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before he fired. The shot went the most violent seas. The

wide, and then he staggered badly as a sea crashed on the

counter.

Jack had snatched a pin up, reached him somehow before he could recover, and knocked him senseless, then wrenched the revolver away from his convulsive grasp.

“Old Wilkes had never moved, completely taken by surprise. Jack shook him, shouting, 'Get to Connor's cabin, quick. Find the ammunition. I'm going to save the ship. I'll shoot the barrels !' "The lightning lit a nightmare scene. There in glistening oilskins Jack crouched by the break of the poop, firing rapidly when the flashes lit the barrels hurtling in the waist, showing them up momentarily black against the foam on deck. It was snap-shooting. Desperate work and difficult, but the stakes were high enough.

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There was no lack of ammunition, and Jack riddled all those barrels. The oil ran out of them, and helped to smooth the breaking seas a bit; and then the barrels, lightened of their load, floated buoyant overside washed clear into the smother down to leeward.

"The crisis of the storm at length had passed, and if only the hatches had not been too badly battered by the barrels, the ship could weather through.

"The crew were summoned to the pumps, which fortunately were aft, away from

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THE LAST OUNCE.

BY PERISCOPE.

THE process of extracting the last ounce from the Irish Peace Treaty is an art akin to that of driving coaches-andfour through Acts of Parliament. In both, the objects are eminently laudable, from the standpoint of the coachman, so that the observations which follow are not to be regarded as a censure on the Free State Government. That Government is merely carrying to its foregone conclusion what both sides intended when the Treaty was signed; it is interpreting the Treaty in the spirit in which it was granted. It is certain that no one in Great Britain really cares what precious essence is extracted from it, and it is probable that even the general body of Unionists in the Free State, whose sole interest in the legislative activities of the Dail has hitherto been confined to the subject of double income tax and the payment of awards for their destroyed property, have not realised to the full what potion is being gradually brewed.

The public utterances of Free State Ministers, like those of politicians in every country under the sun, are made to suit their momentary audience, and no particular importance need be attached to them. Of as little importance is their eloquence, or that of their sup

porters, in the Dail; vox et præterea nihil is a good axiom when the utterances of legislators are being valued. But it is in the legislation itself that the whole trend of Free State ideas can be found, not indeed in the general subjectmatter, which must inevitably follow the ordinary course of civilised institutions, but in occasional clauses. As few sensible persons ever read an Act of Parliament and none Free State statutes, some examples of those tendencies may possess an atmosphere of freshness.

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In the Free State, much as the Cumann na n-Gaedhael (Anglice, Sinn Fein) may dislike the fact, statute law is at present almost solely Britishmade law. The Brehon code of laws may have been excellent for shepherds or forest kernes, but it smells somewhat musty when applied to publicans or old-age pensioners, who form such a large proportion of the Free State inhabitants. Accordingly, though no doubt early opportunity will be taken to repeal British laws, as already has been done with the most objectionable statutes, such as those relating to the Royal Irish Constabulary or to Criminal Injuries, the country obeys, as far as it feels inclined, British law. No at

tempt has yet been made to to deny increases of pensions repeal the Habeas Corpus Act, to certain pensioned teachers though a cynic might imagine on the verge of starvation livthat its title had been amended ing in Great Britain and Northto that of Habeas Cadaver. ern Ireland is quite immaterial Yet Free State legislation has to it. already done something to alleviate this blot upon the fair scutcheon of Saorstat Eireann. These British Acts, whose presence is as inconvenient as that of the Imperial High Court Judges who still sit in the Dublin Supreme Court, were passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Let us, however, refer in our Irish statutes to "the late" United Kingdom, and we can flatter ourselves that our independence is complete. So through all their new Acts runs the phrase, though Westminster still regards the kingdom as one. We read of "the Government of the late United Kingdom " and "the late British Government in Ireland," and for fear that there shall be any mistaken idea that Ireland can possibly be part of the United Kingdom, we are told that "the name Ireland, when used by implication as being included in the expression United Kingdom, shall mean Saorstat Eireann."

In one of its most recent Acts, by severing itself from the British Isles, the Free State lays the foundation of a new geography, though how it can physically do so while there is a land boundary between it and Northern Ireland is difficult to determine. That to achieve this tour de force it has

After this beginning, it would, of course, be unreasonable to look for any references to his Majesty in this legislation, although so far we have been spared any statutory reference to "the late king." There are doubtless some matters of which the King's representative in Ireland would have to take cognisance. But let us abolish his Majesty as far as we dare. "Any reference to the presentation of an address to his Majesty by both Houses of Parliament shall mean a reference to the passing of a resolution by either House." The oath of the Judges or Magistrates must not breathe the name of this foreign king, nor must the officers in the Free State Army hold his Majesty's commission, "trusting in your loyalty" (so it runs), not to your king, indeed, but "to our country, the Executive Council appoints you to be a (Captain, or Colonel, or Knight-at-Arms): you will bear true faith and allegiance to our country, and serve and defend her against all her enemies whomsoever." This is the spirit in which one becomes a member of "the community of nations forming the British Commonwealth of Nations," to quote the wonderful words of the Treaty. But really, why mince matters at all? Who set up the Free

But

State! Most people imagine lation dealing with the Health that it was the creation of Mr Lloyd George in the first place, and, as an afterthought, of the King, the Lords, and Commons in Parliament assembled. it is nothing of the kind"Dail Eireann" (that is to say, the direct descendent of the illegal Republican Parliaments known by this name)thus runs the Free State Constitution Act which ratified the Treaty "Dail Eireann, acknowledging that all lawful authority comes from God to the people" (that is to say, it does not come through his Majesty or the British Parliament), "hereby proclaims the establishment of the Irish Free State," which is as much as to say that it has created itselfex nihilo fit nihil-out of nothing comes forth nothing.

So much for the constitutional tendencies of the Free State as evidenced by its own statutes, but there is more to follow. It is a small matter to pose for your own people. To pose to the world at large as an independent State is a far finer thing. A passing reference to the Free State's admission to the League of Nations and the theatrical display accompanying it is hardly necessary, for the incident has figured prominently in the Press, and in any case such admission is granted to loyal Dominions. But Customs instructions can be issued classifying ships from Great Britain and Northern Ireland as ships arriving from "foreign ports," and in legis

Insurance of Irishmen discharged from the British Army, a reference to the establishment of a "Military Forces (International Arrangements) Insurance Fund " marks clearly that Ireland (or rather, the Free State portion of it) is not a member of the British Commonwealth of nations, but a foreign nation. The fact, too, that the haughty invader has been driven out, and that we can afford to be magnanimous, can be emphasised by passing an "Indemnity (British Military) Act, 1923," which is certainly one of the strangest pieces of play-acting legislation ever passed by any responsible legislature. It is "an Act to restrict the taking of Legal Proceedings in respect of certain acts done in the recent conflict with the British Government," and it proceeds solemnly to pass a self-denying ordinance giving up the right to sue any person who since 23rd April 1916 " (the date of the Irish Rebellion) "did anything in the execution of his duty while in the service of the British Crown (one would have imagined it was and is also the Irish Crown constitutionally) "or the British Government, or was in good faith purported to be done for the maintenance of the then existing form of Government in Ireland," and "any Secretary of State of the British Government is invited to supply certificates to the Free State certifying that such person had

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acted in the discharge of his duty. A most illuminating document for the student of historical fiction!

After reading what the Free State Government is generously prepared to do for its opponents (i.e., it will not put the Irish Loyalists in jail), one is tempted to ask what it has done for its own supporters in the way of moral and material awards for personal damage-awards to to which the taxes levied off the loyal community largely contribute. The Superannuation and Pensions Act, 1923, and the Army Pensions Act, 1923, supply the answer. Civil servants dismissed in recent years for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the Crown (the same Crown as theoretically they are still serving) are reinstated with full pension rights (most of them have been given Secretaryships of Departments). Members of the Dublin Metropolitan Police who resigned or were dismissed "for political reasons" (i.e., owing to being suspected of collusion with the I.R.A.) are to be regarded as

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who "at the time he received such wound was a member of the Irish Volunteers or of the Irish Citizen Army, provided, however, that in estimating such pension all such persons who received a wound in the rising of April and May 1916 shall be deemed to rank as officers." And for fear that any may be left out, we are given a new definition of "killed," which shows how little we know of the English language as seen through Free State eyes"Killed shall include death as an immediate result of refusing to take nourishment while detained in prison, and death by violence while a prisoner."

"Political principles," the phrase quoted above, are, in fact, thrust into the most unexpected places. In the Licensing Act, 1923, one finds the drafting of legislation pushed to the limit of detailed absurdity. An expired publican's licence is not to be regarded as invalid in cases where "the holder of the licence refrained from applying for a renewal solely on account of his adherence to political principles inconsistent with a recognition of the annual licensing Petty Sessions as a competent authority to grant licences " !

These are the weightier matters of the law. The lesser things have an interest also peculiarly their own. It might be imagined, for instance, that a Summer Time Act was unlikely to afford much scope for asserting the independence of the Free State, especially as it

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