In 1890 Mr. Goschen, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the Conservative Government, moved for a Committee of the House of Commons to consider the financial relations of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The Committee was instructed to inquire into the equity of their financial relations in regard to the resources and population of the three kingdoms. It had hitherto been much discussed whether Ireland could be regarded as a separate financial entity from the rest of the kingdom. The Irish Taxation Committee of 1864, of which Sir Stafford Northcote and Mr. Lowe were prominent members, had refused to admit the principle of such separate entity, and that had been generally the Conservative contention. But, in the reference to the Committee of 1890, the Conservative Government accepted the principle. The Home Rule Bills of 1886 and 1893 were, of course, based upon it. Thus, 1890 marks an important advance in the discussion, and thenceforward, by consent of both parties, the separate “entity” was established. After the rejection of the second Home Rule Bill the Liberal Government appointed a Royal Commission to inquire into the financial relations of the two countries and their relative taxable capacity. The Report of this Commission deserves attention, because it was exhaustive in its inquiries, because the information it laid before the public has since that time been generally used in discussion, and because many of the recommendations made were far-reaching and suggestive. There was, as might be expected, great difference of opinion. The Conservative members and the Nationalist members made their several Reports. Attention, however, may be directed to one of the Reports, because it received the concurrence of the Nationalist members and of three English members—one of whom was a very high, if not the highest, financial authority in the City of London, the two others retired Civil Servants who had been at the head of two great Departments of the State. Their conclusions were as follows: “(1) That Great Britain and Ireland must, for the purpose of this inquiry, be considered as separate entities. “(2) That the Act of Union imposed upon Ireland a burthen which, as events showed, she was unable to bear. “(3) That the increase of taxation laid upon Ireland between 1853 and 1860 was not justified by the then existing circumstances. “(4) That identity of rates of taxation does not necessarily involve equality of burthen. “(5) That whilst the actual tax revenue of Ireland is about one-eleventh of that of Great Britain, the relative taxable capacity of Ireland is very much smaller, and is not estimated by any of us as exceeding one-twentieth.”