Walter Bagehot: “The first prerequisite of elective government is the MUTUAL CONFIDENCE of the electors.”

I own that I do not entirely sympathise with the horror of these anomalies which haunts some of our best critics.

The casual line was traced according to the strength of deceased combatants; succeeding generations fought elsewhere; and the hesitating line of a half-drawn battle was left to stand for a perpetual limit.

Political philosophy is still more imperfect; it has been framed from observations taken upon regular specimens of politics and States; as to these its teaching is most valuable.

These anomalies, in a hundred instances, mark the old boundaries of a constitutional struggle.