Caucuses, or their equivalent, would be far worse here in constituency-making than there in President-making, because on great occasions the American nation can fix on some one great man whom it knows, but the English nation could not fix on 658 great men and choose them.
Bagehot argues that constituency-making in England would be more problematic than the American presidential selection process.
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More from Walter Bagehot
That a House of Commons may work well it must perform, as we saw, five functions well: it must elect a Ministry well, legislate well, teach the nation well, express the nation's will well, bring matters to the nation's attention well.
But as soon as the House met, Lord Thurlow became the greatest.
He had seen that LEISURE is the great need of early societies, and slaves only can give men leisure.
Savages waste away before modern civilisation; they seem to have held their ground before the ancient.
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