242 



NOBILITY. 



Leclerc and Rochambeau. After the evacuation of 

 the island, he embarked on lioard a vessel of war for 

 Cuba, but was killed in a battle with the British, 

 who took the vessel. 



His son Alexis, count of Noailles, born at Paris, 

 June 1, 1783, minister of state of Louis XVIII., was 

 obliged to leave France in 1811, because he had in- 

 curred the suspicions of the imperial government, and 

 for a time lived in Switzerland. The princes of the 

 house of Bourbon sent him on important missions to 

 the German courts, to Russia and to Sweden, after 

 which he repaired to the residence of Louis at Hart- 

 well, in England. In 1813, he served, as aid of the 

 crown-prince of Sweden, in Germany. After the 

 battle of Leipsic, he left the Swedish service, accom- 

 panied the allied army to France, and fought at Bri- 

 enne and La Fere Champenoise, after which he 

 joined the count of Artois at Vesoul, became his aid, 

 and was afterwards the plenipotentiary of Louis 

 XVIII. at the congress of Vienna. He returned 

 with the king from Ghent to Paris, was chosen de- 

 puty of the chamber of 1815, and, in October of the 

 same year, was appointed by Louis minister of state, 

 but without any particular department. In 1828, 

 count Alexis of Noailles was a member of the cham- 

 ber of deputies, and, at the suggestion of the minister 

 Portalis, was appointed by the king member of the 

 commission to examine whether the schools of the 

 clergy (the Jesuits, &c.) accorded with the funda- 

 mental principles of the French constitution. 



Ant. Claude Dominique Juste, count of Noailles, cou- 

 sin of the former, second son of the prince de Poix, born 

 at Paris, August 25, 1777, was one of the first cham- 

 berlains of Napoleon, and remained in this post till 

 1814. After the restoration, he was the ambassador 

 of Louis XVIII. at Petersburg, till superseded, in 

 1820, by the count de Ferronays. 



NOBILITY. The history and political importance 

 of a hereditary nobility that is, a rank of society 

 which claims the first civil honours and privileges 

 above the rest of the citizens, by no other right but 

 that of birth is one of the most momentous and most 

 contested points in the discussions on civil society, 

 which has not yet been sufficiently explained by his- 

 torical facts, notwithstanding the countless number 

 of essays that have been published on this subject. 

 Moreover, the variety of its forms, and relations to 

 other classes of society, is so great, and even the ori- 

 gin of its existence so different, that we cannot safely 

 pronounce a general judgment in its favour or against 

 it. We cannot say, on the one hand, that such a dif- 

 ference of hereditary rank is indispensable to every 

 nation, or, at least, to every monarchy ; and, on the 

 other hand, that it never has proved useful, and con- 

 sequently ought to be abolished. We may, in the 

 history of almost every nation, discern a period in 

 which the great interests of mankind, knowledge and 

 virtue, a love of moral beauty, and the charms of 

 nature and art, have been cultivated and preserved 

 by a select class of society ; and, on the contrary, 

 we may also distinguish another period, when these 

 very treasures, which constitute the worth of a 

 state, have been trampled upon by the same class. 

 Thus the history of monarchies, both ancient and 

 modern, shows plainly that the greatest obstacles in 

 the way of peace, good order, and justice, have 

 originated with the nobility, impatient of the restraint 

 which the good of society requires, although very 

 willing to flatter superior power, if they are allowed 

 to participate in it. Revolutions have, till late years 

 at least, almost always originated with a discontented 

 nobility ; and, for one prince whom popular insur- 

 rections have deprived of his throne and life, hun- 

 dreds of others may be mentioned who have lost 

 both by the conspiracies and factions of the nobility. 



The possession of extensive estates, with authority 

 over numerous vassals and dependents, gives to tlte 

 nobles a power which throws great difficulties in the 

 way of monarchs who desire to protect the lower 

 classes against injustice, and to preserve in them 

 feelings of manliness and self-respect difficulties 

 against which the noblest monarchs and the ablest 

 statesmen have often striven in vain. The result of 

 such a strife frequently is, that the monarchical 

 becomes, in fact, an aristocratical government ; and 

 from this there is but a small step to the introduction 

 of a sovereign senate, composed of the privileged 

 families. But such a government is truly most con- 

 tradictory to reason; for it neither recognises the 

 equality of all the citizens, nor the necessity of re- 

 moving the contest for pre-eminence caused by the 

 passions of men ; and history teaches us that it is 

 the most oppressive and most unjust of all govern- 

 ments. The usurpations of the patricians in Rome 

 and Venice have been almost equalled, in modern 

 times, by those of the nobility of Poland and Sweden. 

 Montesquieu's celebrated remark, " Point de nio- 

 nargue, point de noblesse : point de noblesse, point de 

 monarque," is true only in a qualified sense. Lord 

 Bacon, a far greater thinker, on the contrary, sets 

 forth, in four positions, every thing that can be said 

 against the nobility : " Raro ex virtute nobilitas ; 

 rarius ex nobilitate virtus ; nobiles mujorum depreca- 

 tions ad veniam s&pius utuntur, quam siiffragatiune 

 ad ho'nores. Tanta solet esse industria novorum 

 hominum, ut nobiles prte illis tanquam statuce vide- 

 antur ; nobiles in studio respectant nimis seepe, quod 

 mali cursoris est." De Augmentis Scientiar. (lib. 

 vii). The opinions of Franklin, Kant, Boileau, and 

 Voltaire, on this subject, are generally known. Kant 

 describes hereditary nobility as a rank which precedes 

 merit, and is generally not even followed by merit. 

 Reason bids us value in man none but moral excel- 

 lence. Justice requires that the state should hold 

 out equal privileges to all the citizens, without dis- 

 crimination ; protect their rights by equal laws, and 

 prevent the few from subjecting the many. But this 

 does not prove the inconsistency of a hereditary 

 nobility with the best constitution which the circum- 

 stances of a particular state will allow, because time 

 may have interwoven many valuable interests with 

 it, and made them dependent upon it. It is plain 

 that, in a state where the ideas of justice and citi- 

 zenship are clearly understood, and well rooted, a 

 privileged order is only desirable under very peculiar 

 circumstances, for this simple reason, that all heredi- 

 tary dignities, privileges, &c., are irrational. Human 

 folly, however, may render it necessary to admit a 

 hereditary- monarchy, for the purpose of preventing 

 by this evil (for every hereditary government is an 

 evil) still greater ones. A new nation will never 

 admit this privileged rank. The modern nobility 

 had its origin in ages when power was the only law, 

 and the usurpations of the stronger were confirmed 

 by prescription. Thus it has become so much inter- 

 woven with all the interests of the several states, that 

 its abolition would be a very difficult task. Norway, 

 however, effected this object, in 1821, against the 

 will of the king, whom the constitution, however, 

 compelled to sign the decree, which had passed 

 three times in the assembly of the states. 



Considering this subject in a historical point of 

 view, a hereditary nobility is found in the infancy of 

 almost every nation, ancient and modern. It existed 

 before the period of Authentic history. Its origin is 

 to be attributed to various causes ; for the most part 

 to military despotism ; in some cases, to the honours 

 paid to superior ability, or to the guardians of the 

 mysteries of religion. The priestly nobility of the 

 remotest antiquity has everywhere yielded to the 



