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It is only after duly apprehending the silent manner in which national characters thus form themselves, that we can rightly appreciate the dislike which old Governments had to trade.
Said by
Walter Bagehot
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gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “It is only after duly apprehending the silent manner in which national characters thus form themselves, that we can…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot argues that understanding the formation of national characters is key to grasping governmental attitudes towards trade.
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More from Walter Bagehot
But it is natural also that persons used to analyse political institutions should look at these anomalies with a little tenderness and a little interest.
These anomalies, in a hundred instances, mark the old boundaries of a constitutional struggle.
The lessons are good where its primitive assumptions hold, but may be false where those assumptions fail.
Our law very often reminds one of those outskirts of cities where you cannot for a long time tell how the streets come to wind about in so capricious and serpent-like a manner.
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