From this, however, one last
consideration follows; and, though it is simple, it is not usually
remembered. For if the passing of a Constitution is an act of full
sovereignty, and if that Constitution, being a Fundamental Law, restricts
and limits all future law-making, then the assemblies to come which will
pass those future laws will not be sovereign.

They will not be able to do what they will, and they will not be able to
act as they will, for they must obey the requirements and act within the
limits of the Constitution, as prescribed by the first Assembly, which
alone was of full sovereignty. For this reason every nation has gone to
great care to choose persons of special competence for the body which is
to act as a Constituent Assembly--the body, indeed, which is to act as the
first, and, so long as that Constitution shall remain, the last Sovereign
Assembly of the nation. The act of prescribing a Constitution being the
highest act that a nation can make, care has always been taken to make it
the fullest and the freest. For, once done, it cannot be undone, except at
great trouble, and perhaps as the result of great convulsion.

II.

THE PLAN OF THE CONSTITUTION.

To draw up a plan is almost inevitably to express a philosophy. In shaping
the sequence and proportion of the parts which are to comprise the whole,
the trick of the mind will out; and it is in that trick of the mind that,
ultimately, all philosophies are contained. Perhaps there are few who,
after consideration, would deny this in all the ordinary (greater or
lesser) concerns of life; but many will think it strange in a matter so
dry as the drafting of a Constitution. Yet even in the drafting of a
Constitution it will be found equally true.

A Constitution may be likened to a pyramid, the apex of which is the
Executive Authority, and the base the People. The first question that
therefore at once arises is, where shall one begin first with this
pyramid? But before this question can be answered, another must first be
met; and it is, whether the base is hung from the apex, or whether the
apex rests on the base? What relation has the Executive Authority (whether
kingly, presidential or consular) to the People, and the People to the
Executive Authority; and which, names and titles apart, is ultimately the
Sovereign? These are ripe questions; and only in the making of the plan
can they be answered.

I have already shewn that the writing of a Constituti