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To one familiar with the attitude of "near devotion" accorded the monarchy by the majority of Englishmen today, it may come as a shock to discover a lack of this devotion in mid-Victorian England. A sampling of comments from the radical press is a striking example. The regular arrival of Victoria's progeny evoked this impious suggestion in the Northern Star: That, rather than reciting national prayers of thanksgiving, congregations should sing "hymns of despair for their misfortune in being saddled with another addition to the brood of royal Cormorants." The National Reformer referred to "our good kind, and dear Queen, who…could easily dispense with the allowance which her loyal subjects make her…unless she desires to be the last of England's monarchs…"

JohnMarshall was modest when he said in Cohens v. Virginia that The Federalist was "a complete commentary" on the American Constitution. His own ventures in constitutional exegesis—highlighted by his interpretations of the commerce and contract clauses and his liberal construction of the implied powers clause—secure his rank as a constitutional commentator and seriously rival the authors of The Federalist. Marshall was, however, operating at a distinct advantage over the influential Hamilton, Madison and Jay, who wrote commentaries on a constitution which was yet to be rendered workable; they composed pamphlets intended to secure acceptance of the proposed government by reluctant states. Such commentaries are bound to have more limited value than decisions meant to accomodate the constitutional instrument to the practical problems of government. Marshall's essential contribution lay in the fact that his expositions of the Constitution, as distinguished from the pamphleteering attempts of The Federalist, imparted momentum to those trends which were eventually responsible for the adjustment of our political institutions to the changing tempo of an industrial technology.