Chapter XXII: Part III: Contemporary Views (2)

It was largely owing to the maintenance under the Union of the separate administration in Ireland, combined with the retention during the first sixteen years of the separate exchequers, that Parliament was obliged to legislate separately for the different portions of the United Kingdom. These were the years of the Napoleonic wars, when very heavy taxation was imposed; and, not only was a separate Act passed, according to the custom of the time, for each article that was to be taxed, but this taxation was, on account of the separate exchequers, imposed by separate Acts for Great Britain and for Ireland. In these circumstances it is not surprising to find that the most numerous Statutes of the first twenty years of the century were those whose application was confined to Great Britain or to Ireland, and that they considerably exceeded in number those which applied to the whole of the United Kingdom or to England alone. After the amalgamation of the exchequers in 1817, the annual average of Statutes applying to Great Britain dropped at once from thirty-five to seven, and gradually decreased still further, since most of the financial measures were passed thenceforward for the whole of the United Kingdom alike. But Ireland, in spite of the financial amalgamation, continued to call for a large amount of separate legislation, and the annual average of Statutes applying solely to Ireland dropped no more than from thirty-one in the decade 1811-20, to nineteen in the following decade, at which point it remained fairly constant during the greatest part of the nineteenth century. Throughout this period, the average annual number of what I call “United Kingdom” Statutes ranged between forty-nine in the decade 1861-70, and thirty-two in 1881-90, and of Statutes that applied solely to England between fifty-eight in 1881-90, and twenty-three in 1801-10. It should be added that the numbers are those of the Public Acts alone, and they would be much higher, particularly in the later years, if the Local and Private Acts were included in the enumeration. But the public Statutes are obviously alone relevant in any enquiry as to the extent to which the Union of the Parliaments has led to legislative uniformity, and it is very significant that, even upon these public matters, Parliament has been unable at any time since the Act of Union, to avoid the necessity for a large amount of separate legislation for Ireland.

The figures up to 1890 are taken from Mr. T. A. Spalding’s “Federation and Empire,” which contains many interesting particulars, and I have worked out the figures for the two succeeding decades, but not exactly on the same basis. Mr. Spalding includes the Provisional Order Confirmation Acts which were not distinguished from other Public Acts until the middle of last century, but I omit them as not partaking of the character of general legislation, and the number of separate Acts given for England, Scotland and Ireland is considerably reduced by this omission.

In my first table, which gives the total, not the annual average, I divide the Public General Acts into two wide categories: those, which I term “United Kingdom” Statutes, that apply to the Dominions, the Colonies, or India, as well as those which apply to the United Kingdom as a whole; and those, which I term “State” Statutes, that apply to England, Scotland or Ireland alone, to any two of these three countries, or, in a very few cases, only to the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.

Public General Acts, 1891-1910.

United State. Total. Kingdom. 1891-1900 295 336 631 1901-1910 252 206 458 Total 547 542 1,089

It will be noticed that there is a curious approximation between the numbers in the two columns, and nearly half the legislative output of Parliament thus takes a form which is at any rate contrary to the spirit of the Act of Union. Excluding financial measures during the few years when the exchequers of Great Britain and Ireland continued to be separate, it would have been anticipated that the legislation under the Union would be uniform, or at least tend to uniformity, and it is very significant that, after more than a hundred years, so much separate legislation should still be required for the several portions of the United Kingdom. But I will postpone any further comments on this situation until I have shown how the “State” Acts are divided up as between the three countries and what are the principal subjects with which they deal.

From my classification of the “State” Acts according to countries, I have omitted the twenty-one Acts which apply solely to the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, one Scottish and Irish Act, and one Welsh Act; and, as to Wales, I may take the opportunity to say that I do not prejudge its claim to separate treatment in any measure of Home Rule all round, but that I shall not specifically mention Wales in this paper, partly in order to avoid the repeated enumeration of the four countries in the place of England, Scotland and Ireland, partly because the claim of the Principality, so far as it may be based on laws and administration that are distinct from those of England, is exceedingly weak. Education, however, is already separately administered, separate Insurance Commissioners have been appointed for Wales, and an important Welsh Intermediate Education Act was passed in 1889, just before the period that is covered by the following table.

“State” ACTS, 1891-1910.

England. Scotland. Ireland. Great England Total.
Britain. and
Ireland.
1891-1900 140 74 72 17 21 324
1901-1910 78 37 57 14 9 195
Total 218 111 129 31 30 519

The above table shows, so far as mere numbers are concerned, how far the pressure upon the Parliament of the United Kingdom would be removed if it were relieved of the responsibility for English, Scottish and Irish legislation, respectively; and, in view of the relative population of the three countries, we cannot be surprised at the conclusion to be drawn from the figures that the main cause of the legislative congestion lies in the fact that the laws relating exclusively to England and those applying to the United Kingdom as a whole, have to be passed by one and the same Parliament. We should, then, seek for some form of delegation which would remove English and Scottish, as well as Irish legislation, from the purview of the existing Parliament; but, in the meanwhile, the figures show that the removal of the Irish business would relieve matters appreciably, and it is probable, without counting the Home Rule Bills, which should not be regarded as exclusively Irish measures, that the Irish legislative proposals take more of the time of the House of Commons than would be represented by the proportion which they bear to the total legislative output.

I now pass to the subject-matter of the Acts of Parliament; and I again turn to Mr. Spalding’s book. He has made a most interesting analysis of the statutes up to the year 1890, from which it appears that Parliament had been unable to legislate by Acts applying over the whole of the United Kingdom whenever it had had to deal with the administration of justice and the laws relating to any of the following subjects: the tenure and occupation of land; the holding, transfer, and devolution of property (including land); the Church; the poor; local government, rural and urban; roads, railways, and canals; and education.(160) These are the subjects, that is to say, on which Parliament had been obliged to pass separate laws for the different parts of the United Kingdom, and the study of this centrifugal tendency seemed to me so important that I have continued (on the next page) the analysis for the following twenty years.

The first impression derived from this table is that the division between the subjects on which the legislation covers the whole of the United Kingdom, and those on which it has a narrower application, is much the same as during the earlier period. Parliament continues to legislate separately for the “States” in the matters in which it has been its practice so to do, and this in itself is a very significant consideration in view of the strong contrary inducement resulting from the growing congestion of Parliamentary business. Thus, taking the last three headings on the list, we see that in regard to Education, the Poor, and the Church, all the legislation during the twenty years was of a “State” character, while the very numerous Acts relating to Local Administration were in almost every instance equally limited in their application. When we pass to Law and Justice, and to Land and Agriculture, we find that the “State” predominance is not quite so marked, but even so, there were three times as many “State” as “United Kingdom” laws, and we conclude that, though the pressure of Parliamentary business is against it, “State” legislation continues to hold the field over a wide and varied range of legislative activity.

Public General Acts.—United Kingdom.(161)

Date. 1891-5 1896-1900 1901-5 1906-10 Total Imperial. 24 12 13 15 64 Army and 15 25 18 14 72 Navy. Conditions 10 9 5 10 34 of Employment. Benefit. 6 5 2 5 18 Finance. 37 30 29 28 124 General 40 21 20 31 112 Administration. Trade and 6 12 9 18 45 Commerce. Traffic. 4 1 3 8 Law and 16 4 5 14 39 Justice. Land and 7 4 1 8 20 Agriculture Local 3 4 1 3 11 Administration Education Poor Law Church Total 168 127 106 146 547

States (England, Scotland And Ireland, Separately, And Combinations Of Any Two Of Them).

Date. 1891-5 1896-1900 1901-5 1906-10 Total Imperial. Army and Navy. Conditions of Employment. Benefit. Finance. 3 10 4 17 General 7 10 8 7 32 Administration. Trade and 9 6 9 12 36 Commerce. Traffic. 4 4 8 Law and 40 43 9 31 123 Justice. Land and 23 11 7 22 63 Agriculture. Local 49 55 23 34 161 Administration. Education. 9 10 11 10 40 Poor Law. 4 15 4 2 25 Church. 3 10 2 1 16 Total. 151 174 77 119 521

At the other end of the scale are the subjects on which Parliament is always able to legislate for the whole of the United Kingdom by a single Statute. The Imperial Laws are those which are promoted by the Foreign, Colonial, and India Offices, and concern our relations with Foreign Powers or with some portion of the British Empire. The Army and Navy laws include not only the Naval and Military Works Acts, but any Acts dealing with the Territorial and Reserve Forces. The next two classes may be bracketed together as Labour Laws, but are distinct according as they relate to the conditions of employment of the workers, for instance, in shops, coal mines, or factories, or to the benefits which accrue to them through Workmen’s Compensation, Friendly and other Societies, and Old-Age Pensions. In both these cases, also, all the laws apply to the whole of the United Kingdom as do the great majority of the laws in the next two headings of Finance and General Administration. The “State” Acts under Finance are those by which Parliament has made grants towards the local expenditure upon education and towards the relief of the land from local burdens, and has done so separately for the three countries; and the “State” Acts of General Administration deal with the Central Departments which are maintained separately for England, Scotland, and Ireland. The heading of traffic is of dwindling importance, and the enumeration ends with trade and commerce where the “United Kingdom” laws have a slight numerical superiority.

I have confined myself here to a few summary remarks upon the different legislative headings as I have discussed the matter in greater detail elsewhere;(162) nor do I wish to enlarge upon the conclusions that might be drawn from the figures. The South African War is evidently responsible for the greater number of Military Acts in 1896-1900; and the slowing down of the Parliamentary machine during Mr. Balfour’s Administration is reflected in the smallness of the total legislative output in 1901-5. Moreover, since the Unionists were in power throughout 1901-5, and the Liberals throughout 1906-10, there is scope for a direct comparison of the records of the two Governments, but such considerations have no bearing upon our present purpose.

On the contrary, I hope that the opponents as well as the supporters of Home Rule would agree that, since Home Rule involves a division of legislative powers between the Parliament of the United Kingdom and the Irish Parliament, it is not only pertinent, but necessary, that we should make ourselves acquainted with the lines upon which Parliament has, in practice, divided up its legislative business. For, while the point should not be pressed too far, I would suggest that the separate Irish laws, and, for that matter, the separate English and Scottish laws, constitute a kind of internal devolution, which is all the more significant because Parliament has not been actuated by any preconceived purpose; and that the subjects which are now dealt with by “State” laws are, for that very reason, those of which Parliament should naturally be relieved under any scheme of Home Rule. Similarly, it might be claimed that Parliament should retain those powers which it is now able to exercise in common for the whole of the United Kingdom; but the position is not the same in the two cases. In its anxiety to economise time, Parliament does not hesitate to render its measures applicable to the whole of the United Kingdom by appending to them clauses which regulate separately the application of the provisions to Scotland and Ireland; and where these “application clauses,” as they are called, are long and complicated, it is probable that separate measures for the different parts of the United Kingdom could be adjusted more closely to the local requirements. On the other hand, we may be sure that Parliament would not have passed, for instance, separate Local Government Acts for England, Scotland and Ireland, each of which took up much of its time, unless it had been obliged to do so; and we may assume, whenever such separate Acts are passed, that Parliament had some strong reason for its action, though, of course, I do not imply that Parliament has legislated also for England and Scotland on every subject on which it has passed an Act that related exclusively to Ireland.

But it may be said that, while I have sufficiently described these separate laws, I have not explained why they are passed, nor have I given any reason why they must be continued. The separate laws are passed because England, Scotland and Ireland have in many respects distinct and different institutions. In Ireland, for instance, neither the position of the Church, nor the organisation of the police or of the Courts of Justice, nor the law in regard to the tenure of land, nor the system of education or of local government in general, is the same as in England or in Scotland; while Ireland is also subject to an exceptional code of criminal law. And the institutions of England and Scotland differ also very widely from one another. “After a long period of intimate union between England and Scotland,” said Lord Lothian, in 1887, in a speech in the House of Lords upon the proposed enlargement of the powers of the Secretary for Scotland, “people are apt to forget how entirely distinctive and different the administration of Scotland is from that of England. There is almost no point of resemblance. There are different forms of religion and different social forms affecting almost every portion of Scotland. There is a different code of education—an entirely different code of education—and different systems of agriculture. There are also different systems affecting the law of lunacy and parochial laws, and almost every other department.”(163) And these differences between the three countries, which are the direct cause of the distinctive laws, must surely be regarded as permanent, seeing that they have persisted since the respective Acts of Union. Neither Scotland nor Ireland would willingly surrender its separate judicial and ecclesiastical institutions or its separate machinery of administration. Indeed, the prevailing tendency favours increased differentiation, and it has the support of Unionists as well as of Liberals. The Unionists have recently created new Irish Departments in Dublin, such as the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, and when the Liberals had re-established the office of Secretary for Scotland after a lapse of nearly a century and a half, the Unionists proceeded to add considerably to its powers.

We may thus take it as axiomatic that, in the absence of Imperial Federation, or of a proposal such as Home Rule whereby Parliament can be relieved of some of its legislative duties, it must continue to occupy itself with five different categories of laws: Imperial laws, affecting the British Dominions beyond the seas; laws applying to the whole of the United Kingdom; and laws which relate exclusively to England, to Scotland and to Ireland. Moreover, while each legislative sphere has its parallel sphere of administration, the sole and supreme authority, except so far as the Dominions look after their own affairs, is centred, as with the legislative power, in a single body, the Government of the United Kingdom, which holds an absolutely unique position in the extent and variety of its responsibilities. In both these functions, then, we may have serious doubts as to how the system works, but I am unable to give any direct evidence in regard to the Executive. Though it is inherently improbable that a small group of men should be able adequately to supervise so varied a collection of interests, the subject is obviously one in which it is almost impossible to obtain precise information. The Cabinet of 1880-5 was not altogether happy in its multiplex activities, and complaints were rife of the neglect of home affairs during the South African War. Speaking generally, indeed, the Unionists, according to their adversaries, subordinate domestic to Imperial interests, while the critics of the Liberals would say that the Liberals reverse the process. And there we may leave the question, while agreeing, I hope, that Home Rule, or preferably Home Rule all round, would be beneficial so far as it would relieve the pressure upon a Cabinet that can scarcely fail to be overworked. And if there is any doubt as to the Cabinet there can be no doubt that Parliament is overworked to a very grievous extent. Irrespective of the strain upon individual numbers, it is admittedly unequal to the efficient discharge of its manifold functions. It cannot do all that it should do, and much of what it does do, it does without proper discussion. As to the first of these shortcomings, I am glad to be able to quote from an article in the _Round Table_(164) for December, 1911, in which, after a detailed comparison of the time that is available to the House of Commons with the demands that are made upon it, the conclusion is reached that “the legislative requirements of the country are too great for the available Parliamentary time.” And, as to the absence of proper discussion, the reader may be referred to the remarks on every occasion when the use of the guillotine closure is proposed, while the final inadequacy of the House of Commons is implicit in the recent admission of the Prime Minister, when proposing the guillotine motion upon the National Insurance Bill, that, without a resort to this method of procedure, the House cannot carry out the duties which it is required by the country and the interests of the Empire to discharge. Moreover, it should be borne in mind that, in trying to get all this diverse work out of a single Parliament, Governments have not only grievously restricted its legislative powers, but have also reduced the opportunities for discussion on administration and finance which are at least equally important functions of any supreme Parliamentary authority.

But the agitation in connection with the National Insurance Act will keep public attention sufficiently focussed upon the manner in which Parliament does its legislative work, and I pass from the amount of the work to the consequences arising from its variety. As the Cabinet must supervise both domestic and Imperial affairs, and Parliament must deal separately with these two branches of legislation, so the electorate should not overlook either the Imperial or domestic views of those who seek its suffrages. But an elector may be faced by the difficulty that he likes the Imperial views of one candidate and the domestic views of the other, while the same man must represent him in both of these aspects in the House of Commons. In 1900 the Liberal supporter of the South African War was confronted with this dilemma in an acute form; and, in view of subsequent disputations, it may be taken to have been unfortunate that the party which won the elections of 1900, almost entirely on Imperial considerations, should thereby have been placed also in charge of our domestic concerns. And there was a similar confusion of issues in 1906, when, because a man was a tariff reformer or a free-trader, it did not necessarily follow that, in the former event, he was for, or, in the latter, against, the Conservative policy in regard to the liquor trade or religious instruction in the elementary schools. No small advantage, therefore, would accrue from Home Rule all round in the fact that separate categories of issues would be placed separately before the constituencies.

And the electoral confusion is reproduced in the House of Commons; for there can be no doubt that the Liberals suffered under this disability in the Parliament of 1900, and the Conservatives in that of 1906. But, in the case of the Member, the connection with so many diverse interests has also other objectionable consequences. Supposing he sits for an English constituency, his responsibility extends to Scottish and Irish laws and administration, as to which he will know little or nothing, while his constituents will usually be indifferent as to what he may do. Illustrating this matter from my own experience as an English county Member, I may say, regarding my votes upon the Scottish Small Landholders and Valuation Bills, and the Irish Evicted Tenants and Land Bills, that not one of these subjects brought me any letter from a constituent, or was the occasion of any reference whatever in the course of any of my political meetings. And, since there is no reason to suppose that other English constituencies would feel or act differently, all these votes of English Members are in reality irresponsible, and they are to be condemned upon the principles of representative Government. For, in spite of the observance of its outward forms, its true spirit is absent wherever there is a failure of the healthy interplay of influences between a Member and his constituents; and here again, Home Rule all round could alone relieve the situation. Through the establishment of separate Parliaments in England, Scotland and Ireland, a Member’s work in each of these bodies would be confined, as regards public affairs, to matters by which his constituents were or might be affected and in which there was the normal and proper relation between the electors and those whom they had elected.

Moreover, there is a further evil effect arising from the inevitable indifference of constituents to much of the legislation which does not apply to the country in which they live. In view of the divergence of interests and diversity of classes represented in every Parliament, there is probably no legislature in which there is not a tendency to “log-rolling,” by which I mean arrangements among Members to support measures about which they do not care in return for help with measures in which they are particularly concerned. This temptation will be greater when the Parliament is not only overworked, as is the case here, but the struggle is intensified by the rivalry between English, Scottish, and Irish claims upon its attention. In the resultant situation, indeed, arrangements of a “log-rolling” character are likely to be made even upon the wider issues, and the fact should not be overlooked that they are rendered more easy because so many laws are passed separately for England, Scotland, and Ireland. In theory, of course, as Professor Dicey claims, it is the duty of a Member, whencesoever returned, to consult for the interests of the whole nation, and not to safeguard the interests of particular localities or countries; but in practice he cannot do it. The subjects for legislation are so complicated that he cannot make himself acquainted with them as they affect each of the three countries, and the pressure upon Parliament is so tremendous that he is almost bound to try to get for his own country a fair share of such time as is available. It is, therefore, wiser to bow to the inevitable, and enable the English, Scottish, or Irish Member, as the case may be, to look after his own concerns in his own Parliament, untroubled by the presence of others who do not understand his business and will not be called to account by their constituents for what they may do, while leaving the control of all common affairs, as at present, to the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

There are, however, valid reasons why Ireland has a pre-eminent claim to priority of treatment. Ireland has been much less successful than England or Scotland in securing that Parliamentary action should be in accordance with the wishes of the majority of its Members in the House of Commons. Where the representatives of three countries together constitute a legislative body, it is probable that each of these countries will at some time or other be under the sway of a majority different from that which would be formed if its own representatives alone decided upon its composition; but it is clear that this fate is less likely to overtake the country which has a great numerical preponderance in the legislature in question. Thus, taking the period since 1885, England, holding 465 of the 670 seats in the House of Commons, was only in this position from 1892-5, for at the two elections in 1910 there was almost a tie in the return of 226 Ministerialists and 239 supporters of the Opposition. And this great preponderance of one of the countries adds to the likelihood that the others may have the majority of their own representatives in a minority of the whole representation. I have not been discussing the separate case of Wales, and so I will only say that, of the 30 Welsh Members, on no occasion in the twenty-seven years have the Unionists been able to muster more than 8; and Scotland has scarcely responded more closely to the swing of the pendulum in England. Though the Unionists were in power for fifteen out of the twenty-seven years, they had a majority in Scotland, and that a very small one, only in the Parliament of 1900. But Scotland on the whole does not come off badly, since it is not the practice of the Members from the other countries to vote down the Scottish representatives. Where Scotland does suffer is in their inability, owing to their numerical weakness, to secure a fair share of attention for Scottish domestic concerns. A law on Scottish Education, for instance, though it got into the Queen’s Speech for 1900, was not enacted until 1908, and the Scottish Members never have more than one day in the Session for the discussion of all the Scottish Estimates. When we pass to Ireland, it is difficult to make any similar comparison, for, though the Nationalists sit permanently in opposition in the House of Commons, it does not follow that they should be classed as being opposed to the Liberals as well as to the Unionists. If we regard them as opposed to both of the principal parties, then, when the Liberals have been in power, every Irish Member with one single exception must be reckoned to have been among their opponents. But, if we prefer to base our calculations upon the sort of informal understanding which has existed during most of the time between the Liberals and the Nationalists, we must confine our attention, from the present point of view, to the years of Unionist Government, and we find that, of the 103 Irish representatives, the number of Irish Unionists during those periods has never exceeded 23 and has been as low as 19. Thus, putting the various figures which have been quoted into percentages, it becomes evident that England has had to live under a Liberal Government when the Unionists (in 1892-5) had 58 per cent. of the total English representation; Scotland has had to live under a Unionist Government when the Liberals (in 1886-92) had 60 per cent. of the total Scottish representation; whereas Ireland has had to live under a Unionist Government when the Nationalists had as much as 81 per cent. of the total Irish representation. And it must be borne in mind that, while England and Scotland are only rarely governed in opposition to the wishes of the majority of their representatives, Ireland has continued to be preponderantly Nationalist irrespective of party fluctuations in Great Britain.

In these circumstances, Ireland, whether in its Nationalist or its Unionist constituencies, never expresses any other opinion than for or against Home Rule. We regret the confusion at all elections in the United Kingdom between Imperial and domestic issues, but at least we get an idea of the views of the electorate in Great Britain on some big Imperial question, or as between Free Trade and Protection. In Ireland we get nothing of the kind; it is impossible to say, for instance, whether Ireland is in favour of Tariff Reform or not; and the votes of the great majority of its representatives in the House of Commons are usually given, not with reference to the views of their constituents on the question under discussion, but solely in relation to the attainment of Home Rule. Now, this attitude of the Nationalists is evidently adopted because Irish domestic concerns are decided in the House of Commons by men who are not Irish representatives; and it may be remarked that Scotsmen, and even, to some extent, Englishmen, are also liable to have their wishes on purely domestic affairs over-ridden by the representatives of the other countries, but that they do not, on that account, subordinate everything else to the effort to release themselves from this anomaly.

But, apart from the consideration, as we have seen above, that the Irish have been the principal sufferers, the Irish electorate are entitled, if this is a free country, to choose the issue which shall be put forward, and we should sympathise with them when they ask to be allowed to manage their domestic affairs without interference, in accordance with the principles of representative government. It is immaterial how far the Irish Nationalists have actually been able to get their own way in the House of Commons, for their efforts have usually been in vain until after a lawless agitation in Ireland, which, as a means of securing redress for grievances, is as demoralising to the legislator as to the elector. And when the law for which the Irish have asked has been passed without any such outside pressure, it is evident that the votes of the majority of the Irish representatives would have been useless unless sufficient English and Scottish Members had been willing to fall in with their wishes. Every Irish Nationalist knows, therefore, that a majority of the Irish representatives is by itself utterly unable to carry a purely Irish measure through the House of Commons, however often it may have been advocated, and however large may have been the Irish majorities in its favour; and representative government cannot fail to be brought into disrepute in Ireland, on account of its futility under existing conditions. Moreover, if representative institutions are to work well, there should be, so far as is possible, in every constituency supporters and opponents of the Government on the current questions of the day, for it is only by constant discussion and interaction that we can secure a sound relation between Parliament and the country. But nothing of the kind takes place in Ireland. Through their dissociation from the division into parties that prevails in Great Britain, the bulk of the Irish people are not informed as to the views on topics other than Home Rule of the Liberals, Unionists, or Labour men. In the greater part of Ireland, the Nationalist candidate is returned unopposed or is opposed only by another Nationalist; and when this is so, the party in power, whether it be Unionist or Liberal, is usually without any machinery by which its case is put before the electorate. Elsewhere, in Ireland, the Unionists have their organisation against Home Rule, and so far the Liberals are even in a worse position, for, though they have had the supreme control of affairs for the last six years, there are not half a dozen constituencies in Ireland where they have any means by which they can learn the views of the people or explain the policy of the Government. And yet Ireland, like the rest of the United Kingdom, is supposed to live under representative institutions! No doubt I may be reminded that the Nationalist Members are in touch with local opinion in Ireland, and that they are the informal allies of the Liberals; but the Nationalist attitude is concerned with little else but Home Rule, and it is just because, in existing circumstances, the Irish do not declare themselves, or perhaps even form an opinion, on ordinary political issues, that our representative system has broken down so much more severely in Ireland than in England or in Scotland.

And thus I conclude my survey of the practical working of the Act of Union. I have shown that the domestic affairs of the three countries are, in continuance of what was done before the Union of the Parliaments, or as the result of subsequent developments, ordered in many respects separately for England, Scotland, and Ireland, and that there is no question in any quarter of the elimination of these separate arrangements. But they have led, as has been further demonstrated, to many difficulties in connection with our system of Parliamentary government, and it is only by the sub-division of the responsibilities between two or more Parliaments that such difficulties can satisfactorily be overcome. We have, therefore, valid grounds for the advocacy of Home Rule, apart from the particular claims of Ireland, though they, of course, serve to strengthen the argument; and, in considering what form the proposals should take, we cannot do better than study carefully how far England, Scotland, and Ireland are now governed in common and how far each of the three countries is governed separately. For the subjects in which there is now separate treatment are those which would be transferred under Home Rule with the smallest breach of continuity, or rather, in the natural course of our constitutional evolution.

(III) Colonial Forms Of Home Rule. BY SIR ALFRED MOND, BART., M.P.

One of the most important elements in the problem of Home Rule must be the relation between the spheres of legislation to be retained by the existing Parliament, and those to be allocated to the subordinate Irish Legislature. Such demarcation will be applied later to the other local Parliaments which may be created for England, Scotland and Wales. The creation of subordinate legislatures, together with the retention of a central Parliament, must necessarily lead to the study of federal systems already in existence in the Empire, and of the mutual relations of similar bodies within such federations. It is true that a certain influential school of political thought is rather disposed to compare the position of the future Irish Parliament to that of the Dominion Parliaments in their relations with the Parliament at Westminster. The effort, however, to draw an analogy between Ireland in her relations with Great Britain, and the relations existing between the three Dominions and the United Kingdom is most misleading. The difference between those dominions and Ireland is indeed far more striking than the similarity, whether they are compared either from the point of view of area, of present and future population, or of geographical position. The narrowness of the strip of sea that separates Ireland from Great Britain places it from a military and naval standpoint in a very different position to that of Canada, Australia, or South Africa. Whereas the great distance at which these Dominions are situated imposes upon them the necessity of creating their own defensive forces, a separate Irish Navy or Army would have no _raison d’etre_. Again, not only the distance but the different environment and climate of these Dominions, and, particularly in the cases of Canada and South Africa, their greater non-British population, naturally promote the development of a sense of national entity and therefore of a desire for a greater measure of national independence than is felt or demanded by Ireland, in spite of her strong national sentiment. Supposing for argument’s sake, that the whole of the Canadian, Australian, and South African Dominions formed geographically with Great Britain one continuous territory such as the United States of America, it is clear that there would have been no call for granting the various Dominions the almost sovereign powers which they now enjoy. What would most probably arise in such a hypothetical case would be a single federal complex, comprising a central authority or parliament and a large number of state legislatures.

As a matter of fact the form of government of these various Dominions and their relations to the Mother Country are largely a geographical accident. It is impossible to conceive a system of “Home Rule all round” in which England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland would have the same positions and powers as Canada, Australia and South Africa, and would maintain the same relations towards each other as all three Dominions now occupy towards the United Kingdom. Nor could such an idea be entertained by any one framing a constitution, intended to be the commencement of the federalisation, first of the United Kingdom and afterwards in due time of the British Empire, when circumstances and the growth of public opinion render it possible to secure the representation of the Dominions in an expanded Imperial Parliament.

In a truly federal system such as those of Canada and Australia, the citizens who elect representatives direct to the Federal Parliament to deal with the broader issues and interests of the Commonwealth, are naturally fully represented. If the Irish Legislature is to be precluded from dealing with Imperial matters, it is obviously only just that the Irish people, as citizens of the Empire, should send a proportionate number of representatives to the Imperial Parliament to express their views on Imperial subjects, and, under a perfect federal system, the expression of their views would be confined to Imperial subjects. This would consequently necessitate the continued presence of a certain number of Irish members at Westminster. In view of the fact that the “in and out” system, which caused so much criticism of Mr. Gladstone’s Bill, has been in force for over forty years in the Hungarian Parliament at Budapest, in which the Croatian representatives are only entitled to vote on matters affecting the whole Kingdom, while precluded from voting on those affecting Hungary alone, it is evident that the practical inconvenience cannot be anything like so great as has been imagined. But whatever inconvenience might result to the Government from the presence of Irish representatives in such circumstances, it certainly cannot be allowed to outweigh the injustice of leaving such a large section of the British electorate, as is the Irish people, unrepresented in a chamber which deals with matters that may very seriously affect their interests. Mr. Asquith’s hint at the possibility of such a change in the Standing Orders of the House of Commons as will distribute legislative business between English and Scotch Standing Committees, suggests a method of combining the retention of the Irish members at Westminster, with their exclusion from participation in other than Imperial matters.

Of course in framing a new constitution to meet at once the legitimate national aspirations of the Irish people and the requirements of the Imperial power, we cannot pedantically follow any existing model or precedent, or drive any analogy too far. It is not intended, by drawing attention to the fact that the local rather than the Dominion Legislatures constitute the better models, in any way to impair the prestige of the future Irish Parliament, or to lessen the readiness to meet all reasonable demands of the Irish party and people, or to withhold powers necessary to make self-government a success. But it is essential to bear in mind that the primary condition of permanent success is a measure that will work with the least possible friction on both sides while satisfying legitimate Irish demands.

With these points in view, it is therefore proposed to examine shortly the constitutions of the three dominions already referred to, with the object of showing what are the powers reserved by them for the Federal Governments and what are those attributed to the different States comprised in the federations, in order to deduce from them some parallel applicable to the case of Ireland—of course, as already indicated, with such modifications as may be rendered necessary by special circumstances.

It will be well to begin with the Canadian Constitution as the oldest, dealing afterwards with the Constitutions of the Australian Commonwealth (1900) and of the South African Union (1909).

The British North America Act, 1867, expressly sets forth the classes of subjects which can be dealt with by the Federal Parliament “for greater certainty, but not so as to restrict the generality of the foregoing terms of this section,” that is to say, the liberty given to the Central Parliament “to make laws for the peace, order and good government of Canada, in relation to all matters not coming within the classes of subjects by this Act assigned exclusively to the legislatures of the provinces.” Thus, in Canada, the “residuary” or unspecified classes of subjects are reserved for the Central or Federal Parliament.