66 they can be brought before a magistrate." The Municipal Corporations Act contains a similar but less comprehensive provision, authorising any constable appointed under that Act, while on duty, to apprehend all idle and disorderly persons within the borough whom he shall find disturbing the public peace, or whom he shall have just cause to suspect of intention to commit a felony." Besides these specific authorities, however, which apply only to the metropolitan police district and the boroughs affected by the Municipal Corporations Act, there is no doubt that in general a constable, by virtue of his common-law authority, may stop any person carrying by night a bundle or goods under circumstances of reasonable suspicion; and if, upon examining him, his suspicions are not removed, he may detain him in his custody. A constable has also a general authority to apprehend for offences against the Vagrant Act, 4 & 5 Geo. IV., c. 83, or against the Larceny Act or the Malicious Injuries Act, 7 & 8 Geo. IV., c. 29 and 30. In the execution of a warrant a constable acts no longer as a conservator of the peace, but as a ministerial officer to the magistrate who signs it. He is the proper officer to a justice of the peace, and is bound by law to execute his warrants, and may be indicted for disobeying them. It is his duty to execute the warrant of a magistrate as soon as it comes to his hands; and where he arrests or distrains, or does any other act within his precinct, though it is not absolutely necessary by law that he should show his warrant, he ought always to give notice of it, and he will be wise to produce it in all cases where it is demanded. If, however, he act out of his precinct, or be not sworn and commonly known, he must show his warrant if demanded; but as the warrant constitutes his justification, he is not required to part with it out of his possession. If the constable has a legal warrant to arrest for felony, or even breach of the peace, he may break open doors after having demanded admittance and given notice of his warrant; and if, after such notice, he is resisted and killed, it will be murder If a warrant be directed to a constable by his name of office merely, he is authorised by the 5 Geo. IV., c. 18, to the same extent as when the warrant is addressed to him by his own personal name, to execute it out of his own constablewick, provided it be within the jurisdiction of the magistrate who signs it; but he is not bound to do so, and may in all cases make his election whether he will go beyond his own precincts or not. 5. The law has made several provisions for the indemnity and protection of constables in the proper discharge of their duty. Thus by the Stat. 7 Jac. I., e 5, if an action be brought against a constable for anything done by virtue of his office, he may plead the general issue and give the special matter in evidence; and if he recovers, he is entitled, by the 5 & 6 Vict., c. 97, to full costs. Formerly if a magis trate granted a warrant in a matter over which he had no jurisdiction, the officer who executed it was liable to an action of trespass for so doing; but by the 24 Geo. II., c. 44, s. 6, it is enacted that no action shall be brought against any constable for anything done in obedience to the warrant of a justice of the peace, unless he has neglected or refused to show his warrant on being required so to do. And if, after he has shown his warrant, any action is brought against the constable alone, without joining the justice who signed the warrant, the defendant, on producing the warrant at the trial, is entitled to a verdict, notwithstanding the defect of the justice's jurisdiction; and if the action be brought against the constable jointly with the justice, the constable is entitled to a verdict on proof of the warrant. By the 8th sect of the same statute, all actions against constables for anything done in the execution of their office must be brought within six months For the further protection of constables, the stat. 9 Geo. IV. c. 31, s. 25, enacts that persons convicted of assaults upon peace-officers in the due execution of their duty may be imprisoned with hard labour for two years, and be fined or required to find sureties for keeping the peace. For the guidance of the metropolitan police force, the commissioners deliver to each of the men printed directions, which contain an accurate and perspicuous summary of the laws relating to the duties, liabilities, and indemnities of constables. In those boroughs which have adopted a new system of police under the Municipal Corporations Act, similar codes of instruction have been issued to the constables. (For fuller information upon the whole of this subject, see Viner's Abridgment,' Bacon's Abridgment,' Burn's 'Justice,' title 'Constable,' and Blackstone's Commentaries,' by R. M. Kerr, LL D., vol. i.) CONSTABLE, LORD HIGH, OF SCOTLAND. In the 12th century we find the office in possession of Hugh de Morvill, of the family of the De Morvilles, barons of Burgh, co. Cumberland, contemporary with one Edward, Conestabulus; himself constable of Scotland, and the possessor of vast estates in Teviotdale, Lauderdale, Lothian, Clydesdale, and Cuninghame. He died in 1162, and the office was enjoyed by his descendants till it came to John Comyn, earl of Buchan, who was deprived of it in the year 1308 for his adherence to the Balio interest. Sir Gilbert de Hay, of Errol, was then made constable of Scotland during pleasure; and in 1311 the office was bestowed on David de Strathbogie, earl of Athol, in like manner during pleasure; but he being soon afterwards outlawed for espousing the cause of Baliol, Sir Gilbert de Hay, before mentioned, got the office in fee and heritage in the year 1314; since which time the constable's staff. then put into his hands by Bruce, has remained in the Errol f mily. The office and jurisdiction of the lord high constable of Scotland differ from those of the like officer in England. No formal distribution of the powers of the lord justiciar of Scotland, such as took place at the breaking up of the aula regis of England, was ever made in the former kingdom; nor when in the course of years this happened, did the once large powers of the justiciar pass to the like officers in the one country as in the other. On the new modelling of the judicial polity of England by King Edward I., the constable and mareschal were set over a court of chivalry, with jurisdiction in matters of honour and arms. But in these, the constable of Scotland never had jurisdiction. His jurisdiction was of the nature of that in England, vested by 33 Henry VIII. c. 12, in the lord steward of the king's household, or (in his absence) of the treasurer, comptroller, and steward of the marshalsea; for according to the Leges Malc. II., he judged jointly with the mareschal in all transgressions committed within certain limits of the king's court. But even this jurisdiction seems to have been exercised in fact by the lord justiciar; the constable only protesting against the interference with his powers. In the reign of King Charles I. a commission was issued to inquire into the nature and extent of the constable's jurisdiction; and they reported that it extended to all slaughters and riots committed within four miles of the king's person, or of the parliament or privy council. No alteration was made at the Union; and by the act 20 Geo. II. c 43-which swept away so many other heritable jurisdictions- the office and jurisdiction of the lord high constable of Scotland were expressly reserved. CONSTANCE, COUNCIL OF. [COUNCILS OF THE CHURCH.] CONSTANT, a quantity which remains the same throughout a problem. Thus in the question, required that point of a circle which is at a given distance from a given straight line, the radius of the circle is a constant. If the problem require the use of twenty different points of the circle, the radius is the same for all. A constant may be determinate, or it may be indeterminate or arbitrary. Thus the proportion between the circumference and diameter of a circle is a determinate constant, being 355 to 113 very nearly; but in the problem, required the relation which exists between the abscissa and ordinate of a circle, the radius of that circle is an arbitrary constant. The term constant is frequently applied to any remarkable or very necessary number which enters a question, as follows: By the constant of aberration is meant that one constant by the determination of which the aberration is obtained from its known laws at any given time; in this case it is the maximum aberration, or about 204". [ABERRATION.] Thus we have the constant of nutation, the constant of friction, &c. Nothing is more common in mathematical works than the term variation of constants, which appears a contradiction. But its meaning is as follows: A quantity which upon one supposition would remain constant, becomes variable by the introduction of another supposition. Thus, taking into account the earth's attraction only, the longitude of the moon's node is constant; but by the attraction of the sun and planets, its place is slowly changed. In this case one of the constants is said to vary. CONSTELLATION (a putting together of stars), the name of one of those groups of stars into which the whole heavens are divided, and to each of which is imagined to belong the figure of a man, an animal, or some other object, natural or artificial. The history of the constellations is a matter of mythological antiquity, the most curious features of which are connected with the twelve signs or constellations of the ZODIAC, or the sun's apparent yearly track. It is sufficient for us here to say, that it is certain we derive our constellations for the most part from the Greeks, and that it is nearly as certain that they derived them from the East, though it is highly probable that they altered the legends to suit their own mythology, and in some instances even the figures. Their firmament, if it confined itself to recording the vast and striking events of their mythic system, as in Argo or Hercules, might bear an external presumption of originality, which it wants altogether while so prominent a constellation as the Great Bear represents nothing but the unimportant and irrelevant story of Callisto. But while we are just in possession of sufficient knowledge to deny the original formation of the constellations to the Greeks, and perhaps even to the Egyptians, we have not enough to say in what nation they were first constructed. The method of figuring the constellations, though in many instances it gives groups which are striking to the naked eye, is one of the worst which could have been invented for the modern purposes of astronomy. A dragon winding round three-quarters of the globe, and a man extending his arms and legs between half a dozen other figures, cannot connect their included stars in any manner which will lead to useful combinations. So that in our modern catalogues, though A Draconis and z Draconis are said to be in the same constellation, the connection is purely one of names, and suggests no ideas of relative position. There are even instances in which stars bearing the name of one constellation are situated in another. We shall proceed to describe the methods by which the stars in a constellation are distinguished, and the plan we have adopted in the present work. The letters of Bayer are generally adopted for all the stars in his maps. The stars were ranged by him in order of brilliancy, as they appeared to the naked eye, about the year 1600 The Greek letters were first used, and afterwards the Italic small letters. This, a is the most brilliant star in a constellation according to Bayer while p, q, &c., are comparatively faint. Other astronomers have since carried on the There are many other constellations formed by different individuals; but these are not now generally admitted. Such are the Antinous of Tycho Brahé; the Mons Mænalus and Cerberus of Hevelius; the Oak of Charles II. and the Cor Caroli of Halley; the Table Mountain and the Nubecula Major and Minor of Lacaille (the latter being not clusters of distinct stars, but large nebula); the Reindeer of Lemonnier; the Reaper of Lalande; the Honours of Frederic, the Sceptre of Brandenburgh, Herschel's Telescope, the Balloon, the Mural Quadrant, the Cat, and the Log Line of Bode; and George's Harp of Hell. Many others, we believe, have been proposed, but there would be little use in reviving their names. In fact, half a century ago, no astronomer seemed comfortable in his position till he had ornamented some little cluster of stars of his own picking with a name of his own making. In the large maps of the stars, published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, the constellations are figured precisely as described by Ptolemy, and the additional ones are not drawn, which will therefore render them useful to the readers of Greek astronomical works. CONSTIPATION, an undue retention or an imperfect evacuation of the fæces. The alimentary canal, considered physiologically, may be divided into two portions; one appropriated to the conversion of the aliment into nutriment, and the other appropriated, among other functions, to the separation and discharge of the refuse inatter of the aliment. The first constitutes the apparatus of digestion, and the second that of fæcation. Independently of the org ins appropriated to the performance of the preparatory operations of prehension, mastication, insalivation, and deglutition, the apparatus proper to digestion consists of the stomach, the duodenum or the second stomach, the jejunum, and the ileum, the three latter portions of the alimentary canal forming the small intestines. It is in these great digestive chambers that the by which the multifarious substances taken as food are converted into an homogeneous substance analogous in its composition to the blood. The requisite changes on the food are effected partly by secretions formed by the walls of the digestive chambers themselves, and partly by secretions elaborated by distinct organs and conveyed into the digestive chambers by separate tubes. These auxiliary organs are the pancreas and the liver, the fluids secreted by which perform a most important pa t in the function of digestion. The chyle, the ultimate result of the action of these digestive fluids, is absorbed, as it is formed, by a set of vessels termed the lacteals, spread out upon the walls more especially of the jejunum and ileum, upon the surface of which they take their origin by open mouths. The numbering of Piazzi is on a different and inferior principle. The whole heavens being divided into twenty-four hours of right ascension, the stars are numbered in their respective hours of right ascension. For instance, (303) Can. Maj. is, according to Piazzi, a star in Canis Major, not the 303rd of that constellation, but the 303rd of the hour of right ascension in which it fell in the year 1800, count-processes of chymification and chylification are performed; processes ing the first star of the catalogue which passed after the sidereal clock had marked the hour as 1, the second star as 2, &c., and affixing to each the name of the constellation in which it is. If the equinox were fixed, this method would be a good first correction of the vagaries of the constellations; but as it is, some stars which were in one hour of right ascension when Piazzi formed his catalogue are now in another, such as 12 Cancri, 15 Argus, &c., which were in 1830 on the borders of the 7-8 hour of right ascension. But a considerable portion of the substances taken as food is incapable of being converted into chyle; this is separated from the chyle partly in the duodenum, and still more perfectly in the jejunum and In most other catalogues, such as those of Bradley, Lacaille, Mayer, Fallows, &c., the stars are usually numbered in their order from the beginning of the catalogue, the order being that of right ascension. The recognised makers of constellations are Aratus, Ptolemy, Bayer, Hevelius, and Lacaille. But Tycho Brahé, Lemonnier, and Poczobut have each added one constellation in the following list, and Halley two. The names without any letter are all in Aratus. (Remember, however, that Libra is only the claws of the Scorpion, both in Aratus and Pto-ileum, as it flows over the walls of these extended chambers. Morelemy) [LIBRA.]_Three additional ones in Ptolemy's Catalogue are denoted by P. Bayer's by B.; Hevelius's by H.; Lacaille's by L.; Tycho Brahe's by T.; Halley's by Ha.; Lemonnier's by Le.; and Poczobut's by Po. The Avis Indica of Bayer. [Correct Apis Indica in BAYER, BIOG. Div.] Crater is a separate constellation in Ptolemy. The neighbouring stars on the body of Hydra were considered by Flamsteed as part of this constellation. This is the Apis of Bayer, called Musca by Lacaille; there is, however, a over, a considerable portion of the digestive fluids themselves does not enter into the composition of the chyle, but is separated from it and mixed with the refuse matter of the food. Again, the whole extent of the alimentary canal, from its commencement to its termination, is lined with a miembrane which secretes a peculiar fluid, termed mucus. This fluid which defends the delicate and sensitive vessels that are crowded on every point of the digestive chambers, and which maintains those chambers in a state of suppleness and moisture, is constantly formed, removed, and renewed. That portion of it which has served its office, and which has become effete, is mixed with the refuse matter of the aliment and of the digestive fluids. All these substances mixed together in a common mass are transmitted to the second portion of the alimentary canal, which consists of the large intestines; namely, the cæcum, the colon, and the rectum, by the operation of which the second part of the digestive function, that termed fæcation, is performed. This function consists of two processes; first, of that by which the common mass of excrementitious substances is brought into a state fit for its discharge from the body; and secondly of that by which a force is generated adequate to e:fect its discharge. The chief agent by which these substances are brought into a state fit for their discharge is the bile. [BILE; in NAT. HIST. DIV.] The agent by which their actual discharge is effected is the muscular coat of the intestines, which is excited to contraction, and thereby to the generation of the force requisite to the accomplishment of the object, by the stimulus of the bile. It is obvious, then, that the matters to be discharged from the alimentary canal do not consist, as is vulgarly supposed, merely of the reuse portion of the food: this constitutes only a small part of those matters; an essential part of it consists of the refuse matter of secretions which have performed most important offices in the economy. There is manifest in the performance of certain functions of the body a tendency to periodicity. The most remarkable of these are the return, at regular periods, of the necessity for sleep, of the appetite for food, and of the command to remove from the body the excrementitious matters prepared in the alimentary canal. Whatever may have first constellation Musca, formed by Bode, we believe, and situated close to Aries, led to the formation of these habits, and however they may be varied the stars of which are usually considered as belonging to Aries. A part of Aquila in Aratus. Only one in Aratus and Ptolemy. Another added by Hevelius. by circunstances which operate at an early period of life, they cannot, after having been once formed, be materially and frequently interrupted without danger to the health. The interruption of one of these habits by the retention of the faces beyond a determinate period, namely, the period of twenty-four hours, constitutes the disease termed constipation; a disease often disregarded, generally considered of little importance, always productive of mischief, and very frequently terminating in a fatal result. The slighter degrees of constipation, when, as is sometimes the case, they are attended with no appreciable disturbance of any function, can scarcely be considered as morbid; but, in general, a retention of the fæces beyond the period of twenty-four hours, is attended with manifest disorder. This disorder is commonly increased in proportion as the retention is protracted beyond that determinate period, and in proportion to the frequency with which such retention recurs. The amount of the disorder thus induced is, however, a good deal influenced by constitutional peculiarity; for there are individuals whose fæcal evacuations are not more frequent than once a week, or once a fortnight, or even once in three weeks. Such an habitual retention of the fæces, in the few cases in which it occurs, generally happens in females who lead a sedentary life, and who take little food and less exercise. The immediate effects of constipation, when this disease occurs in its usual degree, in ordinary habits, is the production of some one or more of those painful states, the signs of which are generally grouped together under the common name of dyspepsia. There is disordered appetite, which is either deficient, capricious, or voracious; a dry, coated, or clammy tongue; thirst, or some disagreeable taste in the mouth; dulness, heaviness, confusion, giddiness, or pain in the head; physical and mental torpor; dry and hot skin; and last, though not least, an irritable temper, and a capricious or a desponding mind. The remote effects of constipation are far more numerous and serious than is commonly understood. It is impossible to enter into a full detail of them in this place. But among the most obvious may be mentioned, the origin of various diseases of the skin. Moreover, headache and giddiness existing as severe and permanent affections, and the distinct diseases called colic [COLIC], chorea [CHOREA], epilepsy, chlorosis, hysteria, hæmorrhoids, and many others, have their most frequent origin in an habitual and protracted retention of the fæces. The usual termination of constipation when severe, frequent, and obstinate, is in inflammation of the intestines, which commonly assumes the form either of ilius [ILIUS] or enteritis [ENTERITIS], and which rapidly proves fatal. There is, without doubt, a greater tendency to constipation in some temperaments than in others; in the melancholic, for example, than in the sanguineous, and in certain individual peculiarities of constitution. But this tendency would appear to be capable of being superinduced by the habitual use of certain kinds of indigestible food; such as imperfectly fermented bread, heavy pastry, as dumplings, &c.; indigestible vegetables, as cucumbers, melons, &c. The tendency thus superinduced may be greatly increased by the use of astringent and stimulating beverages, sedentary habits, long indulgence in sleep, &c. The immediate causes of constipation are: 1. an impaired or torpid action of the liver, in consequence of which there is either a deficient or a vitiated secretion of bile. It has been stated that one portion of the bile [BILE, NAT. HIST. DIV.] mixes as an essential constituent with the chyle, by which the nutritive part of the food is assimilated to the constitution of the blood; the other portion of the bile consists of excrementitious matter, principally of resinous nature. It is this resinous portion of the bile that constitutes the proper stimulus to the colon and rectum, whose office it is, by the contraction of the fibres which form their muscular coat, to remove the fæcal matters from the body. A certain change in the quantity or quality of the bile must therefore necessarily diminish the action of these organs, by depriving them of the stimulus on which their action mainly depends. 2. Torpor of the muscular coat of the alimentary canal itself, and more especially of that portion of it which constitutes the large intestines. 3. The production and accumulation of flatus in these organs, by which their thin parietes are distended, and even a mechanical obstacle is afforded to the passage of the faces. The treatment of constipation should always have in view two objects: 1. The immediate removal of the impacted fæces; and 2. The change of the pathological condition of the system in general, or of the alimentary canal in particular, on which the fæcal retention depends. CONSTITUTION, a term often used by persons at the present day without any precise notion of what it means. Such a definition of a constitution, if it were offered as one, might be defended as equally good with many other definitions or descriptions which are involved in the terms used whenever a constitution is spoken of. The constitutions which are most frequently mentioned are the English constitution, the constitution of the several states composing the North American Union, the federal constitution, by which these same states are bound together, and various constitutions of the European continent, which have hardly been permanent enough to be submitted to an accurate investigation. The vague notion of a constitution is that of certain fundamental rules or laws by which the general form of administration in a given country is regulated, and in opposition to which no other fundamental rules or laws, or any rules or laws, can or ought to be made. The exact notion of a constitution cannot be obtained without first obtaining a notion of sovereign power. The sovereign power in any state is that power from which all laws properly so called proceed; it is that power which commands and can enforce obedience. Such a power, being sovereign or supreme, is subject to no other power, and cannot therefore be bound by any rules laid down, either by those who have at any previous time enjoyed the sovereign power in the same community, or by any maxims or rules of conduct practised or recommended by its predecessors in power, whether those rules or maxims be merely a matter of long usage or solemnly recorded in any written instrument. The sovereign power for the time is supreme, and can make what laws it pleases without doing any illegal act, and, strictly speaking, also, without doing any unconstitutional act. For this word constitution, taken in its strongest sense, can never mean more than a law made or a usage sanctioned by some one or more possessed of sovereign power, which law or usage has for many generations been observed by all those who have successively held the sovereign power in the same country. To modify or destroy such a rule or law might be unwise, as being an act in opposition to that which many successive generations had found to be a wise and useful law; it might be dangerous as being opposed to that to which the prejudices of many generations had given their sanction; and it might lead to resistance on the part of the governed, if either their own interest or their passions were strong enough to lead them to risk a contest with the sovereign power. If (as would generally be admitted) the assembled parliament of Great Britain and Ireland possess the sovereign power, there is no act which they could do which would be illegal, as every body must admit: and further, there is no possible act which they could do which would be unconstitutional, for such act would be no more than repealing some law or usage having the force of law which the mass of the nation regarded with more than usual veneration, or enacting something at variance with such law or usage. For example, if the next assembled parliament should abolish the trial by jury in all cases, except criminal matters, or where the crown is the prosecutor, such an act might be called by some illegal, unconstitutional, and unwise. But it would not be called illegal by any person who had fully examined into the meaning of the word law; it would not be called unconstitutional by any man who, having called it illegal, wished to be consistent with himself: it could only properly be called wise or unwise by those who had reflected sufficiently on the nature of the institution and its operations to know whether such a modification would do more good or harm. The words constitutional and unconstitutional appear to be only strictly applicable to such a case as the following: where the sovereign power being invested in one, or two, or five hundred, or all the males of an independent political community who are above a certain age, or in any other number in such a community, lays down certain rules to regulate the conduct of those to whom the sovereign power intrusts the legislative functions. Such are the Constitutions of the several states composing the North American Union, and such is the Constitution of the Federation of these several states. In these several states the people, in the mass, and as a general rule, are the sovereign. The people assembled by their delegates, named for that especial purpose, have framed the existing Constitutions; and they change the Constitutions in the same way whenever the majority of the people, that is, when the sovereign, chooses to make such change. These Constitutions lay down certain rules, according to which the legislative, executive, and judicial functionaries must be chosen; they fix limits to their several powers, both with respect to one another, and with respect to the individuals who compose the sovereign. They do ordain and declare the future form of government. For example, the Constitution of Virginia of 1776, declares "that all ministers of the Gospel of every denomination shall be incapable of being elected members of either House of Assembly, or of the Privy Council." The same rule, we believe, forms a part of the recently amended Constitution of the same state. If the Virginia legislature were to pass an act to enable clergymen to become members of the House of Assembly or of the Privy Council, such an act would be unconstitutional, and no one would be bound to obey it. The judiciary, if such a matter came before it, would, in the discharge of its duty, declare it unconstitutional, and such co-called law could have no further effect than if any unauthorised body of men had made the rule. A constitution then is nothing more than an act of the sovereign power, by which it delegates a part of its authority to certain persons, or to a body, to be chosen in a way prescribed by Act of Constitution, which at the same time fixes in a general way the powers of the body to which a part of the sovereign power is thus delegated. And the sovereign power changes this Constitution whenever it pleases, and in doing so acts neither constitutionally nor unconstitutionally, but simply exercises its sovereign power. No body can act unconstitutionally but a body which has received authority from a higher power, and acts contrary to the terms which fix that authority. Wherever then there is a sovereign power, consisting either of one, as the Autocrat of Russia, of three members, king, lords, and commons, as in England (provided these three members do possess the complete sovereign power), or of all the males born of American citizens and of a given age, as in most of the United States of North America--such sovereign power cannot act unconstitutionally. For to act unconstitutionally would be to act against a rule imposed by some superior authority, which would be a contradiction. A constitutional government may be either purely democratical, as those of the United States of North America, or it may be republican, that is, a government in which the sovereign power is simply defined as not being held by one person. It may be of such a kind that it shall approach very near to a monarchy, if the king or other head of the state is by the constitution invested with very great powers, or such powers as may enable him to overpower, overawe, or render incapable of action, the other limbs of the Constitution. A constitutional government may be of the aristocratical kind, as England, where the power of the crown is now very limited in practice, and is in effect wielded by the small number who for the time obtain the direction of affairs by means of being able to get a majority of the House of Commons; for this body, though elected by the people, cannot yet be considered as a really popular body. The French king, under the Charter, had greater powers than the English monarch has in fact, though in theory it may seem otherwise. The King of the French presided in his own Cabinet; the English Cabinet deliberates without the presence of the sovereign, whose wishes, in opposition to those of the Cabinet, can never be carried into effect. The Cabinet consists of the responsible ministers; they are the king's servants, but so long as they are in office they act as they please. But whatever variety of form there may be in constitutional govern ments, the essential element to a constitutional government, as here understood, is an assembly of representatives chosen by all the people, or by a considerable proportion of them. This is the body on which a constitutional government depends for its strength, its improvement, and its existence. This is the element out of which ought to come all the ameliorations of the condition of the people which can be effected by legislative measures. The limb or member of a constitutional government, which is composed either of hereditary peers, or of peers named for life by a king, is from its nature an inert body. It may resist unwise and hasty change, but it is not adapted for any active The policy of having a constitution in a state where the sovereign power is in the hands of all the citizens may be defended on general grounds of convenience. When the community have settled that certain fundamental maxims are right, it is a saving of time and trouble to exclude the discussion of all such matters from the functions of those to whom they have by the constitution intrusted legislative power. Such fundamental rules also present a barrier to any sudden and violent assumption of undue authority either by the legislative or executive, and oblige them, as we see in the actual workings of constitutions, to obtain their object by other means, which, if not less dangerous in the end, are more slow in their operation, and thus can be detected and are exposed to be defeated by similar means put in action by the opposing party. There are disadvantages also in such an arrangement. Constitutional rules when once fixed are not easily changed; and the legislative body when once established, though theoretically, and in fact too, under the sovereign control, often finds means to elude the vigilance and defeat the wishes of the body to which it owes its existence, and from which it derives its power. One of the great means by which these ends are effected is the interpretation of the written instrument or constitution, which is the warrant for their powers. The practice of torturing the words of all written law, till in effect the law or rule is made to express the contrary of what seemed to be at first intended, appears to be deeply implanted in the English race, and in those of their descendants who have established constitutional forms on the other side of the Atlantic. The value of all written instruments, whether called constitutions or not, seems considerably impaired by this peculiar aptitude of men to construe words which once seemed to have one plain meaning only, so that they shall mean anything which the actual circumstances may require, or may seem to require. measures. It is beside our purpose to discuss the advantage of a Constitution in a community where the sovereign is one. Being supreme, the sovereign may change the Constitution when he pleases. It may be said that if the constitution is good, and has been allowed to stand by several successive possessors of the sovereign power, it obtains an apparent prescriptive authority, which is the more binding on the sovereign, as the mass of the nation habitually regard this same Constitution as something which even the sovereign cannot touch with impunity. It would shock common prejudice if the actual sovereign were to violate that which has been sanctioned by his predecessors, and is recommended by an apparently higher antiquity than the power which, in the actual sovereign's hands, appears to be of more recent birth. The precise meaning of what is called the English Constitution must be got from the various writers who have made its origin and progress their study. In reading them it may not be amiss to bear in mind that the word Constitution, as used by them, has not the exact, but the vague meaning as explained above. States where there is a king, or other person with corresponding name and power, are now most usually distributed into the two classes of monarchies and constitutional monarchies. The term Monarchy is ARTS AND SCL, DIV. VOL. III. a proper term to express a form of government in which one man has the sovereign power, as in Russia. The term Constitutional Monarchy is not an appropriate term, because the word monarchy is not capable of a limitation of meaning without the implication of a contradiction in terms. Still the expression is used, and it is understood to express those states in which the kingly power is limited or defined by a written instrument, which also lays down certain general rules affecting the form of government and the condition of the people, which are not to be varied by any legislative act. Such an instrument was the French Charte [CHARTE], under which France, instead of being a monarchy, as it was once, became a constitutional state, or, as it is called, a constitutional monarchy. This act, which proceeded from the king (Louis XVIII.), could not be revoked by any future king consistently with good faith; and its attempted violation by Charles X. produced a revolution. When a nation has reached a certain point in its social progress, a participation in the sovereign power becomes a universal desire. It does not follow that a nation will be better administered because the people participate in the sovereign power, but they will not be satisfied till they do participate in it; and that is the important matter for an absolute power to consider. The representatives may often, and will certainly sometimes, enact laws which are mischievous to themselves; but that is an incident to, or an accident in, a constitutional system, not its essential. The essential of a constitutional system is, to call all men into political activity as members of a state, to secure the highest degree of individual freedom that is consistent with the general interest; to establish a real national character, by making each man a potential and living member of the body corporate; and, above all, to keep a tight and steady hand upon the public purse; to see that no more taxes are raised than are necessary for the due support of the administration, and to see that they are raised in such a way as to bring the largest sum into the treasury with the least detriment to the individual. Freedom of publication, or, as it is usually called, the liberty of the press, is in modern times indispensable as a means of maintaining constitutional freedom where it exists, and of attaining it where it does not. In Prussia it is restrained by a censorship; in France it is checked by severe enactments, together with a system of warning, and a power of suspending the publication of newspapers. In England the freedom of the press is amply secured both by law and usage. In the actual state of Germany, in which political life hardly exists, the establishment of a true constitutional government in Prussia would be the commencement of a new era for the Germanic nation. The Russian subjects of the Czar of Muscovy, or of the greater part of his dominions at least, may be at present as contented and as well governed as they would be under a constitution; for a constitution, in order to be beneficial, must be founded upon a representation of a whole nation which has political knowledge, or of a majority so large that the minority shall be insignificant when compared with it. In the article CHARTE an account is given of the constitution of France; and of that of the UNITED STATES of NORTH AMERICA, in GEOG. DIV., under that head; America and England enjoy a higher degree of constitutional freedom than any other states. Since 1848 Sardinia has possessed a representative constitution, and has still more recently acquired a free press. The struggles of Prussia and the results will be found in the GEOG. DIV., under PRUSSIA. Spain has made extraordinary efforts to obtain the advantages of a constitution. [CORTES.] Some of the smaller states of Germany have constitutions, as Würtemberg, Hanover, Baden, Hesse Darmstadt, Hesse Cassel, Nassau, &c. The European States which have no constitution are Russia, Austria, the Ottoman Empire, Naples and Sicily, the Papal States, Grand Dukedom of Tuscany, Dukedom of Parma, Dukedom of Modena, Dukedom of Lucca, &c. The constitutions of Mexico and of the Republics of South America resemble, in some respects, that of the United States, but have not yet acquired stability. Brazil has a constitution and a representation. For the nature of a federal government, which necessarily implies the notion of a constitution, see FEDERATION. King CONSTITUTIONS AND CANONS ECCLESIASTICAL. James I., in the first year of his reign in England, by his writ directed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, summoned and called the "bishops, deans of cathedral churches, archdeacons, chapters and colleges, and the other clergy of every diocese within the province of Canterbury," to meet in the cathedral church of St. Paul in London, to "treat, consent, and conclude upon certain difficult and urgent affairs mentioned in the said writ." The persons so summoned met in convocation, and "agreed upon certain canons, orders, ordinances, and constitutions, to the end and purpose" by the king "limited and prescribed unto them;" to which the king, out of his "princely inclination and royal care for the maintenance of the present estate and government of the Church of England by the laws of this realm now settled and established," gave his royal assent by letters patent, according to the form of the statute of the twenty-fifth year of King Henry VIII. The king, by his prerogative royal and supreme authority in causes ecclesiastical, commanded these said canons, orders, and constitutions to be diligently observed, executed, and kept by his loving subjects of the kingdom, both within the provinces of Canterbury and York, in all points wherein they do or may concern every or any of them; and the king also commanded that every minister, by whatever name or title soever he be called, shall in M the parish church or chapel where he hath charge read all the said canons, orders, ordinances, and constitutions once every year, upon some Sundays or holydays, in the afternoon before divine service. The canons and constitutions may be divided into fourteen heads, which treat as follow: 1. Of the Church of England. 2. Of divine service, and administration of the sacraments. 3. Ministers, their ordination, function, and charge. 4. Schoolmasters. 5. Things appertaining to churches. 6. Churchwardens, or quest-men, and side-men, or assistants. 7. Parish clerks. 8. Ecclesiastical courts belonging to the archbishop's jurisdiction. 9. Ecclesiastical courts belonging to the jurisdiction of bishops and archdeacons, and the proceedings in them. 10. Judges ecclesiastical and their surrogates. 11. Proctors. 12. Registrars. 13. Apparitors. 14. Authority of synods. The number of constitutions is one hundred and forty-one. The authority of these canons is binding on the clergy, but not on the laity, except so far as is stated under the head CANON. The authority of Canon 77 may be doubted; it is this: "No man shall teach, either in public school or private house, but such as shall be allowed by the bishop of the diocese, or ordinary of the place, under his hand and seal; been found meet as well for his learning and dexterity in teaching, as for sober and honest conversation, and also for right understanding of God's true religion; and also except he shall subscribe to the first and third articles afore-mentioned simply, and to the first ten clauses of the second article." The 78th Canon provides that "curates desirous to teach shall be licensed before others:" and the 79th declares "the duty of schoolmasters." The Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical were printed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, 1841, together with the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England. CONSTITUTIONS, APOSTOLICAL or CLEMENTINE, are a code of regulations, attributed by some ecclesiastical writers to the Apostles, and said to have been collected by Clemens Romanus. The collection consists of eight books, containing a great many precepts and rules concerning the discipline, doctrine, and ceremonies of the church. Besides the gospels, epistles, and apocalypse, which now compose the volume of the New Testament, there were, in the earliest ages of Christianity, numerous writings bearing the name of the apostles and apostolical men, of which some are extant at the present time; and it · is generally considered that two among the first in order of time are the eight books of Apostolical or Clementine canons, and the Constitutions which are the subject of the present article. That the latter once constituted a part of the New Testament, is evident from the last of the apostolical canons, which states that "The holy and venerable Bible consists of the Old Testament (of which the several constituent books are enumerated) and the New Testament, which consists of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; 14 epistles of Paul; 2 of Peter; 3 of John; 1 of James; 1 of Jude; 2 of Clement, and the Constitutions for you that are bishops, published by me Clement in 8 books, which are not to be divulged to all, because of the mystical things contained in them; and the Acts of the Apostles." (Labbei, 'Collect. Concil.' tom. i.) One of the epistles of Clement, and part of the other which is attributed to him, are included in the Alexandrine MS. Epiphanius (A.D. 400) cites the Constitutions not only as the work of an honest Catholic Christian, but as the divine word and doctrine; yet in his catalogue of canonical books they are not included, and it is contended that the constitutions now extant are not identical with those from which Epiphanius cited. The authenticity and date of this work have been a subject of much learned contention; and though by far the greater number of critics have pronounced it to be a pseudonymous compilation, made in the third or fourth century, there have been some who support the opinion of its apostolical origin. (See Tillemont, Mémoires pour l'Hist. de l'Eglise, vol. ii.; Mosheim, cent. i., part ii.; and Neander, Genetische Entwickelung,' &c. CONSTITUTIONS, ROMAN. The word constitutio (from constituere, that is, to set up, to establish) signifies any disposition or appointment; for example, in Dig. iv. 2, 1. 9, § 3, an interlocutory decree of the prætor is called constitutio; whilst in D. 45, 1. 91, 3 and 4, the expression" quod veteres constituerunt" is used to signify a legal rule or maxim in use among the old Roman lawyers. The decrees and decisions of Roman emperors are also called constitutiones, and, according to Gaius (i. 5), an imperial constitution is what the emperor declares by a decree, or an edict, or a letter. That modern signification of the term, which denotes the fundamental law of a state, was not in use among the Romans; yet Cicero ( De Republica,' i. 45) employs the word to express a similar notion. During the republic the Roman law was made or developed by decrees of the people in the comitia (leges and plebiscita), by decrees of the senate, and by the edicts of various magistrates, as the prætors and ædiles. [ROMAN LAW.] After the great internal change and revolutions had taken place in the Roman state, and Augustus had united in himself the powers of all the branches of government, with the direction of the senate, and of the assemblies of the people, the imperial authority was firmly established. The emperor not only had the right of issuing edicts, as the magistrates of the republic had done, but he could propose and make entirely new laws. Propositions of laws from the emperor to the senate were called orationes principum.. Thus arose the imperial constitutions, with the supremacy of Augustus. But as the arbitrary acts of Sulla, Pompeius, and Julius Caesar were ratified and confirmed by the people, both in their lifetime, and after their death, this may be considered as the beginning of the system of constitutions. As the institutions of the republic only gradually merged into the imperial autocracy, the voice of the people in the comitia and the decrees of the senate were still respected in form, though not in substance. But after A.D. 24, during the reign of Tiberius, the legislation of the people, and 200 years later the decrees of the senate also, totally ceased. From that era laws were made only by the emperors; and from the time of Constantine the Great, the constitutions were properly called leges novæ, or new laws. The imperial constitutions occur under different denominations; as edicta (leges edictales), or decrees addressed to and binding on all Roman subjects; decreta or rescripta, which are decisions in particular cases, upon questions proposed to the emperor by public functionaries or private persons; these decisions also were universally binding. We find the terms epistolæ also used, when the decisions were answers to magistrates, and litteræ, when given in reply to private persons. Important single constitutions were often entitled from the emperor who made them, as, for example, "lex Anastasiana." In course of time the number of these constitutions became so great, that to prevent confusion collections were made, and called codes. The first collections made by private persons were the codices Gregoriani and Hermogeniani, of which we know very little; it being even uncertain if they were two separate codes or only one. Yet it seems that the first collector was Gregorius, and that Hermogenes continued the work. Opinions vary also as to the time when these compilers lived; Blume fixes on the reigns of Diocletian and Maximian, as the period when Gregorius or Gregorianus flourished, resting his hypothesis on a mutilated inscription found in one of the rescripts in his code, in which Blume traces the words "Diocletianus et Maximianus Domini Nostri." (See Irving's Introduction to the Civil Law,' p. 28, n. 29.) Hugo thinks it probable that both these lawyers flourished during, or a little after Diocletian's reign (History of the Roman Law,' book 2, § 379) in a note to that section he mentions as a curious fact that in an old treatise, the Consultatio veteris Jurisconsulti,' an extract from the corpus Hermogenianum is ascribed to the reigns of Valentinian and Valens, nearly 100 years later. Their collections, which contained the constitutions from the time of Hadrian to Diocletian, are lost, and we have only some fragments, which were first edited by Jac. Sichardus (Basil, 1528, fol.), together with the Codex Theodosianus. The fragments are in Schulting's 'Jurisprud. Vet. Ante-Just.,' Lugd. Bat. 1712, and in the 'Jus Civile Ante-Just.,' Berol. 1815, purporting to be taken ex Breviario Alariciano; but a more recent and a very valuable edition of these constitutions has been published by Hänel, at Bonn, 1835, entitled 'Codicis Gregoriani et Codicis Hermogeniani Fragmenta.' In connection with the Theodosian code a remarkable document discovered by Clopius deserves mention, the 'Gesta in Senatu Urbis Romæ de recipiendo Theodosiano Codice,' containing the announcement to the senate of Rome by the consul A. A. Glabrio Faustus of the emperor's legislative enterprise, and the other's concurrence, " Quam rem æternus princeps dominus noster Valentinianus, devotione socii affectu filii comprobavi," together with the approbation with which that announcement was received. Nor should the student of this portion of the ante-Justinianean Roman law omit to refer to a work of much research and sound learning for an admirable illustration of the history of the Theodosian era, in Bishop Müller's Commentatio historica de Genio Moribus et Luxu Evi Theodosiani.' Another and more important collection was made in the reign of Theodosius II., by public authority. The emperor having nominated, in the year 435, a commission of eight persons, including Antiochus, who was their director, for the purpose of collecting the constitutions from the time of Constantine the Great, three years afterwards (A.D. 438) the new code, called Codex Theodosianus, was confirmed by the emperor, and published in the Eastern empire. It contains sixteen books, divided into titles, in which the separate constitutions are arranged, according to their subject-matter, in such a way that many of them are subdivided. Some additions, called novelle, were afterwards made to the collection of Theodosius. The first five books were lost, but portions of them have been recently discovered at Milan, by Clossius (Clossii 'Theodos. Codic. Genuin. Fragmenta,' Tüb. 1824); and at Turin, by Peyron, (Codic. Theodos. Fragm. Ined.,' Tur., 1823-4). The best edition of the Theodosian Code is that by Jac. Gothofredus, tom. vi., Lugd., 1665, who also wrote an excellent commentary on it, which was published, together with the text, by Ritter, Leipzig, 1736-54. A copy of this code has appeared in the Berlin edition (1815) of the Jus Civile Ante-Justinianeum.' In the year 506, Alaric II. made an abridgement of the Theodosian Code, adding to it the excerpts from the codices Gregoriani and Hermogeniani, and the works of the Roman lawyers Gaius and Paulus, for the use of the Romans then living in the empire of the Visigoths; the collection is called Breviarium Alaricianum,' and is also known by the title Aniani Breviarium.' The last and most important collection of Roman constitutions was made by the order of Justinian. [JUSTINIAN'S LEGISLATION.] CONSTRUCTION (Geometry). All formation of lines, figures, &c., |