The difficulty is only one further proof of the dissimilarity of economic conditions between Great Britain and Ireland, and of the artificial and unnatural character of the present fiscal union.  Justice to Ireland demands its dissolution.  The dangers are imaginary.  Liberals, however firm their belief in Free Trade, should hold, with Lord Welby and his Home Rule colleagues on the Financial Relations Commission, that “even if Ireland initiates a protective policy, in this case, as in that of the Colonies, freedom is a greater good than Free Trade.”  As for the Protectionists, I have never seen an argument from that source, and I do not see how any consistent or plausible argument could possibly be framed, to show that a uniform tariff for the United Kingdom could be fair to Ireland.  Professor Hewins, the leading Tariff Reform economist, virtually acknowledges the impossibility in his Introduction to Miss Murray’s “Commercial Relations between England and Ireland.”  There were two sound lines of policy, he points out, which might have been adopted towards Ireland in the period prior to the Union:  (1)To have placed her on a level of equality with the Colonies, applying the mercantile system indiscriminately and impartially to the Colonies and to her; or (2) to have aimed from the first at the financial and commercial unity of the British Isles.  Neither of these courses was taken.  Ireland, while kept financially and commercially separate, “was in a less favourable position than that of a Colony.”  With regard to the present, “Most of the difficulties of an economic character,” says the Professor, “in the financial relations between England and Ireland, arise from the differences of economic structure and organization between the two countries.  If Ireland were a highly organized, populous, manufacturing country, the present fiscal system would probably work out no worse than it does in the urban districts of Great Britain.  But whatever be the virtues or demerits of that system, it was certainly not framed with any reference to the economic conditions which prevail in Ireland.”  We wait for the seemingly unavoidable political inference, but in vain.  Professor Hewins is a Unionist.  “A ‘national’ policy for Ireland ... is never likely to be possible.”  Well, that is plain speaking, and the more plainly these things are said the better.  Let Unionists, if they will, tell Ireland frankly that she must eternally suffer for the Union, but let them not pretend, as they do pretend, that Ireland profits by the Union.

VII.

FEDERAL FINANCE.

Directly we leave the simple path of financial independence, and endeavour to construct schemes which on the one hand disguise the financial difficulties of Ireland, and on the other provide for Imperial control of Irish Customs and Excise, we involve ourselves in a tangle of difficulties.  A brief examination of these schemes will throw into still stronger relief the merits of the simpler solution.