he might reply, in a mixture of blasphemous profaneness, and low, sneering vulgarity, that he "would listen with Christian forbearance to every thing that might be said against his order."

We shall proceed to our extracts, merely requesting our readers to observe, that the ultra principles displayed are the real and consistent ones, and that the only consistent ones that can be set in opposition to them are those of decided Conservatism.

We shall commence by showing who are the body against whom these pamphlets are designed to inflame the real anti-Tory party; for we do not designate as a party that mass of persons calling themselves "moderate liberals," who differ from each other in all manner of shades of principles, and even in the extent to which they would act on the very principles they themselves profess to advocate. From this class of individuals the two great parties are gradually, but, of course, with daily increasing rapidity drawing their recruits. When this has continued long enough to reduce this quagmire of inconsistent weakness to a numerical equal to its moral insignificance, the crisis will have come, and we think will also be past, as the mere display of the overwhelming power of the then Tory party will be enough to restore the liberties and heal the wounds of the constitution. But to proceed with our extracts. After anticipating a triumph of his faction, and remarking, that before the approaching opportunity arrives, it is advisable to attend a little to the aristocratic principle among us"-or in other words, to prepare the minds of his gang for their extirpation-he proceeds,

To

"The nobility of England, though it forms the basis and the bulk, forms not the whole of our aristocratic body. all practical purposes we must include under that name all their immediate connexions, and even all who live in the same circles, have the same objects, and from time to time attain the same privileges. What difference in society is there between a lord's second son, or indeed his eldest, and the son of a rich squire, especially if he be of old family, that is, if his father or grandfather have been squires before him?

That

hereditary privileges are at the bottom of the whole, is not denied; that those privileges being destroyed, all the worst parts of the other evils would cease, is admitted.* When the legislature, as in this country, has been long in the hands of the wealthy, they are apt to confound and mistake their interests and convenience for those of society at large, and thus to perpetuate regulations from which they alone derive advantage.”

Mark, reader, the author, writing for the radicals (for he despises the intermediate class as much as we do) defines the aristocracy as the peers, all related to them, all connected with them, all who appear in the society in which they also appear, all those squires who can boast a father and grandfather, and finally all the wealthy. He is perfectly right; and however we may detest the author, whether he be the individual who has eulogised these works in a distinguished periodical, or is only famous as the spouse of the most disgusting female writer of the day; yet we fully admit the justice of his assertion, that in all their great interests these classes are indeed identified. We shall presently notice the miserable attempts he makes to prevent his dupes among them from perceiving this inference. Now for the description of their character, habits, society, &c.

"Statesmen pass much of their time in it; they discuss their measures of a party nature before the empty women and the frivolous youths who compose it. They are not a little moved by the opinion which has dominion in these select circles; they are prevented from making useful appointments of men unknown to these arbiters and arbitresses of fashion-and therefore despised by them-but who would be still more despised if they were known, because they are men of learning and sound sense. The same statesmen are also kept from taking an interest in many good works-as in humane and philanthropic pursuits-and in supporting wise measures of improvement founded upon profound views of human nature and of man's wants, by the same tone of ridicule with which, within these sacred precincts, all mention of such things is sure to be greeted. Lastly, as those circles are drawn round the very focus of all hatred and contempt for the

people, they are the very hotbeds of Toryism and intolerance; nothing being more certain than that the women of fashion and all the young aristocrats (perhaps more or less of all parties) hate reform; look down upon the people; desire more or less openly to have a strong, arbitrary, Tory government, and would fain see the day dawn upon military power established on the ruins of the national representation." *

"The want of sense and reason which prevails in these circles is wholly inconceivable. An ignorance of all that the more refined of the middle, or even of the lower classes, well know, is accompanied by an insulting contempt for any one who does not know any of the silly and worthless trifles which form the staple of their only knowledge. An entire incapacity of reasoning is twin sister to a ready, and flippant, and authoritative denial of all that reason has

taught others. An utter impossibility of understanding what men of learning and experience have become familiar with, stalks hand in hand, insolent and exulting, with a stupid denial of truths which are all but self-evident, and are of extreme importance. Every female member of this exquisite class is under the exclusive dominion of some waiting maid, or silly young lover, or slander-mongering newspaper; and if not under the sway of one paper, lives in bodily fear of two or three. Bribes, entreaties, threats, are by turns employed to disarm these tyrants; and however tormented the wretched victim may be, she is forced by some strange fatality, or propensity, to read what most tortures her." **

*

"Furious to the pitch of Bethlem or St. Luke's, if they themselves be but touched or threatened, nothing can be more exemplary than the fortitude with which they sustain the rudest shocks that can be given to the reputation of their dearest and nearest connexions. Nay, they bear without flinching, with the patience of anchorites, and the courage of martyrs, (but that the pain is vicarious,) the most exquisite and long-continued tortures to which the feelings of their friends and relations can be subjected. This is no exaggeration; for it is below, very much below, the truth. They delight in the slander of that press, the terrors of which daily haunt them, and nightly break their slumbers. Nothing is to them a greater enjoyment than to read all that can be said against their friends. They know, to be sure, that all is false; but, judging VOL. VI.

All

"The body at large is our foe; that is incapable of conversion. Mr. O'Connell may threaten and Mr. Brougham (mark reader!) may educate for ages; that body is beyond all the fears which the former can excite, and all the improvement which the latter can produce. their habits-all their connexions-all their interests-oppose any conversion short of what a miracle could work. The abuses of the system are not merely the protection of their order, but its direct presiding genius. For them, sinecures exist; for them, jobs are done. They it is that profit by the over-payment of public functionaries. They it is that amass wealth by the tax imposed upon the bread consumed, and alone consumed, by the people. For their sons an overgrown army provides commissions and staff-appointments. their sons a bloated church establishment displays deaneries, and prebends, and bishoprics. To teach their children Tory principles, the public schools (the best education in England, and one utterly below contempt) train the patrician infant to lisp in slavish accents. To confirm the lessons of Eton and Winchester, Oxford opens her conservative arms, and eradicates whatever feelings of humanity, whatever reasonable opinions the expanding faculties of the mind may have engrafted upon the barren stocks of Henry the Sixth and William of Wickham."

For

"I think it is in Sheridan's Trip to Scarborough that a noble lord is intro.

G

at being excluded from it; we should rather say, his attempts to excite, at the same time, these two feelings in others, for he is probably, at least to a certain extent, permitted occasionally to pollute that society with his own presence for which he makes this grateful return.

For the purpose of destroying the respect of the lower orders for this society, our worthy radical proceeds:

"The number of men and women are pretty nearly equal in the world, the number of elder sons but small. Every man, says Adam Smith, has a peculiar confidence in his own good luck. Every woman, perhaps, in her good luck and good looks combined. Every one thinks that she has a better chance than her neighbours of securing a matrimonial prize; and if a daughter's generosity or folly lead her to prefer a younger brother, the superior sagacity and prudence of her mother will speedily set the matter right; access will be denied him, perhaps some history of a flirtation with another conjured up, or if he confide his wishes to the fair one's parents, she may not be informed of his proposal. In short, to use the language of political economists, the supply of wives exceeds the demand. Hence arises the noble science of matrimonial angling. The noblest and most amiable part of our species are turned into so many artificial flies to tickle and catch the human trout. Flimsy accomplishments are substituted for solid education; the adornment of the person for that of the mind; dress takes the place of literature; singing and dancing, instead of being regarded, one as a pleasant way of beguiling a cheerless hour, the other as a means of securing a graceful deportment, are ends seriously pursued for their own sake. While the mother superintends the maid or the milliner as she sews the gown on her daughter's back; while she watches with respectful deference Mr. Nesbit or Mr. Woodman, as he decks or disfigures her hair with the orthodox ornaments prescribed by fashion, or plasters the curls with rice water to her temples, her daughter's morals are left pretty nearly to form themselves, and her reading confined to fashionable novels or trumpery annuals. The whole soul of the mother is bent on securing the benefit of an establishment; no time is to be lost, the future is left to take care of itself; present attraction is all that is thought of. Conscious that

the chances are against her, the market being overstocked, no manœuvre is missed, no opportunity neglected, and much may be, and is, done by the good management of a judicious chaperon. The gaudy bait is skilfully played before the eyes of the destined victim; the finedrawn slender line is invisible; the simple object of these arts, perhaps just twentyone and fresh from college, sees and desires, thinks all is gold that glitters; he nibbles should some other sister of the hook interfere, and try to lure away the prey, falsehood and slander lend their aid to defeat her intrigues: just when the swain begins to think himself in love, the bait is withdrawn, he follows, and at last takes it. But with matrimony comes repentance. Scarce is the honeymoon passed, when he finds out the deception which has been practised; he discovers that, instead of an amiable companion, who can enliven moments of dulness as well as partake of the pleasures of gaiety, he has married an empty, selfish, heartless, frivolous person, who cares not a sixpence for anything but his fortune, and who looks upon him only as the peg upon which her establishment hangs. But it is too late so recede: he may, indeed, "flounce indignant of the guile," but the line of matrimony is too strong to be broken. The natural consequence follows; the gentleman amuses himself with a mistress, the lady with a lover. This may be thought a picture too highly coloured; but I do maintain that it is the tendency of primogeniture to generate this spirit of rapacity and artifice; it even tends to make sister rival sister, and perhaps a whole family pull caps for one man. May be, indeed, under the pressing exigencies of circumstances, a rich grocer or teadealer is admitted to purchase his admis. sion into the ranks of gentility by taking some unsaleable commodity off her mother's hands. If no such thing as primogeniture existed, if things were left to follow their own course, and permitted to flow in their natural channels, this disparity between the demand and supply would vanish; this urgent necessity to be the first in the field, and to secure the first rich fool, boy or booby, that might offer, would disappear; women would mate with their equals; and though Hyde Park might not exhibit so long a line of carriages on a Sunday, nor the opera so splendid an attendance on a Saturday, yet the number of old maids at Bath and of divorces at Doctors' Commons would be diminished."