THE PROPOSED CHANGE IN THE CONSTITUTION.
[To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECT1201/.1 SIR,—The reductio ad absurdum to which you bring the argu- ment in your article last week on " The King and the Constitu- tion"—that a great revolution must be accomplished in haste and muddle merely because Mr. Redmond says it must be so— seems to be reached by a strictly logical process. The possi- bility of being able to arrive at such an obviously ridiculous conclusion would appear to come from a wilful confusing of ideas on the part of some of the leading members of the Cabinet, thus making it difficult for their less enlightened followers in the country, to whom they appeal, to grasp the true principles of democratic government as exhibited in its best examples. The doctrine of the bare majority for all purposes is regarded as a prime heresy in such systems of government, a clear distinction being marked between what may be described as lesser and greater changes, between changes in ordinary laws and changes in the Constitution ; otherwise there could be no stability, each party as it came into power being able to rig the Constitution to suit its own convenience. In the United States Constitution, probably the best specimen of a democratic Constitution in the world, or, at any rate, the one most nearly akin in sentiment to our own, very special precau- tions are set down to guard against a dislocation of government following the ordinary swing of the pendulum. These pre- cautions are divided into two sections : first, leave to propose a change must be granted by a two-thirds majority, and then the proposed change can only be effected by a three fourths majority. I do not remember to have seen during the course of the present discussion this pernicious doctrine of the bare majority, as put forth in the name of democracy by the Cabinet, exposed. If you, Sir, would develop this argument and expand it, I think it could be shown that a solution of the present difficulties could be found in that direction by those to whom falls the responsible duty of guarding our British Constitution.
.Iiymm Rectory, Cheshire.
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