Present Irish Questions Part 21

(_d_) For the purposes of this Schedule 'county' includes a county of a city or town, and this Schedule, and the law relating to the qualification of electors, shall apply, as if the county of a city or town formed part of the county at large with which it is combined, and the qualification in the county of a city or town shall be the same as in such county at large.

(3) Writs shall be issued for the election of councillors at such time not less than one or more than three months before the day for the periodical retirement of councillors as the Lord-Lieutenant in Council may fix.

(4) The day for the periodical retirement of councillors shall, until otherwise provided by Irish Act, be the last day of August in every fourth year.

(5) For the purposes of such retirement, the const.i.tuencies shall be divided into two equal divisions, and the const.i.tuencies in each province shall be divided as nearly as may be equally between those divisions, and const.i.tuencies returning two or more members shall be treated as two or more const.i.tuencies, and placed in both divisions.

(6) Subject as aforesaid, the particular const.i.tuencies which are to be in each division shall be determined by lot.

(7) The said division and lot shall be made and conducted before the appointed day in manner directed by the Lord-Lieutenant in Council.

(8) The first councillors elected for the const.i.tuencies in the first division shall retire on the first day of retirement which occurs after the first meeting of the Irish Legislature, and the first councillors for the const.i.tuencies in the second division shall retire on the second day of retirement after that meeting.

(9) Any casual vacancy among the councillors shall be filled by a new election, but the councillor filling the vacancy shall retire at the time at which the vacating councillor would have retired.

_Legislative a.s.sembly._

(10) The Parliamentary register of electors for the time being shall, until otherwise provided by Irish Act, be the register of electors of the Legislative a.s.sembly.

_Both Houses._

(11) Until otherwise provided by Irish Act, the Lord-Lieutenant in Council may make regulations for adapting the existing election laws to the election of members of the two Houses of the Legislature.

(12) Annual sessions of the Legislature shall be held.

(13) Any peer, whether of the United Kingdom, Great Britain, England, Scotland, or Ireland, shall be qualified to be a member of either House.

(14) A member of either House may by writing under his hand resign his seat, and the same shall thereupon be vacant.

(15) The same person shall not be a member of both Houses.

(16) Until otherwise provided by Irish Act, if the same person is elected to a seat in each House, he shall, before the eighth day after the next sitting of either House, by written notice, elect in which House he will serve, and upon such election his seat in the other House shall be vacant, and if he does not so elect, his seat in both Houses shall be vacant.

(17) Until otherwise provided by Irish Act, any such notice electing in which House a person will sit, or any notice of resignation, shall be given in manner directed by the Standing Orders of the Houses, and if there is no such direction, shall be given to the Lord-Lieutenant.

(18) The powers of either House shall not be affected by any vacancy therein, or any defect in the election or qualification of any member thereof.

(19) Until otherwise provided by Irish Act, the holders of such Irish offices as may be named by Order of the Queen in Council before the appointed day, shall be ent.i.tled to be elected to and sit in either House, notwithstanding that they hold offices under the Crown, but on acceptance of any such office the seat of any such person in either House shall be vacated unless he has accepted the office in succession to some other of the said offices.

_Transitory._

(20) The Lord-Lieutenant in Council may, before the appointed day, make regulations for the following purposes:--

(_a_) The making of a register of electors of councillors in time for the election of the first councillors, and with that object for the variation of the days relating to registration in the existing election laws, and for prescribing the duties of officers, and for making such adaptations of those laws as appear necessary or proper for duly making a register;

(_b_) The summoning of the two Houses of the Legislature of Ireland, the issue of writs and any other things appearing to be necessary or proper for the election of members of the two Houses;

(_c_) The election of a chairman (whether called Speaker, President, or by any other name) of each House, the quorum of each House, the communications between the two Houses, and such adaptation to the proceedings of the two Houses of the procedure of Parliament, as appears expedient for facilitating the conduct of business by those Houses on their first meeting;

(_d_) The adaptation to the two Houses and the members thereof of any laws and customs relating to the House of Commons or the members thereof;

(_e_) The deliberation and voting together of the two Houses in cases provided by this Act.

(21) The regulations maybe altered by Irish Act, and also in so far as they concern the procedure of either House alone, by Standing Orders of that House, but shall, until altered, have effect as if enacted in this Act.

NOTE I

FROM THE 'MEMOIRS OF THE LATE LORD SELBORNE'

(Part ii. pp. 261-263).

... Each new step Gladstone takes is, as it seems to me, more and more on the side of _moral_ as well as political evil. Much as I disapproved of his surrender of last year to Parnell, I disapprove very much more of his present endeavour to prevent the restoration in the present stage of the Home Rule question, of the reign of law in Ireland, and of the _means_ he is attempting to use for _that_ purpose. Deliberate and organised obstruction in the House of Commons, and an attempt to overrule a majority against him there, of more than one hundred, by violent appeals to popular pa.s.sions outside,--those appeals being supported by representing the cause of anarchy and conspiring against law as the cause of liberty,--by denying the existence of any case for strengthening the law, in the face of a complete and manifest paralysis of law by the power of a seditious organisation, into whose scale he has now thrown his whole influence,--and by denouncing, in the most violent terms, the principle of measures for the protection of the loyal, and for securing the due administration of justice, which are the same (in their general character, for it is not necessary here to go into questions of detail) with those by means of which he himself governed Ireland for the last years of his power, and far more consistent with all real ideas of liberty than the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, which he introduced in 1881. It was quite open to him (of course) to contend that, by the acceptance of his Home Rule scheme, the necessity for any such measures might be prevented, and that he prefers and insists upon that alternative,--so much as _that_ was involved in his measures of last year; but it is quite a different thing to denounce the principle of maintaining law and government, and defending those who respect and obey law from the tyranny of conspirators against it, and making the ordinary criminal law of the country a reality and not a mere idle name,--'as coercion,' in the sense of an undue invasion of liberty. To do this, and to appeal _ad populum_ against it from an overwhelming majority in Parliament is _Acheronta movere_, with a vengeance.... For a man who, with his attainments, his experience, his professions, his fifty years' public service, his political education under some of the greatest and best men of the time, has three times filled the highest office in the State, and is now on the verge of the grave, so to end his career, seems to me more shocking and disheartening than anything else recorded in our history. It is only the old respect, and old attachment, which makes one search about for the possible explanations, in the workings of a very complex and intricate mind. If (as I trust) the Government and the House of Commons stand firm, all his efforts in the cause of anarchy will be in vain. The clause as to removing trials to England may have to be given up; but the _permanence_ of the Bill (its best feature of all) must remain, if any good is to be done.

... I will spare you a long yarn about politics this time. The G.O.M.

seems to be determined to pull the whole Irish house down, parliamentary government and all, unless he can have his own way. But I have no fear that he _will_ have his way, just at present, whatever harm he may do in the endeavour. But the struggle is very disagreeable, as well as sharp.

NOTE II

REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMISSION (Vol. iv. pp. 544, 545).

_Conclusions of the Report of the Judges._

We have now pursued our inquiry over a sufficiently extended period to enable us to report upon the several charges and allegations which have been made against the respondents, and we have indicated in the course of this statement our findings upon these charges and allegations, but it will be convenient to repeat _seriatim_ the conclusions we have arrived at upon the issues which have been raised for our consideration.

I. We find that the respondent members of Parliament collectively were not members of a conspiracy having for its object to establish the absolute independence of Ireland, but we find that some of them, together with Mr.

Davitt, established and joined in the Land League organisation with the intention by its means to bring about the absolute independence of Ireland as a separate nation. The names of these respondents are set out on a previous page.

II. We find that the respondents did enter into a conspiracy by a system of coercion and intimidation to promote an agrarian agitation against the payment of agricultural rents, for the purpose of impoverishing and expelling from the country the Irish landlords who were styled the 'English Garrison.'

III. We find that the charge that 'when on certain occasions they thought it politic to denounce, and did denounce, certain crimes in public they afterwards led their supporters to believe such denunciations were not sincere' is not established. We entirely acquit Mr. Parnell and the other respondents of the charge of insincerity in their denunciation of the Phoenix Park murders, and find that the 'facsimile' letters on which this charge was chiefly based as against Mr. Parnell is a forgery.

IV. We find that the respondents did disseminate the _Irish World_ and other newspapers tending to incite to sedition and the commission of other crime.

V. We find that the respondents did not directly incite persons to the commission of crime other than intimidation, but that they did incite to intimidation, and that the consequence of that incitement was that crime and outrage were committed by the persons incited. We find that it has not been proved that the respondents made payments for the purpose of inciting persons to commit crime.

VI. We find as to the allegation that the respondents did nothing to prevent crime and expressed no _bona fide_ disapproval, that some of the respondents, and in particular Mr. Davitt, did express _bona fide_ disapproval of crime and outrage, but that the respondents did not denounce the system of intimidation which led to crime and outrage, but persisted in it with knowledge of its effect.

VII. We find that the respondents did defend persons charged with agrarian crime, and supported their families, but that it has not been proved that they subscribed to testimonials for, or were intimately a.s.sociated with, notorious criminals, or that they made payments to procure the escape of criminals from justice.

VIII. We find, as to the allegation that the respondents made payments to compensate persons who had been injured in the commission of crime, that they did make such payments.