given powers, as in both the previous Bills,[93] to amend her
own Constitution within certain defined limits, after a certain lapse of
time, and without encroaching upon Imperial authority. For my part I
would strongly urge that the powers now to be conferred should be much
wider; for I believe that Ireland alone can make a really perfect
Constitution for herself. But, that point apart, the question arises of
the further amendment, outside such permissive powers, of the Home Rule
Act itself, which will, of course, contain within its four corners the
whole of the Irish Constitution, so far as it can be written down. No
special arrangements were made for such a contingency in the Bill of
1893, presumably because Ireland was to be represented at Westminster
and would have a share in the making of any amending act. In the Bill of
1886, which excluded the Irish Members, Mr. Gladstone proposed (in
Clause 39) that no alteration of the Act should be made (apart, of
course, from points left for Irish alteration) except (1) by an Imperial
Act formally assented to by the Irish Legislature, or (2) by an Imperial
Act for the passing of which a stated number of Members of both branches
of the Irish Legislature should be summoned to sit at Westminster.

It will be clear, I think, now, in 1911, that this latter proposal is
not worth revival. No substantial amendment of the Act should properly
be made without the formal consent of the Irish Legislature,
representing Irish public opinion, and the prior consultation with the
Irish Cabinet which such consent would imply. If the lamentable
necessity ever arose of amending the Act against the wishes of Ireland,
the sudden invasion of Westminster by a body of angry Irish Members, too
small to affect the result (for otherwise the attempt to amend would not
be made) and large enough to revive the old political dislocation and
passion, would not simplify the process of amendment or be of value to
anybody concerned. The proposal was probably only suggested by a vague
leaning towards the Federal principle, which, in the present case, we
should certainly reject. It serves indeed as one more illustration of
the anomalies which might result from the inclusion of Irish Members at
Westminster. No more unhealthy position could be imagined than one which
would render it possible for an amendment of the Home Rule Act, whether
in the direction of greater latitude or of stricter limitation, to
depend solely