Walter Bagehot: “If it were otherwise, Parliamentary government would become the worst of governments--a sectarian government.”

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.

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.

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.