and non-importation agreements, maintaining that a war of tariffs between England and Ireland would provoke political dangers that would far outweigh any possible commercial advantages. The House of Commons by large majorities rejected the resolutions in favour of protective duties, but they were defended by powerful arguments and had much support in the country. Something, however, it was felt must be done, and the Irish House took the initiative in proposing it. An address to the King was voted in May 1784 in which, after warm protestations of loyalty and gratitude, the House expressed a hope that a well-digested plan for a liberal arrangement of commercial intercourse between Great Britain and Ireland might be brought forward as speedily as possible, and expressed their opinion that such a plan, formed upon the broad basis of reciprocal advantage, would greatly strengthen the union between the countries.

It was thus in full accordance with the Irish Parliament that Pitt resolved to introduce his commercial propositions. He acted with great deliberation, and after much confidential communication with the Irish Government. The difficulties to be met were of two kinds. As Pitt intended to open to Ireland the great benefit of the English market, and to secure Ireland for all future time from the restrictive trade laws which had been so injurious to her in the past, he justly urged that she might be reasonably expected to make 'some fixed mode of contribution in proportion to her growing means to the general expenses.' His object, he said, was to make England and Ireland one country in effect, though for local concerns under distinct legislatures, one in communication of advantages, and of course in the participation of burdens.' It is true that Ireland already supported an army of 15,000 men, 3,000 of whom were at the disposal of the British Executive, while the

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remainder could be moved from Ireland with the assent of the Irish Parliament; but she contributed nothing to the navy which protected her shores and her commerce, and the Irish Parliament might at any time reduce its military establishment and alter its conditions. What was needed was that the contribution of Ireland should be placed beyond the fluctuations of Irish parties and politics; that it should be under the complete control of the Supreme Executive of the Empire, and that it should be framed in such a manner as to rise and fall in proportion to the increase or diminution of Irish wealth. Considering that a free trade with England would certainly add largely to the wealth of Ireland, such a demand seemed very reasonable, and it would incalculably strengthen and consolidate the Empire.

The Irish Government admitted this, but they urged that there were great difficulties to be apprehended. Beyond all things the Irish Parliament was sensitive to any encroachment on its independence, and if the contribution could be represented as a tribute paid by Ireland to England it would never pass. The war of the American revolution had specially turned on a question of this nature, and it had created a public opinion which looked with extreme jealousy on any contribution that did not depend on the legislation of the country that paid it. When Lord North had thrown open to Ireland the plantation trade, no such stipulations had been annexed to it, and the rejection of the Irish Reform Bill and the refusal of protective duties had made Irish opinion at this time peculiarly suspicious and irritable.

The other great difficulty to be encountered was the protectionist spirit. The necessity for laws protecting native industry against foreign competition had long been accepted almost as an axiom both in England and on the

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Continent, and it was under this system that the great English industries had grown up. The new scheme would for ever prevent Ireland from protecting her nascent industries by such laws, and in the opinion of some important Irish economists would secure for ever the monopoly of English capitalists in her market. In England, however, the dread of free trade was still stronger. The broad current of economical opinion was in favour of monopolies, and Pitt and Adam Smith were on these questions far in advance of their time. English manufacturers greatly feared that Ireland might become a most formidable competitor in the English market. She was, it is true, far inferior in capital, in skill, and probably in industry, but she had the advantage of much cheaper labour, and her industry was burdened by much lower taxes.

Pitt very skilfully met the first difficulty by throwing the contribution of Ireland on the hereditary revenue, and by devoting it to the support of the navy. It had always been an Irish grievance that the hereditary revenue was not under the control of the Parliament, but entrusted to the general direction of the Crown. By providing that when it rose beyond a certain point the surplus should be always applied to the navy, the Irish Parliament would obtain an assurance that all future increase in this revenue would be applied to a purpose in which Ireland had a real and great interest, for the navy would always be necessary to protect her coast and commerce. The arrangement was also peculiarly just, as the hereditary revenue consisted mainly of customs and excise duties, which is not only a form of revenue that most accurately measures the wealth of the country, but is also that which would be most promptly and directly affected by extensions of trade. The precise line beyond which the hereditary revenue was to be allocated

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to the navy was not at first determined, but it was ultimately settled at a sum slightly higher than what the hereditary revenue at present produced. The payment to the navy therefore depended upon the increase of that revenue. 'If Ireland does not grow richer and more populous,' Pitt wrote, 'she will by this scheme contribute nothing. If she does grow richer by the participation of our trade, surely she ought to contribute, and the measure of that contribution cannot with equal justice be fixed in any other proportion.' As the whole arrangement was only to take place with the assent of the Irish Parliament, it seemed difficult to raise any constitutional grievance out of it.

The commercial benefits were to be granted with a most liberal hand. Lord North had already given Ireland full rights of direct trade with the plantations, and Pitt proposed to extend this liberty of trading to foreign and colonial goods carried through England, and to establish complete reciprocity of trade between England and Ireland. All Irish goods might be imported into England and all English goods into Ireland either freely or on duties that were the same in either country. When the duties in the two countries were unequal they were to be equalised by reducing the higher duty to the level of the lower; except in a few specified cases, there were to be no new duties on importations or bounties on exportations, and each country bound itself to give a preference in its markets to the goods of the other over the same goods exported from abroad.

This scheme was a large and enlightened plan for binding the interests of the two nations indissolubly together, and if it had been carried out there can be but little doubt that it would have added greatly to the prosperity of Ireland. When it was laid before Grattan, he at first

hesitated about the compulsory contribution, urging that if the prosperity of Ireland very largely increased, the surplus of hereditary revenue might rise to an inordinate sum, and that it would be better to leave the contribution of Ireland to the navy to the independent action of the Irish Parliament. This objection, however, he consented to waive, but he insisted on one modification which, after some discussion and with some reluctance, the Government consented to accept. It was that in time of peace the contribution of Ireland should only come into force when the expenditure of Ireland did not exceed its revenue. In this manner he provided the most efficient check to the growing extravagance which had lately been displayed, and to the too frequent loans that grew out of it. The Lord Lieutenant fully justified this modification, which appears to have been also supported by the principal men in the Irish Government. When the nation,' wrote Rutland, instead of applying the redundancy of its revenues to the discharge of its incumbrances, agrees to appropriate that redundancy to the general expenses of the Empire, it cannot be thought unjust that it should at the same time restrain the Government from running into debt.'

The scheme was carried, in the form of resolutions, through the Irish House with no difficulty and by overwhelming majorities. Flood, it is true, censured it both on the ground of the contribution and still more on the ground that it shut the door against a protectionist policy; and there were some petitions in that sense from the manufacturers, but on the whole the welcome accorded to Pitt's scheme in the Irish Commons was unmistakable. Grattan cordially supported it; and in order that the provision limiting the contribution of Ireland in time of peace to years when there was a surplus in the Exchequer should not be regarded as an attempt to evade contribution,