Page:Home rule; Fenian home rule; Home rule all round; Devolution; what do they mean?.djvu/22

18, and shatter her ancient Constitution, and plant a hostile power with a hostile Parliament within sixty miles of her shores?

It is not conceivable that any Parliament would be finally accepted in Ireland which would not control the external as well as the internal trade relations of the country; but the danger which may lurk in the grant of such powers can be judged from an incident which occurred while the Irish Parliament was absolutely subordinate to the English Parliament before 1782. The restrictions which the British Parliament had placed upon the exportation of Irish wool had been abolished in 1779. The Irish Parliament at once claimed that Irish woollen goods should be admitted free of duty into Portugal, where British woollens entered free under the Methuen Treaty. The Portuguese denied the right, and refused to admit the Irish produce. The Irish Parliament then addressed the Crown and called upon the Government of England to insist that Irish wool should be admitted by Portugal. The Crown remonstrated with Portugal, but achieved nothing; but if it had taken effective action to compel Portugal to yield, then, in the words of Sir R. Peel, "One of two events might have occurred— either the foreign relations of Great Britain with a friendly power might have been disturbed, contrary to the wish of the British Parliament and British Ministers, or Ireland might have been