New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-02-16

and suca Inferior Courts az TIC Lesisstuio "nsu'
establish, 10 which body also il gave the power OF
prescribing the jurisdiction Of the several Cc0rss'
but with this limitation-thst, while Chsncery
powers might be conferred on the Supreme Court,
they would rot be conferred on any other Court TO
4 arester extent than had been done already BY
existing statutes. The Constitution further pro-
,ided that, until otherwise ordered BY the Leslss-
ture, the Few Supreme Court should have the
same jurisdiction with the old Court to which 1t
succeeded.
In 1874 was published new digest or revision
of the laws of Rhode Island, made By the author
ity of tie Legislature, in which all the existing
enactmen.s in relation to the Supreme Court were
brought into single act, commencing as follows:
The Supreme Court shall be holden at the times
&" and places BY law appointed and shall have cog
nizauce and jurisdiction Of all actions and pleas
"of civil nature, whether in law or equity, be-
tween party and party, and between this State
ard ANY Of the citizens thereof which shall be
illegally brought before them" &c. 1t seems
that the Supreme Court Of Rhode Island, on the
strength of this provision, has considered itself
vested with full equity powers in all cases what
ever. and tha. the Rhode Island lawyers have
quietly acquiesced in procedure which, whatever
may be its benefits or otherwise 70 parties tigant,
certainly gives them On opportunity to run up some
very nice bills of costs. 1t is very warmly in
sisted, however, that this clause does no. justify
any such extension of authority as has been based
upon it; that If was not intended to give, and did
not give, Of its own force, any jurisdiction OF any
kind TO the Court but merely referred, by
way of introduction n what was to follow,
to such jurisdiction as it had, or might have,
by force of preexisting subsequent laws just as
the times and places of its sessions were left to be
regulated by such laws; that if the idea was en-
tertained at the time BY anybody of thus, by the
use of the three words or in equity" giving
new and wide extension TO the authority Of the
Supreme Court, il was only by an artful lawyer or
two on the revising committee, who thus sought to
obtain, by indirecton and by fraud on the Legsla-
trre and the people, powers for the Supreme Court
which, if brought to the notice Of the Legislature
and the people, would have been instantaneously
and emphaticaIy rejected. And it is insisted that
the recent Rhode Island Digest or Revised Stat
utes of 1851, furnishes proof in connection with
this same question of Equity powers, both of lack
of confidence in tie above stated Interpretation
and Of the opportunities which such revislon' al
ford for making changes in the laws unknown TO
and unnoticed by anybody except the par
ties specially concerned in making them
This revision Of 1851, in its chapter relating to the
Supreme Court, in place of the "or in equity
clause of the Digest Of l5i, contains the following
provision: "The said Court shall have exclusive
"cognizance and jurisdiction Of all suits and pro-
"ceedings Whatsoever inequity, with full power to
"make ard enforce all orders and DEGREES therein,
land issue all process therefor, according to the
"course Of equity change made, it is alleged,
without any special call of the attention Of the
Legislature thereto, and of the existence OF which
in the new code large proportion of the Mem
bers of the Legislature were profoundly ignorant.
But it may be said, suppose all this to be
true; suppose the Supreme Court of Rhode Island
10 have assumed jurisdiction never conferred
upon it, is not the Court the judge of its own ju-
risdiction, and what power has the Legislature to
interfere, except, indeed by express and positive
statute, to guard, as far a. may be, against like
usurpatons for the future or, perhaps, BY impesch-
ing the Judges for what they may have done in
the past
In reply to this question it is insisted thatwhat-
ever may be the relations between the Legislature
and the Judiciary in other States, in Rhode Island
it stands upon peculiar ground, under the charter
of Charles H., and down to the formation of the
State Constitution, the General Assembly Of Rhode
Island. as was the case in early colonial times both
in Massachusetts, and Virginia, acted as Supreme
Court of Appeal, and exercised experimenting
power over all the judicial tribunals Of the State,
VIII ch existed only by its creation. Nor did the
State Constitution it is commended, deprive the
General Assembly Of this supreme experimenting
authority exercised under the charter to review
the proceedings Of the Supreme Court to set them
aside and to grant new trials or otherwise dispose
Of them, it being expressly provided by the 10th
Section of the 4th Article Of the Constitution,
I" that the General Assembly shall continue to exer
" else tie powers they have hitherto exercised,
unless prohibited by the Constitution" Now,
the Constitution does not contain any express pro-
hibiton of the reysory power above referred TO- and
as to any implied prohibition it can only be found
if at ALL in the distribution Of the powers of gov
ernnent Unto three departments-the executive
1.-the legislative and the judiciA'-and in the vest
ipg of the Judicial power sin one Supreme Court
land such inferior Courts as the General Assembly
Knight erect" But these provisions were not
new-they merely resnacted and continued in force
the already -eIisting system. The charter govern
ment fully recognized tits same distribution of