instead of absolutely prohibiting any of them from exercising any
power properly belonging to either of the others, it is declared
that this shall not be done, except as may be expressly allowed
in subsequent articles.

Such a declaration was proposed in the draft of the Constitution
of Connecticut, reported to the convention which framed it in
1818; but on objection it was struck out.[Footnote: Journal of
the Constitutional Convention of Connecticut, pp. 78, 55.] It
was thought better to leave the relations of the departments to
each other to be worked out in practice, and for nearly eighty
years afterward the legislature continued to exercise some
judicial power. It sometimes gave equitable relief to carry out
a charitable purpose in a will, which would otherwise fail. It
interfered repeatedly in probate proceedings. It released
sureties in judicial recognizances. It set aside judgments.
[Footnote: Wheeler's Appeal, 45 Connecticut Reports, 306, 315;
Stanley _v._ Colt, 5 Wallace's Reports, 119.] A decision of
the Supreme Court of Errors sanctioned the practice;[Footnote:
Starr _v._ Pease, 8 Conn. Reports, 541, 547.] but in 1898
the court overruled its former opinion, and held that as the
three departments were made separate and distinct, it needed no
express constitutional declaration to prevent either from
invading the province of the other, and so that no power not
judicial in its nature could be conferred upon the
courts.[Footnote: Norwalk Street Railway Company's Appeal, 69
Conn. Reports, 576; 37 Atlantic Reporter, 1080.]

But may not a power be judicial in its nature and yet not wholly
so?