From the British point of view it is difficult to see any valid objection to the course suggested.  There will be no stinginess in the settlement.  Even if there were any disposition in that direction, it would be idle to grudge the initial subsidy, because an equivalent sum is already being paid.  The Union will infallibly continue to accentuate the deficit and increase the resulting burden on the taxpayers of Great Britain.  The plan proposed would eventually remove that burden.  But, obviously, its success hinges on the concession of full financial powers to an Ireland unrepresented at Westminster.  In their own interests, if not for very shame, Englishmen should decline to make use of the old adage, that “he who pays the piper should call the tune.”  For more than a century Ireland paid the piper and England called the tune—­and what a tune, and with what results!  Representation has nothing to do with the case.  Precedents are needless, but there are, as a fact, many.  Crown Colonies have frequently received free grants for the relief of distress—­Jamaica and other West Indian islands, for example.  The Transvaal and Orange River Colony received several millions after the war to enable the ruined farmers to start business on a footing of solvency.  During the whole period of their adolescence, and, indeed, until quite a recent date, all the self-governing Colonies were virtually subsidized by the allocation of British forces for local defence, maintained at the Imperial charge.  And Ireland paid her share of this charge.  Similar garrisons were, are, and will be, maintained in Ireland.  Yes, but Ireland contributed to their cost, and in course of time will, it is to be hoped, resume her contributions with a gladder heart and a freer conscience than ever before.

Canada was economically stagnant under coercion.  If, in her case, we had carried coercion as far as we carried it in Ireland, it would have been necessary to give her a temporary subsidy in order to enable her to assume the position of a self-governing Colony.  Ireland’s proximity does not alter economic laws.  “Facts are stubborn things,” and these are the Irish facts.  Duty apart, no more profitable investment could possibly be made by the British tax-payer than a subsidy designed to enable Ireland to stand on her legs again.  The present tribute to her is a dead loss.

The subsidy, if given, ought, I submit, on no account to be earmarked, on the bad precedent set by the Bills of 1886 and 1893,[137] for any particular head of expenditure in Ireland, as for Police, Pensions, Land Commission, or Education.  As I have shown previously, nothing is easier than to pick out items of excessive expenditure, or of under-expenditure, for which Ireland is not herself responsible.  But to allocate a grant specially to any of these purposes would be superfluous unless the intention were to maintain Imperial control over the service in question.  As I urged in Chapter X., none of the services mentioned above ought to