European Constitutional History, or the Origin and Development of the Governments of Modern Europe

Excerpt from European Constitutional History, or the Origin and Development of the Governments of Modern Europe: From the Fall of the Western Roman Empire to the Close of the Nineteenth Century

He who would study constitutional law must look through the whole history of a people. Sometimes changes in a constitution are written by gleaming bayonets amid the ?ashes of musketry, and are promulgated by the deafening roar of artillery; but more frequently they are to be sought in the gradual uplift of the toiling millions, or in the steady expansion of commerce and increase of manufacture through the exertions of enterprising mer chants and bold adventurers, or in the new development of the forces of nature under the genius of the inventor and the penetrating mind of the scientist. However brought about, they enter into the life and customs and laws of the people, and become the fundamental standard by which individual conduct, and legislative enactment, and official action are to be judged.

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