crap. 11] THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA 891 
It may be that these principles will be upheld by the High 
Court, but it is certainly doubtful if they can be regarded 
as valid. 
It may be added that, from the parliamentary point of 
view, exception has been strongly taken to judicial inquiries 
into matters which lie within the sphere of the action of 
Parliament. Thus in 1873, when the attempt by the 
Government of Canada to set up a select committee with 
power to examine witnesses on oath in connexion with the 
Pacific Railway scandals broke down owing to the disallow- 
ance of the Act conferring upon the committees the power 
in question, as being repugnant to the limitations on the 
privileges of Parliament imposed by the British North 
America Act, 1867, a royal commission of three judges was 
set up by the Government. To the royal commission very 
strong exception was taken by Mr. Seth Huntingdon, the 
Liberal member who in April 1873 had demanded the inquiry 
into the charges he adduced against the Government of Sir 
John Macdonald, and he declined to give evidence before 
the commission or aid them in any way, on the ground that 
the isSue of the royal commission was an improper inter- 
ference with the privileges of Parliament.! 
The same question was hotly discussed in 1910 in Western 
Australia, when the Government, as a result of attacks on 
the Lands Department, set up a commission of inquiry. It 
was protested by the Opposition that this was a flagrant 
violation of the freedom of parliamentary discussion, and an 
abrogation of the responsibility of ministers for parliamentary 
sriticism. It was pointed out that the powers given by the 
Act of 1902 would enable the commissioners to call upon the 
members of the House to give evidence under penalty, and 
that such action logically was a denial of the privilege of 
free speech. Stress was laid on the English precedents, and 
especially on the case of the Act of 1888 for the setting up of 
the Parnell Commission. That Act was, it was asserted, 
a very improper use of the legislative power, but it was a 
recognition of the fact that royal commissions could not 
1 Parl. Pap., C. 911, pp. 77 seq., 87, 90.