Hence, in the time of Homer, in the first times of Rome, in the first times of ancient Germany, the king is the most visible part of the polity, because for momentary welfare he is the most useful.
Bagehot highlights the prominence and utility of kings in early societies as crucial for their welfare.
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There is no ELASTIC element, everything is rigid, specified, dated.
But as soon as the House met, Lord Thurlow became the greatest.
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.
No doubt this momentary gain is bought at a ruinous after-cost.
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