[tag=PRP] [□]?
[tag=PRP] [□=□]?
[tag=PRP] [□ | □]?
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 . The constitution was marked by more than one transcendent quality which in the eyes of our fathers raised it far above the imitations , counterfeits , or , parodies , which have been set up during the last hundred years throughout the civilised world ; no precise date could be named as the day of its birth ; no definite body of persons could claim to be its creators , no one could point to the document which contained its clauses ; it was in short a thing by itself , which Englishmen and foreigners alike should " venerate , where they are not able presently to comprehend . It is fair to all the friends who have aided me that I should state explicitly that for any opinions expressed in this Introduction no one is responsible except myself . As was said in a case of the time of Edward I ., " no one can bind assigns to warranty , since warranty always extends to heirs who claim by succession and not by assignment . As a lawyer , I find these matters too high for me . There is no reason to suppose that Madame Roland ever claimed parliamentary votes for herself or for her sex . No one can rate more highly than myself the success with which a complicated system is worked by the members of the Swiss Council or , to use expressions familiar to Englishmen , by the Swiss Cabinet . The referendum , as I have dealt with it , cannot , be it always borne in mind , enforce any law to which at any rate the House of Commons has not consented . 621 , where , however , it does not appear that the plaintiff did not know of the offer of a reward , but merely that the jury found that she was in fact actuated by other motives , a finding wholly beside the mark . Now observe that if you take any person , whether an Englishman or Englishwoman , he or she will probably hold that in some one or more of these instances the referendum would have worked ill , and that in some one or more of these instances it would have worked well . But , as I have throughout insisted , the great recommendation of the referendum is that it tends to correct , or at lowest greatly to diminish , the worst and the most patent evils of party government . It is probable , if not certain , that any one , who realises the extent to which parliamentary government itself is losing credit from its too close connection with the increasing power of the party machine , will hold with myself that the referendum judiciously used may , at any rate in the case of England , by checking the omnipotence of partisanship , revive faith in that parliamentary government which has been the glory of English constitutional history . She complies too ; she submits ; she watches times .