A Parliament, like every other sort of sovereign, has peculiar feelings, peculiar prejudices, peculiar interests; and it may pursue these in opposition to the desires, and even in opposition to the well-being of the nation.
Bagehot critiques the potential disconnect between Parliament's interests and the nation's well-being.
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One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.
He could have found the truth as a statesman just as he found it when a judge; but he never did find it.
That a House of Commons may work well it must perform, as we saw, five functions well: it must elect a Ministry well, legislate well, teach the nation well, express the nation's will well, bring matters to the nation's attention well.
The power of free interchange of ideas being wanting, the ideas themselves were barren.
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