of legal revolution. The veto of the Crown means little in New Zealand;
it will at best mean no more in Ireland; but in truth it will mean a
good deal less. New Zealand sends no member to Westminster to stay the
hand of the Imperial Government whenever it attempts by way of veto or
otherwise to put in force the reserved powers of the Imperial
Parliament.[74]

_The Privy Council and the Courts_. The English Privy Council[75] may
nullify the effect of Irish legislation in two ways.

It may as an administrative body give a decision that an Act is
void.[76] This power can by exercised only upon the application of the
Lord Lieutenant or a Secretary of State, and it is a power which we may
expect will be but rarely employed, for its use would at once give rise
to a direct conflict between the Irish Parliament and the English Privy
Council. Let it be noted in passing that this provision for the decision
of constitutional questions is foreign to the habits and traditions of
English Courts; no judge throughout the United Kingdom ever pronounces
a speculative opinion upon the extent, operation, or validity of an Act
of Parliament. It is the inveterate habit of our judges to deal with
particular cases as they come before them, and with particular cases
alone. They will find themselves greatly perplexed when they come to
pronounce judgment upon abstract questions of law. This is not all. The
proposed arrangement is as foreign to the spirit of American Federalism
as it is to the spirit of English law. The Supreme Court of the United
States never in strictness pronounces an Act either of Congress or of a
State Legislature void. What the Court does is to treat it as void in
the decision of a particular case. Tocqueville and other critics have
directed special attention to the care with which the Federal tribunals,
by dealing only with given cases as they arise, avoid as far as possible