Home Rule - Part 21
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Part 21

(8.) Trade with any place out of Ireland; or quarantine, or navigation, including merchant shipping (except as respects inland waters and local health or harbour regulations); or

(9.) Lighthouses, buoys, or beacons within the meaning of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, and the Acts amending the same (except so far as they can consistently with any general Act of Parliament be constructed or maintained by a local harbour authority); or

(10.) Coinage; legal tender; or any change in the standard of weights and measures; or

(11.) Trade marks, designs, merchandise marks, copyright, or patent rights.

Provided always, that nothing in this section shall prevent the pa.s.sing of any Irish Act to provide for any charges imposed by Act of Parliament, or to prescribe conditions regulating importation from any place outside Ireland for the sole purpose of preventing the introduction of any contagious disease.

It is hereby declared that the exceptions from the powers of the Irish Legislature contained in this section are set forth and enumerated for greater certainty, and not so as to restrict the generality of the limitation imposed in the previous section on the powers of the Irish Legislature.

Any law made in contravention of this section shall be void.

4. The powers of the Irish Legislature shall not extend to the making of any law--

(1.) Respecting the establishment or endowment of religion, whether directly or indirectly, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or

(2.) Imposing any disability, or conferring any privilege, advantage, or benefit, on account of religious belief, or raising or appropriating directly or indirectly, save as heretofore, any public revenue for any religious purpose, or for the benefit of the holder of any religious office as such; or

(3.) Diverting the property or without its consent altering the const.i.tution of any religious body; or

(4.) Abrogating or prejudicially affecting the right to establish or maintain any place of denominational education or any denominational inst.i.tution or charity; or

(5.) Whereby there may be established and endowed out of public funds any theological professorship or any university or college in which the conditions set out in the University of Dublin Tests Act, 1873, are not observed; or

(6.) Prejudicially affecting the right of any child to attend a school receiving public money, without attending the religious instruction at that school; or

(7.) Directly or indirectly imposing any disability, or conferring any privilege, benefit, or advantage upon any subject of the Crown on account of his parentage or place of birth, or of the place where any part of his business is carried on, or upon any corporation or inst.i.tution const.i.tuted or existing by virtue of the law of some part of the Queen's dominions, and carrying on operations in Ireland, on account of the persons by whom or in whose favour or the place in which any of its operations are carried on; or

(8.) Whereby any person may be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law in accordance with settled principles and precedents, or may be denied the equal protection of the laws, or whereby private property may be taken without just compensation; or

(9.) Whereby any existing corporation incorporated by Royal Charter or by any local or general Act of Parliament may, unless it consents, or the leave of Her Majesty is first obtained on address from the two Houses of the Irish Legislature, be deprived of its rights, privileges, or property without due process of law in accordance with settled principles and precedents, and so far as respects property without just compensation. Provided nothing in this subsection shall prevent the Irish Legislature from dealing with any public department, munic.i.p.al corporation, or local authority, or with any corporation administering for public purposes taxes, rates, cess, dues, or tolls, so far as concerns the same.

Any law made in contravention of this section shall be void.

_Executive Authority._

5.--(1.) The executive power in Ireland shall continue vested in Her Majesty the Queen, and the Lord Lieutenant, or other chief executive officer or officers for the time being appointed in his place, on behalf of Her Majesty, shall exercise any prerogatives or other executive power of the Queen the exercise of which may be delegated to him by Her Majesty, and shall, in Her Majesty's name, summon, at least once in every year, prorogue, and dissolve the Irish Legislature; and every instrument conveying any such delegation of any prerogative or other executive power shall be presented to the two Houses of Parliament as soon as conveniently may be. Provided always that the lieutenants of counties shall be appointed by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland as representing Her Majesty.

(2.) There shall be an Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Ireland to aid and advise in the government of Ireland, being of such numbers, and comprising persons holding such offices under the Crown as Her Majesty or, if so authorised, the Lord Lieutenant may think fit, save as may be otherwise directed by Irish Act.

(3.) The Lord Lieutenant shall, on the advice of the said Executive Committee, give or withhold the a.s.sent of Her Majesty to Bills pa.s.sed by the two Houses of the Irish Legislature, subject nevertheless to any instructions given by Her Majesty in respect of any such Bill.

6. All the powers and jurisdiction to be exercised in accordance with the provisions of the Foreign Enlistment Act, 1870, and the Fugitive Offenders Act, 1881, by the Lord Lieutenant or Lord Justices, or other Chief Governor or Governors of Ireland, or the Chief Secretary of the Lord Lieutenant, shall be exercised by the Lord Lieutenant in pursuance of instructions given by Her Majesty.

_Const.i.tution of Legislature._

7.--(1.) The Irish Legislative Council shall consist of forty-eight councillors.

(2.) Each of the const.i.tuencies mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act shall return the number of councillors named opposite thereto in that schedule.

(3.) Every man shall be ent.i.tled to be registered as an elector, and when registered to vote at an election, of a councillor for a const.i.tuency, who owns or occupies any land or tenement in the const.i.tuency of a rateable value of more than twenty pounds, subject to the like conditions as a man is ent.i.tled at the pa.s.sing of this Act to be registered and vote as a parliamentary elector in respect of an ownership qualification or of the qualification specified in section five of the Representation of the People Act, 1884, as the case may be: Provided that a man shall not be ent.i.tled to be registered, nor if registered to vote, at an election of a councillor in more than one const.i.tuency in the same year.

(4.) The term of office of every councillor shall be eight years, and shall not be affected by a dissolution; and one half of the councillors shall retire in every fourth year, and their seats shall be filled by a new election.

8.--(1.) The Irish Legislative a.s.sembly shall consist of one hundred and three members, returned by the existing parliamentary const.i.tuencies in Ireland, or the existing divisions thereof, and elected by the parliamentary electors for the time being in those const.i.tuencies or divisions.

(2.) The Irish Legislative a.s.sembly when summoned may, unless sooner dissolved, have continuance for five years from the day on which the summons directs it to meet and no longer.

(3.) After six years from the pa.s.sing of this Act, the Irish Legislature may alter the qualification of the electors, and the const.i.tuencies, and the distribution of the members among the const.i.tuencies, provided that in such distribution due regard is had to the population of the const.i.tuencies.

9. If a Bill or any provision of a Bill adopted by the Legislative a.s.sembly is lost by the disagreement of the Legislative Council, and after a dissolution, or the period of two years from such disagreement, such Bill, or a Bill for enacting the said provision, is again adopted by the Legislative a.s.sembly and fails within three months afterwards to be adopted by the Legislative Council, the same shall forthwith be submitted to the members of the two Houses deliberating and voting together thereon, and shall be adopted or rejected according to the decision of the majority of those members present and voting on the question.

_Irish Representation in House of Commons._

10. Unless and until Parliament otherwise determines, the following provisions shall have effect--

(1.) After the appointed day each of the const.i.tuencies named in the Second Schedule to this Act shall return to serve in Parliament the number of members named opposite thereto in that schedule, and no more, and Dublin University shall cease to return any member.

(2.) The existing divisions of the const.i.tuencies shall, save as provided in that schedule, be abolished.

(3.) The election laws and the laws relating to the qualification of parliamentary electors shall not, so far as they relate to parliamentary elections, be altered by the Irish Legislature, but this enactment shall not prevent the Irish Legislature from dealing with any officers concerned with the issue of writs of election, and if any officers are so dealt with, it shall be lawful for Her Majesty by Order in Council to arrange for the issue of such writs, and the writs issued in pursuance of such Order shall be of the same effect as if issued in manner heretofore accustomed.

Clauses 11-20 are the finance clauses, which are dealt with at the end of this Appendix.

Clauses 21 and 22 subst.i.tute the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as Court of Appeal for Ireland in place of House of Lords.

Clause 23 abolishes religious test for the Lord Lieutenant.

Clauses 25-28 safeguard interests of Judges, Civil Servants.

29.--(1.) The forces of the Royal Irish Constabulary and Dublin Metropolitan Police shall, when and as local police forces are from time to time established in Ireland in accordance with the Fifth Schedule to this Act, be gradually reduced and ultimately cease to exist as mentioned in that Schedule; and thereupon the Acts relating to such forces shall be repealed, and no forces organised and armed in like manner, or otherwise than according to the accustomed manner of a civil police, shall be created under any Irish Act; and after the pa.s.sing of this Act, no officer or man shall be appointed to either of those forces;

Provided that until the expiration of six years from the appointed day, nothing in this Act shall require the Lord Lieutenant to cause either of the said forces to cease to exist, if as representing Her Majesty the Queen he considers it inexpedient.

Sections (2) to (5) safeguard interests of existing police.

Clauses 30-33. Miscellaneous.

34.--(1.) During three years from the pa.s.sing of this Act, and if Parliament is then sitting until the end of that session of Parliament, the Irish Legislature shall not pa.s.s an Act respecting the relations of landlord and tenant, or the sale, purchase, or letting of land generally: Provided that nothing in this section shall prevent the pa.s.sing of any Irish Act with a view to the purchase of land for railways, harbours, waterworks, town improvements, or other local undertakings.

(2.) During six years from the pa.s.sing of this Act, the appointment of a judge of the Supreme Court or other superior court in Ireland (other than one of the Exchequer judges) shall be made in pursuance of a warrant from Her Majesty countersigned as heretofore.

Clause 35. Transitory.

Clause 39. Definitions, etc.