The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-10 00:00:00

THE ARISTOCRACY AND THE MIDDLE

CLASS.

(From the Daily News of this day.)

The friends of the aristocracy need be under no
alarm. There is no revolutionary plot hatching
against the permanence of the " order." The popu-
lar demand to have administrative employment
thrown open to men who are neither connexions nor
dependents of the aristocracydoes not aim at the ex-
clusion of the aristocracy from the executivegovern-
ment. The people do not wish to see the aristo-
cracy superseded by men of the middle class, but as-
sociated with them in the discharge of official
duties. The people of England are attached to their
monarchical institutions, and believe that an aris-
tocracy is indispensable to the maintenance of the
Throne. But they believp, also, that even a mo-
narchical government is strengthened by a liberal
infusion of the popular element. They see that the
anxious nepotism of that section of the aristocracy
which devotes itself to politics as a profession, has
almost succeeded in excluding plebeian competition.
They trace to this source the infirmity of purpose
and imbecility of :action which have characterised
our Government throughout the Oriental struggle ;
and therefore, as the first step to administrative
reform, they ask to have the career of civil employ-
ment thrown open to general competition.
It is no answer to these complaints and demands
to tell us that Parliamentary Reform, Municipal
Reform, the Emancipation of the Negroes, and the
Abolition of the Corn Laws, have been carried by
the influence of ' the middle classes, in despite of
the strenuous resistance of a majority df the aristo-
cracy, That the middle classes should have been
able to carry these reforms, shows their strength ;
that the strongest section
of the aristocracy should
have opposed them, shows its want of sound poli-
tical knowledge, and its imperfect notions of poli-
tical justice. We have had good legislative mea-
sures passed, because the voice of the middle classes
(when they choose to exert themselves) is powerful
in the Legislature • we have imbecile administra-
tive Government, because the middle classes are
unrepresented in the executive councils of the
State.

We are told that Popular or middle class policy
is left to be carried out by the aristocracy because
" we Britons have the weakness of ' loving a lord,'
and of contemning our noble selves ;" and we are
expected to accept this as a sufficient reason why
no change can or ought to be attempted. We
know that this weakness is the cause of the evils
complained of ; we know that the middle classes
have themselves to blame that their " order" is
utterly unrepresented in the executive councils of
the State ; and it is precisely for this reason that
we aro labouring, in concert with other earnest re-
formers,' to awaken the.
middle classes to a sense of
the injustice they are doing to themselves and the
nation at large. Their representatives are now ad-
mitted to the Legislature, and the consequence is
that legislation has been greatly im pd. Their representative's are still excluded fromrove the execu-
tive councils of the State, and the consequence is
that the conduct of these councils is characterised
by anything rather than energy, wisdom, and honesty Our exclusively aristocratic Administra-
tions do not "
carry out popular or ' middle-class'
act while
policy ;" they systematically thwart and counter-
professing to enforce it.
An attempt is indeed made to prove that middle-
class statesmen are
it is alleged thatan impossibility. To this end
"men of the middle class, and
especially the most competent men of that class,
do not greatly devote themselves to public or Par-
liamentary life, just because it is expensive and ab-
sorbing, never profitable, and often thankless."
Middle-class politicians do not find public life
more " thankless" than aristocraticaloliticians.
p
Middle-class politicians have earned the pub-
rally find that gratit who
lic gratitude by real and essential services, gene-
they try it sorely b y
ude cling to them, even when
expensiveness of a their eccentricities. As to the
'political career, the middle classes need not shrink
from it on this account more
than they do from the legal profession. No man
will wisely devote
himself to either,who has not from
some other source means sufficient to enable him to
" bide his time,"
to wait for the coming in of busi-
ness. But a large
Proportion of the middle classes
are as able to do this as the aristocracy. It is rarely
the elder sons—the wealthier members of the aris-
tocracy—who devote themselves earnestly to poli-
tics as a business ; it is the younger sons, the "lack
lands," who desire to earn the means of maintain-
Lastly,ing themselves in the rank they were born, in.
as to the alleged unprofitableness of a poli;
tical career, do the aristocracy find it unprofitable .
We suspect if it did not
many of them engaged in it. To the middle classes
Pay we should not find so
such a career is decidedly To
all
the prizes are engrossed by the aristocracy. The
aristocracy are paid, and over-paid, for their public
serviced ; but every middle-class man who under-
takes to serve his country in a political capacity is
expected to do so without fee or reward. As long
as this system is upheld, it will indeed be difficult