MR. GIFFEN : HIS SERVICES AND OPINIONS.
[TO THE EDITOR or THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I cordially sympathise with what you say (in the Spectator of November 24th) of Mr. Giffen's services to the State, and their scanty recognition by successive Adminis- trations. If the practice prevailed of sending to the Upper Chamber men whose experience and capacity fitted them to sit in a Court of Appeal framed to determine public questions on their merits, where could there be found an officer fitter to become a life Peer than Mr. Giffen P
But to my mind, the neglect of hie merits is a leas serious injustice than the neglect of his advice. This experienced financier, who gives the community, as you justly say, light upon the weightiest subjects on which they require informa- tion, has declared that in latter years Ireland has contributed twice her proper share to the Imperial Exchequer. " Ireland," he says, " while constituting only about a twentieth part of the United Kingdom in resources, nevertheless pays a tenth or eleventh of the taxes. Ireland ought to pay about £3,500,000; she pays nearly £7,000,000." Another financial critic commenting on Mr. Giffen, adds that "Ireland, the poorest country in Europe, pays into the Imperial Exchequer one sixth of her annual income, while Great Britain, the richest country in the world, pays just one twelfth." England is rich enough to pay her just debts, and honest enough, I trust, to desire to pay them. When the head of the statistical department, a man altogether apart from politics, utters a judgment like this, ought it not to bear practical fruits ? Is it just that Ireland should continue to bear double her share of the public burden of the Empire; and if it be not just, who will give her relief ? I do not see any proposal to this effect among the competing programmes of gentlemen ambitions to rule the State. May I venture to inquire what the Spectator considers fitting to be done with
the deliberate opinion of an expert lik e Mr. G‘ifen, who is bead of the department entitled to solve such financial pro- blems P-1 am, Sir, &c., Villa °winery, Nice, November 26th. C. CAVAN DUFFY. [Would not a similar calculation show that Cornwall or Merioneth paid too mach P--ED. Spectator.]
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