IS THE ACT OF UNION A TREATY P
TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—In your issue of November 21st, you give cogent reasons for thinking that the Act of Union is not conclusive as to the number of Irish seats in the United Parliament. Your views would seem to be confirmed by the opinion of those who disestablished the Irish Church. Certain Articles of Union were approved by the British Parliament ; and the Act of Union recites these articles, and enacts that they shall be ths Articles of Union, provided that they are confirmed in Ire- land. From these articles, and these articles only, can support be given to the Irish contention that in all events Ireland shall have a hundred seats in the United Parliament. It is worth while to consider Articles 4 and 5, the articles which provide for the representation of Ireland, and for the Irish
Church Establishment. Article 4 provides,—" That four Lords spiritual of Ireland shall sit and vote in the House of Lords and 100 Commoners shall sit and vote in the House of Commons."
Article 5 provides,—" That the Churches of England and Ireland as now by law established be united and
that the continuance and preservation of the 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."
By the Irish Church Act, 1869, the union between the Churches of England and Ireland was dissolved, and the Irish Spiritual Lords were abolished. If it were right to disestablish the Irish Church, but would be wrong to take seats from Ireland, it seems to follow :—(1), That Article 5 is of less sanctity than Article 4, though the former expressly states that its provisions are to be deemed essential and funda- mental; and (2), that it is lawful to abolish the portion of Article 4 which provides that four Irish Spiritual Lords shall sit in the House of Lords, but that it is unlawful to modify that portion which says that one hundred Commoners shall sit in the Commons. It would be amusing if (as seems probable) some of the baser sort of our adversaries should argue :—By disestablishing the Irish Church we broke a fundamental pro- vision of the Act of Union ; the foundations being gone, it is wrong of us by force to keep up the superstructure ; let us in justice at once repeal the whole Act.—I am, Sir, Sze,
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