h is essential for carrying out great
projects. The problem to be solved is a constitutional one,--a
statement, I think, easily proved true.

Article Six of the constitution of 1875 reveals the real cause of
ministerial crises in France: "The ministers are in a body responsible
to the Chambers for the general policy of the government, and
individually for their personal acts." This article obviously leaves
the respective powers of both houses very undefined. Which chamber is
the superior? To which of them are the ministers in fact responsible?
The ministers may have a majority in the Chamber of Deputies, and may
be in a minority in the Senate. Then there is a crisis. The Senate
blocks the way and will not allow the government to go on, for it
claims that it is the superior body. This absence of the proper
demarcation of the powers of the Senate, of the Chamber of Deputies,
and of the ministers necessarily leads to conflict; conflict is but a
step from instability, and instability is a crisis which threatens
revolution.

The remedy for these oft-recurring ministerial crises in France is to
be found in the American Constitution. The French Constitution should
be revised and changed at the part quoted and all parts relating to
it, so as to provide against ministerial crises; and the instrument
presenting a sure guide in the performance of this necessary work is
the American Constitution. It has been in operation over a hundred
years and has been found to be an admirable working document,
affording ministerial stability to its cabinets for over a century.
Such a document is surely worthy of the closest study by the public
men of the sister republic. It was inevitable that in so long a time
some amendments should have become necessary; but for a long period it
has undergone no change, save such as noted, and formulating the
results of the civil war. Now and then are heard murmurings which
claim the necessity of a sixteenth amendment, to the effect that the
name of God should be put in the Constitution. The obvious answer to
this is, that in the official life of the United States there is a
more real acknowledgment of the Divine Being than there is in the
official life of any other country, and it is better to have the name
of God impressed upon the hearts of the people than upon even the best
official document ever drawn up.

It would not be correct to say that no attempts have been made to
bring about a ministerial cris