A Leap in the Dark - A Criticism of the Principles of Home Rule as Illustrated by the - Bill of 1893 by Albert Venn Dicey
page 56 of 237 (23%)
page 56 of 237 (23%)
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State rights. Add to this that at every great political crisis the House
of Commons will have before it an inquiry which must produce interminable debates, namely whether a given bill is or is not a measure which concerns only the interest of Great Britain. Two inducements are offered to England for the adoption of a plan the evils whereof were so patent in 1886 that it then could not, if we are to believe Mr. Morley,[45] have commanded twenty supporters in the House of Commons. The first inducement is that the presence of eighty Irish members at Westminster is an outward and visible sign of the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament.[46] On this point it is needless to say much; few Englishmen will on consideration think it worth while to dislocate all our system of government in order that the British Parliament may retain in Ireland the kind of sovereignty which it retains in New Zealand. We are rightly proud of our connection with our colonies, but no one would seriously propose to retain nominal sovereignty in Canada at the price of a perilous and injurious change in the constitution of England. The second inducement is that Great Britain will be allowed the exclusive management of British affairs. This sort of spurious Home Rule for England turns out however to be as illusory a blessing as the maintenance of parliamentary supremacy. Great Britain is, under the new constitution, not allowed to appoint the British Cabinet. Great Britain is forbidden to determine for herself any matter of legislation or administration which, however deeply it concerns British interests, trenches in the least degree on any Irish or |
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