SPECIAL ACTS OF PARLIAMENT
So much for general Acts. There are many special Acts, concerned with only one country or a limited area. I propose to do no more than pick out curiosities. There are only three of diem.
First, there is that relic of the past, the Government of India Act, 1833? Nothing remains except section 112, which has nothing to do with India but is preserved because it is the constitutional foundation of the Island of St Helena.
My next oddity is the West Indian Prisons Act, 1838? It is remarkable for two reasons. First, in the middle of the twentieth century, an Act securing Parliamentary supervision of prison rules made in the West Indies is a preposterous anachronism. Secondly, the drafting is almost incredibly bad, even for an early nineteenth century statute. It would shame a pupil in Lincoln’s Inn Chambers or an articled clerk.
Finally, there is the Jamaica Act, 1866? The necessity for some of the nineteenth century Acts dealing with the West Indies is doubtful, but not this one. It confirmed two Jamaica Acts. By the first the legislature of Jamaica abolished itself; in die second die non-existing legislature proceeded to give Her Majesty constituent powers. It was not unnatural that someone thought that something required confirmation.