ing into the form of an Act of Assembly, which will render them obligatory on the other branches. They have accordingly, in many instances, decided rights, which should have been left to Judiciary controversy; and the direction of the Executive, during the whole time of their session, is becoming habitual and familiar."
The other State which I shall take for an example is Pennsylvania; and the other authority, the Council of Censors which assembled in the years 1783 and 1784. A part of the duty of this body, as marked out by the Constitution, was "to inquire whether the Constitution had been preserved inviolate in every part; and whether the Legislative and Executive branches of Government had performed their duty as guardians of the People, or assumed to themselves, or exercised other or greater powers than they are entitled to by the Constitution." In the execution of this trust, the Council were necessarily led to a comparison of both the Legislative and Executive proceedings, with the constitutional powers of these departments; and from the facts enumerated, and to the truth of most of which both sides in the Council subscribed, it appears, that the Constitution had been flagrantly violated by the Legislature in a variety of important instances.
A great number of laws had been passed, violating, without any apparent necessity, the rule requiring that all bills of a public nature shall be previously printed for the consideration of the People; although this is one of the precautions chiefly relied on by the Constitution against improper acts of Legislature.
The constitutional trial by jury had been violated; and powers assumed, which had not been delegated by the Constitution.
Executive powers had been usurped.
The salaries of the Judges, which the Constitution expressly requires to be fixed, had been occasionally
