Quotes from book
The English Constitution

Name: The English Constitution
Author: Walter Bagehot

The English Constitution is a book by Walter Bagehot. First serialised in The Fortnightly Review between 15 May 1865 and 1 January 1867, and later published in book form in 1867, it explores the constitution of the United Kingdom—specifically the functioning of Parliament and the British monarchy—and the contrasts between British and American government. The book became a standard work which was translated into several languages.

“But the Queen has no such veto; She must sign her own death-warrant if the two Houses unanimously send it up to her.”

Walter Bagehot book The English Constitution

No. III, "The Monarchy (continued)", p. 58
The English Constitution (1867)

“The caucus is a sort of representative meeting which sits voting and voting till they have cut out all the known men against whom much is to be said, and agreed on some unknown man against whom there is nothing known, and therefore nothing to be alleged.”

Walter Bagehot book The English Constitution

No. V, The House of Commons, p. 155
Bagehot was commenting on the method of selecting Presidential candidates in the United States.
The English Constitution (1867)

“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.”

Walter Bagehot book The English Constitution

No. III, "The Monarchy (continued)", p. 75
The English Constitution (1867)

“Whatever expenditure is sanctioned—even when it is sanctioned against the ministry's wish—the ministry must find the money. Accordingly, they have the strongest motive to oppose extra outlay…. The ministry is (so to speak) the breadwinner of the political family, and has to meet the cost of philanthropy and glory; just as the head of a family has to pay for the charities of his wife and the toilette of his daughters.”

Walter Bagehot book The English Constitution

No. V, The House of Commons, p. 137
The English Constitution (1867)

“Nations touch at their summits.”

Walter Bagehot book The English Constitution

No. IV, The House of Lords, p. 120
The English Constitution (1867)

“Under a cabinet constitution at a sudden emergency this people can choose a ruler for the occasion. It is quite possible and even likely that he would not be ruler before the occasion. The great qualities, the imperious will, the rapid energy, the eager nature fit for a great crisis are not required—are impediments—in common times. A Lord Liverpool is better in everyday politics than a Chatham—a Louis Philippe far better than a Napoleon. By the structure of the world we want, at the sudden occurrence of a grave tempest, to change the helmsman—to replace the pilot of the calm by the pilot of the storm.”

Walter Bagehot book The English Constitution

No. I, "The Cabinet", p. 29
The English Constitution (1867)

“A cabinet is a combining committee,—a hyphen which joins, a buckle which fastens, the legislative part of the state to the executive part of the state. In its origin it belongs to the one, in its functions it belongs to the other.”

Walter Bagehot book The English Constitution

No. I, "The Cabinet", p. 14
The English Constitution (1867)

“In excited states of the public mind they have scarcely a discretion at all; the tendency of the public perturbation determines what shall and what shall not be dealt with. But, upon the other hand, in quiet times statesmen have great power; when there is no fire lighted, they can settle what fire shall be lit. And as the new suffrage is happily to be tried in a quiet time, the responsibility of our statesmen is great because their power is great too.”

Walter Bagehot book The English Constitution

Introduction, p. xxi
The English Constitution (1867)

“A political country is like an American forest; you have only to cut down the old trees, and immediately new trees come up to replace them.”

Walter Bagehot book The English Constitution

Introduction, p. xii
The English Constitution (1867)

“Cabinet governments educate the nation; the presidential does not educate it, and may corrupt it.”

Walter Bagehot book The English Constitution

No. I, "The Cabinet", p. 19
The English Constitution (1867)

“The greatest enjoyment possible to man was that which this philosophy promises its votaries—the pleasure of being always right, and always reasoning—without ever being bound to look at anything.”

Walter Bagehot book The English Constitution

No. VII, Its Supposed Checks and Balances, p. 250
From SHAKESPEARE: THE INDIVIDUAL, quote attributed to Bagehot says: "The greatest pleasure in life is doing what other people say you cannot do."
The English Constitution (1867)

“Free government is self-government. A government of the people by the people. The best government of this sort is that which the people think best.”

Walter Bagehot book The English Constitution

No. V, The House of Commons, p. 159
Cf the Gettysburg Address.
The English Constitution (1867)

“The issue put before these electors was, which of two rich people will you choose?”

Walter Bagehot book The English Constitution

Introduction, p. xiii
The "old electors" Bagehot refers to were the £10 borough householders enfranchised by the Reform Act of 1832.
The English Constitution (1867)
Context: But the mass of the old electors did not analyse very much: they liked to have one of their "betters" to represent them; if he was rich they respected him much; and if he was a lord, they liked him the better. The issue put before these electors was, which of two rich people will you choose? And each of those rich people was put forward by great parties whose notions were the notions of the rich—whose plans were their plans. The electors only selected one or two wealthy men to carry out the schemes of one or two wealthy associations.