ENGLAND AND WALES. 



social weight incident to possession and to be- 

 ing supposed to be living prudently as regards 

 money, that a Scotchmen chiefly values ; while 

 the mainspring of the Englishman's action is his 



WALES. 



intense dread of the world believing him unable 

 .to afford to live in pecuniary ease relatively to his 

 social position. The expression which this social 

 dread takes may often be vulgar, yet it is a mighty 

 social force inciting to labour and enterprise. 

 Burke has said of the money-loving Englishman, 

 that ' his desk is his altar, his ledger is his Bible, 

 .liis business is his religion, and money is his god.' 

 That there is truth in this, can hardly be denied ; 

 yet it is this same determination to acquire wealth 

 this horror of falling behind in the race for gold 



which has made England the mart of the world, 

 and sent her people to colonise the globe. Less 

 subtle than the Scotch or the German troubling 

 itself less with the mysteries of the universe the 

 English intellect is probably more politically 

 efficient than either; being less prone than the 

 Scotch to fall in early life into the error of sup- 

 posing that mankind may be efficiently worked 

 on by mere force of reason. A contempt for logic 

 in political arrangements, and a respect for the 

 majority, are, as applied to these, its essential 

 characteristics. A French political party is de- 

 feated it retires in a rage to hatch a revolution. 

 If he cannot change the law, the Englishman 

 obeys and growls. It may be very bad, in his 

 opinion, but he reveres the British constitution, 

 and he has a wholesome horror of revolutions. 



A contempt for all expression of emotion 

 especially of anger or affection is a noteworthy 

 feature of difference between British and French 

 character. A member of the House of Commons 

 may be as insolent to another member as one 

 man can be to another, if he takes care not to be 

 ' unparliamentary ' in his language ; but if it is 

 seen that he is indulging temper at the expense 

 of policy, he will never rise into power. French- 

 men kiss each other when they have been parted 

 for a week. An Englishman nods to his brother 

 whom he has not seen for ten years, and says : 

 'How do you do, Jack?' In Scotland, social 

 grades melt into each other, so that you can 

 hardly say where one begins and another ends. 

 In England, the lines between them are clearly 

 and firmly drawn ; and in no other country are 

 the dread of falling, and the desire to rise in the 

 social scale, so intense as in England. In no 

 other country will the member of the lower 

 grade so abase himself to gain admission into the 

 higher. But let us here do the Englishman the 

 justice to say that he is aware of this weakness, 

 which the great English satirist of our time has 

 called 'snobbishness;' that he satirises himself 

 unsparingly ; and on this, as on other social points, 

 allows the foreigner to do so, with invincible 

 on which account, perhaps, provoking good- 

 temper. The Frenchman and Frenchwoman are 

 kindly to dependents and servants, treating 

 them as part of the family, and as having an 

 interest in its affairs. The Englishman, or rather 

 let us say the English lady, while never rude to 

 her servants, widens the social gulf between them 

 with a haughty and exacting reserve ; and lives 

 in a state of chronic surprise that she does not 

 meet with fidelity and personal attachment. 



These observations on English character refer 

 to the manifestation of it in the middle and 

 upper classes of society; but the essential ele- 

 ments are probably much the same in all classes. 

 In all, there is the same love of political liberty, 

 with a heartfelt veneration for social rank. 

 Frugality a distinguishing virtue of Scotch 

 and French character is certainly not an 

 English virtue in any class ; indeed, the aver- 

 age Englishman despises it. An English work- 

 ing-man will spend half-a-crown on his dinner, 

 while the Scotchman with the same wages will 

 dine for sixpence. And in every respect the 

 lower classes in England are more self-indul- 

 gent than the Scotch or than the continental. 

 Love of domestic order and cleanliness are emi- 

 nently virtues of the lower classes of England an 



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