BRITISH QUALITIES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 80, 2 March 1935, Page 8

BRITISH QUALITIES

WHAT CONSTITUTION MEANS. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) Received March 1. 1.50 p.m. RUGBY, Feb. 28. M. Flandiu presided at the lecture which Sir John Simon delivered in Paris to-night on the British parliamentary system. Sir John. Simon expressed the view that every constitution tended to incorporate national qualities and defects. It might be that the English constitutional system illustrated certain British characteristics —want of logic, a certain contempt for formality, great respect for lessons of the past, a deep sense of realities and, above all, modem oion, which resulted in no one claiming the literal fulfilment of all his rights beyond the limits imposed by good sense. Strictly speaking, there was no British Constitution, but only the uncodified results of long experience of parliamentary government. This allowed certain liberties to be taken with it in a new situation, the danger of abuse being checked by the inherent respect foi tradition. All ho claimed for the British system was that it suited the British people and was tho result of long experience. It was like an old garment which had come to fit the figure of its owner but could not be copied and worn with equal convenience by everybody. Sir John pointed out that Britain and Fiance were two great European countries which at a time of change had preserved their democratic and parliamentary systems.