2

Report on the Taxation of Ireland , in 1865, p. viii.

3

Some remarkable facts on this subject were collected by Mr. Chisholm, the Chief Clerk of the Ex-chequer, in a paper on the relative ability of Great Britain and Ireland to contribute to the taxation of the United Kingdom, Report of 1865, Appendix 9. See also the Report of the Commissioners. It appears from these documents, that’ the permanent taxation of Great Britain increased from 1801 to 1811 in the proportion of 18½ to 10, and the whole revenue, including war taxes, as 21¼ to 10; while the revenue of Ireland had, in the same time, increased in the proportion of 23 to 10’ (p. vi); that ‘the net revenue of Ireland derived from taxation, upon an average of the last live years, ending in 1816, was more than doubled as compared with the net revenue in 1800;’ and that in 1815, the net revenue raised in Ireland by taxation exceeded that of 1800 by no less than 128 per cent. (Pp. 140, 141.) See, too, the Report of 1864, p. 272.

1

Report of the Taxation of Ireland , 1864, pp. xx, xxi. The calculations of Mr. Finlaison give different figures. His summary is that ‘the value of the whole debt of Great Britain (funded and unfunded) at the time of the Union was 329, 868, 585 l. , and the value of the whole debt of Ireland, 23,198,810 l. , and the proportion as 28.4 to 2; and that the value of the whole debt of Great Britain at the time of the amalgamation of the Exchequers was 546,299,034 l. , the value of the whole debt of Ireland 86,992,931 l. and the proportion as 12 5 to 2. ( Report of the Committee on Irish Taxation , 1865, p. viii)

2

In a speech on May 2, 1853, during the debate about the income tax, Lord J. Russell stated, on the authority of Lord Sydenham, ‘that in the year 1807 the revenue of Ireland amounted to 4,378,000 l. Between that year and the conclusion of the war, taxes were successively imposed which, according to the calculations of Chancellors of the Exchequer, were to produce 3,400,000 l. or to augment the revenue to the extent of 7,700,000 l. What was the result? In the year 1821, when that amount, less than 400,000 l. for taxes afterwards repealed, ought to have been paid into the Exchequer, the whole revenue of Ireland amounted only to 3,844,000 l. being 534,000 l. less than in 1807. This was not the effect of the income tax, or of a direct tax. It was the effect of the taxes upon the great articles of consumption.’ ( Parl. Deb. 3rd series, cxxvi. 1000, 1001.)

1

Report of 1865, p. viii, Appendix No. 9.

2

See p. 476.

1

See the evidence of Mr. Barnes, the Solicitor to the Public Works Loan Commission, in the Report on Irish Taxation (1865), p. 17. Mr. Barnes said: ‘The loans to Ireland previous to the Act of 5 Vict. were very few. The principal loan to Ireland before that, was a special loan to the Ulster Canal of 120,000 l. under an Act of Parliament passed for that particular purpose. There were other small loans made to Ireland, but not to any extent before the Act I have mentioned.’

1

Lalor's writings on the land question are chiefly to be found in a paper called the Irish Felon . A great portion of them has been reprinted by Mr. Bagenal in his very valuable work, the American Irish , pp. 153-197, where the connection between Lalor's teaching and the subsequent land agitation is clearly shown. See, too, the interesting account of Lalor's teaching in Sir Gavan Duffy's Four Years of Irish History , pp. 414-481; and also a lecture, On the Continuity of the Irish Revolutionary Movement , by Mr. Brougham Leech (Professor of Jurisprudence and International Law in the University of Dublin). In the Report of the Special Commission of 1888, the connection between the land movement and the Fenian movement has been clearly recognised and abundantly illustrated.

2

Dillon's Life of Mitchel , ii. 130. Mitchel adds: ‘This kind of social revolution he [O'Brien] would resist with all his force, and patriotic citizens could do nothing less than hang him, though with much reluctance.’ ‘I for my part believed,’ said Mr. Healy in one of his speeches, ‘with John Mitchel, that the land system of Ireland is the nerve centre, is the ganglion, is the heart of British rule; and I believe that if you want to break the British rule, you must strike it through the land system and landlordism.’ ( Report of the Special Commission , 1888, p. 107.)

1

Report of the Special Commission , p. 53.

2

‘We are of opinion that the evidence proves that the Irish National League of America has been since the Philadelphia Convention, April 25, 1883, directed by the Clan-na-Gael a body actively engaged in promoting the use of dynamite for the destruction of life and property in England. It has been further proved, that while the Clan-na-Gael controlled and directed the Irish National League of America, the two organisations concurrently collected sums amounting to more than 60,000 l. for a fund called the Parliamentary Fund, out of which payments have been made to Irish members of Parliament.’ (Ibid. p. 118.)

1

The following extract from one of the Clan-na-Gael circulars, Dec. 18, 1885, states very clearly the policy of that body. ‘While our objects lie far beyond what may be obtained by agitation, a national Parliament is an object which we are bound to attain by any means offered. The achievement of a national Parliament gives us a footing upon Irish soil; it gives us the agencies and instrumentalities of a Government de facto at the very commencement of the Irish struggle. It places the government of the land in the hands of our friends and brothers. It removes the Castle's rings, and gives us what we may well express as the plant of an armed revolution. From this standpoint the restoration of Parliament is part of our programme.’ ( Report of the Special Commission , pp. 116, 117. See, too, the remarks of the judges, p. 23.)

2

Parl. Debates , iv. 1003, 1004.

3

Plunket's Life , i. 212; ii. 256, 257.

1

Grattan's Miscellaneous Works , pp. 316-318.

2

Parl. Debates , vi 127, 128, 174

3

See Grattan's Life , v. 214.