The New Irish Constitution Part 35

133 "Fox's Correspondence," i., 416; "Life of Lord Shelburne," iii., 143.

134 "Life of Lord Shelburne," iii., 146.

135 Fox: "Speeches," ii., 64, 65.

136 "Grattan's Speeches," Vol. III., 355, 409; January 15th, February 22nd, 1800. "Fox's Correspondence," i., 426; "Life of Lord Shelburne," iii., 149; "Parliamentary History," x.x.x., 957 (Speech of General Fitzpatrick).

137 Speech of July 19th, 1782.

138 Speech of Grattan, January 15th, 1800: "Speeches," Vol. III., 355.

139 "Fox's Correspondence," i., 431.

140 "Life of Lord Shelburne," iii., 150.

141 "Parliamentary History," x.x.xiv., 675, 678; "Memoirs of the Whig Party," by Lord Holland, I. 147; "Life of Lord Shelburne," iii., 554, 555.

142 Letter on the Affairs of Ireland, 1797.

143 28 Geo. III., c. 28.

144 Much interesting light has been thrown on the history of the struggle in 1782-1783 between Grattan and Flood, by the publication of the Diary and Correspondence of Lord Charlemont, in the Reports of the Historical MSS. Commission, Twelfth Report, Appendix Part X., 1891. The abstract doctrine of the legislative supremacy of the British Parliament, and not only the practical application of that doctrine, was strenuously disputed by many of the leaders of Colonial Opinion in America as well as in Ireland at the commencement of the XVIIIth century, as a reference to the literature of the Stamp Act and the Declaratory Act of 1766 will show. The doctrine itself was one of the consequences of the Revolution of 1688, which true to the general principle of exalting the importance of the British Parliament, abolished on the one hand the right of the Crown to tax the Colonies by virtue of its prerogative, and on the other a.s.serted a right in the British Parliament to legislate and tax in the "settled" Colonies of the Crown concurrently with the local representative a.s.semblies, and, if necessary, over their heads. The same cla.s.s of arguments were used both by Colonial and by Irish statesmen against the claims of the British Parliament to interfere as between them and the Crown; but the Irish case was always the stronger of the two, because her advocates were able to start from the admitted right and position of Ireland as a kingdom, with a Crown of her own. To the claims of the British Parliament, the Whig statesmen, recognising their danger in practice, tried to set const.i.tutional limitations, and hence grew up the distinction, on which the elder Pitt relied, between the right of Great Britain to impose by law internal taxation within the Colonies for the purposes of revenue, and her right to levy external taxation for the regulation of Colonial trade. This distinction, however, from a legal point of view, Lord Mansfield showed, would not bear examination, and he laid down the law to be, that the Parliament of Great Britain had an absolute legislative supremacy over her Colonies-and by implication over Ireland-in all cases whatever, whether for internal or external objects; whether to impose a tax, or to regulate trade; whether to levy money, or to make general enactments; and this doctrine it was which was recorded in the Declaratory Act of George III. of 1766, relating to the Colonies, the counterpart of the Declaratory Act of George I., relating to Ireland. (_See_ Bancroft, Vol. III., Ch. xix., The Absolute Power of Parliament; "Life of Lord Shelburne," Vol. I., Ch.

iv., p. 253.)

145 "Life of Lord Shelburne," i., 285.

146 Montesquieu, "Considerations sur la Grandeur et la Decadence des Romains."

147 Lecky.

148 For further details see _Dublin Castle and the Irish People_.

149 Bright.

150 Poor Law Commission (Ireland) Report 1903-1906, p. 12.

151 "Dublin Castle and the Irish People."

152 Gavan Duffy: "Young Ireland."

153 "In Ireland," said Lord Normanby, "the landlord has the monopoly of the means of existence, and has a power of enforcing his bargains which does not exist anywhere-the power of starvation."

154 Gavan Duffy: _League of North and South._

155 I have done so in "Dublin Castle and the Irish People," _see_ p.

264, _et seq._

156 Mr. Commissioner Bailey.

157 John Stuart Mill.

158 A debate took place in the House of Lords on the subject on February 17th, 1905. The correspondence between Mr. G. Wyndham and Sir A.

MacDonnell on the latter's appointment appears as an appendix in "The Outlook in Ireland" (John Murray. 1912.)

159 Mr. Barry O'Brien's "Life of Parnell." Vol. I., p. 93.

160 "Federation and Empire," p. 315. (H. Henry & Co., 1896.)

161 This Table has already been published in a chapter which I contributed to "Home Rule Problems," edited by Basil Williams (King, 1911).

162 "Home Rule Problems," pp. 67-72. (King, 1911.)

163 "Parliamentary Debates," Vol. CCCXVIII., p. 688.

164 A Quarterly Review of the politics of the British Empire, which is entirely free from any partisan prepossessions.

_ 165 See_ Kipling's "Ulster."

166 "Irish Nationality" (Home University Library.)