But the Iriſh nation, being excluded from the benefit of the Engliſh ſtatutes, were deprived of many good and profitable laws, made for the improvement of the common law: and, the meaſure of juſtice in both kingdoms becoming thereby no longer uniform, therefore it was enacted by another of Poynings’ laws[1], that all acts of parliament, before made in England, ſhould be of force within the realm of Ireland[2]. But, by the ſame rule that no laws made in England, between king John’s time and Poynings’ law, were then binding in Ireland, it follows that no acts of the Engliſh parliament made ſince the 10 Hen. VII. do now bind the people of Ireland, unleſs ſpecially named or included under general words[3]. And on the other hand it is equally clear, that where Ireland is particularly named, or is included under general words, they are bound by ſuch acts of parliament. For this follows from the very nature and conſtitution of a dependent ſtate: dependence being very little elſe, but an obligation to conform to the will or law of that ſuperior perſon or ſtate, upon which the inferior depends. The original and true ground of this ſuperiority, in the preſent caſe, is what we uſually call, though ſomewhat improperly, the right of conqueſt: a right allowed by the law of nations, if not by that of nature; but which in reaſon and civil policy can mean nothing more, than that, in order to put an end to hoſtilities, a compact is either expreſſly or tacitly made between the conqueror and the conquered, that if they will acknowlege the victor for their maſter, he will treat them for the future as ſubjects, and not as enemies[4].
But this ſtate of dependence being almoſt forgotten, and ready to be diſputed by the Iriſh nation, it became neceſſary ſome years ago to declare how that matter really ſtood: and therefore by ſtatute 6 Geo. I. c. 5. it is declared, that the kingdom of Ireland ought to be ſubordinate to, and dependent upon, the imperial crown of Great Britain, as being inſeparably united
