"I have been reading Maine in the Quarterly—the best anti-democratic writing that we have had. He dined with us this evening: seems really concerned that we have no proper constitution in England: thinks it would be a real gain to have a constitutional code settled by Act of Parliament. Of course it could not have binding force for future Parliaments, but—there is valuable efficacy in the written word; if judiciously written it would be difficult to alter. The genuine alarm that M. seems to feel at the existing state of things in England impressed me much, since his intellect has always seemed to me a very cool and disengaged one."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
University of Cambridge facultyJuristsUniversity of Oxford facultyHistorians from ScotlandNon-fiction authors from Scotland
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Henry Sidgwick, diary entry (29 October 1884), quoted in A. S. and E. M. S., Henry Sidwick: A Memoir (1906), pp. 392-393
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_James_Sumner_Maine
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Henry James Sumner Maine
Sir Henry James Sumner Maine (15 August 1822 – 3 February 1888) was a British comparative jurist, historian and political proto-progressive nonetheless famous for his varied objections to Whig history.
44 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Henry James Sumner Maine →
Related Quotes
"The family was based, not upon actual relationship, but upon power, and the husband acquired over his wife the same d…"
"We cannot give a reason, other than mere chance, why power over a wife should have retained the name of manus, why po…"
"So great is the ascendancy of the Law of Actions in the infancy of Courts of Justice, that substantive law has at fir…"
"Nobody is at liberty to attack several property and to say at the same time that he values civilisation. The history …"
"Except the blind forces of Nature, nothing moves in this world which is not Greek in its origin."
"The new theory of Language has unquestionably produced a new theory of Race . . . If you examine the bases proposed f…"
"Here then we have one great inherent infirmity of popular governments, an infirmity deducible from the principle of H…"
"So far indeed as the human race has experience, it is not by political societies in any way resembling those now call…"
"[T]he Constitutions and the legal systems of the several North American States, and of the United States, would be wh…"
"The movement of the progressive societies has hitherto been a movement from Status to Contract."