HOME RULE FINANCE
Home Rule finance is already the subject of a whole library of books
and pamphlets, and there is some danger that the money question may
occupy a place out of all perspective and proportion in the coming
controversy. Men quarrel over money very easily, and some of the
fiercest opponents of Home Rule still imagine that they can silence the
Home Rulers by talking "money" at the top of their voices. But the Home
Rulers must not be drawn into that net. They must refuse to view this
matter as a question merely of book-keeping and accounts. They must
remember always that the financial difficulty is simply another
statement of the fact of Irish poverty, and that Irish poverty is due
to the Act of Union. It is not any financial arrangement, but Home Rule
itself, that will cure the difficulties of Irish finance.
On the one side, the English are being told that they are going to be
bled white in order to please Ireland. On the other side, the Irish are
being warned by their extremists that England hopes to undo the effects
of Home Rule by a dowry of impoverishment. On both sides of the Channel
the enemies of Home Rule hope to use this as a weapon to defeat the
cause. Let us, therefore, keep our heads, and look at the problem
calmly and sanely.
What is the present position in regard to Irish finance? It has totally
changed since 1893. It follows, therefore, that the financial proposals
of the 1886 and the 1893 Bills are of little value to us as a guide to
the policy of 1912.[72] In those days the British Government could
cheerfully propose a fixed contribution of over £4,000,000 from the new
Irish Parliament, as in the Bill of 1886, or an allocation of one-third
of the general revenue of Ireland, for Imperial expenditure, as in the
Bill of 1893. Lord Morley has told us that in 1886 Mr. Parnell was
gravely disturbed over the finance proposals of Mr. Gladstone. We
thought him unreasonable at the time, and perhaps a little mean. I can
remember Liberals saying hard things about the Irish attitude in those
days. But the events that have occurred since prove that Mr. Parnell,
on that occasion, was only exercising his customary shrewdness. He saw
to the root of the matter. He was evidently possessed with the fear
that he might be saddled with a poverty-stricken Home Rule Parliament,
and the course of events since 1886 has somewhat justified his fear.
THE NEW IRISH DEFICIT
For since 1886, two events have happened. The first has been that
Ireland instead of being the creditor is now the debtor of England. The
most recent Treasury estimate, as given by Mr. Asquith in his first
reading speech on the Home Rule Bill of 1912 gives the true deficit of
Ireland for 1912-3 at £1,500,000. I am aware that the Treasury
estimates are open to many criticisms, which have been brilliantly
stated by Professor Kettle in his handbook on "Home Rule Finance,"[73]
but for our present purposes we are bound to accept these figures.
What do they show? In the first place, they fully bear out the forecast
of the Financial Relations Commission that the position of Ireland
under the Act of Union would become steadily worse. We have probably
not yet reached the bottom of the hill. Ireland is so poor that each
new Act for the relief of poverty increases the disproportion between
the expenditure of Great Britain and Ireland. There is no way out of
that vicious circle. If England were to increase Irish taxation she
would simply increase the poverty which she has to relieve. During the
last fifty years, in fact, the British Government has had to give back
in some form of relief an equivalent for almost every increase of
taxation enforced upon Ireland. If Ireland cannot pay, England must
pay. That means that unless Home Rule is given during the next twenty
years Ireland will become an increasingly heavy charge upon Great
Britain.
In face of these facts, it is clear that Great Britain will be wise to
"cut the loss." Considerable scorn has been thrown on the suggestion
made by Professor Kettle and others that Great Britain should present
Ireland with a dowry of £20,000,000 on the occasion of setting up a
Home Rule Parliament. Mr. Kettle called it a "wedding present," to
which Mr. F.E. Smith retaliated with some humour that it was really a
"separation allowance." Mr. Kettle has since replied with even better
humour that as Home Rule is the only true marriage between the nations
his description is the more correct. This is all a pretty play of wit,
but we must not allow it to conceal from us the fact that if John Bull
deals generously with Ireland at this present moment he will be playing
the part, not merely of a philanthropist, but of a good business man.
There are many ways in which this generosity can be shown. A big
capital sum of money would probably be bad both for England and for
Ireland. It would give Ireland a sense of dependence, and it would
leave England with a sense of injury. There are many other better ways
of making this financial adjustment. The charge which has turned
Ireland into a debtor to England, for instance, is the £2,500,000 drawn
from the Imperial Exchequer for Irish Old-age Pensions. The men and
women who are receiving those pensions are the veterans of the famine
period, and England has a special obligation towards them.
The Home Rule Bill of 1912 provides that these old age pensions should
be kept for the moment as an Imperial charge. That will be both a
generous and humane provision.
Another proposal made by Irish financial reformers is that the Royal
Irish Constabulary, a force which costs £1,370,000 a year, should be
regarded and paid for as an Imperial force. The argument is that the
Royal Irish Constabulary was created in the interests of the English
garrison--was, in fact, an army of occupation, which, since the new
settlement of the Irish land question, has become, in Mr. Kettle's
witty phrase, an "army of no occupation."
That proposal is not adopted in the Home Rule Bill of 1912. The force
is kept under the control of the British Government for six years, and
it will then be handed over to Ireland. In the meantime, it will be
paid for out of the money reserved from Irish revenue by the Imperial
Government. We shall have to wait, therefore, for six years before the
Irish Government is able to apply economy to what is perhaps the most
expensive and most extravagant service in the whole administration of
Ireland.
The general financial proposals of the 1912 Bill are as follows:--
The British Treasury takes the Irish revenue and divides it into three
portions. The first is the postal revenue, which will be both collected
and controlled by the Irish Government, as the Post Office will be
handed over immediately. The second is the "transferred" revenue,
amounting to £6,350,000, which is the estimated cost of the services
delegated to the Irish Parliament, such as the Civil Service, the
payment of judges, and so forth. This revenue will still be collected
by the Imperial Government, but handed over to Ireland. The third
portion will be the "reserved" revenue, consisting of the amount
retained by the British Treasury for the services over which it will
retain control. Those services will be as follows:--
£
Old Age Pensions 2,660,000
National Insurance 190,000
Land Purchase 616,000
Constabulary (Royal Irish) 1,380,000
Collection of Revenue 300,000
---------
5,146,000
---------
This leaves the profit and loss account for Great Britain as follows:--
Receipts. Expenditure.
£9,485,000 On "Reserved Services" £5,046,000
On "Transferred Sum" 6,350,000
-----------
£11,396,000
-----------
The upshot is that the British deficit, which stands at present at
£1,500,000, will rise to £1,911,000. That will be covered by a grant of
£500,000 a year. That grant will be reduced annually by decrements of
£50,000 until it reaches £200,000.
There is no need for the British taxpayer to be alarmed at this
balance-sheet. The essential fact is that Home Rule will work steadily
on the side of thrift and saving. The substantial points are--(1) that
pensions will from this time forward steadily decrease; (2) that the
Royal Irish Constabulary will be diminished; and (3) that any increase
in the prosperity of Ireland will result in an increasing yield of
taxation collected by the British Treasury and devoted to the benefit
of the British taxpayer. The British taxpayer, in a word, is thoroughly
well looked after.
Doubtless these proposals will be subjected to much criticism in
committee, and no one would pretend that they could not be improved in
detail. It might be argued, for instance, that it would be better for
Great Britain to make herself responsible for the Royal Irish
Constabulary as an Imperial charge, and therefore have a motive for
reducing it. That action might be taken as a generous substitute for
the bonus of £500,000 a year, which may possibly not produce favourable
effects on the relations between the two countries. As against the
extra charge to the British Treasury, you would have the fact that the
British Government could immediately proceed to reduce the
Constabulary.
But once give Ireland a chance by some such settlement as this, and
then the main problem of finance will solve itself. For we cannot
ignore one very important aspect of that problem--the extravagance of
Irish government. One of the most startling revelations of the
Financial Commission Report was that Ireland, a poor country, cost
twice as much to govern as Belgium, a country of nearly twice the
population. Mr. Kettle has shown since that the Civil Service of
Ireland is four times as great, and costs more than four times as much,
as the Civil Service of Scotland.[74]
Why is this? Because at the present moment two systems of government
are existing in Ireland side by side--the old and the new. The old is
for the most part an encumbrance and an impediment, but the new is
required for doing the work of land purchase and agricultural
development. Ireland is like a household into which a new staff of
servants is being imported, while nobody dares to disturb the old.
Could there be a more extravagant way of governing a country?
The only way to put that house in order is to give it Home Rule. All
the rights of existing civil servants must be respected, and therefore
the saving on that account will only be gradual. Mr. Kettle estimates
it at £700,000 within a reasonable time. That is probably even an
under-estimate. For once this kind of saving begins, it soon tells on a
nation's expenditure. Ireland is at present governed from the point of
view of the place-hunters. Once Ireland begins to be governed from the
point of view of the Irish people, then the reign of extravagance will
be at an end.
Once the Home Rule Parliament is set up we shall be able to distinguish
clearly between Ireland's local and her Imperial obligations. We shall
hear much indignant talk against any proposal that Ireland shall pay
less than her full proportional contribution for Imperial Defence.
Those who are so moved on this question seem to forget that the British
Colonies pay practically nothing. Yet we have never heard that they
are paupers on that account. They certainly derive more from the
Empire than Ireland. Therefore, there would be nothing either degrading
or unjust even if Ireland were relieved from all Imperial expenditure
for a term of years. For Ireland requires time to recover from the
impoverishment of the past, and it may be wise to give her that time.
But once that time is over, the Irish Parliament will probably wish to
follow in the steps of the Grattan Parliament, and contribute her
honest due to the Empire of which she will be a part. But that due must
be paid, not out of deficit, but out of surplus. As long as Ireland has
a deficit produced by poverty, it is absurd to talk to her about
Empire. Once she has a surplus--and a surplus will soon come with the
working of Home Rule--then she will play her part in a manly way.
For we must never forget that Home Rule in itself is a great financial
asset. During the brief period of the Grattan Parliament, as we have
seen, Ireland doubled her exports. During that time the Parliament
carried out public works in every part of Ireland, and industry throve.
Those things cannot be done by an absentee Parliament. They can only be
done by a Parliament on the spot. They are intensely and earnestly
needed by Ireland at present. For Ireland is largely an industrial
derelict, waiting for the restoring hand of a central governing power.
It is impossible to put this aspect of the matter into figures. Here we
must move in faith. But we cannot see this matter clearly unless we
believe firmly--as we have every justification for believing--that Home
Rule means wealth to Ireland.
THE FINANCIAL COMMISSION
But we have to remember that since 1893 a great and authoritative
Financial Commission has reported that England stands in debt to
Ireland.
The British public has never quite realised what the Report of 1896
signified, or quite understood the effect which it produced on the
Irish nation. The Financial Relations Commission was a body created by
the Liberal Government in 1894, soon after the defeat of the Home Rule
Bill, and partly as a consequence of that defeat. It consisted of
fifteen of the ablest financiers in the United Kingdom, including two
great Treasury Chiefs, Lord Farrer and Lord Welby, Sir Robert Hamilton,
Sir David Barbour, and that great Parliamentary financial expert Mr.
W.A. Hunter. The chair was occupied by an ex-Chancellor of the
Exchequer, Mr. Childers.[75] The Commission sat for two years, and
carried out a most searching investigation. They reported in 1896.
Their united Report consists of only two pages in the Blue Book,[76]
and the essence of it is contained in five short paragraphs, as
follows:--
(1) That Great Britain and Ireland must, for the purpose of
this inquiry, be considered as separate entities.
(2) That the Act of Union imposed upon Ireland a burden which,
as events showed, she was unable to bear.
(3) That the increase of taxation laid upon Ireland between
1853 and 1860 was not justified by the then existing
circumstances.
(4) That identity of rates of taxation does not necessarily
involve equality of burden.
(5) That whilst the actual tax revenue of Ireland is about
one-eleventh of that of Great Britain, the relative taxable
capacity of Ireland is very much smaller, and is not estimated
by any of us as exceeding one-twentieth.
Now, what does this amount to? As worked out in the various minority
reports, it means that, in the opinion of this Commission, Ireland has
been over-taxed for many years at the rate of over £2,000,000 a year.
As to the precise sum the Commissioners differ. Some went as high as
£3,500,000, others down to £2,000,000, but all, except Sir Thomas
Sutherland and Sir David Barbour, set it at about £2,000,000. Mr.
Childers, unhappily, died before the close of the Commission. But he
wrote an epoch-making Report, in which he estimated the excess of
taxation at £2,250,000.[77]
Now, it is useless to make light of this Report. It was the solemn
judgment of the highest financiers of the day on the financial workings
of the Act of Union. If we turn back to the debates in Parliament in
1800, especially to the speeches of Pitt, prophesying that the Act of
Union would take the wealth of England across St. George's Channel, and
apply it to Ireland, we cannot escape some sombre reflections on the
short-sightedness of great statesmen. Pitt's judgment was disturbed by
the existence of a war with France, which created in him an intense
desire to unite the two countries. Otherwise he would probably have
foreseen that for a rich partner to unite his finances with a poor
partner certainly meant bankruptcy for the one, and probably, in the
end, also ruin for the other. Taking the nineteenth century as a whole,
the fundamental financial error has been this--that Ireland has been
taxed on the theory of equality with England in point of wealth. That
equality has not existed. What was a light burden for the one country
has proved for the other a burden too heavy to be borne.
The result has been that Ireland, being continually overtaxed, has sunk
steadily in her resources, and has gradually become less and less of a
taxable country. The taxes have returned less and less, and have had to
be returned in the form of relief of poverty. A crisis in that
situation is now reached, and it is quite clear that we stand at the
parting of two roads. Now that the balance is beginning to work against
England, it is certain that the only alternative to the restoration of
Ireland is the gradual dragging down of England.
It is useless and unjust to argue, in answer to this great Report, that
Ireland ought not to have been regarded as a financial unit at all. Any
country that is an island, and possesses a social organisation of its
own, with a definite relationship between rich and poor, must
necessarily be a financial unit. But even if that were not so, it is
too late to argue the question with any honour. For we must never
forget that the whole financial legislation of the United Kingdom in
regard to Ireland is based upon the Act of Union, which was practically
a solemn treaty between the two countries, passed--we will not say
how--by both the British and the Irish Parliaments. It is the essence
of that treaty that Ireland entered into it upon certain financial
terms, and among those terms was the condition that she should be
treated as a separate financial unit.
This Report, therefore, immensely strengthens the claim of Ireland to
more generous financial terms in 1912 than in 1886 or in 1893.
We want to set up in Ireland a high and strong sense of financial
responsibility. The control therefore, as well as the expenditure, must
be placed as far as possible in Irish hands, and for that purpose the
management, as well as the collection, of Irish taxes ought to be left
as far as possible with the Irish Exchequer that must be set up.
The tendency is started by the principle of the Bill of 1912, and the
policy of the next decade will be to place in Irish hands as rapidly
as possible both the collection and the administration of the finance
for all the great Irish services, including those at present "reserved"
as well as those at present "transferred."
This brings us finally to the vexed problem of Customs and Excise. It
is notorious that the greater part of the Irish revenue--the revenue of
a poor country, derived for the most part through indirect taxation--is
drawn from Customs and Excise.[78]
It is not, perhaps, surprising, therefore, that the Bill of 1912 should
go some way towards meeting the demand that has sprung up in various
quarters, both in Ireland and in England, for the control of customs
and excise by the Irish Parliament. The proposal of the Government is
that we should extend to Ireland, with some variations, what is at
present the financial arrangement in regard to customs and excise
between the British Treasury and the Isle of Man. The first fact to be
remembered quite clearly is that the Irish Parliament is absolutely
debarred from creating any new duty. It will not be able to draw up any
new set of tariffs. In other words, it will have to adapt its revenue
to the general financial policy of the central government, whether that
be a free trade policy or a tariff reform policy. But Ireland is to be
allowed to vary her customs within certain limits. She may, for
instance, reduce her customs to the lowest point, on the only condition
that she loses thereby equivalent revenue. But on the main custom
duties which fall on such articles as tea, sugar, cocoa, tobacco, and
so forth, she cannot raise her customs beyond 10 per cent. The only
exceptions will be beer and spirits, on which Ireland may raise her
customs or her excise to any point that she desires. It will be
necessary, of course, to have rebates or countervailing duties in
regard to articles transferred from Great Britain to Ireland, or _vice
versa_, and to that very slight extent alone will these proposals
affect the trade relations between Ireland and England.
I may add that the same power of reduction or addition will extend both
to income tax and death duties up to the limit of 10 per cent. for
increase--a provision which will safeguard the industries of the North
from being sacrificed to the needs of the South.[79]
Such are the proposals of the 1912 Home Rule Bill. They appear to
present an ingenious compromise between the complete delegation of
customs and excise and the complete centralisation. There are very
serious objections to the complete separation of these duties. One is
that separation of customs has been accepted everywhere as vitally
inconsistent with the Federal idea. No State of the American Union has
separate customs. Even Bavaria, a State of the German Empire which
possesses, as we have seen, a separate army, post office, and national
railways, has no separate customs. Such a plan could, therefore, hardly
fit in with Federalism, as at present realised in any part of the
world. The second objection would be the very grave offence given to
the free trade sentiment of Great Britain, and the very grave injury to
trade between Britain and Ireland, if we were to hand over to Ireland
the right of placing taxes on English goods. Under such circumstances
it would certainly be impossible to persuade the British public to
grant a bonus to Ireland in order to give her the power of taxing
British goods. That would clearly be too great a strain upon the
Christian sentiment even of John Bull.
Parnell, it is well known, felt a strong temptation to make a demand
for separate customs. But he always put it aside as impolitic, probably
on this very ground; and the rise of the Tariff Reform movement since
his death has certainly not weakened those considerations, because it
has led to a corresponding rise of free trade feeling among a large
part of the British public on this side of the Channel.
It is quite clear that the Government's compromise on customs and
excise, ingenious as it is, will be subject to very close and shrewd
criticism. But the first duty of Home Rulers, both in Great Britain and
Ireland, is to avoid the carefully-baited trap of a quarrel on points
of detail. That is the obvious game of the enemies of Home Rule. The
proper policy of every true Home Ruler is to preserve through all the
vicissitudes of those financial discussions a sane and steady
perspective, well knowing that, after all, finance is not really the
true heart of this problem.
THE MIGHTY HOPE
We must not reduce a great human problem to a squabble over
pocket-money. We must in this, too, as in the religious and political
sides of the question, have faith in the result of freedom. We must
believe, as we have every right to believe, that liberty will bring to
Ireland a new power over her resources, and a new skill in using
them--that her magnificent harbours will no longer be silent, or her
rivers empty; that her factories will hum once more with a new life and
industry; that the grass will cease to grow in her streets and on her
wharves, and that the rich and strong will cease to fly from her
shores. All this must be taken into account in any reasonable
calculation of the future. It is just as foolish to err from lack of
faith as it is to blunder from excess of credulity.
For here, indeed, we have an excellent precedent to give us hope. It
was the common evidence of all experts at the time that Ireland grew
greatly richer under the twenty years of Grattan's Parliament. The
future Irish Parliament will, just as it will be more representative,
so supply Ireland with a machine even more efficient than Grattan's
Parliament. If so, we have every reason to suppose that within twenty
years we shall have a richer Ireland, with a far greater taxable
capacity. For can we doubt that the alchemy of liberty will here, too,
even in this sordid realm of finance, repeat its ancient power?
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES:
[72] For these proposals see Appendix D.
[73] For instance, in the absence of Irish Customs the estimates of
true Irish revenue can only be approximate. On the expenditure side,
too, there are grave matters of consideration. For instance, should the
vote for Irish Constabulary be regarded as a local or Imperial charge?
Or Irish judges, or even Irish poverty? It was the definite opinion of
the Financial Relations Commission that until Home Rule was set up
there could be no possible way of distinguishing between local and
Imperial expenditure in Ireland.
[74] There are 4,397 civil servants in Ireland with incomes over £160 a
year, as against 944 for Scotland. (Inland Revenue Report, 1909-1910.)
[75] The members of this Commission were:--The Rt. Hon. Hugh Childers,
Lord Farrer, Lord Welby, the Rt. Hon. O'Conor Don, Sir Robt. Hamilton,
Sir Thomas Sutherland, K.C.M.G., Sir David Barbour, K.C.S.I., the Hon.
Ed. Blake, M.P., Bertram W. Currie, Esq., W.A. Hunter, Esq., M.P., C.E.
Martin, Esq., J.E. Redmond, Esq., M.P., Thomas Sexton, Esq., M.P., and
added in June, 1894, Henry F. Slattery, Esq., and G.W. Wolff, Esq.,
M.P.
[76] C. 8262, price 1s. 10d.
[77] Lord MacDonnell has estimated the total over-payment of Ireland in
the nineteenth century as exceeding £300,000,000.
[78] Out of a total tax-revenue of £24,000,000 from 1906-9 Ireland paid
no less than £18,000,000 in Customs and Excise. (Inland Revenue
Report.)
[79] See the Government Outline of Financial Provisions, Appendix A.
HOME RULE
APPENDICES
A. THE HOME RULE BILL OF 1912.
B. THE SHRINKAGE OF IRELAND.
C. THE ACT OF UNION.
D. THE HOME RULE BILLS OF 1886 AND 1893.
E. THE IRISH BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.
F. THE REDUCTION IN IRISH PAUPERISM.
G. THE LAND LAW (IRELAND) ACT, 1881.
H. THE CONGESTED DISTRICTS BOARD.
J. IRISH CANALS AND RAILWAYS.
K. HOME RULE PARLIAMENTS IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE.
APPENDIX A
THE HOME RULE BILL OF 1912.
A BILL TO
[Sidenote: A.D. 1912.]
AMEND the PROVISION for the Government of Ireland. BE it enacted by the
King'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:--
_Legislative Authority._
[Sidenote: Establishment of Irish Parliament.]
1.--(1) On and after the appointed day there shall be in Ireland an
Irish Parliament consisting of His Majesty the King and two Houses,
namely, the Irish Senate and the Irish House of Commons.
(2) Notwithstanding the establishment of the Irish Parliament or
anything contained in this Act, the supreme power and authority of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom shall remain unaffected and
undiminished over all persons, matters, and things within His Majesty's
dominions.
[Sidenote: Legislative powers of Irish Parliament.]
2. Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Irish Parliament shall
have power to make laws for the peace, order, and government of Ireland
with the following limitations, namely, that they shall not have power
to make laws except in respect of matters exclusively relating to
Ireland or some part thereof, and (without prejudice to that general
limitation) that they shall not have power to make laws in respect of
the following matters in particular, or any of them, namely--
(1) The Crown, or the succession to the Crown, or a Regency; or
the Lord Lieutenant except as respects the exercise of his
executive power in relation to Irish services as defined
for the purposes of this Act; or
(2) The making of peace or war or matters arising from a state
of war; or the regulation of the conduct of any portion of
His Majesty's subjects during the existence of hostilities
between Foreign States with which His Majesty is at peace,
in relation to those hostilities; or
(3) The navy, the army, the territorial force, or any other
naval or military force, or the defence of the realm, or any
other naval or military matter; or
(4) Treaties, or any relations, with Foreign States, or
relations with other parts of His Majesty's dominions, or
offences connected with any such treaties or relations, or
procedure connected with the extradition of criminals under
any treaty, or the return of fugitive offenders from or to
any part of His Majesty's dominions; or
(5) Dignities or titles of honour; or
(6) Treason, treason felony, alienage, naturalisation, or aliens
as such; or
(7) Trade with any place out of Ireland (except so far as trade
may be affected by the exercise of the powers of taxation
given to the Irish Parliament, or by the regulation of
importation for the sole purpose of preventing contagious
disease); quarantine; or navigation, including merchant
shipping (except as respects inland waters and local health
or harbour regulations); or
(8) Lighthouses, buoys, or beacons (except so far as they can
consistently with any general Act of the Parliament of the
United Kingdom) be constructed or maintained by a local
harbour authority; or
(9) Coinage; legal tender; or any change in the standard of
weights and measures; or
(10) Trade marks, designs, merchandise marks, copyright, or
patent rights; or
(11) Any of the following matters (in this Act referred to as
reserved matters), namely--
[Sidenote: 8 Edw. 7. c. 40 1 & 2 Geo. 5. c. 16. 1 & 2 Geo. 5. c.
55. 9 Edw. c. 7.]
(a) The general subject-matter of the Acts relating
to Land Purchase in Ireland, the Old Age Pensions Acts,
1908 and 1911, the National Insurance Act, 1911, and
the Labour Exchanges Act, 1909;
(b) The collection of taxes;
(c) The Royal Irish Constabulary and the management
and control of that force;
(d) Post Office Savings Banks, Trustee Savings Banks,
and Friendly Societies; and
(e) Public loans made in Ireland _before the passing
of this Act_:
Provided that the limitation on the powers of the
Irish Parliament under this section shall cease as
respects any such reserved matter if the corresponding
reserved service is transferred to the Irish Government
under the provisions of this Act.
Any law made in contravention of the limitations imposed by this
section shall, so far as it contravenes those limitations, be void.
[Sidenote: Prohibition of laws interfering with religious equality,
&c.]
3. In the exercise of their power to make laws under this Act the Irish
Parliament shall not make a law so as either directly or indirectly to
establish or endow any religion, or prohibit the free exercise thereof,
or give a preference, privilege, or advantage, or impose any disability
or disadvantage, on account of religious belief or religious or
ecclesiastical status, or make any religious belief or religious
ceremony a condition of the validity of any marriage.
Any law made in contravention of the restrictions imposed by this
section shall, so far as it contravenes those restrictions, be void.
_Executive Authority._
[Sidenote: Executive power in Ireland.]
4.--(1) The executive power in Ireland shall continue vested in His
Majesty the King, and nothing in this Act shall affect the exercise of
that power except as respects Irish services as defined for the
purposes of this Act.
(2) As respects those Irish services the Lord Lieutenant or other chief
executive officer or officers for the time being appointed in his
place, on behalf of His Majesty, shall exercise any prerogative or
other executive power of His Majesty the exercise of which may be
delegated to him by His Majesty.
(3) The power so delegated shall be exercised through such Irish
Departments as may be established by Irish Act, or subject thereto, by
the Lord Lieutenant, and the Lord Lieutenant may appoint officers to
administer those Departments, and those officers shall hold office
during the pleasure of the Lord Lieutenant.
(4) The persons who are for the time being heads of such Irish
Departments as may be determined by Irish Act, or, in the absence of
any such determination, by the Lord Lieutenant, and such other persons
(if any) as the Lord Lieutenant may appoint, shall be the Irish
Ministers.
Provided that--
(a) No such person shall be an Irish Minister unless he is a
member of the Privy Council of Ireland; and
(b) No such person shall hold office as an Irish Minister for a
longer period than six months, unless he is or becomes a
member of one of the Houses of the Irish Parliament; and
(c) Any such person not being the head of an Irish Department
shall hold office as an Irish Minister during the pleasure
of the Lord Lieutenant in the same manner as the head of an
Irish Department holds his office.
(5) The persons who are Irish Ministers for the time being shall be an
Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Ireland (in this Act
referred to as the "Executive Committee"), to aid and advise the Lord
Lieutenant in the exercise of his executive power in relation to Irish
services.
(6) For the purposes of this Act, "Irish services" are all public
services in connexion with the administration of the civil government
of Ireland except the administration of matters with respect to which
the Irish Parliament have no power to make laws, including in the
exception all public services in connexion with the administration of
the reserved matters (in this Act referred to as "reserved services").
[Sidenote: Future transfer of certain reserved services.]
5.--(1) The public services in connexion with the administration of the
Acts relating to the Royal Irish Constabulary and the management and
control of that force, shall by virtue of this Act be transferred from
the Government of the United Kingdom to the Irish Government on the
expiration of a period of six years from the appointed day and those
public services shall then cease to be reserved services and become
Irish services.
(2) If a resolution is passed by both Houses of the Irish Parliament
providing for the transfer from the Government of the United Kingdom to
the Irish Government of the following reserved services, namely--
(a) All public services in connexion with the administration of
the Old Age Pensions Acts, 1908 and 1911; or
(b) All public services in connexion with the administration of
Part I. of the National Insurance Act, 1911; or
(c) All public services in connexion with the administration of
Part II. of the National Insurance Act, 1911, and the Labour
Exchanges Act, 1909; or
(d) All public services in connexion with the administration of
Post Office Savings Banks, Trustee Savings Banks, and
Friendly Societies;
the public services to which the resolution relates shall be
transferred accordingly as from a date fixed by the resolution, being a
date not less than a year after the date on which the resolution is
passed, and shall on the transfer taking effect cease to be reserved
services and become Irish services:
Provided that this provision shall not take effect as respects the
transfer of the services in connexion with Post Office Savings Banks,
Trustee Savings Banks, and Friendly Societies until the expiration of
ten years from the appointed day.
(3) On any transfer under or by virtue of this section, the transitory
provisions of this Act (so far as applicable) and the provisions of
this Act as to existing Irish officers shall apply with respect to the
transfer, with the substitution of the date of the transfer for the
appointed day, and of a period of five years from that date for the
transitional period.
_Irish Parliament._
[Sidenote: Summoning, &c., of Irish Parliament.]
6.--(1) There shall be a session of the Irish Parliament once at least
in every year, so that twelve months shall not intervene between the
last sitting of the Parliament in one session and their first sitting
in the next session.
(2) The Lord Lieutenant shall, in His Majesty's name, summon, prorogue,
and dissolve the Irish Parliament.
[Sidenote: Royal assent to Bills of Irish Parliament]
7. The Lord Lieutenant shall give or withhold the assent of His Majesty
to Bills passed by the two Houses of the Irish Parliament, subject to
the following limitations; namely--
(1) He shall comply with any instructions given by His Majesty
in respect of any such Bill; and
(2) He shall, if so directed by His Majesty, postpone giving the
assent of His Majesty to any such Bill presented to him for
assent for such period as His Majesty may direct.
[Sidenote: Composition of Irish Senate.]
8.--(1) The Irish Senate shall consist of forty senators nominated as
respects the first senators by the Lord Lieutenant subject to any
instructions given by His Majesty in respect of the nomination, and
afterwards by the Lord Lieutenant on the advice of the Executive
Committee.
(2) The term of office of every senator shall be eight years, and shall
not be affected by a dissolution; one fourth of the senators shall
retire in every second year, and their seats shall be filled by a new
nomination.
(3) If the place of a senator becomes vacant before the expiration of
his term of office, the Lord Lieutenant shall, unless the place becomes
vacant not more than six months before the expiration of that term of
office, nominate a senator in the stead of the senator whose place is
vacant, but any senator so nominated to fill a vacancy shall hold
office only so long as the senator in whose stead he is nominated would
have held office.
[Sidenote: Composition of Irish House of Commons.]
9.--(1) The Irish House of Commons shall consist of one hundred and
sixty-four members, returned by the constituencies in Ireland named in
the First Part of the First Schedule to this Act in accordance with
that Schedule, and elected by the same electors and in the same manner
as members returned by constituencies in Ireland to serve in the
Parliament of the United Kingdom.
(2) The Irish House of Commons when summoned shall, unless sooner
dissolved, have continuance for five years from the day on which the
summons directs the House to meet and no longer.
(3) After _three years from the passing of this Act_, the Irish
Parliament may alter, as respects the Irish House of Commons, the
qualification of the electors, the mode of election, the
constituencies, and the distribution of the members of the House among
the constituencies, provided that in any new distribution the number of
the members of the House shall not be altered, and due regard shall be
had to the population of the constituencies other than University
constituencies.
[Sidenote: Money Bills.]
10.--(1) Bills appropriating revenue or money, or imposing taxation,
shall originate only in the Irish House of Commons, but a Bill shall
not be taken to appropriate revenue or money, or to impose taxation by
reason only of its containing provisions for the imposition or
appropriation of fines or other pecuniary penalties, or for the payment
or appropriation of fees for licences or fees for services under the
Bill.
(2) The Irish House of Commons shall not adopt or pass any resolution,
address, or Bill for the appropriation for any purpose of any part of
the public revenue of Ireland or of any tax, except in pursuance of a
recommendation from the Lord Lieutenant in the session in which the
vote, resolution, address, or Bill is proposed.
(3) The Irish Senate may not reject any Bill which deals only with the
imposition of taxation or appropriation of revenue or money for the
services of the Irish Government, and may not amend any Bill so far as
the Bill imposes taxation or appropriates revenue or money for the
services of the Irish Government, and the Irish Senate may not amend
any Bill so as to increase any proposed charges or burden on the
people.
(4) Any Bill which appropriates revenue or money for the ordinary
annual services of the Irish Government shall deal only with that
appropriation.
[Sidenote: Disagreement between two Houses of Irish Parliament.]
11.--(1) If the Irish House of Commons pass any Bill and the Irish
Senate reject or fail to pass it, or pass it with amendments to which
the Irish House of Commons will not agree, and if the Irish House of
Commons in the next session again pass the Bill with or without any
amendments which have been made or agreed to by the Irish Senate, and
the Irish Senate reject or fail to pass it, or pass it with amendments
to which the Irish House of Commons will not agree, the Lord Lieutenant
may during that session convene a joint sitting of the members of the
two Houses.
(2) The members present at any such joint sitting may deliberate and
shall vote together upon the Bill as last proposed by the Irish House
of Commons, and upon the amendments (if any) which have been made
therein by the one House and not agreed to by the other; and any such
amendments which are affirmed by a majority of the total number of
members of the two Houses present at the sitting shall be taken to have
been carried.
(3) If the Bill with the amendments (if any) so taken to have been
carried is affirmed by a majority of the total number of members of the
two Houses present at any such sitting, it shall be taken to have been
duly passed by both Houses.
[Sidenote: Privileges, qualifications, &c. of members of Irish
Parliament.]
12.--(1) The powers, privileges, and immunities of the Irish Senate and
of the Irish House of Commons, and of the members and of the committees
of the Irish Senate and the Irish House of Commons, shall be such as
may be defined by Irish Act, but so that they shall never exceed those
for the time being held and enjoyed by the Commons House of Parliament
of the United Kingdom and its members and committees, and, until so
defined, shall be those held and enjoyed by the Commons House of
Parliament of the United Kingdom, and its members and committees at the
date of _the passing of this Act_.
(2) The law, as for the time being in force, relating to the
qualification and disqualification of members of the Commons House of
Parliament of the United Kingdom, and the taking of any oath required
to be taken by a member of that House, shall apply to members of the
Irish House of Commons.
(3) Any peer, whether of the United Kingdom, Great Britain, England,
Scotland, or Ireland, shall be qualified to be a member of either
House.
(4) A member of either House shall be incapable of being nominated or
elected, or of sitting, as a member of the other House, but an Irish
Minister who is a member of either House shall have the right to sit
and speak in both Houses, but shall vote only in the House of which he
is a member.
(5) A member of either House may resign his seat by giving notice of
resignation to the person and in the manner directed by standing orders
of the House, or if there is no such direction, by notice in writing of
resignation sent to the Lord Lieutenant, and his seat shall become
vacant on notice of resignation being given.
(6) The powers of either House shall not be affected by any vacancy
therein, or by any defect in the nomination, election, or
qualification, of any member thereof.
(7) His Majesty may by Order in Council declare that the holders of the
offices in the Irish Executive named in the Order shall not be
disqualified for being members of either House of the Irish Parliament
by reason of holding office under the Crown, and except as otherwise
provided by Irish Act, the Order shall have effect as if it were
enacted in this Act, but on acceptance of any such office the seat of
any such person in the Irish House of Commons shall be vacated unless
he has accepted the office in succession to some other of the said
offices.
_Irish Representation in the House of Commons._
[Sidenote: Representation of Ireland in the House of Commons of the
United Kingdom.]
13. Unless and until the Parliament of the United Kingdom otherwise
determine, the following provisions shall have effect:--
(1) After the appointed day the number of members returned by
constituencies in Ireland to serve in the Parliament of the
United Kingdom shall be forty-two and the constituencies
returning those members shall (in lieu of the existing
constituencies) be the constituencies named in the second
Part of the First Schedule to this Act, and no University
in Ireland shall return a member to the Parliament of the
United Kingdom.
(2) The election laws and the laws relating to the qualification
of parliamentary electors shall not, so far as they relate
to elections of members returned by constituencies in
Ireland to serve in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, be
altered by the Irish Parliament, but this enactment shall
not prevent the Irish Parliament from dealing with any
officers concerned with the issue of writs of election, and
if any officers are so dealt with, it shall be lawful for
His Majesty by Order in Council to arrange for the issue of
any such writs, and the writs issued in pursuance of the
Order shall be of the same effect as if issued in manner
heretofore accustomed.
* * * * *
So far for the constitutional clauses. The clauses from 14 to 26 are
occupied with finance. They are so technical that it will be more
convenient to substitute the terms of the very clear Memorandum issued
by the Government:--
OUTLINE OF FINANCIAL PROVISIONS.
_Present Irish Revenue and Expenditure._
It is estimated that the revenue to be derived from Ireland in the year
1912-13 will be as follows:--
£
Customs 3,230,000
Excise 3,320,000
Income tax 1,512,000
Estate duties 939,000
Stamps 347,000
Miscellaneous 137,000
Post Office 1,354,000
-----------
Total 10,839,000
-----------
It is estimated that the expenditure for Irish purposes in the year
1912-13 will amount to £12,354,000. The expenditure may be divided for
the purposes of this Memorandum as follows:--
£
All purposes not separately specified 5,462,000
Post Office 1,600,000
Old Age Pensions 2,664,000
Charges under the Land Purchase Acts 761,000
National Insurance and Labour Exchanges 191,500
Royal Irish Constabulary 1,377,500
Collection of revenue 298,000
----------
Total 12,354,000
----------
The expenditure therefore exceeds the revenue by £1,515,000.
It is anticipated that in a period of ten or fifteen years the charges
under the existing Land Purchase Acts will increase by £450,000, and
under the National Insurance Act by £300,000. On the other hand, it is
estimated that within twenty years the cost of Old Age Pensions will
decrease by £200,000.
_Charges upon the Irish Exchequer._
The Bill provides for the establishment of an Irish Exchequer and an
Irish Consolidated Fund.
From the Irish Exchequer will be defrayed the whole of the present and
future cost of Irish government, with the exception of the expenditure
on certain services, termed in the Bill Reserved Services.
_Charges upon the Imperial Exchequer._
The Imperial Government will retain the control, and the Imperial
Exchequer will continue to bear the cost, of the Reserved Services,
namely, Old Age Pensions, National Insurance, Labour Exchanges, Land
Purchase, and Collection of Taxes. For a period of six years the Royal
Irish Constabulary will also be one of the Reserved Services.
There are provisions for the transfer to the Irish Government of
certain of the Reserved Services under the conditions stated below.
_Revenue of the Irish Exchequer._
The Bill provides, in the first instance, for the period during which
the yield of Irish taxes is less than the cost of Irish administration,
and contemplates certain modifications after a financial equilibrium
has been attained.
During that period the revenue of the Irish Exchequer will consist of a
sum transferred annually from the Imperial Exchequer, and termed in the
Bill the Transferred Sum, together with the receipts of the Irish Post
Office.
The Transferred Sum will be fixed at the outset at such amount as will
cover, with the addition of the Post Office revenue, the present
expenditure on Irish Government, with the exception of the cost of the
Reserved Services. Included in the Transferred Sum will also be a
specified sum as surplus. The amount of this surplus will be £500,000
annually for a period of three years, then diminishing by £50,000 a
year for six years till it reaches £200,000, at which sum it will
remain.
Subject to this variation in the amount of the surplus and to certain
minor variations specified in the Bill, and subject also to any changes
consequent upon the exercise by the Irish Parliament of the powers of
increasing or reducing taxation which are defined below, the amount of
the Transferred Sum, fixed in the first year after the passing of the
Act, will remain the same until an equilibrium is reached between the
total revenue derived from Ireland and the total expenditure on Irish
purposes.
_Revenue of the Imperial Exchequer from Ireland._
The Bill provides that until such equilibrium is established the whole
of the proceeds of all Irish taxes shall be collected by the Treasury
of the United Kingdom, and be paid into the Imperial Exchequer. (This
provision does not apply to Post Office revenue.)
The revenue so collected should be sufficient to cover the Transferred
Sum and to provide a balance sufficient to defray a part of the cost of
the Reserved Services. As the revenue from Ireland increases in the
future, the receipts of the Imperial Exchequer will increase
proportionately, and the yearly deficit which will fall at the outset
upon the Imperial Exchequer will gradually be lessened and ultimately
disappear.
_Joint Exchequer Board._
The Bill establishes a Joint Exchequer Board of Great Britain and
Ireland, consisting of two members appointed by the Imperial Treasury
and two by the Irish Treasury, with a Chairman appointed by His Majesty
the King.
The duty of the Board will be to determine certain questions of fact
arising from time to time under the financial provisions of the Bill.
The figures given in this Paper are estimates only, and do not purport
to be final. The Bill, therefore, does not rest upon these figures, but
enables fuller returns to be obtained after the passing of the Act, and
it provides that the amounts of Irish Revenue and Expenditure for the
purposes of the Act shall be, not the figures given in this Paper, but
such sums as may be determined after the passing of the Act, upon the
basis of these fuller returns and of the more accurate figures of
Revenue and Expenditure which will then be available, by the Joint
Exchequer Board.
_Revenue and Expenditure Accounts._
If, however, the estimates given above are assumed, for purposes of
illustration, to be the figures finally determined, the Irish
Government's Budget in the first year would balance as follows:--
------------------------------+------------------------------
_Revenue._ | _Expenditure._
£ | £
Transferred Sum 6,127,000 | All purposes not
Post Office 1,354,000 | separately
| specified - 5,462,000
Fee Stamps 81,000 | Post Office - 1,600,000
| ----------
| 7,062,000
| Surplus - 500,000*
---------- | ----------
Total - 7,562,000 | Total - 7,562,000
------------------------------+-------------------------------
* Subject to subsequent reduction as stated above.
The Imperial Government's receipts and expenditure on Irish account
would balance as follows:--
------------------------------+--------------------------------
_Revenue._ | _Expenditure._
£ | £
Irish Revenue | Transferred Sum 6,127,000
(excluding Post | Old Age Pensions 2,664,000
Office and fee | National Insurance
stamps) 9,404,000 | and Labour
Deficit 2,015,000 | Exchanges 191,500
| Land Purchase--
| (1.) Land
| Commission 592,000
| (2.) Other
| Charges 169,000
| Constabulary 1,377,500
| Collection of
| Revenue 298,000
---------- | ----------
11,419,000 | Total 11,419,000
------------------------------+--------------------------------
_Powers of Varying Taxation._
The Bill confers on the Irish Parliament the following financial
powers:--
1. It may add to the rates of Excise Duties, Customs Duties on beer and
spirits, Stamp Duties (with certain exceptions), Land Taxes, or
Miscellaneous Taxes, imposed by the Imperial Parliament.
2. It may add to an extent not exceeding 10 per cent, to the Income
Tax, Death Duties, or Customs Duties other than the duties on beer and
spirits, imposed by the Imperial Parliament.
3. It may levy any new taxes, other than new Customs Duties.
4. It may reduce any tax levied in Ireland, with the exception of
certain Stamp Duties.
The Imperial Treasury will collect the revenue arising from any
increases in taxation enacted by the Irish Parliament in the exercise
of these powers; and an addition will be made to the Transferred Sum of
such amount as the Joint Exchequer Board may determine to be the
produce of the additional taxation. Similarly, if taxation, is reduced
by the Irish Parliament, a deduction will be made from the Transferred
Sum corresponding to the loss of revenue due to the repeal of a tax or
to collection at the lower rates.
The Irish Exchequer will therefore gain or lose by any increase or
decrease in taxation enacted by the Irish Parliament, and the net
revenue of the Imperial Exchequer will remain unaffected by such
changes.
If Excise or Customs Duties are imposed at different rates in Great
Britain and Ireland respectively, provision is made for the adjustment
of the taxes paid in respect of articles passing from one country to
the other.
As administrative difficulties might arise in certain cases if the 10
per cent. limitation mentioned above were in terms to prohibit
additions to the taxes in question to an extent of more than 10 per
cent. of the rates of tax, the Bill effects the object in view by
enacting that only such proceeds of the tax as do not exceed 10 per
cent. of the yield of the Imperial tax shall be transferred to the
Irish Exchequer.
The Bill makes no specific reference to the powers of the Imperial
Parliament to levy taxation in Ireland. The provision in clause 1 that
the supreme power and authority of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
shall remain unaffected retains the existing powers of the Imperial
Parliament in this regard.
_Transfer of the Reserved Services to the Irish Government._
After six years, the control of the Royal Irish Constabulary will pass
to the Irish Executive. The Irish Parliament is empowered to assume at
any time, with twelve months' notice, legislative and executive control
with respect to Old Age Pensions, to National Health Insurance, or to
Unemployment Insurance, together with Labour Exchanges. When any such
transfer of Reserved Services is effected, the financial burden will be
assumed by the Irish Exchequer, and an addition will be made to the
Transferred Sum corresponding to the financial relief given to the
Imperial Exchequer.
_Loans and Capital Liabilities._
Loans made for the purposes of land purchase and loans made before the
passing of the Act for other Irish purposes will be among the Reserved
Services, and the payment of interest and sinking fund charges will be
made by the Imperial Exchequer.
New loans may be raised by the Irish Parliament on the security of the
Irish revenue. Provision is also made for enabling the joint Exchequer
Board, if so authorised by the Irish Parliament, to issue the loans and
to meet the interest and sinking fund charges by means of deductions
from the Transferred Sum.
The Bill provides for the apportionment between the two Exchequers of
liability for existing loans raised for Irish services.
_Readjustment when Financial Equilibrium is reached._
When the total revenue received from Ireland by the Imperial Treasury
has been sufficient, during three consecutive years, to meet the total
charges for Irish purposes, the Exchequer Board shall report the fact
with a view to a revision of the financial arrangements. Since it is
impossible now to foresee what services may remain at that time as
Reserved Services, what loans may have been contracted during the
intervening years, and what changes may have been made in the rates of
taxation, the Bill does not attempt to enact the modifications which
may then be desirable.
It contemplates, however, as part of the present financial settlement,
that Parliament will then consider, on the one hand, the fixing of such
contribution by Ireland to the common expenses of the United Kingdom as
may be equitable, and, on the other hand, the transfer to the Irish
Legislature and Government of the control and collection of such taxes
as may be deemed advisable.
The remaining clauses--from 27 to 47--are concerned with readjustments
as to judges, civil servants, police and other matters, and do not vary
substantially from the corresponding clauses in the Bill of 1893
(published in Appendix D). The first meeting of the Irish Parliament
is fixed for the first Tuesday in September, 1913.
There are only two other clauses which require special notice, as
adding fresh provisions to those laid down in the Bill of 1893.
The first is the 26th clause, which gives to the Irish special powers
of representation at Westminster in the case of a revision of the
financial arrangements:--
"For the purpose of revising the financial provisions of this Act in
pursuance of this section, there shall be summoned to the Commons House
of Parliament of the United Kingdom such number of members of the Irish
House of Commons as will make the representation of Ireland in the
Commons House of Parliament of the United Kingdom equivalent to the
representation of Great Britain on the basis of population; and the
members of the Irish House of Commons so summoned shall be deemed to be
members of the Commons House of Parliament of the United Kingdom for
the purpose of any such revision."
The second--Clause 42--provides that Irish laws shall be interpreted
always in legal subordination to Acts of the Imperial Parliament:--
"(2) Where any Act of the Irish Parliament deals with any matter with
respect to which the Irish Parliament have power to make laws which is
dealt with by any Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed
after the passing of this Act and extending to Ireland, the Act of the
Irish Parliament shall be read subject to the Act of the Parliament of
the United Kingdom, and so far as it is repugnant to that Act, but no
further, shall be void."
APPENDIX B
THE SHRINKAGE OF IRELAND
(1.) THE DECREASE IN POPULATION SINCE 1841.
------+--------------+-----------+-----------+------------------------
Year. | Population. | Decrease. | Decrease | Great Britain.
| | | per cent. | Increase per cent.
| | | +-----------+------------
| | | | England. | Scotland.
------+--------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------
1841 | 8,196,597 | -- | -- | -- | --
1851 | 6,574,278 | 1,622,319 | 19.8 | 12.65 | 10.2
1861 | 5,798,967 | 775,311 | 11.8 | 11.9 | 6.0
1871 | 5,412,377 | 386,590 | 6.7 | 13.21 | 9.7
1881 | 5,174,836 | 237,541 | 4.4 | 14.36 | 11.2
1891 | 4,704,750 | 470,086 | 9.1 | 11.65 | 7.8
1901 | 4,458,775 | 245,975 | 5.2 | 12.17 | 11.1
1911 | 4,381,951 | 76,824 | 1.7 | 10.9 | 6.4
------+--------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------
N.B.--This Table is compiled from the Preliminary Reports of the Census
of 1911, which give the population returns only as far back as 1841.
There was, of course, a Census of the United Kingdom as early as 1801,
but the official returns extended at first only to England and
Scotland, and it was not until 1813 that there was any official census
of Ireland. Even then it was far from correct. The first trustworthy
Irish Census was that of 1821. For 1821 and 1831 the Census figures are
given in "Whitaker" as follows:--
1821 6,801,827
1831 7,767,401
It is probable that the apparent rise of the population from 1821 to
1841 amounts to little more than the more correct taking of the Census
among an illiterate population. But on the whole subject of the rise of
population between 1821 and 1841, see my remarks in Chapter VIII. p.
105. It was due of course very largely to the creation of faggot votes
by Protestant landlords desirous of being returned to Parliament under
the old law before the passing of Catholic Emancipation in 1829. It was
an artificial rise in the poorest section of the population going along
with a steady decline in the general material prosperity of Ireland.
Hence the great collapse of the famine period.
(2.) IRISH FAMILIES SINCE 1841.
(From Preliminary Census Report, 1911.)
----------------+----------------------------------------
Year. | Number of Families.
----------------+----------------------------------------
1841 | 1,472,787
1851 | 1,204,319
1861 | 1,128,300
1871 | 1,067,598
1881 | 995,074
1891 | 932,113
1901 | 910,256
1911 | 912,711 _First Increase since 1841._
----------------+----------------------------------------
(3.) INHABITED HOUSES SINCE 1841.
(From same source.)
----------------+----------------------------------------
Year. | Number of Inhabited Houses.
----------------+----------------------------------------
1841 | 1,328,839
1851 | 1,046,223
1861 | 995,156
1871 | 961,380
1881 | 914,108
1891 | 870,578
1901 | 858,158
1911 | 861,057 _First Increase since 1841._
----------------+----------------------------------------
(4.) EMIGRATION.
For Decennial Periods, 1852-1910.
----------+----------------------+-------------------
Period. | Average Number of | Per 1,000 of
| Emigrants, per year. | Population.
----------+----------------------+-------------------
1852-9 | 115,842 | 15.2
1860-9 | 85,960 | 15.2
1870-9 | 60,327 | 11.2
1880-9 | 80,491 | 16.0
1890-9 | 44,955 | 9.7
1900-9 | 35,886 | 8.1
1910 | 32,457 | 7.4
1911 | 31,058 | 7.
----------+----------------------+-------------------
APPENDIX C
TEXT OF THE ACT OF UNION
An Act for the Union of Great Britain and Ireland.--[2d July 1800.]
WHEREAS in pursuance of His Majesty's most gracious Recommendation to
the Two Houses of Parliament in _Great Britain_ and _Ireland_
respectively, to consider of such Measures as might best tend to
strengthen and consolidate the Connection between the Two Kingdoms, the
Two Houses of the Parliament of _Great Britain_ and the Two Houses of
the Parliament of _Ireland_ have severally agreed and resolved, that,
in order to promote and secure the essential Interests of _Great
Britain_ and _Ireland_, and to consolidate the Strength, Power, and
Resources of the _British_ Empire, it will be advisable to concur in
such Measures as may best tend to unite the Two Kingdoms of _Great
Britain_ and _Ireland_ into One Kingdom, in such Manner, and on such
Terms and Conditions, as may be established by the Acts of the
respective Parliaments of _Great Britain_ and _Ireland:_
And whereas, in furtherance of the said Resolution, both Houses of the
said Two Parliaments respectively have likewise agreed upon certain
Articles for effectuating and establishing the said Purposes, in the
Tenor following:
ARTICLE FIRST.
[Sidenote: That _Great Britain_ and _Ireland_ shall, upon _Jan. 1,
1801_, be united into One Kingdom; and that the Titles appertaining to
the Crown &c., shall be such as His Majesty shall be pleased to
appoint.]
That it be the First Article of the Union of the Kingdoms of _Great
Britain_ and _Ireland_, that the said Kingdoms of _Great Britain_ and
_Ireland_ shall, upon the First Day of _January_ which shall be in the
Year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and one, and for ever
after, be united into One Kingdom, by the Name of _The United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland;_ and that the Royal Stile and Titles
appertaining to the Imperial Crown of the said United Kingdom and its
Dependencies; and also the Ensigns, Armorial Flags and Banners thereof,
shall be such as His Majesty, by His Royal Proclamation under the Great
Seal of the United Kingdom, shall be pleased to appoint.
ARTICLE SECOND.
[Sidenote: That the Succession to the Crown shall continue limited and
settled as at present.]
That it be the Second Article of Union, that the Succession to the
Imperial Crown of the said United Kingdom, and of the Dominions
thereunto belonging, shall continue limited and settled in the same
Manner as the Succession to the Imperial Crown of the said Kingdoms of
_Great Britain_ and _Ireland_ now stands limited and settled, according
to the existing Laws, and to the Terms of Union between _England_ and
_Scotland_.
ARTICLE THIRD.
[Sidenote: That the United Kingdom be represented in One Parliament.]
That it be the Third Article of Union, that the said United Kingdom be
represented in One and the same Parliament, to be stiled _The
Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland._
ARTICLE FOURTH.
[Sidenote: That the Number of Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and of
Commoners herein specified, shall sit and vote on the Part of _Ireland_
in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.]
That it be the Fourth Article of Union, that Four Lords Spiritual of
_Ireland_ by Rotation of Sessions, and Twenty-eight Lords Temporal of
_Ireland_ elected for Life by the Peers of _Ireland_, shall be the
Number to sit and vote on the Part of _Ireland_ in the House of Lords
of the Parliament of the United Kingdom; and One hundred Commoners (Two
for each County of _Ireland_, Two for the City of _Dublin_, Two for the
City of _Cork_, One for the University of _Trinity College_, and One
for each of the Thirty-one most considerable Cities, Towns, and
Boroughs), be the Number to sit and vote on the Part of _Ireland_ in
the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom:
[Sidenote: That such Act as shall be passed in _Ireland_ to regulate
the Mode of summoning and returning the Lords and Commoners to serve in
the Parliament of the United Kingdom shall be considered as Part of the
Treaty of the Union.]
That such Act as shall be passed in the Parliament of _Ireland_
previous to the Union, to regulate the Mode by which the Lords
Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons, to serve in the Parliament of
the United Kingdom on the Part of _Ireland_, shall be summoned and
returned to the said Parliament, shall be considered as forming Part of
the Treaty of Union, and shall be incorporated in the Acts of the
respective Parliaments by which the said Union shall be ratified and
established:
Here follow clauses making provision (1) that the House of Lords shall
decide all questions of rotation or election in regard to Peers from
Ireland, (2) that Irish Peers not sitting in the Lords may be elected
to Commons, but loses thereby all privileges of Peerage, (3) that the
Crown may create Irish Peerages in proportion of one for each three
that become extinct until the Irish Peerage is reduced to 100, when
they can go on creating enough to keep up to the 100.
The rest of this article consists of machinery provisions.
ARTICLE FIFTH.
[Sidenote: The Churches of _England_ and _Ireland_ to be united into
One Protestant Episcopal Church, and the Doctrine of the Church of
_Scotland_ to remain as now established.]
That it be the Fifth Article of Union, That the Churches of _England_
and _Ireland_, as now by Law established, be united into One Protestant
Episcopal Church, to be called, _The United Church of England and
Ireland_; and that the Doctrine, Worship, Discipline, and Government of
the said United Church shall be, and shall remain in full force for
ever, as the same are now by Law established for the Church of
_England_; and that the Continuance and Preservation of the said United
Church, as the established Church of _England_ and _Ireland_, shall be
deemed and taken to be an essential and fundamental Part of the Union;
and that in like Manner the Doctrine, Worship, Discipline, and
Government of the Church of _Scotland_, shall remain and be preserved
as the same are now established by Law, and by the Acts for the Union
of the Two Kingdoms of _England_ and _Scotland_.
ARTICLE SIXTH
places Irish subjects under same laws and provisions in regard to trade
and navigation prohibitions and bounties, imports and exports, and
provides for the gradual abolition of customs duties between Great
Britain and Ireland.
ARTICLE SEVENTH
provides that the Irish National Debt shall be kept distinct from the
British National Debt. It fixes the proportions of contributions to
revenue at 15 for Great Britain as to 2 for Ireland for 20 years. To be
revised at the end of 20 years on a variety of alternative bases of
calculation (Customs, trade, income, etc.). The contributions to be
raised in both countries by taxes fixed by the United Parliament, and
Parliament to have power to vary taxes, unify debt, and any Irish
surplus to be reduced by reduction of taxation. Loans in future to be
common.
ARTICLE EIGHTH
first recites that all present laws to remain in force till repealed.
Provides also that these Articles not to become Act until passed by
Parliament.
Ends by reciting the measure to be passed through Irish Parliament
regulating the representation of Ireland at Westminster after 1801.
APPENDIX D
THE HOME RULE BILLS OF 1886 AND 1893
(1) THE BILL OF 1886.
[Sidenote: A.D. 1886]
A Bill to Amend the provision for the future Government of Ireland.
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 any 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.
Clauses 12 to 20 are the Finance Clauses, which are dealt with at the
end of this Appendix.
_Police._
21. The following regulations shall be made with respect to 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.
Clause 22 reserves to the Crown the power of erecting forts, dockyards,
etc.
_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: Ceaser 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.
Clause 25 refers constitutional questions to the Judicial Committee of
the Privy Council.
Clause 26 abolishes religious test for the Lord Lieutenant.
Clauses 27-30 safeguards interests of Judges and Civil Servants.
Clauses 31-36, transitory and miscellaneous.
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 save as aforesaid, whose power and authority in relation
thereto shall in nowise be diminished or restrained by anything herein
contained.
Clause 38 continues existing laws, courts and officers.
[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.
Clause 40, definition clause.
_Summary of Finance Provisions._
(Clauses 12-20.)
Clause 13. The Irish Parliament is to have the right to impose all
taxes except customs and excise.
The Irish Parliament to pay annually to the British Exchequer these
sums, fixed at the level for the following 30 years:--
£1,466,000 as interest on the Irish share in the National Debt.
1,666,000 towards the Army and Navy.
110,000 towards the Imperial Civil expenditure.
1,000,000 towards the Irish Constabulary.
----------
£4,242,000 in all.
The Irish Exchequer to pay annually £360,000 towards the reduction of
the National Debt, and their payment of interest to be reduced in
proportion.
If any reduction takes place in Army and Navy to the extent of reducing
British proportions below 15 times the Irish, then the Irish to be
reduced by 1-15th.
The Irish Government to receive the revenues of Crown Lands in Ireland.
If the Irish Constabulary is reduced, then the Irish contribution
towards Constabulary to be reduced accordingly.
Clause 14. The first charge for the Irish contributions to be on the
customs and excise collected in Ireland. The rest to go to the Irish
Government.
The first charge on other Irish taxes to be (1) any deficit in Irish
contribution to British Exchequer, (2) any interest on any Irish debt,
(3) Irish public service, (4) Irish judges, etc.
Duty laid upon Irish Government to raise taxes equal to paying these
charges.
Clauses 16 and 17. Provisions as to Irish Church Fund and Irish loans
(now obsolete).
Clause 18. In case of war Irish Government "_may_" contribute more
money for the prosecution of war.
Clauses 19 and 20. Machinery clauses.
(2) THE BILL OF 1893.
[Sidenote: A.D. 1893.]
A Bill intitled an Act to amend the provision for the Government of
Ireland.
WHEREAS it is expedient that without impairing or restricting the
supreme authority of Parliament, an Irish Legislature should be created
for such purposes in Ireland as in this Act mentioned:
Be it therefore 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:
_Legislative Authority._
[Sidenote: Establishment of Irish Legislature.]
1. On and after the appointed day there shall be in Ireland a
Legislature consisting of Her Majesty the Queen and of two Houses, the
Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly.
[Sidenote: Powers of Irish Legislature.]
2. With the exceptions and subject to the restrictions in this Act
mentioned, there shall be granted to the Irish Legislature power to
make laws for the peace, order, and good government of Ireland in
respect of matters exclusively relating to Ireland or some part
thereof. Provided that, notwithstanding anything in this Act contained,
the supreme power and authority of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland shall remain unaffected and undiminished
over all persons, matters, and things within the Queen's dominions.
[Sidenote: Exceptions from powers of Irish Legislature.]
3. The Irish Legislature shall not have power to make laws in respect
of the following matters or any of them:--
(1.) The Crown, or the succession to the Crown, or a Regency;
or the Lord Lieutenant as representative of the Crown; or
(2.) The making of peace or war or matters arising from a state
of war; or the regulation of the conduct of any portion of
Her Majesty's subjects during the existence of hostilities
between foreign states with which Her Majesty is at peace,
in respect of such hostilities; or
(3.) Navy, army, militia, volunteers, and any other military
forces, or the defence of the realm, or forts, permanent
military camps, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other
needful buildings, or any places purchased for the erection
thereof; or
(4.) Authorising either the carrying or using of arms for
military purposes, or the formation of associations for
drill or practice in the use of arms for military purposes;
or
(5.) Treaties or any relations with foreign States, or the
relations between different parts of Her Majesty's
dominions, or offences connected with such treaties or
relations, or procedure connected with the extradition of
criminals under any treaty; or
(6.) Dignities or titles of honour; or
(7.) Treason, treason-felony, alienage, aliens as such, or
naturalization; or
(8.) Trade with any place out of Ireland; or quarantine, or
navigation, including merchant shipping (except as respects
inland waters and local health or harbour regulations); or
(9.) Lighthouses, buoys, or beacons within the meaning of the
Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, and the Acts amending the same
(except so far as they can consistently with any general
Act of Parliament be constructed or maintained by a local
harbour authority); or
(10.) Coinage; legal tender; or any change in the standard of
weights and measures; or
(11.) Trade marks, designs, merchandise marks, copyright, or
patent rights.
Provided always, that nothing in this section shall prevent the passing
of any Irish Act to provide for any charges imposed by Act of
Parliament, or to prescribe conditions regulating importation from any
place outside Ireland for the sole purpose of preventing the
introduction of any contagious disease.
It is hereby declared that the exceptions from the powers of the Irish
Legislature contained in this section are set forth and enumerated for
greater certainty, and not so as to restrict the generality of the
limitation imposed in the previous section on the powers of the Irish
Legislature.
Any law made in contravention of this section shall be void.
4. The powers of the Irish Legislature shall not extend to the making
of any law--
(1.) Respecting the establishment or endowment of religion,
whether directly or indirectly, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; or
(2.) Imposing any disability, or conferring any privilege,
advantage, or benefit, on account of religious belief, or
raising or appropriating directly or indirectly, save as
heretofore, any public revenue for any religious purpose,
or for the benefit of the holder of any religious office as
such; or
(3.) Diverting the property or without its consent altering the
constitution of any religious body; or
(4.) Abrogating or prejudicially affecting the right to
establish or maintain any place of denominational education
or any denominational institution or charity; or
(5.) Whereby there may be established and endowed out of public
funds any theological professorship or any university or
college in which the conditions set out in the University
of Dublin Tests Act, 1873, are not observed; or
(6.) Prejudicially affecting the right of any child to attend a
school receiving public money, without attending the
religious instruction at that school; or
(7.) Directly or indirectly imposing any disability, or
conferring any privilege, benefit, or advantage upon any
subject of the Crown on account of his parentage or place
of birth, or of the place where any part of his business is
carried on, or upon any corporation or institution
constituted or existing by virtue of the law of some part
of the Queen's dominions, and carrying on operations in
Ireland, on account of the persons by whom or in whose
favour or the place in which any of its operations are
carried on; or
(8.) Whereby any person may be deprived of life, liberty, or
property without due process of law in accordance with
settled principles and precedents, or may be denied the
equal protection of the laws, or whereby private property
may be taken without just compensation; or
(9.) Whereby any existing corporation incorporated by Royal
Charter or by any local or general Act of Parliament may,
unless it consents, or the leave of Her Majesty is first
obtained on address from the two Houses of the Irish
Legislature, be deprived of its rights, privileges, or
property without due process of law in accordance with
settled principles and precedents, and so far as respects
property without just compensation. Provided nothing in
this subsection shall prevent the Irish Legislature from
dealing with any public department, municipal corporation,
or local authority, or with any corporation administering
for public purposes taxes, rates, cess, dues, or tolls, so
far as concerns the same.
Any law made in contravention of this section shall be void.
_Executive Authority._
5.--(1.) The executive power in Ireland shall continue vested in Her
Majesty the Queen, and the Lord Lieutenant, or other chief executive
officer or officers for the time being appointed in his place, on
behalf of Her Majesty, shall exercise any prerogatives or other
executive power of the Queen the exercise of which may be delegated to
him by Her Majesty, and shall, in Her Majesty's name, summon, at least
once in every year, prorogue, and dissolve the Irish Legislature; and
every instrument conveying any such delegation of any prerogative or
other executive power shall be presented to the two Houses of
Parliament as soon as conveniently may be. Provided always that the
lieutenants of counties shall be appointed by the Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland as representing Her Majesty.
(2.) There shall be an Executive Committee of the Privy Council of
Ireland to aid and advise in the government of Ireland, being of such
numbers, and comprising persons holding such offices under the Crown as
Her Majesty or, if so authorised, the Lord Lieutenant may think fit,
save as may be otherwise directed by Irish Act.
(3.) The Lord Lieutenant shall, on the advice of the said Executive
Committee, give or withhold the assent of Her Majesty to Bills passed
by the two Houses of the Irish Legislature, subject nevertheless to any
instructions given by Her Majesty in respect of any such Bill.
6. All the powers and jurisdiction to be exercised in accordance with
the provisions of the Foreign Enlistment Act, 1870, and the Fugitive
Offenders Act, 1881, by the Lord Lieutenant or Lord Justices, or other
Chief Governor or Governors of Ireland, or the Chief Secretary of the
Lord Lieutenant, shall be exercised by the Lord Lieutenant in pursuance
of instructions given by Her Majesty.
_Constitution of Legislature._
7.--(1.) The Irish Legislative Council shall consist of forty-eight
councillors.
(2.) Each of the constituencies mentioned in the First Schedule to this
Act shall return the number of councillors named opposite thereto in
that schedule.
(3.) Every man shall be entitled to be registered as an elector, and
when registered to vote at an election, of a councillor for a
constituency, who owns or occupies any land or tenement in the
constituency of a rateable value of more than twenty pounds, subject to
the like conditions as a man is entitled at the passing of this Act to
be registered and vote as a parliamentary elector in respect of an
ownership qualification or of the qualification specified in section
five of the Representation of the People Act, 1884, as the case may be:
Provided that a man shall not be entitled to be registered, nor if
registered to vote, at an election of a councillor in more than one
constituency in the same year.
(4.) The term of office of every councillor shall be eight years, and
shall not be affected by a dissolution; and one half of the councillors
shall retire in every fourth year, and their seats shall be filled by a
new election.
8.--(1.) The Irish Legislative Assembly shall consist of one hundred
and three members, returned by the existing parliamentary
constituencies in Ireland, or the existing divisions thereof, and
elected by the parliamentary electors for the time being in those
constituencies or divisions.
(2.) The Irish Legislative Assembly when summoned may, unless sooner
dissolved, have continuance for five years from the day on which the
summons directs it to meet and no longer.
(3.) After six years from the passing of this Act, the Irish
Legislature may alter the qualification of the electors, and the
constituencies, and the distribution of the members among the
constituencies, provided that in such distribution due regard is had to
the population of the constituencies.
9. If a Bill or any provision of a Bill adopted by the Legislative
Assembly is lost by the disagreement of the Legislative Council, and
after a dissolution, or the period of two years from such disagreement,
such Bill, or a Bill for enacting the said provision, is again adopted
by the Legislative Assembly and fails within three months afterwards to
be adopted by the Legislative Council, the same shall forthwith be
submitted to the members of the two Houses deliberating and voting
together thereon, and shall be adopted or rejected according to the
decision of the majority of those members present and voting on the
question.
_Irish Representation in House of Commons._
10. Unless and until Parliament otherwise determines, the following
provisions shall have effect--
(1.) After the appointed day each of the constituencies named
in the Second Schedule to this Act shall return to serve
in Parliament the number of members named opposite thereto
in that schedule, and no more, and Dublin University shall
cease to return any member.
(2.) The existing divisions of the constituencies shall, save as
provided in that schedule, be abolished.
(3.) The election laws and the laws relating to the
qualification of parliamentary electors shall not, so far
as they relate to parliamentary elections, be altered by
the Irish Legislature, but this enactment shall not prevent
the Irish Legislature from dealing with any officers
concerned with the issue of writs of election, and if any
officers are so dealt with, it shall be lawful for Her
Majesty by Order in Council to arrange for the issue of
such writs, and the writs issued in pursuance of such Order
shall be of the same effect as if issued in manner
heretofore accustomed.
Clauses 11-20 are the finance clauses, which are dealt with at the end
of this Appendix.
Clauses 21 and 22 substitute the Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council as Court of Appeal for Ireland in place of House of Lords.
Clause 23 abolishes religious test for the Lord Lieutenant.
Clauses 25-28 safeguard interests of Judges, Civil Servants.
29.--(1.) The forces of the Royal Irish Constabulary and Dublin
Metropolitan Police shall, when and as local police forces are from
time to time established in Ireland in accordance with the Fifth
Schedule to this Act, be gradually reduced and ultimately cease to
exist as mentioned in that Schedule; and thereupon the Acts relating to
such forces shall be repealed, and no forces organised and armed in
like manner, or otherwise than according to the accustomed manner of a
civil police, shall be created under any Irish Act; and after the
passing of this Act, no officer or man shall be appointed to either of
those forces;
Provided that until the expiration of six years from the appointed day,
nothing in this Act shall require the Lord Lieutenant to cause either
of the said forces to cease to exist, if as representing Her Majesty
the Queen he considers it inexpedient.
Sections (2) to (5) safeguard interests of existing police.
Clauses 30-33. Miscellaneous.
34.--(1.) During three years from the passing of this Act, and if
Parliament is then sitting until the end of that session of Parliament,
the Irish Legislature shall not pass an Act respecting the relations of
landlord and tenant, or the sale, purchase, or letting of land
generally: Provided that nothing in this section shall prevent the
passing of any Irish Act with a view to the purchase of land for
railways, harbours, waterworks, town improvements, or other local
undertakings.
(2.) During six years from the passing of this Act, the appointment of
a judge of the Supreme Court or other superior court in Ireland (other
than one of the Exchequer judges) shall be made in pursuance of a
warrant from Her Majesty countersigned as heretofore.
Clause 35. Transitory.
Clause 39. Definitions, etc.
_Summary of Finance Provisions._
(Clauses 11-20.)
The General Revenue of Ireland to be kept apart as specified. One-third
to be allocated to Imperial expenditure. Two-thirds to form the special
revenue of Ireland and to be spent in purely Irish expenditure.
War taxes to be imposed on Ireland simultaneously and identically with
Great Britain and to be paid into the British exchequer.
After six years all taxation except customs and excise to be
transferred to Ireland and all these arrangements to be revised.
APPENDIX E
THE IRISH BOARD OF AGRICULTURE
This Board was set up in 1899 by the Agriculture and Technical
Instruction (Ireland) Act.
The constructive clauses of this Act are the following:--
Clause 1 establishes a Department of Agriculture, its powers to be
exercised either by the President or Vice-President.
Clauses 2, 3, 4 and 5 define its powers.
Part II. creates the advisory machinery to which reference is made in
the text, and they run as follows:--
_Consultative Council, Agricultural Board and Board of Technical
Instruction, and Financial Provisions._
7. For the purpose of assisting the Department in carrying out the
objects of this Act there shall be established--
(a) a Council of Agriculture;
(b) an Agricultural Board; and
(c) a Board of Technical Instruction.
8.--(1.) The Council of Agriculture shall consist of the following
members:--
(a) Two persons to be appointed by the county council of each
county (other than a county borough) in each province; and
(b) A number of persons resident in each province equal to the
number of counties (exclusive of county boroughs) in the
province, to be appointed by the Department with due regard
to the representation on the council of any agricultural or
industrial organisations in the province.
(2.) For the purposes of this section the county of Cork shall be
regarded as two counties, and four persons shall be appointed by the
council of that county.
(3.) The members representing each province shall constitute separate
committees on the Council and shall be styled the provincial committees
of the respective provinces.
9. The Agricultural Board shall consist of the following members:--
(a.) Two persons to be appointed by the provincial committee
of each province; and
(b.) Four persons to be appointed by the Department.
10. The Board of Technical Instruction shall consist of the following
members:--
(a.) Three persons to be appointed by the county council of
each of the county boroughs of Dublin and Belfast;
(b.) One person to be appointed by a joint committee of the
councils of the several urban county districts in the
county of Dublin; such committee to consist of one member
chosen out of their body by the council of each such
district;
(c.) One person to be appointed by the council of each county
borough not above mentioned;
(d.) One person to be appointed by the provincial committee of
each province;
(e.) One person to be appointed by the Commissioners of National
Education;
(f.) One person to be appointed by the Intermediate Education
Board; and
(g.) Four persons to be appointed by the Department.
11. The Council of Agriculture shall meet at least once a year for the
purpose of discussing matters of public interest in connexion with any
of the purposes of this Act.
12. The Agricultural Board shall advise the Department with respect to
all matters and questions submitted to them by the Department in
connexion with the purposes of agriculture and other rural industries.
13. The Board of Technical Instruction shall advise the Department with
respect to all matters and questions submitted to them by the
Department in connexion with technical instruction.
APPENDIX F
THE REDUCTION IN IRISH PAUPERISM OWING TO OLD AGE PENSIONS
The Report of the Irish Local Government Board for 1911 shows a
reduction in Irish pauperism between March, 1910, and March 26th, 1911,
amounting to over 18,000:--
March 26th, 1910 99,607
March 25th, 1911 80,942
------
18,665
An analysis of the figures shows that the reduction is almost entirely
due to the Old-age Pensions Act. There is little or no reduction in
children, lunatics, or mothers, while there are the following
reductions in aged and infirm paupers:--
-----------------------------------+---------+---------+------------
| 1910. | 1911. | Reduction.
-----------------------------------+---------+---------+------------
Aged and infirm in work-houses | 13,478 | 11,291 | 2,187
| | |
Aged and infirm on out-door relief | 51,304 | 35,681 | 15,623
-----------------------------------+---------+---------+------------
Total | 17,810
+------------
leaving only 855 of the reduction unaccounted for.
APPENDIX G
THE LAND LAW (IRELAND) ACT, 1881
The provisions which have revolutionised the land system of Ireland are
contained in Clause 8 of the Land Act of 1881, which runs as follows:--
8.--(1.) The tenant of any present tenancy to which this Act applies,
or such tenant and the landlord jointly, or the landlord, after having
demanded from such tenant an increase of rent which the tenant has
declined to accept, or after the parties have otherwise failed to come
to an agreement, may from time to time during the continuance of such
tenancy apply to the court to fix the fair rent to be paid by such
tenant to the landlord for the holding, and thereupon the court, after
hearing the parties, and having regard to the interest of the landlord
and tenant respectively, and considering all the circumstances of the
case, holding, and district, may determine what is such fair rent.
(2.) The rent fixed by the court (in this Act referred to as the
judicial rent) shall be deemed to be the rent payable by the tenant as
from the period commencing at the rent day next succeeding the decision
of the court.
(3.) Where the judicial rent of any present tenancy has been fixed by
the court, then, until the expiration of a term of fifteen years from
the rent day next succeeding the day on which the determination of the
court has been given (in this Act referred to as a statutory term),
such present tenancy shall (if it so long continue to subsist) be
deemed to be a tenancy subject to statutory conditions, and having the
same incidents as a tenancy subject to statutory conditions consequent
on an increase of rent by a landlord.
APPENDIX H
THE IRISH CONGESTED DISTRICTS BOARD
The present Congested Districts Board, so often referred to in the
text, is constituted under the following clauses of the Irish Land Act
of 1909:--
45.--(1.) From and after the appointed day, the Congested Districts
Board shall consist of the following members:--
(a.) The Chief Secretary, the Under Secretary to the Lord
Lieutenant, and the Vice-President of the Department of
Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, who
shall be ex officio members:
(b.) Nine members appointed by His Majesty (in this Act
referred to as appointed members):
(c.) Two paid members appointed by His Majesty (in this Act
referred to as permanent members).
(2.) An appointed member shall hold office for five years, and shall be
eligible for re-appointment. On a casual vacancy occurring by reason of
the death, resignation, or incapacity of an appointed member or
otherwise, the person appointed by His Majesty to fill the vacancy
shall continue in office until the member in whose place he was
appointed would have retired, and shall then retire.
46.--(1.) For the purposes of the Congested Districts Board (Ireland)
Acts, as amended by this Act, each of the following administrative
counties, that is to say, the counties of Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim,
Roscommon, Mayo, Galway, and Kerry, shall be a congested districts
county, the six rural districts of Ballyvaghan, Ennistymon, Kilrush,
Scariff, Tulla, and Killadysert, in the county of Clare, shall together
form one congested districts county, and the four rural districts of
Bantry, Castletown, Schull, and Skibbereen, in the county of Cork,
shall together form one congested districts county.
(2.) No electoral division shall, after the passing of this Act, be or
form part of a congested districts county, unless it is included in a
congested districts county constituted under this section.
The Act follows closely on the lines of the Report of the 1908
Commission, and places a third of Ireland under the Board.
APPENDIX J
(1.) RECOMMENDATION IN REGARD TO IRELAND OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON
CANALS AND INLAND NAVIGATION
(1.) That such waterways in Ireland as, on a review of all the facts,
your Majesty's Government may deem of importance to the cause of cheap
inland transport, should come under State control; and
(2.) That a Controlling Authority should be constituted for the purpose
of taking over those inland waterways which are already under the
control of the State, of Local Authorities, or of a public trust, and
of acquiring such other waterways as are determined to be of importance
either to the drainage of the country, or to the cause of cheap inland
transport.
(2.) IN REGARD TO IRISH RAILWAYS
The principal recommendation of the Majority Report of the Viceregal
Commission on Irish Railways (1910) runs as follows:--
(1.) That an Irish Authority be instituted to acquire the
Irish Railways and work them as a single system.
(2.) That this Authority be a Railway Board of twenty
Directors, four nominated and sixteen elected.
(3.) That the general terms of purchase be those prescribed by
the Regulation of Railways Act of 1844 (7 and 8 Vic. cap. 85.
sec. 2), with supplementary provisions as to redemption of
guarantees, and purchase of non-dividend paying or non-profit
earning lines.
(4.) That the financial medium be a Railway Stock; and that
such stock be charged upon (1) the Consolidated Fund; (2) the
net revenues of the unified Railway system; (3) an annual grant
from the Imperial Exchequer; and (4) a general rate, to be
struck by the Irish Railway Authority if and when required.
APPENDIX K
(1.) HOME RULE PARLIAMENTS IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Canada 10
Australia 7
South Africa 5
Newfoundland 1
New Zealand 1
--
Total 24
--
Besides these Autonomous Parliaments--
(1.) India has also now seven "Legislative Councils," partly
elective.
(2.) The Isle of Man has "House of Keys," with almost complete
legislative power.
(3.) The Channel Islands have their own semi-independent
governing Assemblies.
(4.) The Crown Colonies have Assemblies possessing a
considerable local representative element.
WYMAN & SONS, LTD., Printers, Fetter Lane, London, E.C.; and Reading.
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