The English Constitution |
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Page xii
... course I am not arguing that so important an in- novation as the Reform Act of 1867 will not have very great effects . It must , in all likelihood , have many great ones . I am only saying that as yet we do not know what those effects ...
... course I am not arguing that so important an in- novation as the Reform Act of 1867 will not have very great effects . It must , in all likelihood , have many great ones . I am only saying that as yet we do not know what those effects ...
Page xiii
... course mean that the ten - pound house- holders were great admirers of intellect or good judges of refinement . We all know that , for the most part , they were not so at all : very few Englishmen are . They were not influenced by ideas ...
... course mean that the ten - pound house- holders were great admirers of intellect or good judges of refinement . We all know that , for the most part , they were not so at all : very few Englishmen are . They were not influenced by ideas ...
Page xxi
... course mean that statesmen can choose with absolute freedom what topics they will deal with and what they will not . I am of course aware that they choose under stringent conditions . In excited states of the public mind they have ...
... course mean that statesmen can choose with absolute freedom what topics they will deal with and what they will not . I am of course aware that they choose under stringent conditions . In excited states of the public mind they have ...
Page xxix
... course lay this down as an unvarying rule ; as I have said , I have for practical purposes no belief in unvarying rules . Majorities may be either genuine or fictitious , and if they are not genuine , if they do not embody the opinion ...
... course lay this down as an unvarying rule ; as I have said , I have for practical purposes no belief in unvarying rules . Majorities may be either genuine or fictitious , and if they are not genuine , if they do not embody the opinion ...
Page xxx
... course there have been many countries in which certain old families , whether rich or poor , were worshipped by whole populations with a more intense and poetic homage ; but I doubt if there has ever been any in which all old families ...
... course there have been many countries in which certain old families , whether rich or poor , were worshipped by whole populations with a more intense and poetic homage ; but I doubt if there has ever been any in which all old families ...
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Common terms and phrases
administration American arguments aristocracy assembly authority better Bill cabinet government chamber choose classes committee constitutional monarch critical Crown defect despotic difficulty discussion duty eager educated effect elected electors England English Constitution evil executive Executive Government fact feeling foreign free government function George George III give greatest head hereditary House of Commons House of Lords imagine influence interest judgment king leader legislation legislature liament look Lord Palmerston matter ment mind minister ministry monarch nation nature never opinion organisation Parlia Parliament parliamentary government party peculiar peers perhaps persons plutocracy political popular premier present President presidential government presidential system principle Queen questions Reform Act royalty rule rulers Sir George Lewis society sort sovereign speak statesmen stitution sure theory things thought tion Tory treaty truth vote WALTER BAGEHOT Whig whole wish
Popular passages
Page 74 - Having once given her sanction to a measure, that it be not arbitrarily altered or modified by the Minister; such an act she must consider as failing in sincerity towards the Crown, and justly to be visited by the exercise of her Constitutional right of dismissing that Minister.
Page 14 - hyphen which joins, a buckle which fastens the legislative part of the State to the executive part".
Page 75 - 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.
Page 10 - The efficient secret of the English Constitution may be described as the close union, the nearly complete fusion, of the executive and legislative powers.
Page xxiii - But in all cases it must be remembered that a political combination of the lower classes, as such and for their own objects, is an evil of the first magnitude; that a permanent combination of them would make them (now that so many of them have the suffrage) supreme in the country; and that their supremacy, in the state they now are, means the supremacy of ignorance over instruction and of numbers over knowledge.
Page 33 - The best reason why Monarchy is a strong government is, that it is an intelligible government. The mass of mankind understand it, and they hardly anywhere in the world understand any other.
Page 13 - The cabinet, in a word, is a board of control chosen by the legislature, out of persons whom it trusts and knows, to rule the nation.
Page 269 - ... kind of democratic country, because it is more suited to political excellence. The highest classes can rule in it; and the highest classes must, as such, have more political ability than the lower classes. A...
Page 172 - ... not for a moment wish to see a representation of pure mind; it would be contrary to the main thesis of this essay. I maintain that Parliament ought to embody the public opinion of the English nation; and, certainly, that opinion is much more fixed by its property than by its mind. The 'too clever by half people, who live in 'Bohemia', ought to have no more influence in Parliament than they have in England, and they can scarcely have less.
Page 251 - On my return home, it occurred to me, in 1837, that something might perhaps be made out on this question by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all sorts of facts which could possibly have any bearing on it.