Walter Bagehot: “The leading statesmen under the system of Cabinet government are not only household words, but household IDEAS.”

But as soon as the House met, Lord Thurlow became the greatest.

The power of free interchange of ideas being wanting, the ideas themselves were barren.

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.

And again, in political matters, how quickly a leading statesman can change the tone of the community!