Of course, he is in law estopped from that line
of argument by his consenting to have recourse to the ' British. Parliament to alter the words in which an agreement made• with a body• of British subjects then in arms against the forces of the: United Kingdom was endorsed by an Aet of Parliament. • We must remember that those British subjects in rebellion were never recognized as belligerents or treated in any way as an independent Power till the passage of the Act which, in fact, negatived the claim that the Free State was a sovereign and independent entity. Therefore, when Mr. Cosgrave bases his claims on the fact that there was "a state of war and treaties arising out of it," and talks of an "Anglo-Irish war," he may be expressing Irish sentiment rhetorically, but his view is certainly, bad in law. Again,' he is on very dangerous ground _when he insists so much upon the words "the wishes of the inhabitants" em- ployed in Article 12.--; The-area in which the wishes of the inhabitants -are to be- ascertained is not prescribed.
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