Constitution

Constitution, in a political sense, is the general arrangement come to by a community of the principles which shall govern its internal administration, and which cannot be changed without some great internal commotion. Thus, in England, hereditary monarchy, government by party, responsibility of ministers to the country, are fundamental constitutional maxims. Being in a great measure of spontaneous growth, the British constitution is of somewhat vague and undetermined limits, and its name is sometimes used as a "bogey" for purposes of party warfare. Most foreign nations, however, have formal written constitutions. In a general sense the word is used to denote the fundamental principles of any community, and is also applied in the individual to express the uniform assemblage of bodily conditions which form his state of health, and depend partly on heredity and partly on circumstances of early life.