Whether there is a king or no king, this perservative self-denial is the main force on which we must rely for the satisfactory continuance of a Parliamentary Government at this its period of greatest trial.
Bagehot emphasizes the importance of self-denial in sustaining parliamentary government during challenging times.
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More from Walter Bagehot
Savages waste away before modern civilisation; they seem to have held their ground before the ancient.
In early society, originality in life was forbidden and repressed by the fixed rule of life.
Perhaps such powers as these are what a wise man would most seek to exercise and least fear to possess.
He gave an excellent moral example to his contemporaries, but he is an instance of those whose good dies with them, while their evil lives after them.
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