Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1852-12-29
sCoUNDRELIsM OF LOW BIRTH.

SCOUNDRELlSM OF LOW BlhlH.
"There is scoundrelsm in low BIRTH" remarks
one of the English writers.
When an Englishman speaks of low birth,
we know what he means. 1t is not that the pa
ly-the idea is that Mr.. Smith and Mr.. Brown,
both sterling good people by the way. can boast
of no patrician blood, can show no genealogical
tree-with its crooked ramiications and musty
uncertain titles stuck on the tops like thistles on
a thorn bush.
To be held in little esteem in England, there
fore, is not to know who or what your great
great grandfather was. Should you be thus un-
fortunate, you are charged with scoundrelism
instanter. Thus, taking transatlantic view of
the matter, Englands own-rather should we
say, the worlds own-peerless Shakespeare, was
scoundrel of the deepest dye, since he was
born in mean house, his father was a petty
tradesman and of his ancestors nobody can tell
with any degree of accuracy. However, let us
be thankful that Providence ordained him a lo,o
birth, for had he been in palace, and heir to a
crown, he might possibly have made as great a
dot as have several of those gentry, yclept kings
of the old world.
| Many sovereign may thank the bard for his
wondrous immortality-but spite of high birth,
these royal scions have fed his pen with those
very vices that make scoundrels of common
meu-such as cheating, lying, thieving and mur-
deriug
There are nethar sex, age, nor rank in scoun-
dreism. The term implies baseness, rascaility
vilainy, an utter absence of honor or virtue.
Pope says
" Go, if your ancient but ignoble blood,
Has crept through scoundrcs ever since the flood.
The term "ancient" would seem to imply
that the person addressed could trace his pedi-
gree from noble, or in the common acceptance
of the term, great men, yet Pope puts them
down as scoundrels from the flood" rather a
libel on titled grandeur
A babe lies in his cradle looking out with his
eager eyes over his little world. 1t is only a
poor room, broken and mended, and broken and
mended again. His mother sings some worn
out ditty in his ear, but she has drawn the cradle
up to the washing-tub, and so she works foot
and hand. A few years roll by-that boy is the
foremost man of the world. He can't for the
life of him tell whether his great-grandfatheI
was tinker or a lord--born in an Irish bog OF
an English castle. But he can tell why it is
that what they call lords, would give titles and
wealth to be as widely honored as he. 1t is be-
cause Intellect has set OIL his forehead her grand
distinctive seal.
Another babe, fairer, more beautiful attired
lies also in its cradle of silver and gold. He
too looks out upon the bounds that constitute
his world. Splendor dazzles his infant eyes,
His lady-mother comes to bend above him be-
fore entering the brilliant bal-room--and the
boy holds his little hands towards the coronet
that gitters on her brow.
He too grows to manhood-a prince, he'll
perhaps to a throne--and though courtly, yet ar.
rogant, vain, jealous and unprincipled- breaks
scores of hearts, ruins female innocence,' kills
his man or two, in honor--and dies at last mis-
erable death, leaving his name as a plague-spot
upon the annals of his country.
Which of those two is the scoundrel! Truly
did the great satirist say,
"Honor and shame from no condition rise
Att ,ceH your part, there all the honor hes
[Oive Branch.