Contribution from Ireland to Great Britain £3,602,000 Grants from Great Britain to Ireland: Duties paid in Ireland on goods consumed in Great Britain £1,400,000 Grant toward the Constabulary £500,000 Total: £1,900,000 Net contribution from Ireland to Imperial purposes (or nearly in the proportion of 2 to 60) £1,702,000 If the Imperial contribution _actually_ paid by Ireland in 1885 be equated on like principle, the proportion stated above at 2 to 23 will be similarly reduced. The Bill was defeated in the House of Commons, and therefore its provisions did not undergo the test of scrutiny in Committee. The provisions of this Bill illustrate the difficulties which attend the financial severance of the Irish from the British Government. High authorities thought at the time that Mr. Gladstone, in 1886, should have proceeded in the first instance by way of Resolutions establishing the principles upon which the Bill would be subsequently founded, and there is much to be said for that view. The main principles of the measure would have been established in the first instance after free and full discussion, and the details would have been adapted later to the principles then laid down. Mr. Gladstone himself, in his reply upon the Second Reading (June 7th, 1886,) indicated a course somewhat similar in its result. He said: “If an interval is granted us, and the circumstances of the present session require the withdrawal of the Bill, and it is to be re-introduced with amendment at an early date in the autumn, it is our duty to amend the Bill with every real amendment and improvement, and with whatever is calculated to make it more effective and more acceptable for the attainment of its end.” It must be remembered that there had been no sufficient time for the collection of the data on which an effective measure could be founded, and the collection of those data was a task of great difficulty, for the Departments did not possess them. The Government came into power in February, and the Bill was introduced on April 6th; thus there was no real opportunity for testing the value of the data collected in that short interval, or for gauging beforehand objections both to the principles and details of the scheme adopted, and experience proved that some of the objections were valid, though probably not insurmountable. The scheme was based on two principles which would be especially liable to criticism: (1) For thirty years Ireland was to contribute to Imperial charges as they then existed a fixed annual sum. (2) The Customs and Excise duties as _collected_ in Ireland (_i.e._, not the “true” revenue) were to be credited to the Irish Government.