Erskine Childers and other Liberals of submitting
constitutional questions to the decision of the British Privy Council
reinforced by Irish judges. Either these judges would concur in verdicts
given against the pretensions of the Irish Parliament or they would not.
If they did concur, there would be a fierce outcry against the right of
judges appointed under the Union Government to nullify Acts of the Irish
Legislature. But if they did not concur, the patriotic indignation with
which a decision over the heads of the Irish representatives would be
received is easy to foresee. It would be a matter of the greatest
difficulty to enforce any such decision when the Irish Government,
supported by an agitation in the country, refused to be bound by it. The
situation thus created has no parallel in the case of the colonies. In
Canada or Australia, where the legislative power is divided between
federal and provincial Parliaments, a decision that the one legislature
is incompetent affirms the competence of the other. Both legislatures
have on the spot proper means of enforcing, by judicial and executive
authority, decisions which are within their powers.
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