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
The Imperial contribution payable by Ireland to Great Britain cannot be
increased for thirty years, though it may be diminished if the charges
for the army and navy and Imperial civil expenditure for any year be
less than fifteen times the contribution paid by Ireland, in which case
1/15th of the diminution will be deducted from the annual Imperial
contribution. Apart from the Imperial charges there are other charges
strictly Irish, for the security of the payment of which the Bill
provides. This it does by imposing an obligation on the Irish
legislative body to enact sufficient taxes to meet such charges, and by
directing them to be paid by the Imperial Receiver-General, who is
required to keep an imperial and an Irish account, carrying the customs
and excise duties, in the first instance, to the imperial account, and
the local taxes to the Irish account, transferring to the Irish account
the surplus remaining after paying the imperial charges on the imperial
account. On this Irish account are charged debts due from the Government
of Ireland, pensions, and other sums due to the civil servants, and the
salaries of the judges of the supreme courts in Ireland.
Some provisions of importance remain to be noticed. Judges of the
superior and county courts in Ireland are to be removable from office
only on address to the Crown, presented by both orders of the
Legislative body voting separately. Existing Civil servants are retained
in their offices at their existing salaries; if the Irish Government
desire their retirement, they will be entitled to pensions; on the other
hand, if at the end of two years the officers themselves wish to retire,
they can do so, and will be entitled to the same pensions as if their
office had been abolished. The pensions are payable by the
Receiver-General out of the Irish account above mentioned.
The supremacy of the Imperial Parliament over all parts of the Empire is
an inherent quality of which Parliament cannot divest itself, inasmuch
as it cannot bind its successors or prevent them from repealing any
prior Act. In order, however, to prevent any misapprehension on this
point clause 37 was inserted, the efficacy of which, owing in great
measure to a misprint, has been doubted. It is enough to state here that
it was intended by express legislation to reserve all powers to the
Imperial Parliament, and had the Bill gone into Committee the question
would have been placed beyond the reach of cavil by a slight alteration
in the wording of the clause. This summary may be concluded by the
statement that the appellate jurisdiction of the House of Lords over
actions and suits arising in Ireland (except in respect of
constitutional questions reserved for the determination of the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council as explained above), and with respect to
claims for Irish Peerages, is preserved intact.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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