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At the present day students of the constitution wish neither to criticise , nor to venerate , but to understand ; and a professor whose duty it is to lecture on constitutional law , must feel that he is called upon to perform the part neither of a critic nor of an apologist , nor of an eulogist , but simply of an expounder ; his duty is neither to attack nor to defend the constitution , but simply to explain its laws . No doubt England and the states represented at the Imperial Conferences entertain a genuine and ardent wish that the British Empire should be strong and be able , as against foreigners , and even in resistance to secession , to use all the resources of the whole Empire for its defence and maintenance . Since I first endeavoured to lay down the few general principles which in my judgment lie at the basis of our constitution , I have , whilst engaged in that attempt , always enjoyed his sympathy and encouragement , and , especially in the later editions of my work , I have received from him corrections and suggestions given by one who had explored not only the principles but also all the minute rules of our constitutional law and practice . This topic is one on which I have no wish to dwell , but it cannot be forgotten by any sensible observer who reflects upon the history of secession in the United States , or of the Sonderbund in Switzerland , or who refuses to forget the preeminently uneasy connection between the different parts of the Austrian Empire and the deliberate determination of Norway to sever at all costs the union with Sweden . Thus the eminent man who advocated the desirability of every opinion obtaining a hearing in the House of Commons , used on another occasion the following words : " It is an essential and integral feature of our policy that we shall go forward with the task of making the House of Commons not only the mouthpiece but the mirror of the national mind . " / 1 / No passage has met my eye in which Bracton expressly decides that an easement goes with the dominant estate upon a disseisin , but what he says leaves little doubt that he followed the Roman law in this as in other things . The referendum is , in short , merely the dear recognition in its negative form of that sovereignty of the nation of which under a system of popular government every leading statesman admits the existence . The trade unionists whom he offends know perfectly well that the blackleg is in the eye of the law no wrong-doer ; they therefore feel that the Courts are his protectors , and that , somehow or other , trade unions must be protected against the intervention of judges . Still less , however , did they show any active wish to take part in controlling the policy of the Empire , or to share the cost of Imperial defence .