ey to be settled? Suppose they are referred to a
Federal Court, say the Privy Council, is it reasonable to fancy that
Irishmen or Englishmen, for that matter, will acquiesce in the decision
of grave political issues (say the right of the Federal Government to
proclaim martial law at Dublin, or the validity of the Land Act) by any
tribunal? For when political issues are referred to the decision of a
Court the difficulty is great of enlisting public opinion in favour of
its decrees. The theory of the constitution and the expectation of the
people is that references to the judges will be events of rare
occurrence, and that the Bench, when it acts at all, will act only as
interpreter of the constitutional pact. Things are certain to turn out
far otherwise. The intervention of the tribunals will in one form or
another be constantly evoked, and will be evoked to determine the most
burning questions of the day. The Constitution of the United States
would be unintelligible without reference to a long line of determined
cases; its principles are to be found quite as much in the decisions of
the Supreme Court as in its Articles. Swiss Constitutionalists have
greatly increased as years have gone on the originally limited powers of
the Federal tribunal. The statesmen who drafted the Act constituting the
Canadian Dominion fancied they could in effect avoid the necessity for
judicial interpretation, but a long series of reports proves the
futility of their expectation. Each day increases the mass, and it must
be added the importance, of the judgments by which the Privy Council
determines questions of constitutional law for the Colonies. Moreover,
even laymen soon perceive that interpretation means legislation. It is
technically correct to say that the Supreme Court of the United States
acts only as interpreter of the Constitution, but we must not be
deceived by fictions. The Supreme Court has legislated as truly, and
perhaps more effectively than Congress. It has achieved, and from the
nature of things was compelled to achieve, a feat forbidden to Congress;
it has added to or enlarged the Articles of the Constitution. The good
fortune of the United States gave to them in Judge Marshall a profound
and statesmanlike lawyer, and the judgments of the great Chief Justice
have built up the existing Constitution. He may be counted, if not among
its founders, at any rate as its main architect. In this instance
judicial authority was combined w