ABSTRACT
If Mill’s understanding of liberty reflects deep disquiet at the nature of English society, particularly about a tendency to uniformity of opinion and belief, his writings on the selection and organisation of government indicate equally deep worries about the mediocrity of politicians and the incompetence of the ordinary representative. In fact, his whole analysis of the institutions and personnel of government pointed to a paradox. Participation in politics and taking part in decision making was essential to the practical education of a people; the laissez-faire principle rested upon the truth of that proposition. But the political process itself was dominated by narrow and merely sectional interests. While the advent of democracy and the growth of popularly elected assemblies made increased participation inevitable, it also increased the scope for incompetence and for the exercise of rather mundane talents in pursuit of doubtful ends. Mill was very well aware of this paradox. Democracy was a mixed blessing, and he was always prone to a kind of grumbling pessimism about popular government for this reason. He was also unusually quick to spot imperfections and to be overwhelmed by the sordid and prosaic quality of political life; at best he was a reluctant democrat, constantly shaking his head in disapproval. The high-minded toryism of his early reaction against Benthamism was partly responsible. That had generated an irritable and aristocratic disdain for the talents of the ordinary man; a disdain constantly provoked by gloomy observations on national politics and national attitudes. There had been the Engineers’ strike in 1852, for instance, which convinced Mill of the depth of working-class intolerance. 1 Polite society, on the other hand, had supported Governor Eyre’s barbaric conduct in dealing with a negro rebellion in Jamaica. 2 There had also been a good deal of sympathy among 126‘the upper and middle classes’, even among ‘those who passed for liberals’, for the pro-slavery cause in America, 3 yet the 1848 revolutions had provoked little but disgust, fear and contempt. All of these events confirmed Mill’s early prejudices. The English remained a depressing people, almost completely devoid of ideals and slow to
