28 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

national must also be illegal. If the Prime Minister told a judge
to resign, this would be called unconstitutional, and rightly,
because it would be illegal, being contrary to the Act of Settle-
ment. It used to be unconstitutional for the President of the
Board of Trade tp sit in the House of Commons; an alteration
of the kw has now made it constitutional* But it does not seem
satisfactory to say that the only unconstitutional actions are those
which defy the laws about the Constitution; for the word is used
in everyday speech in a much wider sense. An examination of
its use will help to explain the matter:

If .the King expressed in public a disagreement with his
Ministers, and with the majority in Parliament, this would be
called unconstitutional. Such an action by the King would be
an attempt to get support and power for himself against
Parliament. But no one can govern legally without Parliament;
so the King's act would be a first step to illegality. It is reasonable
to call unconstitutional any actions which naturally lead to a
breaking of the constitutional laws, as well as actions which
break those laws straightaway.

A Parliament which in due legal form altered the Parliament
Act and prolonged its own life would be said to act unconsti-
tutionally, unless, as during the War, it was the obvious wish of
the people that this should be done. Here is to be found the
one really important unwritten part of the Constitution—the
assumption that the purpose of the Constitution is to give effect
to the will of the people. So any action, however legal, may be
called unconstitutional if its purpose and effect are to take power
out of the hands of the people: Democracy is the unwritten basis
of the Constitution.

This statement is open to challenge, Britain has not been
a democracy long—certainly not before the igth century. How
can so recent an idea be the basis of a Constitution which is
centuries old? And if democracy is to be a fundamental principle,
why not private enterprise as well? At present most of the land
and industry of the country is owned by private persons; this