that step is taken, the position of Ireland will need fresh
consideration.[180]

DECISION OF CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTIONS.[181]

The validity of an Irish Act which has received the Royal Assent will,
like that of a Colonial Act which has received the Royal Assent, be
determined in the ordinary course by the Irish Courts, with an ultimate
appeal to the Judicial Committee, which should be strengthened for the
occasion by one or more Irish Judges. But both the previous Home Rule
Bills made the convenient provision that the Lord-Lieutenant should have
the power of referring questions of validity arising on a Bill, before
its enactment, to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council for final
decision. There is a useful Canadian precedent for this provision, in
the Imperial Act passed in 1891, for giving the Governor-General in
Council power, in the widest terms, to refer, _inter alia_, questions
touching provincial legislation to the Supreme Court of Canada, with an
appeal from it to the Judicial Committee.[182] To follow this precedent
would not involve any Federal complications.

EXCHEQUER JUDGES.

If Ireland controls her own Customs and Excise, no provision for this
tribunal appears to be necessary, unless it be that some counterpart is
needed for the Colonial Courts of Admiralty.[183] The Bill of 1886
(Clause 20) limited the jurisdiction to revenue questions. The Bill of
1893 (Clause 19) widened it to include "any matter not within the power
of the Irish Legislature," or "any matter affected by a law which the
Irish Legislature have not power to repeal or alter." The minds of the
authors of this clause were evidently affected by the Federal principle
which involves two judicial authorities--one for Federal, one for
provincial matters. There seems to be no reason for embarking on any
such complications in the case of Ireland.

SAFEGUARDS FOR EXISTING PUBLIC SERVANTS IN IRELAND.[184]

Retrenchment, and in some departments drastic retrenchment, will be
needed in the Irish public service, just as it was needed in the
Transvaal after the grant of Home Rule to that Colony. It is highly
desirable that statutory provision should be made safeguarding existing
interests. No such provision was made in the case of the Transvaal, and
some bad feeling resulted. The past responsibility for excessive Civil
expenditure lies, of course, on Great Britain, as it lay in the case of
the Transvaal, and on grounds of abstract justice