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There are laws of the constitution , as , for example , the Bill of Rights , the Act of Settlement , and Habeas Corpus Acts , which are " written law , " found in the statute-books in other words , are statutory enactments . Locke , Bentham , and Mil will find it easy to assent , for it is well known that in any country , and especially in any country where popular government exists , the thoughts , even the bad or the foolish thoughts , of the people should be known to the national legislature . If , however , I insist on the fact that my book has a special aim of its own , nothing is further from my intention than to underrate the debt which I owe to the labours of the lawyers and historians who have composed works on the English constitution . But I am a student of the British constitution ; my unhesitating conviction is that the constitution of the Empire ought to develop , as it is actually developing , in the same way in which grew up the constitution of England.103 The relation between England and the Dominions , and , as far as possible , between England and the colonies which are not as yet self-governing countries , need not be developed by arduous feats of legislation . No one , indeed , but a child , fancies that the King sits crowned on his throne at Westminster , and in his own person administers justice to his subjects .