where else. Thus (the consequence is notable) we acquire that habit of attaching an undue importance to our own circle, and viewing with indifference all the sphere beyond, which proverbially distinguishes the recluse, or the member of a confined coterie. Your Excellency has perhaps conversed with Mr. Owen;-that benevolent man usually visits every foreigner whom he conceives worthy of conversion to parallelogrammatisation; and, since I remember the time when he considered the Duke of Wellington and the Archbishop of Canterbury among the likeliest of his proselytes, it is not out of the range of possibilities that he should imagine he may make an Owenite of the ExBishop of Autun. If, by any accident, Mr. Owen is wrong upon that point, he is certainly right in another; he is right when, in order to render philanthropy universal, he proposes that individuals of every community should live in public together-the unsocial life is scarcely prolific of the social virtues.

But if it be not the consciousness of liberty, what causes are they that produce amongst us that passion for the Unsocial, which we dignify with the milder epithet of the Domestic? I apprehend that the main causes are two: the first may be found in our habits of trade; the second, in the long-established influence of a very peculiar form of aristocracy.

With respect to the first, I think we may grant, without much difficulty, that it is evidently the nature of Commerce to detach the mind from the pursuit of amusement : fatigued with promiscuous intercourse during the day, its votaries concentrate their desires of relaxation within their home; at night they want rest rather than amusement : hence we usually find that a certain apathy to amusement, perfectly distinct from mere gravity of disposition, is the characteristic of commercial nations. It is not less observable among the Americans, and the Dutch, than it is among the English; the last indeed have, in their social state, great counterbalances to the commercial spirit. I had the honour of being introduced the other day to a young traveller from Amsterdam. "Have you been to the play since your arrival in London?" was a natural question.

"No, sir, those amusements are very expensive."

"True; but a man so enviably rich as yourself can afford them." "No, sir," was the austere and philosophic reply, "I can afford the amusement, but not the habit of amusement."

A witty countryman of your Excellency's told me that he could win over any Englishman I pleased to select, to accompany him to a masquerade that was to be given at the Opera House. I selected for the experiment a remarkably quiet and decorous father of a family-a merchant. The Frenchman accosted him-"Monsieur never goes to masquerades, I believe?"

"Never."

"So I thought. It would be impossible to induce you to go?" "Not quite impossible," said the merchant, smiling; "but I am too busy for such entertainments; besides, I have a moral scruple."

"Exactly so. I have just bet my friend here three to one that he could not persuade you to go to the masquerade given to-morrow night at the Opera House."

"Three to one!" said the merchant; "those are long odds."

"I will offer you the same bet," rejoined the Frenchman gaily, "in guineas, if you please."

"Three to one!-done," cried the Englishman, and he went to the Opera House in order to win his wager; the masquerade in this case had ceased to be an amusement-it had become a commercial speculation ! *

But the same class that are indifferent to amusement, are yet fond of show. A spirit of general unsociability is not incompatible with the love of festivals on great occasions, with splendid entertainments, and a luxurious hospitality. Ostentation and unsociability are often effects of the same cause; for the spirit of commerce, disdaining to indulge amusement, is proud of displaying wealth; and is even more favourable to the Luxuries, than it is to the Arts.

The second cause of our unsociability is more latent than the first: so far from springing out of our liberty, it arises from the restraints on it; and is the result, not of the haughtiness of a democracy, but the peculiar influences of aristocratic power. This part of my inquiry, which is very important, deserves a chapter to itself.

So, in the United States, a traveller tells us that he observed in the pit of the theatre, two lads of about fifteen years of age, conversing very intently between the acts. Curiosity prompted him to listen to the dialogue. Were they discussing the merits of the play-the genius of the actor-the splendour of the scene? No such thing; they were attempting to calculate the number of spectators, and the consequent profits of the manager.

CHAPTER IL

The effect of the openness of Public Honours to the Plebeian counteracted by the Patrician influences.-Mr. Hunt's bon mot.-Character of Lord Lachrymal.— Mistake of the People in their jealousy of the Crown.-Causes that distinguish the influence of the English, from that of any other, Aristocracy.-The numerous Grades of Society.-How created.-Spirit of Imitation and vying.-The Reserve and Orgueil of the English traced to their causes.-The Aristocracy operate on Character.—Character on Laws.—Want of Amusements among the Poor.

THE proverbial penetration of your Excellency has doubtless remarked, that England has long possessed this singular constitution of society-the spirit of democracy in the power of obtaining honours, and the genius of an aristocracy in the method by which they are acquired. The highest offices have been open by law to any man, no matter what his pedigree or his quarterings; but influences, stronger than laws, have determined that it is only through the aid of one portion or the other of the aristocracy that those offices can be obtained. Hence we see daily in high advancement men sprung from the people, who yet never use the power they have acquired in the people's behalf. Nay, it may be observed, even among the lawyers, who owe at least the first steps of promotion to their own talents or perseverance, though for the crowning honours they must look to oligarchical favour, that, as in the case of a Scott or a Sugden, the lowest plebeian by birth has only to be of importance to become the bitterest aristocrat in policy. The road to honours is apparently popular; but each person rising from the herd has endeavoured to restrain the very principle of popularity by which he has risen. So that, while the power of attaining eminent station has been open to all ranks, yet in proportion as that power bore any individual aloft, you might see it purifying itself of all democratic properties, and beautifully melting into that aristocratic atmosphere which it was permitted to attain.-Mr. Hunt, whom your Excellency may perhaps have heard of, as a Doctrinaire, in a school once familiar to yourself, had a peculiar faculty of uttering hard truths. "You speak," quoth he, one evening in the House of Commons, "of the mob of demagogues whom the Reform Bill will send to parliament; be not afraid, you have one sure method of curing the wildest of them; choose your man, catch him, place him on the Treasury bench, and be assured you will never hear him accused of being a demagogue again."

Lord Lachrymal (it is classical, and dramatic into the bargain, to

BOOK THE FIFTH.

CHAPTER I.

Address to the People.-Résumé of the principal bearings of former portions of this work. Our social errors or abuses not attributable either to a Monarchy or an Established Church,

CHAPTER II.

277

The King has no interest counter to that of the People.-Corruption lucrative only to the Aristocracy.-The last scarcely less enemies to the King than to the People. -The assertion, that to weaken the Aristocracy weakens the Crown, contradicted. The assertion, that an Aristocracy protects the People from the Crown, equally false.-Ancient dogmas inapplicable to modern times.-The art of Printing divides, with a mighty gulf, the two great periods of civilization-A Republic in this country would be an unrelieved Aristocracy.-The feeling of the People is aristocratic. A certain Senator's boast.-The destruction of Titles would not destroy the Aristocratic Power.-The advantage of Monarchy.

CHAPTER III.

279

The Monarchy shown to be less expensive than is believed.-An excuse for defending what Whigs say no one attacks. 284

CHAPTER IV.

The House of Lords not to be confounded with the Aristocracy.-Caution against the advice of journalists.-Objections to a numerous creation of Peers.-The People proved to be less strong than they imagine.-The Abolition of the House of Lords proved to be dangerous to the safe working of the Commons.-A third mode of reforming a second Chamber, but the People are not prepared for it.. 286

CHAPTER V.

A Reformed Code of Opinion the best method of reforming the great Errors of the Legislation.

CHAPTER VI.

289

The Tories; they are not extinct.-Two great Divisions among them.-Sir Robert Peel described. His very Merits displease one Division of this Party.-That Division characterised.-The Ultra Radicals.-The Ministerial Party.-Unity necessary to Government.—The advantage of a new National Party.

CHAPTER VII.

A Picture of the present House of Commons.

CHAPTER VIII.

290

297

Who should compose a Party, and what should be its objects.-The advantage and necessity of strong government.-Only to be obtained by the policy of merging Peopie and Government in the name of State.-The difference between the People and the Public.-Obstacles to the formation of a National Party in the perils that threaten the Country. .

CHAPTER THE LAST.

300

BOOK THE FIRST.

VIEW OF THE ENGLISH CHARACTER.

INSCRIBED

TO HIS EXCELLENCY

THE PRINCE TALLEYRAND.

"Before you can rectify the disorders of a state, you must examine the character of the people.-VOLTAIRE.

.“Iamhe

Have measured all the shires of England over,

For to these savages I was addicted

To search their natures and make odd discoveries."

The New Inn. BEN JONSON. Act 5, Scene 5.