The nation can tell what a Parliamentary member is by the open test of Parliament; but no one, save from actual contact, or by rare position, can tell anything certain of a Presidential Minister.
This quote highlights Bagehot's belief in the importance of public accountability for government officials in a parliamentary system.
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It is absurd to choose by contested party election an impartial chooser of Ministers.
The work would be done so well that we should not want any one to look over or revise it.
Those who doubt should go out into their kitchens.
The United States could not have become monarchical, even if the Constitutional Convention had decreed it, even if the component States had ratified it.
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