CONCLUSION.
[Sidenote: Survey of argument.]
Let us here review and summarise our argument. The demand for Home Rule
is a demand for a change in the Constitution so fundamental as to amount
to a legal and pacific revolution; such a demand requires for its
support cogent, we may almost say conclusive, reasons.
The positive arguments in favour of Home Rule are not easy to grasp.
Their strength lies in their correspondence with the prevailing opinions
of the day. But though public opinion under any form of government, and
especially under the system of what is called popular government,
deserves great consideration, still the value of a prevailing belief or
conviction cannot be determined without examining the elements which
have gone to its production. The state of opinion which favours Home
Rule is found to result from various and even self-contradictory
feelings, some of which belong to the highest and some to the lowest
parts of human nature; humanity and a sense of justice are in this
instance curiously combined with indolence and impatience. The
arguments again for Home Rule rest upon one dubious assumption and one
undoubted fact. The dubious assumption is that the root of Irish
discontent is the outraged feeling of nationality. The undoubted fact is
that in Ireland, on all matters either directly or even remotely
connected with the tenure of land, the law of the Courts is opposed to
the customs, to the moral sentiment, we may say to the law of the
people; hence the Queen's tribunals are weak because they are not
supported by that popular assent whence judges derive half their
authority; the tribunals of the League are strong because their
decisions commend themselves to the traditional feeling of the people.
But the doubtful hypothesis and the undoubted fact, though one or other
of them lies at the basis of all the strongest arguments in favour of
Home Rule, each invalidate almost as much as they support the contention
that an Irish Parliament will prove the specific for the diseases (due
in the first instance to the original vice of the connection between
England and Ireland) under which Irish society now suffers. If the
passion of nationality is the cause of the malady, then the proposed
cure is useless, for Home Rule will not turn the people of Ireland into
a nation. If a vicious system of land tenure is the cause of
lawlessness, then the restoration or re-creation of an Irish Parliament
is needless, for the Parliament of the United Kingdom can reform, and
ought to reform, the land system of Ireland, and ought to be able to
carry through a final settlement of agrarian disputes with less
injustice to individuals than could any Parliament sitting at Dublin.
Reasoning, however, which fails to establish the expediency of creating
an Irish Parliament may prove, and in fact does amply prove, that the
task of maintaining peace order and freedom in Ireland is at the present
juncture a matter of supreme difficulty. Any possible course, moreover,
open to English statesmanship involves gigantic inconvenience, not to
say tremendous perils. A man involved practically in the conduct of
public affairs may easily bring himself to believe that the policy which
he recommends is not only the best possible under the circumstances, but
is also open to no serious objection. Outsiders, who in this matter are
better because more impartial judges than the ablest of politicians,
know that this is not so. We have nothing before us but a choice of
difficulties or of evils. Every course is open to valid criticism.
The maintenance of the Union must necessarily turn out as severe a task
as ever taxed a nation's energies, for to maintain the Treaty of Union
with any good effect means that while refusing to accede to the wishes
of millions of Irishmen, we must sedulously do justice to every fair
demand from Ireland, must strenuously and without either fear or favour
assert the equal rights of landlords and tenants, of Protestants and
Catholics, and must at the same time put down every outrage and reform
every abuse.
To carry out by peaceful means the political separation of countries
which for good and for evil have for centuries been bound together by
position and by history, is an operation so critical that in the
judgment of statesmen it involves dangers too vast for serious
contemplation.
How, lastly, to devise a scheme of Home Rule which, while giving to
Ireland as much of legislative independence as may satisfy her wants or
wishes, shall leave to England as much supremacy as may be necessary for
the prosperity of the United Kingdom, or for the continued existence of
the British Empire, is a problem which jurists would find it hard to
solve as a matter of speculative science, and which politicians may not
without reason hold to admit of no practical solution.
Yet Maintenance of the Union, Separation, Home Rule, are names which
designate the only paths open to us. To one of these three courses we
are absolutely tied down. Each path is arduous. To complain about the
nature of things is childish. The course of wisdom is obvious. We must
all of us look facts in the face. "Things and actions are what they are,
and the consequences of them will be what they will be. Why then should
we desire to be deceived?"[71] We must calmly compare the advantages of
the three steep roads which lie open to the nation, and then on the
strength of this comparison determine the course which the nation is
bound to follow by motives of expediency and of justice.
Such a comparison we have already instituted:[72] its results to any
reader who assents to my train of reasoning must be obvious.
The maintenance of the Union involves at the outset a strenuous and most
regrettable conflict with the will of the majority of the Irish people.
It necessitates at once the strict enforcement of law, combined with the
resolute effort to strip law of all injustice. It may require large
pecuniary sacrifices, and it certainly will require a constancy in just
purpose which is supposed, and not without reason, to be specially
difficult to a democracy. The difficulties on the other hand which meet
us are not unprecedented, though some of them have assumed a new form.
We have some advantages unknown to our forefathers: we can, more easily
than they could, remodel the practices of the Constitution, modify the
rules of party government, or, incredible as it may seem to members of
Parliament, touch with profane hands the venerable procedure of the
House of Commons. The English democracy, further, just because it is a
democracy, may, like the democracy of America, enforce with unflinching
firmness laws which, representing the deliberate will of the people, are
supported by the vast majority of the citizens of the United Kingdom.
The English democracy, because it is a democracy, may also with a good
conscience destroy the remnants of feudal institutions, and all systems
of land tenure found unsuitable to the wants of the Irish people. Nor,
though the crisis be difficult, are there features lacking in the
tendencies of the modern world which in the United Kingdom as in the
United States and in the Swiss Confederacy favour every effort to uphold
the political unity of the State. Whatever be the difficulties (and they
are many) of maintaining the Union, not in form only but in reality, the
policy is favoured no less by the current of English history, than by
the tendencies of modern civilization. It preserves that unity of the
State which is essential to the authority of England and to the
maintenance of the Empire. It provides, as matters now stand, the only
means of giving legal protection to a large body of loyal British
subjects. It is the refusal not only to abdicate legitimate power, but
(what is of far more consequence) to renounce the fulfilment of
imperative duties. Nor does Union imply uniformity. Unity of
Government--equality of rights--diversity of institutions,--these are
the watchwords for all Unionists. To attain these objects may be beyond
our power, and the limit to power is the limit to responsibility. Still,
whatever may be the difficulties, or even the disadvantages, of
maintaining the Union, it undoubtedly has in its favour not only all the
recommendations which must belong to a policy of rational conservatism,
but also these two decisive advantages--that it does sustain the
strength of the United Kingdom, and that it does not call for any
dereliction of duty.
Separation, or in other words the national independence of Ireland, is
an idea which has not entered into the practical consideration of
Englishmen. The evils which it threatens are patent: it at the same
moment diminishes the means of Great Britain and increases the calls
upon her resources. It lowers the fame of the country, and plants by the
side of England a foreign, it may be a hostile, neighbour; it involves
the desertion of loyal fellow-citizens who have trusted in the good
faith of England. Yet, on the other hand, the material losses and
perhaps the dangers involved in the independence of Ireland are liable
to exaggeration. Great Britain might find in her complete freedom of
action and in restored unity of national sentiment elements of power
which might balance the obvious damage resulting from Separation; she
might also find it possible to make for the protection of Loyalists
terms more efficacious than any guarantees contained in the articles of
a statutory constitution. If, further, the spirit of nationality has the
vivifying power ascribed to it by its votaries, then Ireland might gain
from it blessings which cannot be conferred by any scheme of merely
Parliamentary independence, since no form of Home Rule can transform
Ireland into a nation.
For Home Rule it may be pleaded that it offers two obvious advantages:
it satisfies the immediate wish of millions of Irishmen, and it
facilitates the adaptation of Irish institutions to Irish wants. These
advantageous results are the best that can be hoped for from Home Rule.
They are real, and to underrate them is folly; the moral gain indeed of
meeting the wishes of the body of the Irish people is so incalculable,
that did Home Rule involve no intolerable evils a rational man might
think it wise to venture on the experiment. Home Rule, it may be
suggested, has the further gain of lessening English responsibility for
the government of Ireland. What it really might effect is to lighten
England's sense of responsibility for misrule in Ireland. But this, so
far from being a blessing, would in truth be one of the greatest of
evils. The distinguished author of the Gladstonian Constitution denies
in his recent pamphlet that the Government of Ireland Bill would, if
passed, repeal the Act of Union. To follow the reasoning by which this
denial is made good is beyond my powers. But there is one aspect in
which the statement, paradoxical though it be, that the Union is not
dissolved by the existence of an Irish Parliament, has a most serious
meaning, which ought to command hearty and general assent. Under the
Gladstonian Constitution, as under any form of Home Rule, the Government
of the United Kingdom must still remain in the last resort responsible
for the administration of justice throughout the whole realm. Admit for
the sake of argument that the Act of Union, though affected in every
section, is not repealed, then assuredly if men be wrongfully deprived
of their property, if they be denied their lawful freedom, if they
suffer unlawful injury to life or limb in any part of the United
Kingdom, the responsibility for seeing that right be done falls on the
executive, and in the last resort on the Parliament, of the United
Kingdom. The delegated authority of a subordinate legislature will not
free the principal from the liability inherent in the delegation of
power; and if Home Rule in Ireland fosters, as it must foster, the
notion that the United Kingdom is not as a whole responsible for
misdeeds done in Ireland, this is one of the worst results of the
proposed constitutional change.
But putting this matter aside, an examination into the various forms
which Home Rule may assume leads to the conclusion that whatever be its
hypothetical benefits it threatens more than countervailing loss to
England. There is no need to do more than refer in most general terms to
evils which have already been set forth in detail. Home Rule under two
of its three possible forms dislocates and weakens the whole English
Constitution. Under its least objectionable form--that of Colonial
independence--it brings upon England many of the perils which would
follow upon the national independence of Ireland; it involves, if the
experiment is to have a fair chance of success, large pecuniary
sacrifice, and it does not present a reasonable hope of creating real
harmony of feeling between Great Britain and Ireland. Home Rule, lastly,
under whatever form, whilst not freeing England from moral
responsibility for protecting the rights of every British subject, does
virtually give up the attempt to ensure to these rights more than a
nominal existence, and thus gives up the endeavour to enforce legal and
equal justice between man and man. It must also be considered that an
examination into the different forms of Home Rule, while it shows that
no scheme of legislative independence for Ireland offers any promise of
finality, also suggests that the form of Home Rule least injurious to
England is the form which gives Ireland most independence. The inference
from these facts cannot be missed. Home Rule is the half-way house to
Separation. Grant it, and in a short time Irish independence will become
the wish of England. If any thorough-paced Home Ruler admit this
conclusion, and suggest that Home Rule is a desirable transition towards
Separation, the answer is that Home Rule is such a transition, but
assuredly that such a transition is not to be desired. If one country is
destined to become independent of another it is better for each not to
experience the disappointment and the heartburning which accompany a
period of unwilling connection.
This is the result of the comparison we have instituted between the
three possible courses open to England. If the comparison be just the
conclusion to which its leads is obvious. The maintenance of the Union
is at this moment to England a matter of duty even more than of
interest. If the time should come when the effort to maintain the unity
of the State is too great for the power of Great Britain, or the only
means by which it is found maintainable are measures clearly repugnant
to the humanity or the justice or the democratic principles of the
English people,--if it should turn out that after every effort to
enforce just laws by just methods our justice itself, from whatever
cause, remains hateful to the mass of the Irish people,--then it will be
clear that the Union must for the sake of England, no less than of
Ireland, come to an end. The alternative policy will then be not Home
Rule but Separation. We shall save the unity at the expense of lessening
the territory of the State; we shall escape self-reproach because having
reached the limit of our powers we shall also have filled up the measure
of our obligations. But if (as there is every reason to suppose)
agrarian misery is the source of Irish discontent, and agrarian misery
springs in part from bad administration, and in part from the law
governing the tenure of land; if, in general terms, the undoubted ills
of Ireland are curable by justice, even though justice proceed from the
Parliament of the United Kingdom--an assembly, be it noted, in which the
voice of Ireland is freely heard--then there is no need to indulge in
speculations, always dangerous, upon a possible remedy which may never
be necessary, and which, while the inhabitants of England and Ireland
are still fellow-citizens of one State, it is painful even to
contemplate. On the whole, then, it appears that whatever changes or
calamities the future may have in store, the maintenance of the Union is
at this day the one sound policy for England to pursue. It is sound
because it is expedient; it is sound because it is just.
[Sidenote: Character of England's case]
This is the case of England against Home Rule; it is a case which,
however feebly stated--and I may well have failed to state it with
force--is founded on argument. It is a case which makes and need make no
appeal to rhetoric; it is a case which indeed, like all sound views of
national policy, is grounded on the interest of the greater number of
the citizens of the State, but it is a case not grounded on any mere
pride of power, a case not based on any disregard of justice, a case
which above all involves no unfriendliness to Irishmen, and no
assumption, either tacit or express, that there has fallen to Irishmen a
greater amount of either original or acquired sin than falls to other
human beings, it is a case which does not assume that real or supposed
differences of race are a legitimate ground for inequality of rights.
Any one, indeed, after having to the best of his power tried to state
what can be said with fairness on one side of a question such as that
now at issue between the majority and the minority of the citizens of
the United Kingdom, may well call to mind the conclusion of the noblest
statement ever made by genius of a case involving momentous national
interests:--
"It would be presumption in me to do more than to make a case. Many
things occur. But as they, like all political measures, depend on
dispositions, tempers, means, and external circumstances for all their
effect, not being well assured of these, I do not know how to let loose
any speculations of mine on the subject. The evil is stated in my
opinion as it exists. The remedy must be where power, wisdom, and
information, I hope, are more united with good intentions than they can
be with me. I have done with this subject, I believe for ever. It has
given me many anxious moments for the two last years. If a great change
is to be made in human affairs, the minds of men will be fitted to it;
the general opinions and feelings will draw that way. Every fear, every
hope, will forward it; and then they who persist in opposing this mighty
current in human affairs will appear rather to resist the decrees of
Providence itself, than the mere designs of men. They will not be
resolute and firm, but perverse and obstinate."[73]
The sentiment of these words is one of eternal application. Still at
this great crisis in the fortunes of our country, when every course is
involved in undeniable perplexity, and surrounded by admitted danger,
there are two principles to which we may confidently appeal; for it is
by habitual adherence to them that England has grown to greatness. These
two principles are the maintenance of the supremacy of the whole State,
and the use of that supremacy for the purpose of securing to every
citizen, whether rich or poor, the rights of liberty and of property
conferred upon him by law. To maintain that any policy, however
plausible, by which these principles are violated, must undermine the
moral basis of the Constitution, and must therefore lead the nation to
calamity and to disgrace, is at any rate to plead a cause which rests
upon a firm foundation of plain morality. The case may be ill-stated,
the arguments by which it is defended may admit of reply, but it is a
case which a just man may put forward without shame, and a humane man
may support without compunction.
FOOTNOTES:
[71] Butler's Sermons; vii., p. 136, ed. 1726.
[72] See Chapters V., VI., & VII., _ante._
[73] Burke's Works, vol. vii., pp. 84, 85.
APPENDIX.
GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND BILL.[74]
ARRANGEMENT OF CLAUSES.
PART I.
_Legislative Authority_.
CLAUSE.
1. Establishment of Irish Legislature.
2. Powers of Irish Legislature.
3. Exceptions from powers of Irish Legislature.
4. Restrictions on powers of Irish Legislature.
5. Prerogatives of Her Majesty as to Irish Legislative Body.
6. Duration of the Irish Legislative Body.
_Executive Authority_.
7. Constitution of the Executive Authority.
8. Use of Crown lands by Irish Government.
_Constitution of Legislative Body_.
9. Constitution of Irish Legislative Body.
10. First order.
11. Second order.
_Finance_.
12. Taxes and separate Consolidated Fund.
13. Annual contributions from Ireland to Consolidated Fund of United
Kingdom.
14. Collection and application of customs and excise duties in Ireland.
15. Charges on Irish Consolidated Fund.
16. Irish Church Fund.
17. Public loans.
18. Additional aid in case of war.
19. Money bills and votes.
20. Exchequer divisions and revenue actions.
_Police_.
21. Police.
* * * * *
PART II.
SUPPLEMENTAL PROVISIONS.
_Powers of Her Majesty_.
22. Powers over certain lands reserved to Her Majesty.
_Legislative Body_.
23. Veto by first order of Legislative Body, how over-ruled.
24. Cesser of power of Ireland to return members to Parliament.
_Decision of Constitutional Questions_.
25. _Constitutional questions to be submitted to Judicial Committee_.
_Lord-Lieutenant._
26. Office of Lord-Lieutenant.
_Judges and Civil Servants_.
27. Judges to be removable only on address.
28. Provision as to judges and other persons having salaries charged on
the Consolidated Fund.
29. As to persons holding civil service appointments.
30. Provision for existing pensions and superannuation allowances.
_Transitory Provisions_.
31. Transitory provisions in Schedule.
_Miscellaneous_.
32. Post Office and savings banks.
33. Audit.
34. Application of parliamentary law.
35. Regulations for carrying Act into effect.
36. Saving of powers of House of Lords.
37. Saving of Rights of Parliament.
38. Continuance of existing laws, courts, officers, &c.
39. Mode of alteration of Act.
40. Definitions.
41. Short title of Act.
SCHEDULES.
* * * * *
_A Bill to amend the provision for the future Government of Ireland_.
[Sidenote: A.D. 1886]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the
advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in
this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as
follows:
PART I.
_Legislative Authority_.
[Sidenote: Establishment of Irish Legislature.]
1. _On and after the appointed day there shall be established in
Ireland a Legislature consisting of Her Majesty the Queen and an Irish
Legislative Body._
[Sidenote: Powers of Irish Legislature.]
2. _With the exceptions and subject to the restrictions in this Act
mentioned, it shall be lawful for Her Majesty the Queen, by and with the
advice of the Irish Legislative Body, to make laws for the peace, order,
and good government of Ireland, and by any such law to alter and repeal
any law in Ireland._
[Sidenote: Exceptions from powers of Irish Legislature.]
3. _The Legislature of Ireland shall not make laws relating to the
following matters or any of them:--_
(1.) _The status or dignity of the Crown, or the succession to the
Crown, or a Regency;_
(2.) _The making of peace or war;_
(3.) _The army, navy, militia, volunteers, or other military or
naval forces, or the defence of the realm;_
(4.) _Treaties and other relations with foreign States, or the
relations between the various parts of Her Majesty's dominions;_
(5.) _Dignities or titles of honour;_
(6.) _Prize or booty of war;_
(7.) _Offences against the law of nations; or offences committed in
violation of any treaty made, or hereafter to be made, between Her
Majesty and any foreign State; or offences committed on the high
seas;_
(8.) _Treason, alienage, or naturalization;_
(9.) _Trade, navigation, or quarantine;_
(10.) _The postal and telegraph service, except as hereafter in
this Act mentioned with respect to the transmission of letters and
telegrams in Ireland;_
(11.) _Beacons, lighthouses, or sea marks;_
(12.) _The coinage; the value of foreign money; legal tender; or
weights and measures; or_
(13.) _Copyright, patent rights, or other exclusive rights to the
use or profits of any works or inventions._
Any law made in contravention of this section shall be void.
[Sidenote: Restrictions on powers of Irish Legislature.]
4. _The Irish Legislature shall not make any law--_
(1.) _Respecting the establishment or endowment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or_
(2.) _Imposing any disability, or conferring any privilege, on
account of religious belief; or_
(3.) _Abrogating or derogating from the right to establish or
maintain any place of denominational education or any
denominational institution or charity; or_
(4.) _Prejudicially affecting the right of any child to attend a
school receiving public money without attending the religious
instruction at that school; or_
(5.) _Impairing, without either the leave of Her Majesty in Council
first obtained on an address presented by the Legislative Body of
Ireland, or the consent of the corporation interested, the rights,
property, or privileges of any existing corporation incorporated by
royal charter or local and general Act of Parliament; or_
(6.) _Imposing or relating to duties of customs and duties of
excise, as defined by this Act, or either of such duties, or
affecting any Act relating to such duties or either of them; or_
(7.) _Affecting this Act, except in so far as it is declared to be
alterable by the Irish Legislature._
[Sidenote: Prerogatives of Her Majesty as to Irish Legislative Body.]
5. _Her Majesty the Queen shall have the same prerogatives with
respect to summoning, proroguing, and dissolving the Irish Legislative
Body as Her Majesty has with respect to summoning, proroguing, and
dissolving the Imperial Parliament._
[Sidenote: Duration of the Irish Legislative Body.]
6. _The Irish Legislative Body whenever summoned may have continuance
for five years and no longer, to be reckoned from the day on which any
such Legislative Body is appointed to meet._
_Executive Authority_.
[Sidenote: Constitution of the Executive Authority.]
7.--(1.) _The Executive Government of Ireland shall continue vested in
Her Majesty, and shall be carried on by the Lord-Lieutenant on behalf of
Her Majesty with the aid of such officers and such Council as to Her
Majesty may from time to time seem fit._
(2.) _Subject to any instructions which may from time to time be given
by Her Majesty, the Lord-Lieutenant shall give or withhold the assent of
Her Majesty to Bills passed by the Irish Legislative Body, and shall
exercise the prerogatives of Her Majesty in respect of the summoning,
proroguing, and dissolving of the Irish Legislative Body, and any
prerogatives the exercise of which may be delegated to him by Her
Majesty._
[Sidenote: Use of Crown lands by Irish Government.]
8. _Her Majesty may, by Order in Council, from time to time place
under the control of the Irish Government, for the purposes of that
Government, any such lands and buildings in Ireland as may be vested in
or held in trust for Her Majesty._
_Constitution of Legislative Body._
[Sidenote: Constitution of Irish Legislative Body.]
9.--(1.) _The Irish Legislative Body shall consist of a first and
second order._
(2.) _The two orders shall deliberate together, and shall vote together,
except that, if any question arises in relation to legislation or to the
Standing Orders or Rules of Procedure or to any other matter in that
behalf in this Act specified, and such question is to be determined by
vote, each order shall, if a majority of the members present of either
order demand a separate vote, give their votes in like manner as if they
were separate Legislative Bodies; and if the result of the voting of the
two orders does not agree the question shall be resolved in the
negative._
[Sidenote: First order.]
10.--(1.) The first order of the Irish Legislative Body shall consist
of one hundred and three members, of whom seventy-five shall be elective
members and twenty-eight peerage members.
(2.) Each elective member shall at the date of his election and during
his period of membership be bonâ fide possessed of property which--
(_a._) if realty, or partly realty and partly personalty, yields
two hundred pounds a year or upwards, free of all charges; or
(_b._) if personalty yields the same income, or is of the capital
value of four thousand pounds or upwards, free of all charges.
(2.) For the purpose of electing the elective members of the first order
of the Legislative Body, Ireland shall be divided into the electoral
districts specified in the First Schedule to this Act, and each such
district shall return the number of members in that behalf specified in
that Schedule.
(3.) The elective members shall be elected by the registered electors of
each electoral district, and for that purpose a register of electors
shall be made annually.
(4.) An elector in each electoral district shall be qualified as
follows, that is to say, he shall be of full age, and not subject to any
legal incapacity, and shall have been during the twelve months next
preceding the _twentieth day of July_ in any year the owner or occupier
of some land or tenement within the district of a net annual value of
twenty-five pounds or upwards.
(5.) The term of office of an elective member shall be _ten years_.
(6.) In every fifth year thirty-seven or thirty-eight of the elective
members, as the case requires, shall retire from office, and their
places shall be filled by election; the members to retire shall be those
who have been members for the longest time without re-election.
(7.) The offices of the peerage members shall be filled as follows; that
is to say,--
(_a._) Each of the Irish peers who on the appointed day is one of
the twenty-eight Irish representative peers, shall, on giving his
written assent to the Lord-Lieutenant, become a peerage member of
the first order of the Irish Legislative Body; and if at any time
within _thirty years_ after the appointed day any such peer vacates
his office by death or resignation, the vacancy shall be filled by
the election to that office by the Irish peers of one of their
number in manner heretofore in use respecting the election of Irish
representative peers, subject to adaptation as provided by this
Act, and if the vacancy is not so filled within the proper time it
shall be filled by the election of an elective member.
(_b._) If any of the twenty-eight peers aforesaid does not within
_one month_ after the appointed day give such assent to be a
peerage member of the first order, the vacancy so created shall be
filled up as if he had assented and vacated his office by
resignation.
(8.) A peerage member shall be entitled to hold office during his life,
or until the expiration of _thirty years_ from the appointed day,
whichever period is the shortest. At the expiration of such _thirty
years_ the offices of all the peerage members shall be vacated as if
they were dead, and their places shall be filled by elective members
qualified and elected in manner provided by this Act with respect to
elective members of the first order, and such elective members may be
distributed by the Irish Legislature among the electoral districts, so,
however, that care shall be taken to give additional members to the most
populous places.
(9.) The offices of members of the first order shall not be vacated by
the dissolution of the Legislative Body.
(10.) The provisions in the Second Schedule to this Act relating to
members of the first order of the Legislative Body shall be of the same
force as if they were enacted in the body of this Act.
[Sidenote: Second order.]
11.--(1.) Subject as in this section hereafter mentioned, the second
order of the Legislative body shall consist of two hundred and four
members.
(2.) The members of the second order shall be chosen by the existing
constituencies of Ireland, two by each constituency, with the exception
of the city of Cork, which shall be divided into two divisions in manner
set forth in the Third Schedule to this Act, and two members shall be
chosen by each of such divisions.
(3.) Any person who, on the appointed day, is a member representing an
existing Irish constituency in the House of Commons shall, on giving his
written assent to the Lord-Lieutenant, become a member of the second
order of the Irish Legislative Body as if he had been elected by the
constituency which he was representing in the House of Commons. Each of
the members for the city of Cork, on the said day, may elect for which
of the divisions of that city he wishes to be deemed to have been
elected.
(4.) If any member does not give such written assent within _one month_
after the appointed day, his place shall be filled by election in the
same manner and at the same time as if he had assented and vacated his
office by death.
(5.) If the same person is elected to both orders, he shall, within
_seven days_ after the meeting of the Legislative Body, or if the Body
is sitting at the time of the election, within _seven days_ after the
election, elect in which order he will serve, and his membership of the
other order shall be void and be filled by a fresh election.
(6.) Notwithstanding anything in this Act, it shall be lawful for the
Legislature of Ireland at any time to pass an Act enabling the Royal
University of Ireland to return not more than two members to the second
order of the Irish Legislative Body in addition to the number of members
above mentioned.
(7.) Notwithstanding anything in this Act, it shall be lawful for the
Irish Legislature, after the first dissolution of the Legislative Body
which occurs, to alter the constitution or election of the second order
of that body, due regard being had in the distribution of members to the
population of the constituencies; provided that no alteration shall be
made in the number of such order.
_Finance._
[Sidenote: Taxes and separate Consolidated Fund.]
12.--(1.) For the purpose of providing for the public service of
Ireland the Irish Legislature may impose taxes, other than duties of
customs or excise as defined by this Act, which duties shall continue to
be imposed and levied by and under the direction of the Imperial
Parliament only.
(2.) On and after the appointed day there shall be an Irish Consolidated
Fund separate from the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom.
(3.) All taxes imposed by the Legislature of Ireland and all other
public revenues under the control of the Government of Ireland shall,
subject to any provisions touching the disposal thereof contained in any
Act passed in the present session respecting the sale and purchase of
land in Ireland, be paid into the Irish Consolidated Fund, and be
appropriated to the public service of Ireland according to law.
[Sidenote: Annual contributions from Ireland to Consolidated Fund of
United Kingdom.]
13.--(1.) Subject to the provisions for the reduction or cesser
thereof in this section mentioned, there shall be made on the part of
Ireland to the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom the following
annual contributions in every financial year; that is to say,--
(_a._) The sum of _one million four hundred and sixty-six, thousand
pounds_ on account of the interest on and management of the Irish
share of the National Debt:
(_b._) The sum of _one million six hundred and sixty-six thousand
pounds_ on account of the expenditure on the army and navy of the
United Kingdom:
(_c._) The sum _of one hundred and ten thousand pounds_ on account
of the Imperial civil expenditure of the United Kingdom:
(_d._) The sum of _one million pounds_ on account of the Royal
Irish Constabulary and the Dublin Metropolitan Police.
(2.) During the period of _thirty_ years from this section taking;
effect the said annual contributions shall not be increased, but may be
reduced or cease as hereinafter mentioned. After the expiration of the
said _thirty years_ the said contributions shall, save as otherwise
provided by this section, continue until altered in manner provided with
respect to the alteration of this Act.
(3.) The Irish share of the National Debt shall be reckoned at
_forty-eight million pounds_ Bank annuities, and there shall be paid in
every financial year on behalf of Ireland to the Commissioners for the
Reduction of the National Debt an annual sum of _three hundred and sixty
thousand pounds_, and the permanent annual charge for the National Debt
on the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom shall be reduced by that
amount, and the said annual sum shall be applied by the said
Commissioners as a sinking fund for the redemption of the National Debt,
and the Irish share of the National Debt shall be reduced by the amount
of the National Debt so redeemed, and the said annual contribution on
account of the interest on and management of the Irish share of the
National Debt shall from time to time be reduced by a sum equal to the
interest upon the amount of the National Debt from time to time so
redeemed, but that last-mentioned sum shall be paid annually to the
Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt in addition to the
above-mentioned annual sinking fund, and shall be so paid and be applied
as if it were part of that sinking fund.
(4.) As soon as an amount of the National Debt equal to the said Irish
share thereof has been redeemed under the provisions of this section,
the said annual contribution on account of the interest on and
management of the Irish share of the National Debt, and the said annual
sum for a sinking fund shall cease.
(5.) If it appears to Her Majesty that the expenditure in respect of the
army and navy of the United Kingdom, or in respect of Imperial civil
expenditure of the United Kingdom, for any financial year has been less
than _fifteen_ times the amount of the contributions above-named on
account of the same matter, a sum equal to _one fifteenth_ part of the
diminution shall be deducted from the current annual contribution for
the same matter.
(6.) The sum paid from time to time by the Commissioners of Her
Majesty's Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues to the Consolidated Fund of
the United Kingdom on account of the hereditary revenues of the Crown in
Ireland shall be credited to the Irish Government, and go in reduction
of the said annual contribution payable on account of the Imperial civil
expenditure of the United Kingdom, but shall not be taken into account
in calculating whether such diminution as above mentioned has or has not
taken place in such expenditure.
(7.) If it appears to Her Majesty that the expenditure in respect of the
Royal Irish Constabulary and the Dublin Metropolitan Police for any
financial year has been less than the contribution above named on
account of such constabulary and police, the current contribution shall
be diminished by the amount of such difference.
(8.) This section shall take effect from and after the _thirty-first day
of March, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven_.
[Sidenote: Collection and application of customs and excise duties in
Ireland.]
14.--(1.) On and after such day as the Treasury may direct all moneys
from time to time collected in Ireland on account of the duties of
customs or the duties of excise as defined by this Act shall, under such
regulations as the Treasury from time to time make, be carried to a
separate account (in this Act referred to as the customs and excise
account) and applied in the payment of the following sums in priority as
mentioned in this section; that is to say,--
First, of such sum as is from time to time directed by the Treasury
in respect of the costs, charges, and expenses of and incident to
the collection and management of the said duties in Ireland not
exceeding four per cent. of the amount collected there;
Secondly, of the annual contributions required by this Act to be
made to the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom;
Thirdly, of the annual sums required by this Act to be paid to the
Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt;
Fourthly, of all sums by this Act declared to be payable out of the
moneys carried to the customs and excise account;
Fifthly, of all sums due to the Consolidated Fund of the United
Kingdom for interest or sinking fund, in respect of any loans made
by the issue of bank annuities or otherwise to the Government of
Ireland under any Act passed in the present session relating to the
purchase and sale of land in Ireland, so far as such sums are not
defrayed out of the moneys received under such Act;
(2.) So much of the moneys carried to a separate account under this
section as the Treasury consider are not, and are not likely to be,
required to meet the above-mentioned payments, shall from time to time
be paid over and applied as part of the public revenues under the
control of the Irish Government.
[Sidenote: Charges on Irish Consolidated Fund.]
15.--(1.) There shall be charged on the Irish Consolidated Fund in
priority as mentioned in this section:--
First, such portion of the sums directed by this Act to be paid out
of the moneys carried to the customs and excise account in priority
to any payment for the public revenues of Ireland, as those moneys
are insufficient to pay;
Secondly, all sums due in respect of any debt incurred by the
Government of Ireland, whether for interest, management, or sinking
fund;
Thirdly, all sums which at the passing of this Act are charged on
the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom in respect of Irish
services other than the salary of the Lord-Lieutenant;
Fourthly, the salaries of all judges of the Supreme Court of
Judicature or other superior court in Ireland, or of any county or
other like court, who are appointed after the passing of this Act,
and the pensions of such judges;
Fifthly, any other sums charged by this Act on the Irish
Consolidated Fund.
(2.) It shall be the duty of the Legislature of Ireland to impose all
such taxes, duties, or imposts as will raise a sufficient revenue to
meet all sums charged for the time being on the Irish Consolidated Fund.
[Sidenote: Irish Church Fund.]
16.--(1.) Until all charges which are payable out of the Church
property in Ireland, and are guaranteed by the Treasury, have been fully
paid, the Irish Land Commission shall continue as heretofore to exist,
with such Commissioners and officers receiving such salaries as the
Treasury may from time to time appoint, and to administer the Church
property and apply the income and other moneys receivable therefrom; and
so much of the salaries of such Commissioners and officers and expenses
of the office as is not paid out of the Church property shall be paid
out of moneys carried to the customs and excise account under this Act,
and if those moneys are insufficient, out of the Consolidated Fund of
Ireland, and if not so paid, shall be paid out of moneys provided by
Parliament.
Provided as follows:--
(_a._) All charges on the Church property for which a guarantee has
been given by the Treasury before the passing of this Act shall, so
far as they are not paid out of such property, be paid out of the
moneys carried to the Customs and Excise account under this Act,
and if such moneys are insufficient, the Consolidated Fund of
Ireland, without prejudice nevertheless to the guarantee of the
Treasury;
(_b._) All charges on the Church property, for which no guarantee
has been given by the Treasury before the passing of this Act shall
be charged on the Consolidated Fund of Ireland, but shall not be
guaranteed by the Treasury nor charged on the Consolidated Fund of
the United Kingdom.
(2.) Subject to any existing charges on the Church property, such
property shall belong to the Irish Government and any portion of the
annual revenue thereof which the Treasury, on the application of the
Irish Government, certify at the end of any financial year not to be
required for meeting charges, shall be paid over and applied as part of
the public revenues under the control of the Irish Government.
(3.) As soon as all charges on the Church property guaranteed by the
Treasury have been paid, such property may be managed and administered,
and subject to existing charges thereon disposed of, and the income or
proceeds thereof applied, in such manner as the Irish Legislature may
from time to time direct.
[Sidenote: 32 & 33 Vict. c. 42, 44 & 45 Vict. c. 71.]
(4.) "Church property" in this section means all property accruing under
the Irish Church Act, 1869, and transferred to the Irish Land Commission
by the Irish Church Act Amendment Act, 1881.
[Sidenote: Public loans.]
17.--(1.) All sums due for principal or interest to the Public Works
Loan Commissioners or to the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland in
respect of existing loans advanced on any security in Ireland shall on
and after the appointed day be due to the Government of Ireland instead
of the said Commissioners, and such body of persons as the Government of
Ireland may appoint for the purpose shall have all the powers of the
said Commissioners or their secretary for enforcing payment of such
sums, and all securities for such sums given to such Commissioners or
their secretary shall have effect as if the said body were therein
substituted for those Commissioners or their secretary.
(2.) For the repayment of the said loans to the Consolidated Fund of the
United Kingdom, the Irish Government shall pay annually into that fund
by half-yearly payments on the _first day of January_ and _the first day
of July_, or on such other days as may be agreed on, such instalments of
the principal of the said loans as will discharge all the loans within
_thirty years_ from the appointed day, and shall also pay interest
half-yearly on so much of the said principal as from time to time
remains unpaid at the rate of _three_ per cent. per annum, and such
instalments of principal and interest shall be paid out of the moneys
carried to the customs and excise account under this Act, and if those
are insufficient, out of the Consolidated Fund of Ireland.
[Sidenote: Additional aid in case of war.]
18. If Her Majesty declares that a state of war exists and is pleased
to signify such declaration to the Irish Legislative Body by speech or
message, it shall be lawful for the Irish Legislature to appropriate a
further sum out of the Consolidated Fund of Ireland in aid of the army
or navy, or other measures which Her Majesty may take for the
prosecution of the war and defence of the realm, and to provide and
raise money for that purpose; and all moneys so provided and raised,
whether by loan, taxation, or otherwise, shall be paid into the
Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom.
[Sidenote: Money bills and votes.]
19.--(1.) It shall not be lawful for the Irish Legislative Body to
adopt or pass any vote, resolution, address, or Bill for the raising or
appropriation for any purpose of any part of the public revenue of
Ireland, or of any tax, duty, or impost, except in pursuance of a
recommendation from Her Majesty signified through the Lord-Lieutenant in
the session in which such vote, resolution, address, or Bill is
proposed.
(2.) Notwithstanding that the Irish Legislature is prohibited by this
Act from making laws relating to certain subjects, that Legislature may,
with the assent of Her Majesty in Council first obtained, appropriate
any part of the Irish public revenue, or any tax, duty, or impost
imposed by such Legislature, for the purpose of, or in connection with,
such subjects.
[Sidenote: Exchequer Division and revenue actions.]
20.--(1.) On and after the appointed day, the Exchequer Division of
the High Court of Justice shall continue to be a Court of Exchequer for
revenue purposes under this Act, and whenever any vacancy occurs in the
office of any judge of such Exchequer Division, his successor shall be
appointed by Her Majesty on the joint recommendation of the
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland and the Lord High Chancellor of Great
Britain.
(2.) The judges of such Exchequer Division appointed after the passing
of this Act shall be removable only by Her Majesty on address from the
two Houses of the Imperial Parliament, and shall receive the same
salaries and pensions as those payable at the passing of this Act to the
existing judges of such division, unless with the assent of Her Majesty
in Council first obtained, the Irish Legislature alters such salaries or
pensions, and such salaries and pensions shall be paid out of the moneys
carried to the customs and excise account in pursuance of this Act, and
if the same are insufficient shall be paid out of the Irish Consolidated
Fund, and if not so paid shall be paid out of the Consolidated Fund of
the United Kingdom.
(3.) An alteration of any rules relating to the procedure in such legal
proceedings as are mentioned in this section shall not be made except
with the approval of the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, and the
sittings of the Exchequer division and the judges thereof shall be
regulated with the like approval.
(4.) All legal proceedings instituted in Ireland by or against the
Commissioners or any officers of customs or excise, or the Treasury,
shall, if so required by any party to such proceedings, be heard and
determined before the judges of such Exchequer division, or some or one
of them, and any appeal from the decision in any such legal proceeding,
if by a judge, shall lie to the said division, and if by the Exchequer
division, shall lie to the House of Lords, and not to any other
tribunal; and if it is made to appear to such judges, or any of them,
that any decree or judgment in any such proceeding as aforesaid, has not
been duly enforced by the sheriff or other officer whose duty it is to
enforce the same, such judges or judge shall appoint some officer to
enforce such judgment or decree; and it shall be the duty of such
officer to take proper steps to enforce the same, and for that purpose
such officer and all persons employed by him shall be entitled to the
same immunities, powers, and privileges as are by law conferred on a
sheriff and his officers.
(5.) All sums recovered in respect of duties of Customs and Excise, or
under any Act relating thereto, or by an officer of Customs or Excise,
shall, notwithstanding anything in any other Act, be paid to the
Treasury, and carried to the Customs and Excise account under this Act.
_Police_.
21. The following regulations shall be made with respect to Police,
police in Ireland;
(_a._) The Dublin Metropolitan Police shall continue and be subject as
heretofore to the control of the Lord-Lieutenant as representing Her
Majesty for a period of _two years_ from the passing of this Act, and
thereafter until any alteration is made by Act of the Legislature of
Ireland, but such Act shall provide for the proper saving of all then
existing interests, whether as regards pay, pensions, superannuation
allowances, or otherwise.
(_b._) The Royal Irish Constabulary shall, while that force subsists,
continue and be subject as heretofore to the control of the
Lord-Lieutenant as representing Her Majesty.
(_c._) The Irish Legislature may provide for the establishment and
maintenance of a police force in counties and boroughs in Ireland under
the control of local authorities, and arrangements may be made between
the Treasury and the Irish Government for the establishment and
maintenance of police reserves.
* * * * *
PART II.
SUPPLEMENTAL PROVISIONS.
_Powers of Her Majesty_.
[Sidenote: Power over certain lands reserved to Her Majesty.]
22. On and after the appointed day there shall be reserved to Her
Majesty--
(1.) The power of erecting forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and
other buildings for military or naval purposes;
(2.) The power of taking waste land, and, on making due compensation,
any other land, for the purpose of erecting such forts, magazines,
arsenals, dockyards, or other buildings as aforesaid, and for any other
military or naval purpose, or the defence of the realm.
_Legislative Body._
[Sidenote: Veto by first order of Legislative Body, how over-ruled.]
23. If a Bill or any provision of a Bill is lost by disagreement
between the two orders of the Legislative Body, and after a period
ending with a dissolution of the Legislative Body, or the period of
_three years_, whichever period is longest, such Bill, or a Bill
containing the said provision, is again considered by the Legislative
Body, and such Bill or provision is adopted by the second order and
negatived by the first order, the same shall be submitted to the whole
Legislative Body, both orders of which shall vote together on the Bill
or provision, and the same shall be adopted or rejected according to the
decision of the majority of the members so voting together.
[Sidenote: Cesser of power of Ireland to return members to Parliament.]
24. On and after the appointed day Ireland shall cease, except in the
event hereafter in this Act mentioned, to return representative peers to
the House of Lords or members to the House of Commons, and the persons
who on the said day are such representative peers and members shall
cease as such to be members of the House of Lords and House of Commons
respectively.
_Decision of Constitutional Questions._
[Sidenote: Constitutional questions to be submitted to Judicial
Committee.]
25. _Questions arising as to the powers conferred on the Legislature
of Ireland under this Act shall be determined as follows_:--
(a.) _If any such question arises on any Bill passed by the
Legislative Body, the Lord-Lieutenant may refer such question to
Her Majesty in Council;_
(b.) _If, in the course of any action or other legal proceeding,
such question arises on any Act of the Irish Legislature, any party
to such action or other legal proceeding may, subject to the rules
in this section mentioned, appeal from a decision on such question
to Her Majesty in Council;_
(c.) _If any such question arises otherwise than as aforesaid on
any Act of the Irish Legislature, the Lord-Lieutenant or one of Her
Majesty's principal Secretaries of State may refer such question to
Her Majesty in Council;_
(d.) _Any question referred or appeal brought under this section to
Her Majesty in Council shall be referred for the consideration of
the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council;_
(e.) _The decision of Her Majesty in Council on any question
referred or appeal brought under this section shall be final, and a
Bill which may be so decided to be, or contain a provision, in
excess of the powers of the Irish Legislature shall not be assented
to by the Lord-Lieutenant; and a provision of any Act which is so
decided to be in excess of the powers of the Irish Legislature
shall be void;_
(f.) _There shall be added to the Judicial Committee when sitting
for the purpose of considering questions under this section, such
members of Her Majesty's Privy Council, being or having been Irish
judges, as to Her Majesty may seem, meet._
(g.) _Her Majesty may, by Order in Council from time to time, make
rules as to the cases and mode in which and the conditions under
which, in pursuance of this section, questions may be referred and
appeals brought to Her Majesty in Council, and as to the
consideration thereof by the Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council, and any rules so made shall be of the same force as if
they were enacted in this Act._
(h.) _An appeal shall not lie to the House of Lords in respect of
any question in respect of which an appeal can be had to Her
Majesty in Council in pursuance of this section_.
_Lord-Lieutenant._
[Sidenote: Office of Lord-Lieutenant.]
26.--(1.) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any
Act of Parliament, every subject of Her Majesty shall be eligible to
hold and enjoy the office of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, without
reference to his religious belief.
(2.) The salary of the Lord-Lieutenant shall continue to be charged on
the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, and the expenses of his
household and establishment shall continue to be defrayed out of moneys
to be provided by Parliament.
(3.) All existing powers vested by Act of Parliament or otherwise in the
Chief Secretary for Ireland may, if no such officer is appointed, be
exercised by the Lord-Lieutenant until other provision is made by Act of
the Irish Legislature.
(4.) The Legislature of Ireland shall not pass any Act relating to the
office or functions of the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.
_Judges and Civil Servants_.
[Sidenote: Judges to be removable only on address.]
27. A Judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature or other superior court
of Ireland, or of any county court or other court with a like
jurisdiction in Ireland, appointed after the passing of this Act, shall
not be removed from his office except in pursuance of an address to Her
Majesty from both orders of the Legislative Body voting separately, nor
shall his salary be diminished or right to pension altered during his
continuance in office.
[Sidenote: Provisions as to judges and other persons having salaries
charged on the Consolidated Fund.]
28.--(1.) All persons who at the passing of this Act are judges of the
Supreme Court of Judicature or county court judges, or hold any other
judicial position in Ireland, shall, if they are removable at present on
address to Her Majesty of both Houses of Parliament, continue to be
removable only upon such address from both Houses of the Imperial
Parliament, and if removable in any other manner shall continue to be
removable in like manner as heretofore; and such persons, and also all
persons at the passing of this Act in the permanent civil service of the
Crown in Ireland whose salaries are charged on the Consolidated Fund of
the United Kingdom, shall continue to hold office and to be entitled to
the same salaries, pensions, and superannuation allowances as
heretofore, and to be liable to perform the same or analogous duties as
heretofore; and the salaries of such persons shall be paid out of the
moneys carried to the customs and excise account under this Act, or if
these moneys are insufficient, out of the Irish Consolidated Fund, and
if the same are not so paid, shall continue charged on the Consolidated
Fund of the United Kingdom.
(2.) _If any of these said persons retires from office with the
approbation of Her Majesty before he has completed the period of service
entitling him to a pension, it shall be lawful for Her Majesty, if she
thinks fit, to grant to that person such pension, not exceeding the
pension to which he would have been entitled if he had completed the
said period of service, as to Her Majesty seems meet._
[Sidenote: As to persons holding civil service appointments.]
29.--(1.) All persons not above provided for and at the passing of
this Act serving in Ireland in the permanent civil service of the Crown
shall continue to hold their offices and receive the same salaries, and
to be entitled to the same gratuities and superannuation allowances as
heretofore, and shall be liable to perform the same duties as heretofore
or duties of similar rank, but any of such persons shall be entitled at
the expiration of _two years_ after the passing of this Act to retire
from office, and at any time if required by the Irish Government shall
retire from office, and on any such retirement shall be entitled to
receive such payment as the Treasury may award to him in accordance with
the provisions contained in the Fourth Schedule to this Act.
(2.) The amount of such payment shall be paid to him out of the moneys
carried to the customs and excise account under this Act, or, if those
moneys are insufficient, out of the Irish Consolidated Fund, _and so far
as the same are not so paid shall be paid out of moneys provided by
Parliament_.
[Sidenote: 34 & 35 Vict. c. 36.]
(3.) The Pensions Commutation Act, 1871, shall apply to all persons who,
having retired from office, are entitled to any annual payment under
this section in like manner as if they had retired in consequence of the
abolition of their offices.
(4.) This section shall not apply to persons who are retained in the
service of the Imperial Government.
[Sidenote: Provision for existing pensions and superannuation
allowances.]
30. Where before the passing of this Act any pension or superannuation
allowance has been granted to any person on account of service as a
judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature of Ireland or of any court
consolidated into that court, or as a county court judge, or in any
other judicial position, or on account of service in the permanent civil
service of the Crown in Ireland otherwise than in some office, the
holder of which is, after the passing of this Act, retained in the
service of the Imperial Government, such pension or allowance, whether
payable out of the Consolidated Fund or out of moneys provided by
Parliament, shall continue to be paid to such person, and shall be so
paid out of the moneys carried to the customs and excise account under
this Act, or, if such moneys are insufficient, out of the Irish
Consolidated Fund, and so far as the same is not so paid, shall be paid
as heretofore out of the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom or
moneys provided by Parliament.
_Transitory Provisions._
[Sidenote: Transitory provisions in schedule.]
31. The provisions contained in the Fifth Schedule to this Act
relating to the mode in which arrangements are to be made for setting in
motion the Irish Legislative Body and Government and for the transfer to
the Irish Government of the powers and duties to be transferred to them
under this Act, or for otherwise bringing this Act into operation, shall
be of the same effect as if they were enacted in the body of this Act.
_Miscellaneous._
[Sidenote: Post Office and savings banks.]
32. Whenever an Act of the Legislature of Ireland has provided for
carrying on the postal and telegraphic service with respect to the
transmission of letters and telegrams in Ireland, and the post-office
and other savings banks in Ireland, and for protecting the officers then
in such service, and the existing depositors in such post-office savings
banks, the Treasury shall make arrangements for the transfer of the said
service and banks, in accordance with the said Act, and shall give
public notice of the transfer, and shall pay all depositors in such post
office savings bank who request payment within _six months_ after the
date fixed for such transfer, and after the expiration of such _six
months_ the said depositors shall cease to have any claim against the
Postmaster-General or the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, but
shall have the like claim against the Consolidated Fund of Ireland, and
the Treasury shall cause to be transferred in accordance with the said
Act the securities representing the sums due to the said depositors in
post office savings banks and the securities held for other savings
banks.
[Sidenote: Audit.]
33. Save as otherwise provided by the Irish Legislature,--
(_a._) The existing law relating to the Exchequer and the
Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom shall apply to the Irish
Exchequer and Consolidated Fund, and an officer shall from time to
time be appointed by the Lord-Lieutenant to fill the office of the
Comptroller General of the receipt and issue of Her Majesty's
Exchequer and Auditor-General of public accounts so far as respects
Ireland; and
[Sidenote: 29 & 30 Vict. c. 39.]
(_b._) The accounts of the Irish Consolidated Fund shall be audited
as appropriation accounts in manner provided by the Exchequer and
Audit Departments Act, 1866, by or under the direction of the
holder of such office.
[Sidenote: Application of parliamentary law.]
34.--(1.) The privileges, immunities, and powers to be held, enjoyed,
and exercised by the Irish Legislative Body, and the members thereof,
shall be such as are from time to time defined by Act of the Irish
Legislature, but so that the same shall never exceed those at the
passing of this Act held, enjoyed, and exercised by the House of
Commons, and by the members thereof.
(2.) Subject as in this Act mentioned, all existing laws and customs
relating to the members of the House of Commons and their election,
including the enactments respecting the questioning of elections,
corrupt and illegal practices, and registration of electors, shall, so
far as applicable, extend to elective members of the first order and to
members of the second order of the Irish Legislative Body.
Provided that--
(_a._) The law relating to the offices of profit enumerated in
Schedule H. to the Representation of the People Act, 1867, shall
apply to such offices of profit in the government of Ireland not
exceeding ten, as the Legislature of Ireland may from time to time
direct;
(_b._) After the first dissolution of the Legislative Body, the
Legislature of Ireland may, subject to the restrictions in this Act
mentioned, alter the laws and customs in this section mentioned.
[Sidenote: Regulations for carrying Act into effect.]
35.--(1.) The Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland may make regulations for the
following purposes:--
(_a._) The summoning of the Legislative Body and the election of a
Speaker, and such adaptation to the proceedings of the Legislative
Body of the procedure of the House of Commons as appears to him
expedient for facilitating the conduct of business by that body on
their first meeting;
(_b._) The adaptation of any law relating to the election of
representative peers;
(_c._) The adaptation of any laws and customs relating to the House
of Commons or the members thereof to the elective members of the
first order and to members of the second order of the Legislative
Body; and
(_d._) The mode of signifying their assent or election under this
Act by representative peers or Irish members of the House of
Commons as regards becoming members of the Irish Legislative Body
in pursuance of this Act.
(2.) Any regulations so made shall, in so far as they concern the
procedure of the Legislative Body, be subject to alteration by Standing
Orders of that Body, and so far as they concern other matters, be
subject to alteration by the Legislature of Ireland, but shall, until
alteration, have the same effect as if they were inserted in this Act.
[Sidenote: Saving of powers of House of Lords.]
36. Save as is in this Act provided with respect to matters to be
decided by Her Majesty in Council, nothing in this Act shall affect the
appellate jurisdiction of the House of Lords in respect of actions and
suits in Ireland, or the jurisdiction of the House of Lords to determine
the claims to Irish peerages.
[Sidenote: Saving of rights of Parliament.]
37. _Save as herein expressly provided all matters in relation to
which it is not competent for the Irish Legislative Body to make or
repeal laws shall remain and be within the exclusive authority of the
Imperial Parliament, whose power and authority in relation thereto, save
as aforesaid, shall in nowise be diminished or restrained by anything
herein contained._[75]
[Sidenote: Continuance of existing laws, courts, officers, &c.]
38.--(1.) Except as otherwise provided by this Act, all existing laws
in force in Ireland, and all existing courts of civil and criminal
jurisdiction, and all existing legal commissions, powers, and
authorities, and all existing officers, judicial, administrative, and
ministerial and all existing taxes, licence, and other duties, fees, and
other receipts in Ireland shall continue as if this Act had not been
passed; subject, nevertheless, to be repealed, abolished, or altered in
manner and to the extent provided by this Act; provided that, subject to
the provisions of this Act, such taxes, duties, fees, and other receipts
shall, after the appointed day, form part of the public revenues of
Ireland.
(2.) The Commissioners of Inland Revenue and the Commissioners of
Customs, and the officers of such Commissioners respectively, shall have
the same powers in relation to any articles subject to any duty of
excise or customs, manufactured, imported, kept for sale, or sold, and
any premises where the same may be, and to any machinery, apparatus,
vessels, utensils, or conveyance used in connexion therewith, or the
removal thereof, and in relation to the person manufacturing, importing,
keeping for sale, selling, or having the custody or possession of the
same as they would have had if this Act had not been passed.
[Sidenote: Mode of alteration of Act.]
39.--(1.) _On and after the appointed day this Act shall not, except
such provisions thereof as are declared to be alterable by the
Legislature of Ireland, be altered except--_
(a.) _by Act of the Imperial Parliament and with the consent of the
Irish Legislative Body testified by an address to Her Majesty, or_
(b.) _by an Act of the Imperial Parliament, for the passing of
which there shall be summoned to the House of Lords the peerage
members of the first order of the Irish Legislative Body, and if
there are no such members then twenty-eight Irish representative
peers elected by the Irish peers in manner heretofore in use,
subject to adaptation as provided by this Act; and there shall be
summoned to the House of Commons such one of the members of each
constituency, or in the case of a constituency returning four
members such two of those members, as the Legislative Body of
Ireland may select, and such peers and members shall respectively
be deemed, for the purpose of passing any such Act, to be members
of the said Houses of Parliament respectively._
(2.) _For the purposes of this section it shall be lawful for Her
Majesty by Order in Council to make such provisions for summoning the
said peers of Ireland to the House of Lords and the said members from
Ireland to the House of Commons as to Her Majesty may seem necessary or
proper, and any provisions contained in such Order in Council shall have
the same effect as if they had been enacted by Parliament._
[Sidenote: Definitions.]
40. In this Act--
The expression "the appointed day" shall mean such day after the
_thirty-first day of March in the year one thousand eight hundred and
eighty-seven_ as may be determined by order of Her Majesty in Council.
The expression "Lord-Lieutenant" includes the lords justices or any
other chief governor or governors of Ireland for the time being.
The expression "Her Majesty the Queen," or "Her Majesty" or "the Queen,"
includes the heirs and successors of Her Majesty the Queen.
The expression "Treasury," means the Commissioners of Her Majesty's
Treasury.
The expression "Treaty" includes any convention or arrangement.
The expression "existing" means existing at the passing of this Act.
The expression "existing constituency" means any county or borough, or
division of a county or borough, or a University returning at the
passing of this Act a member or members to serve in Parliament.
The expression "duties of excise" does not include a duty received in
respect of any license whether for the sale of intoxicating liquors or
otherwise.
The expression "financial year" means the twelve months ending on the
_thirty-first day of March_.
[Sidenote: Short title of Act.]
41. This Act may be cited for all purposes as the Irish Government
Act, 1886.
* * * * *
FIRST SCHEDULE.
* * * * *
FIRST ORDER OF THE IRISH LEGISLATIVE BODY.
----------------------+---------------------+------------
Electoral Districts. | Number of Members. | Rotation.
----------------------+---------------------+------------
| |
| |
| |
| |
----------------------+---------------------+------------
* * * * *
SECOND SCHEDULE.
* * * * *
PROVISIONS RELATING TO THE FIRST ORDER OF THE IRISH
LEGISLATIVE BODY.
* * * * *
THIRD SCHEDULE.
* * * * *
BOUNDARIES OF DIVISIONS OF THE CITY OF CORK FOR THE PURPOSE OF
RETURNING MEMBERS TO THE SECOND ORDER OF THE LEGISLATIVE
BODY.
* * * * *
FOURTH SCHEDULE.
* * * * *
PROVISIONS AS TO SUPERANNUATION ALLOWANCES OF PERSONS IN THE
PERMANENT CIVIL SERVICE.
* * * * *
FIFTH SCHEDULE.
* * * * *
TRANSITORY PROVISIONS.
FOOTNOTES:
[74] The clauses printed in italics are the clauses of the Bill which
are specially referred to in the foregoing pages.
[75] This clause is printed as I am informed that it ought to have been
originally printed in the Bill.