10 
THE FLORIST’S JOURNAL. 
different degrees in the peerage ; but, just as the peers are all 
nobles, even so are they all menials. The housekeeper may look 
with scorn upon the scullion, as the steward with disdain upon 
the stable-boy ; but they all agree in the main,—they are to obey 
the orders of a master or mistress, and in the promptitude and 
perfection of this obedience, the whole of their official merit con¬ 
sists. Officially, they have no minds of their own, and not the 
slightest use for learning or science. It is desirable indeed that 
the greater part of them should be able to read and write, and 
even understand a little simple arithmetic ; but beyond these they 
have no necessity to go ; and even a steward may do all that is 
officially required of him with nothing more than a National School 
education. 
From this it must not be inferred that we have the smallest 
intention to undervalue the office or labour of any one of these 
parties. On the contrary, we readily admit both the necessity 
and the value of them. The merit is not in the office, but in the 
performance of its duties ; and in this, the humblest menial 
may, in his way, be as meritorious as the highest peer. But 
while we readily admit this, we must claim and maintain the right 
of inquiry into the relative duties and importance of officers, be¬ 
cause that is an abstract principle, and has nothing to do with the 
merits or the demerits of individuals. 
Now, in so far as a gardener is a servant, hired, employed, and 
paid by a master, he is as much a menial—an obeyer of orders 
given, as any other of the establishment ; and if the orders of his 
master could reach and regulate every thing he has to do, he would 
be as completely a menial as the rest. But this cannot, in the 
very nature of things, be the case ; or, if it were, the man would 
be no longer a gardener : he would be a gardener’s labourer, and 
his master would be the gardener. Few men, able to keep a gar¬ 
den and have it properly attended to, have leisure and inclination 
to be their own gardeners, and we believe still fewer have ability. 
Therefore, in the great majority of cases, he who is a gardener in 
name must also be one in reality—must have a head for garden 
management, as well as hands for garden tools. 
This elevates him above the merely menial part of the establish¬ 
ment, by blending the independent man who must follow his own 
system, with the mere menial who has nothing to do but obey the 
dictates of his master. He has other orders to obey—the orders of 
