| <Saturday Review 6 September 1856: Bagehot>
| <Our Governing Classes>
| It seems at first sight a truism to say that, in a free country, 
| no subject demands more anxious or continual attention 
| than the choice of its governing classes. As the peculiarity 
| of a free constitution is the division of the sovereign 
| authority among various and heterogeneous sections of 
| the community, it would obviously appear to deserve 
| reflection which classes should enjoy that authority, and in 
| what proportion it should be divided among them. Yet 
| experience shows that especially in this country, there is 
| no subject on which men think so little, or on which they 
| think so unwillingly. The interest of Conservatism is 
| opposed to it. A very gross case of failure must be 
| established before you can convince an Englishman that 
| the person who has been accustomed to do anything 
| should not continue to do it, but that it ought to be 
| entrusted to <reg orig=“some one”> someone </reg> who 
| has never done it before. The very importance of the 
| question, Who shall be our rulers? disinclines us to think 
| that it needs consideration. The problem is complex ~~ the 
| decision nervous. That whatever is, is right, is an easy 
| creed; and we naturally drift on until we can drift on without 
| alteration no longer. Thus, we steadily refused to give 
| representatives to Birmingham and Manchester until it was 
| evident that the <hi> status quo </hi> could not endure ~~ 
| that unless they were represented, they would not be 
| governed.
| It may be questioned whether, in the similar absence of a 
| pressing and visible necessity, we are not now committing 
| a similar error. Are our large towns really represented? Of 
| course, <reg orig=“every one”> everyone </reg> knows 
| that they have representatives. By a search in Dod, we can 
| discover who is member for Liverpool, and who is the 
| representative for Leeds. But when we look further, can it 
| be said that the <hi> mind </hi> of our greatest towns in 
| really represented in Parliament? We mean no disrespect 
| to any of the excellent members who sit for those places. 
| Under any system of election, a certain number of 
| accomplished English gentlemen will find their way into the 
| House of Commons. But is the mode of election on which 
| we now exclusively rely calculated to secure the selection 
| of the persons best calculated to express the opinions and 
| represent the judgments of the most cultivated classes of 
| our most cultivated towns? Take the case of the metropolis. 
| Do the members for Finsbury speak, in general, the sense 
| of Russell-square? Within the last few years, a number of 
| new districts have risen into wealth and importance, each 
| of which has more property and more intelligence in it than 
| many capitals; but do they exercise any perceptible 
| influence on the authorized expressions of metropolitan 
| opinion? It is the same with every large town. All round 
| Liverpool, for example, what a district of environs is being 
| colonised by the best of our middle classes! Instead of 
| suburb being a term of reproach as a place to reside in, the 
| vicinity of every great town is much preferred to the town 
| itself. Yet who would fancy it from our way of attaining what 
| we assume to be the true political opinion of those towns? 
| The ten-pound householders are a most useful and 
| important class in the community ~~ they adequately 
| represent the steady energy, the strong if narrow 
| intelligence, of our lower trading classes. Their industry 
| contributes greatly to the increase of our wealth ~~ their 
| economy nearly as much towards its preservation. Yet in 
| every considerable seat of industry how much there 
| necessarily is of mercantile activity, various 
| accomplishment, social refinement, and literary cultivation, 
| which is quite beyond their sphere! Their excellence is a 
| defined energy, a contracted industry. They would lose it if 
| they attempted a various culture, or indulged in diversified 
| reflection.
| It is to be remembered that the daily current of commerce 
| is at present throwing more of our internal trade into the 
| large towns. The effect of railways and other facilities of 
| transit and intercourse has been unfavourable to the 
| traders of the smaller towns ~~ the consumer goes to the 
| larger ones. The purely retail business of each district is of 
| course transacted as formerly in the district, but every 
| bargain of importance is, day by day, more likely to be 
| made at the great marts. People who wish to buy a good 
| deal go where they can see a good deal. The petty stock of 
| the trader at the small place does not afford so good a 
| choice as the large assortment of the city merchant, and 
| therefore those to whom a good selection is of any 
| importance go direct to the centre of wholesale dealing. 
| The result is advantageous to the nation, for a moderately 
| large stock in a city is made to serve the purpose of a 
| much larger stock scattered over many places in the 
| country; but it is obviously disadvantageous to the trade of 
| the rural towns. it is daily becoming less and less true that 
| a representation or an influence given to them is an 
| equivalent for the non-representation of the higher trading 
| classes of our great towns. The strong current which sets 
| from the small places to the large ones is of itself a reason 
| for considering whether some corresponding change 
| should not be made in our representative constitution.
| The unrepresented classes of our large towns are, 
| moreover, very materially different from the class of 
| landowners, whether aristocratic or non-aristocratic, who at 
| present principally counterbalance the important influence 
| of the ten-pound householders. The cultivation of persons 
| who live in the country is undoubtedly more living and 
| practical ~~ it deals more with realities, and is remarkable 
| for homely consistency. But the cultivation of townspeople 
| is far more abstract and intellectual. They may occasionally 
| mistake words for things, but they are far more ready to be 
| alive to new things than their equals in the country. They 
| have more also of intellectual fairness. They are far more 
| willing to hear both sides of a question ~~ more able to 
| weigh conflicting arguments, and to estimate the relative 
| probability of questionable facts. Country people arrive at 
| their judgments in a moment, by what we call an instinct 
| when right, and a prejudice when wrong. People in cities 
| have more of the elaborateness of civilization ~~ discuss 
| evidence ~~ suggest doubts ~~ arrive only slowly and by 
| stages at an approximate result. The conduct of great 
| affairs requires both processes. The prejudices of the 
| country should be checked, therefore, by the careful 
| reason of the town ~~ the over-elaborate argumentation of 
| the town should be checked by the rough instinct of the 
| country. We must remember, too, that, by the natural 
| progress of things, the small landowners are not so great 
| people as they were. <reg orig=“No one”> No-one </reg> 
| can be familiar with any country district, and not observe 
| how acutely the competition of the new wealth is felt in 
| manor-houses and granges which used to be the habitual 
| centres of easy hospitality ~~ the sole mansions of a large 
| district. It will hardly be wise to rely exclusively on a class 
| which has ceased to be the sole representatives of 
| moderate and substantial wealth.
| A common answer to all considerations of this kind is, that 
| the present Parliament works very well ~~ that it 
| represents the popular feeling ~~ that there is no great 
| question on which its opinion will not be in accordance with 
| that of the nation. And this last assertion is probably true. 
| There is just now no single topic likely to take a strong hold 
| of public attention on which the House of Commons would 
| not fairly represent all ultimate judgment. But we see no 
| reason for believing that any single isolated topic is at 
| present likely to obtain sole dominion over the public mind. 
| It is more probable that our attention will be divided among 
| many questions, every one of which is of great importance, 
| several of which are very difficult, all of which are 
| complicated by historical considerations, whilst some of 
| them abound in detail. It is exactly on these questions that 
| it is especially desirable that the most patient, most candid, 
| most intellectual classes of the community should have a 
| great voice. If we want, as is sometimes said, <p> “a 
| Parliament of detail,” </p> we should give some influence 
| to the classes most skilled in detail. It can hardly be said 
| that the debates in the present Parliament contain the best 
| possible discussion of delicate and difficult questions.