hich all other laws must be made, and put limits and restrictions on
all other law-making. In the American phrase, it is a "Frame of
Government."

In English the words Constitution and Legislation do not carry on their
face the relation of one to the other, and the distinction between them.
In Irish the case is different. In Irish the word for Legislation is
_Reacht_, and the word for Constitution is _Bunreacht_--fixed and
foundation legislation. But even the distinction so simply carried on the
face of these words does not complete the relation of one to the other.
For that relation is precise; and consists in the fact that all laws
comprising the _Reacht_ must be built upon the foundation of the
_Bunreacht_, and must be contained within the fixed limits of the
_Bunreacht_. The moment they attempt to build elsewhere, or go outside
those limits, that moment they cease to be binding on any citizen; and all
citizens may claim the protection of the courts of law against them.

From this follows the third definition of a Constitution, which is that it
contains the highest and completest sovereign act of a nation. A nation
may confer a Constitution on itself, and that Constitution may contain no
declaration that the people are sovereign; but the fact that the nation
did so make their own Constitution is itself a declaration of sovereignty.
Declarations of sovereignty in the body of a Constitution may be very
wise; and they are always pleasant; but they are not necessary.

Similarly, a nation may make a Constitution for itself, and in that
Constitution confer the chief executive authority on a person to be known
as a king; and that person may be known in name as a sovereign; but the
fact that he derives his power from the Constitution is evidence that, not
he, but the people, are sovereign. His is only a sovereign name; theirs is
the sovereign reality.

Such Constitutions were made in 1814 by Norway, in 1830 by Belgium, and
only last year by "Jugo-Slavia." In the last case the kingly line already
existed before the Constitution was framed, and an oath was prescribed in
it, according to which the King swore "to maintain the Constitution
intact." In the first two cases the kingly lines were not chosen until the
Constitutions had been framed, when the chosen dynasties stepped into the
places appointed for them, and carried out the functions defined for them.
In each case, however, the authority of the king sprang, not from the