Constitutional disputes between the Imperial and Irish Parliament will be decided by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council; those between the Irish Parliament and State Legislatures by an Irish Supreme Court.

Finance

In the financial section of the scheme, the case for the over-taxation of Ireland is considered, but it is urged that, while due account should be taken of this circumstance in any plan for financial reconstruction, Ireland ought not to be relieved of her proper share of the cost of the war or of liability for her share of the National Debt.

Ireland is to contribute an annual sum to the Imperial Exchequer, calculated on the relative taxable capacity of Ireland.  This will cover interest on the Irish share of the National Debt and a contribution to the Sinking Fund, as well as to defence and other Imperial expenditure.

I do not intend to subject the foregoing scheme to any detailed criticism.  The method of constituting the All-Ireland Parliament was open to grave objection.  It was to be a single chamber legislature and was to be selected or nominated rather than elected.  This damned it right away from the democratic standpoint, and the defence of The Times that “the system of delegations would probably have the advantage of being the simplest inasmuch as it would avoid complicating the electoral machinery” was not very forceful.  The supreme test to be applied to any plan of Irish Government is whether it provides, beyond yea or nay, for the absolute unity of Ireland as one distinct nation.  Unless this essential unity is recognised all proposals for settlement, no matter how generous in intent otherwise, must fail.  Mr Lloyd George grossly offended Irish sentiment when he flippantly declared that Ireland was not one nation but two nations.  This is the kind of foolishness that makes one despair at times of British good sense, not to speak of British statesmanship.  Mr Asquith, whatever his political blunderings—­and they were many and grievous in the case of Ireland—­declared in 1912:—­“I have always maintained and I maintain as strongly to-day that Ireland is a nation—­not two nations but one nation.”  And those Prime Ministers of another day—­Mr Gladstone and Mr Disraeli—­were equally emphatic in recognising that Ireland was one distinct nation.

The Times itself saw the folly of partition, for it wrote (24th July 1919): 

“The burden of finding a solution rests squarely upon the shoulders of the British Government, and they must bear it until at least the beginnings have been found.  Some expedients have found favour among those who realise the urgency of an Irish settlement, but have neither opportunity nor inclination closely to study the intricacies of the question.  One such expedient is partition in the form of the total exclusion from the operations of any Irish settlement of the whole or a part of Ulster.  Far more cogent