Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Blackstone Concerning the British Constitution

Keep in mind that here, he refers to the British Constitution, which is not to say that the statement is not true of the American Constitution:

“But the constitutional government of this island is so admirably tempered and compounded, that nothing can endanger or hurt it, but destroying the equilibrium of power between one branch of the legislature and the rest.  For if ever it should happen that the independence of any one of the three should be lost, or that it should become subservient to the views of either of the two, there would soon be an end of our constitution.  The legislature would be changed from that, which was originally set up by the general consent and fundamental act of the society; and such a change, however effected, is according to Mr. Locke (who perhaps carries his theory too far) at once an entire dissolution of the bands of government; and the people would be reduced to a state of anarchy, with liberty to constitute to themselves a new legislative power.”

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