1830.] [ 289 ] 



THE RISING GENERATION AND THE MARCH CF MIND. 



I AM old enough to remember a great many things that seem 

 never to have fallen in the way of the present generation, and that, to 

 the generation growing on their heels, must be as far gone as the years 

 beyond the Flood. I am old enough to remember the time when a gen- 

 tleman wore the dress of a gentleman, not of his groom, had the man- 

 ners of good society, not of the race-course, the gaming-table, or the 

 green-room, and had the feelings of a gentleman, not of the unhappy 

 danglers on place or the loud-tongued yet equally slavish hunters after 

 rabble applause. I can remember, too, the time when an English 

 merchant was not a swindling speculator with other men's money, but 

 an honest trader ; and when a public man was not necessarily under 

 strong suspicion of roguery. But all this implies, a long time ago ; the 

 march of mind is making a brilliant progress, and before a year or two 

 more, we shall probably be the most illuminated people of the globe. 

 But our progress is not to be measured by the expertness of our barbers 

 in comic sections or our green-grocers in the roots of equations ; the 

 true fruit is that exquisite refinement which is spreading so visibly over 

 the whole surface of what were once called the lower orders a class 

 which will henceforth receive and deserve the name of the " superfine." 



Of this delightful delicacy, the instances that crowd upon me are too 

 flattering to the hope of universal polish, not to attract the admiration 

 of one who has for the last twenty years been puzzled by the precocious 

 wisdom of the great and the little alike, and who, firmly believing in 

 the proverb, as to setting beggars on horseback, asks only a year or two 

 longer, to have full evidence of its being realized. 



I give you a few among the multitude of instances which have satisfied 

 me, that the march of intellect has made the most irresistible progress. 

 If they be more than have fallen within general observation, let it be 

 recollected that I have had my eyes open to the subject, and that, as 

 Sterne says of the " Sentimental Traveller," the man who looks about 

 for any particular absurdity of mankind, will never be disappointed of 

 his crop in a world of such accomplished education. I throw these 

 instances together, with a disregard of chronology which I am afraid 

 may offend some of my heroes and heroines ; but I am old, and I 

 have never been fortunate enough to receive the illustration of even a 

 Mechanics' Institute. 



A year or two ago, on coming to town for a short period, I took a 

 furnished house, engaged attendants, and so forth. My footman was a 

 smart fellow, and I liked him well enough. But I was not sufficiently for- 

 tunate to meet his approval in all points. Within a week he applied 

 for his discharge ; his conge, I believe he called it. I inquired his 

 reason. He did me the honour of saying, that he had no particular 

 objection to me or my family, but that " he had made it a rule not to live 

 in a hired house." He finished with an accomplished bow, and thus 

 dismissed me. 



As I was staring at the full gallop of a stage through one of our most 

 crowded streets, I was terrified by the hazard of a young servant girl, 

 who was crossing, within a few feet of this outrageous machine. In my 

 terror, I roared out, " Girl, take care of the coach." " Girl," said the 

 accomplished fair one, indignantly, " I'd have you to know I am lady's 

 gentlewoman." I was fool enough to be angry, and said" Jenny, go 



M.M. New Series Vot. X. No. 57. 2 O 



