356 PARLIAMENTS OF THE DOMINIONS [PART ITT
Calcutta Gazelte, should declare that it should so apply, and
it was argued that the power given to the Lieutenant-Governor
 was ulira vires the Legislative Council of India.
In giving the decision of the Judicial Committee, Lord
Selborne pointed out that it was left to the Lieutenant-Governor
 to determine both whether the law should apply
and if so when, and he added that legislation which did not
fix the period for its own commencement, but left that to
be done by an external authority, might with quite as much
reason be called incomplete as that which did not itself
immediately determine the whole area to which it was to
be applied, but left this to be done bv the same external
authority.
If it was an act of legislation on the part of the external
authority, so trusted, to enlarge the area within which a law
actually in operation was to be applied, it would seem a fortior:
to be an act of legislation to bring the law into operation
by fixing the time for its commencement. It had never been
doubted that the latter power might be conferred by the Legislature
 upon the Lieutenant-Governor in Council. It was in
fact a power continually exercised, and it had never occurred
to anv one to dispute it. Lord Selborne went on to say :—

Their Lordships think that it is a fallacy to speak of
the powers thus conferred upon the Lieutenant-Governor
(peculiar as they undoubtedly are) as if when they were
exercised the efficacy of the acts done under them would
be due to any other legislative authority than that of the
Governor-General in Council. Their whole operation is
directly and immediately in and by virtue of this Act (22 of
1869) itself.
The proper Legislature has exercised its judgement as to
place, person, laws, powers ; and the result of that judgement
has been to legislate conditionally as to all these things.
The conditions having been fulfilled the legislation is now
absolute. .
Where plenary powers of legislation exist as to particular
subjects, whether in an Imperial or in a Provincial Legislature,
 they may in their Lordships’ judgement be well
exercised either absolutely or conditionally. Legislation conditional
 on the use of particular powers, or on the exercise