Walter Bagehot: “Such a body has no force to put down the nation, and if the nation…”

On the record

Such a body has no force to put down the nation, and if the nation will have it do something it must do it.

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Walter Bagehot

Source

Bagehot argues that a timid assembly cannot suppress the will of the nation and must act according to its demands.

More from Walter Bagehot

They are above corruption because they are the corruptors.

And therefore party is inherent in it, is bone of its bone, and breath of its breath.

But as soon as the House met, Lord Thurlow became the greatest.

He could have found the truth as a statesman just as he found it when a judge; but he never did find it.

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Walter Bagehot: “Such a body has no force to put down the nation, and if the nation will have it do something it must do it.”