That taxation falls on populations and not on areas of land is a truism really never disputed; the use of the word 'countries,' in this sense, is a mere popular phrase. This argument keeps out of sight the fact that equal taxes, however equally imposed, are much heavier in the case of a poor than of a rich community; but, waiving this objection, it is a sheer fallacy. If two populations had exactly the same tastes, used the same commodities in the same proportions, and were in the possession of the same resources; equality of taxation, if equally applied, would probably be essentially just. But if two populations have different tastes, if they differ in the use of even the same commodities, and if their resources are very different, and especially if equal taxation be not equally applied, this apparent equality, far from being equity, may become plain, nay, very grave iniquity. This may be made intelligible, at a glance, by the consideration of a few instances easily conceived. Impose an equal tax on coals in England and Ireland: would the charge fall equally on Englishmen in a land of coal and on Irishmen in a land of peat mosses? Tax Londoners and Parisians at the same rate on coffee: would the Londoner, who drinks comparatively little coffee, be as heavily mulcted as the Parisian, who drinks a great deal? Or suppose that light taxes were laid on articles that suit Englishmen, and enter into the consumption of the millions of England, and that heavy taxes were laid on articles that suit Irishmen, and are consumed by the Irish millions: would not this system favour Englishmen, and injure Irishmen, though the taxes on all these articles were the same in both countries? Examples by the hundred might be brought forward; these suffice to prove that equality of taxation, as between communities, differing from each other in the conditions and circumstances of life, and notably if the incidence of this taxation is not the same, may be made to effect the grossest injustice. And this financial wrong has been done, to a very great extent, if we compare the taxation of Great Britain and Ireland. The consumption of tea and tobacco by the head is nearly the same in both countries; the taxes on these commodities are the same; admit that this is equitable in a certain sense, though the impost is relatively more burdensome on the poor community. The consumption of spirits by the head, also, is much the same for the Three Kingdoms; the taxation is precisely the same; this, for the sake of argument, I will call justice. But the consumption of beer by the head in Great Britain is about double what it is in Ireland; probably ten Englishmen drink beer compared to one Irishman; whiskey is the ordinary spirituous drink of Irishmen. Now, the taxes on beer and on whiskey are the same in Great Britain and Ireland; but the tax on beer, measured by the alcoholic standard, is about six times lower than the tax on whiskey;[170] beer, therefore, compared with whiskey is greatly undertaxed; whiskey compared with beer is greatly overtaxed; the ordinary drink of Englishmen is treated differently from the ordinary drink of Irishmen, one being encouraged, the other discouraged; though the taxes on each commodity may be everywhere the same, the equality of taxation manifestly results in wrong. The difference amounts to a very large sum; it is one of the causes that Ireland is overtaxed.[171]