ossible point, was unable to pay her
contribution without contracting a Debt colossal in proportion to her
resources. While Great Britain only doubled her Debt, and paid 71 per
cent. of her expenses out of current taxation, the Irish Debt
quadrupled, and in 1817 reached the portentous total of L112,634,773;
while only 49 per cent. of Irish expenditure was paid for out of
revenue. Here is a little table which shows the effect upon Ireland of
Clause 7 of the Act of Union:

Five Years. Average Average
Revenue. Expenditure.
L L
{ 1785-1790 1,246,000 1,247,000
Before Union ---{ 1790-1795 1,340,000 1,646,000
{ 1795-1800 2,100,000 4,601,000

{ 1801-1806 3,643,000 7,270,000
After Union ---{ 1806-1811 4,885,000 9,061,000
{ 1811-1816 5,927,424 13,188,000

The scandal could no longer be overlooked. It was impossible to raise
the Irish taxes. Their yield was already showing signs of diminishing.
But the Act of Union had provided for the situation which had arisen.
One of the sections of the famous Clause 7 enacted that if and when the
separate Debts of the two countries should reach the proportion of their
respective Imperial contributions, Parliament might, if it thought fit,
declare that all future expenses of the United Kingdom should be
defrayed indiscriminately by equal taxes imposed on the same articles in
both countries, "_subject only to such exemptions and abatements in
favour of Ireland as circumstances may appear from time to time to
demand_." The framers of this section had anticipated that the English
Debt would sink to the level of the Irish Debt. Anglo-Irish finance
teems with grim jokes of this sort; but the section was useful in either
event. With its terms before them, a Committee sat to consider the state
of Ireland, with the result that, by an Act which came into operation on
January 5, 1817, the Exchequers, Debts, revenues, and expenditures, but
not as yet the taxes, of the two countries were amalgamated. In
Professor Oldham's words,[100] "the corpse of Ireland's insolvency was
huddled into the grave, and no questions were to be asked." The whole
expenditure, Imperial and loc