Outdone By Danes

In his fascinating article on Alexander Hamilton (“The Founding Wizard,” July/August), John Steele Gordon states, “With the exception of the United Kingdom … the United States today has the oldest continuously constituted government on the earth.” Shouldn’t this be “oldest continuous constitutional government”? Any legal government, even that of the late unlamented Stalin, is a constituted government, and I believe the Danes, with an unbroken chain of monarchy extending back to the 1200s, hold the honors for longevity. Thanks to the interregnum of Oliver Cromwell and his bloody-minded roundhead Puritans, the English are out of the running.