n the present
draft Constitution. For under her Treaty with England Ireland agreed to
take equal rank in the Community of Nations with the other members of it.
Specifically she accepted the "law, practice and constitutional usage" of
Canada; and that constitutional usage implies, not the dead timber of the
Canadian Constitution, but the living tissue of her constitutional
experience.

These two causes, then, have joined together to produce the draft of the
Irish Constitution. From them was created the original plan of the
Constitution, according to which Ireland takes her place, not only
generally among all nations in virtue of her ancient right, but specially
in a certain confederacy of nations in virtue of a Treaty of Peace, signed
between her plenipotentiaries and England's plenipotentiaries, and
approved by both legislatures. To the most casual glance, it is indeed a
most modern and forward-looking document; yet it draws from so ancient a
fountain-head. And the conjunction of these two may prove of searching
value, if rightly used, to Ireland's influence in the world--provided that
there be peace at home, without which a nation is nought. That influence
may not be of the same kind as one had hoped before the Treaty of Peace
was signed. But even if it be not of the same kind, its measure need not
be less. It cannot be so immediate; and that is loss; but it may with
wisdom and firmness prove ultimately to be more extensive. Whatever the
means, the end remains the same; and that end is the contribution in the
comity of nations of the fruits of personality--without which neither men
nor nations can plead a justification for life.

For when a nation such as Ireland joins a confederacy so composed, she by
the mere fact of her addition transfigures the whole. This is not a
fanciful figure of speech. It is a literal description of what has already
occurred. In the case of no other nation of the Community, for example,
has its advent been signalled by an International Treaty. That, in itself,
is a transfiguration of the whole. Similarly, other nations of the
Community had protested the co-equality of each and all; but the
protestation had remained a protestation until it was formally declared
for each and all by the claim made by and recognised for Ireland.

So it has proved in the very case of this Constitution. The full height of
nationhood is the recognition of sovereignty; and the completest act of
sovereignty of which