tion to the
estimated relative taxable capacities, the additional charges on the
Irish Exchequer would amount to not less than about L4,000,000 on the
1910-11 figures if the taxable capacity of Ireland be taken at
one-twenty-fifth, and to nearly L3,500,000 if it be taken at
one-thirtieth.

It may be worth while here to refer to the amazing statement that Great
Britain has made a large "profit out of the Union." At the last meeting
of the British Association, Prof. Oldham affected to prove that Ireland
"in the course of one hundred years ... had sent across the Channel as
her contribution to the British Exchequer a clear net payment of about
330 millions sterling." The same contention has been urged by Lord
MacDonnell. This calculation ignores the fact that even the Irish
Parliament between 1782 and 1800 acknowledged its obligation to
contribute to Imperial services, and voted contributions for Imperial
purposes, besides raising and maintaining in Ireland a force of 12,000
to 15,000 men, some of whom were available for foreign service. It makes
no allowance also for the debt which Ireland brought into the Union
when the Exchequers were amalgamated in 1817. The importance of the last
item may be judged from the fact that if the whole of the so-called
contribution to Imperial services, _i.e._ the excess of true revenue
over local expenditure, had been employed since 1817 in paying interest
at 3 per cent. on the old Irish debt and the whole of any balance
remaining after payment of interest had been used for redemption of the
capital, this debt would only have been extinguished in 1886. If a
contribution of only 1 per cent. to the cost of Imperial services had
been previously charged against this excess, there would be a large
balance of the Irish debt still outstanding. As a matter of fact, in the
same period that Ireland is said to have contributed L330,000,000, Great
Britain may be shown by a precisely similar calculation to have
contributed no less than L5,800,000,000 for Imperial purposes. The
measure of "injustice to Ireland" meted out by unsympathetic Britons in
respect to the Imperial contribution extracted from Ireland may be seen
from the following comparison for different dates in the last century.

RATIOS OF POPULATIONS AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO IMPERIAL SERVICES
OF IRELAND AND GREAT BRITAIN AT DECENNIAL INTERVALS.

Ratio of British to Ratio of British to
Irish Popul