On the record
If they could ever have been trusted to resist the people, they would then have resisted it.
Said by
Walter Bagehot
Source
gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “If they could ever have been trusted to resist the people, they would then have resisted it.”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot argues that if the Lords had the ability to resist the people's will, they would have done so in the past.
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The lessons are good where its primitive assumptions hold, but may be false where those assumptions fail.
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.
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.
These anomalies, in a hundred instances, mark the old boundaries of a constitutional struggle.
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