Charles Dickens made wildly optimisticly unlikely things happen in his books in order that some poor person stuck in a hopeless situation might be rescued from that situation.

He would probably say that nothing in his books could be more unlikely than that poor people might be helped by the government. His disdain for government was deep and corrosive.

He early in his life worked as a parlieamentary reporter. He disdained parliament even more than other parts of government. In the course of observing life in London and himself trying to privately help poor people, he observed what the government did in its working: less than nothing.

Good government is a phrase that has come to mean a government that isn't corrupt, that is efficient and that has a good effect on its society. This phrase came later than Dickens and probably as a result of conditions of governing such as Dickens perceived by being interested and looking.