I admit that such a despot is a better selector of administrators than a Parliament; that he will know how to mix fresh minds and used minds better; that he is under a stronger motive to combine them well; that here is to be seen the best of all choosers with the keenest motives to choose.
Bagehot acknowledges that a despot may be more effective at selecting administrators than a parliamentary system.
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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.
Savages waste away before modern civilisation; they seem to have held their ground before the ancient.
Thirdly, we see why so few nations have made rapid advance, and how many have become stationary.
We have thus a whole group of ancient republics of non-Aryan race, and one which, being more ancient than the classical republics, could not have borrowed from or imitated them.
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