The great economy shown by the draughtsman in the number of the exceptions from the powers of the Irish legislature, as well as in the number of the restrictions upon the exercise of those powers, means, as we have already indicated, that the whole weight of control over the Irish legislature is thrown upon the executive and legislative veto of the Imperial Government. Is it sufficient to rely upon the paramount power of the Imperial Parliament to override by statute Irish legislation which may be inequitable or inexpedient, and upon the exercise of the veto of the Imperial Government? These checks are the exercise of a _force majeure_, which is often invidious and always difficult. Above all they are political. The exercise of them depends on the party in power in Great Britain, and as such it may excite resentment among the Irish people as an invasion of the autonomy granted to them. On the other hand, exceptions and restrictions are a legal, not a political, check—they operate through the agency of the courts of law without the intervention of political considerations. Moreover—and this perhaps is the most important consideration—they rest upon the consent of the Irish people expressed in the terms of the Home Rule Act to which their representatives are a party. For an Irish Parliament to defy them would be to defy the very Act which was the charter of its existence. But they invite litigation. It all resolves itself into a question of hitting the mean between the dangers of litigation on the one hand and of political pressure on the other. Probably, however, the occasions of conflict will be few and unimportant, and the temper of the Irish Parliament may be much more conservative than its critics imagine. The Executive