On the record
An ordinary hereditary sovereign--a William IV., or a George IV.--is unfit to exercise the peer-creating power when most wanted.
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Walter Bagehot
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gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “An ordinary hereditary sovereign--a William IV., or a George IV.--is unfit to exercise the peer-creating power when most…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot argues that hereditary monarchs like William IV and George IV are unsuitable for exercising critical powers during crises.
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More from Walter Bagehot
No doubt this momentary gain is bought at a ruinous after-cost.
But the Jewish advantage never did so; beginning in religion, contrary to a thousand analogies, it remained religious.
The Parliament, the laws, the press were human institutions; but the Monarchy was a Divine institution.
The United States could not have become monarchical, even if the Constitutional Convention had decreed it, even if the component States had ratified it.
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