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CHAPTER II.

THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT.

SECTION I.-COMPOSITION AND MUTUAL RELATIONS OF THE HOUSES.

So far as the movements of the English Constitution are concerned, as distinguished from what may be called its permanent or statical elements, attention is naturally directed first to the two Houses of Parliament. The structural constituents of local government, as found in the Parish, the County, and even the Parliamentary substitutes for these found in the modern complication of Districts, form perhaps the most stable and characteristic portions of the Constitution; while the peculiar political and historical situation of the Monarch might seem to invite primary attention in virtue of its dignity. But while the apparent immobility of local institutions on the one hand, and of the monarchical office on the other, marks real though somewhat indefinite limits to the activity of the central Legislature, it is in the proceedings and self-determining action of that Legislature that organic changes in the Constitution, whether gradual or precipitate, must be looked for.

The question is at once raised, which, in discussing the Coronation Oath, Coleridge brought into such clear relief, and the increasing importance of which is disclosed

Parliament not Omnipotent.

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by recent constitutional discussions in this and other countries-whether within the limits of the Constitution there is any part which, like an impregnable fortress, defies the assault of Parliament itself. The alleged omnipotence of Parliament, which was so distasteful or impossible a notion to Coleridge, is in fact, according to the views explained at length in the previous chapter, almost a contradiction in terms. Admitting that there are both stable and variable elements in the Constitution, it is obvious that the moment Parliament lays its hand on what is stable-and here lie concealed the roots of its own existence-it commits an act of suicide. While, then, it must be confessed that in one sense Parliament can do anything, because it can pass a law which by the existing Constitution must be recognised in every Court of Justice in the land, still there is a moral, not to say a mechanical force behind Courts of Justice themselves, which, by a more or less rough, irregular, dilatory, and often hazardous process, may nullify the decisions of Courts of Justice, either overturning the Constitution itself, or marking out afresh the limits within which legislation shall be permissible. The real history of this process is often lost, either by being buried in the annals of a violent revolution, or, when extending over a considerable period, by escaping notice through the imperceptible gradation of the steps by which the popular criticism finally attains its end. There have been notable epochs in English, American, and French history, when a patient constitutional observer might have done much to quiet the alarm of his countrymen by overhearing amidst the earthquake and fire of revolution the natural voices of a healthy and teeming constitutional life. In the United States,

indeed, the ultimate judgment on the constitutional character of all legislative acts, which is reserved to the Supreme Court, is practically subject to a carefully organised method of appeal to the people; and this often leads Englishmen to suppose, by a process of comparison, that their own Constitution has a finality which is not subject to the uncertain decisions of a Court of Justice, and which is still less open to admit change at the bidding of the popular voice. The fact is, that the Constitution of the United States, as here indicated, only expresses an attempt to reduce to strict language and form that which is an essential characteristic of every political Constitution in every country. The Legislature supplies the first motive force; the Courts of Justice-more or less bound and tied by their own unswerving traditions and principles-register the acts proceeding from this exertion of force; the People, as an organic whole, and as acting deliberately over a sufficient period of time, either accept or reject the Parliamentary innovations.1

In suggesting a comparison between the constitutional functions of any English Court of Justice and the Supreme Court of the United States, it may perhaps be needless to mention that the English Court, when pronouncing a constitutional decision based on the interpretation of an Act of Parliament, cannot travel out of the limits and language of the Act itself, except (1) to ascertain (in case of dispute) that what purports to be an Act was passed with all the recognised constitutional formalities; (2) in case of ambiguous language to give a preference to that reading which best gives effect to recognised constitutional maxims; and (3) to raise a presumption -only to be rebutted by the most express language, if at all-against any interpretation of an Act of Parliament which shall appear to contravene certain constitutional doctrines which have already been judicially limited and explained, e.g., "The King can do no wrong,' No length of prescription avails against the rights of the Crown,' the prerogative of the Crown in respect to the pardon of criminals, and the like.

The Nation the Arbiter of Change.

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It is one of the main problems of modern politics to facilitate on the one hand, and to obstruct on the other, changes in the Constitution. M. de Tocqueville and other well-known writers have laboured to point out the ultimate inefficacy of all artificial barriers against the strong and steady torrent of the popular will. The various obstructions to this will which already exist in England, or which are ingeniously contrived from time to time, serve a most useful purpose, partly by ensuring delay, partly by handing on the existing framework of the Constitution to a time when general education shall be more widely diffused, and political experience increased. For the present purpose it is sufficient to enforce the principle that it is to the two Houses of Parliament that immediate reference must be made when changes in the Constitution are believed to be imminent, or are held to be desirable or the contrary; but that, on the other hand, Parliament is not omnipotent, and that if the Constitution is changed ever so little in any direction, it is the people themselves who, by their activity or neglect, have changed it. Securus judicat orbis terrarum.

How far, during the period now under discussion, Parliament has, with general public assent, been in fact overstepping the limits by which its alleged omnipotence was formerly restricted, will be necessarily brought to light as the general characteristics of recent legislation are passed under review. It will then be seen how far there are any limits to legislation at a given time; how far these limits are moveable; and by what process they are moved.

Assuming then that the primary source of the move

ments of the Constitution throughout any definite period must be sought in the structure, relations, and action of the two Houses of Parliament, it is important to compare the condition of the Houses in these respects as it was some fifty years ago and as it is at present.

It was not, perhaps, till about the commencement of the present reign-that is, in 1837-that the true consequences of the Reform Act of 1832 began to be fully apprehended. Mr. Walter Bagehot, in the Introduction to the latest edition of his memorable treatise,1 has pointed out what the aristocracy really lost by the abolition of nomination boroughs and the enfranchisement of populous towns. The central force of the Constitution in fact swayed over from the titled nobility,— who had become, by a series of social changes, paramount in both Houses,—not to the general body of the people, but to the lately-enriched middle-classes, who must thenceforth preponderate in the Lower House, and thereby carry with them, for reasons which Mr. Bagehot explains at length, the Upper House. It may here be said, parenthetically, that it would be a misleading mode of treatment to discourse (as is necessarily done in text-books) on either House apart. As in the earliest days of the English Constitution, so now, the two Assemblies are emphatically one House of Legislature. Fully to vindicate the fact of this unity and the mode of its expression has required, and may yet require, many a tentative struggle and experiment conducted by the Assemblies in their mutual relations. It is, of course, easy to ignore this progressive identification by speaking carelessly of the weakness and worthlessness of the one body and the tyrannical force of the other; or of the 1 English Constitution, Introduction to 2nd Edition, pp. xxiv. xxv.

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