On the record
Nothing, perhaps, would more surprise the English people than if the Queen by a coup d'etat and on a sudden destroyed a Ministry firm in the allegiance and secure of a majority in Parliament.
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Walter Bagehot
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gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “Nothing, perhaps, would more surprise the English people than if the Queen by a coup d'etat and on a sudden destroyed a…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot suggests that the English public would be shocked by a sudden and forceful action by the Queen against a stable government.
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More from Walter Bagehot
These anomalies, in a hundred instances, mark the old boundaries of a constitutional struggle.
The lessons are good where its primitive assumptions hold, but may be false where those assumptions fail.
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.
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.
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