Irish interests, Agricultural and Industrial, can be far
better promoted, furthered, and secured under a scientific tariff
system than under the so-called free trade system, which insists on
the fallacy that identity of imposts means equality of burden, and
concentrates its pressure on the great Irish industries of brewing,
distillery, and tobacco manufacturing; a system which taxes heavily
tea--the great article of consumption--and has brought peculiar
disaster on agriculture. Therefore, the remedy which Mr. Childers
thought impracticable in 1896 will become eminently practicable
with a Tariff Reform Ministry in power.
(2) The second suggestion then made was that there should be a
policy of distinct customs and excise for Ireland as apart from
Great Britain. This would involve a customs barrier between the two
islands. The inconvenience of such a course would be immeasurable
and disastrous under modern conditions. It would certainly come
sooner or later under Home Rule, but it would be a reversal of the
policy of the Union.
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