The British and the Irish members, in short, alike represent, though in a very clumsy fashion, the States of a Confederacy.

Though the fact be artfully concealed, we have under the new constitution already, in germ at least, a British State and an Irish State, a British Parliament and an Irish Parliament, and a third body consisting of these two Parliaments, which is the Imperial or Federal Parliament.[20] The different features of federalism make their appearance though under strange forms.
The constitution imposes Restrictions on the powers of the State Governments and of the Federal Government.
This appears unmistakably in the limitations placed upon the authority of the Irish Parliament.
These Restrictions, be they wise or unwise, politic or impolitic, are perfectly in keeping with the constitutional arrangements of a Federal Government, but are absolutely unknown to the theory and practice of English parliamentary government.
The powers of the Imperial Parliament, it may be said, are under the new constitution subject to no limitations.

In words this assertion is true, in substance it is false.

If the constitution works properly the Imperial Parliament will clearly be subject to the terms of the Government of Ireland Act, 1893, or, in other words, of the Federal Constitution.

This subjection is not absolute; it is moral, not legal, still it exists.