Walter Bagehot: “A principal advantage of the House of Lords in the present age indeed consists in its thus acting as a reservoir of…”

The casual line was traced according to the strength of deceased combatants; succeeding generations fought elsewhere; and the hesitating line of a half-drawn battle was left to stand for a perpetual limit.

I cannot, therefore, join in the full cry against anomalies; in my judgment it may quickly overrun the scent, and so miss what we should be glad to find.

These anomalies, in a hundred instances, mark the old boundaries of a constitutional struggle.

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.