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constitutions that France has had since the Revolution. The constitution in
these countries is the basis of public law; it is usually enacted or adopted
with special formalities; special processes are devised for its amendment
and sometimes safeguards are inserted to ensure that certain provisions are
unalterable.
English Constitution. In England there is no one document or
fundamental body of law that can be described as a 'constitution" in the
sense that has been discussed above. The absence of any such document or
of any distinction between public and private law has led to the suggestion
(perhaps first made by Alexis de Tocqueville) that there is no constitution
in England.
A thousand years ago, before the Norman Conquest in 1066, the
Anglo-Saxon kings consulted the Great Council (an assembly on the
leading men from each district) before taking major decisions. Between
1066 and 1215 the king ruled alone, but in 1215 the nobles forced King
John to accept 'Magna Cart' (The Great Charter) which took away some of
the kings powers. In later centuries this was seen as the first occasion on
which the king was forced to take advice.
In 1264 the first parliament of nobles met together. Since then
British Constitution has evolved, in other words, it has grown up slowly,
as a result of countless Acts of Parliament.
There have been no violent changes in the constitution since the
"bloodless revolution' of 1688. Then, Parliament invited William and
Mary to become Britain's first constitutional monarchs. A constitutional
monarch is one who can rule only with the support of Parliament. The Bill
of Rights (1689) was the first legal step towards constitutional monarchy.
This Bill prevented the monarch from making laws or raising an
army without Parliament's approval. Since 1869 the power of Parliament
has grown steadily, while the power of the monarch has weakened. The
Reform Acts of 1832, 1867 and 1884 gave the vote to large numbers of
male citizens. Certainly the English constitution has no existence apart
from the ordinary law; it is indeed part of that very law. "Magna Cart",
"The Petition of Right Act, "The Habeas Corpus Act, "The Bill of Rights",
and ' The Act of Settlement' are the leading enactments.
But they are in no sense a constitutional code; and, without a host of
judicial decisions, scores of other statutes of much less importance, and a
mass of custom and convention, these statutes would be unworkable.

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