an independent nation. This clause invalidates for example acts with
respect to the Crown or the succession to the Crown, with respect to
peace or war, with respect to the naval or military forces of the realm,
with respect to treaties or other relations with foreign states, and
with respect to trade with any place out of Ireland, which apparently
includes the imposition of a protective tariff.

The Restrictions[67] contained in clause 4 may be roughly divided into
three heads; first, prohibitions intended to ensure the maintenance of
absolute religious equality[68]; secondly, prohibitions intended to
prevent injustice to individuals, such as deprivation of life, liberty,
or property without due process of law, denial of equal protection of
the law, the taxing of private property without due compensation, or the
unfair treatment of any existing corporation; thirdly, a provision
prohibiting any law which deprives any inhabitant of the United Kingdom
of equal rights to public sea fisheries.[69]

On these Restrictions it were easy to write an elaborate treatise.
Should our new constitution ever come into force, they will give rise to
a whole series of judgments, and to lengthy books explanatory thereof.
The language in which the Restrictions are expressed is in many cases
exceptionable. No lawyer will venture to predict what for instance may
be the interpretation placed by the Courts on such expressions as 'due
process of law,' 'just compensation,' and the like, and it is more than
doubtful whether the so-called safeguards are so expressed as to carry
out the intention of their authors, or, even in words, adequately to
protect either the authority of the Imperial Parliament or the rights of
individuals. But it is not my purpose to criticise the Restrictions, or
the Bill itself, in detail. The drafting of the Government of Ireland
Bill needs much amendment, but at the present juncture it is waste of