They have no constituency to fear or wheedle; they have the best means of forming a disinterested and cool judgment of any class in the country.
Walter Bagehot: “They have no constituency to fear or wheedle; they have the best means of forming a disinterested and cool judgment of…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot highlights the unique position of the Lords, who can make unbiased judgments due to their lack of electoral pressures.
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It is natural that those who by special and admirable culture have come to look at all things upon the artistic side, should start back from these queer peculiarities.
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.
The lessons are good where its primitive assumptions hold, but may be false where those assumptions fail.
Our law very often reminds one of those outskirts of cities where you cannot for a long time tell how the streets come to wind about in so capricious and serpent-like a manner.





