Walter Bagehot was a 19th century British businessman, essayist, and journalist. He studied law but chose to enter his fatherŽs shipping and banking business. He worked as editor-in-chief of The Economist. In Physics and Politics, or, Thoughts on the application of the principles of "natural selection" and "inheritance" to political society (1872) he coined the still-current expression, "the cake of custom," to describe the tension between social institutions and innovations. The Table of Contents includes The Preliminary Age, The use of conflict, Nation-making, The age of discussion, and Verifiable progress politically considered.