Meanwhile, even amidst the hurly-burly of Irish politics, Irishmen of all parties have united in a demand for redress; and if the demand is not pressed with extreme vehemence, it is sustained by all that is best in Irish opinion. It is obviously unwise, and it may become dangerous, to continue to ignore such a claim; in any event the financial relations of the Three Kingdoms are not the least important of 'Present Irish Questions;' I shall briefly examine it in this chapter. It is unnecessary to dwell on the financial relations of Great Britain and Ireland before 1782 and the Union. England held the position of an absolutely dominant State before 1782, Ireland that of a conquered and despised colony; Ireland was under the control of the British Parliament, and was governed by English officials supreme at the Castle. Ireland was excluded from the foreign and colonial trade of Great Britain; her agriculture and manufactures were half destroyed by the selfish jealousy and greed of her imperious neighbour. She contributed, on the other hand, nothing to the treasury of the ruling power; she had little or no part in British wars, or in building up the edifice of the Empire, except through her soldiers in the British army; she was free from British debt and from British taxation. In these circumstances, grievous as was the incubus of Protestant ascendency upon the land, it is remarkable what material progress she made; her Parliament, though little more than a local vestry, unquestionably promoted her material welfare; she was very lightly taxed, and was free from debt for many years. She was still so completely distinct from Great Britain, that it was not until 1769 that her Parliament agreed that 15,000 men, of whom 12,000 were to remain in Ireland, should be enrolled for the defence of the State; before that time, she was only obliged to maintain a small British force within her borders. After a partial relaxation of the restraints on her commerce caused by the stress of the American War, and by the famous volunteer movement, Ireland obtained legislative independence in 1782; she ceased to be subject to the British Parliament, and to fill the position of a degraded colony; she became, in theory at least, an independent State in many respects. Her Parliament was all but sovereign in name; Ireland was now united to Great Britain only by the link of the Crown; by an executive always despatched from Downing Street; and, it must be added, by the corruption of her Houses of Lords and Commons. She was thus more than ever a distinct country; in fact, most British statesmen had soon perceived that the celebrated settlement of 1782 greatly weakened her old connection with England. She advanced, however, markedly in prosperity for many years, until the French Revolution arrested this; her debt was little more than L2,000,000 for a long time, her taxation only about L1,000,000. But by the close of the eighteenth century these figures had been disastrously