ment in the House of Commons an addition shall be made to the numbers of the Senate. CONSTITUTION OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. (45 to 20.)

(1) The ordinary elected members of the House of Commons shall number 160. (2) The University of Dublin, the University of Belfast, and the National University shall each return two members. The graduates of each university shall form the constituency.

(3) Special representation shall be given to urban and industrial areas by grouping the smaller towns and applying to them a lower electoral quota than that applicable to the rest of the country. (4) The principle of proportional representation, with the single transferable vote, shall be observed wherever a constituency returns three or more members. (47 to 22.)

(5) The convention accept the principle that 40 per cent. of the membership of the House of Commons shall be guaranteed to Unionists. In pursuance of this, they suggest that, for a period, there shall be summoned to the Irish House of Commons twenty members nominated by the Lord Lieutenant, with a view to the due representation of interests not otherwise adequately represented in the provinces of Leinster, Munster, and Connaught, and that twenty additional members shall be elected by Ulster constituencies, to represent commercial, industrial, and agricultural interests.

(6) The Lord Lieutenant's power of nomination shall be exercised subject to any instructions that may be given by his Majesty the King.

(7) The nominated members shall disappear in whole or in part after fifteen years, and not earlier, notwithstanding anything contained in Clause 5.

(8) The extra representation in Ulster not to cease except on an adverse decision by a three-fourths majority of both houses sitting together. (27 to 20.)

(9) The House of Commons shall continue for five years unless previously dissolved. (10) Nominated members shall vacate their seats on a dissolution but shall be eligible for renomination. Any vacancy among the nominated members shall be filled by nomination.

MONEY BILLS. (45 to 22.)

(1) Money bills to originate only in the House of Commons, and not to be amended by the Senate. (Act, Section 10.) (2) The Senate is, however, to have power to bring about a joint sitting over money bills in the same session of Parliament. (3) The Senate to have power to suggest amendments, which the House of Commons may accept or reject as it pleases. DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN HOUSES. Disagreements between the two houses to be solved by joint sittings as set out in act, with the proviso that if the Senate fail to pass a money bill such joint sitting shall be held

in the same session of Parliament. (45 to 22.)

REPRESENTATION AT WESTMINSTER.

(1) Representation in Parliament of the United Kingdom to continue. Irish representatives to have the right of deliberating and voting on all matters.

(2) Forty-two Irish representatives shall be elected to the Commons House of the Parliament of the United Kingdom in the following manner:

A panel shall be formed in each of the four provinces of Ireland, consisting of the members for that province in the Irish House of Commons, and one other panel shall be formed consisting of members nominated to the Irish House of Commons. The number of representatives to be elected to the Commons House of the Imperial Parliament shall be proportionate to the numbers of each panel and the election shall be on the principle of proportional representation. (42 to 24.) (3) The Irish representation in the House of Lords shall continue as at present unless and until that chamber be remodeled, when the matter shall be reconsidered by the Imperial and Irish Parliaments. (44 to 22.)

FINANCE. (51 to 18.)

(1) An Irish Exchequer and Consolidated Fund to be established and an Irish Controller and Auditor General to be appointed as set out in act.

(2) If necessary, it should be declared that all taxes at present leviable in Ireland should continue to be levied and collected until the Irish Parliament otherwise decides.

(3) The necessary adjustments of revenue as between Great Britain and Ireland during the transition period should be made. FINANCIAL POWERS OF THE IRISH PARLIAMENT. (1) The control of customs and excise by an Irish Parliament is to be postponed for further consideration until after the war, provided that the question of such control shall be considered and decided by the Parliament of the United Kingdom within seven years after the conclusion of peace. For the purpose of deciding in the Parliament of the United Kingdom the question of the future control of Irish customs and excise, a number of Irish representatives proportioned to the population of Ireland shall be called to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. (38 to 34.)

(2) On the creation of an Irish Parliament, and until the question of the ultimate control of the Irish customs and excise services shall have been decided, the Board of Customs and Excise of the United Kingdom shall include a person or persons nominated by the Irish Treasury. (39 to 33.)

(3) A Joint Exchequer Board, consisting of two members nominated by the Imperial Treasury, and two members nominated

by the Irish Treasury, with a Chairman appointed by the King, shall be set up to secure the determination of the true income of Ireland. (39 to 33.)

(4) Until the question of the ultimate control of the Irish customs and excise services shall have been decided, the revenue due to Ireland from customs and excise, as determined by the Joint Exchequer Board, shall be paid into the Irish Exchequer. (38 to 30.)

(5) All branches of taxation, other than customs and excise, shall be under the control of the Irish Parliament. (38 to 30.) IMPERIAL CONTRIBUTION. The principle of such a contribution is approved. (Unanimously.) LAND PURCHASE. The convention accept the recommendations of the Sub-Committee on Land Purchase. (Unanimously.)

JUDICIAL POWER. (43 to 17.) The following provisions of the Government of Ireland act to be adopted:

(a) Safeguarding position of existing Irish Judges.

(b) Leaving appointment of future Judges to the Irish Government and their removal to the Crown on address from both houses of Parliament.

(c) Transferring appeals from the House of Lords to the Judicial Committee, strengthened by Irish Judges.

(d) Extending right of appeal to this court. (e) Provision as to reference of questions of validity to Judicial Committee.

The Lord Chancellor is not to be a political officer.

LORD LIEUTENANT. The Lord Lieutenant is not to be a political officer. He shall hold office for six years, and neither he nor the Lords Justices shall be subject to any religious disqualification. His salary shall be sufficient to throw the post open to men of moderate means. (43 to 17.)

CIVIL SERVICE. (42 to 18.)

a

(1) There shall be a Civil Service Commission consisting of representatives of Irish universities which shall formulate scheme of competitive examinations for admission to the public service, including statutory administrative bodies, and no person shall be admitted to such service unless he holds the certificate of the Civil Service Commission.

(2) A scheme of appointments in the public service, with recommendations as to scales of salary for the same, shall be prepared by a commission consisting of an independent Chairman of outstanding position in Irish public life, and two colleagues, one of whom shall represent Unionist interests.

(3) No appointments to positions shall be made before the scheme of this commission has been approved.

DEFERRING TAKING OVER CERTAIN IRISH SERVICES. Arrangements to be made to permit the Irish Government, if they so desire, to defer taking over the services relating to Old-Age Pensions, National Insurance, Labor Ex

scheme, which aimed at denying the right of the Imperial Parliament to impose military service in Ireland "unless with the consent of the proposed Irish Parliament."

Dr. Mahaffy, Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, and the Archbishop of Armagh, in a separate note, stated that they found it impossible to vote for the majority proposals, since these involved, in their opinion, either the coercion of Ulster, which was unthinkable, or the partition of Ireland, which would be disastrous.

Twenty-two Nationalists, including Joseph Devlin, M. P., the Archbishop of Cashel, the Bishop of Raphoe, the Bishop of Down and Connor, and the Lord Mayors of Dublin and Cork, signed a report favoring a subordinate Irish Parliament with immediate full powers of taxation.

The majority of the Nationalists also signed a note explaining that for the sake of reaching an agreement with the Unionists they did not press their claim for full fiscal autonomy.

The Southern Unionists, who for "high considerations of allied and imperial interests" signed the majority report, also added a note. They insisted that all imperial questions and services, including the levying of customs duties, be left in the hands of the Parliament of the United Kingdom; that Ireland send representatives to Westminster; and that the whole of Ireland participate in any Irish Parliament.

THE FINANCIAL ISSUE

Apart from the main question whether an Irish Parliament with an Executive responsible to it should be established, debate chiefly centred on the question of fiscal autonomy. By January, 1918, it became apparent that on the financial issue there were three clearly defined bodies of opinion:

First The Ulster Unionists favoring the maintenance of the fiscal unity of the United Kingdom;

Second-A section of Nationalists insisting upon complete fiscal autonomy for Ireland;

Third-The Southern Unionists, sup

ported by other Nationalists, and the majority of the Labor representatives, favoring a compromise which left to Ireland the proceeds of all sources of revenue and the imposition of all taxes other than customs.

It was to overcome these and other differences that Premier Lloyd George invited representatives of the convention to London to confer with the Cabinet. The Premier's letter, dated Feb. 25, 1918, is published in the report. It discloses the fact that some of the Nationalists had been willing to set up an Ulster Committee in the Irish Parliament to veto the application of certain legislation to that province, to make Belfast the headquarters of the Irish Ministry of Commerce, and to let the Irish Parliament meet alternately in Dublin and Belfast.

GOVERNMENT'S ATTITUDE

Dealing with "the difficult question of customs and excise," Lloyd George wrote: The Government are aware of the serious objections which can be raised against the transfer of these services to an Irish Legislature. It would be practically impossible to make such a disturbance of the fiscal and financial relations of Great Britain and Ireland in the midst of a great war. It might also be incompatible with that federal reorganization of the United Kingdom in favor of which there is a growing body of opinion. On the other hand, the Government recognize the strong claim that can be made that an Irish Legislature should have some control over indirect taxation as the only form of taxation which touches the great majority of the people, and which in the past has represented the greater part of Irish reve

nue.

The Government feel that this is a matter which cannot be finally settled at the present time. They therefore suggest for the consideration of the convention that, during the period of the war and for a period of two years thereafter, the control of customs and excise should be reserved to the United Kingdom Parliament; that, as soon as possible after the Irish Parliament has been established, a Joint Exchequer Board should be set up secure the determination of the true revenue of Ireland-a provision which is essential to a system of responsible Irish government-and to the making of a national balance sheet, and that, at the end of the war, a royal commission should be established to re-examine impartially and thoroughly the financial relations of

to

Great Britain and Ireland, to report on the contribution of Ireland to imperial expenditure, and to submit proposals as to the best means of adjusting the economic and fiscal relations of the two countries.

The Government consider that during the period of the war the control of all taxation other than customs and excise could be handed over to the Irish Parliament; that for the period of the war and two years thereafter an agreed proportion of the annual imperial expenditure should be fixed as the Irish contribution; and that all Irish revenue from customs and excise as determined by the Joint Exchequer Board, after deduction of the agreed Irish contribution to imperial expenditure, should be paid into the Irish Exchequer. For administrative reasons, during the period of the war it is necessary that the police should remain under imperial control, and it seems to the Government to be desirable that for the same period the postal service should be a reserved service.

CONSCRIPTION IN IRELAND

The announcement of the British Government's twofold plan of home rule and conscription for Ireland caused an outpouring of protests from the whole of the Nationalist population. Preparations for resistance were begun, a great anti-conscription fund was opened, resolutions from public bodies began pouring in, and the Sinn Fein clubs renewed their activities.

The most striking feature of the opposition to conscription was that it welded together all the Irish elements represented by the Nationalist Party, the Independent Home Rulers, led by William O'Brien and Timothy Healy; the Sinn Fein, and the Labor organizations, which in recent years had not been very friendly to the Nationalists. Representatives of all these parties were present at a conference in Dublin, held, under the Chairmanship of the Lord Mayor, on April 18. The Catholic Bishops, at a meeting in Maynooth the same day, adopted a declaration against conscription. This meeting was attended by five representatives from the Dublin conference-John Dillon, Edward de Valere, Timothy Healy, a Labor delegate, and the Lord Mayor of Dublin.

A majority of the Nationalist members of the House of Commons decided to

Fifteen hundred delegates of labor unions met at the Mansion House, Dublin, on April 20, and pledged their resistance to conscription. They also fixed April 23 for the stoppage of all work as an earnest of this resolve and to enable all workers to sign the pledge of resistance. The complete stoppage of work was duly observed on the day mentioned, and passed off for the most part in a quiet and orderly manner.

Sunday, April 21, was observed throughout Catholic Ireland as the day for the administration by the priests of the anti-conscription covenant. From every Catholic pulpit conscription was the subject of discourse, and the action of the Bishops and political leaders was explained. The assemblies where the pledge was taken were generally outside the churches, sometimes in the open air, sometimes in a hall. The practice followed in many cases was for the priest

read the pledge, sentence by sentence, the people reciting after him. In other cases the pledge was given by the raising of hands or the signing of a paper. The Bishops took part with the inferior clergy in administering the pledge, addressing the people and generally warning them against isolated and unconsidered action. They urged obedience to the orders of the recognized leaders, who act in co-operation. All classes, including lawyers, bankers, and merchants, as well as farmers and workmen, took the pledge.

On May 1 an Order in Council was issued by the British Government postponing the operation of the National Service, or conscription, act in Ireland beyond that date, to which it had been previously postponed.