# Endnotes explained — The English Constitution

> Chapter companion for The English Constitution by Walter Bagehot.

## What happens

The endnotes provide editorial clarifications, historical corrections, and contextual updates to Bagehot's original text, including references to the 1872 preface, the Reform Act, the American Civil War, and the functioning of the British Cabinet and Parliament.

## Themes in this chapter

### Cabinet Government and Parliamentary Sovereignty

The anecdote about Lord Melbourne illustrates the expectation of Cabinet unanimity, a key feature of cabinet government.

### Comparative Political Systems

References to the Confederate government and the U.S. vice-presidency highlight contrasts between British and American systems.

## Character check-ins

### Lord Melbourne

Anecdote about Cabinet unanimity on the corn duty.

### Mr. Lincoln

Reference to his assassination and the subsequent expectation of Johnson's hostility to the South.

### Mr. Johnson

Mentioned as Lincoln's successor expected to be hostile to the South.

### Lord Cranborne

Identified as later Lord Salisbury, Indian Secretary at the time of the note.

## Key lines

> It is said that at the end of the Cabinet which agreed to propose a fixed duty on corn, Lord Melbourne put his back to the door and said, 'Now is it to lower the price of corn or isn’t it? It is not much matter which we say, but mind, we must all say the same.'

Lord Melbourne insisted that Cabinet members must publicly agree on the corn duty policy, regardless of their private views.

_Illustrates the importance of collective Cabinet unity._

> The framers of the Constitution expected that the vice-president would be elected by the Electoral College as the second wisest man in the country. The vice-presidentship being a sinecure, a second-rate man agreeable to the wire-pullers is always smuggled in.

The vice-presidency was intended to go to the second most capable person, but in practice it is filled by a mediocre candidate chosen by party insiders.

_Critique of the U.S. vice-presidential selection process._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_english_constitution_se/chapters/endnotes
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_english_constitution_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_english_constitution_se/chapters