Session and Chapter. 6 & 7 Vict. c. 18. Third Schedule. Enactments Repealed. Short Title. tion) Act, 1843. Extent of Repeal. The Parliamentary In section fifty-six, the words or to the 18 & 19 Vict. c. 120. The Metropolis Man Section five. Section eight, from the beginning to ,shall be elected and", and the words "with such other persons as hereinbefore mentioned". Sections eleven and twelve. Section twenty-eight to meeting". Section twenty-nine. „every such Sections thirty-one to forty-two. Sections fifty-five and fifty-six. Sections fifty-seven, fifty-eight, sixty, sixty- Section one hundred and fifty-eight, from Sections one hundred and sixty-one to one hundred and sixty-five. Sections one hundred and sixty-six to In section one hundred and ninety-nine, the words according to the provisions of this Act". Section two hundred and thirty-seven, from nor shall such parts to cleansing". Section two hundred and thirty-eight. Session and Chapter. 25 & 26 Vict. c. 102. 48 & 49 Vict. c. 23. The Metropolis Man- In section eight, the words and the precepts for obtaining payment of mo agement Amend ment Act, 1862. The Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885. neys required by the board for that purpose". Sections nine to twelve. Section fourteen. In section eighty-four, the words with the previous sanction of the Metropolitan Board of Works" and the words allowed by the Metropolitan Board". The forms of precept in Schedule C. In section twelve the words and also the town clerk for the new borough within the meaning of the Registration Acts". Sections one hundred and two and one hundred and forty, and the Second Schedule. Section twenty-two. the In section thirty-one, the words local board of Woolwich and"; the words and the auditors for parishes elected under those Acts, and so far as respects the qualification of persons to be elected as if members of the district boards under the said Acts", and the words and no person shall ex officio be chairman of any of the said vestries"; and sub-section (2). At the end of section forty-six, the words ,,and in the case of London auditors as if they were members of a district council". In section forty-eight, sub-section (4), the words and of members of the local board of Woolwich"; and in subsection (5), the words local board or“ and „or auditor“. Section fifteen. 58 & 59 Vict. c. cxxvii. The London County Section forty-two. Council (General Powers) Act, 1895. 75. GRANDE-BRETAGNE, COLONIES AUSTRALIENNES. Correspondances et Documents concernant la Confédération des Colonies Australiennes, du 17 juillet 1897 au 28 mars 1900. Parliamentary papers, Australia 1900. Suggested Amendment in Draft Commonwealth Bill of 1897. Clause 75. Amend the clause so as to read as follows: No appeal shall be allowed to the Queen in Council either from a Court of any State from which there is an appeal to the High Court, or from the High Court, or from any other Federal Court from which there is an appeal to the High Court, except by leave of the High Court or of the Queen in Council.“ Notes on Suggested Amendment. Clause 75. The object of the amendment is to maintain the right of appeal to the Queen from any Court from which there is no appeal to the High Court, and to allow appeals from the High Court when leave is given either by that Court or by the Queen in Council. The reasons for maintaining the appeal to the Queen in Council were stated by the Privy Council in 1871 as follows, when the question was raised by the Australian Colonies: The appellate jurisdiction of Her Majesty in Council exists for the benefit of the Colonies, and not for that of the Mother Country, but it is impossible to overlook the fact that this jurisdiction is a part of the prerogative which has been exercised for the benefit of the Colonies from the date of the earliest settlements of this country, and that it is still a powerful link between the Colonies and the Crown of Great Britain. It secures to every subject of Her Majesty throughout the Empire the right to claim redress from the Throne; it provides a remedy in certain cases not falling within the jurisdiction of ordinary courts of justice; it removes causes from the influence of local propossessions; it affords the means of maintaining the uniformity of the law of England in those Colonies which derive the great body of their law from Great Britain; and it enables suitors, if they think fit, to obtain a decision, in the last resort, from the highest judicial authority and legal capacity existing in the metropolis. The power of establishing or re-modelling the Colonial Courts of Justice is vested by the 28 and 29 Vict. in the Colonial Legislatures, and it is undoubtedly desirable that the Colonial Courts of Justice should be so constituted as to inspire confidence in their decisions, and to give rise to very few ulterior appeals. But the controlling power of the highest Court of Appeal is not without influence and value, even when it is not directly resorted to. Its power, though dormant, is not unfelt by any judge in the Empire, because he knows that his proceedings may be made the subject of appeal to it. The Australian Colonies acquiesced in this view at the time. The question was again raised by the passing in 1875 of the „Supreme and Exchequer Court Act of Canada"; and the Privy Council again pointed out that: The supreme appellate authority of the Empire or the Realm is unquestionably one of the highest functions and duties of sovereignty. The power of construing, determining, and enforcing the law in the last resort, is, in truth, a power which overrides all other powers; since there is no act which may not in some form or other become the subject of a decision by the supreme appellate tribunal, and that tribunal can alone determine the limits of its own jurisdiction. This power has been exercised for centuries, as regards all the dependencies of the Empire, by the Sovereigns of this country in Council; that is to say, the Sovereign to whom the prayer for relief is addressed affords that relief, with and by the advice of a certain number of the most eminent judicial officers and jurists of the Realm, who are sworn of the Privy Council for this purpose. The final order made on each appeal is the direct act of the Queen in person. So that by this institution, common to all parts of the Empire beyond seas, all matters whatsoever requiring a judicial solution may be brought under the cognizance of one Court, in which all the chief judicial authorities in this country have a voice. To abolish this controlling power, and to abandon each Colonial Dependency to a separate final Court of Appeal of its own, is obviously to destroy one of the most important ties which still connect all parts of the Empire in common obedience to the source of law, and to renounce the last and most essential mode of exercising the authority of the Crown over its possessions abroad. If may also be pointed out that, by the Colonial Courts of Admiralty Act 1890, Admiralty jurisdiction, i.e., jurisdiction on the high seas, which is not ordinarily vested in any local court, was conferred on Colonial Courts, on the assumption that there would be an appeal from those courts to the Queen in Council. It probably has escaped the notice of the draftsman that clause 75 might raise a doubt whether the appeal under the above Act in Admiralty cases is maintained. There is also a general, and probably a growing, desire in the Colonies, as well as in the United Kingdom, for uniformity of law, particulary commercial law and shipping law. Such a uniformity cannot be attained unless there is some provision for making uniform the interpretation of the law. Judicial decisions will necessarily vary in different courts, and can only be brought into uniformity by one Court of Appeal governing the whole of them. It must also be recollected that the existence of the appeal to the Queen in Council, with its protection against any decision due to local prepossessions, is an important element in the consideration of investors of English capital in Australia. It cannot be for the benefit of the Co lonies to alarm those investors. They also are very numerous and powerful, and the amount invested is very large. They will no doubt oppose any proposal to abolish the appeal to the Queen in Council. There may be, no doubt, defects in the Judicial Committee, as in every human institution. But, surely it is better to try to cure those defects than to abolish a very important link in the unity of the Empire, and to lose the benefits of uniformity in law, which the appeal to the Queen in Council undoubtedly confers. It must be recollected that the Privy Council comprises the best and most experienced lawyers in the United Kingdom, and also experienced members of the Colonial judicial bench. The Australian Colonies doubtless desire that all appeals shall be heard by their Federal High Court; and that this desire is reasonable need not be denied. What the amendment proposes, therefore, is that there should be no appeal from the High Court as of right, but that the Queen in Council should have the right to give leave to appeal. This is the state of things which practically exists in the case of Canada. The result of it is that leave is only given in those cases where there is an important question of principle to be tried, or where there is some reason to suppose that local prepossessions have influenced the decision, or where it is alleged that they have so influenced it, and it is desirable to remove the feeling of injustice created by such allegation. There may be cases in which no appeal lies to the Federal High Court in Australia. In such a case it seems desirable to preserve the prerogative of the Queen in Council to grant leave to appeal in a proper case. Such leave is very rarely given; in fact, it is only given where there would apparently be a miscarriage of justice if the leave were not given. July 17th 1897. I. Victoriae Reginae. A. D. 1898, To Constitute the Commonwealth of Australia. Whereas the people of (here name the Colonies which have adopted the Constitution), humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and under |