WEST INDIES. 
CHAP. I.] 
1 81 
not so properly a legislative power, as a negative 
on the legislation of the other branches; a mere 
defensive privilege to enable him to withstand the 
encroachments of the legislature, and preserve the 
government entire. As the king cannot confer on 
others what he possesses not himself, nothing less 
than a solemn and precisely declaratory law, propo¬ 
sed by the representatives of the people, and con¬ 
firmed by the crown, could, it is pretended, have 
given the shadow of authority to a colonial or pro¬ 
vincial council to form themselves into a distinct 
legislative estate. It follows, that their claim to 
legislative powers, thus unsupported, is usurpa¬ 
tion and tyranny. 
These arguments, or arguments to the same ef¬ 
fect, are urged with great ability in Mr. Long’s 
History of Jamaica. I shall not attempt to contro¬ 
vert them by elaborate discussion, but content my¬ 
self with briefly stating the origin, as it is in jact, 
(according to my conception), of the pretensions of 
this branch to a distinct share in colonial legisla¬ 
tion. If it be shewn that the exercise of these 
pretensions may, on several occasions, be absolute¬ 
ly necessary to the welfare and safety of the com¬ 
munity ; a very few words will suffice on the ques¬ 
tion of their constitutional legality. 
That it was originally intended to establish in 
any of the colonial governments three distinct inde¬ 
pendent legislative powers acting on the spot, in 
the view of forming constitutions on the model of 
