“(3) That the increase of taxation laid upon Ireland between 1853 and 1860 was not justified by the then existing circumstances.
“(4) That identity of rates of taxation does not necessarily involve equality of burthen.
“(5) 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 exceeding one-twentieth.”
The three English members above mentioned presented a separate Report, recording at length their views on the questions referred to the Commission. I call attention to it, because reference is frequently made to it in the Report of Sir Henry Primrose's Committee, recently appointed to advise the Government upon the new Home Rule Bill.
They pointed out that the whole taxation of Ireland increased from £2,900,000 in 1820, to over £6,600,000 in 1893, and that by far the larger part of this increase was derived from taxes on articles of consumption which fell most heavily on the poor; that the increase resulted only temporarily in an increase in the contribution to common expenditure which rose from £3,691,000 in 1820 to £5,396,000 in 1860, to fall to £1,966,000 in 1893, for the greater part of the increase had been absorbed in increase of Irish civil expenditure. This local expenditure amounted in Ireland to 19s. 7d. per head, while in Great Britain it only amounted to 11s. 9d. If the cost of administering Ireland had been reduced to the like [pg 124] cost in Great Britain, a saving of nearly £2,000,000 would have been realised.
They thought that the expenditure in Ireland was conducted on a scale totally unsuitable to that country, that the industrial taxation, borne in Ireland mainly by the consumers of dutiable articles, was heavier than the masses of the Irish people ought to bear, that Irish taxation ought not to exceed one twentieth part of taxation of the United Kingdom, but they doubted whether Great Britain would consent to alter her whole system of taxation to meet the evil to Ireland. They objected totally to seeking a remedy in increased grants and doles, and they suggested that Ireland should levy her own taxes and provide for her own expenditure.
Lastly, in answer to the objection that Ireland might impose new Customs duties, they held that to be unlikely, since Ireland rather than Great Britain would suffer by such a policy, because the market of Great Britain is of greater importance to Ireland than that of Ireland to Great Britain.
The Royal Commission reported in 1896. The question of the financial relations remained then in practical abeyance till 1907. In that year the Government of Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman proposed to establish an Irish Council under the Lord-Lieutenant entrusted with the control and direction of certain administrative Departments. A sum was to be charged on the Consolidated Fund to enable the Council to meet the expenditure of the transferred Departments. This sum was fixed for the first five years at £4,164,000. This was simply a measure to decentralise administration, and to admit Irishmen to a share in Irish administration. It did not, however, obtain support in Ireland, and in consequence it was not pressed.
We come now to the last stages in the story of Irish [pg 125] finance. The Government of Mr. Asquith decided to introduce the Third Home Rule Bill in the session of 1912, and in 1911 they appointed a Departmental Committee under Sir Henry Primrose to advise them. The able report of that Committee has been laid before Parliament, and it brings our information on the financial relations up to the latest date:
They state the “true” Irish Revenue in 1895-6 to have been £8,034,000.