A Leap in the Dark by A.V. Dicey

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[137] See pp. 119-121, _ante_.

APPENDIX

GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND BILL

ARRANGEMENT OF CLAUSES

_Legislative Authority_
Clause.
1. Establishment of Irish Legislature.
2. Powers of Irish Legislature.
3. Exceptions from powers of Irish Legislature.
4. Restrictions on powers of Irish Legislature.

_Executive Authority_
5. Executive power in Ireland.

_Constitution of Legislature_
6. Composition of Irish Legislative Council.
7. Composition of Irish Legislative Assembly.
8. Disagreement between two Houses, how settled.

_Irish Representation in House of Commons_
9. Representation in Parliament of Irish counties and boroughs.

_Finance_
10. As to separate Consolidated Fund and taxes.
11. Hereditary revenues and income tax.
12. Financial arrangements as between United Kingdom and
Ireland.
13. Treasury Account (Ireland).
14. Charges on Irish Consolidated Fund.
15. Irish Church Fund.
16. Local loans.
17. Adaptation of Acts as to Local Taxation Accounts and probate, etc.,
duties.
18. Money bills and votes.
19. Exchequer judges for revenue actions, election petitions, etc.

_Post Office Postal Telegraphs and Savings Banks_
20. Transfer of post office and postal telegraphs.
21. Transfer of savings banks.

_Irish Appeals and Decision of Constitutional Questions_
22. Irish appeals.
23. Special provision for decision of constitutional questions.

_Lord Lieutenant and Crown Lands_
24. Office of Lord Lieutenant.
25. Use of Crown lands by Irish Government.

_Judges and Civil Servants_
26. Tenure of future judges.
27. As to existing judges and other persons having salaries charged on
the Consolidated Fund.
28. As to persons holding civil service appointments.
29. As to existing pensions and superannuation allowances.

_Police_
30. As to Police.

_Miscellaneous_
31. Irish Exchequer Consolidated Fund and Audit.
32. Law applicable to both Houses of Irish Legislature.
33. Supplemental provisions as to powers of Irish Legislature.
34. Limitation on borrowing by local authorities.

_Transitory Provisions_
35. Temporary restriction on powers of Irish Legislature and Executive.
36. Transitory provisions.
37. Continuance of existing laws, courts, officers, etc.
38. Appointed day.
39. Definitions.
40. Short title.

SCHEDULES

A BILL TO AMEND THE PROVISION FOR
THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND[138]

Whereas it is expedient that without impairing or restricting the
supreme authority of Parliament, an Irish Legislature should be created
for such purposes in Ireland as in this Act mentioned:

Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and
with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and
Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of
the same, as follows:

_Legislative Authority_

1. _On and after the appointed day_ there shall be in Ireland a
Legislature consisting of Her Majesty the Queen and of two Houses, the
Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly.

2. With the exceptions and subject to the restrictions in this Act
mentioned, there shall be granted to the Irish Legislature power to
make laws for the peace, order, and good government of Ireland in
respect of matters exclusively relating to Ireland or some part thereof.

3. The Irish Legislature shall not have power to make laws in respect of
the following matters or any of them:--

(1) The Crown, or the succession to the Crown, or a Regency; or the
Lord Lieutenant as representative of the Crown; or

(2) The making of peace or war or matters arising from a state of
war; or

(3) Naval or military forces, or the defence of the realm; or

(4) Treaties and other relations with foreign States or the
relations between different parts of Her Majesty's dominions or
offences connected with such treaties or relations; or

(5) Dignities or titles of honour; or

(6) Treason, treason-felony, alienage, or naturalisation; or

(7) Trade with any place out of Ireland; or quarantine, or
navigation (except as respects inland waters and local health or
harbour regulations); or

(8) Beacons, lighthouses, or sea marks (except so far as they can
consistently with any general Act of Parliament be constructed or
maintained by a local harbour authority); or

(9) Coinage; legal tender; or the standard of weights and measures;
or

(10) Trade marks, merchandise marks, copyright, or patent rights.

Any law made in contravention of this section shall be void.

4. The powers of the Irish Legislature shall not extend to the making of
any law--

(1) Respecting the establishment or endowment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or

(2) Imposing any disability, or conferring any privilege, on
account of religious belief; or

(3) Abrogating or prejudicially affecting the right to establish or
maintain any place of denominational education or any
denominational institution or charity; or

(4) Prejudicially affecting the right of any child to attend a
school receiving public money, without attending the religious
instruction at that school; or

(5) Whereby any person may be deprived of life, liberty, or
property without due process of law, or may be denied the equal
protection of the laws, or whereby private property may be taken
without just compensation; or

(6) Whereby any existing corporation incorporated by Royal Charter
or by any local or general Act of Parliament (not being a
corporation raising for public purposes taxes, rates, cess, dues,
or tolls, or administering funds so raised) may, unless it
consents, or the leave of Her Majesty is first obtained on address
from the two Houses of the Irish Legislature, be deprived of its
rights, privileges, or property without due process of law; or

(7) Whereby any inhabitant of the United Kingdom may be deprived of
equal rights as respects public sea fisheries.

Any law made in contravention of this section shall be void.

_Executive Authority_

5.--(1) The executive power in Ireland shall continue vested in Her
Majesty the Queen, and the Lord Lieutenant, on behalf of Her Majesty,
shall exercise any prerogatives or other executive power of the Queen
the exercise of which may be delegated to him by Her Majesty, and shall,
in Her Majesty's name, summon, prorogue, and dissolve the Irish
Legislature. (2) There shall be an Executive Committee of the Privy
Council of Ireland to aid and advise in the government of Ireland, being
of such numbers, and comprising persons holding such offices, as Her
Majesty may think fit, or as may be directed by Irish Act. (3) The Lord
Lieutenant shall, on the advice of the said Executive Committee, give or
withhold the assent of Her Majesty to Bills passed by the two Houses of
the Irish Legislature, subject nevertheless to any instructions given by
Her Majesty in respect of any such Bill.

_Constitution of Legislature_

6.--(1) The Irish Legislative Council shall consist of _forty-eight_
councillors. (2) Each of the constituencies mentioned in the First
Schedule to this Act shall return the number of councillors named
opposite thereto in the schedule. (3) Every man shall be entitled to be
registered as an elector, and when registered to vote at an election, of
a councillor for a constituency, who owns or occupies any land or
tenement in the constituency of a rateable value of more than _twenty_
pounds, subject to the like conditions as a man is entitled at the
passing of this Act to be registered and vote as a parliamentary elector
in respect of an ownership qualification or of the qualification
specified in section five of the Representation of the People Act, 1884,
as the case may be: Provided that a man shall not be entitled to be
registered, nor if registered to vote, at an election of a councillor in
more than one constituency in the same year. (4) The term of office of
every councillor shall be _eight_ years, and shall not be affected by a
dissolution; and one _half_ of the councillors shall retire in every
_fourth_ year, and their seats shall be filled by a new election.

7.--(1) The Irish Legislative Assembly shall consist of _one hundred and
three_ members, returned by the existing parliamentary constituencies in
Ireland, or the existing divisions thereof, and elected by the
parliamentary electors for the time being in those constituencies or
divisions. (2) The Irish Legislative Assembly when summoned may, unless
sooner dissolved, have continuance _for five_ years from the day on
which the summons directs it to meet and no longer. (3) After _six_
years from the passing of this Act, the Irish Legislature may alter the
qualification of the electors, and the constituencies, and the
distribution of the members among the constituencies, provided that in
such distribution due regard is had to the population of the
constituencies.

8. If a Bill or any provision of a Bill adopted by the Legislative
Assembly is lost by the disagreement of the Legislative Council, and
after a dissolution, or the period of _two years_ from such
disagreement, such Bill, or a Bill for enacting the said provision, is
again adopted by the Legislative Assembly and fails within three months
afterwards to be adopted by the Legislative Council, the same shall
forthwith be submitted to the members of the two Houses deliberating and
voting together thereon, and shall be adopted or rejected according to
the decision of the majority of those members present and voting on the
question.

_Irish Representation in House of Commons_

9. Unless and until Parliament otherwise determines, the following
provisions shall have effect--

(1) After _the appointed day_ each of the constituencies named in
the Second Schedule to this Act shall return to serve in Parliament
the number of members named opposite thereto in that schedule, and
no more, and Dublin University shall cease to return any member.

(2) The existing divisions of the constituencies shall, save as
provided in that schedule, be abolished.

(3) An Irish representative peer in the House of Lords and a member
of the House of Commons for an Irish constituency shall not be
entitled to deliberate or vote on--

(_a_) any Bill or motion in relation thereto, the operation of
which Bill or motion is confined to Great Britain or some part
thereof; or

(_b_) any motion or resolution relating solely to some tax not
raised or to be raised in Ireland; or

(_c_) any vote or appropriation of money made exclusively for some
service not mentioned in the Third Schedule to this Act; or

(_d_) any motion or resolution exclusively affecting Great Britain
or some part thereof or some local authority or some person or
thing therein; or

(_e_) any motion or resolution, incidental to any such motion or
resolution as either is last mentioned, or relates solely to some
tax not raised or to be raised in Ireland, or incidental to any
such vote or appropriation of money as aforesaid.

(4) Compliance with the provisions of this section shall not be
questioned otherwise than in each House in manner provided by the
House.

(5) The election laws and the laws relating to the qualification
of parliamentary electors shall not, so far as they relate to
parliamentary elections, be altered by the Irish Legislature, but
this enactment shall not prevent the Irish Legislature from
dealing with any officers concerned with the issue of writs of
election, and if any officers are so dealt with, it shall be
lawful for Her Majesty by Order in Council to arrange for the
issue of such writs, and the writs issued in pursuance of such
Order shall be of the same effect as if issued in manner
heretofore accustomed.

_Finance_

10.--(1) _On and after the appointed day_ there shall be an Irish
Exchequer and Consolidated Fund separate from those of the United
Kingdom. (2) The duties of customs and excise and the duties on postage
shall be imposed by Act of Parliament, but subject to the provisions of
this Act the Irish Legislature may, in order to provide for the public
service of Ireland, impose any other taxes. (3) Save as in this Act
mentioned, all matters relating to the taxes in Ireland and the
collection and management thereof shall be regulated by Irish Act, and
the same shall be collected and managed by the Irish Government and form
part of the public revenues of Ireland: Provided that--

(_a_) the duties of customs shall be regulated, collected, managed,
and paid into the Exchequer of the United Kingdom as heretofore;
and

(_b_) all prohibitions in connection with the duties of excise, and
so far as regards articles sent out of Ireland, all matters
relating to those duties, shall be regulated by Act of Parliament;
and

(_c_) the excise duties on articles consumed in Great Britain shall
be paid in Great Britain or to an officer of the Government of the
United Kingdom.

(4) Save as in this Act mentioned, all the public revenues of Ireland
shall be paid into the Irish Exchequer and form a Consolidated Fund, and
be appropriated to the public service of Ireland by Irish Act. (5) If
the duties of excise are increased above the rates in force on _the
first day of March one thousand eight hundred and ninety-three_, the net
proceeds in Ireland of the duties in excess of the said rates shall be
paid from the Irish Exchequer to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom.
(6) _If the duties of excise are reduced below the rates in force on the
said day, and the net proceeds of such duties in Ireland are in
consequence less than the net proceeds of the duties before the
reduction, a sum equal to the deficiency shall, unless it is otherwise
agreed between the Treasury and the Irish Government, be paid from the
Exchequer of the United Kingdom to the Irish Exchequer_.

11.--(1) The hereditary revenues of the Crown in Ireland which are
managed by the Commissioners of Woods shall continue during the life of
Her present Majesty to be managed and collected by those Commissioners,
and the net amount payable by them to the Exchequer on account of those
revenues, after deducting all expenses (but including an allowance for
interest on such proceeds of the sale of those revenues as have not been
re-invested in Ireland), shall be paid into the Treasury Account
(Ireland) hereinafter mentioned, for the benefit of the Irish Exchequer.
(2) A person shall not be required to pay income tax in Great Britain in
respect of property situate or business carried on in Ireland, and a
person shall not be required to pay income tax in Ireland in respect of
property situate or business carried on in Great Britain. (3) _For the
purpose of giving to Ireland the benefit of the difference between the
income tax collected in Great Britain from British, Colonial, and
foreign securities held by residents in Ireland, and the income tax
collected in Ireland from Irish securities held by residents in Great
Britain, there shall be made to Ireland out of the income tax collected
in Great Britain, an allowance of such amount as may be from time to
time determined by the Treasury, in accordance with a minute of the
Treasury laid before Parliament before the appointed day, and such
allowance shall be paid into the Treasury Account (Ireland) for the
benefit of the Irish Exchequer_. (4) Provided that the provisions of
this section with respect to income tax shall not apply to any excess of
the rate of income tax in Great Britain above the rate in Ireland or of
the rate of income tax in Ireland above the rate in Great Britain.

12.--(1) The duties of customs contributed by Ireland and, save as
provided by this Act, that portion of any public revenue of the United
Kingdom to which Ireland may claim to be entitled, whether specified in
the Third Schedule to this Act or not, shall be carried to the
Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, as the contribution of Ireland
to Imperial liabilities and expenditure as defined in that Schedule. (2)
The civil charges of the Government in Ireland shall, subject as in this
Act mentioned, be borne after the appointed day by Ireland. (3) After
_fifteen_ years from the passing of this Act the arrangements made by
this Act for the contribution of Ireland to Imperial liabilities and
expenditure, and otherwise for the financial relations between the
United Kingdom and Ireland, may be revised in pursuance of an address to
Her Majesty from the House of Commons, or from the Irish Legislative
Assembly.

13.--(1) There shall be established under the direction of the Treasury
an account (in this Act referred to as the Treasury Account (Ireland)).
(2) There shall be paid into such account all sums payable from the
Irish Exchequer to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, or from the
latter to the former Exchequer, and all sums directed to be paid into
the account for the benefit of either of the said Exchequers. (3) All
sums which are payable from either of the said Exchequers to the other
of them, or being payable out of one of the said Exchequers are
repayable by the other Exchequer, shall in the first instance be payable
out of the said account so far as the money standing on the account is
sufficient; and for the purpose of meeting such sums, the Treasury out
of the customs revenue collected in Ireland, and the Irish Government
out of any of the public revenues in Ireland, may direct money to be
paid to the Treasury Account (Ireland) instead of into the Exchequer.
(4) Any surplus standing on the account to the credit of either
Exchequer, and not required for meeting payments, shall at convenient
times be paid into that Exchequer, and where any sum so payable into the
Exchequer of the United Kingdom is required by law to be forthwith paid
to the National Debt Commissioners, that sum may be paid to those
Commissioners without being paid into the Exchequer. (5) All sums
payable by virtue of this Act out of the Consolidated Fund of the United
Kingdom or of Ireland shall be payable from the Exchequer of the United
Kingdom or Ireland, as the case may be, within the meaning of this Act,
and all sums by this Act made payable from the Exchequer of the United
Kingdom shall, if not otherwise paid, be charged on and paid out of the
Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom.

14.--(1) There shall be charged on the Irish Consolidated Fund in favour
of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom as a first charge on that fund
all sums which--

(_a_) are payable to that Exchequer from the Irish Exchequer; or
(_b_) are required to repay to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom
sums issued to meet the dividends or sinking fund on guaranteed
land stock under the Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1891, or (_c_)
otherwise have been or are required to be paid out of the Exchequer
of the United Kingdom in consequence of the non-payment thereof out
of the Exchequer of Ireland or otherwise by the Irish Government.

(2) If at any time the Controller and Auditor-General of the United
Kingdom is satisfied that any such charge is due, he shall certify the
amount of it, and the Treasury shall send such certificate to the Lord
Lieutenant, who shall thereupon by order, without any counter-signature,
direct the payment of the amount from the Irish Exchequer to the
Exchequer of the United Kingdom, and such order shall be duly obeyed by
all persons, and until the amount is wholly paid no other payment shall
be made out of the Irish Exchequer for any purpose whatever.

(3) There shall be charged on the Irish Consolidated Fund next after the
foregoing charge:

(_a_) all sums, for dividends or sinking fund on guaranteed land
stock under the Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1891, which the
Land Purchase Account and the Guarantee Fund under that Act are
insufficient to pay; (_b_) all sums due in respect of any debt
incurred by the Government of Ireland, whether for interest,
management, or sinking fund; (_c_) an annual sum of _five thousand_
pounds for the expenses of the household and establishment of the
Lord Lieutenant; (_d_) all existing charges on the Consolidated
Fund of the United Kingdom in respect of Irish services other than
the salary of the Lord Lieutenant; and (_e_) the salaries and
pensions of all judges of the Supreme Court or other superior court
in Ireland or of any county or other like court, who are appointed
after the passing of this Act, and are not the Exchequer judges
hereafter mentioned.

(4) Until all charges created by this Act upon the Irish Consolidated
Fund and for the time being due are paid, no money shall be issued from
the Irish Exchequer for any other purpose whatever.

15.--(1) All existing charges on the Church property in Ireland--that is
to say, all property accruing under the Irish Church Act, 1869, and
transferred to the Irish Land Commission by the Irish Church Amendment
Act, 1881--shall so far as not paid out of the said property be charged
on the Irish Consolidated Fund, and any of those charges guaranteed by
the Treasury, if and so far as not paid, shall be paid out of the
Exchequer of the United Kingdom.

(2) Subject to the existing charges thereon, the said Church property
shall belong to the Irish Government, and be managed, administered, and
disposed of as directed by Irish Act.

16.--(1) All sums paid or applicable in or towards the discharge of the
interest or principal of any local loan advanced before the appointed
day on security in Ireland, or otherwise in respect of such loan, which
but for this Act would be paid to the National Debt Commissioners, and
carried to the Local Loans Fund, shall, after the appointed day, be
paid, until otherwise provided by Irish Act, to the Irish Exchequer.

(2) For the payment to the Local Loans Fund of the principal and
interest of such loans, the Irish Government shall after the appointed
day pay by half-yearly payments an annuity for _forty-nine_ years, at
the rate of _four_ per cent, on the principal of the said loans,
exclusive of any sums written off before the appointed day from the
account of assets of the Local Loans Fund, and such annuity shall be
paid from the Irish Exchequer to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom,
and when so paid shall be forthwith paid to the National Debt
Commissioners for the credit of the Local Loans Fund.

(3) After the appointed day, money for loans in Ireland shall cease to
be advanced either by the Public Works Loan Commissioners or out of the
Local Loans Fund.

17.--(1) So much of any Act as directs payment to the Local Taxation
(Ireland) Account of any share of probate, excise, or customs duties
payable to the Exchequer of the United Kingdom shall, together with any
enactment amending the same, be repealed as from the appointed day
without prejudice to the adjustment of balances after that day; but the
like amounts shall continue to be paid to the Local Taxation Accounts in
England and Scotland as would have been paid if this Act had not passed,
and any residue of the said share shall be paid into the Exchequer of
the United Kingdom.

(2) The stamp duty chargeable in respect of the personalty of a deceased
person shall not in the case of administration granted in Great Britain
be chargeable in respect of any personalty situate in Ireland, nor in
the case of administration granted in Ireland be chargeable in respect
of any personalty situate in Great Britain; and any administration
granted in Great Britain shall not, if re-sealed in Ireland, be exempt
from stamp duty on administration granted in Ireland, and any
administration granted in Ireland shall not, when re-sealed in Great
Britain, be exempt from stamp duty on administration granted in Great
Britain.

(3) In this section the expression "administration" means probate or
letters of administration, and as respects Scotland, confirmation
inclusive of the inventory required under the Acts relating to the said
stamp duty, and the expression "personalty" means personal or movable
estate and effects.

18.--(1) Bills for appropriating any part of the public revenue or for
imposing any tax shall originate in the Legislative Assembly.

(2) It shall not be lawful for the Legislative Assembly to adopt or pass
any vote, resolution, address, or Bill for the appropriation for any
purpose of any part of the public revenue of Ireland, or of any tax,
except in pursuance of a recommendation from the Lord Lieutenant in the
session in which such vote, resolution, address, or Bill is proposed.

19.--(1) Two of the judges of the Supreme Court in Ireland shall be
Exchequer judges, and shall be appointed under the great seal of the
United Kingdom; and their salaries and pensions shall be charged on and
paid out of the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom.

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