sustained. Much of Irish industrial talent was
lost irrevocably before the old industrial restrictions
were removed. There remained the land, an immense
source of potential wealth, if properly developed under
a rational system of agrarian tenure. For the
best part of a century after the Union, the agrarian
tenure, dating from the first genuine colonization
of Ireland, when the land was confiscated wholesale
and the peasantry enslaved, was maintained by force
of arms. Thirty years ago (if we date from the
Land Act of 1881) we began to change this tenure into
another equally defective, though far more favourable
to the tenant. A little later, but only eight
years ago, on a thorough and systematic scale, we
began the parallel policy of Land Purchase. Even
now, having transferred half the land to peasant ownership,
and placed the other half under judicial rents, many
of our statesmen are unwilling to give Ireland the
control of its own affairs. On the contrary, step
by step with the economic enfranchisement of the farmers,
has gone the policy of destroying their personal and
political independence, and forcing them to look outside
their own country for financial aid, by spending money
upon Ireland which Irishmen have no direct responsibility
for raising. What a travesty of statesmanship!
First, having assisted the farmer to buy his own land,
to clap him on the back with “Now, my fine fellow,
you are a free man.” In the same breath
to tell him that he is not fit to have a direct voice
in the management of his own country’s affairs,
and to try and reconcile him to this insult by sapping
that very independence of character which the acquirement
of a freehold has begun to instil in him.
I described in Chapter IX. how a number of patriotic
Irishmen, working both at industrial and agricultural
development, have striven to counteract this fatal
tendency, and to persuade their countrymen to rely
on themselves alone. But I venture to repeat what
I said then, that without the bracing discipline of
Home Rule, and, above all, of the financial Home Rule,
these efforts are doomed to comparative failure.
It is absolutely necessary to produce an equilibrium
between revenue and expenditure in Ireland, as in
every other country in the world. Whatever the
temporary strain upon Ireland, whatever the sacrifices
involved, the thing must be done, and done now or
never. Great Britain’s interest is something,
but it is trivial beside that of Ireland. The
situation is growing worse, not better, and Irishmen
should unite to insist that the whole system should
stop.
II.
IRISH EXPENDITURE.
Let us look a little more closely at Irish expenditure,
as disclosed in the Treasury returns.
For purposes of comparison, I set out first the main
heads of Civil Expenditure for England, Scotland,
and Ireland in the year 1910-11:[119]
Population.
England, Scotland, Ireland,
36,075,269. 4,759,521.
4,381,951.