He was sacred, no doubt; and popular, very likely; still he was half like a popular Premier speaking to a high-spirited chamber; there were limits to his authority and power--limits which he would discover by trying whether eager cheers received his mandate, or only hollow murmurs and a thinking silence.
Bagehot compares the authority of a king to that of a popular leader, noting the limits imposed by public opinion.
Share
More from Walter Bagehot
The casual line was traced according to the strength of deceased combatants; succeeding generations fought elsewhere; and the hesitating line of a half-drawn battle was left to stand for a perpetual limit.
The lessons are good where its primitive assumptions hold, but may be false where those assumptions fail.
I own that I do not entirely sympathise with the horror of these anomalies which haunts some of our best critics.
I cannot, therefore, join in the full cry against anomalies; in my judgment it may quickly overrun the scent, and so miss what we should be glad to find.
Other voices in this conversation
