Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
With inky blots, and rotten parchment bonds;
That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself:
O, would the scandal vanish with my life,
How happy then were my ensuing death!" †

Such are the reflections which, assuredly, must now arise in the bosom of every impartial observer, when scarcely a day passes without an accompaniment of English disgrace, and national infamy. That this should be the result of the wisdom of the mighty host of patriots, who strut about the stage of public affairs, in all the self-complacency of their vast importance, seems rather a strange anomaly, if indeed we glance at the fancied illumination of these modern, allknowing statesmen. But our scepticism will speedily vanish, if we bear in mind the machinations of those who, by deceiving the credulous with fictitious mischiefs, overbearing the weak by audacity of falsehood-by appealing to the judgment of ignorance, and flattering the vanity of meanness-by slandering honesty and insulting dignity, have gathered round them whatever the kingdom can supply of base, and gross, and profligate; and, raised by merit to this bad eminence, arrogate to themselves the name of PATRIOTS. What else then can we expect, when we see the daily overflowing of those kennels, which our rulers have gorged so plentously with rabble filth, bespattering all that is illustrious and venerable in our land? How are we to suppose that the present, increasing tempest of factious discontent, mob domination, and seditious violence, can cease to eclipse the brightness, and efface the lustre, of our country's fame, when the Administration is too base to be loved, and too weak to be feared; so that disorders and the inroads of faction, can neither be prevented nor rec

† Shakespeare, Richard II. Act. ii. Sc. i.

* Dr. Johnson, "Thoughts on the Falkland's Islands."

tified. The great Burke never made a more accurate observation than when he remarked, if "men of rank sacrifice all ideas of dignity to an ambition without a distinct object, and work with low instruments and for low ends, the whole composition becomes low and base. Does it not produce something ignoble and inglorious? a kind of meanness in all the prevalent policy? a tendency in all that is done to lower, along with individuals, all the dignity and importance of the

state?"*

It had been indeed well, if the popular favourites of our times had regarded, with becoming deference, this truly golden maxim. We should not then have seen the rabble voice grown to the might and mastery of a giant; nor should we have experienced the bitter fruit that we must daily reap from that proneness-so natural to the bent of human passions released from due restraint—to ply their unshackled energies more vigorously in the work of demolition than of amendment-and of displacing than remodeling. Is it not the prevailing temper of the times to annihilate existing machinery-rather to abolish and destroy, than to regulate and give a wholesome direction to its movements? Are not the tendencies of our modern legislators, strictly exemplified, by the untoward waywardness of froward children, just let loose from the curb of salutary discipline, mischievously eager to tear and break in pieces? Can we any longer hope for stability in their operations, now since the balancing is removed, which like that of the antagonist forces of nature, formerly acted by the irresistibility of pressure and not by collision; and like that energy, which mighty though noiseless, maintained the calm quiescence, and unfaltering stability of the physical system? Such are a few of the disastrous consequences necessarily resulting from men of rank, elevating themselves on the dazzling pinnacle of popular greatness, even though it might have been gained

*Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France,"

at the insignificant cost of satiating the voracious gullibility of the lawless, and pandering to their misguided passions. Let it not be supposed that this unnatural union of the great with the low-of dignified rank with plebeian meanness, is productive only of political evils : the tone of public morality and feeling must thereby, in the common course of things, be contaminated and lowered.* The principles of our nature-the expe

* The Duke of Sully in his celebrated Memoirs, makes the following remarkable reflection on the state of manners in France; which, in his day, were beginning to assume much the same aspect, as at present among ourselves." In latter days (says Sully) since the notions of mankind are changed, and every thing is rated by the money which it brings, this generous body of Nobility is brought in comparison with the managers of the revenue, the officers of justice, and the drudges of business. But this comparison terminates in an universal agreement, to pay to these gatherers of money that respect, which must always be shewn to those who are possessed of power, and are, in fact, our superiors, an advantage which the former have lost. And, indeed, how should it be otherwise, when we see the nobility of the same mind, with regard to this point, as the meanest of the people, and making no scruple to mingle the most illustrious blood in a shameful alliance with a dirty pedlar, who knows nothing but the change, his shop, his counter, and his knavery? This abuse is necessarily productive of two others, confusion of ranks, and degeneracy of families; which last is better proved by experience than argument. We need only take a view of that great number of mongril gentry, with which the court and city is filled, and we shall find them wholly destitute of the plain and manly virtue of their ancestors; no depth of thought, no solidity of judgment, rash, inconsiderate, a strong passion for play, a natural propensity to dissoluteness, a solicitude for dress, and a vitiated taste in every kind of luxury; in short one would imagine they tried to exceed even women in the effeminacy of their manners. This subversion of all order is indeed lamentable, but is inevitable; and since the infamy with which we find these creatures of chance-these upstarts of fortune stained, is insufficient to excite our contempt, it is necessary that they should be branded with public marks of disgrace, to signify the rank they ought to hold" (Sully, Memoires, liv. xii.). The above sentiments may not be literally applicable to the state of English manners-the similarity in some of the leading features cannot, however, be passed over without notice. In the remarkable account, which Sully records of the scheme for a Cabinet of State, which he and his royal master-Henry IV., concerted together, for the purposes of national improvement in every department of the government, we have it mentioned as one of the projected plans -"The

rience of society, prove this truth. The exalted honour and elevated self-respect of the one, must be diminished and debased, whilst the degrading propensities and insolent vanity of the other, will be fomented and indulged, and rendered more insolent without being exalted in the scale of moral or intellectual refinement. This is the origin, it may with truth be affirmed, of the mutable policy, the increasing insu

distinction of conditions, and the extent of the rights of each, was so exactly laid down, that none of them would have had it in their power, for the future, either to break from their subordination, or make an ill use of their power" (Memoires, liv. xxvi.). We are quite certain how disgusting, and unpalatable such doctrines would be to our proud great men, who stoop ignobly to the swarms of levellers and equalizers, who crowd the lanes and entries of our cities. If the accomplished Dr. Blair-who, notwithstanding the democratical prejudices of the spiritual democracy among whom he shone as a distinguished divine, has thus expressed himself concerning this production of the above illustrious French statesman.- I know few books more full of virtue and of good sense than Sully's Memoirs; few, therefore, more proper to form both the heads and the hearts of such as are designed for public business, and action, in the world" (Lectures on Belles Lettres, Lect. xxxvi)--had not given us his sanction, we should hardly have dared to adduce the authority of Sully with all his celebrity. The Cardinal Richelieu, likewise, in his 66 Political Testament" alludes in the same manner to this subject as Sully did-" Gentlemen, says he, cannot be promoted to places of trust and dignity, but at the expense of their ruin; for, at present, all sorts of people are admitted to them through the infamous traffic carried on by means of money. For the future, all persons should be excluded from them, but those that have the good fortune to be of noble birth." This celebrated minister concludes, in another place, after Sully, That the means of continuing the Nobility in that purity of manners which they derive from their ancestors, is to retrench that luxury and intolerable expense, which have been gradually introduced" (Richelieu, Testament Polit. Par. i. chap. iii. §. i.). The above is a suggestion, which is at all periods, equally instructive; and one that cannot be regarded with suspicion, proceeding as it does, from one of the most determined upholders of the rank and dignity of the privileged orders. We cannot omit alluding to the very curious coincidence, with the above eminent statesmen and writers, supplied to us in the opinion of our great English philosopher-Dr. Johnson, who alleged that subordination in England, in modern times, was impaired by the increase of money. The Doctor's sentiments, in respect to subordination being necessary for society and human happiness, and as being the ground

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bordination-and the dangerous laxity so very prevalent throughout all classes of society. If they, who ought to appear, as shining and illuming beacons, on the loftiest summits of the surrounding mountains, freed from all grosser impurities of the denser exhalations of the earth-leave the exalted eminence of their conspicuous station,-may we not expect the radiance of their splendour to be dimmed, and may we not fear that an impetus may be given to the passions of men, influencing them in a direction very opposite indeed to that, which would have been followed, had not a blessing degenerated into a curse? That the high aristocracy of every country are a blessing, when they adorn the height of their elevation,

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of all intellectual improvements, are well known. Subordination (says he) is sadly broken down in this age. No man, now, has the same authority which his father had,-except a gaoler. No master has it over his servants: it is diminished in our colleges; nay, in our grammar schools. For this there are many causes, the chief of which is, I think, the great increase of money. No man now depends upon the Lord of a Manor, when he can send to another country, and fetch provisions. The shoe-black at the entry of my court does not depend on me. I can deprive him but of a penny a day, which he hopes somebody else will bring him; and that penny I must carry to another shoe-black, so the trade suffers nothing. I have explained in my 'Journey to the Hebrides' how gold and silver destroy feudal subordination. But, besides, there is a general relaxation of reverence. No son now depends upon his father, as in former times. Paternity used to be considered as of itself a great thing, which had a right to many claims. That is, in general, reduced to very small bounds. My hope is, that as anarchy produces tyranny, this extreme relaxation will produce freni strictio" (Boswell's Life, Ann. 1778, Etat. 69.). At the hazard of incurring the charge of tediousness, we will adduce another reflection of Dr. Johnson, in reference to the famous Mrs. Macaulay, whose levelling reveries he complimented with an acute and unanswerable refutation -"Levellers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves. They would all have some people under them; why not then have some people above them" (Boswell's Life, Ann. 1763, Ætat. 54.). When therefore the possessors of rank and dignity, add fuel to the popular flame, so as to extend the evils of insubordination, we can only say with that brilliant wit-the Duke De La Rochefoucault-"Titles, instead of exalting, debase those who know not how to support them" ("Maxims and Moral Reflections.").