divine right of kings, but from the divine right of the people, as set
forth in the sovereign act of giving themselves a Constitution.

How different the power of kings such as these from the power of the
French monarch who in the 18th century declared, "L'Etat, c'est moi"--"I
am the State." He was right. He was sovereign. Sovereignty had to reside
somewhere; and until the people arose and declared that it resided in
them, and expressed that declaration in a formal Constitution, it
continued to reside in the ruler who claimed it.

When, however, in 1787, the thirteen American States "ordained and
established a Constitution" for their Union, then in the modern world the
people came by their own. France quickly followed the example, but as a
result of the wars which followed the world was thrown back into reaction.
Throughout the 19th century, however, the statement of democratic
sovereignty as a fundamental law of the State found expression in
Constitution after Constitution; with the result that now, in modern
practice, the existence of a Constitution is practically identical with a
statement of national sovereignty.

There has hitherto been one chief exception; and that exception is of
striking interest at the present time. For within the British Empire the
theory has been that there is only one sovereign assembly, the Parliament
at Westminster. It is true that the Constitutions of Canada, Australia and
South Africa were each drawn up by Constituent Conventions in the
countries themselves; but by the prevalent theory none of these peoples
were competent to confer these Constitutions upon themselves. They were
not, that is to say, sovereign; and before the Constitutions they devised
therefore could come of effect they had to be passed as Imperial Acts by
the Parliament at Westminster.

Yet that also has now changed. Ireland has wrought the change; and the
deep influence of that change cannot be foretold. For the Dail elected to
pass the Constitution will act, not as a Constituent Convention, but as a
Constituent Assembly. It will not only devise the Constitution, with the
present Constitution before it as a Bill for discussion, but, having
devised it, will prescribe it; and thus, through their elected
representatives, the people of Ireland will have conferred it on
themselves as their Fundamental Law.

That is a sovereign act; and that act will differ in no degree from a
similar act by any other sovereign people.