ground; and this our argument does not allow them. But it will be said, that when the House of Lords refuses to legislate in the teeth of an Act of Parliament, surely it occupies not merely a judicial position. In ordinary circumstances this is true. For example, if the House of Peers were to refuse to legislate in the face of an enactment which had obtained the sanction of themselves and the Commons, but which the latter House now wished to have repealed, this, we conceive, would be parliamentary legislation; at least it would be the employment of the legislative check: it would not be parliamentary judgment in the proper sense of the word. But when the House of Peers pronounces a decision adverse to the claims of a body which is itself the state, (as we hold the General Assembly to be,) but which body was not consulted when the statute on which the Peers found their adverse decision was enacted; in this case, we hold that the decree of the House of Lords is purely a judicial, and is not in any respect a legislative measure. And, as such, we argue that it is not competent to them in reference to the claims of the General Assembly. If they are to deal with these claims at all, they must deal with them in their legislative capacity. But how are they to do this? Could they have argued that the Assembly's claims stood opposed to the wishes of the country generally, and on that account ought to be thrown out? But how could they know this before the opinion of the country had been taken, as expressed in the House of Commons and in the General Assembly—and not merely as expressed in these two bodies, but as expressed in a joint-meeting of these two bodies? The majority in Parliament refused even to entertain the question of the Veto Act: the majority in the Assembly carried it through. Which, then, of these two bodies could be taken as an index of the national feeling on this subject? Neither of them could be taken. The question required to be disposed of in a joint-council; and then there was some chance of a result being obtained on which the Peers might have relied as the expression of the popular sentiment. Had the Veto Act been thrown out in this joint-meeting, the Lords would not have been called upon to interfere. Had it been passed, they might then have rejected it by means of their legislative check. But we do not see how they could constitutionally reach it in any other way. If our
