Walter Bagehot: “The idea of an indestructible nation is a modern idea; in early ages all nations were destructible, and the further we…”

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.

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.

I own that I do not entirely sympathise with the horror of these anomalies which haunts some of our best critics.

At last it strikes you that they grew up, house by house, on the devious tracks of the old green lanes; and if you follow on to the existing fields, you may often find the change half complete.