On the record
A single Australian tribe (really capable of such a habit, and really practising it) would have conquered all Australia almost as the English have conquered it.
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Walter Bagehot
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gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “A single Australian tribe (really capable of such a habit, and really practising it) would have conquered all Australia…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot speculates that a capable Australian tribe could have easily dominated the continent if they had the necessary habits.
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More from Walter Bagehot
Subject to this saving remark, however, I not only admit, but maintain, that our Constitution is full of curious oddities, which are impeding and mischievous, and ought to be struck out.
These anomalies, in a hundred instances, mark the old boundaries of a constitutional struggle.
Just so the lines of our Constitution were framed in old eras of sparse population, few wants, and simple habits; and we adhere in seeming to their shape, though civilisation has come with its dangers, complications, and enjoyments.
The lessons are good where its primitive assumptions hold, but may be false where those assumptions fail.
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