Walter Bagehot: “This is one of the unrecognised benefits of free government, one of the modes in which it counteracts the excessive…”

They are solely concerned with his attractiveness as a candidate; they need not regard his efficiency as a ruler.

If the above reasoning be sound, compulsory constituencies are necessary, voluntary constituencies destructive; the optional transferability of votes is not a salutary aid, but a ruinous innovation.

The nation then selected the English policy, but the Crown chose the English Ministers.

If those persons be people of different temperaments, different ideas, and different educations, you have an almost infallible security that nothing, or almost nothing, will be done with excessive rapidity.