Editing Walter Bagehot (section)

===Works===
[[File:Walter Bagehot, The English Constitution (1st ed, 1867, title page).jpg|thumb|left|200px|Title page of the first edition of Bagehot's ''[[The English Constitution]]'', 1867.<ref name="English Constitution">{{citation|author=Walter Bagehot|title=The English Constitution|edition=1st|location=London|publisher=[[Chapman & Hall]]|year=1867|oclc=60724184|title-link=:File:Walter Bagehot, The English Constitution (1st ed, 1867).pdf}}.</ref>]]
{{Conservatism UK|Intellectuals}}

In 1867, Bagehot wrote ''[[The English Constitution]]'',<ref name="English Constitution"/> a book that explores the nature of the [[constitution of the United Kingdom]], specifically its [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] and [[Monarchy of the United Kingdom|monarchy]]. It appeared at the same time that Parliament enacted the [[Reform Act 1867]], requiring Bagehot to write an extended introduction to the second edition which appeared in 1872.

Bagehot also wrote ''Physics and Politics'' (1872),<ref>{{cite web |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101019642824;view=2up;seq=528;size=150 |title=Physics and Politics. No. I. The Pre-Economic Age. |last=Bagehot |first=Walter |date=November 1867 |website=Hathi Trust |publisher=Fortnightly Review |access-date=17 July 2018 |quote= This three-part article was published over the course of three years in the Fortnightly Review: the first section was published in November, 1867; the second section in April, 1868; and the third in July, 1869.}}</ref> in which he examines how civilisations sustain themselves, arguing that, in their earliest phase, civilisations are very much in opposition to the values of modern liberalism, insofar as they are sustained by conformism and military success but, once they are secured, it is possible for them to mature into systems which allow for greater diversity and freedom.

His viewpoint was based on his distinction between the qualities of an "accomplished man" and those of a "rude man", which he considered to be the result of iterative inheritances by which the "nervous organisation" of the individual became increasingly refined down through the generations.<ref name="Black Deficit">{{cite web |last1=Shilliam |first1=Robbie |title=How Black Deficit Entered the British Academy |url=https://robbieshilliam.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/how-black-deficit-entered-the-british-academy.pdf |website=robbieshilliam.wordpress.com |publisher=Robbie Shilliam |access-date=28 June 2019}}</ref> He regarded that distinction as a moral achievement whereby, through the actions of the will, the "accomplished" elite was able to morally differentiate themselves from "rude men" by a "hereditary drill". He equally applied such reasoning to develop a form of [[Pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] [[scientific racism|racism]], whereby those of [[mixed race]] lacked any "inherited creed" or "fixed traditional sentiments" upon which, he considered, human nature depended.

He attempted to provide empirical support for his views by citing [[John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury|John Lubbock]] and [[Edward Tylor]] although, in their writings on [[human evolution]], neither of them accepted arguments for innate hereditary differences, as opposed to cultural inheritance. Tylor, in particular, rejected Bagehot's view of the centrality of physical heredity, or that the modern "savage" mind had become "tattooed over with monstrous images" by which base instincts had been preserved in crevices, as opposed to accomplished European man, for whom such instincts had been smoothed away through the inherited will to exercise reason.<ref name="Black Deficit"/>

In ''[[Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market]]'' (1873) Bagehot seeks to explain the world of finance and banking.<ref>"Bagehot and International Lending". by Professor M. Lipton. ''The Financial Times'' (London, England), Tuesday, June 12, 1984; p. 17; edition 29,344.</ref> His observations on finance are often cited by [[central bank]]ers, in particular in the period after the [[2008 financial crisis]]. More specifically, there was particular popularity "[[Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market#Lender of last resort|Bagehot's Dictum]]" that in times of  crisis of the financial system, central banks should lend freely to solvent [[depository institutions]], yet only against sound [[Collateral (finance)|collateral]] and at [[interest rates]] high enough to dissuade those borrowers that are not genuinely in need.<ref>Paul Tucker, Deputy Governor, Financial Stability, Bank of England, [http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/speeches/2009/speech390.pdf "The Repertoire of Official Sector Interventions in the Financial System: Last Resort Lending, Market-Making, and Capital"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220193000/http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/speeches/2009/speech390.pdf |date=20 February 2012 }}, Bank of Japan 2009 International Conference, 27–28 May 2009, p. 5</ref>