In addition to the new duties thus undertaken by the State, the cost of Defence and of the Civil Services has grown by leaps and bounds.  We need not look too closely into the apportionment of these charges whilst we remain partners in a United Kingdom, but if the partnership is to be dissolved at the suit of Irish Nationalism, a new balance must be struck, and on any fair basis the contribution of Ireland under present-day conditions should far exceed the amount under either of the schemes for which Mr. Gladstone made himself responsible.  Both schemes recognised the equity of some contribution for these services from Ireland, and it must be assumed that the same broad principles will be applied in any scheme which may be framed hereafter.

By way of introduction to any adequate discussion of the possible financial proposals of any Home Rule measure, it is desirable to set out in some detail the existing financial relations of Ireland and Great Britain.  The Treasury calculations on this subject are embodied in two White Papers which have been prepared and published annually during the last eighteen years.  It is true that doubts have from time to time been cast on the accuracy of these calculations and of the methods by which the materials on which they are based have been collected.  As to this, it is only necessary to say that the information in the possession of the Treasury officials is infinitely more voluminous and likely to be more accurate than any in the possession of private individuals; and there is no reason to suppose the succession of eminent public servants, who have been in turn responsible for the preparation of these returns have been moved in one direction or the other by prepossessions or bias.  Their one attempt has been throughout to present a statement, as accurate as it is possible to make it on the one hand of the cost of the existing administration in Ireland and the expenditure incurred there, and on the other of the revenue derived from persons or property living or situated in that country.  As the Prime Minister said on November 27 of last year—­

“The utmost pains have been taken to make the estimates of ‘true’ revenue approximately correct, and it is believed that the total revenue as given in the revised returns approximates closely to the facts."[50]

So long as Ireland is an integral part of the United Kingdom, such an investigation has mainly an academic interest.  The State is a homogeneous entity; the taxes imposed on individuals similarly circumstanced are the same (with some trifling exceptions—­all in favour of Ireland) in whatever quarter of the United Kingdom the individual resides.  But the case is wholly different when a proposal is made to split up the State into its constituent parts.  It then becomes necessary to inquire if there is any prospect that the constituent parts will have resources sufficient for the various services, commitments and liabilities—­present and contingent—­which do or will belong to them.  And the beginning of any such inquiry is, as has been already said, the present Irish revenue and expenditure.