On the record
It is indeed a singular example how natural business is to the English race, that the House of Lords works as well as it does.
Said by
Walter Bagehot
Source
gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “It is indeed a singular example how natural business is to the English race, that the House of Lords works as well as it…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot highlights the surprising effectiveness of the House of Lords in business matters, attributing it to the natural business instincts of the English.
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More from Walter Bagehot
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.
But it is natural also that persons used to analyse political institutions should look at these anomalies with a little tenderness and a little interest.
At last it strikes you that they grew up, house by house, on the devious tracks of the old green lanes; and if you follow on to the existing fields, you may often find the change half complete.
Political philosophy is still more imperfect; it has been framed from observations taken upon regular specimens of politics and States; as to these its teaching is most valuable.
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