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 The English Law Courts.

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tended first to the colonial and then to the of time. Macqueen speaks of the fourteenth East Indian possessions of the Crown. As century; Pownall of the seventeenth; while if the variance between Pownall and Mac- the Court of Delegates lasted till the begin ning of the reign of William IV. It is certain queen did not render the difficulty suffi ciently acute, the statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 9 that in less than a century the body to which appears to suggest another explanation of the Crown entrusted the administration of the origin of the appellate jurisdiction of colonial affairs was repeatedly reconstituted. Why may not the judicature for colonial

the Privy Council. Under that act a subject aggrieved by the decision of any court affairs have undergone similar changes in the course of three in any part of the centuries? The mod King's dominions ern history, at least, might appeal to the of the Privy Council King in Chancery. as a court of law is Every such appeal so well known as to was referred by a need only a brief re commission under capitulation. 2 and the Great Seal to the 3 Will. IV. c. 92 Court of Delegates, ordinarily consisting transferred to the King in Council the of three puisne jurisdiction of the judges, one from each of the common term Court of Delegates. courts, and three or C. 67, 3, and 4 Will. IV. c. 41, created the more civilians, usual ly members of the Judicial Committee bar; and the deci of the Privy Council, in which is now vest sions of the Court of Delegates were, ed all the former ju in spite of a distinct dicial authority of the Privy Council, the prohibition in a stat ute of Elizabeth, re Commissioners of viewed upon petition Appeals in prize causes, and the Court by the Privy Council. We have, therefore, of Delegates. The three distinct theo Judicial Committee ries with regard to comprises the Lord LORD COLERIDGF, the phenomenon in President of the Council, the Lord Chancellor, the Lords question. Are they so hopelessly irrecon Justices, and such other members of the cilable as to make it impossible to indi cate the general course of development Privy Council as shall hold or shall have which the appellate jurisdiction of the Privy held certain judicial or other offices enum Council has pursued? We think not. 1. erated in the acts. The fourth section of The right of the sovereign to entertain an this statute is declaratory of the sovereign's right to refer to the Judicial Committee appeal from any colonial court is undis puted, and indeed ( Chalmers's Opinions of " any other matters whatever." We shall Eminent Lawyers} indisputable. 2. The return to this provision later on. Under 6 conflicting theories relate to different points and 7 Vict. c. 38 an appeal may, by order