A written constitution ?
Sir : I have read Mr Lewis's article on the advantages of a written constitution (8 March'). During the last two centuries, political events in countries enjoying a written set of rules seem to have proved that the system should not be trusted too far. Anyway, I wonder if the best course would not be, if one is anxious to protect the citizen against the 'powers that be,' to start from the citizen himself and not from the other end of the scale. In other words, the strongest guarantees might well be the stability of the currency, simple and clear rules in such matters as expropriation and detention before trial, and the reduction of the cost of litigation when a private person seeks a remedy against an administrative decision. But. no solution is foolproof: if a few slogans repeated ad nauseam through mass media of communication blind the voters to the dangers, as far, as freedom is concerned, of the destruction of private property, of the boundless increase of population and of the elimination, of what Montesquieu called les corps intermediaires, they have every chance of reaching the 'servile state.'
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