There was indeed an idea--a very prevalent idea when the first edition of this book was published--that there then was an unrepresented class of skilled artisans who could form superior opinions on national matters, and ought to have the means of expressing them.
Bagehot reflects on a prevalent belief that skilled artisans were unrepresented and capable of superior opinions on national matters.
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They are above corruption because they are the corruptors.
He could have found the truth as a statesman just as he found it when a judge; but he never did find it.
We have thus a whole group of ancient republics of non-Aryan race, and one which, being more ancient than the classical republics, could not have borrowed from or imitated them.
He gave an excellent moral example to his contemporaries, but he is an instance of those whose good dies with them, while their evil lives after them.
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