In 1789, when the great men of the Constituent Assembly looked on the long past, they hardly saw anything in it which could be praised, or admired, or imitated: all seemed a blunder--a complex error to be got rid of as soon as might be.
Bagehot reflects on the pessimistic view of the past held by the leaders of the 1789 Constituent Assembly.
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No doubt this momentary gain is bought at a ruinous after-cost.
The nation then selected the English policy, but the Crown chose the English Ministers.
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.
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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