s introduced by the
different Reform Acts which have been passed during the century) it
corresponds with the Parliament of Great Britain as it existed before
the Union with Ireland, may be rightly described by the name I have
applied to it, of the British Parliament. This British Parliament has
admittedly authority to legislate on every matter which comes within the
competence neither of the Irish Parliament, nor of the body which I have
distinguished as the Imperial Parliament, which, it will be remembered,
consists of the British Parliament with the Irish representatives
summoned thereto. Whether the British Parliament has or has not any
further powers is a moot question which I purposely leave for the moment
untouched. What is admitted on all hands is that a Parliament in which
Irish representatives have no voice whatever can legislate on every
matter affecting England, Scotland, or the British Empire, and also on
the topics specially excluded from the competence of the Irish
Parliament unless they belong to the one topic, namely, the alteration
of the Gladstonian Constitution, reserved for the Imperial Parliament.

_Secondly._--The British Parliament, whatever be its theoretical
authority, will cease under the Gladstonian Constitution to pass laws
for Ireland, and will not impose any taxation on Ireland in addition to
the contribution which Ireland is compelled to pay under the
Constitution.

Hence, _Thirdly_,--and as a result of the various features in the
Gladstonian Constitution which have been already noted, there exist
under it three bodies with different functions which, by whatever name
they may be each called, ought to be carefully distinguished. They are--

(i.) The British Parliament at Westminster, in which sit no Irish
members, which legislates for Great Britain, and for the whole of the
British Empire, except Ireland, but which does not in general at any
rate legislate for Ireland.

(ii.) The Irish Parliament at Dublin, in which sit no British
representatives, which legislates for Ireland, but does not legislate
for England, Scotland, or for any other part of the British Empire, and
does not have any voice whatever in the general policy of the Empire.

(iii.) The Imperial Parliament also sitting at Westminster, and
comprising both the British and the Irish Parliament. This body, which
in composition corresponds nearly if not exactly with the existing
Parliament of the United Kingdom, comes together