Walter Bagehot: “Under a Cabinet Constitution at a sudden emergency this people can choose a ruler for the occasion.”

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

Perhaps such powers as these are what a wise man would most seek to exercise and least fear to possess.

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

That a House of Commons may work well it must perform, as we saw, five functions well: it must elect a Ministry well, legislate well, teach the nation well, express the nation's will well, bring matters to the nation's attention well.