Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/851

* IRELAND. IRELAND. dom. In the union with Great Britain, Ireland became burdened with a share of the responsi- bility for a large national debt, which it had had no hand in making. The Irish generally maintain, and many financiers admit that the burden which the Imperial revenue inllicts upon the country is out of proportion to its wealth, and this claim constitutes one of the most serious gi-ievances of the Irish Nationalists. According to the royal commissioners' report (1890) on the financial relations of Ireland to Great Brit- ain, the taxable capacity of Ireland was only one-twentieth that of Great Britain or less, whereas the revenue collected was about one- eleventh of the amount raised in Great Britain. A comparison of Ireland with England afid Wales shows that the per capita receipts from the in- come tax in the latter is about three times that in Ireland. Assuming that the income tax re- turns are a fair test of the relative financial capacities of the two countries, the injustice wrought by the indirect taxes is striking, since the per capita amount of these is only a little less in Ireland than in England and Wales. The proportion of the direct to the indirect ta.xes in England and Wales is as 48 to 52. whereas in Ireland it is as 27 to 6.3. The figures given below indicate the great importance of the excise duties. It is this item particularly that seems to be over-burdensome. . comjjarison with Eng- land and Wales for the fiscal year ending in JIarch, 1809, shows that while the proof spirits consumed by those countries amounted to 4.60 gallons per capita, in Ireland it was only 2.85 per capita, while the duty per capita paid in England and Wales was 16s. lOd. against 14s. lOrf. in Ireland. In other words, the varieties of spirits most consumed in Ireland are those upon which tlie highest rates are paid. The following figures give the amount of the Imperial revenue collected in Ireland in the fiscal year ending in 1901: Customs. £2.798.000: ex- cise, £3.364.000: estate, etc.. duties. £732.000: stamps, £290,000; income tax. £975.000: post- office, £729.000: telegraphs. £174.000: Crown lands, £.33,000; miscellaneous, £110.000; and a lo- cal taxation revenue amounting to £294.000. The Imperial expenditures in Ireland for the same year were: Civil government. £4.545.000; collection of ta.xes, £244.000; post-oflice. £1,061.000: paid to local taxation accoimts. £1.054.000: "from local taxation revenue," £402.000. The taxes on real property are the principal source of local revenue. In the fiscal year 1898-99 the local receipts were as follows: Rates, water, gas. and electric light, £3.234.011; tolls, dues. etc.. £491.166; rents, in- terest, etc.. £126,304: Government contributions, £475.384; loans. £592.303; and miscellaneous, £322.874. The principal branches of local ex- penditures for the same year were: Town and mimicipal authorities, for police, sanitarv- works, etc., £1,597,968: unions and parishes for poor relief, £1.135.334: county, rural. sanit.aV^-. and road authorities, £1.550..599: harbor authorities, £577.968. PopfLATiox. Owing to its insularity and its position on the extreme outskirts of Europe. Ireland received only the ebb-flow of the great European migrations, and its population is there- fore relatively simple in composition. Three major types are usually recognized. The most primitive is a short black-haired, brown-skinned, dolichocephalic race, sometimes called Firbolg in accordance with Irish tradition, which has been ariously defined by anthropologists as Neolithic and non-Aryan, or again as Iberian or a branch of the ilediterranean race. The conquerors of this people were a tall and blond race known in Irish traditions as tlie Tuatha-de-Danaan. It is not known whether the Tuatha-de-Danaan were a .Scandinavian or Celtic-speaking people. They were followed by the Gaelic invasion, probably within historic times^a Celtic-speaking race identified with the predominant Irish type of the present day. .Stature and cephalic index in Ire- land to-day vary little from the characteristic type of England and Scotland, and the Irish people is discriminated from the English and Scotch mainly on grounds of pigmentation (as among the so-called "black Irish"), language, and temperament. Not taking into consideration the different early immigrants, such as the .Scandi- navians and the Anglo-Normans, which were largely assimilated with the original stock, there are to-day three fairly distinct racial elements represented in Ireland, a fact which is respon- sible in a measure for the social and political troubles which have long disturbed the country. By e.xpulsion and by extermination, the popula- tion had been considerably reduced by the end of Cromwell's reign, when the number was esti- mated at but a little over half a million. The depopulated districts of Eastern and Northern Ireland were repeopled by settlers from England and Scotland, respectively, and the English became the landowners throughout the other portions of the island. Until after the middle of the eigh- teenth century the population grew but slowly, being not infrequently checked by the ravages of famine. But toward the end of that century different causes conspired to bring about a rapid increase in the population. Chief of these was probably the universal adaptation of the potato as the main staple of food, the plant giving more returns for the amount of area and labor devoted to it than other plants, and being well suited to the needs of the people. Connected with this was the increased impetus given to industry in general during the wars with France, and also the decided tendency which developed at this time toward the division of the land into leaseholds, making the acquisition of a holding easy. Under these influences marriages were entered into early and families were large. Whereas, in 1785, esti- mates place the population at less than 3,000,000, in 1821 the first official census records the popu- lation at 6.800.000, and the census of 1841 showed a population of 8.196.000. Considering that the jjopulation was almost wholly rural in composi- tion, it was much in excess of that which a healthy economic and social status would permit. The sequel was precipitated by- the potato blight in 1845. This resulted in a large number of deaths from starvation and disea.se. but its greatest significance was the starting of the tide of emigration which has continued to depopu- late the island to the present time. Prior to the Revolution in the. ierican colonies the Scotch-Irish element of Northern Ireland had found its way to the colonies in large numbers, but not until the time of the famine did the movement affect the Celtic element. It is esti- mated that in round numbers there were two million Irish emigrants between 1840 and 1860, and one million in each of the following twenty- year periods, most of whom went to the United