8 
 
 1845 
 
 8,295 
 
 5,350* 
 
 1,850« 
 
 7,200 
 
 17 4 
 
 1850 
 
 6,877 
 
 4,861 
 
 2,325 
 
 7,186 
 
 1 10 
 
 1855 
 
 6,015 
 
 6,000* 
 
 2,000» 
 
 8,000 
 
 1 6 7 
 
 1860 
 
 5,821 
 
 7,700 
 
 1,875 
 
 9,575 
 
 1 12 10 
 
 1865 
 
 5,594 
 
 7,500* 
 
 2,530 
 
 10,030 
 
 1 15 10 
 
 1870 
 
 5,418 
 
 7,426 
 
 2,728 
 
 10,154 
 
 1 17 5 
 
 1876 
 
 5,277 
 
 7,300* 
 
 3,193 
 
 10,493 
 
 1 19 9 
 
 1880 
 
 5,202 
 
 7,280 
 
 3,292 
 
 10,572 
 
 2 8 
 
 1885 
 
 4,938 
 
 7,500* 
 
 3,621 
 
 11,121 
 
 2 5 
 
 1890 
 
 4,718 
 
 7,863 
 
 3,559 
 
 11,422 
 
 2 8 4 
 
 1895 
 
 4,571 
 
 7,550* 
 
 3,749 
 
 11,299 
 
 2 9 6 
 
 
 
 •Est 
 
 imnted. 
 
 
 
204 APPENDIX. 
 
 TABLE IV. 
 
 Showing the Establishment of Regular Forces and 
 Militia, in Great Britain and Ireland. 
 
 
 Great Britain. 
 
 Ireland, 
 
 Officers. 
 
 Men. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Officers. 
 
 Men. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Regular Army ... 
 MmtiaPerm.StafE 
 Militia 
 
 Total 
 
 3,822 
 
 215 
 
 2,7,% 
 
 77,380 
 
 3,357 
 
 98,477 
 
 81,202 
 
 3,572 
 
 101,213 
 
 1,097 
 
 74 
 
 779 
 
 26,545 
 
 977 
 
 28,026 
 
 27,642 
 
 1,051 
 
 28,805 
 
 6,773 
 
 179,214 
 
 185,987 
 
 1,950 
 
 55,548 
 
 57,498 
 
 Normal Annual Expenditure on all Military Objects in 
 Great Britain and Ireland. 
 
 
 Great Britain. 
 
 Ireland. 
 
 Pay, &o. of Regular Forces (includ- 
 ing Permanent Staff of Militia).. 
 
 Pay, &c. of Militia 
 
 £ 
 3,918,600 
 
 465,000 
 
 874,000 
 
 6,102,000 
 
 2,575,400 
 
 £ 
 1,048,100 
 
 112,500 
 
 664,600 
 302,800 
 
 
 Supplies, stores, transport, &c 
 
 Non-effective charsres 
 
 Total 
 
 13,935,000 
 
 2,128,000 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 205 
 
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206 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 03 
 
 
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APPENDIX. 
 
 207 
 
 TABLE VII. 
 Showing the total number and the sexes of the Population of 
 Ireland in 1851, and the decrease of Population and the 
 number of Emigrants in each year up to 1894. 
 
 o S 
 II 
 
 ESTIMATED 
 POPULATION. 
 
 DBCUEASB. 
 
 EMIQBA- 
 TION. 
 
 Persons. 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females. 
 
 Persons. 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females. 
 
 Persons. 
 
 1851 
 1852 
 IKiS 
 1854 
 1855 
 
 6,314,473 
 6,336,889 
 6,198,984 
 6,083,183 
 6,014,665 
 
 3,181,353 
 3,095,135 
 3,031,226 
 2,976,928 
 2,946,068 
 
 3,333,120 
 3,241,754 
 3,167,758 
 3,106,255 
 3,068,597 
 
 36.3,076 
 177,584 
 137,905 
 115,801 
 68,518 
 
 179,056 
 86,218 
 63,909 
 54,298 
 30,860 
 
 183,420 
 91,336 
 73,996 
 61,503 
 37,658 
 
 152,060 
 190,322 
 173,148 
 140.555 
 91,914 
 
 1856 
 1857 
 1858 
 1859 
 1860 
 
 5,972,851 
 5,919,454 
 5,890,814 
 5,861,711 
 5,820,960 
 
 2,926,173 
 2,897,924 
 2,881,994 
 2,865,930 
 2,845,121 
 
 3,046,678 
 3,021,530 
 3,008,820 
 2,99.5,781 
 2,975,839 
 
 41,814 
 53,397 
 28,640 
 29,103 
 40,751 
 
 19,895 
 28,249 
 15,930 
 16,064 
 20809 
 
 21,919 
 25,148 
 12,710 
 13,039 
 19,942 
 
 90,781 
 95,081 
 64,337 
 80,599 
 84,621 
 
 1861 
 1862 
 1663 
 1864 
 1865 
 
 5,788,415 
 5,775,588 
 5,718,235 
 5,640,527 
 5,594,589 
 
 2,831,783 
 2,827,336 
 2,799.689 
 2,761,866 
 2,740,800 
 
 2,956,632 
 2,948,252 
 2,918,546 
 2,878,661 
 2,853,789 
 
 32,545 
 12,827 
 57,353 
 77,708 
 45,938 
 
 13,338 
 4,447 
 27,647 
 37,823 
 21,066 
 
 19,207 
 8,380 
 29,706 
 .39,885 
 24,872 
 
 64,392 
 70,117 
 117,229 
 114,169 
 101,497 
 
 1866 
 1867 
 1868 
 1869 
 1870 
 
 5,522,942 
 5,486,509 
 5,465,914 
 5,449,094 
 5,418,512 
 
 2,700,565 
 2,681,015 
 2,669,125 
 2,659,713 
 2,641,840 
 
 2,822,377 
 2,805,494 
 2,796789 
 2.789.381 
 2./76,672 
 
 71,647 
 36,433 
 20.595 
 16,820 
 30,582 
 
 40,235 
 19,550 
 11,890 
 9,412 
 17,873 
 
 31,412 
 
 16,883 
 
 8,705 
 
 7,408 
 
 12,709 
 
 99,467 
 80,624 
 61,018 
 66,568 
 74,855 
 
 1871 
 1872 
 1873 
 1874 
 1875 
 
 5,398,179 
 5,372,890 
 5,327,938 
 5,298,979 
 5,278,629 
 
 2,630,782 
 2,616,263 
 2,590,385 
 2,575,663 
 2,569,409 
 
 2,767.397 
 2,756.627 
 2,737,.553 
 2,723,316 
 2,709,220 
 
 20.333 
 25,289 
 44,952 
 28,959 
 20,350 
 
 11,058 
 14.519 
 25,878 
 14,722 
 6,254 
 
 9,275 
 10,770 
 19,074 
 14,237 
 14,096 
 
 71,240 
 78,102 
 90,149 
 73,184 
 51,462 
 
 1876 
 1877 
 1878 
 1879 
 1880 
 
 5,277,544 
 5,286,380 
 5,282,246 
 5,265,625 
 5,202,648 
 
 2,572,287 
 2,579,274 
 2,579,928 
 2,574,705 
 2,543,491 
 
 2,705,257 
 2,707,106 
 2,702,318 
 2,690,920 
 2,659,157 
 
 1,085 
 8,836 
 4,137 
 16,621 
 62,977 
 
 2,878 
 
 6,987 
 
 6,54 
 
 .5,223 
 
 31,214 
 
 .3,963 
 
 1,849 
 
 4,788 
 
 11,398 
 
 31,763 
 
 37,587 
 38,503 
 41,124 
 47,065 
 95,517 
 
 1881 
 1882 
 1883 
 1884 
 1885 
 
 5,145,770 
 5,101.018 
 5,023,811 
 4,974,561 
 4,938,588 
 
 2,519,219 
 2,497,237 
 2,461,548 
 2,439,581 
 2,424,128 
 
 2,626,551 
 2,603,781 
 2,562,263 
 2,534,980 
 2,514,460 
 
 56,878 
 44,752 
 77207 
 49,250 
 35,973 
 
 24,272 
 21,982 
 35,689 
 21,9671 
 15,453 
 
 32,606 
 22,770 
 41,578 
 27,383 
 20,520 
 
 78,417 
 89,136 
 108,724 
 75,863 
 62,034 
 
 1886 
 1887 
 1883 
 1889 
 1890 
 
 4,905,895 
 4,857,119 
 4,801,312 
 4,757,385 
 4,717,959 
 
 2,410,186 
 2„387,439 
 2,360,717 
 2,340,516 
 2,322,883 
 
 2,495,709 
 2,469,680 
 2,440,595 
 2,416,869 
 2,395,076 
 
 32,693 
 48,776 
 55,807 
 43,927 
 39,426 
 
 13,942 
 22,747 
 26,722 
 20,201 
 17,633 
 
 18,751 
 28,029 
 29,085 
 33,726 
 21,793 
 
 63,135 
 82,923 
 78,684 
 70447 
 61,313 
 
 1891 
 1892 
 1893 
 1894 
 
 4,681,248 
 4,638,169 
 4,615,312 
 4,600.609 
 
 2,307,331 
 2,288,436 
 2,279,319 
 2,275,619 
 
 2,373,917 
 2,349,733 
 2,335,993 
 2,324,990 
 
 36,711 
 43,079 
 22,857 
 14,703 
 
 15,552 
 18,895 
 9,117 
 3,700 
 
 21,159 
 24,184 
 13,740 
 11,003 
 
 59,623 
 50,867 
 48,147 
 35,895 
 
208 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
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210 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 TABLE X. 
 
 Sliowing (1) the percentage of Emigrants of various ages 
 during the year 1894, and (2) the percentage of Emigrants 
 between the ages of 15 and 35 for the fifteen years 
 ended by 1894. 
 
 (1) 
 
 Percentage of Ag 
 
 e. 
 
 (2) 
 
 Between 15 and 35. 
 
 Under 1 
 
 0-9 
 
 1880 
 1881 
 
 75-7 
 76-0 
 
 1 and under 5 
 
 2-4 
 
 1882 
 1883 
 
 74-8 
 67-9 
 
 5 „ 15 
 
 4-6 
 
 1884 
 
 70-5 
 
 15 „ 25 
 
 . 57-6 
 
 1885 
 1886 
 
 75-2 
 781 
 
 25 „ 35 
 
 . 25-5 
 
 1887 
 
 79-8 
 
 35 „ 45 
 
 4-8 
 
 1888 
 1889 
 
 80-1 
 79-7 
 
 45 „ 55 
 
 2.8 
 
 1890 
 
 81-1 
 
 55 „ 60 
 
 0-7 
 
 1891 
 1892 
 
 82-5 
 83-2 
 
 Over 60 
 
 0-7 
 
 1893 
 1894 
 
 85-0 
 83-1 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 211 
 
 TABLE XI. 
 
 Showing the Daily Average and the Total Number of Paupers 
 in each year and the Increase of Pauperism in Ireland 
 between 1864 and 1894. 
 
 Tear. 
 
 
 Daily Average of 
 Paupers. 
 
 Total Number of 
 Paupers. 
 
 Proportion 
 per 1,000 of 
 Population. 
 
 Population, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 <a rr 
 
 
 
 
 Indoor. 
 
 Out- 
 door. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Indoor. 
 
 Out- 
 door. 
 
 Total. 
 
 ■3 S3 §* 
 
 t 
 
 1864 
 
 5,640,527 
 
 56,957 
 
 7,859 
 
 64,816 
 
 264,569 
 
 31,266 
 
 295,835 
 
 1149 
 
 52-45 
 
 1865 
 
 5,594,589 
 
 54399 
 
 8,748 
 
 63,147 
 
 252,606 
 
 36,390 
 
 288,996 
 
 11-28 
 
 51-66 
 
 1866 
 
 5,522,942 
 
 50,740 
 
 10,040 
 
 60,780 
 
 232,556 
 
 37,617 
 
 270,173 
 
 11-00 
 
 48-92 
 
 1867 
 
 5,486,509 
 
 52,657 
 
 12,205 
 
 64,862 
 
 258,650 
 
 58,696 
 
 317,346 
 
 11-83 
 
 57-84 
 
 1868 
 
 5,465,914 
 
 54,197 
 
 14,940 
 
 69,137 
 
 289,471 
 
 50,257 
 
 339,728 
 
 12-65 
 
 62-16 
 
 1869 
 
 5,449,094 
 
 52,777 
 
 16,862 
 
 69,639 
 
 236,095 
 
 49,283 
 
 285,378 
 
 12-78 
 
 52-37 
 
 1870 
 
 5,418,512 
 
 49,737 
 
 18,296 
 
 68,033 
 
 230,971 
 
 53,885 
 
 284,856 
 
 12-55 
 
 63-57 
 
 1871 
 
 5,398,179 
 
 46,611 
 
 21,474 
 
 68.085 
 
 226,076 
 
 56,416 
 
 282,492 
 
 12-63 
 
 52-33 
 
 1872 
 
 5,372,890 
 
 45,903 
 
 22,552 
 
 68,455 
 
 232,824 
 
 63,432 
 
 296,256 
 
 12-70 
 
 55-14 
 
 1873 
 
 5,327,938 
 
 47,325 
 
 27,509 
 
 74,834 
 
 249,735 
 
 69,507 
 
 319,242 
 
 14-04 
 
 59-92 
 
 1874 
 
 5,298,979 
 
 47,624 
 
 30,176 
 
 77,800 
 
 253,828 
 
 66.332 
 
 320,160 
 
 14-68 
 
 60-43 
 
 1875 
 
 5,278,629 
 
 46,548 
 
 30,319 
 
 76,867 
 
 214,642 
 
 66,714 
 
 281,356 
 
 14-56 
 
 53-29 
 
 1876 
 
 5,277,544 
 
 44.346 
 
 30,246 
 
 74,592 
 
 183,979 
 
 66,116 
 
 250,095 
 
 14-13 
 
 47-58 
 
 1877 
 
 5,286,380 
 
 44,343 
 
 31,600 
 
 75,943 
 
 199,794 
 
 67,237 
 
 267,031 
 
 14-36 
 
 50-51 
 
 1878 
 
 5,282,246 
 
 47,749 
 
 33,547 
 
 81,296 
 
 248,810 
 
 75,236 
 
 324,046 
 
 15-39 
 
 61-34 
 
 1879 
 
 5,265,625 
 
 50,727 
 
 36,274 
 
 87,001 
 
 304,826 
 
 86,426 
 
 391,252 
 
 16-.'J2 
 
 74-31 
 
 1880 
 
 5,202,648 
 
 54,976 
 
 39,629 
 
 94,605 
 
 368,096 
 
 181,778 
 
 549,874 
 
 18-18 
 
 105-70 
 
 1881 
 
 5,145,770 
 
 53,584 
 
 60,883 
 
 114,467 
 
 364,622 
 
 226,005 
 
 590,627 
 
 22-24 
 
 114-70 
 
 1882 
 
 5,101,018 
 
 51,383 
 
 60,196 
 
 111,579 
 
 334,610 
 
 131,036 
 
 465,646 
 
 21-87 
 
 91-28 
 
 1883 
 
 5,023,811 
 
 51,097 
 
 58,835 
 
 109,932 
 
 306,147 
 
 132,856 
 
 439,003 
 
 21-88 
 
 87-39 
 
 1884 
 
 4,974,561 
 
 48,386 
 
 60,384 
 
 108,770 
 
 300,759 
 
 116,223 
 
 416,982 
 
 21-86 
 
 82-62 
 
 1885 
 
 4,938,588 
 
 47,281 
 
 57,829 
 
 105,110 
 
 321,350 
 
 120,939 
 
 442,289 
 
 21-28 
 
 89-56 
 
 1886 
 
 4,905,895 
 
 46,961 
 
 58,965 
 
 105,926 
 
 361,807 
 
 271,214 
 
 633,021 
 
 21-59 
 
 129-05 
 
 1887 
 
 4,857,119 
 
 46,385 
 
 78 241 
 
 124,626 
 
 387,962 
 
 134,757 
 
 522,719 
 
 25-65 
 
 1107-82 
 
 1888 
 
 4,801,312 
 
 46,105 
 
 65,506 
 
 111,611 
 
 397,585 
 
 129,150 
 
 526,735 
 
 23-24 
 
 109-71 
 
 1889 
 
 4,757,385 
 
 44,699 
 
 63,680 
 
 108,379 
 
 370,447 
 
 120,655 
 
 491,102 
 
 22-78 
 
 103-23 
 
 1890 
 
 4,717,959 
 
 43,427 
 
 62,286 
 
 105,713 
 
 335,080 
 
 120,010 
 
 455,090 
 
 22-41 
 
 96-47 
 
 1891 
 
 4681,248 
 
 41,893 
 
 62,231 
 
 104,124 
 
 312,545 
 
 125,343 
 
 437,888 
 
 32-24 
 
 93-54 
 
 1892 
 
 4,638,169 
 
 41,448 
 
 62,229 
 
 103,677 
 
 316,782 
 
 117,708 
 
 434,490 
 
 22-35 
 
 93-67 
 
 1893 
 
 4,615,312 
 
 41,414 
 
 59,137 
 
 100,551 
 
 325,370 
 
 107,735 
 
 433,105 
 
 21-78 
 
 93-84 
 
 1894 
 
 4,600,609 
 
 42,282 
 
 57,979 100,261 
 
 329,077 
 
 108,335 
 
 437,412 
 
 21-79 
 
 95-08 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Absenteeism increasing, IGO. 
 Accounts of Grand Juries, 55. 
 
 „ between Great Britain 
 and Ireland, 182. 
 Achill Island, 88. 
 Advances to railways, 89. 
 Africa, emigration to, 134. 
 Agriculture in Ireland, 12, 24. 
 
 , , decline in produce of, 29. 
 
 ,, dependence on, 88. 
 
 ,, depreciation in values, 
 
 112. 
 effect of, 120. 
 , , numbers engaged in, 101 . 
 , , railways have not aided, 
 
 154. 
 „ repeal of Corn Laws in- 
 
 jured, 46. 
 ,, savings and their rela- 
 
 tion to, 156. 
 „ wages of, 83. 
 
 Alcohol, proportion of taxation on, 
 
 61. 
 America, emigration to, 131, 134. 
 American bacon, 30. 
 Antrim, increase of population in, 
 
 136. 
 Aran, Isles of, 88. 
 Argentina, meat production of, 169. 
 Armed forces, cost per head, 195. 
 
 Arms Acts, 84. 
 
 Army, cost of, 19, 79, 195. 
 
 Australia, competition of, 113. 
 
 „ consumption of tea in, 
 
 166. 
 „ emigration to, 134 
 „ meat production of, 169. 
 
 B. 
 
 Balfour, Mr. A., and pauperism, 163. 
 
 BaUot Act, effect of, 77, 79. 
 
 Banks, deposits at, 155. 
 ,, distrust of, 156. 
 
 Barley, decline in value of, 113. 
 
 Barracks, police, 80, 83. 
 
 Beer, consumption of, 59 
 
 „ duty, amount per head, 193. 
 ,, proposed reduction of, 197. 
 „ favoured in taxation, 63, 186. 
 
 Belfast, growth of, 136. 
 ,, linen trade of, 25. 
 „ shipbuilding, 26 
 
 Bere, decUne in value of, 113. 
 
 Birth rate, lowness of, 128, 167. 
 
 Blind, nmiibers of, 166. 
 
 Board of Trade, emigration returns 
 of, 129, 149. 
 
 Booth, Mr. C, on condition of Eng- 
 land, 157 ; Ireland, 158 ; Scotland, 
 158. 
 
 Bridges, under Grand Juries, 55. 
 
214 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Budgets, of poor families, 109. 
 
 „ separate Irish, 191. 
 Butter, decline in value of, 113, 161. 
 
 Cabin passengers (emigrants), 133. 
 Caird, Sir J., on Irish rents, 115. 
 Canada, emigration to, 134. 
 Capital, of Ireland, 68, 171. 
 
 „ of Great Britain, 171. 
 Castlereagh, fiscal policy of, 85. 
 Cattle, value of, 30, 161. 
 
 „ decrease in, 160, 172. 
 Cavan (county), farmers of, 27. 
 „ emigration from, 139. 
 „ Leitrim and Eosoommon 
 
 BaUway, 91. 
 „ Eailway, liability of, 94. 
 Celt, the, his passion for saving, 155. 
 Census figures, 126. 
 Chancellor of Exchequer (Irish), 14, 
 
 33, 44. 
 Channel Islands, duties in, 70, 176. 
 Church Act of 1869, 87. 
 
 „ property, loan on, 84. 
 Civil servants, increase of, 159. 
 
 ,, service, extravagance of, 85. 
 Climate, influence on use of spirits, 
 
 58, 61. 
 Clogher Valley Light Eailway, 91. 
 Coffee duty, amount per head, 193. 
 „ houses, difficulty in establish- 
 ing, 61 (note). 
 Colquhoun, Mr., estimate of capital, 
 
 171. 
 Commerce of Ireland, 68. 
 Commission on railways, 89. 
 Commissions, Eoyal, their nature, 4. 
 Committee on Irish Taxation (1864), 
 
 74, 76. 
 Competition, destruction of indus- 
 tries by, 48. 
 " Congested District " defined, 189 
 (note). 
 
 Congested Districts Board, report 
 of, 108. 
 „ funds of, 184, 188. 
 Connaught, plantation of, 88. 
 „ cottages in, 152. 
 
 Constabulary, Eoyal Irish, 79. 
 
 cost of, 80, 81, 84, 195. 
 duties of, 82. 
 mmibers of, 81. 
 pay of, 83. 
 reduction in cost of, 
 195. 
 Corn Laws, repeal of, 46, 49, 141, 160. 
 
 ,, mills, decay of, 48. 
 Corporate property alienated, 85. 
 Cottages, alleged improvement in, 
 150. 
 ,, Acts for provision of, 152. 
 Counties, expenditure of, 55. 
 
 ,, population of, decreased, 
 
 136. 
 ,, ratio of emigration from, 
 138. 
 County towns, poverty of, 161. 
 Crime in Ireland, 82. 
 Crunean War, 72, 79. 
 Crops, falling off in, 29, 172. 
 
 ,, variations in, 117, 119. 
 Curragh Camp, cost of, 19, 176. 
 Customs Cordon abolished, 42, 64. 
 „ effect of, 45. 
 
 D. 
 
 Dairy produce, decline in value of, 
 
 113. 
 Deaf, numbers of, 166. 
 Death duties, amount per head, 192. 
 
 ,, rate, rise in, 129, 168. 
 Debt, charged to Ireland, 37. 
 
 ,, increase of, 38, 67. 
 
 ,, proportion to Great Britain, 
 39, 67. 
 Denmark, competition of, 113. 
 Deposits at banks, 155, 157. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 215 
 
 Depreciation in agricultural values, 
 
 112. 
 Direct taxation, adverse to Ireland, 
 63. 
 „ „ amount paid in, 64, 193. 
 
 Disraeli, Mr., increases whiskey 
 
 duty, 51. 
 Distress, relief of, 77, 118. 
 Dog tax differs in Ireland, 65. 
 Domestic servants, increase of, 159. 
 Drink consumption, England and 
 
 Ireland, 59. 
 Dublin and Belfast BaUway, ad- 
 vance to, 89. 
 „ City of, consolidatedloan,18. 
 „ County, population of, 136. 
 Dumb, numbers of, 166. 
 Dunne, Col., on Irish Taxation, 74. 
 Duties, assimilation of, 42. 
 
 ,, on Irish trade removed, 69. 
 
 Economy, need for, 117. 
 
 ,, suggested, 195. 
 Education, cost per head, 195. 
 Election of 1895, 1. 
 
 „ of Irish Local Authorities, 
 53. 
 Emigrants, ages of, 138. 
 
 definition of, 131. 
 financial condition of, 
 
 143. 
 number of, compared 
 with population, 132. 
 occupations of, 134. 
 proportion of males to 
 
 females, 133. 
 subsequent careers of, 
 
 144. 
 total numbers of, 138. 
 Emigration, attempt to arrest not 
 made, 142. 
 causes of, 145. 
 follows trade, how far, 
 130. 
 
 Emigration, Great Britain en- 
 courages, 145. 
 „ possible to arrest, 145. 
 
 „ results of, 128. 
 
 „ statistics of, 129, 146. 
 
 Empire, development of the, 36. 
 Employment, irregularity of, 162. 
 England, birth rate of, 167. 
 blind in, 166. 
 Booth, Mr. C, on, 157. 
 ,, crime in, 82. 
 ,, deaf and dumb in, 166. 
 „ duties protective for, 186. 
 ,, emigration from, 135. 
 ,, lunatics in, 166. 
 ,, marriage rate of, 108. 
 ,, starvation in, 170. 
 Equalisation of Bates Act, 171. 
 Ex-officio guardians, 53. 
 Exports from Ireland, 68. 
 
 ,, „ Channel Islands, 70. 
 
 F. 
 Famine, cause of, 117, 118. 
 
 effects of, 46, 47, 125, 162, 
 175. 
 ,, emigration follows, 146. 
 
 relief of, 77, 118, 180. 
 „ loans to meet, 181. 
 Farming class, difficulties of, 160. 
 
 ,, „ income of, 111. 
 
 Fenianism, 78. 
 
 Fermanagh, emigration from, 141. 
 Finance, Union plan of, 35. 
 
 abandoned 1817, 37, 42. 
 plan of 1853, 49. 
 ,, proposed scheme of, 177. 
 Fiscal Union, Pitt's views on, 14, 
 15, 17, 35, 42, 66, 
 67,71,72,105,180. 
 „ „ resolutions of 1817, 
 
 42. 
 „ „ union more com- 
 
 plete 1858, 49, 65. 
 ,, unity impossible, 65. 
 
216 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Flax, decrease in value of, 161. 
 Flour, production of, 48. 
 Food, deterioration in, 30, 69. 
 ,, distribution of (relief), 118. 
 „ Eepeal of Corn Laws, 47. 
 Forster, Mr. W. E., Ireland under, 
 146. 
 „ and pauperism, 163. 
 
 France, birth rate of, 167. 
 „ population of, 144. 
 ,, ,, steps to prevent 
 
 decline of, 167. 
 „ starvation in, 170. 
 Franchise Act, 1884, effect of, 77. 
 Free Trade and equal duties, 135, 
 160. 
 „ „ effect of, 47, 50. 
 „ ,, principle of, 186. 
 
 French war, effect of, 34. 
 Fruit, poor quality of, 161. 
 
 G. 
 
 Galway, emigrants from, 134, 137. 
 Germany, duties in, 186. 
 Giffen, Sir B. , on capital (estimated) , 
 171. 
 ,, income of farmers, 
 
 111. 
 „ margin of subsist- 
 
 ence, 106. 
 ,, statistics of 
 
 wealth, 19, 103. 
 „ taxation of Ire- 
 
 land, 63. 
 , , vital statistics, 169. 
 
 Gladstone, Mr., on Col. Dunne's 
 motion, 74. 
 , , on Irish whiskey, 50. 
 ,, imposes Income 
 
 Tax, 50, 180. 
 Glasgow, emigration from, 133. 
 Goschen, Mr., appoints Committee 
 on Taxation, 76. 
 „ and Irish finance, 7. 
 
 Government securities, diminished 
 investments in, 157. 
 
 ,, charges, costper head, 
 
 195. 
 Grand Juries, 53. 
 
 ,, constitution of, 54, 
 
 178. 
 
 ,, and Light Eailways, 
 
 92. 
 Grants in aid of emigration, 144 
 
 (note). 
 Grattan, prophecy on taxation, 76. 
 Great Britain, alcohol consumption 
 of, 59. 
 
 ,, birth rate of, 167. 
 
 ,, capital of, 68. 
 
 ,, commerce of, 68. 
 
 ,, death rate of, 168. 
 
 , , direct taxation of ,64. 
 
 „ Election of 1895, 1. 
 
 ,, emigration from, 
 
 128, 135. 
 
 ,, helps Irish emigra- 
 
 tion, 144. 
 
 „ income of, 102. 
 
 ,, Irish industries des- 
 
 troyed by, 48. 
 
 „ local taxation of, 18. 
 
 ,, loss from Irish po- 
 
 verty, 122. 
 
 ,, lunacy in, 165. 
 
 ,, manufactures of, 113. 
 
 ,, meat consumption 
 
 of, 170. 
 
 „ no gain from Irish 
 
 taxation, 72. 
 
 ,, pauperism in, 163. 
 
 „ policy towards Ire- 
 
 land, 13. 
 
 „ population of, 3, 15. 
 
 „ railways in, 153. 
 
 ,. receipts from Ire- 
 
 land, 182. 
 
 , , repeal of Corn Laws, 
 
 effect on, 46. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 217 
 
 Great Britain, spirits, share of taxa- 
 tion on, 61. 
 „ taxable income of, 
 
 107, 120. 
 „ taxation of, 11, 56. 
 
 „ tea consumption of, 
 
 166. 
 „ Trade of, 129. 
 
 Great Southern and Western Rail- 
 way (advance to), 89. 
 Grimshaw Dr., on income of far- 
 mers, 111. 
 Guarantees on railways, 94. 
 Guardians, Boards of, 53, 179. 
 
 H. 
 
 Hamilton, Sir E., on Irish Debt, 32. 
 ,, margin for sub- 
 
 sistence, 106. 
 „ taxation of Ire- 
 
 land, 52. 
 Hand-loom, disappearance of, 25. 
 Home Rule BUI, financial clauses 
 
 of, 7. 
 Houses, classification of, 150. 
 
 Imperial contribution before Union, 
 85. 
 ,, ,, of Channel Islands, 
 
 70. 
 ,, ,, decreaseof,51,174. 
 
 ,, „ increased taxation 
 
 does not improve, 
 61. 
 Imports of Ireland, 68. 
 Income tax, 14, 103. 
 
 „ amount per head, 193. 
 
 „ not at first imposed on 
 
 Ireland, 115. 
 ,, extended to Ireland, 
 
 (1853), 49. 
 „ increase of, 50. 
 
 Income, taxable, 106. 
 Indian com, use of, 30 . 
 
 Indian Mutiny, 72. 
 
 „ tea, Irish use, 122. 
 Inhabited House Duty, not levied, 
 
 65. 
 Interest, rate of, charged, 184. 
 Intoxicants, taxation of, 16, 61. 
 Investments diminished, 157. 
 Ireland, bank accumulations in, 
 155. 
 ,, birth rate in, 167. 
 „ Booth, Mr. C, on, 158. 
 ,, capital of, 68, 171. 
 ,, commerce of, 68. 
 „ constabulary in, 79. 
 ,, contrast with Great Bri- 
 tain, 23. 
 ,, Com Laws repeal, effect 
 
 of, 46. 
 ,, crime in, 82. 
 „ death rate in, 168. 
 ,, direct taxations of, 64. 
 ,, duties discriminate 
 against, 186. 
 election (1895) in, 2. 
 ,, emigration from, 129. 
 ,, „ financed, 145. 
 
 ,, farmers in, 10. 
 ,, income of, 104. 
 ,, Imperial contribution of 
 
 35, 51, 174. 
 ,, compared with Channel 
 
 Islands, 70. 
 ,, local taxation of, 18, 85. 
 „ lunacy in, 166. 
 „ marriage rate in, 168. 
 „ meat production of, 170. 
 ,, mihtary establishment in, 
 
 19, 176. 
 „ peace of 1816, effect on, 
 
 37. 
 „ population of, 8, 12, 15, 
 
 24. 
 „ „ statistics, 125. 
 
 ,, railways in, 154. 
 
 relieved at own cost, 180. 
 
218 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Ireland, representation of, 77. 
 
 services in, waste on, 177. 
 spirits, consumption of in, 
 59. 
 „ taxation on, 61. 
 starvation in, 170. 
 taxable income of, 107, 
 
 121. 
 taxation of, 10, 71, 97. 
 valuation of, 172. 
 wheat of, decline in value, 
 113. 
 Irish passion for saving, 155. 
 
 K. 
 
 Killeshandra, early description of, 
 28. 
 ,, railway to, 94. 
 
 Labourers, decrease of, 161. 
 
 „ Dwelling Acts, 154, 178. 
 
 Land Acts excluded town parks, 86. 
 
 „ BUI, proposed, 99. 
 
 ,, capital value of, 86. 
 
 „ question too much empha- 
 sised, 21. 
 
 „ tax not levied, 65. 
 Landlords, condition of, 159. 
 Law Courts, extravagance of, 85. 
 Lewis, SirG. C, increases whiskey 
 
 duty, 51. 
 Light Railways, 90-93. 
 
 „ „ cost of, 92. 
 
 „ ,, financing of, 179. 
 
 Linen trade, 25. 
 
 Liverpool, emigration from, 133. 
 Local Government Board, extra- 
 vagance of, 85. 
 Local taxation, 8, 85, 195. 
 
 ,, „ charge per head, 
 
 193. 
 
 ,, ,, cost per head, 195. 
 
 ,, ,, guarantees to rail- 
 
 ways, 89. 
 
 Local taxation, increase of, 52. 
 London, emigration from, 133. 
 „ Equalisation of Bates Act, 
 171. 
 rates of, 11, 102. 
 ,, starvation in, 170. 
 „ valuation of, 171. 
 Londonderry, shipbuilding at, 26. 
 Lord-Lieut, nominates sheriffs, 
 
 54, 178. 
 Lords, House of, rejects Muni- 
 cipal Reform BUIb, 87. 
 Lowe, Mr. R., on Irish taxation, 76. 
 Lunacy, causes of, 165, 166. 
 Lunatics, increase of, 165. 
 " Luxury," what is a, 62. 
 
 M. 
 Man, Isle of, duties in, 70. 
 Manufactures destroyed, 31. 
 " Margin of subsistence," 105. 
 
 „ narrow, causes famine, 
 128, 168. 
 Mason, Mr., inquiry into condition 
 
 of Ireland, 29. 
 McKenna, Sir J., on Irish taxation, 
 
 75, 76. 
 Meat, production and consumption 
 
 of, 169. 
 Medicine, whiskey as a, 60. 
 Members (Irish) imprisoned, 146. 
 Micks, Mr. W. L., evidence re 
 tobacco, 44. 
 „ ,, on congested 
 
 districts, 109. 
 Midland and Great Western Kail- 
 way, advance to, 89. 
 ,, spur to KiUeshandra, 94. 
 Migration in Great Britain, 136. 
 Military establishment, cost of, 19, 
 
 79, 195. 
 Mill, Mr. J. S., on " Margin of sub- 
 sistence," 106. 
 Monaghan, emigration from, 140. 
 Mortgages on land, 159. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 219 
 
 Mulhall, Mr., on production and 
 consumption of 
 meat, 169. 
 „ ,, on starvation, 170. 
 
 Municipal Reform Bills, 87. 
 
 MunoipaJity, property of, 86. 
 
 Mutton, decrease in value of, 161. 
 
 N. 
 
 National Debt Commissioners, in- 
 terest charged by, 184. 
 Necessaries, what are, 62. 
 
 ,, amount levied on, 64. 
 
 , , decreased consumption 
 
 of, 74. 
 Newport, Sir J., on tobacco duties, 
 
 73. 
 Normandy, competition of, 113. 
 
 0. 
 
 Oats, decline in production of, 29. 
 
 „ ,, in value of, 118. 
 
 O'Brien, Mr. M., on Irish taxation, 
 
 63, 98. 
 Occupations of emigrants, 134. 
 O'Connell, on results of taxation, 
 
 74. 
 Officials, workhouse, 165. 
 
 Parks, town, 86. 
 
 Parliament responsible for local 
 
 expenditure, 52. 
 ParneU, Mr. C. S., 20. 
 Pauperism, artificial, 54. 
 „ causes of, 164. 
 
 ,, statistics of, 162, 163. 
 
 Peel, Sir B., fiscal polioy of, 14. 
 ,, refrains from imposing 
 
 income tax, 45. 
 Pensioners (Constabulary), 81. 
 Pensions, waste on, 177. 
 Pitt, fiscal policy of, 14, 15, 17, 35, 
 42, 66, 67, 71, 72, 105, 180. 
 
 Police, Irish, 15, 80. 
 
 PoU tax in Ireland, 6, 7, 8, 18, 59, 
 
 98, 193. 
 Poor Law, 53. 
 
 ,, administration of, 164. 
 Population of Ireland, 10, 15, 124. 
 
 ,, ,, Channel Islands, 70. 
 
 ,, famine reduces, 46, 125. 
 
 ,, of Great Britain, 68. 
 
 Pork, decrease in value of, 161. 
 Post office, charge per head, 193. 
 Potato, failure of, 46, 118. 
 
 ,, distribution of seed, 118. 
 Presentments of Grand Juries, 55. 
 Prices, fall in agricultural, 113, 114, 
 
 161. 
 Prison statistics, 82. 
 Protection, policy of, 69. 
 
 „ present duties savour 
 
 of, 186. 
 
 Q- 
 
 Queenstown, emigration from, 134. 
 
 E. 
 
 Railways, effect of, 30. 
 
 Light, 90, 92, 93, 179. 
 ,, prosperity of, 152. 
 „ taxation for, 88. 
 Rates, Irish, nature of, 8, 85. 
 Rebellion, the, effect on taxation, 34. 
 
 „ of 1848, 78. 
 Registrar-General (Ireland) emigra- 
 tion returns, 131. 
 Relief of Distress Acts, 118. 
 "Remedial" legislation, result of, 
 
 128. 
 Remission of loans, nature of, 182. 
 Rent, amount of, 99. 
 ,, dechne in, 114. 
 ,, disproportioned to value, 116 
 „ reduction of proposed, 100, 
 
 115. 
 „ ,, effect of, 159. 
 
220 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Representation of Ireland, 77. 
 
 EepresBion of Irish opinion, 78. 
 
 Bevenue, true, of Ireland, 43. 
 
 Revolutions, their relations to taxa- 
 tion, 20. 
 
 Roads under Grand Juries, 55. 
 
 Royal Commission on financial 
 
 relations, 5. 
 
 „ ,, appointment 
 
 of, 7. 
 „ ,, methods of, 9. 
 
 ,, „ scope of, 9. 
 
 Royal Commissions, 4. 
 
 S. 
 Salaries, waste on, 177. 
 Savings banks as test of pros- 
 perity, 155. 
 Scotland, birth rate in, 167. 
 
 „ blind in, 166. 
 
 „ Booth, Mr. C, on, 158. 
 
 ,, crime in, 82. 
 
 ,, deaf and dumb in, 166. 
 
 ., election (1895) in, 1. 
 
 ,, emigration from, 135. 
 
 ,, lunatics in, 166. 
 
 ,, police in, 81. 
 
 „ railv?ays in, 154. 
 
 „ whiskey of, 64. 
 Servants, saving habits of, 156. 
 Services (Irish), cost of, 177. 
 Sheep, decrease in value of, 161. 
 Sheriffs nominate Grand Juries, 
 
 54, 178. 
 Shipping trade, 26. 
 Sinecures, waste in, 177. 
 Snuff, use of in Ireland, 44. 
 Society for relief of Irish land- 
 ladies, 160. 
 Sovithampton, emigration from, 133. 
 Spirits, consumption of, 59. 
 
 „ duty on, 193. 
 Stamp duty, amount per head, 193. 
 
 ,, equahsed, 45. 
 
 Starvation, statistics of, 170. 
 
 State management of railways, 94. 
 
 " Statistical Surveys," the, 27. 
 
 Stimulants, consumption of, 59. 
 
 Stout, manufacture of, 26. 
 
 Subsistence, margin for, 105. 
 
 Sullivan, Mr. A. M., on Irish taxa- 
 tion, 76 
 
 Superannuation of constabulary, 
 81. 
 
 Sweden, revenue of, 198. 
 
 " Taxable capacity," 105, 107, 120. 
 
 Taxation of composite states, 17, 
 
 186. 
 
 , , emigration forced by, 143. 
 
 of Ireland, 10, 32, 56, 97. 
 
 ,, increase after Union, 41. 
 
 ,, of luxuries, 16, 68. 
 
 ,, theory that Ireland pays 
 
 no, 56. 
 ,, in Man and Channel 
 
 Islands, 70. 
 ,, proposed reKef in, 112, 
 120, 194. 
 Taxes not leviable in Ireland, 65. 
 Tea drinking and lunacy, 165. 
 ,, duty, amount per head, 193 
 ,, ,, proposed aboUtion of, 197. 
 ,, BngUsh profit on, 122 
 ,, necessity in Ireland, 68. 
 „ poor hard hit by duty on. 111, 
 122. 
 Tenants, relations with landlords, 
 
 115. 
 Temperance and taxation, 61. 
 Textile industries, 25. 
 
 ,, „ decline of, 159. 
 
 Timber cut, 160. 
 Tithes taken from parishes, 89, 
 
 189. 
 Tobacco duty increased, 43, 44, 146. 
 , , , , amount per head, 193. 
 ,, „ proposed abolition of , 
 197. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 221 
 
 Tobacco, necessity in Ireland, 63. 
 ,, Newport, Sir J., on, 73. 
 ,, x^oor hard hit by duty on, 
 
 in. 
 
 Town parks, 86. 
 Towns, disappearance of, 142. 
 Trade, Board of, emigration figures 
 of, 129. 
 ,, of Ireland, 12, 24. 
 Treasury, the, defence of Irish 
 finance, 39. 
 ,, „ guarantee on Light 
 
 Railways, 90. 
 
 U. 
 Ulster Bank, the, 140. 
 ,, cottages in, 152. 
 „ emigration from, 139. 
 Union, the, cost of, 34, 176. 
 ,, financial provisions of, 37. 
 ,, fiscal pohcy of, 14, 15. 
 ,, interpretation of, 38. 
 ,, nature of opposition to, 40. 
 Unions, Poor Law, 53. 
 United States, duties in, 188. 
 
 ,, ,, emigration to, 131, 
 
 134. 
 ., ,, meat production of , 
 
 169. 
 
 Valuation, average, of London, 171. 
 
 Valuation, average, of Ireland, 172. 
 Villages, disappearance of, 83, 142. 
 
 W. 
 Wages, irregularity of, 102. 
 Wales, election in (1895), 1. 
 War ships, expenditure on, 102. 
 Waste lands, 87. 
 
 Wheat, decline in production of, 29. 
 ,, ,, „ cause of, 48. 
 
 ,, ,, in value of, 112. 
 
 Whiskey, consumption of, 58. 
 
 ,, duty on, amount per 
 
 head, 192. 
 
 ,, ,, increase of, 
 
 50, 51. 
 „ ,, reduced (1843) 
 
 45. 
 ,, ,, reduction pro- 
 
 posed, 197. 
 ,, manufacture of, 25. 
 ,, medicine as a, 60. 
 ,, taxation of, 14. 
 ,, „ as compared 
 
 with beer, 
 63, 186. 
 Wine duty, amount per head, 192. 
 Woollen manufacture, 48. 
 Workhouses, extravagance of, 53,54. 
 
 ,, details of, 164. 
 
 Workmen's dwellings, cost of, 95. 
 Works, Board of, extravagance of, 
 85. 
 
UNWIN BRnTHERS, 
 LUN UOH.