( 454 ) 

 THE REAL NOBILITY OF THE HUMAN CHARACTER. 



Fraser's Magazine of the last month, copied by The Standard, 

 and probably by many other papers, has opened the delicate question, 

 as to the aristocracy. Whether nobility of character belongs to 

 money or to mind. 



This is done in a scurrilous attack upon Mr. Francis Place, an 

 active, talented, political reformer, formerly of Charing Cross, now 

 of Brompton Square; because, forsooth, he had followed the business 

 of a tailor, and had thereby created his social independency. If the 

 author of that article had not made some acquaintance with the ever 

 active talent of Mr. Place, he, doubtless, had not thought him worthy 

 of notice ; but having done this, and the editor having gone so far 

 as to procure and print a wood-cut caricature likeness, in a whole- 

 length figure, the subject resolves itself simply into the question, 

 " Whether the nobility of the human character be the attribute of 

 money or of mind." 



The question, as there put forth, shows us, at a glance, that the 

 Conservatism of" Fraser's Magazine," &c., means the preservation 

 of office and its patronage among a few wealthy families, without 

 brain or necessary mental qualification for the purpose of legislation 

 and government, which, by the bye, is the whole question between 

 Tory and Reformer. In that Conservatism there is nothing con- 

 ducive to the welfare of a nation or that relates to the good of a 

 community. 



On the other hand, it may be asked why Mr. Place, though for- 

 merly a tailor, should not be as eligible to become a legislator and a 

 minister, equal talent granted, as Lord Lyndhurst, the son of a 

 painter; Sir Robert Peel, the son of a cotton spinner; Lord Wyn- 

 ford, the son of a little renting farmer ; or any other newly created 

 member of the Conservative aristocracy. 



What is the position of Mr. Place in the community, as to the 

 past and present 'I 



Truth says that through industry and sobriety, as a journeyman 

 tailor or breeches-maker, he became a housekeeper and a master- 

 tailor in a respectable situation at Charing Cross, — that through in- 

 dustry continued as a master tailor, and integrity exhibited as a 

 tradesman, he brought up a family of nine children, accumulated an 

 independency, was constantly improving his mind, collected a good 

 and valuable library, mastered some languages, studied anatomy in 

 the i-egular way, and, from the acknowledged superiority of his po- 

 litical and general knowledge, made his library the rendezvous of all 

 the active reformers in the House of Commons, himself a counsellor 

 whose opinion was sought on the subject of almost every liberal 

 newspaper, magazine, or periodical that was about to be started, and 

 whose judgment was taken on every thing of note about to be done 

 on that side of the political world which sought reform in the state of 

 our institutions. From the country Mr. Place was appealed to, both 



