It is beside our purpose to discuss the advantage of a Constitution in a commu nity where the sovereign is one. Being supreme, the sovereign may change the Constitution when he pleases. It may be said that if the Constitution is good, and has been allowed to stand by several successive possessors of the sovereign power, it obtains an apparent prescriptive authority, which is the more binding on the sovereign, as the mass of the nation habitually regard this same Constitution as something which even the sovereign cannot touch with impunity. It would shock common prejudice if the actual sovereign were to violate that which has been sanctioned by his predecessors, and is recommended by an apparently higher antiquity than the power which, in the actual sovereign's hands, appears to be of more recent birth. The precise meaning of what is called the English Constitution must be got from the various writers who have made its origin and progress their study. In reading them it may not be amiss to bear in mind that the word Con-1 stitution, as used by them, has not the exact, but the vague meaning as explained above.
States where there is a king, or other person with corresponding name and power, are now most usually distributed into the two classes of monarchies and constitutional monarchies. The term Monarchy is a proper term to express a form of government in which one man has the sovereign power, m in Russia.
The term Constitutional Monarchies is not an appropriate term, because the word monarchy is not capable of a limitation of meaning without the implication of a contradiction in terms. Still the expres sion is used, and it is understood to ex press those states in which the kingly power is limited or defined by a written instrument, which also lays down certain general rules affecting the form of go vernment and the condition of the people, which are not to be varied by any legis lative act. Such an instrument is the French Charte [CHARTE], under which France, instead of being a monarchy, as it was once, is now a constitutional state, or, as it is called, a constitutional mo narchy. This act, which proceeded from the king (Louis XVIII.), cannot be re voked by any future king consistently with good faith; and, besides this, such revocation would be followed by resist ance to the government, if the actual government were not too strong to be resisted. The violation of such a solemn act would, in the opinion of all mankind, justify revolution, and the inflicting the punishment of death on all who advised or participated in so flagrant a violation of good faith.
At present there is a struggle in some countries, as in Prussia for instance, be tween the sovereign (the king) and his subjects, who call for a constitution. The late King of Prussia, Frederick William HI., solemnly promised his people a con stitution in the hour of difficulty, on the 22nd of May, 1815, when Napoleon was again threatening Prussia and all Europe. The promise was a reward due to the Prussian nation, for their services in the years 1813, 1814: it was a compensation due for the blood shed at Leipzig, and the overthrow of the enemy of all free dom and constitutions. He promised not only a representative system for the eight provinces of Prussia, but a representative system for all Prussia ; the only sure foundation on which that kingdom can now stand. Frederick William III. died on the 7th of June, 1840, without having fulfilled his promise of giving Prussia a general representative system,—without having made good the solemn promise of a king to a people who had again built up his throne that had crumbled to the dust before the armies of France. The son of Frederick William III., King Fre derick William IV. of Prussia, has de clared to the states of Posen, on the 9th of September, 1840, that his father's pro mise does not bind him, because his father thought a constitution incompatible with the good of his people, and accordingly gave them, in place of it, the law of the 5th of June, 1823. To this it is replied,
that the law of the 22nd of May, 1815, promised provincial estates and represen tatives for the whole nation. The law of the 5th of June, 1823, established the pro vincial estates, and gave a prospect of the representatives of the nation being called together ; consequently, in making this renewal of his promise, Frederick Wil liam III. could not have intended that the second law should stand in the place of the first. (Das Konigliche Wort, Frie derich Wilhelms III., von Dr. Johann Jacoby, dated Konigsberg, 16th Decem ber, 1844, but printed in London.) In some monarchical governments, as in Prussia, a constitutional government is of urgent necessity. When a nation has reached a certain point in its social pro gress, a participation in the sovereign power becomes a universal desire. It does not follow that a nation will be better administered because the people participate in the sovereign power, but they will not be satisfied till they do par ticipate in it ; and that is the important matter for an absolute power to consider. The representatives may often, and will certainly sometimes, enact laws which are mischievous to themselves ; but that is an incident to, or an accident in, a constitu tional system, not its essential. The es sential of a constitutional system is to call all men into political activity as mem bers of a state, to secure the highest degree of individual freedom that is consistent with the general interest, to establish a real national character by making each man a potentia land living member of the body corporate, and, above all, to keep a tight and steady hand upon the public purse ; to see that no more taxes are raised than are necessary for the due support of the administration, and to see that they are raised in such a way as to bring the largest sum into the treasury with the least detriment to the individual. Freedom of publication, or, as it is usually called, the liberty of the press, is in modern times indispensable as a means of maintaining constitutional freedom where it exists, and of attaining it where it does not. In an absolute government, like Prussia, it is restrained by a censorship ; in France, which is a young constitution, it is checked by severe enactments ; in England the freedom of the press is amply secured both by law and usage. In the actual state of Germany, in which political life hardly exists, the establish ment of a true constitutional government in Prussia would be the commencement of a new sera for the Germanic nation. The Russian subjects of the Czar of Mus covy, or of the greater part of his do minions at least, may be at present as contented and as well governed as they would be under a constitution ; for a con stitution, in order to be beneficial, must be founded upon a representation of a whole nation which has political know ledge, or of a majority so large that the minority shall be insignificant when com pared with it.
In the articles CEARTE and UNITED STATES, CONSTITUTION OF, an account is given of the constitutions of France and the United States of North America, which countries, and England, enjoy a higher degree of constitutional freedom than any other states. Spain has made extraordinary efforts to obtain the advan tages of a constitution. [CORTES.] Some of the smaller states of Germany have constitutions, as Wiirtemberg, Hanover, Baden, Hesse Darmstadt, Hesse Cassel, Nassau, &c. The European states which have no constitution are Russia, Austria, Prussia, Ottoman Empire, Naples and Sicily, Papal States, Grand Dukedom of Tuscany, Dukedom of Parma, Dukedom of Modena, Dukedom of Lucca, Sardinia, the Principality of Monaco, &e. The constitutions of Mexico and of the Repub lics of South America resemble that of the United States. Brazil has a constitu tion and a representation.
For the nature of a Federal Govern ment, which necessarily implies the notion of a Constitution, see FEDERATION.