78 A LIBERAL EDUCATION 



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will do for them, out of fear of their power, what 

 you have left undone, so long as your only motive 

 was compassion for their weakness and their sor- 

 rows. And, if ignorance of everything which it 

 is needful a ruler should know is likely to do so 

 much harm in the governing classes of the future, 

 why is it, they ask reasonably enough, that such 

 ignorance in the governing classes of the past has 

 not been viewed with equal horror ? 



Compare the average artisan and the average 

 country squire, and it may be doubted if you will 

 find a pin to choose between the two in point of 

 ignorance, class feeling, or prejudice. It is true 

 that the ignorance is of a different sort that the 

 class feeling is in favour of a different class 

 and that the prejudice has a distinct savour of 

 wrong-headedness in each case but it is question- 

 able if the one is either a bit better, or a bit worse, 

 than the other. The old protectionist theory is 

 the doctrine of trades unions as applied by the 

 squires, and the modern trades unionism is the 

 doctrine of the squires applied by the artisans. 

 Why should we be worse off under one regime than 

 under the other ? 



Again, this sceptical minority asks the clergy to 

 think whether it is really want of education which 

 keeps the masses away from their ministrations 

 whether the most completely educated men are 

 not as open to reproach on this score as the work- 

 men ; and whether, perchance, this may not indi- 



