not justified by the then existing circumstances."

And they added the opinion "that identity of rates of taxation does not
necessarily involve equality of burden."

Their answers, so far as they were complete, to the other inquiries
contained in Question No. 3 about the tax revenue of Ireland and the
net contribution of Ireland in the past to Imperial services, are to be
found in figures included in the body of the Report, and these figures
formed, of course, the basis of their unanimous conclusion as to the
over-taxation of Ireland.

These figures, to which I have often alluded in this volume, necessitate
a short digression, because they and subsequent Returns of the same sort
form the only official data upon which to estimate the present financial
position of Ireland.

They were extracted partly from annual Returns originally issued by the
Treasury for the Home Rule Bill of 1893, and entitled "Financial
Relations (England, Scotland, and Ireland)," and partly from a new
document known as the "Pease" Return, No. 313 of 1894. These Returns,
taken together, represented the first serious attempt by the Treasury to
construct an account covering a period from 1819-20 to 1890-91, and
showing (_a_) the exact revenue derived from Ireland and Great Britain
respectively; (_b_) the local expenditure in Ireland and Great Britain
respectively, as distinguished from Imperial expenditure incurred for
the benefit of the whole United Kingdom; (_c_) the net contribution of
Ireland and Great Britain respectively to this latter expenditure for
Imperial services only.

Since 1894 two regular annual Returns have been compiled, the one
showing the revenue, local expenditure, and net Imperial contribution of
Scotland, Ireland, and England (including Wales), the other giving an
historical summary of similar figures for Great Britain and Ireland
only, from 1819-20 to the current date.

Two insoluble problems have had to be grappled with by the Treasury in
preparing these Returns: first, to differentiate Imperial expenditure
from local expenditure; second, to arrive at the "true" net revenue of
the partners as distinguished from the revenue collected within their
respective limits. Both these problems arise whenever an attempt is made
to look behind a system of unitary finance into the burdens and
contributions of different portions of a united realm, and the latter,
though not the former, of the two may arise in just as acute a form if