CHAP. XI.] CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE. 345 



343. Now, then, my dear Sir, this people 

 contains very few persons very much raised in 

 men's estimation, above the general mass ; for, 

 though there are some men of immense fortunes, 

 their wealth does very little indeed in the way 

 of purchasing even the outward signs of respect ; 

 and, as to adulation, it is not to be purchased 

 with love or money. Men, be they what they 

 may, are generally called by their two names, 

 without any thing prefixed or added. I am one 

 of the greatest men in this country at present; 

 for people in general call me " Cobbett," though 

 the Quakers provokingly persevere in putting 

 the William before it, and my old friends in 

 Pennsylvania, use even the word Billy, which, 

 in the very sound of the letters, is an antidote 

 to every thing like thirst for distinction. 



344. Fielding, in one of his romances, ob 

 serves, that there are but few cases, in which a 

 husband can be justified in availing himself of 

 the right which the law gives him to bestow 

 manual chastisement upon his wife, and that 

 one of these, he thinks, is, when any preten 

 sions to superiority of blood make their ap 

 pearance in her language and conduct. They 

 have a better cure for this malady here ; namely ; 

 silent, but, ineffable contempt. 



345. It is supposed, in England, that this 

 equality of estimation must beget a general 



