Government by trained officials cannot do,
for a country, the things which can be done by a free government;
but it might be supposed capable of doing some things which free
government, of itself, cannot do. We find, however, that an outside
element of freedom is necessary to enable it to do effectually or
permanently even its own business. And so, also, freedom cannot
produce its best effects, and often breaks down altogether, unless
means can be found of combining it with trained and skilled
administration. There could not be a moment's hesitation between
representative government, among a people in any degree ripe for it,
and the most perfect imaginable bureaucracy. But it is, at the same
time, one of the most important ends of political institutions, to
attain as many of the qualities of the one as are consistent with
the other; to secure, as far as they can be made compatible, the great
advantage of the conduct of affairs by skilled persons, bred to it
as an intellectual profession, along with that of a general control
vested in, and seriously exercised by, bodies representative of the
entire people. Much would be done towards this end by recognising
the line of separation, discussed in the preceding chapter, between
the work of government properly so called, which can only be well
performed after special cultivation, and that of selecting,
watching, and, when needful, controlling the governors, which in
this case, as in others, properly devolves, not on those who do the
work, but on those for whose benefit it ought to be done.
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