The House of Lords, as it cannot turn out the Ministry for making treaties, has in no case a decisive weight in foreign policy, though its debates on them are often excellent; and there is a real danger at present in giving it such weight.
Bagehot discusses the limited influence of the House of Lords on foreign policy in the English Constitution.
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The nation then selected the English policy, but the Crown chose the English Ministers.
The United States could not have become monarchical, even if the Constitutional Convention had decreed it, even if the component States had ratified it.
The Parliament, the laws, the press were human institutions; but the Monarchy was a Divine institution.
One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.
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