The Finances of Ireland.

The article discusses the public finances of Ireland. Seventeen years ago, the Financial Relations Commission reported that Ireland must be considered a separate entity for purposes of taxation, that its contribution to the revenue of Great Britain should be proportional to its taxable capacity, and that since the amalgamation of the Exchequers in 1817, Ireland had paid more than it ought. Ireland today pays one sixteenth of the tax-revenue of Great Britain, while on the basis accepted by the Commission, its taxable capacity is below one-twenty-fifth. And in spite of this, Ireland at present, instead of contributing a surplus to Imperial expenditure, now shows a deficit estimated at a million and a quarter. A new taxation, or at least a readjustment suitable to Ireland's economic position, is possible and desirable. Over half a million could be obtained by a tax of a shilling an acre on grazing land. The British taxpayer would certainly continue to contribute to Irish expenditure if the relations between the two countries remained as they were; during ninety years Ireland contributed far more than her share to Imperial expenditure.