The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-01-28

fessor Dicey well says:
"A man may be punished for breach
of law, but he can be punished fol
nothing else,'' it is hard to imagine 6
resort to civil war to redress grievances
but it was an effectual guarantee
adapted to that rude civilization.
We cannot stop here to consider the
revocations, re-enactments, modifca-
lions and combinations of the great
charter; neither can we take up in de-
tail the circumstances that produced
the petition of right or the bill OF
rights, but these three, to borrow ar
apt phrase from Lord Chatham, may be
called 1.-The Bible of the English Consti-
tution.''
The simile is opposite because they
are the principal written parts of the
constitution.
The general fabric of the constitution
resembles in its responsiveness the COM
mon law.
In it's cardinal principles the English
constitution requires a government by an
hereditary, limited monarchy, and a
representative parliament, summoned
of the whole realm, consisting of the
peers and the elective representatives
of the commons.
The king in parliament, consisting OF
the lords, spiritual and temporal, and
the commons, comprise the government
and the fountain of all power.
Without the sanction of parliament,
no law can be made or changed and no
tax imposed.
The first recognition of the lords and
commons was the great assembly at
Salisbury in 1910, where all the land
owners of England became the men of
the conqueror.
The rights of the hereditary peers are
founded in the right there conceded to
be summoned to every great assembly,
and participate in the councils of state.
But the birth of the house of commons
was 200 years later when the rebel Earl
Simon de Montfort overthrow his
0rn h in Ia l.
moned an assembly which met in Lon
don, Jan. Both, 1865. This assembly
formed the basis for the modern Eng
ish parliament.
In the reign of the Third Edward par
lament began to assume it's present
form and constitution, and about the
year 1877 we find the first mention of
the speaker of the house of commons.
1t was then in fact what it is now on
ly in name, the lower house.
But the power of the Commons grew
apace. Their right to grant taxes cas-
lily grew into the right to initiate all
money bills and supplies, and a stop
page of supplies became the most pow
erfuI engine for the redress of griev-
ances.
In natural sequence of their right to
participate in all legislation, came the
right of liberty of speech and immunl-
ty from arrest. Then followed the re-
cognition of their right of impeachment
of all great officers and ministers of
n.
development of the English constitu-
ton.
The Impeachment of the royal favor
ite Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk
in 1886, was great victory over Rlch. :.
ard II. 1t was a mighty acquisition of
power, and a precedent which was
freely followed then, but rarely exercis-
ed in modern times.
The exclusive power of impeachment
resides in the commons, the power to
try impeachments in the house of lords
This is the highest criminal judicature
under the English constitution.
For the student of political philoso-
Dhv there is no more profitable study
than the growth and development of
the English parliament during the last
500 years.
Formerly it was the province of par
lament to petition the king, but now
that parliament is the real sovereign
and all moving power for the public
veal flows from the king in parlla-
ment," all petitions are addressed TO
parliament.
The term, "the king in parliament"
implies that the reigning monarch is
one of the component parts of parlia-
ment, in it's broadcast acceptation, and
is necessary to complete the sovereign
governing power of the realm
AS at present constituted, parliament
is divided into two houses, the lords
and the commons.
They are housed in the imposing new
age of nearly 1000 feet upon the
Thames; built in the late Gothic or
perpendicular style, at cost OF more
than Is million dollars, said to contain
I, 100 apartments, and altogether Devil
dering in its magnif1cence.
The upper house, SO-called. consists
of the peers, who sit by hereditary right
or by creation by the sovereign, or py
virtue of office. as the English bishops,
or bv election for life, as the Irish peers
or by election for each parliament as
the Scotch peers.
They number about $50. They rep
resent the landed aristocracy. They are
possessed of vast inherited wealth.
which most of them do not increase by
use.
Among the hereditary peers are many
of the most ordinary intelligence, VINO
if stripped of their rank and wealth.
would be nowhere in the survival OF the
fttest.
They have always possessed and will
always possess a few Of the greatest
scholars, the brightest lawyers, the
wisest judges and the broadcast and
safest statesmen of the nation
They excel in conservatism. They
are not, as a body, eager pontlclahs-
They are, as a body, inclined to be apa-
No hereditary chamber can be of a
high average ability. The eldest son,
however stupid, inherits the peerage.
The Youngest son of the same family
NAV become the leader of the house OF
commons. The one will continue to be
an ass by divine right. The other
marked man among men, by his own
merit.
Nevertheless. let no man, who does
not know. condemn the house of lords.
It's conservatism is the best balance
wheel in the English constitution.
It is a house of revision, not OF veto.
In any struggle with the commons where
the latter are backed by public senti-
nent. the lords must finally yield.
1t has no such deadlock power as our
senate If the country demands a
measure and the commons pass it and
send it up, the lords may send it back
once. twice, thrice; meantime public
sentiment crystalizes; the first white
heat cooIs off: a few months of discus
Put if the