On the record
Can it be said that its unfriendliness to the legislation of the age is founded on a perception of what the age does not see, and a rectified perception of what the age does see?
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Walter Bagehot
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gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “Can it be said that its unfriendliness to the legislation of the age is founded on a perception of what the age does not…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot questions whether the House of Lords' opposition to contemporary legislation is based on a deeper understanding.
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More from Walter Bagehot
The lessons are good where its primitive assumptions hold, but may be false where those assumptions fail.
Our law very often reminds one of those outskirts of cities where you cannot for a long time tell how the streets come to wind about in so capricious and serpent-like a manner.
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.
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.
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