Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 5.djvu/177

 JAMES BRYCE

��the Act and regain any freedom which it may be supposed we are now morally, tho not legally, parting with.

Now, in the United States, Congress can not deal with the decisions of the supreme court, because those decisions are delivered as inter- pretations of the written Constitution, the in- strument which creates Congress, and which is the supreme law of the land everywhere. The supreme court is out of the reach of Congress, not because it is a law court, but because it is the authorized interpreter, or, as one may say, the living voice of a document superior in au- thority to the will of Congress. But in this country Parliament is above the privy council, because we have no written Constitution, and all the courts are bound to obey the will of Parlia- ment. Therefore, we shall not tie our hands, as the hands of Congress are tied. Under this Act Parliament will still be above the House of Lords, above the privy council, above all the courts of law anywhere within the queen's dominions. No conflict can therefore arise be- tween the decisions of the English and the Irish judges. There can be no conflict, because the Bill provides that in every ease there shall be an appeal to a final court of appeal, and the decision of that court will govern the action of every subordinate court, whether Irish or Eng- lish. In cases where the construction of this Act is in question the appeal lies to the privy council; in ordinary cases it lies to the House 151

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