prevent murder, we may rest assured that the Queen's Government in
England will be asked whether it is decent that the Queen's forces
should be trained to stand as indifferent spectators of outrageous
breaches of the Queen's peace.

Take again the question of pardoning crime. Suppose that the first Irish
Ministry on their accession to power propose to inaugurate the new era
by a free pardon of all the political offenders, dynamiters and others,
whose misguided zeal placed them within the gripe of the law, but also
in no small measure contributed to achieve the Parliamentary
independence of Ireland. If the request is not granted, then the Irish
Administration are refused the means of carrying on the government of
the country after their own notions of sound polity. If the request is
granted, can the English Government be held entirely irresponsible for
the mode in which the Crown exercises its prerogative? Let it be settled
that the prerogative of mercy must in Ireland be exercised in accordance
with the wishes of the Irish Ministry. Even then the English Government
will not really escape responsibility. British soldiers put down a riot
at Belfast; they are indicted for the murder of a Catholic rioter,
before a Catholic grand jury, convicted by a Catholic jury under the
direction of a Catholic judge who has just been appointed by the new
Irish Ministry. Popular opinion demands the execution of the convicted
murderers, the Irish Ministry advise that the law should take its
course. The general belief in England, shared we will suppose by the
English Home Office, is that the convicted soldiers are about to be
capitally punished for having simply discharged their duty. Is an
English Minister to abstain from advising a pardon? The dilemma is
difficult. If he recommends a pardon, the Irish Government are prevented
by England from governing Ireland. If the soldiers are hanged, the
English Ministry will not keep long in office, the British Army will
hardly maintain its habit of absolute obedience to the civil power.

Englishmen, in the next place, will soon discover that the creation of a
statutory constitution for Ireland curiously hampers the working of our
own institutions. Questions must arise whether Acts of the British
Parliament do or do not trench upon the provisions of the Irish
Constitution. Few persons are aware of the number of Imperial Acts which
touch the Colonies. To such statutes there is no legal or moral
obje