Page:Studies in constitutional law Fr-En-US (1891).pdf/176

168 they appeal only to the reasoning powers. But after all it is wise to have recourse to them when one is deprived of the other guarantees derived from custom. French constitution makers, therefore, have done the work of logicians, engineers, and artists. Logic is the soul of their creations. Finally, as all the ancient powers were destroyed or hated, it was impossible to fall back upon their practice or refer to their precedents for anything which was not provided for by express rule. It was thought necessary to afresh, and to fix everything in conformity with principle. This is why the Articles of the earlier French Constitutions aim at being encyclopedic as well as systematic. And ever since the public law of France, following this precedent, has continued to be inordinately explicit and scrupulously literal. There is a maxim which has remained true under all the successive régimes in France, viz., that all rights must be recorded in writing; that no right can come into existence without a document to attest it, or be annulled without express abolition. There is no country where the feeling for customary law is more blunted than in France, or where the virtue of leaving things to be understood is less appreciated. Nor is there any country where there is a greater dislike to the idea of an equity, which, while preserving the form, changes the substance of written law.

It is due to the nature of sovereignty in England and the United States that these countries have escaped from the despotism of logic. We have