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Lane End
Harpenden
Herts

15 Oct. 1933.

Dear Buchan.

I have read through your "Cromwell" with
equal interest and admiration, and I hope you
will allow an aged pedant to offer a few comments
on constitutional points - the only matters,
except foreign policy, on which he is qualified to
comment.

The Instrument of Government has always
attracted me as the most serious effort to give
to this country a rigid instead of a flexible
constitution. It is also of peculiar interest if,
as Bryce suggests, it influenced the framers of
the constitution of the United States. In
addition it has its place among the experiments
in political unification. But the first point
seems to me the most vital. You point out
that the Protector had only a suspensive veto
for twenty days upon ordinary legislation, but
you do not call attention to the all-important
words which follow:- "provided such Bills
contain nothing in them contrary to the matters
contained in these presents". These words, as I
interpret them, gave the Protector an absolute