Page:Studies in constitutional law Fr-En-US (1891).pdf/164

156 political systems always gravitate automatically and rapidly towards unity and homogeneity of powers. The progress of enlightenment and of wisdom are the only resources against this kind of instinct inherent in French institutions. In fact there is no internal and spontaneous action which could be roused in these institutions to oppose the strong current which carries them on in their accustomed path.

In England, all the foreground of the political scene is occupied by ancient corporate bodies, national or local, which, on account of their greatness and their cohesion, have secured a basis of their own within the body of the nation, halfway between the individual and the state. Almost up to our own times the English nation has never conceived of itself as independent or distinct from these bodies. Sovereignty belonged now to the Crown, now to the Lords, now to the Commons, and because it was attracted by each of these permanent and powerful bodies in turn, it was never ascribed to the whole collective body of individual citizens. In English constitutional law up to a very recent time, the word “people “did not mean the whole body of persons making up the British State, it was an accepted equivalent for the three great sovereign powers taken together, viz., King, Lords, and Commons. Compared to these great and permanent powers, the changing and insignificant body of citizens sinks to nothing. In the eye of the English Constitution the citizens as individuals do not attain to political rights, such rights are vested in the three members of the sovereign body, or in corporations as old