Carlyle, the 'national palaver;' they add up the hours that are consumed in it, and the speeches which are made in it, and they sigh for a time when England might again be ruled, as it once was, by a Cromwell--that is, when an eager, absolute man might do exactly what other eager men wished, and do it immediately.
Bagehot reflects on the longing for decisive leadership reminiscent of Cromwell, criticizing the current parliamentary system.
Share
More from Walter Bagehot
Now it is not conceivable that a race of beings with valuable instincts supporting their existence and supplying their wants would need these simple tools.
The progress of the military art is the most conspicuous, I was about to say the most SHOWY, fact in human history.
Savages waste away before modern civilisation; they seem to have held their ground before the ancient.
But as soon as the House met, Lord Thurlow became the greatest.
Other voices in this conversation
