What Parliament and the State can do to forward that aim will naturally be a subject of controversy.

To Free Traders and Tariff Reformers, alike, the power that controls the Customs' tariff of a country controls its economic destiny.

Both would seem bound to apply the logic of their respective gospels to Ireland.
But as it is not the aim of this book to anticipate the debates of next year, but rather to explain the foundations of the Home Rule idea, we may leave that burning question for the present untouched.

Apart from it we can anticipate the trend of policy in Ireland.

The first great task of a Home Rule Parliament would be above controversy; it would be neither more nor less than a scientific exploration of the country.