It might be well if a greater number of effectual demonstrations existed among mankind; but while no such demonstrations exist, and while the evidence which completely convinces one man seems to another trifling and insufficient, let us recognise the plain position of inevitable doubt.
Bagehot acknowledges the existence of doubt in human understanding and the need for evidence.
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That a House of Commons may work well it must perform, as we saw, five functions well: it must elect a Ministry well, legislate well, teach the nation well, express the nation's will well, bring matters to the nation's attention well.
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.
But, above all things, they were frightened of 'the world;' the spectacle of nature filled them with awe and dread.
Thirdly, we see why so few nations have made rapid advance, and how many have become stationary.
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