itself; but it is clear to anybody acquainted with the rudiments of legislation that the details of such a system (in other words, the mode in which a governor ought to act under the endless variety of circumstances which may occur in governing a dependency) never have been and never can be expressed in an Act of Parliament. But how little difficulty this absence of definition has caused may be judged from the fact that neither in England nor in any of her home-rule dependencies has any vital collision arisen between the executive and legislative authorities, and that all the home-rule colonies have managed to surmount the obstacles which the opponents of Home Rule argued would be fatal to their existence. The main principles have now been stated on which the Irish Government Bill is framed, and it remains to give a summary of the provisions of the Bill, the objects and bearing of which will be readily understood from the foregoing observations. The first clause provides that-- "On and after the appointed day there shall be established in Ireland a Legislature consisting of Her Majesty the Queen and an Irish legislative body." This is the first step in all English constitutional systems, to vest the power of legislation in the Queen and the legislative body. Such a legislature might have had conferred on it the independent powers vested in Grattan's Parliament: but the second clause at once puts an end to any doubt as to the subordination of the Irish legislative body; for while on the one hand it confers full powers of local self-government, by declaring that the Legislature may make any laws for the peace, order, and good government of Ireland, it subjects that power to numerous exceptions and restrictions. The exceptions are contained in the third clause, and the restrictions in the fourth. The exceptions are as follows:-- "The Legislature of Ireland shall not make laws relating to the following matters or any of them:-- "(1.) The status or dignity of the Crown, or the succession to the Crown, or a Regency; "(2.) The making of peace or war; "(3.) The army, navy, militia, volunteers, or other military or naval forces, or the defence of the realm; "(4.) Treaties and other relations with foreign States, or the relations between the various parts of Her Majesty's dominions; "(5.) Dignities or titles of honour; "(6.) Prize or booty of war; "(7.) Offences against the law of nations; or offences committed in violation of any treaty made, or hereafter to be made, between Her Majesty and any foreign State; or offences committed on the high seas; "(8.) Treason, alienage, or naturalization; "(9.) Trade, navigation, or quarantine; "(10.) The postal and telegraph service, except as hereafter in this Act mentioned with respect to the transmission of letters and telegrams in Ireland; "(11.) Beacons, lighthouses, or sea-marks; "(12.) The coinage; the value of foreign money; legal tender; or weights and measures; or