And so our security is not in the written word of the Constitution
alone; it is there, of course, but it is in our institutions also
which are the spirit of the Constitution, which illumine and emphasize
the meaning of that noble instrument. England has no written
constitution; certain other countries have had and have now ideal
written constitutions.
And yet England has steady and continuous liberty and law, while those
others, even with written constitutions, frequently have had
bureaucracy and military absolutism. They had the _forms_ of liberty
and popular government in these written constitutions, but they did
not have free institutions, which alone make formal constitutions
living and vital things.
England, without a written constitution, is almost as free a
government as ours. Law reigns supreme. The poorest gatherer of rags
has equal rights before the bar of justice with belted earl or
millionaire, and those equal rights are impartially enforced. Neither
wealth nor title are favored more than poverty or humble rank in the
courts of England; and even royalty appears as witness, the same as
his meanest subject.
The Government itself is subject to the will of the people; and no
ministry remains in power in face of an adverse majority, or forces
into law an act of which the people disapprove.
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