We are so little accustomed to analyse the Constitution; we are so used to ascribe the whole effect of the Constitution to the whole Constitution, that a great many people will imagine it to be impossible that a nation should thrive or even live with only these two simple elements.
Bagehot reflects on the common misconceptions about the English Constitution and its functioning.
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He had seen that LEISURE is the great need of early societies, and slaves only can give men leisure.
He could have found the truth as a statesman just as he found it when a judge; but he never did find it.
There is no ELASTIC element, everything is rigid, specified, dated.
Savages waste away before modern civilisation; they seem to have held their ground before the ancient.
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