The English were ready to take the new young prince as the beginning of a sacred line of sovereigns, just as they had been willing to take an old lady, who was the second cousin of his great-great-grandmother.
Bagehot reflects on the English people's willingness to accept new rulers as part of a sacred lineage, illustrating their evolving views on monarchy.
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They say, We reject your Bill for this once or these twice, or even these thrice: but if you keep on sending it up, at last we won't reject it.
They have given what I may call a CONFIDENCE IN THE UNIVERSE.
We have thus a whole group of ancient republics of non-Aryan race, and one which, being more ancient than the classical republics, could not have borrowed from or imitated them.
There is no ELASTIC element, everything is rigid, specified, dated.
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