The Irish standard., 1917-07-21
The Irish Cons
titution- docs
It Still Exist?
("Irish Catholic" Dublir.l

ana PROBABLY lrrecOncllable political
views for the avoWed purpose of franz
ing some kind of brand-new and
gimcrack Constitution for this King
dom, it seems to us specially right
that we should reassert our own claim
that Ireland already possesses Cor
stitution far superior in every respect
to any mere simulacrum Wilhelm our
Judgments the only thing likely to
emerge from the Premier's conference.
AS matter of fact, the Irish Consti-
tion-now temporarily in allegiance,
owing to the provisions of the highly
Ubiquitous and traitorous Act of
Union-was, and is, practically identi-
cal with the Constitution of England,
which has been SO constantly Landed
by British patriots and statesmen as
the surest guarantee of the happiness,
liberty, and prosperity of the subject.
The greatest of English lnoderw poets
-Tennyson-boasted that it enshrines
the fruits Of
Freedom, slowly broadening down
From precedent to precedent.
Over. and over again English and
foreign students of the grave problem
which still awaits solution i'm the case
of Ireland have put on record their
conviction that the needed solution
could be best and most easily secured
by the generous application in this
country of "the principles of the Brit
ish Constitution" The essayists and
theorists in question have rarely taken
the trouble to inquire as to whether
or not this Kingdom does not already
possess Constitution of it's own, fully
sufficient to safeguard the freedom,
property, and social rights of all it's
citizens, but one abrogatcd or sus-
pended by the legislation for which
we are Indebted to the malign inge-
nuity of Glare, Castlereagh, and Pitt
No one possessing even only rudi-
mentary knowledge Of the principles
of constitutional law will need to be
told that the Irish Parliament had alb
solutely no more authority or right to
extinguish itself in 1900 than the Dub
lin Corporation would have today to
transfer it's duties and prerogatives to
the Corporation of London. Had Ire
land possessed at the date mentioned
Supreme Court-such as the United
States already ssessed-entitled to
revise the enactments of her legisla-
ture, the monstrous statute would in
evitably have been declared ultra
vires," and, in those days, not improb-
ably, would have been ordered to be
burned by the common hangman.
The contention, therefore, which we
have maintained during nearly thirty
years, and by which we intend to
stand, no matter what papier mache
composition may be turned out by Mr..
Lloyd Georges Conference, is that the
Act of Union has always been null
and void because of it's intrinsic fraud
udlency and the absolute incapacity of
it's devisors and supporters to legally
place it on the Statute Roll. Mr..
Gladstone-one of the most acute and
accurate masters Of constitutional
principle who ever held high place
among the statesmen Of England
fully adopted this view, and hundreds
sary, from his speeches and writings
in support of the assertion. Daniel
O'Connell, whose reputation as law
yer cannot be aspersed, constantly eX-
pressed a similar opinion Therefore
it is that we most unhesitatingly re-
peat our own contentious, that if the
Prime Minister and his colleagues in
the Cabinet have any honest desire to
confer on Ireland genuine Constitu-
ton, the simple repeal of the Act of
Union will restore to full efficiency
the Constitution which that measure
feloniously and illegally spbverted. No
more revolutionary action was ever
recorded even in the blood and tear
stained pages of the histories of Hayti,
or Mexico. Consequently, we hold en-
phatically that the people of this coun-
try should only accept, after careful
scrutiny, any conclusion formulated
by the forthcoming Conference, and
should exercise discerning judgment
as to whether or not it will be one
devised to repair the admitted defects
in the validity of the Act of Union,
and thus to render more difficult the
restoration to full vitality of the Con.
stitution they undoubtedly possess, al
though it's operation is temporarily
suspended by statute constitutionally
illegal and ultra wires" in itself.
Charles Lucas, Protestant patriot as
he was, was never either rebel or
separatist, but he acknowledgements.
ly as we do-the inviolability and
sanctity of the Constitution of this
Kingdom, and he fearlessly denied
as we deny-the, right of any mush-
room or self-seeking politicians, either
British or Irish-to inflict on it new
subversion. Lucas wrote, and we un-
hesitatingly adopt his words, "That
these two Kingdoms may never be d.
vided against each other, nor have
their just connection broken by any
evil administration; that. they may
neither regard nor know any worldly
s..A- -