But the reasons for subdivision which apply
to the execution do not apply to the control. The business of the
elective body is not to do the work, but to see that it is properly
done, and that nothing necessary is left undone. This function can
be fulfilled for all departments by the same superintending body;
and by a collective and comprehensive far better than by a minute
and microscopic view. It is as absurd in public affairs as it would be
in private that every workman should be looked after by a
superintendent to himself. The Government of the Crown consists of
many departments, and there are many ministers to conduct them, but
those ministers have not a Parliament apiece to keep them to their
duty. The local, like the national Parliament, has for its proper
business to consider the interest of the locality as a whole, composed
of parts all of which must be adapted to one another, and attended
to in the order and ratio of their importance.
There is another very weighty reason for uniting the control of
all the business of a locality under one body. The greatest
imperfection of popular local institutions, and the chief cause of the
failure which so often attends them, is the low calibre of the men
by whom they are almost always carried on. That these should be of a
very miscellaneous character is, indeed, part of the usefulness of the
institution; it is that circumstance chiefly which renders it a school
of political capacity and general intelligence.
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