If those developments can in any way be foreseen, it is its duty further,
to indicate them by allowing specifically for them, without of necessity
pledging the future to them. How far these indications may profitably be
carried is a question not so easy to answer. Times differ. Constitutions
made at a time of fixed social and political ideas, are necessarily fixed
in their provisions. Constitutions made at a time, such as the present,
when social and political ideas are rapidly shifting and changing must
needs indicate the likelihood of change in certain directions; and make
allowance for such changes. It is therefore striking to notice that in
nearly every Constitution made during and since the Great War such
indications are scattered freely. And from that fact alone the historian
of the future could tell with assurance that these were years of rapidly
changing conceptions.

We in Ireland cannot but have a share in these changes. Fortunately for
us, heirs of an ancient tradition, in looking forward we look backward,
and in looking backward we look forward. We may, and often do, use phrases
identical with those used by other nations; but in many cases it will be
found by the thoughtful student that what to them is often social theory,
to us is a slumbering historic memory. Very frequently this will be found
to be the case.

An indication of this kind, that looks both forward and backward, is to be
found in Article 44 of our Constitution. This article has aroused
considerable interest. It reads:--

"The Oireachtas may provide for the establishment of Functional or
Vocational Councils representing branches of the social and economic
life of the Nation. A law establishing any such Council shall
determine its powers, rights and duties, and its relation to the
government of the Irish Free State."

As a matter of curious interest it happens that the German Constitution
contains an article very similar to this; but the conception had been in
development in Ireland for some years. It had, indeed (as I endeavoured to
shew in a little book on _The Gaelic State_, published in 1917), been a
slumbering memory of the Irish Nation during the centuries when the
characteristic political conceptions of the people were frustrate and
idle, as they may now be put into practical development. It had been
worked out in practical detail for one of our largest and most important
industries in the Report on Sea Fishe