The New Irish Constitution: An Exposition and Some Arguments
History
The New Irish Constitution: An Exposition and Some Arguments
Home rule -- Ireland; Ireland -- Politics and government
At the same time a distinction must be drawn between the prerogatives
relating to the exercise of Irish services and prerogatives which cannot
be so defined. Some of the latter may be delegated to the Lord-Lieutenant
by his patent, and these he will exercise not on the advice of the Irish,
but of the Imperial, Government. Moreover, there are certain powers
conferred by statute on the Lord-Lieutenant, or the Lord-Lieutenant in
Council, such as the power of proclaiming disaffected districts under the
Crimes Act, of suspending the operation of the Irish Habeas Corpus Act,
and of controlling the constabulary, not all(49) of which will be
exercisable on the advice of Irish Ministers. Prerogatives not so
exercisable will no doubt be exercised on the advice of the Secretary of
State for Home Affairs who is even now the medium of formal communications
between the Lord-Lieutenant and the Crown. The Chief Secretary(50) will,
of course, disappear altogether; he will be replaced by the Executive
Committee. The Lord-Lieutenant will, of course, cease to be a member of
the English Ministry; his position will be assimilated to that of a
Colonial Governor, and his tenure fixed for a term of years so as to make
his tenure of office independent, as it must be in the exercise of his new
constitutional duties, of the fortunes of English Parties.
The Irish Legislature
The constitution of the legislature itself calls for little comment. It
follows with some fidelity the features of Mr. Gladstone’s Bills, but the
substitution of a nominated Senate for the “Council” or “Order” elected on
a property franchise is a new departure. Nomination of late has fallen
into some discredit both in theory and in practice.(51) Colonial
experience is not encouraging. Nomination by the Crown means in practice
nomination by the Governor, on the advice of the Cabinet of the day, and
Ministries in Canada and New South Wales have put this prerogative to such
partizan uses as to reduce the Upper House to a very servile condition.
When nomination is for life and not for a fixed term of years the evils of
this system may be mitigated, but they are not removed. The one thing that
can be said about the proposed Senate is that its powers in legislation
are of such a limited character that an Irish Executive would be under
little temptation to “pack” it. A Senate of only forty members compelled
to meet in joint session a House of Commons of 164 members every second
time that it rejects or objectionably amends a bill is not likely to prove
a very formidable obstacle to legislation. But the nomination by the
Executive is in any case somewhat objectionable, and it would seem better
to provide that at the end of the first term of eight years the Senators
should be appointed by some system of election, whether on a basis of
proportional representation or otherwise.(52) But to their nomination for
the first term by the Imperial Government I see no very cogent objection.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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