CURRENT LITERATURE.
The British Constitution. By Jesse Macy, M.A. (Macmillan and Co. 8s. 6d. net.)—Professor Macy has studied his subject in books and by personal observation, the latter extended to a period of eighteen months in all. Written in the first instance for American readers, the book may be studied by Englishmen with no small advantage. Professor Macy is neither an Anglophobe nor an Anglomaniac. He sees our merits and our defects with the same keenness of insight, and he is not blindly prejudiced in favour of the American method of government. Criticism, it will be understood, is not his object, though it incidentally becomes necessary. He describes and compares. We have failed to observe more than one error, though, of course, we cannot pro- fess to accept all his estimates. It is only with an important limitation that in the House of Lords "three Members constitute a quorum for doing business." Practically this quorum is for uncontentious business only. If a division is called, and the numbers given in by the tellers come to less than thirty, there is no result ; the question must come up again. One important distinction between the two countries is concisely put in the sentence : "The English courts protect the citizen against the Executive; the American against the Legislature." We want something of the kind sadly in this country. An Act of Parlia- ment does a wrong, it may be unintentionally, to a class of citizens, and the thing cannot be put right. Professor Macy occupies a large part of his volume with an interesting historical survey of the growth of the British Constitution.
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