The popular distaste to the Whigs was as yet but incipient, inefficient; and the intervention of the Crown was advantageous to them, because it looked inconsistent with the liberties of the people.
Bagehot observes that the public's initial dislike for the Whigs was not yet strong enough to warrant royal intervention.
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Just so the lines of our Constitution were framed in old eras of sparse population, few wants, and simple habits; and we adhere in seeming to their shape, though civilisation has come with its dangers, complications, and enjoyments.
These anomalies, in a hundred instances, mark the old boundaries of a constitutional struggle.
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.
The lessons are good where its primitive assumptions hold, but may be false where those assumptions fail.
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