The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-04-24 00:00:00

THE IRISH PROBLEM.
TEXT OF THE HOME RULE SCHEME.

The Government of Ireland Bill, introduced by
Mr. Gladstone last Thursday, has been published.
It is divided into two parts, the first consisting
of 21 clauses, of which six deal with legislative
authority, two with the executive authority, three
with the Constitution of the Legislative body,
nine with finance, and one with the police. Part 2
consists of 20 clauses, of which one deals with the
powers of her Majesty, two with the Legislative body,
one with the decision of Constitutional questions, one
with the Lord Lieutenant, four with judges and civil
servants, one with transitory provisions, and 10 with
miscellaneous provisions.
The following is the text of the clauses of the bill
which provide for the establishment of an Irish Legis-
lature and define its powers :
I.—On and after the appointed day there shall be
established in Ireland a Legislature, consisting of her
Majesty the Queen and an Irish Legislative Body.
11.—With the exceptions, and Subject to the re-
strictions in this Act mentioned, it shall be lawful for
her Majesty the Queen, by and with the advice of the
Irish legislative body, to make laws for the peace,
order, and good government of Ireland, and by any
such law to alter and repeal any law in Ireland.
lll.—The Legislature of Ireland shall not make
laws relating to the following matters or any of them:
(1) The status or dignity of the Crown, or the suc-
cession to the Crown as a Regency. (2) The making
of peace or war. (3) The army, navy, militia, volun-
teers, or other military or naval forces, or the defence
of the realm. (4) Treaties and other relations with
foreign States, or the relations between the various
parts of her Majesty's dominions. (5) Dignities or
titles of honour. (6) Prize or booty of war. (7)
Offences against the law of nations or offences com-
mitted in violation of any treaty made or hereafter to
be made between her Majesty and any foreign State,
or any offences committed on the high seas. (8)
Treason, alienage, or naturalisation. (9) Trade,
navigation, or quarantine. (10) The postal and tele-
graph service, except as hereafter in this Act men-
tioned with respect to the transmission of letters and
telegrams in Ireland. (11) Beacons, lighthouses, or
sea marks. (12) The coinage, value of foreign money,
legal tender, or weights and measures; or (13)
Copyright, patent rights, or other exclusive rights to
the use or profits of any works or inventions. Any
law made in contravention of this order shall be void.

IV.—The Irish Legislature shall not make any
law (I) Respecting the establishment or endowment
of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ;
or (2) Imposing any disability, or conferring any pri-
vilege on account of religious belief; or (3) Abrogating
or derogating from the right to establish or maintain
any place of denominational education, or any deno-
minational institution or charity; or (4) Prejudicially
affecting the right of any child to attend a school re-
ceiving public money without attending the religious
instruction at that school; or (5) Impairing, without
either the leave of her Majesty in Council first ob-
tained, on an address presented by the Legislative
Body of Ireland, or the consent of the Corporation
interest, the rights, property, or privileges of any
existing Corporation incorporated by Royal Charter
or local general Act of Parliament; or (6) Imposing
or relating to duties of customs and duties of excise,
as defined by this Act, or either of such duties, or
affecting any Act relating to such duties or either of
them ; or (7) affecting this Act, except in so far as it
is declared to be alterable by the Irish Legislature.
V.—Her Majesty the Queen shall have the same
prerogatives with respect to summoning, proroguing,
and dissolving the Irish Legislative Body as her
Majesty has with respect to summoning, proroguing
and dissolving the Imperial Parliament.
Vl.—The Irish Legislative Body, whenever sum-
moned, may have continuance for five years and no
longer, to be reckoned from the day on which any such
Legislative Body is appointed to meet. The follow-
ing clauses define the Executive Authority:
VII.—(1) The Executive Government of Ireland
shall continue vested in her Majesty, and shall be
carried on by the Lord Lieutenant, on behalf of her
Majesty, with the aid of such officers and such coun-
cils as her Majesty may from time to time see fit; (2)
subject to any mbtructions which may from time to
time be given by her Majesty, the Lord Lieu-
tenant shall give or withhold the assent of her
Majesty to bills passed by the Irish Legislative Body,
and shall exercise the prerogative of her
Majesty in respect of the summoning, proroguing,
and dissolving of the Irish Le"gislative Body, and any
prerogative the exercise of which may be delegated to
him by her Majesty.
VIII.—Her Majesty may by Order in Council
from time to time place under the control of the
Irish Government, for the purposes of that Govern-
ment any such lands and buildings in Ireland as may
be vested in or held in trust for her Majesty.
The next three clauses deal with the constitution of
the Legislative Body, in almost the same terms as
those in which Mr. Gladstone described it.

Clause IX. provides that the two orders shall sit
and vote together, except on questions arising in rela-
tion to Standing Orders and Rules of Pemedure,
when each order shall, if a majority of either demand
a separate vote, give their votes as if they were
separate legislative bodies; and that, if the result of
the voting of the two orders does not agree, the ques-
tion shall be resolved in the negative. The term of
office of an elective member would be 10 years, and of
a peerage member the period of his life, or until 30
years from the apppinted day. At the expiration of
30 years the offices of all Peerage members should be
vacated, and their places filled with elective members
of the first order. The offices of members of the first
order sliculd not be vacated by the dissolution of the
Legislative body. The second order (204 members)
would be chosen by the existing constituencies, except
Cork, which would be divided into two districts, each
returning two members. It would be in the power of
the Irish Legislature, after the first dissolution, to
alter the constitution or election of the second order,

Finance is the next question dealt with, and to this.
are devoted nine clauses, the principal of these refer-
ring to the question of Customs and Excise as affect-
ing Ireland as distinct from Great Britain. Clause
XII. provides that "for the purpose of providing for
the public service of Ireland the Iri3la Legislature may
impose taxes other than duties of Customs or Excise
as defined by the Act, which duties shall continue to
be imposed and levied by and under the direction of
the Imperial Parliament only." On and after the
appointed day there shall be an Irish Consolidated
Fund separate from the Consolidated Fund of the
United Kingdom. All taxes imposed by the Legisla-
ture of Ireland, and all other public revenues under
the control of the Government of Ireland shall, sub-
ject to any provisions touching the disposal thereof
contained in any Act passed in the present session re-
specting the sale and purchase of land in Ireland, be
paid into the Irish Consolidated Fund, rind be appro-
priated to the public service of Ireland according to
law.

Then follow the statements of the annual contri-
butions from Ireland to the Consolidated Fund of the
United Kingdom. Clause XIV. provides that the
moneys collected in Ireland from Customs and
Excise shall be applied under Treasury regulation 3
to the payment of the cost of collection and the
management of duties, the annual contributions to
the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, the
sums required towards the reduction of the National
Debt, of all moneys declared by Act to be payable
out of Customs and Excise, and all sums due to Con-
solidated Fund for interest for sinking fund on loans.
Under Clause XVII. the Irish Land Commisiion
shall continue to exist, the officers being paid by the
Treasury out of the Irish Church Fund, the balance
of which would be carried to Customs and Excise
account.

All charges on Church property guaranteed by
the Treasury shall, if not paid out of that property,
be paid out of Customs and Excise receipts, or fail-
ing that, out of the Consolidated Fund. of Ireland.
All charges on Church property not guaranteed by
the Treasury would be charged on the Consolidated
Fund of Ireland. Subject to any existing charges,
the Church property should belong to the Irish
Government. Interest and principal du a to the
Public Works Loan Commissioners or Commissioners
of Public Works would become payable to the Go-
vernment of Ireland, the latter paying the same to
the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom by
half-yearly instalments.
Clause XVIII. provides that in case of war on a
declaration from the Queen it shall be lawful for the
Irish legislature to appropriate a further sum out of the
Consolidated Fund of Ireland in aid of the army or
navy, and to raise money for that purpose payable
into the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom.
The Irish Legislative Body could not raise or appro-
priate any part of the public revenue without a
recommendation from the Queen through the Lord
Lieutenant. _ _ _

Vacancies in the Exchequer Division would still be
filled up by appointment by the Queen, and its sittings
regulated by the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.
Then follow the provisions for the regulation of the
Constabulary.
The second part of the bill contains supplemental
provisions, the first of which reserves power to her
Majesty to erect forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards,
and other buildings for military or naval purposes,
and to take lands for any military or naval purpose
or the defence of the realm. The next provides for
the exercise of the veto by the first order of the legis-
lative body and how it may be overruled, and the fol-
lowing for Ireland not to send either peers to the
House of Lords or members to the House of Com-
mons. It is then provided how questions arising as
to the powers conferred on the Legislature of Ireland
under this Act shall be determined, and the powers
of the Lord Lieutenant are next defined, it being ex-
pressly stipulated that notwithstanding anything to
the contrary, contained in any Act of Parliament
every subject of her Majesty shall be eligible to hold
and enjoy the office.
The following clause then provides for the mode of
alteration of the Act : "On and after the appointed
day this Act shall not, except such provisions thereof
as are declared to be alterable by the Legislature of
Ireland, ba altered except (a) by Act of the Imperial
Parliament and with the consent of the Irish Legis-
lative body, testified by an address to her Majesty ;
or (b) by an Act of the Imperial Parliament, for the
passing of which there shall be summoned to the
House of Lords the peerage members of the first order
of the Irish legislative body, and if there are no such
member, then 28 Irish representative peers
fleeted by the neers in the manner hereto-