The redistribution of constituencies effected by the Franchise Act of 1918 was followed in 1922 by another and more radical change in the composition of the House of Commons. The grant of Dominion status to Southern Ireland, henceforth to be known as the Irish Free State, as embodied in subsequent legis lation, was inevitably accompanied by the repeal of the clauses of the Act of Union providing for the representation of Ireland, with the exception of "Ulster" or Northern Ireland, in the House of Commons and the disappearance of all executive authority of the British Cabinet in the internal affairs of Southern Ireland. (See Ex parte O'Brien [1923] 2 K.B. 361.) No discussion of the subject of Parliament would be complete without some reference to the General Strike of 1926. That movement, marking a return by the Labour party to "direct action," was, in effect, a challenge to the authority of Parliament as represented, in the executive sphere, by a Government re sponsible to it and having its confidence. It was, on a strict view of the law, very close to that statutory definition of treason, felony which embraces any attempt to "put any force or con straint upon" or "to intimidate or overawe both Houses or either House of Parliament" although the absence of "overt acts" amounting to "levying war," in other words of acts of violence, to effect this object, might he held to have saved the movement, or rather its leaders, from such a felonious character. The defeat of
the movement was directly due, in the first instance, to public opinion but, secondly, to the prompt putting into operation of the drastic powers conferred on the Executive by the Emergency Powers Act of 1920. These powers are strictly subject to the positive approval, in the form of temporary but renewable resolu tions, of both Houses of Parliament. In the case of the General Strike, the authority of Parliament was thus asked for and given, and the defeat of the movement may thus be regarded as a vindi cation of Parliamentary authority. The sequel was the Trade Union Act of 1927, making participation in a General Strike a criminal offence.