It is probable that, while reading the previous letter, you have thought to yourselves, but why, if domestics are so honourable in station and office, are they not regarded so? Why are they not treated with honour and respect? Why is their situation spoken of as one of the lowest and least honourable?
I will point out some of the reasons for this.
One reason is, the remains of aristocratic notions in our country, which lead people to feel that labour is degrading, and to honour persons, rather for the kind of work they are employed in, than for their character.
I will first explain what I mean by aristocratic notions. We are descended from the English nation, and their plan of government is exactly opposite to ours. I have shown you
that our plan of government is like that adopted by the shipwrecked company. Nobody is required to give up any thing, or to do any thing but what is for the good of the whole community. Though our lot in life is decided by the God of Heaven, yet we make our own rules and laws, choose our own rulers and overseers, and nobody is obliged to do any thing, which is not as necessary for his own good, as it is for the good of all the rest.
But in aristocratic lands, it is very much as it was in the story when the strongest, by fighting, got the best of every thing, while the weakest were obliged to take the poorest of every thing. In England all the power is in the hands of the queen, a few nobles, and a small portion of the richest and best educated people, and for age after age it has been so. In consequence of this, the laws and customs of that nation have been made to benefit this small portion of the nation, so that most of the wealth has been accumulated in their hands, while the great body of the people are miserably poor.
The wealth is so unequally divided, that while some receive incomes from their parents,
or from the king or queen, large enough to support whole villages, thousands around them, though ever so industrious and virtuous, cannot earn more than a few cents a day by twelve or fourteen hours of hard labour.
This has been the state of things in England for hundreds of years. In consequence of this, those who have had the most wealth have lived in ease and indolence, and have considered labour as degrading. The rich and the noble have felt as if it was the business of poor and ignorant people to toil, and that living in indolence was a privilege, and the mark to distinguish the gentleman and the lady, from the vulgar and low born.
As we are descended from that nation, we have inherited a good deal of this feeling, so that even now, when a woman lives in perfect idleness, it is very common to say, that she “is living like a lady, with nothing to do but enjoy herself.” So we often find that a lounging, ignorant coxcomb, if he happens to have money to enable him to dress well, is called “a gentleman;” while a man of ten times the sense, education and usefulness is not so regarded,