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Show ENGLISH GOVERNMENT IN IRELAND. IRE-LAND. (From the Dublin Weekly Freeman.) On the order for the second reading of the finance bill in the house of commons com-mons on Monday evenin.r the member for Xorth Dublin moved his amendment regarding the continued injustice to Ireland Ire-land of the financial arrangement between be-tween Great Britain and this country. Mr. Clancy again, very properly, reminded re-minded the imperial parliament of some of the historical aspects of the case. He-charged He-charged that the returns presented to the financial relations commission were deliberately prepared by the treasury in order to make out tbat Ireland, was paying two millions less than she was actually paying. In the last hundred years, he ;also pointed out, Ireland's actual contribution to the treasury has increased from two and a-half millions to twelve millions, notwithstanding Lord Conreagh's promise that, in the case of the union mere would be no . augmentation of the debt and no in- crease of taxation. - ' " ' ; j Mr. Arthur Elliott, an em'nent authority au-thority oii-mahy things, but not on Ireland, Ire-land, challenged Mr. Clancy's statement that the resources of Ireland were declining, de-clining, instancing the increased balances bal-ances in the savings banks. But it has been shown again and again that, in an agricultural country like Ireland, this is only a sign of stagnation. As for the people flying fron the country, surely it was better that they should leave for a new country than live in poverty at home. But why should they have to live in poverty at home, in a fertile country like Ireland, unless the system of government carried on in this country at present is what Mr. Mac-Xeill, Mac-Xeill, during the debate, described as "a cowardly, gigantic, financial swindle?" swin-dle?" The chancellor of the exchequer made no attempt to meet the arguments that had been put forward by Mr. Clancy and the Irish members. The house, he said, had not yet heard what it actually actual-ly was that Ireland contributed toward the joint expenditure of the two countries. coun-tries. That is true. The accounts are kept in such a way that no one well knows except the clerks of the treasury treas-ury the taxable capacity of Ireland. The debate was raised to its right significant proportions by Mr. Dillon, who at once met the main proposition of the chancellor of the exchequer by pointing out that, while it is now ar-! ar-! gued that every individual under the present system of taxation in Ireland pays 2 4s Od per annum, and in England Eng-land 12s Od. when the act of union was carried the English paid close on 4 per head, whereas the Irish paid only 12s. Since the union, as he showed, the wealth per head in England has enormously increased, with the result, notwithstanding great increases in taxation, tax-ation, that the taxation per head has fallen. In Ireland, however, during the same period, ihe wealth per head has considerably consid-erably decreased, and "the taxation has increased three-fold." The truth is. that when Ireland was fastened by the links of the union to a great commercial and manufacturing-country, manufacturing-country, she was bound to suffer. It was prophesied by the ablest opponents of the treaty of 1800; it was put into a cutting epigram by Dr. Johnson. Wherever, Wher-ever, as Mr. Dillon said, the interests of Great Britain came into collision with those of Ireland.- the interests of Ireland went to the wall. The case of Scotland has been mentioned, men-tioned, and Mr. Dillon agreed that Scotland had the same grievance in this matter as Ireland. But it is necessary, as he pointed out, for the politician and the statesman to look at the broad re- suits of politics.' "Scotland has flourished flour-ished under the union. Her population has increased three-fold and her wealth ten-foldv wbilst.our population has fallen fall-en by 50 per' cent." The wealth of Ireland Ire-land had fallen with her population. Mr. Dillon- quoted with telling effect Lord Dunraven's statement in his pamphlet that "year by year the country. coun-try. has been sinking deeper in misfortune, misfor-tune, and now it- has reached the point where it must be decided whether the downward tendency must continue to its inevitable end." The member for Mayo pointed out that these words were written "after all the flummery we have listened to for the last ten years about agricultural department remedies, and the various bogus suggestions made for dealing with the Irish problem." Lord Dunraven, who stood aloof from the Irish financial relations movement, is now convinced, as Mr. Dillon puts it. that "Ireland is going to bankruptcy." "The people are leaving Ireland," he said, "because Ireland is being ruined. The wages in Ireland are starvation wages, and the one industry left is being be-ing destroyed. The people are going despite vour land acts, your agricultural agricul-tural deoartments, your itinerant instructors, in-structors, and all the other apparatus of humbug which you have introduced into Ireland. The people are clearing I out of the country as if it were struck by a pestilence; and that pestilence is 1 your financial system and evil govern ment." The; net result of the debate, so far as the government is concerned, was a promise by Mr. Chamberlain to "consult with the chief secretary for Ireland as to what economies might be effected, and what proportion of the accruing money should be devoted to improving transit and other purposes which commend themselves to the Irish people." This is the reply of the parliament par-liament of Westminister to the desperate desper-ate case of the Irish nation, being bled to death of men and money: |
