HOME RULE SOPHISTRY.
(To THZ EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR.") SIR,—In common with many other Unionists, I have been sur- prised at the stress laid by friends who have accepted Home Rule 'upon what seemed to me the absurdity that England was bound in duty to disintegrate the United Kingdom and federalize its Constitution because it had " overtaxed Ireland in the past." Besides the absurdity, there was the notorious answer from fact, that not only now, but in the past also, " no tax," since the Union, "has been paid by persons who live in. Ireland which is not paid, up to the hilt, by all persons who live in England and Scotland."
How did our friends come to such an opinion ? I am told there is a Blue Book, containing the Report of a Commission or Com- mittee, which reported, in general terms, to that effect. Asking one of the old Liberals, now a Home Ruler, how, in a few words, such a conclusion could be made out he gave me an answer which, I think, deserves more consideration than I have yet seen given to it. In short, he was of opinion that in times past, and indeed at the present day, the poor pay more than they ought to pay in taxation, as compared with the rich; and as in Ireland the proportion of poor to rich is much greater than in England, it may of course follow that this economic injustice has had a larger effect in Ireland than hi England. Abstracting, therefore, all consideration. from the individual, and constituting of Ireland and England feminine personages, after the fashion of politicians, we may say Ireland has paid more in taxation, compared with England, than She. ought to have paid; and England, if She is just, ought to compensate Ireland for the wrong She has done to Her. Comment seems unnecessary. I remain a Unionist.—I am,
Previous page
