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 pin- 



