Above : Napoleonic Wars, Make Excessive FInancial Burden

The financial clause of the Act of Union, which fixed the amount of the contribution of Ireland to the common expenses of the United Kingdom at two parts in seventeen, had been sharply criticised even before the passing of the measure. Persons well competent to judge had declared that the figure had been arrived at by misleading methods of calculation, which had resulted in a very considerable over-estimate of the taxable capacity of Ireland, and the consequent imposition on her of an excessive burden.

The arrangement made could not have failed, according to this view, Under the most favourable circumstances, to have had bad results for Ireland, but the fact that fifteen years of war followed the Union multiplied the evil tenfold.

England, engaged herself in the struggle with Napoleon, and rendering great financial aid to her allies, expended sums then regarded as immense, and of every £17 which she expended, Ireland furnished £2. The cost of the joint establishment had been far in excess of what had been contemplated, and beyond the abilities of even England to meet from revenue alone, but the resources which she possessed in her industries and trade were immense, and she was enabled to weather the storm without disaster; for her poverty-stricken partner the result was far different.

Before the Union the taxation of Ireland had been light; during the fifteen years that followed the passing of that measure it increased by 128 per cent. In the period 1785-1800 the sum of £31,000,000 was raised from Ireland by taxation ; in the period 1800-1815 the amount was £78,000,000. During these years the taxation in Great Britain had not risen to at all the same extent. Even with this addition, however, the taxation of Ireland remained below that of England.