OCR Text |
Show 24. Acrs RELATING Part I. Sect. I. TO THE Computes. 25 the legiflative power from deriving all its ration, not from their inability to effect authority from the conflitution, that the alterations when they are united. confiitution itfelf is in great part created by the legiflative power;----then it is not than be once united, and you may fay true, that the conflitution is to fixed, as ture, " Elle change la confiitution commc never to be changed, " Diem crea la lumiere *2" MOP: certainly the Englifh conllitution has not always been fixed. Let of them as truly as of any other legifla~ In this infianee therefore, as well as in It often has any other, parliament may change the been changed. It has been changed by parliament-T0 thefe changes we owe confiitution, by ahridging or controlling our prefent liberty. Suppofe a greater de- bridged or controlled, the power itfelf gree of liberty to be poflible, is the fame and the exercile of it are furely eonllitu- authority tional. incompetent to make thefe changes, by which {0 delireable an objeét may be attained 3 No doubt the Englifh confiitution is more fixed, that is, lefs liable to change, than the confiitution of any other country, ancient or modern.-N0 doubt this is a Very eminent advantage-But whence arifes this advantage? From the dz'vz'flmz, not from the emote/265', of the legillative power ; from the diflieulty of uniting the dilTerent branches in any {cheme of alteration, the power of the king. But till it is a~ 9* See Confiitution d'Angleterre, chap. xii. |