Those things cannot be done by an absentee Parliament. They can only be
done by a Parliament on the spot. They are intensely and earnestly
needed by Ireland at present. For Ireland is largely an industrial
derelict, waiting for the restoring hand of a central governing power.
It is impossible to put this aspect of the matter into figures. Here we
must move in faith. But we cannot see this matter clearly unless we
believe firmly--as we have every justification for believing--that Home
Rule means wealth to Ireland.
THE FINANCIAL COMMISSION
But we have to remember that since 1893 a great and authoritative
Financial Commission has reported that England stands in debt to
Ireland.
The British public has never quite realised what the Report of 1896
signified, or quite understood the effect which it produced on the
Irish nation. The Financial Relations Commission was a body created by
the Liberal Government in 1894, soon after the defeat of the Home Rule
Bill, and partly as a consequence of that defeat. It consisted of
fifteen of the ablest financiers in the United Kingdom, including two
great Treasury Chiefs, Lord Farrer and Lord Welby, Sir Robert Hamilton,
Sir David Barbour, and that great Parliamentary financial expert Mr.
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