Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/697

 CH. XLI.] human concerns. In England the supreme power of the nation resides in parliament; and, in a legal sense, it is so omnipotent, that it has authority to change the whole structure of the constitution, without resort to any confirmation of the people. There is, indeed, little danger, that it will so do, as long as the people are fairly represented in it. But still it does, theoretically speaking, possess the power; and it has actually exercised it so far, as to change the succession to the crown, and mould to its will some portions of the internal structure of the constitution.

§ 1825. Upon the subject of the national constitution, we may adopt without hesitation the language of a learned commentator. "Nor," says he, can we too much applaud a constitution, which thus provides a safe and peaceable remedy for its own defects, as they may, from time to time, be discovered. A change of government in other countries is almost always attended with convulsions, which threaten its entire

87