The Sun.
London, England, 1855-06-26 00:00:00

(From the Morning Advertiser of this day.)

Our countrymen are attached to their ancient institutions.
Their nobility is one of them, and it has not the full share of
the popular admiration and affection which it possessed during
the French Revolutions at the latter end of the past century.
The change has been effected partly by the monopoly of Go-
vernment, and places of honour and emolument, by a portion
of that illustrious body, and partly from transferring to the
whole the faults of individuals. Too little sympathy has
been shown to the middle and lower classes, to either of
whom the higher are but as a grain of sand on the sea-shore.
If the nobility lose the prestige of public opinion, it is impos-
sible for it to survive in an institutional character, belonging
to and upheld by the nation. The demonstration en Sunday
in Hyde-park can be compared to nothing but the meetings
of the exasperated Parisians, on hearing of the proceedings
at the ill-timed banquet of the Garde du Corps at 'Versailles,
on the memorable first of October, 1789, which proceedings,
more than all provocations put together, incensed. the French
against the nobility, and led to the suppression of the privi-
leged orders without exception. Napoleon I. created a upbi-
lity, and some of the old body returned under the Bourbons,
but neither were regarded by the nation with any degree of
favour. The atrocious murder committed by the Due de
Praslin, of whom we wish to believe that he was insane, re-
vived the old contempt and animosity, which wore not allayed
by his suicidal evasion from justice, with the supposed com-
plicity of Louis Philippe. Tho prestige was gone, and pro-
bably for ever, and every revolutionary movement of the
people has aimed at the establishment of a republic.
A mistake seems to gain ground in England. The sins of
a-mere handful of titled families, who can command from
half-a-dozen to nine, ten, or a dozen electoral constituencies,
which enable them to engross all place and power in the
State, are transferred to all, and the whole aristocracy is in
danger of suffering for a few worthless and incompetent per-
sons. Nor are the people alone to be blamed for this egre-
gious blunder, seeing the pains that were taken, not only by
the last Government, but the present, composed of the very
same men whom the nation expelled with the deepest dis-
grace, to drag in the aristocracy, as a foil against the indig-
nant complaints which were evoked by the cold-blooded
sacrifice of a large army, to doltish formalities, and an as-
tounding amount of stolid ignorance of very simple matters of
business. Lord Palmerston particularly distinguished him-
self in this illiberal way of shielding himself and colleagues
from public !censure, for he was the very first to draw the
eyes of the people upon the aristocracy as a body, when he
lavished his fulsome praises upon it, as an answer to Mr.
Layard's charges of neglect, ignorance, and other phases of
incompetence/ against the Ministers who were the authors of
our dreadful calamities in the Crimea.
An impression has been widely prevalent, for some time,
that the higher classes, and particularly those who are in the
Legislature, have no sympathy with their less fortunate
brethren. The consequence of the injudicious display made
by the Garde du Corps, in the theatre of Versailles proves
that there is danger in promoting this feeling ; and the mani-
festation of Sunday cannot fail to have penetrated into thou-
sands of hearts which have hitherto been slightly affected.
„Before wealthy commoners and young noblemen begin to
regulate the livelihood of the industrious and useful classes of
the humbler order, they ought at least to make some in-
quiries into its nature and their position. There are thou-
sands who have no other homes than coffee-houses and public-
houses. There are hundreds of families in the metropolis
alone who work 6 days, from an early hour in the morning
till night, and who do not receive their wages until very late
on the Saturday night, simply because their employers, how-
ever willing to pay them, cannot provide the means earlier.
We say, again, that the legislative classes are placing
themselves in a false, and it may be, a dangerous position,
by attempting to legislate, where, in good truth, they have
no legitimate right. Acts of Parliament have no more power
: 'to make Churchgoers than faggots to make them mass wor-
; shippers. A little plain common sense will be a good prepara-
tory medicine for a crisis of political disorder, which seems
. to be approaching, but which may be averted by ceasing to
I irritate the public mind.