Handbook of Home Rule: Being Articles on the Irish Question
History
Handbook of Home Rule: Being Articles on the Irish Question
Home rule -- Ireland; Ireland -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901; Irish question
accordingly.
The above clauses contain the pith and marrow of the whole scheme. The
exact constitution of the legislative body, and the orders into which it
should be divided, the exclusion or non-exclusion of the Irish members
from the Imperial Parliament, indeed, the whole of the provisions found
in the remainder of this Bill, are matters which might be altered
without destroying, or even violently disarranging, the Home-rule scheme
as above described.
Clauses 9, 10, and 11 provide for the constitution of the legislative
body; it differs materially from the colonial legislative bodies, and
from the Legislature of the United States. For the purpose of
deliberation it consists of one House only; for the purpose of voting on
all questions (except interlocutory applications and questions of
order), it is divided into two classes, called in the Bill "Orders,"
each of which votes separately, with the result that a question on which
the two orders disagree is deemed to be decided in the negative. The
object of this arrangement is to diminish the chances of collision
between the two branches of the Legislature, which have given rise to so
much difficulty both in England and the colonies. Each order will have
ample opportunity of learning the strength and hearing the arguments of
the other order. They will therefore, each of them, proceed to a
division with a full sense of the responsibility attaching to their
action. A further safeguard is provided against a final conflict between
the first and second orders. If the first order negative a proposition,
that negative is in force only for a period of three years, unless a
dissolution takes place sooner, in which case it is terminated at once;
the lost bill or clause may then be submitted to the whole House, and if
decided in the affirmative, and assented to by the Queen, becomes law.
The first order of the Irish legislative body comprises 103 members. It
is intended to consist ultimately wholly of elective members; but for
the next immediate period of thirty years the rights of the Irish
representative peers are, as will be seen, scrupulously reserved. The
plan is this: of the 103 members composing the first order, seventy-five
are elective, and twenty-eight peerage members. The qualification of the
elective members is an annual income of £200, or the possession of a
capital sum of £4000 free from all charges. The elections are to be
conducted in the electoral districts set out in the schedule to the
Bill. The electors must possess land or tenements within the district of
the annual value of £25. The twenty-eight peerage members consist of the
existing twenty-eight representative peers, and any vacancies in their
body during the next thirty years are to be filled up in the manner at
present in use respecting the election of Irish representative peers.
The Irish representative peers cease to sit in the English Parliament;
but a member of that body is not required to sit in the Irish Parliament
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account