Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



49 



THE FINANCIAL ASPECT OF HOME RULE. 

 Mr. Kettle's State.ment. 

 Professor T. M. Kettle contributes to the 

 English Rev'.eiv for January a paper on this subject. 

 Mr. Kettle says : — 



The problem is in trulh very simple. It consists in this, that 

 the two sides of the Irish account tlo not appear to b.ilance. 

 Prior to the Old .\ge Pensions .\ct, Irish revenue paid for 

 every branch of government in Ireland, and left a surplus for 

 Imperial purposes which during the South African War rose 

 as high as ;f2, 852,000 in a single year, and for the 

 quinquennial period 1900- 1905 averaged /f 2, 400,000 per 

 annum. But Old Age Pensions in Ireland involve 

 an annual charge of /|^2, 408,000, and there has also been 

 an increase of expenditure on the Land Commission, the Con- 

 gested Districts Board, and education. As a result the Imperial 

 surplus has dis.appeare<l, and has been replaced by a substantial 

 deficit in the purely Irish account. The actual figures given 

 by the Treasury for the two-year period 1909-11 are the follow- 

 ing:— 



Irish Revenue ^^19,861, 500 



Irish Expenditure 22,057,000 



Deficit j^2, 195,500 



In 1910-11 local expenditure in Ireland was ^ 1 1,344,500, 

 her revenue under normal conditions of collection approximately 

 ;f 10,000,000, Iciving a deficit of about ;f 1,300,000. How, 

 in these circumstances, ask Unionist critics, is Home Rule 

 possible? 



Against these figures Mr. Kettle publishes the fact 

 that under the Union Ireland had down to 1909, 

 besides paying for the whole cost of her internal 

 government, contributed to Iinperial purposes a sum 

 estimated by Professor Oldham at ^330,000,000. Mr. 

 Kettle concludes that there will be a saving of about 

 p^8oo,ooo a year upon the police. He also declares 

 that Ireland should not be rcsponsibleeitherfor the debt 

 which she brought with her into the Union, amounting 

 to ;^28, 000,000 — that debt has long ago been extin- 

 guished by the over-taxation tribute — or the increase 

 of ;^i 12,000,000 imposed upon her by the foreign 

 policy of Mr. Pitt and his successors. The subseijuent 

 growth of the National Debt was motived by [joiicies 

 in which Ireland had no part either of counsel 

 or of {irofit. Even the charge on the bonus stock 

 issued to facilitate the working of the Land Pur- 

 chase Act is, Mr. Kettle maintains, an Imperial charge, 

 undertaken to aid in transforming the Imperial 

 institution of landlordism. The Imperial exchequer, 

 he says, is at present " paying a subsidy " to Ireland, 

 and it will be good business on the part of Great 

 Britain to commute the subsidy. This involves the 

 payment of a subsidy from Great Britain to the new- 

 Irish Government. He refrains from making any 

 estimate, although he mentions that others who have 

 been more daring have fixed the subsidy at a siiin 

 ranging from twenty to forty millions. Subject to a 

 later proposal regarding the police, the " subsidy " 

 should not be ear-marked. An initial lump sun 

 grant appears to be, on the whole, the most satis- 

 factory form which it could take. .Mr. Kettle 

 assumes that the Irish Parliament will have power 

 from the fir.st to levy export duties on its own home- 

 produced exports, and a machinery of collection 

 would be indispensable. No " Imperial contribu- 



tion " can reasonably be expected for the initial 

 period, although he would not object to a peppercorn 

 rent. Mr. Kettle thinks little of Lord MacDonnell's 

 scheme for Home Rule, but admits that his own will 

 be regarded as somewhat too moderate by the extreme 

 man on his own side. 



Lord MacDomnell's Views. 



In the Nineteenth Century Lord MacDonnell writes 

 on the cash basis of Home Rule. His views, it need 

 not be said, are very different from those of Mr. 

 Kettle. 



Lord MacDonnell suggests the following as a basis 

 of the settlement of the financial relations under 

 Home Rule : — 



(1) True annual revenue of Ireland to be determined with 

 precision. 



(2) Payment into the Irish Treasury of this true revenue, less 

 cost of collection. 



{3) Ascertainment of the total charges on the Irish Govern- 

 ment as crcited by the Imperial Government prior to a fixed 

 date. .Assignment by the Treasury to IreLinl of funds to make 

 good any difference between the Irish revenue and these 

 charges. 



(4) Continuation of Ireland's right to share in the growing 

 revenue of the United Kingdom, or the grant of suitable 

 compensation for the extinction of this right. 



(5) Fixation by a joint committee of the Irish and the Imperial 

 Parliaments of Ireland's contribution to Imperial purposes. 



(6) The grant to Ireland of a lump sum, or an annu.al sum, 

 fixed for a term of years, for expenditure on works of public 

 improvement. 



(7) Recognition of Ireland's right to man.age her income in 

 her own way. 



* (8) The grant to Ireland of the right tp impose subsidiary 

 taxation, not trenching on the sources of the Imperial revenues. 

 (9) Ireland to have the use of the credit of the United 

 Kingdom in borrowing money. 



In conclusion, Lord MacDonnell urges the necessity 

 for completing the work of land purchase set going by 

 Mr. Wyndham's great Act of 1903 



HOW MARK TWAIN CAME TO .READ HISTORY. 



In Harper's for December Mr. .\. B. Paine, in his 

 second paper on Mark 'Pwain, tells how the huiior- 

 ist's taste for reading, and especially for reading 

 history, was one day casually awakened :— • 



There came into his life just at this period one of those 

 seemingly trifling incidents which, viewed in retrospect, as.<:ume 

 pivotal proportions. He was on his way from the office to his 

 home one afternoon when he saw flying along the pavement a 

 square of paper —a leaf from a book. At an larli r time he 

 would not have bothered with it at all, but any printed page 

 had acquired a profes>ional interest for him now. He caught 

 the flying scrap and examincil it. It was a leaf from some 

 history of Joan of .\rc. The " .Maid " w.as described in Ihc 

 cage at Rouen, in the fortress, and the two rutfian English 

 soldiers \\vA stolen her clothes. There w.as a brief description 

 anri a good deal of dialogu- — her reproaches and their ribald 

 replies. 



He had never heard of the subject before. He h.ad never 

 rca 1 any history. When hcwantcil to know any fact he asked 

 Henry, who re.\d everything oblainable. Now, lunvcver, there 

 arose within him a deep comp.assion for the gentle Maiil of 

 Orleans, a burning resentmen'. toward her captors, a powerful 

 .and indestructible interest in her sail history. It was an interc-st 

 that would grow steadily for more than half a lifetime, and 

 tulminate at last in that crowning work, the " Rccol lections, " 

 the loveliest story ever told of that inarivrert girl. 



