spect of our
functions? To answer this question one may turn to an instance that lives
before us, an example from elder days when such an order of society was
familiar. For in old Ireland (as in other nations) guilds were a
recognised form of the industrial life of the nation. They were also,
though not known by that name, a recognised form of the professional life
of the Nation. And as a relic of those times we have to-day what is in
effect a guild of Lawyers. The lawyers of Ireland, for example, are
organised as a whole, with a Council representative of the profession as a
whole. That Council, representative of all who practice as lawyers, is a
responsible body, not only to the lawyers who are represented in it, but
to and in the State on behalf of the legal profession. It is responsible
for the honour and good conduct of lawyers. It is responsible for the
economic maintenance of its constituents. No lawyer is allowed to practice
except by consent of the Legal Council--that is to say, except by the
consent of all other lawyers. The legal profession as a whole--in the
legal sense, as a Person--protects its own honour, protects the individual
lawyer, protects the public interest (in theory, at least), and requires a
guarantee of efficiency and rectitude from every lawyer before he is
allowed to practice his profession.

So it was in ancient Ireland. At that time, when the Assembly of the
Nation met, the lawyers, or 'brehons,' met in a Council of their own. The
administrative heads of each unit of local government met in a Council of
their own. The Recorders, or _Seanchaidhe_, of the local petty states, met
in a Council of their own. And each Council was responsible for the
administration of its own concerns. Each Council drew up its own
regulations, for the conduct of it own duties in the State, and for the
protection of its own 'functional' rights. Each Council, in the modern
legal phrase, was a responsible 'Person,' and was by the State, as it
existed at that time, entrusted with the conduct and administration of its
own affairs, subject to the general execution of the public interest.

It lay with the Assembly of the Nation to co-ordinate the whole in the
public interest. Whether this was or was not done effectively in olden
times is indifferent to the present problem of Functional Councils in the
modern State, with its better organisation and more perfect national
sense. The problem of organisation is very real, but