Walter Bagehot: “The passion for action is quite as ready to pull down as to build up; probably it is more ready, for the task is easier.”

They are solely concerned with his attractiveness as a candidate; they need not regard his efficiency as a ruler.

Savages waste away before modern civilisation; they seem to have held their ground before the ancient.

He could have found the truth as a statesman just as he found it when a judge; but he never did find it.

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.