The New Irish Constitution Part 10

Public Works Loans granted before the pa.s.sing of the Home Rule Act will remain under the management of the Imperial Government. Future loans will be managed by the Irish Government.

The Irish Parliament will have power to raise loans on the security of the "transferred" revenue, sufficient provision being made for interest and sinking fund. If the Irish Government desires it, the Exchequer Board above-mentioned, may issue an Irish Loan, deducting the charge from the sum "transferred" to Ireland.

Such are the provisions of the Bill. It cannot be denied that they appear complicated, but they will be found less so in practice. The machinery of financial administration in a great State is necessarily complicated, and a radical change in that machinery involves a mult.i.tude of changes in detail for which the reforming Act must provide. Root and branch opponents of Home Rule naturally criticise those provisions, and exaggerate with _Ulster_ vehemence the administrative difficulties which attend radical change, but the advocates of great measures, while recognising difficulties can take juster views of their extent, and they know that they can be surmounted.

In the first place an expert body (the Exchequer Board) will interpret the financial provisions of the Act. It will consist of two members appointed by the Treasury and two by the Irish Government, and a chairman appointed by the Crown. Their decision is to be final. On these questions there is therefore no power reserved to the Imperial Government, which might cause friction. The Chairman should probably be a man of judicial rank. Possibly a case might arise in which a revision of the Board's decision would be needed. So far this important section of the machinery is not complicated.

In the next place the Imperial Government remains responsible and liable for all the "reserved" services. Here again there is no complication.

_Thirdly_, the Customs and Excise Clauses appear complicated, but they are for the most part machinery clauses, common to Revenue Acts. _Fourthly_, the Free Trade Clause offends of course the Unionist-Protectionist party, but its merits need not be discussed here. I venture to doubt where Ireland is likely to set up a Protectionist policy against Great Britain.

Our market is too important to her. If such a policy were established, history tells us that British Protectionists will not consult Irish interests. Lastly a certain, but not a great, inconvenience will attend the taking of an official record of goods pa.s.sing between the two countries essential to determining the true revenue of Ireland.

Thus the apparent complications of the Bill dwindle greatly on examination. The Bill of 1912 is no doubt much less simple than that of 1893 as introduced by Mr. Gladstone, but that Bill was not, however, so simple as it appeared. It was based on the principle of autonomy, but it retained great powers in Imperial hands. In fact it gave autonomy as far as autonomy was practicable. Circ.u.mstances have changed much since 1893, and the problem is now in some respects easier. The pivot and crux of Mr.

Gladstone's scheme, the Imperial contribution, has, for the time, disappeared.

Sir Henry Primrose's Committee adopted unanimously and unhesitatingly the principle of simplicity. They recommend that the power of imposing and levying all taxation in Ireland, subject to reservations on questions of trade and of foreign relations should rest with the Irish Government. They urge that that policy accords with the general policy of Home Rule, as removing causes of friction, as avoiding need for revision of the arrangement (excepting a future question as to an Imperial contribution), it terminates the extravagance inherent in the partnership, and makes the responsibility of the Irish Government for Irish administration complete.

The Committee examine the objections to the grant of complete power of taxation, viz., that (1) it would break up the fixed unity of the realm; (2) that it would impair facilities of trade between the two countries; (3) and that it is at variance with the principle of a Customs Union, said to be a feature common to federations.

On the first point the Committee reply:

(1) That in their view the Irish Government should have power to impose Customs duties only for the purpose of raising revenue, and that the Imperial Government should reserve questions of tariff, and foreign relations. Thus fiscal unity on important points would be maintained. For sixty years from the Union separate machinery existed for the collection of different rates of duty in the two countries. If Union could dispense with fiscal unity, _a fortiori_ can any less close form of a.s.sociation do so.

(2) The Committee do not attach importance to the second objection. The Custom House does not seriously trammel the convenience of traders between this country and the Continent, and it was found endurable when the variance between England and Ireland was more formidable than now.

(3) On the third objection the Committee argue that a Customs Union is indispensable, when the boundaries of federated states form a ring fence. It is not indispensable when, in a case like that of England and Ireland, the two countries are separated by sea.

These reserves diminish, of course, the severe simplicity of the scheme, and the Committee's answers to objections admit some inconvenience to trade, but a great change like that of Home Rule must have some drawbacks, and in the opinion of Home Rulers, the end to be gained far more than compensates for slight inconveniences which attend its execution. It is certain, moreover, that, whatever may be the measure adopted, it will be necessary to take means for ascertaining the "true" Revenue of Ireland, and to that extent there must be some slight interference with trade.

I agree with the Committee in their preference for the simplicity of complete autonomy.

Sir Henry Primrose and his colleagues agree to a great extent with a Minority Report of the Financial Relations Committee (1896), signed by Lord Farrer, Mr. Bertram Currie and myself. The advantages of complete autonomy are obvious, and I cannot avoid a regret that it has not been possible to adopt it. I note, however, that the greatest Irish authority on Irish Government, Lord Macdonnell, though in favour of Home Rule, is entirely opposed to the grant of fixed autonomy to Ireland.

We must not misunderstand the relations of the Committee to the Government. They were not appointed to draw a Home Rule Bill. They were to ascertain and consider the fiscal relations between Ireland and other parts of the United Kingdom as they exist to-day, paying special regard to the changes which have taken place in revenue and expenditure since 1896, the date of the Report of the Royal Commission; to distinguish between Irish Local Expenditure and Imperial Expenditure in Ireland; and to consider, in the event of Home Rule being established, how the revenue required to meet the necessary expenditure should be provided. The function of the Committee was, therefore, purely financial. They had to collect financial information, a necessary preliminary to a consideration of the Bill, and to advise as to the method of providing the revenue required. They had no mission to examine the political conditions which must be satisfied by a Bill designed to effect a Const.i.tutional Revolution. That was the function of the Cabinet. The Committee, limiting itself to its instructions, recommended the method of raising revenue which they thought wisest, independently of any but financial considerations. The Government consider the question from a wider point of view. Their measure must be founded on policy as well as finance. They do not adopt the Committee's recommendations. They decide to retain for a time, more or less indefinite, a closer relation between the two financial systems. Much as I should like greater simplicity, a study of their measure leads me to the conclusion that its provisions are, in the main, wise. Let us then consider how far the provisions of the actual Bill satisfy the conditions needed to insure the success of Home Rule.

In the first instance, and for an uncertain number of years, the Imperial Government keeps a tight hand upon the Irish Government. It reserves large powers enabling it to reject, postpone, or test the validity of Irish Bills. It regulates and levies all taxes, and fixes postal rates. It secures the interests of various cla.s.ses of public servants, and retains temporarily the police under its own control. It fixes Irish Local Expenditure at a certain sum, and it issues that sum yearly to the Irish Government together with a free gift of 500,000 a year for three years, falling gradually to a permanent gift of 200,000. _Normal_ increase of Irish Revenue is appropriated to reduce the deficit to be borne by the British Exchequer. If, therefore, the Irish Government increases its own expenditure beyond the fixed sum allotted to it, it must find the revenue required, and for that purpose powers of taxation are given to it.

The nursing hand of the mother is, in fact, present at every point of the Bill, but it must be remembered that a hostile step-mother may, at any time, replace the kindly mother.

There is no escape from the conclusion that these reservations restrict the autonomous power of the Irish Government. On the other hand, the whole spirit of the Bill marks the greater part of them as temporary. The Bill, in fact, confers autonomy by gradual steps, and holds out prospects that eventually the relations between the two countries will be simple and workable. At the outset, and for some time onward, the Irish Government, freed from liability for the costly "reserved" services which the "partnership" has bestowed or inflicted on Ireland, will occupy itself with the organisation of its own home administration. It starts with no previous experience of administration, and it is clearly desirable that it should proceed by steps, gathering experience as it goes. Its field of work at first should not be too wide, and six years is not too long a period for it to reform and reconst.i.tute its administrative organisation.

This is its first duty, and it undertakes it under favourable conditions.

In six years the constabulary will be transferred automatically from the charge of the Imperial Government to that of the Irish Government with the sum allotted to its support.(106) That sum will be increased by any saving which accrues to the British Exchequer from the transfer, and in determining that sum regard is to be had to the _prospect_ of any increase or decrease in the cost of the service, expected to arise from causes not being matters of administration.

In the next place, the Irish Parliament may, at any time, on twelve months' notice a.s.sume the legislative and executive control of three reserved services, viz., Old-age Pensions, National Insurance, and Labour Exchanges. If they are taken over, the sum transferred with them will be determined on the same principle as in the case of the constabulary.

Autonomy, therefore, in regard to these services is granted to the Irish Government, and they will only be retained under the control of the Imperial Government, if, and so long as the Irish Government desires it.

The Postmaster-General said in his speech on the introduction of the Bill that the old-age pension charge is now practically at its maximum, gradually diminishing, and the Primrose Committee (paragraph 54), estimate the charge at the time when the Bill becomes law at 3,000,000. The question then arises what will be the amount transferred, if the Irish Government, seeing its way to more economical administration, were to give at once the twelve months' notice and take over the service at the end of a year. It would not, I presume, be 2,664,000 the charge at which the Treasury in its "outline of financial provision" (paper 6154), estimated it in 1912-13, but 3,000,000, modified to some extent by the prospect of reduction.

The cost of National Insurance and Labour Exchanges is estimated by the Treasury in 1912-13 at 191,500, increasing by 300,000 in ten or fifteen years. If the Irish Government were in like manner to take them over, the amount transferred would, I presume, be 190,000 with a sum added representing the prospect of increase.

In the event then of those services being taken over by the Irish Government, they would considerably exceed their charges as estimated by the Treasury for 1912-13, and the excess would entail a corresponding increase of charge on the British taxpayer, to be counterbalanced gradually by the normal increase of Irish revenue, which the Postmaster-General estimates, with due reserve, at 200,000 a year, and by the gradual reduction (50,000 a year) of the free gift of the British taxpayer from 500,000 to 200,000.

It must be remembered that these increased charges on the British taxpayer are not the result of Home Rule, they are an inheritance from the "partnership."

When these services are transferred from the Imperial to the Irish Government, the Imperial Government will only retain control over the land purchase charges and the regulation and collection of taxes. The former will apparently remain permanently with the Imperial Government, involving an estimated increase of charge on the British taxpayers of 450,000 a year (Treasury Paper 6154). With regard to the latter, it is clearly desirable that at the outset the Imperial Government should be responsible for levying and collecting taxes. If difficulties on that subject should arise in parts of Ireland, the Imperial Government will settle them with an authority which the new Irish Government cannot possess. Clause 26, however, holds out a possibility hereafter of extended autonomy to Ireland. If for three years the revenue of Ireland exceeds the expenditure on Irish services by the Imperial and Irish Governments, the Parliament of the United Kingdom will revise the financial provisions of the Home Rule Act, with a view to securing a proper contribution from Irish revenues to Imperial expenditure, and extending the powers of the Irish Government _with respect to the __ imposition and collection of taxes_, and if extension were then granted in a liberal spirit, there would be little left to desire.

CONCLUSION

I have thus traced the gradual progress towards autonomy contemplated by the Act. It justifies the conclusion that the Government favours autonomy, but seeks to achieve that end gradually and tentatively. With the path thus marked out, it lies with the nation to pursue steadily and resolvedly the great end of reconciliation with Ireland.

It is impossible to consider Home Rule in its financial aspect, without casting a look backward and comparing the result which would have followed the grant of Home Rule in 1886 with the result which has followed its refusal. In the former case Ireland would have been reconciled long ago.

She would have been mistress in her own house, and it would have been her interest as well as her policy so to conduct her administration as to insure the success of her autonomy. She would have had full opportunity for reorganising her establishments on a reasonable scale, subst.i.tuting for an expensive military police an ordinary police, with a saving, as Mr.

Gladstone once pointed out, of 900,000 a year. She would have been able to maintain the reasonable contribution to Imperial expenditure which it is her duty as an integral part of the United Kingdom to provide. It would have been worth the while of Great Britain to make a great sacrifice at the outset to attain this solution of the Irish problem, and long before now the solution would have been complete.

The Conservative Party refused Home Rule. They have held power during sixteen out of the twenty-five years elapsed in the interval, and they have had full opportunity to try their alternative policy. That policy has not indeed been the twenty years of "resolute Government," a euphemism for coercion, advocated by Lord Salisbury. They have tried a policy of bribes and doles, with the result that the Imperial contribution of over 2,000,000 made in 1885 has been dissipated, and that Irish local expenditure alone shows now a deficit of 1,500,000 and a steadily increasing deficit. In short, a total burthen of between 3,500,000 and 4,000,000 has been inflicted on the British taxpayer. The Leader of the Conservatives has now announced with splendid audacity that if the "partnership" continues, if the Conservatives are allowed still to mis-rule Ireland, and to maintain the baleful spirit of ascendancy, they will endeavour to develop in every possible way the resources of Ireland.

That is to say, the policy of bribes and doles is to continue at the expense of the British taxpayer. Let the British taxpayer note that, and let him note also that the Conservative Party will find the ways and means for these bribes and doles not by taxes on the wealthy, but by taxes on the food of the people. Ireland will accept the doles; but she will not be satisfied. She will still clamour at our gates for Home Rule, as she has clamoured since 1886, and she will get Home Rule, but the burthen on the British taxpayer will be then how much greater than now?

Appendix

This Report of the Primrose Committee, the Treasury outline of financial provisions, and the speech of the Postmaster-General on the introduction of the Bill offer some vague estimates, perhaps more properly guesses, of Irish finance, one of which, Old-age Pensions, extends to twenty years. It may be interesting to throw these figures together, not (G.o.d forbid) as an estimate, but as ill.u.s.trating opinion prevalent among the experts engaged in the preparation of the Bill.

Income: Estimate for the year 1912-1913 10,839,000 _Add_ free gift of 500,000 to be reduced in nine years to 200,000 The Postmaster-General's Estimate of 200,000 normal yearly increase of revenue in twenty years 4,000,000 Income in twenty years (round figures) 15,000,000

Expenditure: Sum transferred to Ireland 1912-1913 5,462,000 Post Office, 1912-1913 1,600,000 Old-age pensions (Treasury Paper) 2,800,000 Land purchase (761,000 in 1912-1913 increased by 450,000) 1,211,000 Insurance 191,500 in 1912-1913 increased by 300,000 491,500 (Say) 11,564,500-11,600,000

Balance available for Constabulary, collection of Revenue, Imperial contribution and Irish services.

It must be recollected that the Irish Government has to provide for increase of Irish services beyond 5,462,000 by taxation.

VI.-The Judiciary, The Police, And The Maintenance Of Law And Order. BY THOMAS F. MOLONY, K.C., HIS MAJESTY'S SECOND SERJEANT-AT-LAW, CROWN COUNSEL FOR DUBLIN.

(1) _The Judiciary_

The Supreme Court of Judicature in Ireland is at present const.i.tuted as follows: The Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice, the Master of the Rolls, the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, two Lords Justices of Appeal, two Judges of the Chancery Division and six Puisne Judges of the King's Bench Division. On the occurrence of the next vacancy in the office of Lord Chief Baron the office is to be abolished and a Puisne Judge appointed instead. Since the year 1897, six judgeships have been abolished in Ireland, and a large saving thereby effected. The duties formerly discharged by the Probate and Matrimonial Judge, the Admiralty Judge and the two Bankruptcy Judges have been transferred to the King's Bench Division and the number of the Puisne Judges of the King's Bench Division has been reduced by two.(107) With every desire for economy it is believed that the Supreme Court Bench cannot be further reduced without interfering with the efficiency of the public service. The Lord Chancellor of Ireland is appointed by having the Great Seal delivered to him by the Crown, and all the other Judges are appointed by His Majesty by Letters Patent. There are also in Ireland five Recorders and sixteen County Court Judges, who are appointed by the Lord-Lieutenant. The County Court Judges in Ireland are also Chairmen of the Quarter Sessions of their respective counties. No Judge of the Supreme Court or of the County Court can be removed from his office except upon the address of both Houses of Parliament. Under the Home Rule Bill the position of existing judges is to remain unchanged, and future judges are to be appointed by the Irish Executive, and can only be removed by a joint address of both Houses of the Irish Parliament which gives them the same independence that the existing Judges now enjoy. Under the Bill of 1893, the Imperial Executive was to have the appointment of Judges for six years after the pa.s.sing of the Act, but there seems to be no justification for the suspensory period and it has been wisely dropped from the present measure. The Irish Executive will not be "irresponsible and inexperienced" as Mr. J. H. Campbell says in "Against Home Rule-The Case for the Union" (page 54), but will be composed of men who for many years have served in the Imperial Parliament, and are well qualified from their ability and experience to at once take up the reins of Government.

(2) _The Police_

There are two distinct police forces in Ireland. The Dublin Metropolitan force(108) has jurisdiction over the Dublin Metropolitan District, which includes the whole of the City of Dublin and portion of the County. It consists of 2 Commissioners, 7 Superintendents, 25 Inspectors, 187 Sergeants and 1,060 Constables, and costs 154,181 per annum.(109) Portion of the cost is met by a police tax of 8d. in the on the rateable value of the district, but a substantial balance-in the present year amounting to 96,466-is borne by the Treasury. The Royal Irish Constabulary(110) has jurisdiction over the rest of Ireland, including Belfast. It consists of 1 Inspector-General, 1 Deputy Inspector-General, 3 a.s.sistant Inspectors-General, 37 County Inspectors, 195 District Inspectors, 235 Head Constables, 2,068 Sergeants and 8,182 Constables. It costs 1,413,069 per annum, the whole of which is borne by the Treasury.(111) There is a fundamental difference between the two forces. The Dublin force has been founded on the model of the London Metropolitan Police, and is essentially a civilian force. It is admirably trained in police duties, and has always discharged its duty to the satisfaction of the citizens. The Royal Irish Constabulary is drilled and trained in the use of the revolver, rifle, and sword in the same manner as are the armed forces of the Crown, and is in every essential a military organization. There is a reserve force always kept at the Depot in the Phnix Park which at a moment's notice is available for service in any part of Ireland. The Bill proposes that the control of the Dublin Metropolitan Police be transferred immediately to the Irish Executive, but that the Royal Irish Constabulary shall remain under Imperial control for six years. An Irish Executive which could not control the police force of its own metropolis would be in a ridiculous position, and no believer in self-government can object to the immediate transfer of the Dublin force to the Irish Executive, and indeed, many think that the same course ought to be adopted with regard to the Royal Irish Constabulary. It has for a long period, been a constant source of complaint that the numbers of the Royal Irish Constabulary, and its consequent cost, are entirely out of proportion to the wants of the country. It was created in a time of agrarian disturbance which has long since pa.s.sed away, and now that Ireland has been for many years far more free from serious crime than either England or Scotland, it is absurd that in Ireland it should cost 6s. 8d. per head of the population for police, while an equally efficient force can be provided, in England for 3s. 4d.