Lord St. Aldwyn resumed the debate on Wednesday with a
long and damaging criticism of the financial proposals of the Bill. Nothing was done to place the Irish Government in a position of self-reliance; Ireland did not contribute to Imperial expenditure; it was certain that her own expenditure would rise, and probable that her revenue would fall. The Government had disregarded the report of the Government Committee which advocated the principle that the same authority which had the spending of revenue should also bear the burden of it. Under the proposed arrangement the Irish Government, so far from being induced to effect economies, would be directly tempted never to effect them. Lord Haldane followed in a mood of the suavest optimism. He dwelt on the intense constancy of the demand of four-fifths of the Irish representatives for Home Rule, and pronounced the exclusion of Ulster to be impracticable. The Bill, he maintained, gave true devolution, and the retention of the Irish members at Westminster was necessary to give reality to the claim of the British Parliament to be an Imperial Parliament.
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