English Constitution.

Among the countless Constitution that have been brought into existence in the world since civil government first began, and of which we have any knowledge, that evolved in England seems to be the most remarkable, and to offer the most successful and most enduring solution to the eternal problems. The English Constitution is remarkable for many reasons. Alone among existing Constitutions it is the product of a history never entirely broken over a period of some fifteenth centuries. Notwithstanding it's long history, it is in the highest degree adaptable to needs of changing circumstances and conditions. The balance between the apparent irreconcilable which is enshrined within it is highly adjustable. The Constitution is resilient to the most extreme pressures put upon it, even the pressure from external enemies. It has survived, without material injury, the dire strain and deadly perils of total war. It is remarkable also in having been exported wholesale, often more or less en bloc, to distant lands, and imitated in greater or less degree by numerous foreign States near and far. The only radically different type of Constitution in the world which can claim anything like comparable success- that of the United States of America- was itself in origin partly an imitation, even if largely based upon misconception, of the English Constitution of the eighteenth century. In the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it was exported to the Dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It has been adopted in varying degrees by numerous countries overseas which have under its aegis attained self-government within the Commonwealth, not always very successfully or completely. It was, despite much effort to the contrary, an essential source for the brand-new Constitution of Eire. It has been a model for many States which have in modern times sought to establish a Constitution of a representative and democratic type, but its successful operation depends upon a degree of political maturity not always within the reach of some communities. It can claim to be only remarkable for these and other reasons, but also to be markedly successful and enduring, because it succeeds in providing strong and effective government based upon a maximum measure of general consent, whilst at the same time being readily adjustable to changing needs and circumstances. In short, the English have made permanently important contributions to solution of the eternal problems of government. Just some peoples of the past are renowned still for their contributions to human achievement, such as Greece in the sphere of art, literature and philosophy; Rome in the sphere of law; Israel in religion; so England will be identified with art and practice of government in ages yet to come. The modern English Constitution is thus a heritage from the past  and in it the institutions, the devices, and the ideals of many centuries are embodied and fused into a great and effective instrument of government. The twentieth century had already made its contribution to the law and conventions of the Constitution, and some of these will doubtless prove to be permanent. The most significant of these developments is the expansion of executive power. This has been due in part to the exigencies of the long struggle to survive against the menace of external enemies that has been imposed upon the States during most of the first half of the twentieth century; and in part to changing conceptions of the proper functions and scope of government itself. The conditions created by war, rumours of war, and the aftermath of war will perhaps not last ever, and social and economic theories are usually transient and inevitably modified in the light of experience. What balance of power among the authorities within the Constitution will become stabilized in normal circumstances no one can  pretend to say, for no one can predict what circumstances will become normal in this century.  It is a manifest lesson of all English history- and endeed of any history- that an excessive growth of executive power is inimical to the liberties of individual citizen, but whether the modern electorate is as yet sufficiently experienced in the wise exercise of its sovereign power to apply that lesson remain to be seen. The elasticity of the English Constitution is one of its greatest merits, but it is also a source of some danger, for the ease with which the Constitution can be amended and modified tends to obscure the significance and consequences of changes which may be slight in themselves, but which may be of profound accumulative effect

 Knowledge as well as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. What is certain that the law and conventions of Constitution will continue to change in response to the real or fancied needs of the present and future generations. Changing conditions may require changing methods of government and the creative energies of the nation are not easily exhausted. In England and everywhere,  it has been achieved universal suffrage and the sovereignty of the common peoples but these things are not in themselves the Promised Land nor the panacea of all evils. For the Promised Land alway turns out to be a mirage beckoning men on towards the unknown and unforeseen, and panaceas often turn out to be quack remedies. No man can foretell whether all the modern Constitutional democracies will success in remaining true to their fundamental ideals and maintain a just balance between law and liberty, progress and stability, the State and individual. We can understand something of the historic past, and the present is alway with us, but the past and present contingencies which together will shape and eventually determine the future for ever elusive. 

Casalino Pierluigi.