fatal to their existence. The main principles have now been stated on
which the Irish Government Bill is framed, and it remains to give a
summary of the provisions of the Bill, the objects and bearing of which
will be readily understood from the foregoing observations. The first
clause provides that--

"On and after the appointed day there shall be established in Ireland a
Legislature consisting of Her Majesty the Queen and an Irish legislative
body."

This is the first step in all English constitutional systems, to vest
the power of legislation in the Queen and the legislative body. Such a
legislature might have had conferred on it the independent powers vested
in Grattan's Parliament: but the second clause at once puts an end to
any doubt as to the subordination of the Irish legislative body; for
while on the one hand it confers full powers of local self-government,
by declaring that the Legislature may make any laws for the peace,
order, and good government of Ireland, it subjects that power to
numerous exceptions and restrictions. The exceptions are contained in
the third clause, and the restrictions in the fourth. The exceptions are
as follows:--

"The Legislature of Ireland shall not make laws relating to the
following matters or any of them:--

"(1.) The status or dignity of the Crown, or the succession to the
Crown, or a Regency;

"(2.) The making of peace or war;

"(3.) The army, navy, militia, volunteers, or other military or naval
forces, or the defence of the realm;

"(4.) Treaties and other relations with foreign States, or the
relations between the various parts of Her Majesty's dominions;

"(5.) Dignities or titles of honour;

"(6.) Prize or booty of war;

"(7.) Offences against the law of nations; or offences committed in
violation of any treaty made, or hereafter to be made, between Her
Majesty and any foreign State; or offences committed on the high seas;

"(8.) Treason, alienage, or naturalization;

"(9.) Trade, navigation, or quarantine;

"(10.) The postal and telegraph service, except as hereafter in this Act
mentioned with respect to the transmission of letters and telegrams in
Ireland;

"(11.) Beacons, lighthouses, or sea-marks;

"(12.) The coinage; the value of foreign money; legal tender; or weights
and measures; or

"(13.) Copyright, patent rights, or other exclusive rights to the use or
profits of any works or inventions."

Of these exceptions the first four preserve t