with the poorest is a sight to give pause, while Great Britain's
insistence upon her pound of flesh is the more unpardonable because
Ireland declares that it is not in the bond. That the highest estimate
of the taxable capacity of Ireland arrived at by the Commissioners was
one-twentieth, while the actual revenue contribution of Ireland was
one-eleventh of the total for the United Kingdom, throws much light upon
the social conditions of the smaller island. The rate of taxation per
head per annum went up in the second half of the nineteenth century more
than 250 per cent.--rising from about £1 in 1850 to more than £2 10s. in
1900. This occurred simultaneously with a diminution of population in
the same period from seven millions to four and a half millions, a
change which is in glaring contrast with the concurrent increase in
Great Britain from twenty millions in 1850 to more than thirty-eight
millions at the present day. Whatever may be the other causes which have
led to the stream of emigration from Ireland it may certainly be claimed
that not least among them is the ever-increasing incidence of taxation
which is year by year laying a greater burden upon the privilege of
living in that country.

A recent Report, issued by the Labour Department of the Board of Trade,
gives statistics with reference to the earnings of agricultural
labourers throughout the three kingdoms. It concludes that on an average
a labourer in England obtains 18s. 3d. a week, in Wales 17s. 3d., in
Scotland 19s. 3d., and in Ireland 10s. 11d. It may be noted that in no
English county is the average lower than 14s. 6d., while in Ireland in
seven counties it is less than 10s., Mayo being the lowest with an
average wage of 8s. 9d. The present writer has had occasion in the
course of the last few months to hear old men on political platforms in
a typical English agricultural constituency pointing a moral from their
own or their fathers' recollections of the days before the Corn Laws