vindicated on these very laudable principles; but on this matter of the taxation of Irish whiskey I shall confine myself to a single remark. Reverse the cases of England and Ireland with respect to the imposts on beer and on whiskey; tax beer very heavily and whiskey very lightly; and what would Englishmen say of an argument that has been thought good enough for Irishmen; how long would a Government exist that would try to carry out such a policy? In truth, this reasoning, if it can be so called, is the worst kind of sophistry: the frank brutality of the Roman proconsul, who told the population of a subject province that they must endure their burdens as they would endure the rain and the tempest, is less censurable, to my mind at least, than this compound of absurd and offensive insolence. Another argument, really of no greater value, has had many supporters in the House of Commons. True it is, it is admitted, that, compared with Great Britain, Ireland has been hardly treated in finance; but this is because she is a poor country, and a poor country must suffer from taxation, fair as it may be, more than a wealthy country. But the same inequality is seen in England: Dorset and Wiltshire are more heavily burdened than Yorkshire and Lancashire, yet Dorset and Wiltshire make no complaints as Ireland does. This argument, however, ignores history, and sets the Treaty of Union at nought; Dorset and Wiltshire are mere fractions of England; Ireland has always been financially a distinct country, entitled to separate financial rights; and this has been recognised by the ablest British statesmen, notably, of late years, by Mr. Goschen, and by Mr. Gladstone. This reasoning, in a word, assumes that Ireland is merely an aggregate of British counties; but this has never been her true financial position; it is easy to sneer at the phrase 'separate entity' by which she has been called, that is, a land, financially, apart from Great Britain, but sneers cannot get the better of facts. These statements of distinguished English experts are unquestionable in view of the record of history. Lord Farrer has remarked: 'It is abundantly clear that of the two conflicting theories--viz. the one which regards Great Britain and Ireland as one country for the purpose of taxation and expenditure, and the other which regards Great Britain and Ireland as separate partners--the second is the one upon which our instructions are founded; the one which has the greatest support in history, and the one upon which all parties in Parliament have recently acted.'[172] And Mr. Childers completely concurs: 'If apart from the reference, it is asked why a distinction should be taken between Great Britain and Ireland any more than between Kent and Yorkshire, the answer is that Ireland entered into a partnership with Great Britain under a formal Treaty of Union, which did, to a certain extent, by the recognition of the claim of Ireland to abatements and exemptions, if circumstances