390 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 



England in 1835. — In a Series of Letters translated from the German 



ofVonRaumur. By Sarah Austin. 3 vols. John Murray. 



The extracts which appeared some time since in the Journals from this 

 work must have whetted the appetite of the public for a further acquaintance 

 with it. The author proves himself to be a shrewd observer of men and 

 things, and communicates his information in a pleasant style, — ^judging of that 

 style, of course, as it is reflected in Mrs. Austin's English translation. The 

 following observations respecting the question of an hereditary peerage will 

 be read with much interest at the present time : — 



" In case the Lords throw out the Irish Bill, the superficial enemies of an 

 upper house will perhaps not, as yet, gain a majority; but the question, 

 whether the hereditary peerage should not be qualified with an admixture of 

 peers for life will doubtless be agitated with redoubled vehemence. If all 

 power ultimately rests on three elements, birth, wealth, and talent, the utility, 

 indeed the necessit}^ of the first element in governments of a certain form, 

 and ivith reference to hereditary monarchy, remain unshaken ; the example of 

 the United States of America, with their president, is entirely irrelevant. The 

 circumstances of that new and remote country are wholly peculiar, and so 

 recent, that one generation may probably see them totally altered. 



" The principle of hereditary monarchy, and the immense importance to 

 society of the clearest possible laws of succession, have been fully recognized 

 of late years ; and any departure from them has been regarded, even by the 

 change-loving French, as an exception which necessity alone can justify. 

 This persuasion is, however, far from being equally strong or general, with 

 regard to hereditary nobility. On the contrary, theories are at variance, and 

 practice is unfavourable, to hereditary privileges. These are no longer recom- 

 mended except as means to great political ends ; scarcely indeed does any 

 nobleman attempt to justify the unequal distribution of property among his 

 children, or the exclusive right to employments, dignities, or exemptions, on 

 any other ground. 



" Of the three above-mentioned bases of power, birth has certainly lost ex- 

 tremely in importance, and stands in greater need than ever of the support of 

 wealth. But as this, in England, is often possessed in an equal, and instruc- 

 tion in a superior, degree, by the mercantile class, the loss the hereditary 

 nobility has sustained on the side of birth cannot be compensated by any gain 

 on that of wealth. Their power has declined and is declining. The result of 

 the long struggle between the patricians and plebeians of Rome was their 

 perfect equality ; and incontestably this is the tendency of modern Europe. 



" Will not the result of this levelling, this annihilation of various organs, 

 be fatal to the variety and the beauty of social life ? Perhaps it will be, as in 

 Athens, a swift destruction. Perhaps something new and peculiar, something 

 adapted to the times, will shape itself out ; as, in Rome, the nobles and the 

 citizens blended into one great aristocracy — the senate. In this, steadiness 

 and mobility were combined ; whereas, in the Roman patricians, the nobility 

 of Venice, Berne, &c., the hereditary element was exclusively predominant. 

 The English peerage is not so sharply severed from the other classes as these 

 aristocracies, inasmuch as it is accessible to new persons and families ; but 

 whether this will long suffice as a counterpoise to the wealth and the talent 

 of the lower house may be doubted. A judicious employment of their for- 

 tunes for purposes of general utility, and the most laborious cultivation of 

 mind, are therefore now become the imperative duty and the strongest interest 

 of every peer : both will do no more than keep them on a level with the com- 

 monalty. 



" But as little as in the sixteenth century the Pope had the good sense to 

 place himself at the head of the Reformation, and the prudence to direct the 

 current, so little does the aristocracy of our days seem disposed to act this 

 part with regard to political reforms ; and, because rulers do not understand 

 how to bend and to mould, the people come at last to breaking and destroy- 



