378 ACTUAL VALUE OF ENGLISH NOBILITY. 



it to be as superior for the objects of an old country, as the American 

 system has hitherto proved itself for those of a new. Talk to us of the 

 danger, forsooth, of a nobility, in this age of circulating opinion, and 

 after the defeat of the boroughmongers, ever again playing off its fan- 

 tastic selfishness, in defiance of the laws of God and the common sens 

 of man, to the detriment of that society which called it into existence 

 We laugh outright at the notion. A pretty display the noble puppies 

 have lately made in the clutches of the popular lion ! Have we not found 

 out, plainly enough, which is the stronger ? And now that the rotten 

 borough kennel is closed for ever, need the powerful beast concern 

 himself to crush the few yelping hounds that may now and then make 

 a shew of contending with him, for fear of the possible mischief they 

 may do him ? No, no ; upon whatever other grounds it might be deemed 

 inexpedient to maintain the institution of nobility, the pretence of fear from 

 it, for French, or English, or American freedom, is now, thank heaven, idle. 

 But there are amongst our radical party, as well as amongst the con- 

 servatives, men over cautious, and suspicious of possible evil, who will 

 argue against trusting too much to the present political phenomena of 

 the world. These persons may be aptly termed historical, in contradis- 

 tinction to actual reasoners. They will argue, (when you point out to 

 them the universal impotency of privileged classes to do mischief, 

 wherever the popular opinion is freely and widely circulated, and con- 

 stitutionally represented,) that history tells but one tale respecting the 

 danger to liberty and happiness from aristocracy ; that what has so fre- 

 quently occurred to the nations of old, may occur again ; that it is 

 imprudent, therefore, to be content with scotching the aristocratical 

 serpent now we have him in our power ; that having at last succeeded 

 in breaking his tail-joint, and stopping his progress, it behoves us, for 

 security sake, to smash his head outright, lest, when we least suspect it, 

 he should turn again and bite us. Now, as we have in society often 

 maintained against conservatives of this scholastic and historical class, so 

 do we now against radicals of the like complexion, that the only man 

 we recognize as a competent politician, is he who has arrived at the 

 common and invariable properties of mankind, not by the synthetical 

 process of history, but by a careful analysis of the human composition 

 in its present state. We deem him only entitled to attention on the 

 general subject of politics, who, though he is acquainted with the his- 

 tory of man in time past, is still better acquainted with man himself in 

 time present ; who, knowing that in many respects men of all ages are 

 alike, knows how powerful are circumstances to make them unlike also. 

 On the judgment of any such politician we would confidently rely for a 

 favourable award : we are certain he would support our opinion, that it 

 is absurd to argue from times antecedent to the art of printing, or from 

 countries in which the freedom of the press is not yet established, and 

 where popular opinion has no constitutional organ, to such times as are 

 now come upon France, England, and America, and such circumstances 

 as are peculiar to their political condition. And, if we are at liberty to 

 provide for the future, by observation of the present, rather than by 

 study of the old world, is there a man amongst us, who can candidly 

 avow himself afraid of any danger to our liberties from an hereditary 

 nobility ? We cannot believe there is. We will not mince the matter 

 with our brother radicals : we tell them plainly, that whenever we find 

 an intelligent man amongst them advocating the destruction of nobility, 



