On the record
They say, We reject your Bill for this once or these twice, or even these thrice: but if you keep on sending it up, at last we won't reject it.
Said by
Walter Bagehot
Source
gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “They say, We reject your Bill for this once or these twice, or even these thrice: but if you keep on sending it up, at…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot illustrates the strategy of the House of Lords in dealing with repeated bills from the Commons.
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More from Walter Bagehot
I own that I do not entirely sympathise with the horror of these anomalies which haunts some of our best critics.
Our law very often reminds one of those outskirts of cities where you cannot for a long time tell how the streets come to wind about in so capricious and serpent-like a manner.
At last it strikes you that they grew up, house by house, on the devious tracks of the old green lanes; and if you follow on to the existing fields, you may often find the change half complete.
The casual line was traced according to the strength of deceased combatants; succeeding generations fought elsewhere; and the hesitating line of a half-drawn battle was left to stand for a perpetual limit.
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