GOVERNMENT—LAWS, &c.
The History of the Fashionable World is a sort of undertaking, which, to be accurately executed, would require abundantly more leisure and diligence than I could afford to bestow upon it: and I very much doubt, whether, after all, one reader out of a hundred would be at the pains of perusing it. The fact is, that the members of this community are not sufficiently substantial to form historical pictures. Their employments are not of a nature to make their memory an object with mankind. Hence, though they make a splendid appearance in a ball-room, they appear to little advantage in a record; and, like the dancing figures in a magic-lantern, they seem to have answered the end of their being, when they have afforded an evening’s amusement. For these and other reasons which might be assigned, I shall content myself with giving a brief account of their Polity and Laws; referring those of my readers who are desirous of further information upon their history, to Novels and Romances, and to such Chronicles of antiquity, as have preserved the memorials of obsolete and superannuated manners.
It is a task of no ordinary difficulty to convey any tolerable idea of this people, in their aggregate or national capacity. Consisting, as they do, of various and detached societies, they are yet considered to possess a sort of federal relation among each other; and to unite into an imaginary whole, under the collective denomination of the Fashionable World. It is under this aggregate character that they take their rank in society; and the appellation which denotes their community, is recognised by the tradesmen who advertise for their custom, and the politicians who discourse of their affairs. A very handsome proportion of the daily newspapers is devoted to their service; and intelligence from their drawing-rooms is reported with as much regularity as that which is derived from the first cabinets in Europe. Indeed, the minuteness with which their routs and dances, their dresses and dainties, the expressions they utter, the company they keep, and the excesses they commit, are detailed, is at once an evidence that these people are considered to have a corporate existence; and that no little consequence is attached to their proceedings. I wish, with all my heart, that they thought a little more of this; they would then scarcely run into such extravagancies, as make them, on too many occasions, objects of ridicule to one part of society, and dangerous examples to the other.
Their Population is more fluctuating and uncertain than that of any people upon the face of the earth. There are among them certain tribes, or families, distinguished by different descendable titles, who are said to claim a sort of prescriptive right to the name of Fashionables. In these the federal appellation continues hereditary; and it is an axiom among the body, that people of Quality (for this is the term by which they designate the titled gentry) can never be out of Fashion.
This is, it must be observed, their own representation of the matter; and I am inclined to suspect that there is no little management at the bottom of it. There is something, no doubt, very splendid in the idea of including all the families of rank within the limits of Fashion; and it is a mark of no contemptible policy, to have constructed an axiom which so effectually cuts off their retreat. But surely, it would be but decent to allow the gentry of the realm to have a voice in the business. There have been times, in which many of our Nobles would have thought themselves dishonoured by being presumed of course to sustain a Fashionable character. I cannot but think, that if the modern nobility were fairly consulted, several of them would still be found to entertain the same opinion; and that persons of the first distinction in the country would be among that number.
However that be, these dignified families are, according to Fashionable computation, almost the only standing members of the community; and, if these be excepted, all the rest of their body is mutable in the extreme.
There is a perpetual reciprocation of numbers between them and the society in which they reside. Scarcely an hour passes without some interchange. The gossip of every day announces that some have migrated from the region of Fashion, and that others have made their appearance within it for the first time. The causes which produce these variations, and the reasons by which they are defended, are in some instances too mysterious, and in others too frivolous, to become subjects of recital. In general it may be affirmed, that though persons become Fashionable with the concurrence of their will, they cease to be such against it. For, if a few accidental converts to plain sense and sober piety be excepted, the greater part of those who retire have been superseded; and resign their places, only because they cannot any longer retain them. However that be, the fluctuation thus occasioned in the numbers and characters of those who compose this Fashionable Community, diversifies its complexion daily; and renders a precise account of its population and totality utterly impossible.
The form of government subsisting among this people, so far as it can be traced out, is Oligarchical, and the spirit of it is absolute and despotical. The few in whose hands the supreme authority resides, do not consist of any regular or definite number, nor are they confined to any particular sex. In general, they are composed of persons out of both sexes, who, while they exercise a separate influence in things relating to the sexes respectively, possess also a common jurisdiction in matters of universal concern.
The governing few are not invested with their authority by any formalities of law; nor do they obtain their station by any specific qualifications. The magistracy which they hold, appears to be neither hereditary nor elective, but contingent. The term of their continuance in power is also as indefinite and capricious, as the right by which they acquire it. One thing, however, is certain, that as a moral reputation has no influence in recommending them to the stations they fill, so the forfeiture of it in no degree weakens the stability, or abridges the duration of their power. That a government of this independent description should exist in the heart of the British empire, an imperium in imperio, will appear scarcely credible to my reader. He may, however, rely upon it, that the fact is as I have stated it; and if he should express his wonder, that such contempt of the sovereign authority as it eventually leads to, has not been properly resisted, he will only do what thousands have done before him.
But to return:—The laws by which the government of Fashion is administered, like the common law of England, are unwritten; and derive their force, as that does, from usage and prescription. The only code of any note among this people, is that which they distinguish by the collective appellation of the LAW of HONOUR. This extraordinary code has been defined to be—“a system of rules constructed by people of Fashion, and calculated to facilitate their intercourse with one another.” [29] Now if this definition be a just one, (and I presume it is, from the high authority by which it is given,) it will afford us no indifferent help, towards unfolding the mysteries of Fashionable jurisprudence.