yet in principle the Act of 1881 was thoroughly
vicious, whilst in principle the Act of 1882 was, as regards its most
effective sections, thoroughly sound. The Act of 1881 in effect gave the
Irish executive an unlimited power of arrest: it established in theory
despotic government. The Act of 1882 was in principle an Act for
increasing the stringency of criminal procedure. The one could not be
made permanent, and applied to the whole United Kingdom, without
depriving every citizen of security for his personal freedom. The main
enactments of the other might extend through the whole of Great Britain
and Ireland, and produce only the not undesirable effect of making the
whole United Kingdom a less pleasant residence than at present for
criminals or conspirators.

An Act which should be permanent, which should apply to the whole United
Kingdom, which should deal, not indeed exclusively but in the main,
with criminal procedure, could hardly contain injudicious, harsh or
tyrannical provisions. The passing of one such good Criminal Law
Amendment Act would, though its discussion occupied a whole Session,
save our representatives in Parliament an infinite waste of time, and
would make unnecessary half-a-dozen Coercion Acts for Ireland. To
enlarge the power of examining persons suspected of connection with a
crime, even though no man is put upon his trial; to get rid of every
difficulty in changing the venue; to give the Courts the right under
certain circumstances of trying criminals without the intervention of a
jury; to organise much more thoroughly than it is organised at present
in England the whole system of criminal prosecutions; to enable the
executive to prohibit public meetings which might provoke a breach of
the peace, would in many cases be an improvement on the criminal law of
England itself, and would in several instances be simply an extension to
the whole United Kingdom of laws which exist without exciting any
disapproval in some one division of it.[26] Without special experience
it would be presumptuous to assert that these or similar changes in
criminal procedure would suffice for the enforcement of the law in
Ireland during a period of disturbance. That such improvements in
procedure would go a good way to make special Coercion Acts unnecessary,
is in the highest degree probable. There is, moreover, nothing
objectionable or anomalous in increasing as time goes on the stringency
of criminal procedure. The law ag