Parliament reassembled this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday the House
had before it the second reading of the Appellate Jurisdiction Bill, which we are glad to see was read a second time by 296 votes to 20 and referred to a Com- mittee of the whole House. It is difficult to understand why this most useful and important measure should be opposed, as it was, by two members of the Ministerial party, Mr. Martin and Mr. Watt. The Bill, though it has so dull a title, is really a most important and far-reaching measure. What it does is to give us one great supreme court for the whole Empire, though, after our English fashion, this result is to be obtained by indirect rather than by direct means. The House of Lords and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council are not amalgamated, but they will in future have the same members, though the Court will have different names according to the nature of the cases it tries. It will be in fact a Court with two faces but one heart, We most sincerely trust that the Opposition will not merely not oppose the Bill, but will give it their active support. It is interesting to ourselves to recall the fact that a Bill of this kind was advocated by the Spectator nearly thirty years ago, and that during the intervening period we have repeatedly urged the wisdom of making a common Court of Supreme Appeal one of the bonds of Empire.
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