Walter Bagehot Quotes
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. And a king of great sense and sagacity would want no others.
Bagehot, Walter. The English Constitution. Chapman and Hall, 1867.
Typical of the times, the king was accountable to no one for anything. 200 years later, most of the world have accepted the principle that no one is above the law and that every leader is accountable to the people.
The statement so offended the Lords—the highest court of England—that he was imprisoned by the Lords and not released until he had recanted the position. The argument goes on today in many countries incuding the United States.
The king's son, Prince Albert had dropped some papers and was instructed by the king to pick them up himself rather than allow the servants to do it.
This Cahier was the consensus of the Clergy of Blois in 1789. There were cahiers of several provinces of France—some by the clergy, some by the nobles. What is fascinating is the emergence of many of the pre-revolutionary French concepts. The example of the American revolution and its principles was known throughout the educated classes of France.
Beaumarchais served the French King Louis XVI as a spy and advisor on foreign affairs. He was instrumental in influencing the French King and his government to tilt in favor of the American Revolutionaries. Beaumarchais’s reaction to the English was typical of European royalists who saw the political infighting and turmoil of a parliamentary government as frantic and destabilizing. Ironically, most Frenchman preferred it and that led to the French Revolution.
Referring to the totally inadequate diplomatic communications in the political confusion and crises that led up to the First World War. None of the countries really wanted a large war, but the diplomatic communications were so bad that all operated on the assumption that the others were moving against them and they had to defend themselves or their treaty allies and there were very few opportunities to discern what other countries would do and all of Europe and much else of the world slipped out of control.
This was the first contact between the colonists and the French government. The French agent was very non committal and the parties were just feeling each other out. Franklin made it perfectly clear that the colonists would not trade the English King for a French one and become part of the French empire.
Many American colonists had relatives and friends in England, and Paine argued that American independence would help and not het the English people.
Walter Bagehot was a British journalist, businessman, and essayist, who wrote extensively about government, economics, literature and race.
