But when at last a deadlock was definitely reached, the Ulster position was stated in a letter which refused to concede to an Irish Parliament the control of either direct or indirect taxation.
It was to be a Parliament with no taxing power at all.
On the other hand, in the corresponding document from the Nationalist side, the importance of immediate and full fiscal control had been put very high.
"Self-government does not exist," it said, "where those nominally entrusted with affairs of government have not control of fiscal and economic policy.

No nation with self-respect could accept the idea that while its citizens were regarded as capable of creating wealth they were regarded as incompetent to regulate the manner in which taxation of that wealth should be arranged, and that another country should have the power of levying and collecting taxes, the taxed country being placed in the position of a person of infirm mind whose affairs are regulated by trustees.

No finality could be looked for in such an arrangement, not even a temporary satisfaction." The genesis of this passage should be told, for it had importance in the history of the Convention; and also it conveys an idea of the limits to which Redmond carried self-effacement.

It is important because it acted on Ulster like a red rag shown to a bull.

Obviously, if this were the Nationalist view, then the Home Rule Act could not be said to give self-government--for under its system of contract finance Ireland certainly had not control of her fiscal and economic policy.