44 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 



Great Britain. I think tLe 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 omnijootent Parlia- 

 ment, one brancli of which, the House of Commons, 

 arroirates to itself the character of a constituent na- 

 tioual 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 wath 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 " Bi'it- 

 ish Government." 



But, w^hile the theoretical power of the Crown is 

 nominally exercised b}^ a joint committee of both 

 Houses of Parliament, it is vested, in ftxct, in the com- 

 mittee of the House of Commons, wdiich, njoou all oc- 

 casions, wdiether 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. 



