There is a great difficulty in the way of a writer who attempts to sketch a living Constitution⁠—a Constitution that is in actual work and power. The difficulty is that the object is in constant chang...

There is a great difficulty in the way of a writer who attempts to sketch a living Constitution⁠—a Constitution that is in actual work and power. The difficulty is that the object is in constant chang...

This is all which I think I need say on the domestic events which have changed, or suggested changes, in the English Constitution since this book was written. But there are also some foreign events wh...

“On all great subjects,” says Mr. Mill, “much remains to be said,” and of none is this more true than of the English Constitution. The literature which has accumulated upon it is huge. But an observer...

The use of the Queen, in a dignified capacity, is incalculable. Without her in England, the present English Government would fail and pass away. Most people when they read that the Queen walked on the...

The use of the Queen, in a dignified capacity, is incalculable. Without her in England, the present English Government would fail and pass away. Most people when they read that the Queen walked on the...

The House of Commons has inquired into most things, but has never had a committee on “the Queen.” There is no authentic blue-book to say what she does. Such an investigation cannot take place; but if ...

In my last essay I showed that it was possible for a constitutional monarch to be, when occasion served, of first-rate use both at the outset and during the continuance of an administration; but that ...

The dignified aspect of the House of Commons is altogether secondary to its efficient use. It is dignified: in a Government in which the most prominent parts are good because they are very stately, an...

There is one error as to the English Constitution which crops up periodically. Circumstances which often, though irregularly, occur naturally suggests that error, and as surely as they happen it reviv...

In a former essay I devoted an elaborate discussion to the comparison of the royal and unroyal form of Parliamentary government. I showed that at the formation of a Ministry, and during the continuanc...

Cabinet government is rare because its prerequisites are many. It requires the coexistence of several national characteristics which are not often found together in the world, and which should be perc...

A volume might seem wanted to say anything worth saying14 on the History of the English Constitution, and a great and new volume might still be written on it, if a competent writer took it in hand. Th...

The first edition of this book was published in 1867 but Mr. Bagehot added an important preface to the edition of 1872 which forms an integral part of the work. —⁠E. Bagehot ↩ It is said that at the e...