when it may possibly be opposed to the decision, in a similar case, of
an Irish Court? The means are the action of the Sheriff. What if the
Sheriff is a strong Nationalist, and makes default? The only thing to be
done is to appoint an officer empowered to carry out the decree of the
Court. Of course if the Irish Ministry are bent on enforcing the
judgment, if the Exchequer Court, whose judgment, it may be, has been
overruled, is zealous in supporting the authority of the Privy Council,
if the Irish people are filled with reverence for tribunals which are
really English Courts, all will go well. But Mr. Gladstone himself
cannot anticipate that novel constitutional machinery will work with
ease, or that on the passing of the Home Rule Bill the disposition, the
traditional feelings, and the sympathies of the Irish populace will be
changed. Suppose that _A_ is Lord Clanricarde; suppose that _X_ is an
evicted tenant. It is not common sense to believe that the judgment in
his lordship's favour will as a matter of course take effect. At the
present moment the Irish Courts, backed by the whole authority of the
Imperial Government and the Irish Executive, often find a difficulty in
enforcing their judgments. Will English Courts find it easy to give
effect to a judgment in Ireland if the Irish Executive and its servants
stand neutral or hostile? What if the Irish House of Commons turn out as
unwilling that force should be used for enforcing the decree of the
Privy Council as are some English Radicals that force shall be employed
for the protection of free labourers against Trades Unionists? What if
the officer of the Court is in fact some bailiff trembling for his own
life? He may, I am told, call in the military. Of his authority to do
this I am not quite sure. He must, I suppose, in the first instance
apply to the Irish Home Secretary. The Irish Minister pressed by the
opposition turns a deaf ear to the appeal of the bailiff. Application
must then be made in some form or other to the English Ministry. The
Imperial Cabinet will think more than once before horse, foot, and