Lord Chancellor (Viscount Sankey):-

This is a petition for special leave to appeal from a judgment of the Court of King's Bench (Appeal Side) of the Province of Quebec, delivered on 5th October 1934. The petitioners had been convicted on 12th December 1933, under S. 498, Canadian Criminal Code and under Ss. 2 and 32, Combines Investigation Act, 1923, before the Court of King's Bench (Crown Side) and had been subjected to fines totalling $30,000, but the more serious effect to the petitioners of the conviction was that their business operations in the import of British anthracite coal were held to be illegal. The conviction was upheld by the judgment of the Appeal Court. Before their Lordships proceeded to consider questions appertaining to the merits of the petition, they decided in the first instance to determine a preliminary objection, which was that the petition was incompetent by reason of the provisions of S. 17 of the Canadian Statute, 23 and 24 Geo. V., C. 53 (an Act to amend the- Criminal Code) which was in the following terms: "Sub-S. 4 of S. 10 of the said Act (the Criminal Code) is repealed and is hereby re-enacted as follows:

(4) Notwithstanding any royal prerogative or