The strongest party would select some one who would be on their side when he had to take a side, who would incline to them when he did incline, who should be a constant auxiliary to them and a constant impediment to their adversaries.
Walter Bagehot
The Public Record
Walter Bagehot was an English journalist, businessman, and essayist, who wrote extensively about government, economics, literature and race. He is known for co-founding the National Review in 1855, and for his works The English Constitution and Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market (1873).
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I think it may be shown that the post of sovereign over an intelligent and political people under a constitutional monarchy is the post which a wise man would choose above any other--where he would find the intellectual impulses best…
To state the matter shortly, the sovereign has, under a constitutional monarchy such as ours, three rights--the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn.
In the course of a long reign a sagacious king would acquire an experience with which few Ministers could contend.
It is unwise to recommence a policy which so lately worked so ill." The king would indeed have the advantage which a permanent under-secretary has over his superior the Parliamentary secretary--that of having shared in the proceedings of…
The social force of admitted superiority by which he overturned his under-secretary is now not with him but against him.
He has no longer to regard the deferential hints of an acknowledged inferior, but to answer the arguments of a superior to whom he has himself to be respectful.
George III. in fact knew the forms of public business as well or better than any statesman of his time.
If, in addition to his capacity as a man of business and to his industry, he had possessed the higher faculties of a discerning states man, his influence would have been despotic.
The old Constitution of England undoubtedly gave a sort of power to the Crown which our present Constitution does not give.
While a majority in Parliament was principally purchased by royal patronage, the king was a party to the bargain either with his Minister or without his Minister.
But even under our present Constitution a monarch like George III., with high abilities, would possess the greatest influence.
It is known to all Europe that in Belgium King Leopold has exercised immense power by the use of such means as I have described.
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