ABSTRACT
O n 20 January 1791, R obert Stewart took his seat in a Parliament which for nine years had in law enjoyed complete legislative independence.
The enjoyment was no t unqualified. U nder the m ost favourable conditions the Constitution know n to his tory as G rattan’s would have been difficult to work. Ireland was now connected w ith England only through the Crown. The sole legal link was supplied by the requirement that Irish legislation must receive the assent o f the K ing, given under the Great Seal o f G reat Britain, which remained, o f course, in the custody o f the Lord Chancellor o f England. Personal union is the m ost fragile o f all the varieties o f the Composite State. W ithin recent years we have witnessed the fracture o f that slender tie in the case o f N orway and Sweden (1908) and in that o f Austria and H ungary (1918). A similar tie between D enm ark and the Duchies o f Sleswig and Holstein, though it had sub sisted for centuries, was broken in 1863. The diffi culties likely to arise in the case o f Ireland were no t unforeseen in 1782; but, in characteristic English fashion the warnings uttered by the far-seeing were ignored.
