Intercourse with foreigners then broke down in states the fixed rules which were forming their characters, so as to be a cause of weak fibre of mind, of desultory and unsettled action; the living spectacle of an admitted unbelief destroys the binding authority of religious custom and snaps the social cord.
This passage illustrates Bagehot's view on how foreign interactions can undermine established customs and social cohesion.
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There is no ELASTIC element, everything is rigid, specified, dated.
The Parliament, the laws, the press were human institutions; but the Monarchy was a Divine institution.
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.
But, above all things, they were frightened of 'the world;' the spectacle of nature filled them with awe and dread.
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