This answer is on the face of it futile; it urges the proved utility of a law as a reason for its not being enacted; as well suggest that because the criminal courts are mainly occupied with the trial of thieves there ought to be no law against petty larceny, or that because the labours of the Divorce Court increase year by year, the law ought not to permit divorce.

The absurdity of the official reply suggests the existence of some reason which the defenders of this strange omission are unwilling clearly to allege.

The true reason why the founders of the new constitution have omitted in this instance to copy a polity which they profess to admire is not hard to discover.

An enactment which enjoined an Irish Parliament to respect the sanctity of a contract would be fatal to any remodelling of the Irish land law which tended towards the spoliation of landowners.

Yet this very fact makes the matter all the more serious.