Walter Bagehot: “So long as at any moment the policy of an office could be altered by chance votes in either House of Parliament, there…”

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.

And again, in political matters, how quickly a leading statesman can change the tone of the community!

Those who doubt should go out into their kitchens.

Perhaps such powers as these are what a wise man would most seek to exercise and least fear to possess.