ility of the proposed changes shall be submitted as a clear
issue. The principle, broadly stated, is that Parliament ought to
exercise in any important matter its constituent powers only under the
sanction of direct popular mandate. It was essentially in deference to
this principle that the elections of December, 1910, turning squarely
upon the issue of the reform of the House of Lords, were ordered.
Thus, while in numerous continental countries the distinction between
constituent and legislative functions is being nowadays somewhat
relaxed, in Great Britain there is distinctly a tendency to establish
in a measure a differentiation in this matter which long has been in
practice non-existent.

[Footnote 56: "In England the Parliament has an
acknowledged right to modify the constitution; as,
therefore, the constitution may undergo perpetual
changes, it does not in reality exist (_elle
n'existe point_); the Parliament is at once a
legislative and a constituent assembly." OEuvres
Completes; I., 166-167.]

[Footnote 57: Lowell, Government of England, I.,
2.]

In effect, every measure of Parliament, of whatsoever nature and under
whatsoever circumstances enacted, is "constitutional," in the sense
that it is legally valid and enforceable. When an Englishman asserts
of a measure that it is unconstitutional he means only that it is
inconsistent with a previous enactment, an established usage, the
principles of international law, or the commonly accepted standards of
morality. Such a measure, if passed in due form by Parliament, becomes
an integral part of the law of the land, and as such will be enforced
by the courts. There is no means by which it may be rendered of no
effect, save repeal by the same or a succeeding parliament. In
England, as in European countries generally, the judicial tribunals
are endowed with no power to pass upon the constitutional validity of
legislative acts. Every such act is _ipso facto_ valid, whether it
relates to the most trivial subject of ordinary legislation or to the
organic arrangements of the state; and no person or body, aside from
Parliament itself, possesses a right to override it or to set it
aside.[58]

[Footnote 58: For brief discussions of the general
nature of the English co