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If the law should protect a possessor of land in the enjoyment of water coming to it , it would do so because the use of the water was regarded as a part of the enjoyment of that land , and would by no means imply that it would do the same in the case just put of a way over land of another . Either House of Parliament has the fullest power over its own proceedings , and can , like a Court , commit for contempt any person who , in the judgment of the House , is guilty of insult or affront to the House . The prejudices which , say , in the time of Dr. Johnson , kept Scotsmen and Englishmen apart , have in reality vanished . The subject is dealt with by no means exhaustively , but with a view in the first place to bring out the causes of the demand in England for the referendum ; and in the next place to consider carefully and examine in turn first by far the strongest argument against , and secondly the strongest argument in favour of introducing the referendum into the constitution of England . There is not the remotest doubt that the argument involved in this inquiry ( in whatever form it is stated ) seems to many women , to a great number of parliamentary electors , and also to a considerable number of M.P.s , to afford an unanswerable and conclusive reason in favour of giving parliamentary votes to women . Constitutional law as subject of legal study means solely law of constitution . The new convention , which all but compels a Ministry defeated at a general election to resign office , is , on the face of it , an acknowledgment that the electorate constitutes politically the true sovereign power.65 It also tends to convert a general election into a decision that a particular party shall hold office for the duration of the newly-elected Parliament and , in some instances , into the election of a particular statesman as Prime Minister for that period.66 This new convention is the sign of many minor political or constitutional changes , such , for example , as the introduction of the habit , quite unknown not only to statesmen as far removed from us as Pitt , but to Peel , to Lord John Russell , or to Lord Palmerston , of constantly addressing , not only when out of office but also when in office , speeches to some body of electors and hence to the whole country . 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 . The possible weakness at any rate of the historical method as applied to the growth of institutions , is that it may induce men to think so much of the way in which an institution has come to be what it is , that they cease to consider with sufficient care what it is that an institution has become . It has been found hidden at the root of the relation between buyer and seller in two cases at least , prescription and warranty , when the history of that relation is opened to a sufficient depth . 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 . 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 . The latter was soon turned out , and thereupon brought an action upon the covenant against the executor of the lessor . The practical difficulty lies in the reconciliation of the first with the second of these propositions , and is best met by following out the analogy suggested by Mr. Justice Stephen , between a resolution of the House of Commons , and the decision of a Court from which there is no appeal . countries which make up the British Empire , if he reflects that they are occupied by different races whose customs and whose civilisation are the product of absolutely different histories , that the different countries of the Empire are in no case contiguous , and in many instances are separated from England and from each other by seas extending over thousands of miles , he will rather wonder at the boldness of the dreams entertained by the votaries of federal Imperialism , than believe that the hopes of federalising the Empire are likely to meet with fulfilment . It will be seen that the discussion followed the lines marked out by the pleading . We now know for certain that while popular government may be under wise leadership a good machine for simply destroying existing evils , it may turn out a very poor instrument for the construction of new institutions or the realisation of new ideals . The time has come when the fact ought to be generally admitted that the amount of government , that is of coercion , of individuals or classes by the state , which is necessary to the welfare or even to the existence of a civilised community , cannot permanently co-exist with the effective belief that deference to public opinion is in all cases the sole or the necessary basis of a democracy . This of itself increases the power and lowers the character of the party machine ; but the greatest political danger with which England is now threatened is the inordinate influence of party mechanism . The period of now more than two centuries which has elapsed since what used to be called the " Glorious Revolution , " filled as those two centuries are with change and with growth , seems hardly to have attracted the attention of a writer whom lack , not of knowledge , but of will has alone prevented from sketching out the annals of our modern constitution . 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 . But this general statement may be best justified by the working out of two criticisms . My aim in this Introduction has been to place before my readers the strongest argument against and also the strongest argument in favour of the introduction of the referendum into the constitution of England .