Walter Bagehot: “They would not only make Parliamentary government work ill, but they would prevent its working at all; they would not…”

Our law very often reminds one of those outskirts of cities where you cannot for a long time tell how the streets come to wind about in so capricious and serpent-like a manner.

I own that I do not entirely sympathise with the horror of these anomalies which haunts some of our best critics.

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.

But it is natural also that persons used to analyse political institutions should look at these anomalies with a little tenderness and a little interest.