Walter Bagehot: “The world seems growing young when grave old lawyers and mature philosophers propose a scheme promising so much.”

And again, in political matters, how quickly a leading statesman can change the tone of the community!

The whole history of civilisation, is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.

If the above reasoning be sound, compulsory constituencies are necessary, voluntary constituencies destructive; the optional transferability of votes is not a salutary aid, but a ruinous innovation.

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