iv.  The Crown allows the Bill.  It thereupon becomes an Act which continues in force in Victoria until it be repealed either by the British Parliament or by the Victorian Parliament.

v.  The Bill contains a clause that it shall not come into force unless and until allowed by the Crown within two years of its passing.  It is not so allowed, it never comes into force, or in other words never becomes law.

The point to be noted is that the Crown, or in reality the Colonial Office, has and often exercises the power of placing a veto upon any Colonial law whatever.

[44] Compare ‘Victorian Parliamentary Paper,’ 1883, 2 S., No. 22, and the Times of September 27, October 2, 5, 10, 12, 15 and 18, 1883.

[45] See Todd, ‘Parliamentary Government in the Colonies,’ p. 283.

[46] Todd, p. 283.

[47] See, e.g., a letter by Mr. Lecky in the Times of January 13, 1886.

[48] See pp. 221, 222, post.

[49] See a letter in the Spectator of January 2, 1886, on ’Home Rule or Separation,’ by Mr. J. Cotter Morison.

[50] See p. 197, ante.

[51] The Times, May 5, 1886.

[52] Under the political arrangements connecting the two countries, it was practically impossible that the two crowns could by legal means be separated without the assent of the English Parliament.  George III. was necessarily a member both of the English and of the Irish Parliaments; and it is inconceivable that as King of Ireland he should have assented to a bill passed by the Irish Houses of Parliament which was strenuously opposed by the English Houses of Parliament.  The madness of the King raised a case not provided for by the Constitution, and the accidental difference of opinion between the English and Irish Houses of Parliament, as to the Regency, has been treated as possessing more importance than from a constitutional point of view belonged to it.

[53] See Appendix for the Government of Ireland Bill.  It is there printed in extenso.  The clauses which mainly concern the points discussed in the following pages are printed in italics.  Readers who wish to understand my comments on the Gladstonian Constitution, should study the Bill itself.  I am anxious to call attention to its words, because I am quite aware that on more than one point the interpretation put by me upon its provisions will be disputed by supporters of Mr. Gladstone’s policy.  My interpretation is, I believe, sound, but it would be unfair not to give my readers the opportunity of judging for themselves as to its soundness.