MANY . English readers who - suppose that "the Fundamental Law of
the American Constitution stands out unshaken like a Rock of Gibraltar in the midst of a changing world" will be surprised to discover, from Mr. Ilorwill's interesting and valuable treatise, how much the Constitution of 1787. has been
. . modified not merely by amendments and statutes but also by usages or conventions. The Vice-president becomes President, on the death of the elected President during his term of office, merely by custom and not by virtue of the Constitution. The Presidential electors, whose constitutional duty it is to make their own choice of a President, are mere dummies—by usage. No President who has served two terms may stand again as candidate, at any rate for a third consecutive term ; and this again is a mere usage. Mr. Horwill enlarges on the ill-effects of another convention, outside the Constitution, by which a candidate for Congress must live in the district for which he stands. As Lord Acton remarked : "If ten statesmen live in the same street, nine will be thrown out of work " ; and the tenth has to keep his seat by assiduous attention to local demands for State or Federal grants-in-aid.
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