1376 THE JUDICIARY [PART VI 
The presence of at least three members, exclusive of the 
Lord President of the Council, is necessary for the hearing of 
any case under the Act of 1851, and no report can be made 
unless a majority of the members present at the hearing 
concur. Under an Order in Council of February 4, 1878, 
confirming the old Order of February 22,1627, the Committee, 
differing herein from the House of Lords, embody their con- 
clusions in a collective report, and do not publish dissenting 
opinions. Under the Act of 1908 a general Order in Council 
is made at the beginning of each reign, referring to the 
Judicial Committee all appeals to His Majesty in Council ; 
formerly an annual order was made. In one or two cases 
guestions are referred to a mixed committee containing 
members of the Judicial Committee and other Privy Coun- 
cillors. Such cases are thus provided for in the Act of 1877 
respecting the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; and 
in the case of proceedings by reference under s. 4 of the Act 
of 1833 for the removal of a Colonial judge, Privy Councillors 
not members of the Judicial Committee usually sit. 
In 1901} at a Conference, certain suggestions were made 
by Mr. Justice Hodges representing Australia for the 
creation of a single Court of Final Appeal, to be styled His 
Majesty’s Imperial Court of Final Appeal, in which should 
be vested the appellate jurisdiction of the House of Lords 
and of the King in Council. The Court was to be composed 
of the Lord Chancellor ag president, the Lord Chief Justice, 
the Master of the Rolls, the members of the House of Lords 
who sit in appeal cases before the House of Lords, the 
members then existing of the Judicial Committee, and one 
person appointed 2 by the Lord Chancellor from each of 
India, Canada and Newfoundland, South Africa, and Aus- 
! The proposal grew out of the discussions of 1900 as to the restriction 
in the Commonwealth Constitution of the right of appeal to the Privy 
Council. It was suggested first apparently by Mr. Haldane, and adopted 
by Mr. Chamberlain (Hansard, ser. 4, Ixxxv. 271), that the objection to 
appeal would disappear if the Court were strengthened. See Parl, Pap., 
Cd. 846, and cf. Quick and Garran, op. cit., pp. 243 seq. 
* Appointments for fifteen years were recommended at suitable salaries, 
Others than judges were also to be eligible.