Present Irish Questions Part 9

_A Bill to amend the provision for the future Government of Ireland._ [A.D. 1886.

Be it enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament a.s.sembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

PART I.

_Legislative Authority._

[Sidenote: Establishment of Irish Legislature.]

=1.= On and after the appointed day there shall be established in Ireland a Legislature consisting of Her Majesty the Queen and the Irish Legislative Body.

[Sidenote: Powers of Irish Legislature.]

=2.= With the exceptions and subject to the restrictions in this Act mentioned, it shall be lawful for Her Majesty the Queen, by and with the advice of the Irish Legislative Body, to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of Ireland, and by any such law to alter and repeal any law in Ireland.

[Sidenote: Exceptions from powers of Irish Legislature.]

=3.= The Legislature of Ireland shall not make laws relating to the following matters, or any of them:--

(1) The status or dignity of the Crown, or the succession the Crown or a Regency;

(2) The making of peace or war;

(3) The army, navy, militia, volunteers, or other military or naval forces, or the defence of the realm;

(4) Treaties and other relations with foreign States, or the relations between the various parts of Her Majesty's dominions;

(5) Dignities or t.i.tles of honour;

(6) Prize or booty of war;

(7) Offences against the law of nations; or offences committed in violation of any treaty made, or hereafter to be made, between Her Majesty and any foreign State; or offences committed on the high seas;

(8) Treason, alienage, or naturalisation;

(9) Trade, navigation, or quarantine;

(10) The postal and telegraph service, except as hereafter in this Act mentioned with respect to the transmission of letters and telegrams in Ireland;

(11) Beacons, lighthouses, or sea-marks;

(12) The coinage; the value of foreign money; legal tender; or weights and measures; or

(13) Copyright, patent rights, or other exclusive rights to the use or profits of any works or inventions.

Any law made in contravention of this section shall be void.

[Sidenote: Restrictions on powers of Irish Legislature.]

=4.= The Irish Legislature shall not make any law--

(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.