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Quote#World

Nothing, perhaps, would more surprise the English people than if the…

Quote byWalter Bagehot · 1826–1877

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The English Constitution (1894), No. VII, Its Supposed Checks and Balances, p. 240.

English (original)

Nothing, perhaps, would more surprise the English people than if the Queen by a coup d’état and on a sudden destroyed a ministry firm in the allegiance and secure of a majority in Parliament. That power, indisputably, in theory, belongs to her; but it has passed so far away from the minds of men that it would terrify them, if she used it, like a volcanic eruption from Primrose Hill.

— Walter Bagehot

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