The Irish standard., 1909-08-14
THE COST Of RULING
THE EMERALD ISLE
The Expenditure Overtakes
the Taxation and Eats Up
the Profit Balance---Time
is Approaching When the
British Taxpayer Will Have
to Put His Hand in His
Pocket to Pay for the
Garrison's Whistle.

Time-was, says the Dublin Freeman,
when the British Exchequer made
profit Of five and a half million pounds
a year out of Ireland. That time is
no more. The balance sheet just pub
lished by the House of Commons shows
that the profit has sunk to d bare half
million-5S3,000 pounds, as the treas
ury now sets it down. While refusing
to accept this as anything more than
an estimate involving large disputable
assumptions-as, for example, that the
enormous cost of the police and tho
free grants to the landlords are prop
erly Irish local charges, and that those
Corrections" of the collected Irish
Revenue are themselves corrective
may take this balance and the rapid
disappearance of the estimated profit as
showing the inevitable tendency of
things. Sixty years ago there were
nearly seven millions of people in Ire
land; the population of Ireland was
one-fourth that of the so-called United
Kingdom. Now there are two and
three-quarter millions of people less
land is less than ten per cent of the
United Kingdom. But while the pop
ulation has fallen from rs per cent to
10 per cent the ratio of Irish taxation
TO British has not fallen in anything
like the same ratio. The seven mil
lions paid only 4,s61,465 pounds in
taxation, the four millions and a quar-
ter pay 9,25O,OO0 pounds taxation. The
taxes have gone up from las. Cd. to
2 pounds, Is. 3d., or nearly 200 per cent.
For many years the taxation piled up
on the dwindling population paid the
British Exchequer. Just fifty years
ago, the profit was 5,396,000 pounds, or
more than a tenth of Great Britain's
own Imperial contribution" Last year
it was $4,000 pounds, or a little more
than one-one hundred and fftieth of
the British balance. This year the
rent of John Bulls Irish estate will
have vanished. Only one-quarter of Ire
lands Old Age Pensions annual bill
was in last years account. Four
quarters will be in this years account.
The expenditure on Ireland last year
increased by $4,000 pounds. It will
be at least 100000 pounds more this
year and unless the Chancellor of the
Exchequer gets his estimated haul out
of ireland; the British Exchequer will
have to pay something like a million
to keep up the costly fabric of British
rule in this country. Even with the
increased taxation, the British Ex-
chequer will make less than half a
million profit where it formerly made
nearly five and a half millions.
Gladstone's prophecy has come true
The cost of British rule in Ireland
has gone on increasing by leaps and
bounds. When he introduced his first
Home Rule bill there was profit bal
ance Of nearly 100000 pounds out OF
Ireland. Since then the cost of the
government of Ireland has increased
by four and half millions, and the
taxation by nearly two millions. The
expenditure has overtaken the taxation
and eaten up the profit balance, and we
are now within measurable distance OF
the time when the British taxpayer
will have at last to put his hand In
his pocket and pay for the Irish gar
risons whistle. The British taxpayer
we know, has always been under the
delusion that he was paying for ev
erything in the government of Ireland
His belief will soon begin to have q
slight but substantial basis of fact. Al
for the Irish taxpayer, it is not much
but it is some consolation to him tc
know that the money wrung from him
in his poverty is no longer being ex.
ported. "The economic drain" has beer
diminished in the sense that'dve and
half millions of Irish taxes no Longer
20 to keep up the British Empire, but
are spent, or partially wasted, here II
Ireland. True, nearly two millions Of
it are going into the pockets Of the
landlords to Compensate" them fol
a judicial reduction Of little more
than two millions in their rent roll
And another two millions are being
tsed fe~ the relief of Irish poverty in &