I need not dwell on the deficiencies of the
central authority in detailed knowledge of local persons and things,
and the too great engrossment of its time and thoughts by other
concerns, to admit of its acquiring the quantity and quality of
local knowledge necessary even for deciding on complaints, and
enforcing responsibility from so great a number of local agents. In
the details of management, therefore, the local bodies will
generally have the advantage; but in comprehension of the principles
even of purely local management, the superiority of the central
government, when rightly constituted, ought to be prodigious: not only
by reason of the probably great personal superiority of the
individuals composing it, and the multitude of thinkers and writers
who are at all times engaged in pressing useful ideas upon their
notice, but also because the knowledge and experience of any local
authority is but local knowledge and experience, confined to their own
part of the country and its modes of management, whereas the central
government has the means of knowing all that is to be learnt from
the united experience of the whole kingdom, with the addition of
easy access to that of foreign countries.
The practical conclusion from these premises is not difficult to
draw. The authority which is most conversant with principles should be
supreme over principles, while that which is most competent in details
should have the details left to it.
Pages:
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330