12 MAY 1900, Page 3

Professor Dicey makes in Monday's Times one of the beat

suggestions that has yet been made for solving the problem of Australian appeals. Let the Imperial Parliament, be advises, so modify Clause 74 of the Commonwealth Act as to retain the same right of appeal as exists in the case of Canada. "But let the provision which deals with the right of appeal reserve to the Federal Parliament the power to legislate on the subject of appeals to the Queen in Council." The result of this course of proceeding will, be urges, be as follows : " The right of appeal will be retained, but the Imperial Parliament will have formally announced the intention of yielding to the wish of the Australian people whenever, through the mouth of their own Parliament, they should have deliberately decided that the right of appeal ought to be curtailed." This excellent suggestion will in practice allow the Australian nation an absolutely free choice as to whether or not they will allow the provinces or individuals to appeal, but at the same time will not make the denial of the right of appeal a fundamental part of the Australian Con- stitution. We want the Australian people to do as they like, and not to bind them by their fundamental law to a course of which it is very doubtful whether they approve.