148 HEREDITY AND SOCIETY 



a far more capable man than the average alderman, or 

 the average guardian of the poor. As a governor he 

 is doomed, but there has been no accusation. He is 

 cheap, he is pure, he is capable, but he is doomed ; 

 he is to be sacrificed to a theory, on the altar of the 

 spirit of the age." 



Maitland foresaw clearly that the smaller elected 

 bodies would be far from satisfactory, that it was 

 almost impossible that they should attract into their 

 service men of the same calibre as had formerly taken 

 charge of local affairs. He regarded them chiefly as 

 a means of accustoming an uninitiated electorate to 

 more important duties of national control. "There 

 will be jobbery and corruption, incompetence and 

 extravagance, very possibly there will be gross in- 

 justice. Then will come the cry for ever fresh inter- 

 ferences on the part of the central Government, for 

 more State-appointed inspectors, accountants, auditors ; 

 but if the lesson of the past fifty years has really been 

 of any good to us, the cry should be resolutely resisted. 

 The local bodies should be left to flounder and blunder 

 towards better things. A local board under the pre- 

 sent pressure of central government is a sorry thing : 

 a body which, if it is unwise, is futile ; which, if it is 

 wise, is governed by its clerk. That pressure should 

 be lightened ; there is no good in half trusting men ; 

 they should be trusted fully or not at all. The fullest 

 trust, however, does not necessarily imply that the 

 person trusted is wise ; it may well mean only that he 

 ought to have an opportunity of showing himself how 

 unwise he is. Give the local c authorities ' a large room 

 in which, if they can do no better, they can at least 



