The structure of these communities is indeed based on the principle of equality, and it is impossible that ANY such community can wholly satisfy the severe requirements of a political theorist.
Walter Bagehot: “The structure of these communities is indeed based on the principle of equality, and it is impossible that ANY such…”
Editor's note · Context
He critiques the principle of equality in communities, arguing that it cannot fully meet the rigorous standards of political theorists.
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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.
The lessons are good where its primitive assumptions hold, but may be false where those assumptions fail.
Just so the lines of our Constitution were framed in old eras of sparse population, few wants, and simple habits; and we adhere in seeming to their shape, though civilisation has come with its dangers, complications, and enjoyments.
These anomalies, in a hundred instances, mark the old boundaries of a constitutional struggle.





