Excerpt from The Law and Custom of the Constitution, Vol. 1 of 3 There is a third method, that which I have adopted, and I think that it ofl'ers the most ungrateful task of the three. I have tried to describe these institutions with enough history to explain their existence, and enough of their working to show what they are intended to do. Necessarily I have been obliged to enter into details some of which are dry and wearisome to the reader. Often I fear that I may not have observed a due proportion between the history of an institution and its present state. The history of the Government departments has yet to be written, but those of our institutions which are less definite in character - the Cabinet, the Prime Minister - must be treated historically if they are to be treated at all; for the present, in these cases, is a dissolving view; the changes are constant, often almost imperceptible, but nevertheless very real. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.