Principles of Constitutional Government

Excerpt from Principles of Constitutional Government

This book on "The Principles of Constitutional Government" is based on lectures which were delivered in the year 1913-14 before the students of The Peking University. The author has been led to publish them in book form because of his belief that they might possibly contribute toward the answer to the question - What are the essentials of constitutional government? As legal adviser of the Chinese Government at a critical period in the history of the country, he was called upon to answer this question and to endeavor to answer it in such a way that the answer would be measurably clear to a people who had had no experience with constitutional government. Even the leaders of political thought in China at that time had but a theoretical knowledge of the subject. Their conclusions were for the most part derived from the study of constitutions framed for countries whose conditions and traditions were very different from those in the country for which they were essaying to act. The great mass of the Chinese people, even including the educated classes, had little if any idea as to the meaning or significance of constitutional government.

Because of the fact that the following pages were prepared for the purpose of presenting the problem of constitutional government to a people wholly unacquainted with its meaning, it is hoped that the volume will be found useful as a text-book for beginners in the study of the subjects in colleges and high-school classes.

In the appendices will be found the constitution of the United States, and translations of those of Germany, Belgium, and Japan, and the most important of the constitutional laws of France, as contained in Modern Constitutions, by Prof. W. F. Dodd, and reprinted by the courtesy of the author and the University of Chicago Press.

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