, 1893, _ibid_. pp. 439, 440.

[32] Feb. 14, 1893, _ibid_. pp. 340, 341, 343.

[33] Bill, clause 12, sub-clause (3).

[34] This is the only sense in which the sovereignty of the Imperial
Parliament is inalienable. This should be noted, because a strange and
absurd dogma is sometimes propounded that a sovereign power such as the
Parliament of the United Kingdom, can never by its own act divest itself
of sovereignty, and it is thence inferred or hinted that there is no
need for the Imperial Parliament to take measures for the preservation
of its supremacy. The dogma is both logically and historically
untenable. A sovereign of any kind can abdicate. A Czar can lay down his
power, and so also can a Parliament. To argue or imply that because
sovereignty is not limitable (which is true) it cannot be surrendered
(which is palpably untrue) involves the confusion of two distinct ideas.
It is like arguing that because no man can while he lives give up, do
what he will, his freedom of volition, so no man can commit suicide. A
sovereign power can divest itself of authority in two ways. It may put
an end to its own existence or abdicate. It may transfer sovereign
authority to another person, or body of persons, of which body it may,
or may not, form part. The Parliaments both of England and of Scotland
did at the time of the Union each transfer sovereign power to a new
sovereign body, namely the Parliament of Great Britain. The British
Parliament did in 1782 surrender its sovereignty in Ireland to the Irish
Parliament. In 1800 both the British Parliament and the Irish Parliament
alienated or surrendered their sovereign powers to the Parliament of the
United Kingdom. Compare Dicey, _Law of the Constitution_ (7th ed.), note
3, p. 65.

[35] It may, I am quite aware, be argued that the presence of Irish
representatives is not requisite for the maintenance of parliamentary
supremacy. In theory it is not. An arrangement might quite conceivably
be made (which if Home Rule were to be conceded might be the least
objectionable method of carrying out a radically vicious policy) under
which it should be distinctly agreed that Ireland should occupy the
position of a self-governing colony with all the immunities and
disadvantages thereof, and should cease to be represented at
Westminster, whilst the British Parliament retained the right to
abolish, or modify, the Irish constitution. Such an arrangement would,
however, make it perfectly plain