The New Irish Constitution: An Exposition and Some Arguments. Various

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СКАЧАТЬ County Court Judges.

      (4) Resident Magistrates.

      (5) Crown Business.

      (a) General.

      (b) Law Officers.

      [pg 061]

      (c) Crown Prosecutors, Crown Solicitors.

      (d) Petty Sessions Clerks.

      (6) Police.

      (a) Royal Irish Constabulary.

      (b) Dublin Metropolitan Police.

      (7) Prisons, Reformatories, Criminal Lunatics.

      (8) Miscellaneous.

      (9) Registry, Receipt and Issue of Letters.

      Group III.—Education, Science and Art.

      (1) Primary.

      (2) Secondary.

      (3) University.

      (4) Technical.

      (5) College of Science.

      (6) National Gallery, Public Libraries, Museums.

      (7) Registry, etc., of Letters.

      Group IV.—Local Government.

      (1) Rural.

      (2) Urban.

      (3) Sanitation.

      (4) Medical Relief, Hospitals.

      (5) Poor Law Relief, Orphanages and Asylums.

      (6) Crop Failure, Famine Relief.

      (7) Labour questions, Housing of the working-classes.

      (8) Audit of Local Accounts.

      (9) Registry, etc., of Letters.

      Group V.—Public Works.

      (1) Roads and Buildings.

      (2) Railways and Canals.

      (3) Marine Works.

      (4) Drainage, Irrigation and Reclamation.

      (5) Mines and Minerals.

      (6) Registry of Letters.

      [pg 062]

      Group VI.—Agriculture.

      (1) General.

      (2) Relief of Agricultural Congestion. (Congested Districts Board).

      (3) Land Improvement, Seeds, Manures, Agricultural Implements, etc.

      (4) Improvement in the breed of Horses, Cattle, etc.

      (5) Diseases of Animals and Plants.

      (6) Agricultural Schools, Experimental and Demonstration Farms, etc.

      (7) Arboriculture, Afforestation.

      (8) Registry of Letters.

      Group VII.—The Land Commission.

      (1) Land Purchase.

      (2) Relief of Congestion.

      (3) Recovery of Annuities and Sinking Fund.

      (4) Fixation of Judicial Rents.

      (5) Registry, etc., of Letters.

      Group VIII.—Registration.

      (1) General and Vital Statistics.

      (2) Deeds.

      (3) Titles.

      (4) General Records.

      (5) Friendly Societies.

      (6) Registry of Receipts and Issue of Letters.

      Group IX.—General Purposes.

      (1) Sea and Inland Fisheries.

      (2) Labour Questions, other than Housing.

      (3) Scientific Investigations.

      (4) Thrift and Credit Societies; Agricultural Banks.

      (5) Quit Rents.68 (Woods and Forests).

      [pg 063]

      (6) Temporary Commissions of Enquiry.

      (7) Stationery.

      (8) Office of Arms.69

      Before proceeding to discuss the method by which the control of the Legislature may be most easily and effectively established over these various departments, I wish to consider whether any of them should be temporarily reserved from that control. There is undoubtedly, a strong feeling among Irish Unionists, and among many moderate Nationalists, that, if Home Rule does come, Judicial Patronage, and the control over the Police, should be in the beginning reserved or excepted from the general transfer of control to the new Government which would take place when the Bill becomes law. On the other hand, the Nationalist Party are, I understand, anxious that there should be no delay in transferring the judicial patronage. They have been dissatisfied with the exercise of judicial patronage in the past: and they wish for a distribution more to their liking in the immediate future.

      I have myself no fear that judicial patronage will be misused to the detriment of any party by the Irish Government of the future; but Irish Unionists are apprehensive on the point; and in my opinion something should be done to allay their fears. If the Bill should contain provisions similar to Clause 19 of the Bill of 1893, which maintained in the Irish Supreme Court two judges with salaries charged on the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, appointed by the King in Council, and removable only by his Order, the Unionist apprehensions might be, to some extent at all events, removed. But as the Financial Provisions of the coming Bill will probably be different [pg 064] from those of the Bill of 1893, a clause like Clause 19 of that Bill may not be inserted.70

      In that case, I think it would tend to the establishment of general confidence if the patronage in connexion with judicial appointments were, during the transition period, reserved and administered, as at present, by the Lord-Lieutenant. I think it would be good policy to abstain from every transfer of authority from the Lord-Lieutenant to which the Irish minority may at the outset reasonably object. There must be a period of transition—be it seven years or ten years or even longer—during which the minority will be suspicious of such change as I am now concerned with. I would let these suspicions wear themselves out, as in time they are sure to do with the growth of further knowledge and of that saner outlook on Imperial and Irish affairs, which collaboration towards СКАЧАТЬ