[Footnote 47:  The Irish Question, pp. 3-5.]

[Footnote 48:  Ibid., p. 6.]

[Footnote 49:  Ibid., p. 7.]

[Footnote 50:  The Irish Question, pp. 7-9.]

[Footnote 51:  Irish Question, p. 10.]

[Footnote 52:  The Irish Question, pp. 16-18.]

[Footnote 53:  Dicey, England’s Case against Home Rule, p. 128.]

[Footnote 54:  Dicey, England’s Case against Home Rule, pp. 72-74.]

[Footnote 55:  Dicey, England’s Case against Home Rule, pp. 92-94.—­The foreigner is De Beaumont.]

[Footnote 56:  Dicey, England’s Case against Home Rule, pp. 151, 152.]

[Footnote 57:  Ibid., p. 288.]

[Footnote 58:  I hope I am not doing Mr. Lecky an injustice in this statement.  I rely on the extract quoted from the Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland, at p. 176 of this volume; but see Introduction, p. xix.]

[Footnote 59:  Irish House of Commons, January 15th, 1800.]

IRELAND’S ALTERNATIVES.

BY LORD THRING.[60]

Ireland is a component member of the most complex political body the world has yet known; any inquiry, then, into the fitness of any particular form of government for that country involves an investigation of the structures of various composite nations, or nations made up of numerous political communities more or less differing from each other.  From the examination of the nature of the common tie, and the circumstances which caused it to be adopted or imposed on the component peoples, we cannot but derive instruction, and be furnished with materials which will enable us to take a wide view of the question of Home Rule, and assist us in judging between the various remedies proposed for the cure of Irish disorders.

The nature of the ties which bind, or have bound, the principal composite nations of the world together may be classified as—­

    1.  Confederate unions.
    2.  Federal unions.
    3.  Imperial unions.

A confederate union may be defined to mean an alliance between the governments of independent States, which agree to appoint a common superior authority having power to make peace and war and to demand contributions of men and money from the confederate States.  Such superior authority has no power of enforcing its decrees except through the medium of the governments of the constituent States; or, in other words, in case of disobedience, by armed force.

A federal union differs from a confederate union in the material fact that the common superior authority, instead of acting on the individual subjects of the constituent States through the medium of their respective governments, has a power, in respect of all matters within its jurisdiction, of enacting laws and issuing orders which are binding directly on the individual citizens.