interest or importance whatever. What we want to know is where the
power lies. Who is going to exercise supremacy? Who is going to be
the _de facto_ ruler of Ireland?"

Special importance attaches to these considerations owing to the heavy
liabilities undertaken by this country in respect of land purchase in
Ireland. At the present time many millions of British money are sunk in
Irish land, and the amount may increase to a sum approaching two hundred
millions. The tenants now pay their annuities because, in the last
resort, the Government can turn them out. Under Home Rule the powers of
Government would rest with men who have led "no rent" agitations in the
past, and who would be dependent upon the votes of those personally
interested in repudiating the debt. The British Treasury can hardly run
such a risk; and some sort of concurrent control, with all its evils and
risks, seems to be necessary. And yet financial independence is the
first essential to genuine autonomy.

But, it may be said, if the Irish Government go beyond the law, the
Irish Courts may be asked to interfere; and in the event of their
refusal, the Bill provides an appeal to the Judicial Committee in
London. No doubt it does, but in practice the person aggrieved might
have very great difficulty in making the remedy effective. He must
obtain a decision in his favour from the Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council, at no small cost of money and personal odium; and the decision
of that "alien" tribunal (as it would be called) must then be enforced
under the jurisdiction of a Government which (on the hypothesis which we
are considering) would be unfriendly, by judges and executive officers
appointed and perhaps removable by that authority, and in the midst of a
population hostile to "foreign" interference. Is it extravagant to
suppose that the complainant would not gain much by his appeal to
Caesar?

And even if we suppose the Irish Legislature and Executive to confine
themselves within the letter of the Act, are the checks of any real
value? The Irish Parliament might still interfere with contracts, or
might validate contracts now held to be void as contrary to public
policy. They might defeat the Mortmain Acts. They might deal as they
thought fit with internal trade; and the great industries of Belfast and
its neighbourhood might find their views on trade questions of no avail.
The Irish Legislature might create new offences and institute n