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. --.,a
The Republic.
would be hampering the Government and
aiding the Tories, and loyalty to the great
Liberal party forbids its adoption. Yet the
majority report of the Financial Relations
Commission remains on record to show :-
(a) That the Act of Union imposed upon Ireland
:11’ burden which, as events showed, she was unable to
ear.
(5) That the increase of taxation laid upon Ireland
between 1853 and 1860 was not justified by the then
existing circumstances.
(5) That identity of rates does not necessarily
involve equality of burden. .
(d) That whilst the actual tax revenue of Ireland
is about one-eleventh of that of Great Britain, the
relative taxable capacity of Ireland is very much
smaller, and is not estimated by any of us as exceed-
ing one-twentieth.
Both Mr. John Redmond and Mr. Thomas
Sexton signed that report, yet to-day neither
the Directory of the United Irish League nor
the Freeman’: jam-mzl make even a show of
interest in regard to the question of financial
injustice. At the best they pass a machine-
made resolution or reprint an academic leader
once or twice a year, and for the rest of the
time allow the matter to sink quietly out of
sight. To politicians, possessed of even a
tincture of statesmanship, the finding of the
Commission offered a chance such as has
seldom occurred in Irish history of uniting
North and South on a great national issue,
but the agitation was hopelessly bungled from
the first, and our boasted tacticians revealed
themselves wholly unfitted to accomplish even
the simplest bit of constructive work. Nor
was it merely a sentimental grievance they
had to urge. The pressure of taxation is
directly responsible for the lack of develop-
ment in Ireland; and it has been proved
beyond all doubt that in the Congested
Districts it keeps the people on the starvation
line and forbids any hope of radical improve-
ment in the deplorable conditions under
which they live. At the present time the
failure of the potato crop has flung the black
shadow of famine over Connacht, and the
bitter cry of distress is filling the land. It
means lingering torture for the old and the
weaklings, it means another mad rush to the
emigrant ships for the young ; but a sympa-
thetic Government watches it unmoved, and
those who demand bare justice and not
grudging charity, may expect to be told by
Mr. Birrell, as were the National teachers,
that “they should not be so fond of exhibit-
ing their sores.”
An Outspoken lmperialist . .
Irishmen, who imagine that England will
concede to reason what she denies to force,-
might do worse than spend ten minutes over
an article entitled “Ireland and Sea Power,"
which appears in this month's Fartrzzgrlzlly
Review. It is less offensive than the majority
of such productions, as the author makes no
pretence of flattering the Irish character and
mercifully spares us the soft soap, which his
school in general applies with so liberal a
hand. He argues purely from the strategical
point of view, and concludes that Ireland
occupies too advantageous a position for
the next naval war to permit England to
relax her grip. That the connection between
the two islands spells ruin to this country
does not concern him; it is not a question of
the prosperity of Ireland, but of the naval
predominance of Great Britain. He frankly
admits that the Union is a polite fiction;
“moral separation” actually exists, and the
I only object of England is to make sure that
material separation does not follow. To that
end no effort must be spared, even if it entails
results more horrible than the Famine; and
he looks forward almost cheerfuily to some
catastrophe of the kind to settle the whole
matter offhand. He says :-
“There are no political solutions for the Irish
question. That haggard and haunting problem will
yield to a stronger economic remedy than has ever
yet been applied or to none.”
It is a comprehensive statement of the
Imperialistic point of view, and sums up
what the majority of Englishmen believe,
though they have not the common honesty to
put it into words. It is a clever theory too,
only it assumes too confidently that Ireland
is impotent to affect the issue the one way or
the other. If we were to confine ourselves
to dramatic protests on the floor of the House
it would work out splendidly, but that day is
over for ever. In spite of the Coercion Acts
and bayonets of Dublin Castle, an Ireland,
conscious of its own strength and seeking
clear-sightedly its own ends, may prove,
when the time comes, infinitely more danger-
ous on England's flank, than an Ireland bribed
into neutrality by the gift of a toy national
council and a few petty administrative reforms.
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