CHAPTER XII 

 Autumn Days 



IN days to come historians will mark the decade 

 1870-80 as being of great importance in the 

 history of our English social life. Great as was the 

 outward prosperity during the Whig ascendancy, 

 the inevitable and logical result of the Liberal prin- 

 ciples that were in the air was the growth of the 

 power of the democracy and the lessening of that of 

 the great nobles. Accordingly we find that a suc- 

 cession of blows was struck by those Liberal minis- 

 tries which even down to our own time were made 

 up to a great extent of members of, or dependents 

 on, the great Whig Oligarchy. The Russells and 

 the Cavendishes diligently sawed off the main 

 branches of the political tree on which they sat. 

 Reform, the abolition of the Corn Laws, and the 

 following and inevitable agricultural depression, 

 began the ruin which the Finance Bill will doubt- 

 less complete in process of time. 



Those who believe that the survival of sreat fami- 

 lies is not the result of luck or chance, but of certain 

 definite qualities that are of service to the family as 



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