as it must the substitution of a new scheme for the unworkable Act of 1914, it may be necessary to proceed by stages, taking care that in settling the Irish portion of the scheme nothing is done to prejudice or hinder the arrangements for the other sections of the Kingdom. With this view, it seems all the more important that whatever rights or privileges are to be conferred shall be precisely specified in the instrument by which the grant is to be accomplished, in accordance with the principle adopted for the Canadian Provinces, in the British North America Act, 1876, and discussed in the early part of this paper. If what is done at first be found, later on, to be insufficient, it will be easy to supplement it when the other divisions of the Kingdom come to be dealt with. It is not essential that the Constitutions of all the States of a federation shall be identical, but it is highly important that, if the work must be carried out piece-meal, nothing shall be done in the earlier stages which will be incompatible in its working with the settlements which are later on to be made with the other partners in the undertaking.
In concluding this paper, the writer ventures to add that, in his judgment, the doctrine, recently laid down, that for a permanent settlement the rulers of the State must give what the malcontents want, not what they consider to be the best for them, to be false political philosophy. In this matter the duty of the Government and the Legislature is while not ignoring the wishes and desires of any to make up their minds clearly as to the course which is best for the whole Commonwealth, giving to no section or class any privilege which is not consistent with the safety and prosperity of the whole, making their ruling maxim Wolsey's dying injunction to his successor: "Be just, and fear not."
Above all things we want in Ireland, what we have never yet had and without which no country can permanently thrive and peacefully accomplish its destiny: continuity of policy and persistent steadfastness of administration.
July 9th, 1919.
