WHAT AN IRISH PARLIAMENT MAY DO. T HE Home-rule Bill seems
at first sight so full of restrictions and limitations that it is no wonder if many people carry away from its perusal the impression that, after all, there is not much that the Irish Parliament can do. Yet such an impression is wholly fallacious. In regard to the matters which most nearly touch the lives and happiness of men, the Irish Parliament will be absolutely supreme, or only held in check by a veto which will not be, and is not meant to be, exercised. It is idle to tell the minority in Ireland, who cling to the English connection with the passion born from their knowledge of the temper of the majority, that the Dublin Parliament will not be allowed to make "treaties with foreign States," to confer "dignities or titles of honour," or to regulate "beacons, lighthouses, or sea-marks." What does it matter to them that " quarantine " and " navigation " are excluded subjects, when they know that the Irish Legisla- ture is to have the power of life and death, of abolishing, if it chooses, the most vital of the safeguards to personal liberty that are now enjoyed by the subjects of the Crown, and of crushing those under its authority with unlimited taxation ? If, instead of saying what the Irish Parliament may not do, the Home-rule Bill set forth what it may do, the measure read a first time in the early hours of last Saturday would stand no more chance of passing an English House of Commons than a Bill to repeal the Bill of Rights or the Act of Settlement. Unfortunately, it is exceedingly difficult to carry in one's head all the tremen- dous powers over the lives, happiness, and possessions of men, that are involved in the ability to make laws for the internal government of a country. Hence, the restrictions appear out of all proportion to their true importance, and what is given is forgotten in what is withheld. We will endeavour here to point out some few of the things which an Irish Parliament might do when, after its first three years of existence, it enjoys its full powers. In the first place, it would be able to revolutionise the criminal law. For example, it would be able to make con- spiracies to resist the payment of taxes, or to delay or impede the execution of the Government of Ireland Act," felony punishable with death or penal servitude and forfeiture of goods and chattels, and might further enact that the venue for all trials under the Act should be laid in Dublin or such other place as the prosecution should desire. Such a statute would not be one "whereby any person may be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or may be denied the equal protection of the laws, or whereby private property may be taken without just compensation ;" and, therefore, no one prosecuted under it would be able to plead that it was made ultra vires by the fifth subsection of the fourth clause of the Bill. Yet under such an Act, the chief merchants of Belfast might be tried in Dublin by a Nationalist jury, and if they fled to England, must be banded over to the Irish authorities. This latter is a point worth noticing. The Irish Courts being Courts of the Queen, there will be no question of extradition ; and England would not be able to afford asylum to perse- cuted Ulstermen. However much Englishmen might sympathise with the fugitive, he would, if regularly condemned by due process of law—and due process of law means, of course, any form of trial prescribed by the Dublin Parliament—be delivered up. Our Courts would have no right, as in the case of a, foreign refugee, to consider whether the offence was political in its nature. Again, the Irish Parliament would not be acting ultra vires if it declared it to be " sacrilege" to assault, or to insult, a priest, either by word or deed, or to use or write words intended to bring the priestly office, the sacrifice of the mass, or the Roman Catholic faith generally, into hatred, ridicule, and contempt, or if it punished " sacrilege " as a felony, with seven years' penal servi- tude and forfeiture of goods. That would be a piece of legislation by no means inconsistent with Catholic feeling as it is to be found in countries like Spain. But Ireland, in this respect, is quite as backward as Spain,— witness the temper displayed by the priests in the Meath elections. It will be remembered that a peasant at the hearing of the North Meath petition, showed by his evidence that he allowed the priest to bully and hector him, and made no resistance, "because he was carrying the Blessed Sacrament about with him." No such legis- lative Act, it must be noted, is prevented by the restrictions in the Bill. The only restrictions in regard to legislation conceived in a spirit of religious intolerance' are those which declare that "the powers of the Irish Legislature shall not extend to the making of any law respecting the establishment or endowment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ; or imposing any disability, or con- ferring any privilege, on account of religious belief." But this provision would in no way touch an Act for preventing "sacrilege," and "sacrilegious" writings. Again, the Irish Parliament might, if it chose, abolish Trial by Jury. We do not, of course, say that it would be necessarily wrong to do so ; but merely point out the fact, as an example of how very wide is the power of legislation sought to be conferred by Mr. Gladstone's Bill. Again, after the three years of grace are up, the Irish Parliament might pass an Act allowing any person interested in a contract for the sale or hire of land, to petition a Land Court duly created for the purpose, that such contract was oppressive, inequitable, and contrary to public policy, and ought to be varied. The Act might also direct that the Court, pending the hearing of the petition, should have power to stay all processes instituted for the resumption of possession of the land. This would not be depriving any one of property without due process of law, denying any one the equal protection of the laws, or taking private pro- perty without just compensation, and yet it might be the ruin of half the landlords in Ireland. Under it, the "Plan of Campaign" would be carried out by order of the Court.
Perhaps, however, the best way of making our readers realise 'what the Irish Parliament may do under Mr. Gladstone's Bill is to point out that the Legislature in Dublin would have power to repeal any Act from Magna Charta to the last Act passed before "the appointed day," and to alter any principle of the Common Law or any rule of equity in so far as the Act repealed, or the principle or rule altered, does not contain matters declared to be outside the powers of the Irish Parlia- ment. To understand how small in practice is this reservation, it is only necessary to consider the Acts of Parliament, or the principles of law, under which one seeks protection in daily life. Hardly one of them will be found to be outside the powers of the Dublin Parliament. Before we leave the subject of the powers conferred on the Dublin Parliament, we must notice one very signifi- cant omission from the reservations. The very first thing which a constitutional lawyer asks when he is confronted 'with the constitution of a subordinate legislature is the question : "How far has the tenth Section of the first Article of the Constitution of the United States been followed? "—this is the section under which the legislatures of the States of the Union have certain restrictions placed upon them. In the case of Ireland, it must be declared that two of the most essential restrictions have been left out. These are, that no State shall "pass any ece post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of con- tracts." Since Mr. Bryce is in the Cabinet, this omission can have been due to no oversight, and, therefore, it is the deliberate proposal of the Government that the Irish Par- liament shall be able to pass ex post facto laws, and laws" im- pairing the obligations of contracts." That is, the Dublin Parliament will be able to legislate in regard to debts incurred before it assumed its powers, and what is more, 'will be able to inflict penalties for offences committed before "the appointed day." Farther, it will be able to allow its citizens to break their contracts. No doubt, the drafting of Bills to do these things will sometimes require a little ingenuity, because of clause 4, section 5; but there are a score of Dublin lawyers capable of performing this comparatively easy task. We might dwell further, did space permit, upon the sinister omission of these restric- tions, and upon the possibilities of Irish legislation which they allow. We have, however, said enough to make it clear that under Mr. Gladstone's Bill the Irish Parliament will have ample verge and scope enough" to trace in characters such as the Bard foretold, misery for Ireland and disgrace for England.
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