In the polity, as in the tangled bank, endurance is won by those who best accommodate themselves to the shifting conditions, not by the loudest outcry. “I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term Natural Selection”; whether by gradual modification or sudden replacement, the course most fitted to the time will, at length, prevail.

When unions rattle their sabres and back-benches mutter, the duty of leadership is to steer by the compass, not by the gusts. Change, if it comes, should serve the nation, not appease the noise. “The price of greatness is responsibility.”