[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—In his letter concerning
the position of the King in the Anglo-Irish Agreement, Mr. Jeffries writes : " It appears to me that the absence of the legal title His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom ' in the Agreement, and the replacement of it by the title The Government of the United Kingdom,' if maintained in any sanctioning Bill, would alter our whole Constitution and in particular would destroy the prerogatives of the King."
Mr. Jeffries has overlooked the fundamental theory of our Constitution. The King is the Government of the United
Kingdom, and his Ministers are only his agents and have no independent standing ; they form, in fact, a Ministry which exercises and interprets His Majesty's Government. There- fore, when, for diplomatic reasons, the usual title is not used, reference is nevertheless made to the same authority. Mr. Jeffries should not draw a distinction between the constitutional authority of the King and that of his Ministers.
Ireland has always been a " self-authorised " member of the British Commonwealth. The original constitution of the Irish Free State vested the Executive in the King, but provided that : " All powers of Government, and all authority, legislative, executive, and judicial in Ireland are derived from the people
of Ireland."—Yours faithfully, JOHN E. SAYWELLS.
Maiden Erlegh, near Reading, Berks.
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