when wages ran from 8s. to 9s. a week. What is recalled with horror in
England as the state of affairs in the "hungry forties" is the present
condition in several of the Irish counties. It would be idle to multiply
proofs to show the desperate condition of the country. Even in the ten
years which have elapsed since the issue of the Report of the Royal
Commission the taxation of the country has increased by more than two
and a half million pounds, while the population, it is estimated, has in
the same period diminished by no less than 200,000. On the assumption
arrived at by the Commissioners, that the proper share which Ireland
should pay was one-twentieth of the contribution of Great Britain, the
country was overtaxed ten years ago to the extent of two and
three-quarter millions; yet in spite of that fact in the course of those
ten years two millions of additional taxation has been imposed. Two
years ago the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in answer to an inquiry,
announced to the House of Commons that in the year 1903-4, the latest
for which figures were available, the proportions of tax revenue derived
from direct and indirect taxes were:--

Great Britain Ireland
Direct Taxes 50.6 per cent. 27.8 per cent.
Indirect Taxes 49.4 per cent. 72.2 per cent.

These figures show very clearly to what an extent in Ireland taxation
falls, not on the luxuries of the rich, but on the commodities which are
to a great extent the necessaries of the poor. The manner in which this
state of things is maintained was expressed by Sir Robert Giffen in his
evidence before the Royal Commission:--

"It is only evident that in matters of taxation Ireland is virtually
discriminated against by the character of the direct taxes which happen