But give this fiery element a body of decent-looking earth; give it an excuse for breaking out on an occasion, when the decent, the cultivated, and aristocratic classes could join with it, and they would conquer by means of it, and it could be disguised in their covering.
Bagehot illustrates how a passionate element could gain power when allied with respectable social classes.
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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.
They have given what I may call a CONFIDENCE IN THE UNIVERSE.
No doubt this momentary gain is bought at a ruinous after-cost.
The power of free interchange of ideas being wanting, the ideas themselves were barren.
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