application of any party thereto any legal proceedings in Ireland which inter alia ’touch any matter not within the power of the Irish Legislature, or touch any matter affected by a law which the Irish Legislature has not power to repeal or alter.’[80] With the details of these arrangements I need not trouble my readers; the point to notice is that, whenever in any proceeding in Ireland the validity or constitutionality of an Irish Act can come into question, the matter may, at the wish of any party concerned, and in many cases apparently must be, brought before an Imperial or in effect British Court—­the Exchequer Judges—­and be determined by them subject to an appeal to another Imperial or British Court, viz. the Privy Council.  Note further that to the Exchequer Judges are given special powers for the enforcement of any judgment of their Court.  If the Sheriff does not give effect to their judgment, they may appoint any other officer with the full rights of a Sheriff to enforce it.[81]

Here then we have the machinery of the Imperial, or Federal, Judicature.  To put the matter simply, the Restrictions imposed on the Irish Parliament depend for their effectiveness on judgments of the Privy Council enforced by the Exchequer Judges.

Consider how the whole arrangement will work.[82] The theoretical operation of the scheme is clear enough. A sues X in an Irish Court, say, to simplify matters, before the Exchequer Judges, for L1,000 due to A for rent. X bases his defence on an Act of the Irish Parliament, drawn by Irish statesmen, and approved presumably by Irish electors. A questions the constitutionality of the Act.  The Exchequer Judges are divided in opinion.  The matter at last comes before the Privy Council.  The Privy Council pronounce the Act void, and give judgment in A’s favour.  He has a right to recover the L1,000 from X.  The whole question in theory is settled.  The law is unconstitutional, the law is void; A has obtained judgment.  But can the judgment be enforced?  This is the essential question; for the object of a plaintiff is to obtain not judgment but payment or execution.  What then are the means for enforcing the judgment of the Privy Council when it is not supported by Irish opinion, when it sets aside an Act of the Irish Parliament, and when it may possibly be opposed to the decision, in a similar case, of an Irish Court?  The means are the action of the Sheriff.  What if the Sheriff is a strong Nationalist, and makes default?  The only thing to be done is to appoint an officer empowered to carry out the decree of the Court.  Of course if the Irish Ministry are bent on enforcing the judgment, if the Exchequer Court, whose judgment, it may be, has been overruled, is zealous in supporting the authority of the Privy Council, if the Irish people are filled with reverence for tribunals which are really English Courts, all will go well.  But Mr. Gladstone himself cannot anticipate that novel