Until the accession of George III. the most vigorous opponents of the Crown were the country gentlemen, its natural friends, and the representatives of quiet rural districts, where loyalty is mostly to be found, if anywhere.
Bagehot notes that country gentlemen, typically loyal to the Crown, became its most vigorous opponents before George III's accession.
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No doubt this momentary gain is bought at a ruinous after-cost.
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.
The work would be done so well that we should not want any one to look over or revise it.
If those persons be people of different temperaments, different ideas, and different educations, you have an almost infallible security that nothing, or almost nothing, will be done with excessive rapidity.
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