THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION,
AND OTHER POLITICAL ESSAYS. By Walter Bagehot, author of “Physics and Politics.” Latest revised edition. 1 vol., 12mo. Cloth. Price, $2.00.
“With the author’s inclination and capacity to regard public questions in their scientific aspects, many readers are already familiar through his suggestive volume entitled ‘Physics and Politics.’ ‘The English Constitution’ is a work of the same quality, and treats its subjects very much with reference to the principles of human nature and the natural laws of human society. It is a free disquisition on English political experience; an acute, critical, and dispassionate discussion of English institutions designed to show how they operate, and to point out their defects and advantages. The writer is not so much a partisan or an advocate, as a cool, philosophical inquirer, with large knowledge, clear insight, independent opinions, and great freedom from the bias of what he terms that ‘territorial sectarianism called patriotism.’ His criticism of the faults of the English system is searching and trenchant, and his appreciation of its benefits and usefulness is cordial, discriminating, and wise. The book, indeed, is full of instructive episodes, and sagacious reflections on the springs of action in human nature, the exercise of power by individuals or political bodies, the adaptation of institutions to the qualities and circumstances of the different classes who live under them, and numerous points of political philosophy, which are applicable everywhere and have an interest for all students of political and social affairs.”—Extract from preface.
THE VARIOUS CONTRIVANCES
BY WHICH