Walter Bagehot: “My opinion is, that you should advise the House to vote that which would tend most to public order, and would be most…”

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.

The casual line was traced according to the strength of deceased combatants; succeeding generations fought elsewhere; and the hesitating line of a half-drawn battle was left to stand for a perpetual limit.

The lessons are good where its primitive assumptions hold, but may be false where those assumptions fail.

Subject to this saving remark, however, I not only admit, but maintain, that our Constitution is full of curious oddities, which are impeding and mischievous, and ought to be struck out.