for the purpose. Parliament is, from the legal
point of view, the absolute sovereign of the British
Empire: "since every Act of Parliament is binding
on every court throughout the British dominions,
and no rule, whether of morality or of law, which
contravenes an Act of Parliament, binds any court
throughout the realm." ^* But the political, as dis-
tinguished from the strictly legal, sovereignty, is
with the electoral body. The electorate is the real
"sovereign" in England, and the conventions of
the Constitution are supposed to maintain its
supremacy. "Our modern code of constitutional
morality secures, though in a roundabout way, what
is called abroad the Sovereignty of the People." ^†

And to that sovereignty no limits are set. Demo-
cracy in America could not impair the validity of
contracts, or prescribe a redistribution of all private
property. But if the great majority of the English
electorate were persuaded that such innovations
were desirable, they could have them carried into
effect by the ordinary process of legislation. There
is no bar to the unchecked authority of the demos,
such as is presented in the United States, not
merely by the Constitution, but by the position of
the President: and in the monarchical countries
of Continental Europe by the control over adminis-
tration exercised by sovereigns who are practically
their own prime ministers.

In Great Britain, the Executive is supposed to

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