PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

850 British COlzstitutior:.
form of the legislature; the rights and functions of
the several parts of the legislative body; the con~
struction, office, and jurisdiction of courh of jus ..
tice. The constitution is one principal division, section,
or title of the cede of public laws; distinguished
from the rest oniy by tIle superior importance of
the subject of which it treats. Therefore the terms,
constitutional and unconstitutional, mean legal and illegal.
The distinction and the ideas, which these terms denote,
are founded in the .s.aIDe authority with the la w
of the land upon any otner subject; and to be ascertained
by the same enquiries.' In England the system
of public jurisprudence is made up of acts of par!iam~nt,
of decis~ions of courts of law, ifid of immemQrial
usages : consequently, these are the principles of
which the English constitution it5elf con~i&ts; the
sources from which all our knowledge of its nature
and limitations is to be deduced, and the authorities
to which all appeal ought to be made, and by which
every constitutional doubt and question can alone be
decided. This plain and intelligible definition is the
more necessary to be preserved in. our thoughts. as
some ~·riters upon- the subject absurdly confound
what is constitutional with what i~' expedient; pronouncing
forthwith a measure to be uJlconstitutlonaI,
\\l11ich they adjudge in any respect to be detriment.
al or dangerous ; whilst others again ascribe a kind
of transcendent authority, or mysterious sanctity, to
the constiiution, as if it were founded in some higher
original than that which gives force and obligation
to the ord.inary laws and statu tes of the realm,
or were inviolable on any other account than its in ..
trin:-ic utility. An act of parliament, in England,
~all never be uncollt;;titutional, in the strict ~nJ prop ..
er accepr(1ti()n of the t~rJn ,; in a lo\¥cr sense it may,
viz. \\·llCl. it n1iliates witll tile spirit, contradicts the
at.1al()t~Y; or (Iefcats I ll(~ IJr()visioTl of ()th(~r 1a WS, Inade
~·.l reg"lilatc ttle f()rnl of g,.lVernlrlent. l~ VE.tn that flai~jt!'1l1~
al-.l!sc of their t'rl.l:'t, lly \vJlich a parlialntllt of
Henry V Ill. confern'd tlp