Walter Bagehot: “He forced on a premature Tory Government, which was as unsuccessful as all wise people perceived that it must be.”

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

I own that I do not entirely sympathise with the horror of these anomalies which haunts some of our best critics.

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.

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.