As the Customs and Excise, so far as Excise is
connected with Customs, would be imposed at Westminster and not in Dublin, Mr. Gladstone proposes to hold the Irish Customs and Excise so collected in trust for the Irish Executive, after paying out of it certain sums by way of pension and otherwise to Irish officials whose interest we ought to secure. In all other respects, the Irish Legislature could impose its own taxes. Mr. Glad- stone also sketched out the first Irish Budget as follows (Ireland would pay nominally one fifteenth part,—really, he thought, much more nearly one twenty-sixth part,—of what Great Britain pays for Imperial purposes) :—
In relation to the charge for Sinking Fund, Mr. Gladstone remarked that "Ireland's public credit is not yet born. It has yet to lie like an infant in the cradle, and it may require a good deal of nursing ; but no nursing could be effectual unless it were plain and palpable to the eyes of the whole world that Ireland had provision in actual working order for discharging her old obligations, so as to make it safe for her to contract new obligations." Mr. Gladstone did not point out where these trust- worthy Irish wet-nurses arc to be found. He concluded with a very eloquent peroration, asking the House to apply to Ireland the experience acquired in England and Scotland, that the safest foundation to build upon is the foundation afforded "by the affections, the convictions, and the will of the nation."
EXPENDITURE.
Interest on the Debt 21,466,000
Army and Navy 1,666.000
Civil Charges (Imperial) 110,000 Irish Constabulary 1,000,000 Ir:sh Civil Charges 2,510,000 Collection of Revenue 834,000 Sinking Fund 750,000
REVENUE.
Customs £1,880,000 Excise 4,300,003 Stamps 600,009 Income-tax 550,000 Non.tax Revenue 1,020,000
