cedure 611 the colonial legislatures in certain localities succeeded in building up a rather substantial tradition that they were privileged to muscle into the course of proceedings in the courts and even that they possessed a residual judicial power of their own. That this perversion of current English theories respecting the supremacy of Parliament was suffered by the crown was due partly to a lack of vigilance and partly to the fact that in causes under appealable minimums it was possible for the colonists to run their own show, saving always the accident of some Mason or Allen too obstinate to forego petition to the crown. One caveat, however, must be noted —that opinion might sometimes be sharply divided in the legislature, the local council often accepting the crown viewpoint, the assembly subscribing to current libertarian ideas. A well-known example of this is the consistency with which the crown's position was upheld by the council in New York in the early eighteenth century over the issue of the Chancery establishment. An even more striking instance is found in a 1769-70 episode in Jamaica. In this case a petition was presented to the assembly by one Cornelius Christian complaining of some outrages allegedly committed by some soldiers —the presentation apparently being made while the matter was in the course of judicial determination before the Supreme Court of Judicature. The council thereupon resolved, on December 22, 1769, that our excellent constitution has circumscribed by certain and known bounds, the executive, legislative, and judicial powers of government; in the free and independent exercise of which, without the encroachment of one on the other, consists the perfect enjoyment of our civil liberties [and] that assumption by any branch of the legislature, to inquire into such matters so depending, which contained no charges either of ministerial oppression or a violation of their own rights and privileges, is unconstitutional, repugnant to the first principles of natural and civil justice, and has a dreadful tendency to prepossess the minds of juries, and to subvert the judicial branch of government, from whose unprejudiced decisions alone, according to law, we derive the surest protection of our lives, liberties, and properties. 612 However, on February 21, 1770, the assembly upon consideration of the matter voted that the following resolution should not be put, viz., the bringing matters before this house which are cognizable by the courts of justice, and more especially such as are actually in a course of judicial determination, is very improper, arfd of dangerous consequence, and may be in future times, perverted to prejudice juries, and overawe the courts of justice. 611 See Russell, The Review of American Colonial Legislation by the King in Council, 130, 150, 161 et seq., 189, 191. 612 6 Journals Assembly Jamaica, 259.