nstitution see A. L.
Lowell, Government of England, 2 vols. (New York,
1909), I., 1-15; T. F. Moran, Theory and Practice
of the English Government (new ed., New York,
1908), Chap. 1; J. A. R. Marriott, English
Political Institutions (Oxford, 1910), Chaps. 1, 2;
J. Macy, The English Constitution (New York, 1897),
Chaps. 1, 9; and S. Low, The Governance of England
(London, 1904), Chap. 1. A suggestive
characterization is in the Introduction of W.
Bagehot, The English Constitution (new ed., Boston,
1873). A more extended and very incisive analysis
is Dicey, Introduction to the Study of the Law of
the Constitution, especially the Introduction and
Chaps. 1-3, 13, 14-15.]

CHAPTER III (p. 048)

THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY

I. THE CROWN: LEGAL STATUS AND PRIVILEGES

*48. Contrasts of Theory and Fact.*--The government of the United
Kingdom is in ultimate theory an absolute monarchy, in form a limited,
constitutional monarchy, and in fact a thoroughgoing democracy.[59] At
its head stands the sovereign, who is at the same time the supreme
executive, a co-ordinate legislative authority (and, in theory, much
more than that), the fountain of justice and of honor, the "supreme
governor" of the Church, the commander-in-chief of the army and navy,
the conservator of the peace, and the _parens patriae_ and _ex
officio_ guardian of the helpless and the needy. In law, all land is
held, directly or indirectly, of him. Parliament exists only by his
will. Those who sit in it are summoned by his writ, and the privilege
of voting for a member of the lower chamber is only a franchise, not a
right independent of his grant. Technically, the sovereign never dies;
there is only a demise of the crown, i.e., a transfer of regal
authority from one person to another, and the state is never without a
recognized head.

[Footnote 59: From this essential incongruity of
theory, form, and fact arises the special
difficulty which must attend any attempt to
describe with accuracy and completeness the British
constitutional system. In the s