Walter Bagehot: “Tried by their own aims, the founders of the United States were wise in excluding the Ministers from Congress.”

The casual line was traced according to the strength of deceased combatants; succeeding generations fought elsewhere; and the hesitating line of a half-drawn battle was left to stand for a perpetual limit.

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.

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.

These anomalies, in a hundred instances, mark the old boundaries of a constitutional struggle.