"If experience has established any one thing in this world, it has
established this: that it is well for any great class or description of
men in society to be able to say for itself what it wants, and not to
have other classes, the so-called educated and intelligent classes,
acting for it as its proctors, and supposed to understand its wants and
to provide for them. They do not really understand its wants, they do
not really provide for them. A class of men may often itself not either
fully understand its own wants, or adequately express them; but it has a
nearer interest and a more sure diligence in the matter than any of its
proctors, and therefore a better chance of success." Amid many
fluctuations of opinion on minor points, he was, from first to last, a
thoroughgoing advocate for extending the action of the State. In his
ideal of government, the State was to play in a democratic age the part
which the Aristocracy had played in earlier ages--it was to govern and
administer and control and inspire. And, it was, in one important
respect, a far nobler thing than the best aristocracy could ever be, for
it was the "representative acting-power of the nation"; and so the
relation of the citizen to the State was a much more dignified relation
than that of a citizen to an aristocracy could ever be. "Is it that of a
dependant to a parental benefactor? By no means: it is that of a member
in a partnership to the whole firm." The citizens of a State, the
members of a society, are really "'a _partnership_,' as Burke nobly
says, '_in all science, in all art, in every virtue, in all
perfection_.' Towards this great final design of their connexion, they
apply the aids which co-operative association can give them." We turn
now to the practical application of this doctrine.

We have seen in the previous chapter how earnestly and consistently
throughout his working life he urged the State to take into its control,