Star.
London, England, 1831-04-01 00:00:00

THE WESTUINSTER HEVIEIV—No. XXVIII.

The " Anatomy of Society" is an admirable article, which
we recommend to the perusal of all who have leisure for the
investigation of truth.
" By an examination of the laws of a people, it may be clearly seen
which chute has made them. If in the law of high roads it be for'sid-
den that a plantation should grow by the hedge side, in a common
farm, but the same plantation be permitted in a park, to the great
injury of the road, it is thence clear, that park-owners have made
the law. if privileges are accumulated by any particular set, we
may be perfectly sure that it is this set which has been employed in
law-making.
"Those who have long been in the habit of making laws, become to
be considered as the only right law-makers, and as it has been
seen that the do-nothings not only make laws, hut also are the chief
opinion-fotmers, and esteeem themselves greatly, it necessarily follows
that the greater part of mankind view them in their own light, and
take them at their own value. This is the plan which has been per.
sued ; by means of it a very few have long had the command of the
whole world. Being in possession of some power to begin with, they
have multiplied it a thousand-fold by means of law and opinion, jot
as the mechanician increases his power by the wheel or the lever.
" Deference for the do-nothings is nowhere carried to s higher pitch
than it is in England : every sign or symptom of doing nothing is re-
spected; a white hand would be bowed over, whereas the broad and
brawny fist, speaking of a vast treasure of labour laid out for the use
of mankind, would be sneered at as vulgar; a delicate complexion is
genteel ; it being akin to disease is forgiven for the sake of its connec-
tion with the do-nothings. robustness is low. In Wallachia *and Mol-
davia the Boyars used to pretend to be unable to walk, for the same
reason; a Prince always moved supported by a person on each side,
by way of living crutches.
"The complexion of the public opinion is, in this respect, suffiused
over our literature, and in no department more visibly displayed than
in that popular branch of it—the novel. The novel is now read by 211
clerics, and is, perhaps, more relished by those that can read of the
lower orders than even the upper ranks : and it may, without fear of
mistake, be considered as a tolerably just minor of the popular preju-
dices. Now, in the rovel, we always lied that the interest of eh. story
turns upon the members of the aristocracy ; for the service of the novel,
a new batch of peers is always created ; baronets are part of the common
stock in trade; and if an untitled individual is ever introduced, he is
always a gentleman of a very ancient fiunily, the possessor of a mansion
of great antiquity, and descended from many generations of do-nothings.
The hero or heroine, if they are tot o: the upper rank to begin with,
always turn out to be so at last ; it is a denouement of a sufficient in.
Serest, if he who has always been supposed a plain Mister, ends in being
proved to the satisfaction of all aMy Lerd. The romance writers
would apnea to have followed Terquin's advice, and cut off all the
tallest poppies for the composition of their dramatis personas: their ,
I hands re all trumps : it might be supposed from them, that no-
thing existed under the rank of a gentleman, were it not that they
are obliged to introduce tradesmen and othera ministering to the
wants of the true men ; the old story of little china dandled in the
arms of crockery.
" The newspapers also in this point faithfully represent the national
tendency. The most trivial movements o. the do.notttings arc faithfully
recorded ; instead of doing nothing, look at the broad sheet, and it might
be supposed they did every thing and were every thing. here is a
marriage in high life and there is a long obituary of a man loaded with
titles, whose distinction seems to have been, that he had freer access to
the stnte.chest than any other t in this column we have a list of arrivals,
in that a list of dinners, in the next a long enumeration of the horses
they are trairdr• to ran for their amusement. If a dc-nothing
discovers that a do-nothing who lived a thousand years ago, from wham
he is descended, was emir(' Lord Barbecue instead of .Ir. Barbecue, he'
proceeds to get himself coiled le ml, instead of Mr. Barbecue, and the
newspaper is filled with learned arguments on the subject, and with re-
ports as to what the isord Chancellor thought on the chain of evidence.
If a titled do-nothing has run away with another do-nothing's wiW—
for men must be doing something—the noise is far greater than in the
. case of a mere lower class man, and the newspaper is especially copious
on the subject.
" The great and titled do-nothings hare acquired among the %%tiger,
that is the many, the name of • Corinthians,' from their forming the
capital of top of the social pillar. This is true, not only generally, but
particularly. What rociety or institution ext.tt without possessing, by
way of ornament, several titled do-nothings ? They are almost enrsi.
dered an essential ire every association, of whatever kind : no public
meeting is expected to eff I:s objcet without a great do-nothing in the
emir : patio; interested do not limit out for a man of the bigots' elia.
racter, or the most extensive information, fur a chairman ; tney coos
vase among toe House of Lords, and when they Lind an illustrious
idler, not too food of other kinds of amusement, to preside like King
Log, they ate wondrously pleased, and expect great things from the
public meeting.
" That Great Britain is the most aristocratical country in the
world, has been a received opinion on the continent for some time, hat
it was reserved for M. de Stazi, who lately wrote a book on this court.
ivy, to find that the • lower . rde.re were proud of their upper class,
and, in shott, gloried in their chains. This astonished ehe ynurg
Frenchman; but we have long known is, and they who understaed I
the nature of opinion, and observe how many means the aristocracy of
an ignorant people have of moulding it, need not munel to find that
at this moment the annihilation of the privileges and titles of the here.
ditary le4ielators, would be generally esteemed the emir destruc-
i tion of the British Constitution,—and the extinction of ail rational
1 Liberty-"