Naturally, there will be certain Imperial and non-Irish matters in which the Lord-Lieutenant will act primarily under the orders of the British Cabinet, and the Departmental British Minister primarily responsible for Irish-Imperial matters would be the Home Secretary.[169]

The question may be raised, as in 1893 (July 3, Hansard), whether a staff of Imperial officials ought not to be set up to conduct any Imperial business which has to be done in Ireland, on the analogy of the Federal staff in the United States.  I hope Mr. Gladstone’s answer will still hold good—­that no such staff is needed; that the Irish officials will be responsible, and ought, on the Home Rule principle, to be trusted, as they are trusted in the Colonies.

The Royal Assent to Bills is always a matter for express enactment in the Constitution, but here the “instructions” of the Governor, and even his personal “discretion,” have generally been alluded to in recent Constitutions, whether conferred by Act or Letters Patent.  The typical form of words is that the Governor “shall declare his Assent according to his discretion, but subject to His Majesty’s instructions."[170] The Home Rule Bill of 1893 left out reference to “discretion,” and, on the other hand, is, I think, the only document of the kind in which the “advice of the Executive Council” has ever been expressly alluded to, although the practice, of course, is that the Assent, normally, is given or withheld on that advice.  The Transvaal Constitution of 1906 (Section 39) was unique in prescribing that special instructions must be received by the Governor in the case of each proposed law, before the Assent is given.  I hope that will not be made a precedent for Ireland.  Such precautions only irritate the law-makers, and serve no useful purpose.

Colonial Governors, besides the power of Assent and Veto, may “reserve” Bills for the Royal pleasure, which is to be signified within two years.  Moreover, Bills which have received the Governor’s Assent may be disallowed within one or two years.[171] Neither of these provisions appeared in the Home Rule Bills of 1886 and 1893, and neither appear to be strictly necessary, owing to the proximity of Ireland.  Whatever is done, we may hope that the practice now established in Canada, where the Federal Government never disallows a provincial law on any other ground than that it is ultra vires, and, a fortiori, the similar practice as between Great Britain and the Dominions, may be imitated in the case of Ireland.

To sum up, the terse and simple words of the Bill of 1886 really enunciate all that is necessary: 

[Sidenote:  Constitution of the Executive Authority.]

“7.—­(1) The Executive Government of Ireland shall continue vested in (Her) Majesty, and shall be carried on by the Lord-Lieutenant on behalf of (Her) Majesty with the aid of such officers and such council as to Her Majesty may from time to time seem fit.