“No aristocracy, can, with reference to ability, be compared with that of England. Having ensured the influence of wealth by seizing the land, and substituting in its possession the son for the father, by virtue of the right of primogeniture, it has given the legislative power to the proprietors of the soil, through the medium of a House of Peers, whose prerogatives and domains pass to the eldest son, and of a House of Commons, the right to elect whose members is centred chiefly in the tenants of large proprietors. Where the nobility enjoy such privileges, royalty necessarily assumes a dependent position, and becomes merely an instrument. Positions of influence in the administration, the army, the magistracy, and the church, fall of right to families of distinction, who dispose of all the strength of the country, and apply it for the benefit of their own caste. Taxation is organized in such a manner as to weigh chiefly upon the lower classes, while the produce falls to the advantage of the privileged class as emoluments.
“. . . Before the British aristocracy could attain the importance it now possesses, many conquests were necessary, to which the substance of Spain, Portugal, Holland, and of a hundred and thirty millions of Indians, has fallen a prey. The attainment of this object, has, moreover, forced fifteen millions of English people to exist upon a daily stipend, when there is any stipend at all; and, to aid it, the cannon has opened the frontiers of China to the opium trade, and to the products of manufactures which must either sell or succumb. The only material compensation for all these evils, is, that immense power is given to wealth. The cultivation of luxury, in every form, has increased tenfold the number of objects to be provided. The houses are crowded with a number of articles of furniture, the use of which is a science in itself; the tables are loaded with an infinite variety of dishes, fruits, plate, and glass; stuffs of a thousand different shades are offered to the caprice of fashion, to be used either in adorning the person, or in the decoration of apartments; but for all that, the house is neither more beautiful nor more wholesome as an abode, the table is not more hospitable or more joyous, nor is the dress more elegant or warm; comfort stifles what is merely beautiful, which wealthy men always associate with a large outlay.
“Among the English aristocracy we must expect, neither the exquisite elegance of the Latin aristocracy, nor the appreciation of art, which, in Italy, and even in France, gives birth to so many marvels.
“Wealth has been able to accumulate in the galleries of private persons, pictures and statues, the work of other nations, but has been quite unable to raise up a school of architecture, of painting, or of sculpture; or even to assign a single division to music. Workers and statesmen abound in England; but the condition of artists is bad in the extreme. A great poet emerges from the ranks of the nobility, and employs his talent in scourging the aristocracy, and laying bare the customs of his country. Eminent writers assign a philosophic value to the romance of gentle blood, and paint in the blackest colours the mercantile and feudal genius.
15.—ENGLISHMAN.
“The men of iron, who have transformed England into a sort of freehold, seem to think themselves altogether different from the rest of humanity; they pass through the midst of other populations without being influenced by the contact, or modifying the etiquette which rules their excesses at table and in drinking, and which governs field sports and courtship. A word or gesture is sufficient to mark its author as of low breeding, and to jar upon the nerves of the nobility, which are susceptible of still greater irritation, when writers of ability venture to speak of lords as of simple mortals; but this scandal has been obviated in the fashionable novel, in which, amid a halo of ennui, aristocratic decorum shines forth.
“All this is productive of a meditated coldness and repulsive pride, which renders expansion and joviality impossible. Moral oppression and ennui permeate their whole life, and in the end render existence insupportable. These rich and powerful men become the victims of spleen.