New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-08-01

peerage has long been within bis reach but though
son and brother OF Duke of Bedford be also refuses
to shelye himself Quite lately this determination oil
his must have been put 70 a strong test. The once
OF President Of the Council is almost always he'd by
Peer, and when in the recent Ministerial changes be
accepted that ofice it was generally believed that be
would be raised to the peerage. Bat No be prefer
red oreuain Commoner, to yacae lis sea' address
the Electors Of the City Of London. and be returned
BIZ acclamAtion Sir William MOle-woTth likewise re-
CARDS the that he about to be elevated TO
the House If Lords as aspersio1 on BIS po.i'ich
character and hkes care 70 publish positive denial
thai; be wls likely TO Gceeg' peersge.
So much for The peera-e; but it would seem that
tie Kuiehttocd as il carries with it no political
power, las been 1ung away TO sltisf! the par
venue boure eoisie. On this ground we can explain
the elevation to that rank Of Sir Joseph PaX'on'
the Duke of DeyOnshire's head gardener, and Sir
John Fox, o contractor. But viii this sstlsf! the
misdle-cass sense Of seltimpOyance in all cases
Apparently not; for Stephenson, the engineer, cor
temptuousy declined the trumpery dignity, and still
more recently Dargan, the railway contractor has
followed HE example thinking. no doubt, that 70
accept it would be putting himsefin false position
In vain Royalty woes him. visits him hs handsome
mansion, an honor previously vouchsafci only to the
highest arstocracy; the coy burgher shraks from 'he
extended hand Of m1jesty while Queen Victoria
erssping the ann of the reluctant citizen, affords al
| expression Of the need that feuda,sm has OF being
propped UP in these days by the industrial leaders OF
/ the epoch.
| But while the middle class are thus slowly winning
power from tie arstOcracy. il is natural 70 ask how
are the middle classes likely to Use their newly &C.
| ouired influence This ma ter must be looked at
! from no class point OF view but from broad human
itarian grounds and the question that overleaps all
others i. this one-how il the fate and social condi'
ton of glands toiDg millions likely 10 be Affected
by the cbange'
Some politicians of the so called liberal school have
talked largely of the "uniOn OF the middle and work
ing classef" but the idea is absurdiy cbmerical.
Broad is the gulf tina, separates the employer from
the employed-the master from the servant. A. re-
CARDS domestic service, let the last judicial words of
Taliourd speak How painful" said he, lis the
thought that there men and women grow ing up
around us minstering to comforts andnecessites,
continually inmates OF our dwellings uih chose Gt-
"fctions and nature are as much unacluainted az
"if they were inhabitants Of oLer sphere. And
in order that there may be confusion to the res
pecve inhabitants of the 1.-TWO spheres the md
die class ladies' obiyiOus OF their comparatively
recent emancipation from seridon, compel their fe
male servants to wear "caps' as badges of the
lower sphere. and seldom allow their maids 20 APP
parel Themselves sprucey for fear Of an oblitera-
ton. rot OF land but of Ea0Hey marks.
And as regards the journeymsn Of all descriptions,
in what relation does he stand to his employer
{ 4 a. fha IN
the Ten Hours bill The Tories. out Of spite for
the recent loss of the Corn-Lsws, helped the work
ing class to get IT. but when passed., the reports of
the district supervisors sho. with what shameless
cunning and petty underhand trescheries it was
cyaded. Every subsequent attempt in Parliament to
subject Labor to humane conditions has been met
by the middle class representatives. with III. catch-cry
Of Communism Mr.. Golden has acted thus score
of tines Within the workshops for years the aim
of the employers has been to prolopg tho hours of
labor beyond human endurance, and by an unprnci-
plcd use of the contract system, by pittug man
against another, to cut down the earning OF the
skilled to t1at of the unskiiled lahorer. II was
this system that at last drove the Am dgamated
/ Engineers to rev)t. and the brutality OF the eX-
prcssions that passed current among the masters
az that time showed how little Of refined or humi me
feeling was to be looked for from them. Their boor
ish ignorance was further displayed in the employ
ment b, the Masters Association of certain third
rate rrateur, Sidney smith, to undertake their de-
Tense in the public press and TO carry on the war OF
words with their revolted hands The style of their
hired writer well fitted the task he had to perform
and when the battle was over, the Masters hav-
ng no more need OF literature or the press, gave
their hirelng his congo. Although the middle class
do not aim at the learning of the old school they do
not for that cultivate either modern science or tera
ture The ledger, the desk, business, that is educa-
ton sufficient. Their daughters. when eXpenslyely
educated, are specifically endowed with u few
accomplishments" but the real education of the
mind and the storing il with knowledge is not even
dreamed Of.
The present splendid brotherhood of fiction
writer's in England, whose graphic and eloquent
pages have issued TO the world more political aud
social truths than have been uttered BY all the pro-
iessioral politicians, publicsts and moralists put
together have described every section Of tie middle
class from the highly genteel' annuitant and Fund
holder no looks upon all sorts of business vulgar
to the little shopkeeper and lawyers clerk. And
/ how have Dickens and Thackeray Miss Bronte and
! Mrs. Gaskell painted them As full of presumption
aIectation, petty tyranny and ignorance; and the
civilized world have confirmed their verdict with the
danirng epigram that it has fixed to this class that
"they are ser'ie TO those above aud tyranuical TO
/ those beneath them"
The cramped and narrow sphere in which they
move is TO a certain degree due TO the social system
of which they form part. IS the Russian nobility
live uneasy bewixt the oppression OF the Car above
them and the dread of the enslayed masses below