Again, during the long discussion on financial relations, much time has been wasted in criticising that provision of the Act of Union, which fixed the respective contributions of Great Britain and Ireland to the common purposes of the Empire at the proportion of fifteen and two. That proportion, in fact, was not exacted, and it may be put aside as theoretical. A summary of recent financial history in Ireland will enable the reader to understand the circumstances in which Parliament takes up the problem of Home Rule. Towards the close of the eighteenth century the condition of Ireland was bad. England, selfish to the last degree in her commercial policy, treated Ireland as little better than a conquered country, and ruined her commercially and industrially by restrictions on her trade. Protestants and Catholics joined in patriotic resistance, and wrung at last freedom of trade in 1779, and an independent Parliament in 1782. Thenceforward for a time the financial administration of Ireland was regulated in accord with Irish interest. The country prospered financially under the new order. Large sums were spent in promoting agriculture and manufactures, and in grants for public works, and the country’s finance was restored to order. During the years of peace, 1782 to 1793, Ireland contributed on the average £584,000 to military—that is to the common expenses of the Empire. The military expenditure of Great Britain in the peace years, 1786 to 1792, averaged £5,142,000. Ireland was then a most important factor in the State, for the population was to that of England in the proportion of nearly one to two. Pitt desired to establish reciprocity between the two countries and at the same time to obtain from Ireland a contribution on a fixed principle for the Navy, wise proposals worthy of the Minister; but the two Parliaments could not agree. That of England bowed to the pernicious claims of ascendancy and to the supposed interests of the commercial classes. Pitt was defeated. The French Revolution and a war lasting nearly twenty-two years followed, and in the midst of the war broke out the Rebellion of 1798. If the charge of the Irish debt at the outbreak of the war and the average civil expenditure of Ireland between 1793 and the Union is deducted from the average income of Ireland, the surplus constituted Ireland’s real contribution to the common expenditure and it averaged about £900,000 a year. The year 1800 marks a great change of policy. Pitt put an end to the independent Parliament of Ireland and passed the Act of Union, bad in itself, and worse by the means which made it law. It sought to make the two countries one for all purposes of revenue, and that object was kept steadily in view.