BAGEHOT ON ROYAL WEDDINGS: 1867

Walter Bagehot, The English Constitution (1867).

‘A family on the throne is an interesting idea also.

It brings down the pride of sovereignty to the level of petty life.

No feeling could seem more childish than the enthusiasm of the English at the marriage of the Prince of Wales.

They treated as a great political event, what, looked at as a matter of pure business, was very small indeed.

But no feeling could be more like common human nature as it is, and as it is likely to be.

The women -- one half of the human race at least -- care fifty times more for a marriage than a ministry.

All but a few cynics like to see a pretty novel touching for a moment the dry scenes of the grave world. A princely marriage is the brilliant edition of a universal fact, and as such, it rivets mankind.’

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