Walter Bagehot: “The strongest nation has always been conquering the weaker; sometimes even subduing it, but always prevailing over it.”

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.

I cannot, therefore, join in the full cry against anomalies; in my judgment it may quickly overrun the scent, and so miss what we should be glad to find.

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.

These anomalies, in a hundred instances, mark the old boundaries of a constitutional struggle.