HONOURS WITHHELD FROM ENGLISHMEN. 411 
prompts them to the sacrifice of personal interest, 
of wealth, and of domestic comfort. 
(281.) If, therefore, a question is to be decided by 
the general custom and feelings of all civilised nations, 
we might here stop, and enquire, what reasons can 
be assigned by Englishmen for thus pertinaciously 
refusing to follow the example -of the rest of the 
world? Why are we to refuse specific honours to 
one class of public benefactors, when we bestow 
them, with lavish profusion, upon all others? Is 
this eccentric opinion held by the nation at large, 
or is it peculiar only to the executive government ? 
Let us see how this case stands. There is a sterling 
good sense and love of independence in the people 
of. England, which leads them to rejoice in the 
success of any one, who, by sheer force of personal 
merit, gains distinction or reward. Now this feeling 
springs from two motives, which constitute the 
most prominent ingredients in the national cha- 
racter: the one is a love of justice, the other of 
independence ; the first fostered by the excellency 
of our judicial laws, the latter by the freedom of 
our constitution: with these is blended a third, 
which tells us, that if national honours attended 
great excellence, distinction may be attained by 
those who, possessing talents, exert them to the 
utmost. An instance, therefore, of independent and 
self-created merit, fitly rewarded, comes home to 
the individual feelings of every good man, and leads 
us to extol it as an act of justice. Nothing il- 
lustrated this proposition more strongly than the 
praise which was bestowed, almost to extravagance, 
on the recent elevation of two or three of our phi- 
