But under a Presidential government, a nation has, except at the electing moment, no influence; it has not the ballot-box before it; its virtue is gone, and it must wait till its instant of despotism again returns.
Bagehot critiques presidential systems for limiting public influence outside of elections.
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I do not think I put this too high when I say that a most important if not the most important object of early legislation was the enforcement of LUCKY rites.
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.
But the Jewish advantage never did so; beginning in religion, contrary to a thousand analogies, it remained religious.
The work would be done so well that we should not want any one to look over or revise it.
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