law than a vote in the legislature.  There is also, no doubt, a disposition to distrust legislatures and in some measure do their work for them by direct popular enactment.  For such reasons some recent state constitutions have come almost to resemble bodies of statutes.  Mr. Woodrow Wilson suggestively compares this kind of popular legislation with the Swiss practice known as the Referendum; in most of the Swiss cantons an important act of the legislature does not acquire the force of law until it has been referred to the people and voted on by them.  “The objections to the, referendum,” says Mr. Wilson, “are, of course, that it assumes a discriminating judgment and a fullness of information on the part of the people touching questions of public policy which they do not often possess, and that it lowers the sense of responsibility on the part of legislators.” [8] Another serious objection to our recent practice is that it tends to confuse the very valuable distinction between a constitution and a body of statutes, to necessitate a frequent revision of constitutions, and to increase the cumbrousness of law-making.  It would, however, be premature at the present time to pronounce confidently upon a practice of such recent origin.  It is clear that its tendency is extremely democratic, and that it implies a high standard of general intelligence and independence among the people.  If the evils of the practice are found to outweigh its benefits, it will doubtless fall into disfavour.

[Footnote 7:  See Henry Hitchcock’s admirable monograph, American State Constitutions, p. 19.]

[Footnote 8:  Wilson.  The State, p. 490.]

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT.  What is to be said with regard to the following topics?

I. A power above the legislature:—­

a.  The constitution. b.  The relation of the courts to laws that violate the constitution. c.  The importance of this relation. d.  The American origin of the written constitution.

2.  The germs of the idea of a written constitution:—­

  a.  The theory of a “social contract.”
  b.  The objection to this theory.
  c.  Roman origin of the idea of contract.

3.  Mediaeval charters:—­

a.  The charter of a town. b.  The word charter. c.  Magna Charta. d.  The difference between a charter and a constitution. e.  The form of Magna Charta as contrasted with its essential nature.

4.  Documents somewhat resembling written constitutions:—­

  a.  The Declaration of Rights.
  b.  The Bill of Rights.

5.  The foreshadowing of the American idea of written constitutions:—­

a.  Two conditions especially notable in England in the seventeenth
century.
  b.  The influence of these conditions on popular views of government.
  c.  The “Instrument of Government.”
  d.  Sir Harry Vane’s proposition.
  e.  Why allude to Vane’s scheme when nothing came of it?