...agehot, writing about the middle of the century, is so incredible as that forty and a few years ago England was ruled by Mr. Perceval. It seems almost the same as being ruled by the newspaper. （ Mr. Bagehot would now probably say the newspaper.) He had the same poorness of thought, the same petty conservatism, the same dark and narrow superstition. The mere fact of such a premier being endured shows...