380 ACTUAL VALUE OF ENGLISH NOBILITY. 



even now ; much less as there may be, when our working classes have 

 had the justice done them, which assuredly ere long they will have. 

 As the numbers of the wealthy increase in America, the misunderstand- 

 ing will become more general ; till at last it will be found desirable to 

 shield the wealthy from gratuitous churlishness and uncharitable pre- 

 sumption, by admitting them to constitutional privileges of honour. 



It is very common to see zealous and well-intentioned members of our 

 radical party, in the course of an argument against nobility, excite 

 themselves almost into fury at what they pronounce the gross absurdity 

 of pretensions to respect, on the ground of family antiquity. Certainly, 

 no one has the least warrant to think himself, on this ground, privileged 

 to encroach upon the interests or convenience of society ; and he is a 

 silly man, whoever he may be, that thinks his long pedigree can be an 

 object of much interest except to himself and family, and the heralds 

 whom he pays for making it out or registering it. But we protest 

 against utterly excluding antiquity of descent from the circumstances 

 contributing to social precedence. If at any time the possession of 

 enough of the things which all men covet, to live independently of the 

 exertions which all men are glad to escape from, constitutes a fair claim 

 to a certain preference in society, we maintain it to belong to natural 

 piety to derive some satisfaction from the knowledge that one's ancestors, 

 for many generations, have been entitled to this preference. And what- 

 ever it is natural for a good man to feel, we are quite sure it is incumbent 

 on his fellow-citizens to respect. It is in vain to assert, that regard for 

 antiquity is a foible, and ought to fade away before the light of philo- 

 sophy. Philosophy will indeed teach us not to yield to our feelings, to 

 the detriment of our substantial interests : and will thus save us from 

 the fatal errors into which a blind veneration for antiquity leads conser- 

 vatives. But genuine philosophy will never recommend us to smother 

 harmless and natural feelings, such as, amongst a host of others inci- 

 dental to civilized life, is that which arises from the social distinction of 

 of our progenitors. 



Amongst the sentences of our old school-books into which maturer 

 years have given us a more accurate insight, is the trite one from Ovid's 

 Metamorphoses, " Nam genus et proavos et quae non fecimus ipsi. Vix 

 ea nostra voco." We used to take for granted the poet meant to express 

 an unqualified contempt for the credit of ancestry. We have since 

 more duly recognized the force of the adverb vix: It implies that the 

 descendant has a certain vested right in the credit of his ancestors, 

 though not enough to rest a claim upon for any social consideration, in 

 comparison with the actual benefactor of the present day. The same is 

 the purport of the motto we have chosen (( Nee nihil neque omnia 

 haec sunt ;" that is to say, " Though nobility be not the most important 

 institution of an old country like England, it is of too much consequence 

 to be despised." 



