Page:Studies in constitutional law Fr-En-US (1891).pdf/154

146 laws. Since 1789 we may say that there have been in France individuals who were kings, but there has been no royalty, if by that term we mean to describe a perpetual corporation represented at any given moment by a single individual, who receives from it something beyond his own value, his own responsibility, and his own personal credit. There have been assemblies of representative individuals under the name of peers, senators, or deputies, coming together in accordance with the conditions provided by articles of the constitution, and finding in their meeting place exactly what they had brought with them from outside. But there has been no House of Peers, no Senate, no Chamber of Deputies, if by these words are meant permanent bodies possessing a character and spirit of their own, something of which is communicated to each generation of their members. These superior authorities are of but recent date, and have been created by statute; they therefore constantly look for support to the law which created them, and to the people who create the law. The national will — the will of the whole people — is their very soul. But this national will is the will of a day only; it is now strong and powerful, now nerveless and languid; enthusiastically active to-day, to-morrow passive even unto indolence. This is the reason why at times these high authorities seem gifted with irresistible energy, coining from the impulse and the faith of a whole people, and at other times, on account of the indifference of the public, seem entirely at the mercy of the weakness and egoism of the individuals of whom they are composed. Public organization in France is wanting in