It was shown, in the chapter alluded to, how the
empty forms of parliament have been made use of, in
evasion of the very principle, and of the true function,
of parliament itself, for purposes of executive usurpa-
tion. Parliament itself must be appealed to to prohibit
such a contempt of its office and function, such an
evasion of those objects for the fulfilling of which alone
it exists ; and unless it fulfil which it becomes but a
mere empty mockery, and the representative of any-
thing rather than " the common consent of all the
realm.*'

* 25 Edw. I. c. 2. t See p. 44, note.
ACT-OF-PARLIAMENT COMMISSIONS. 239

And in reference to the subject-matter of the pre-
sent chapter, as in other cases which have come
before us, we are not without opportunity of learning
how our fathers acted, when, in like manner as now,
the fundamental laws and institutions of the land had
been violated under colour of the ordinary legal forms
and sanctions ; — and when timcy that vindicator of
the higher moral sanction on which those fundamental
laws and institutions depend for their supremacy, had
asserted that supremacy, and required its recognition,
and that parliaments and all executive expedients
should bow before it.
