aced as a whole by some other instrument. At the same time,
there is little reason to doubt that from the outset there was
contemplated the possibility of amendment through the agencies of
ordinary legislation. In any case, there was put into the instrument
no stipulation whatsoever relating to its revision, and none has ever
been added. Upon a number of occasions since 1861 possible
modifications of the constitutional text have been suggested, and even
debated, but no one of them has been adopted. But this does not mean
that the constitutional system of Italy has stood all the while
unchanged. On the contrary, that system has exhibited remarkable
vitality, growth, and adaptive capacity. In Italy, as in other states
the constitution as it exists in writing is supplemented in numerous
important ways by unwritten custom, and Italian jurists are now
substantially agreed that custom is legitimately to be considered a
source of public law.

*402. Legislative Amendment.*--A more important matter, however, is the
extension and the readaptation of the constitution through
parliamentary enactment. In the earlier days of the kingdom there was
a disposition to observe rather carefully in practice the distinction
between functions and powers of a legislative, and those of a
constitutional, character. Gradually, however, the conviction grew
that the constitutional system of the nation might be modified (p. 366)
through the processes of ordinary legislation, and in Italy to-day the
theory of parliamentary omnipotence is scarcely less firmly entrenched
than it is in Great Britain. The parliamentary chambers have never
directly avowed a purpose to amend a single article of the _Statuto_,
but numerous measures which they have enacted have, with clear intent,
taken from the instrument at some points, have added to it at others,
and have changed both its spirit and its application. Care has been
exercised that such enactments shall be in harmony with the public
will, and in practice they are rarely brought to a final vote until
the country shall have been given an opportunity to pass upon them at
a general election. What has come to be the commonly accepted doctrine
was stated forcefully, in the session of July 23, 1881, by Crispi, as
follows: "I do not admit the intangibility of the _Statuto_. Statutes
are made to prevent governments from retrograding, not from advancing.
Before us there can be nothing but progress.... If we retain i