enlightened public opinion.

  The first element of good government, therefore, being the virtue
and intelligence of the human beings composing the community, the most
important point of excellence which any form of government can possess
is to promote the virtue and intelligence of the people themselves.
The first question in respect to any political institutions is, how
far they tend to foster in the members of the community the various
desirable qualities, moral and intellectual; or rather (following
Bentham's more complete classification) moral, intellectual, and
active. The government which does this the best has every likelihood
of being the best in all other respects, since it is on these
qualities, so far as they exist in the people, that all possibility of
goodness in the practical operations of the government depends.

  We may consider, then, as one criterion of the goodness of a
government, the degree in which it tends to increase the sum of good
qualities in the governed, collectively and individually; since,
besides that their well-being is the sole object of government,
their good qualities supply the moving force which works the
machinery. This leaves, as the other constituent element of the
merit of a government, the quality of the machinery itself; that is,
the degree in which it is adapted to take advantage of the amount of
good qualities which may at any time exist, and make them instrumental
to the right purposes. Let us again take the subject of judicature
as an example and illustration. The judicial system being given, the
goodness of the administration of justice is in the compound ratio
of the worth of the men composing the tribunals, and the worth of
the public opinion which influences or controls them. But all the
difference between a good and a bad system of judicature lies in the
contrivances adopted for bringing whatever moral and intellectual
worth exists in the community to bear upon the administration of
justice, and making it duly operative on the result. The
arrangements for rendering the choice of the judges such as to
obtain the highest average of virtue and intelligence; the salutary
forms of procedure; the publicity which allows observation and
criticism of whatever is amiss; the liberty of discussion and
censure through the press; the mode of taking evidence, according as
it is well or ill adapted to elicit truth; the facilities, whatever be
their amount, for obtaining access to the tribunals; the
arrangements for detecting crimes and apprehending offenders;- all
these things are not the power, but the machinery for bringing the
power into contact with the obstacle: and the machinery has no
action of itself, but without it the power, let it be ever so ample,
would be wasted and of no effect.

  A similar distinction exists in regard to the constitution of the
executive departments of administration. Their machinery is good, when
the proper tests are prescribed for the qualifications of officers,
the proper rules for their promotion; when the business is
conveniently distributed among those who are to transact it, a
convenient and methodical order established for its transaction, a
correct and intelligible record kept of it after being transacted;
when each individual knows for what he is responsible, and is known to
others as responsible for it; when the best-contrived checks are
provided against negligence, favouritism, or jobbery, in any of the
acts of the department. But political checks will no more act of
themselves than a bridle will direct a horse without a rider. If the
checking functionaries are as corrupt or as negligent as those whom
they ought to check, and if the public, the mainspring of the whole
checking machinery, are too ignorant, too passive, or too careless and
inattentive, to do their part, little benefit will be derived from the
best administrative apparatus. Yet a good apparatus is always
preferable to a bad. It enables such insufficient moving or checking
power as exists to act at the greatest advantage; and without it, no
amount of moving or checking power would be sufficient. Publicity, for
instance, is no impediment to evil nor stimulus to good if the
public will not look at what is done; but without publicity, how could
they either check or encourage what they were not permitted to see?
The ideally perfect constitution of a public office is that in which
the interest of the functionary is entirely coincident with his
duty. No mere system will make it so, but still less can it be made so
without a system, aptly devised for the purpose.

  What we have said of the arrangements for the detailed
administration of the government is still more evidently true of its
general constitution. All government which aims at being good is an
organisation of some part of the good qualities existing in the
individual members of the community for the conduct of its
collective affairs. A representative constitution is a means of
bringing the general standard of intelligence and honesty existing
in the community, and the individual intellect and virtue of its
wisest members, more directly to bear upon the government, and
investing them with greater influence in it, than they would in
general have under any other mode of organisation; though, under
any, such influence as they do have is the source of all good that
there is in the government, and the hindrance of every evil that there
is not. The greater the amount of these good qualities which the
institutions of a country succeed in organising, and the better the
mode of organisation, the better will be the government.

  We have now, therefore, obtained a foundation for a twofold division
of the merit which any set of political institutions can possess. It
consists partly of the degree in which they promote the general mental
advancement of the community, including under that phrase
advancement in intellect, in virtue, and in practical activity and
efficiency; and partly of the degree of perfection with which they
organise the moral, intellectual, and active worth already existing,
so as to operate with the greatest effect on public affairs. A
government is to be judged by its action upon men, and by its action