England's Case Against Home Rule Part 14

(1.) _Respecting the establishment or endowment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or_

(2.) _Imposing any disability, or conferring any privilege, on account of religious belief; or_

(3.) _Abrogating or derogating from the right to establish or maintain any place of denominational education or any denominational inst.i.tution or charity; or_

(4.) _Prejudicially affecting the right of any child to attend a school receiving public money without attending the religious instruction at that school; or_

(5.) _Impairing, without either the leave of Her Majesty in Council first obtained on an address presented by the Legislative Body of Ireland, or the consent of the corporation interested, the rights, property, or privileges of any existing corporation incorporated by royal charter or local and general Act of Parliament; or_

(6.) _Imposing or relating to duties of customs and duties of excise, as defined by this Act, or either of such duties, or affecting any Act relating to such duties or either of them; or_

(7.) _Affecting this Act, except in so far as it is declared to be alterable by the Irish Legislature._

[Sidenote: Prerogatives of Her Majesty as to Irish Legislative Body.]

5. _Her Majesty the Queen shall have the same prerogatives with respect to summoning, proroguing, and dissolving the Irish Legislative Body as Her Majesty has with respect to summoning, proroguing, and dissolving the Imperial Parliament._

[Sidenote: Duration of the Irish Legislative Body.]

6. _The Irish Legislative Body whenever summoned may have continuance for five years and no longer, to be reckoned from the day on which any such Legislative Body is appointed to meet._

_Executive Authority_.

[Sidenote: Const.i.tution of the Executive Authority.]

7.--(1.) _The Executive Government of Ireland shall continue vested in Her Majesty, and shall be carried on by the Lord-Lieutenant on behalf of Her Majesty with the aid of such officers and such Council as to Her Majesty may from time to time seem fit._

(2.) _Subject to any instructions which may from time to time be given by Her Majesty, the Lord-Lieutenant shall give or withhold the a.s.sent of Her Majesty to Bills pa.s.sed by the Irish Legislative Body, and shall exercise the prerogatives of Her Majesty in respect of the summoning, proroguing, and dissolving of the Irish Legislative Body, and any prerogatives the exercise of which may be delegated to him by Her Majesty._

[Sidenote: Use of Crown lands by Irish Government.]

8. _Her Majesty may, by Order in Council, from time to time place under the control of the Irish Government, for the purposes of that Government, any such lands and buildings in Ireland as may be vested in or held in trust for Her Majesty._

_Const.i.tution of Legislative Body._

[Sidenote: Const.i.tution of Irish Legislative Body.]

9.--(1.) _The Irish Legislative Body shall consist of a first and second order._

(2.) _The two orders shall deliberate together, and shall vote together, except that, if any question arises in relation to legislation or to the Standing Orders or Rules of Procedure or to any other matter in that behalf in this Act specified, and such question is to be determined by vote, each order shall, if a majority of the members present of either order demand a separate vote, give their votes in like manner as if they were separate Legislative Bodies; and if the result of the voting of the two orders does not agree the question shall be resolved in the negative._

[Sidenote: First order.]

10.--(1.) The first order of the Irish Legislative Body shall consist of one hundred and three members, of whom seventy-five shall be elective members and twenty-eight peerage members.

(2.) Each elective member shall at the date of his election and during his period of members.h.i.+p be bona fide possessed of property which--

(_a._) if realty, or partly realty and partly personalty, yields two hundred pounds a year or upwards, free of all charges; or

(_b._) if personalty yields the same income, or is of the capital value of four thousand pounds or upwards, free of all charges.

(2.) For the purpose of electing the elective members of the first order of the Legislative Body, Ireland shall be divided into the electoral districts specified in the First Schedule to this Act, and each such district shall return the number of members in that behalf specified in that Schedule.

(3.) The elective members shall be elected by the registered electors of each electoral district, and for that purpose a register of electors shall be made annually.

(4.) An elector in each electoral district shall be qualified as follows, that is to say, he shall be of full age, and not subject to any legal incapacity, and shall have been during the twelve months next preceding the _twentieth day of July_ in any year the owner or occupier of some land or tenement within the district of a net annual value of twenty-five pounds or upwards.

(5.) The term of office of an elective member shall be _ten years_.

(6.) In every fifth year thirty-seven or thirty-eight of the elective members, as the case requires, shall retire from office, and their places shall be filled by election; the members to retire shall be those who have been members for the longest time without re-election.

(7.) The offices of the peerage members shall be filled as follows; that is to say,--

(_a._) Each of the Irish peers who on the appointed day is one of the twenty-eight Irish representative peers, shall, on giving his written a.s.sent to the Lord-Lieutenant, become a peerage member of the first order of the Irish Legislative Body; and if at any time within _thirty years_ after the appointed day any such peer vacates his office by death or resignation, the vacancy shall be filled by the election to that office by the Irish peers of one of their number in manner heretofore in use respecting the election of Irish representative peers, subject to adaptation as provided by this Act, and if the vacancy is not so filled within the proper time it shall be filled by the election of an elective member.

(_b._) If any of the twenty-eight peers aforesaid does not within _one month_ after the appointed day give such a.s.sent to be a peerage member of the first order, the vacancy so created shall be filled up as if he had a.s.sented and vacated his office by resignation.

(8.) A peerage member shall be ent.i.tled to hold office during his life, or until the expiration of _thirty years_ from the appointed day, whichever period is the shortest. At the expiration of such _thirty years_ the offices of all the peerage members shall be vacated as if they were dead, and their places shall be filled by elective members qualified and elected in manner provided by this Act with respect to elective members of the first order, and such elective members may be distributed by the Irish Legislature among the electoral districts, so, however, that care shall be taken to give additional members to the most populous places.

(9.) The offices of members of the first order shall not be vacated by the dissolution of the Legislative Body.

(10.) The provisions in the Second Schedule to this Act relating to members of the first order of the Legislative Body shall be of the same force as if they were enacted in the body of this Act.

[Sidenote: Second order.]

11.--(1.) Subject as in this section hereafter mentioned, the second order of the Legislative body shall consist of two hundred and four members.

(2.) The members of the second order shall be chosen by the existing const.i.tuencies of Ireland, two by each const.i.tuency, with the exception of the city of Cork, which shall be divided into two divisions in manner set forth in the Third Schedule to this Act, and two members shall be chosen by each of such divisions.

(3.) Any person who, on the appointed day, is a member representing an existing Irish const.i.tuency in the House of Commons shall, on giving his written a.s.sent to the Lord-Lieutenant, become a member of the second order of the Irish Legislative Body as if he had been elected by the const.i.tuency which he was representing in the House of Commons. Each of the members for the city of Cork, on the said day, may elect for which of the divisions of that city he wishes to be deemed to have been elected.

(4.) If any member does not give such written a.s.sent within _one month_ after the appointed day, his place shall be filled by election in the same manner and at the same time as if he had a.s.sented and vacated his office by death.

(5.) If the same person is elected to both orders, he shall, within _seven days_ after the meeting of the Legislative Body, or if the Body is sitting at the time of the election, within _seven days_ after the election, elect in which order he will serve, and his members.h.i.+p of the other order shall be void and be filled by a fresh election.

(6.) Notwithstanding anything in this Act, it shall be lawful for the Legislature of Ireland at any time to pa.s.s an Act enabling the Royal University of Ireland to return not more than two members to the second order of the Irish Legislative Body in addition to the number of members above mentioned.

(7.) Notwithstanding anything in this Act, it shall be lawful for the Irish Legislature, after the first dissolution of the Legislative Body which occurs, to alter the const.i.tution or election of the second order of that body, due regard being had in the distribution of members to the population of the const.i.tuencies; provided that no alteration shall be made in the number of such order.

_Finance._

[Sidenote: Taxes and separate Consolidated Fund.]

12.--(1.) For the purpose of providing for the public service of Ireland the Irish Legislature may impose taxes, other than duties of customs or excise as defined by this Act, which duties shall continue to be imposed and levied by and under the direction of the Imperial Parliament only.

(2.) On and after the appointed day there shall be an Irish Consolidated Fund separate from the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom.