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How comes it , then , that one who has neither title nor possession is so far favored ? All , therefore , that can be conclusively inferred from the argument against the referendum is that the people 's veto , like any other veto , may sometimes be ill , and sometimes be well employed . The other half should , as belonging to conventions which illustrate the growth of law , be transferred either to my friend the Corpus 10 See further on this point , Part III . His natural , his inevitable resource is to recur to writers of authority on the law , the history , or the practice of the constitution . My essential objection to the system of proportional representation consists in my grave doubt as to the truth of the third of the above three propositions , namely , that it is desirable that any opinion existing among any large body of electors should be represented in the House of Commons as nearly as possible in the same proportion in which it exists among such electors . Neither can it be defended on the same ground as the protection to the occupation of the land itself . But neither parliamentary government nor any form of constitution , either which has been invented or may be discovered , will ever of itself remove all or half the sufferings of human beings . The transfer of easements presented itself as one case to be explained , and that has now been analyzed , and its influence on the law has been traced . It is certain that no man , who is really satisfied with the working of our party system , will ever look with favour on an institution which aims at correcting the vices of party government . Federalism again would mean , in any country where English ideas prevail , the predominance of legalism or , in other words , a general willingness to yield to the authority of the law courts . But if the Dominions would not tolerate the interference with their own affairs by any Parliament , whatever its title , sitting at Westminster , is there the remotest reason to suppose that the existing Imperial Parliament will consent to become a Parliament of the Empire in which England , or rather the United Kingdom , and each of the five Dominions shall be fairly represented ? All that can be said is , that the metaphors and similes employed naturally led to the rule which has prevailed , [ 385 ] and that , as this rule was just as good as any other , or at least was unobjectionable , it was drawn from the figures of speech without attracting attention , and before any one had seen that they were only figures , which proved nothing and justified no conclusion . Bracton seems to have vacillated a little from a feeling of the possibility of conflict between the two . On the other hand , the officials would , because they were servants of the state who had undertaken certain duties to the state , be forbidden either to organise a strike or in any way to interrupt the working of the Post Office . I venture to assure all my readers that this forgetfulness of England and by England I here mean the country known , and famous , as England before the legal creation either of Great Britain or of the United Kingdom is a fashion opposed both to common sense and to common justice , and , like all opposition to the nature of things , will ultimately come to nothing . It inevitably leads to the conclusion that any form of popular government ought to be based on the existence of strictly universal suffrage . 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 . Many of the English clergy ( a class of men well entitled to respect ) have themselves shown no great hesitation in thwarting and breaking laws which they held to be opposed to the law of the Church . The wide gift of the elective franchise will be a great calamity to the whole nation , and to those who gain it as great a calamity as to any . " The present generation must of necessity look on the constitution in a spirit different from the sentiment either of 1791 or of 1818 . During the Palmerstonian era , at any rate , a few of such men each possessed an authority inside and outside the House which is hardly claimed by any member now-a-days who neither has nor is expected to obtain a seat in any Cabinet . This body would , subject of course to supervision by the state , manage the office in accordance with their own knowledge and judgment ; would , as far as I understand the proposal , be allowed to share in the gains affected by good management ; and would , out of the revenue of the Post Office , make good the compensation due to persons who suffered by the negligence or misconduct of the officials . No Act of Parliament of any kind could be passed without the consent thereto both of the House of Lords and of the House of Commons . Throughout this Introduction , unless the contrary is expressly stated , or appears from the context , no reference is made to the position either of ( i. ) the Crown colonies , or ( ii .