‘A constitution is not a thing in name only, but in fact. It has not an ideal, but a real existence; and whereever it cannot be produced in a visible form there is none. A Constitution is a thing antecendent to a government, and the government is only the creature of a constitution…. It is the body of elements, to which you can refer, and quote article by article….. A Constitution therefore, is to a government, what the laws… are to a court…’
Rights of Man Part 1 1791 Thomas Paine