Walter Bagehot: “I propose to begin this paper by asking, not why the House of Commons governs well? but the fundamental--almost unasked…”

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.

No doubt this momentary gain is bought at a ruinous after-cost.

They are above corruption because they are the corruptors.

The United States could not have become monarchical, even if the Constitutional Convention had decreed it, even if the component States had ratified it.