44 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 



Great Britain. I think the absolute reverse of all 

 this is the truth. 



In Great Britain the political institutions of the 

 country are indefinite, unwritten, unfixed, without a 

 positive stand-point any where, shifting from day to 

 day; consisting, in form, of Kings, Lords, and Com 

 mons, without any visible lines of limitation between 

 them, and resolved to-day into an omnipotent Parlia 

 ment, one branch of w r hich, the House of Commons, 

 arrogates to itself the character of a constituent na 

 tional convention to impose on King and Lords any 

 change in the national institutions it sees fit, and as 

 suming to itself the function, by means of a quasi 

 committee of its body, to control absolutely the ad 

 ministration, both foreign and domestic, of Great 

 Britain. 



This quasi committee of the House of Commons, 

 to be sure, has associated with it another quasi com 

 mittee of the House of Lords: which, all together, 

 formerly called Ministers of the Crown, now take to 

 themselves, in the very text of treaties as well as in 

 domestic affairs, the revolutionary title of the &quot; Brit 

 ish Government.&quot; 



But, while the theoretical power of the Crown is 

 nominally exercised by a joint committee of both 

 Houses of Parliament, it is vested, in fact, in the com 

 mittee of the House of Commons, w r hich, upon all oc 

 casions, whether of ordinary administrative matters 

 or of the frequently recurring radical changes in the 

 political institutions of the country, constantly and 

 loudly defies and overbears the House of Lords. 



