Walter Bagehot: “The common notion evidently fails, that it is a bulwark against imminent revolution.”

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 whole history of civilisation, is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.

Thirdly, we see why so few nations have made rapid advance, and how many have become stationary.

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.