Court of Exchequer, the Judges of which would be
appointed by the English Government, and the judgments of the Court of
Exchequer could, if need were, be enforced by the British Army. This
paper federation, in short, looks as promising as paper Constitutions
generally do. It appears at first sight to combine the merits of
American Federalism and of Colonial independence. To see, however,
whether the Gladstonian Constitution gives any real promise of
fulfilling the hopes which it seems to hold out, let us examine how far
it really fulfils the conditions on which alone, as we have already
pointed out, Home Rule can possibly be accepted by the people of Great
Britain.

[Sidenote: 1st Question.--Is sovereignty of Parliament preserved?]

_1st Question._--Is the Gladstonian Constitution consistent with the
sovereignty or ultimate legislative supremacy of the British
Parliament?[67]

It is well to make clear to ourselves the precise meaning of this
enquiry. It is nothing else than this: Do or do not the provisions of
the Gladstonian Constitution either legally or morally impair the right
of the British Parliament when sitting at Westminster without having
summoned a single representative from Ireland to legislate (e.g. pass a
Coercion Act) for Ireland, and if need be to repeal of its own authority
all or any of the provisions of the Gladstonian Constitution, including
the very provision under which it is declared in substance that the
Constitution shall not be alterable except by the Imperial Parliament,
which consists, as already noted, of the British Parliament and the
Irish Parliament? To put the same matter in another shape, the enquiry
is whether, under the Gladstonian Constitution, the British Parliament
does or does not retain the sovereignty now admittedly possessed by the
Parliament of the United Kingdom.[68]

Let us first consider the matter as a pure question of constitutional
law.

[Sidenote: As a question of constitutional law.]

The inquiry then is whether a Judge in England or Ireland resolved to do
his duty would or would not be bound to treat as invalid an Act passed
by the British Parliament either inconsistent with or, to put the matter
more strongly, actually repealing of such Parliament's own authority the
provisions of the Gladstonian Constitution, or in other words of the
Government of Ireland Bill, which would then, as we are assuming the
Gladstonian Constitution to be in existence, have become