which any Court whatever could treat as void, the Ministry will be able
to change the social condition of Ireland. The Irish Cabinet, remember,
will not be checked by any Irish House of Commons, for it will represent
the majority of that House. It will not need to fear the interposition
of the Imperial Ministry or the Imperial Parliament, for if the
authorities in England are to supervise and correct the conduct of the
Irish Cabinet, Home Rule is at an end. Mr. Asquith has repudiated all
idea of creating two Executives in Ireland[61] for the ordinary purposes
of government, and from his own point of view he is right. The notion of
a dual control is preposterous; the attempt to carry it out must involve
anarchy or revolution. The Irish Ministry must in ordinary matters be at
least as free as the Ministry of a self-governing colony. The
independence of the Irish Executive is indeed a totally new phenomenon
in Irish history, and is, as I have said, a far more important matter
than the independence of the Irish Parliament, but it is an essential
feature of Home Rule, and every elector throughout England should try to
realise its import.

One check, indeed, is placed upon the power of the Irish Cabinet. The
military forces of the Crown, and the Royal Irish Constabulary and
Dublin Metropolitan Police (as long as they exist[62]), are subject to
the control of the Imperial or English Ministry.[63] The result is that
the English Cabinet will have the means of using force in Ireland for
the maintenance of order, for the execution of the law, or for the
maintenance of the authority of the Imperial Parliament. But this
advantage is after all purchased at the price of placing the country
under the rule of something very like two Executives. If the policy of
the Irish Cabinet, _e.g._ as to suppressing a riot at Dublin or Belfast,
should differ from the policy of the English Cabinet, the ordinary
police may be called into action whilst the army or the royal