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The reverential associations upon which the government is built are transmitted according to one law, and the capacity needful to work the government is transmitted according to another law.
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Walter Bagehot
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gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “The reverential associations upon which the government is built are transmitted according to one law, and the capacity…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot discusses the dual laws governing government: one of reverence and one of capability, highlighting the complexity of governance.
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More from Walter Bagehot
Subject to this saving remark, however, I not only admit, but maintain, that our Constitution is full of curious oddities, which are impeding and mischievous, and ought to be struck out.
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.
Political philosophy is still more imperfect; it has been framed from observations taken upon regular specimens of politics and States; as to these its teaching is most valuable.
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