if the need for
some such arrangement be certain, its desperate impolicy is no less
certain. England and Ireland, the English Government and the Irish
Government, are brought into direct hostile collision. The rich English
Government appears in the light of an imperious creditor the Irish
Government stands in the position of a poverty-stricken debtor. Note,
and this is the point which should be pressed home, that in all
confederations the difficulty of exacting the money needed by the
federal government from any state of the confederacy has been found all
but insuperable. Study the history of the thirteen American colonies
between the time of the acknowledgment of their independence by England
and the formation of the United States. This has been termed 'the
critical period' of American history. The colonies were united by
recollections of common suffering and of common triumph, they were not
divided by race or religion; no State aspired to separate nationality,
yet they drifted rapidly towards anarchy; they were discontented at
home, they were powerless abroad, above all, they nearly made shipwreck
on the financial arrangements. Congress was never able, for the
satisfaction either of national needs or of national honour, to obtain
fair contributions from the different States.[87]

Already, further, before the Home Rule Bill has passed from the hands of
the House of Commons Mr. Gladstone's very moderate demands, as they seem
to Englishmen, are held by some Irish Nationalists to be outrageous.[88]
The difference, moreover, is not a matter of calculation, to be settled
by accounts and balances, or disposed of by auditors. No one can read
the statements of Nationalists such as Mr. Redmond or Mr. Clancy without
seeing that the real difference of view lies very deep. These typical
Nationalists do not regard the United Kingdom as a nation. Ireland is
the nation. They doubt what is her interest in the British Empire; they
believe, and already hint, that the financial arrangements between the
two countries cannot be treated as a mere pecuniary transaction. Ireland
has been overtaxed and overburdened. She has claims for compensation.
All the feelings or convictions which inspired hatred of Irish landlords
are already being aroused with regard to the Imperial power. A campaign
against tribute may become as popular as a campaign against rent. The
two campaigns indeed have a close affinity; a large portion of the
tribute is in real