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First Argument Every citizen , or , as the point is generally put , every person who pays taxes under the law of the United Kingdom , is entitled as a matter of right to a vote for a member of Parliament . Chief among these is the covenant to repair . The referendum is an institution which , if introduced into England , would be strong enough to curb the absolutism of a party possessed of a parliamentary majority . Western Australia , for instance , which is now one of the states of the Commonwealth of Australia , did not obtain responsible government till 1890 , and Natal , now a state of the Union of South Africa , did not obtain such government till 1893 . In any case he too has approached English institutions from a new point of view , and has looked at them in a fresh light ; he would be universally recognised among us as one of the most distinguished and ingenious exponents of the mysteries of the English constitution , had it not been for the fact that he made his fame as a professor , not in any of the seats of learning in the United Kingdom , but in the University of Melbourne . The recognition of this moral triumph is seen in the constitutional practice , almost , one may now say , the constitutional rule , that a member once placed in the Speaker 's chair shall continue to be re-elected at the commencement of each successive Parliament irrespective of the political character of each successive House of Commons . It had been shown previously that in England the principles of inheritance applied directly to the singular succession of the heir to a specific fee , as well as to the universal succession of the executor . The constitution was to them , in the quaint language of George the Third , " the most perfect of human formations " ; 3 it was to them not a mere polity to be compared with the government of any other state , but so to speak a sacred mystery of statesmanship ; it " had ( as we have all heard from our youth up ) not been made but had grown " ; it was the fruit not of abstract theory but of that instinct which ( it is supposed ) has enabled Englishmen , and especially uncivilised Englishmen , to build up sound and lasting institutions , much as bees construct a honeycomb , without undergoing the degradation of understanding the principles on which they raise a fabric more subtlely wrought than any work of conscious art . If now it should be again asked , at the end of this long discussion , where the line is to be drawn between these two classes of covenants , the answer is necessarily vague in view of the authorities . Take as countries which exhibit this state of feeling the United States , the English federated colonies , the Swiss Confederation , and the German Empire , and contrast with this special condition of opinion the deliberate rejection by all Italian patriots of federalism , which in the case of Italy presented many apparent advantages , and the failure of union between Sweden and Norway to produce any desire for unity or even for a continued political connection , though these Scandinavian lands differ little from each other in race , in religion , in language , or in their common interest to maintain their independence against neighbouring and powerful countries . C was sued by D , claiming a better title , C practically got the benefit of A 's warranty , / 2 / because , when he summoned B , B would summon A , and thus A [ 373 ] would defend the case in the end . He can , if he satisfies the requirements of the English electoral law , vote for a member of Parliament ; he can , if he commends himself to an English constituency , take his seat as a member of Parliament . There is a sense in which the growth of large states is injurious to the individual life of smaller communities . These transactions were natural enough in the Palmerstonian era ; they could hardly recur in 1914 . the authority of the King . Yet and this is no insignificant matter under every federal system there must almost of necessity exist some body of persons who can decide whether the terms of the federal compact have been observed . It must be noted that under these two rules the Imperial Parliament does retain , and sometimes exerts the right to legislate in regard to matters which may greatly concern the prosperity of a Dominion , and also does in some respects seriously curtail both the legislative power of a Dominion Parliament and the executive power of a Dominion Cabinet . " / 2 / " [ A servitude ] may be called an arrangement by which house is subjected to house , farm to [ 386 ] farm , holding to holding . Only those who were privy in estate with the person to whom the warranty was originally given , could vouch the original warrantor . difficulty in resisting the claim of a nationality to become an independent nation , even though the concession of such a demand may threaten the ruin of a powerful state and be opposed to the wishes of the majority of the citizens thereof . No one , in the second place , can , I think , with reason dispute that , among the numerous plans for proportional representation thrust upon the attention of the public , some one , and probably several , would tend to make the House of Commons a more complete mirror of what is called the mind of the nation than the House is at present ; and this concession , it may with advantage be noted , does not involve the belief that under any system of popular government whatever , a representative body can be created which at every moment will absolutely and with complete accuracy reflect the opinions held by various classes of the people of England . Courts , means , in the first place , that by no proceeding known to the law can the King be made personally responsible for any act done by him ; if ( to give an absurd example ) the King were himself to shoot the Premier through the head , no court in England could take cognisance of the act . The above considerations taken as a whole afford some explanation of a demand for that referendum which , though it originates in Switzerland , flourishes in reality , though not in name , in almost every state of the American Commonwealth . Covenant required a specialty , but prescription was said to be a sufficiently good specialty .