Studies in Constitutional Law/Preface to Second Edition
Preface to the Second Edition
The indulgence which this little volume has been received by the public encourages me to bring out a second edition. The three essays in the original edition are untouched. To the one on America, I have made a somewhat important addition concerning the exercise of the legislative function by the Chamber of Representatives.
Though tempted do to into certain questions of so, I did not wish to enter extra-constitutional order in the United States which have arisen of late, and will certainly be some of the problems of the future. I should have been, to a certain extent, justified in yielding to this temptation; for whatever be the solution of these questions, its effect will certainly be felt in the region of public law. The rapidity with which the growth of landed estates has begun and progresses; the immense extent of the latifundia; the approaching exhaustion of the available soil — that seemingly inexhaustible treasure — the increase of tenant farmers (a class hitherto almost unknown and now by degrees replacing the yeomen who work their own estates); the appearance of the agrarian question; the radical and socialistic character of the remedies proposed — these things all show an alteration of the ancient basis on which the political fabric was erected. But if it is certain that the United States will tend to enlarge and strengthen the action of the central government, in proportion to their advance in population and material civilization, one cannot say as yet whether this centralization will be for the benefit of a single Federation or of several. The question of secession is not closed. Will the government of Washington alone profit by the powers taken from the thirty-eight States, or will these powers be divided among three or four governments at the head of Federations, fixed by natural geographical divisions? These are serious questions, which I could not have entered upon without giving more space to speculative conjectures than was compatible with my original plan.[1]
May, 1888.
- ↑ [A short paragraph is here omitted. It refers to the replies to critics which do not appear in this translation (D.).]