Читать книгу Are Legislatures Parliament? A Study and Review - Fennings Taylor - Страница 5

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The inquiry which has suggested what follows is a very interesting and important one, for it includes a good deal more than a question of grammatical construction, and rises much higher than a mere play on the value of terms that are commonly accepted as interchangeable. There need be no controversy on the etymology of the words in our title page, for their origin and derivation can easily be traced. It may at once be admitted that they are popularly regarded as synonymous and convertible; nor can their relationship be questioned, for the business of law-making is inseparably interlaced with, and necessarily includes, the duty of talking and consulting. But the question we propose to examine refers less to the ordinary kinship, than to the official use, of the two words "Legislature" and "Parliament." Such examination is the more necessary as the suggested meaning of these words, as supplied by the English statutes, is by no means identical with their common meaning, as given in the English dictionaries. Nor does this divergence exhaust our embarrassment, for the two words have been differently employed, and, consequently, differently interpreted, by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and by the legislatures of the colonies. Were the distinctions thus drawn only verbal they would scarcely deserve attention. But they are not so. On the contrary, the Imperial Parliament has placed an exact and limited meaning on these initial words, which has either escaped the notice of, or has not been assented to by the provincial legislatures; and, as the distinction made by the former includes some important consequences to the latter, it may be worth while to give the whole subject a patient examination. Indeed, the law of the case can scarcely be interpreted apart from the history of the case, and the latter can only be gathered by a careful reference to the practice of the legislatures, as it is found in the journals and records of the provinces, and these again must be studied with the aid of those lights which actually, or presumably, have been shed on them by ministers of the Crown in England.