the above arrangement the Bill of Mr. Gladstone was
founded. Absolute local autonomy was conferred on Ireland; the assent of
the Irish members to quit the Imperial Parliament was accepted; and the
Bill provided that after a certain day the representative Irish peers
should cease to sit in the House of Lords, and the Irish members vacate
their places in the House of Commons. Provisions were then made for the
absorption in the Irish Legislative Body of both the Irish
representative peers and Irish members.

The legislative supremacy of the British Parliament was maintained by an
express provision excepting from any interference on the part of Irish
Legislature all imperial powers, and declaring any enactment void which
infringed that provision; further, an enactment was inserted for the
purpose of securing to the English Legislature in the last resource the
absolute power to make any law for the government of Ireland, and
therefore to repeal, or suspend, the Irish Constitution.

Technically these reservations of supremacy to the English Legislature
were unnecessary, as it is an axiom of constitutional law that a
sovereign Legislature, such as the Queen and two Houses of Parliament in
England, cannot bind their successors, and consequently can repeal or
alter any law, however fundamental, and annul any restrictions on
alteration, however strongly expressed. Practically they were never
likely to be called into operation, as it is the custom of Parliament to
adhere, under all but the most extraordinary and unforeseen
circumstances, to any compact made by Act of Parliament between itself
and any subordinate legislative body. The Irish Legislature was
subjected to the same controlling power which has for centuries been
applied to prevent any excess of jurisdiction in our Colonial
Legislatures, by a direction that an appeal as to the constitutionality
of any laws which they might pass should lie to the Judicial Committee
of the Privy Council. This supremacy of the imperial judicial power over
the action of the Colonial Legislatures was a system which the founders
of the American Constitution copied in the establishment of their
supreme Court, and thereby secured for that legislative system a
stability which has defied the assaults of faction and the strain of
civil war.

The Executive Government of Ireland was continued in her Majesty, and
was to be carried on by the Lord Lieutenant on her behalf, by the aid of
such officers