ction, because the principle embodied in the Colonial Laws Act,
1865, that enactments passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom
override any Colonial law with which they conflict, is universally
admitted; but, as already pointed out, it is questionable as a matter of
law whether the statutes of the British Parliament can repeal Acts duly
passed by the Irish Parliament, and it is quite beyond question that for
the British Parliament to infringe upon the province of the Irish
legislature would involve a breach of good faith. Changes again in the
formation of the British Parliament might under the Gladstonian
Constitution become difficult. The abolition of the House of Lords would
be hard to reconcile with the right of the Irish Peers to be summoned on
occasion to the Imperial Parliament. An increase in the number of
British representatives in the House of Commons would be objected to by
Irishmen because it diminished the relative importance of the members
from Ireland when recalled to take part in the deliberations of the
Imperial Parliament. The reduction of the number of members of the House
of Commons, though one of the most salutary reforms which could be
carried out, would be opposed by every person interested in maintaining
the present excessive number of the Lower House, on the ground that to
reduce the numbers of the House of Commons, to say 400, would involve an
increase in the authority of the Irish members whenever they reappeared
on the scene. The moot question whether the British Parliament could on
an emergency repeal of its own authority the articles of the Irish
Constitution; the extent to which Ireland should be represented on the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council; above all, the vital question
whether the reassembled Imperial Parliament were not the true
representative of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and the ultimate
sovereign power in the State, would in periods of excitement give rise
to disputes hitherto quite alien to English politics, and involving
elements of unknown danger.

Ambiguity and obscurity, since they help to pass Bills, are in the
judgment of Parliamentary draughtsmen and Parliamentary statesmen
characteristics which promote the easy working of Acts. Knives which are
made to sell are not knives which are made to cut. No delusion is more
dangerous. The founders of the American Union knew their own minds, and
were not well acquainted with the advantages to be derived fro