Walter Bagehot: “And it is but too plain how in such places and periods men cling to customs because customs alone stand between them and…”

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.

But as soon as the House met, Lord Thurlow became the greatest.

The progress of the military art is the most conspicuous, I was about to say the most SHOWY, fact in human history.

If the above reasoning be sound, compulsory constituencies are necessary, voluntary constituencies destructive; the optional transferability of votes is not a salutary aid, but a ruinous innovation.