The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-23
GROWTH OF THE MONEY POWER IN
EUROPEAN SOCIETY.

LOIbCl Ian QUILL l.
From the " y. Sua.
There are many indications that the supre-
macy of aristocratic birth in European society
is passing away and that the reign of the
money power is coming in its place. On the
Continent, as in England, the richest men are
beginning to be the most influential and the
proudest descent to be OF less social value
than an ample fortune
The classes which have preponderated in
Partisan fashionable society since the acce5-
sion of Louis Napoleon are chiefly people
distinguished more for their wealth and dis
play than for their lineage. St Arnaud, Per-
sgny, De Morny, and other mock heroes Of
the new-fangled imperial court, belong all
more or less to the race of alveuturers: while
the Foulds, Pereires, Erlangers, and other
financial spectators and stocl-exchauge
gamblers in vogue, are vastly inferior in per-
Sonal character even to the ROthschids.
The old gentry of the country. what
ever may be their traditions and
second-fddle TO the newborn grandees
Of the plutocracy No doubt that the latter
court the former, and that the daughter of a
mercantile or financial man smiles upon a
coronet; but even tais weakness of the sex for
the glitter of titles and the privileges OF rank
is gently blended with an inquiry into the
noble bridegrOOms cash account. In point
Of fact, money rules supreme in France. The
traditions of the feudal ages may still give
rise to envy; but practically they have ceased
to be of any avail in contesting thesupremacy
of the money power.
In London. retired Indian and Australian
merchants, rich manufacturers and industri-
alists, opulent railway, insurance. and bank
directors, are seen at the present season in
the circles of the hereditary mobility, where
but twenty years ago they would have been
stunned like Hottentots In the manufac-
turing counties, the millionaire factory owner
builds a country seat next to that of the lord
of the manor; and though the ladies of the
latters family will grumble or hold back for
some time, they give in at length, and return
the visits of their plebeian neighbors.
In more provincial capitals, like Berlin and
Vienna, the hereditary classes, less apt to
fall in with the spirit of the age and the ex-
ample of Paris and London, still adhere to
their caste with all the bigohy and pedantry
which naturally belong to it. But in England
and France the encroachments of the plutoc-
racy upon the hereditary aristocracy become
daily more glaring in society as well as in
political life The future contest of the
working classes in these countries will not be
| any longer directed solely against the So
called aristocracy, but against the plutocracy
| as well, if that should follow the example of
the gentler and older nobility, and run counter
to the welfare Of the people.
| At the same time, many members of the
| plutocracy nobly exemplify the power and the
dignity Of well-directed and honorable labor,
and the honors lavished upon them in society
and in political life serve to strengthen the
| classes from which these successful men
| sprang, and encourage them in their social
| and political ambition. The Omnipotence of
moneyed men at the present day may be on
the whole regarded as transition period be-
tween the expiring rule of hereditary aristo-
cracy and the nascent power of the dignity of
labor and Of democracy. Considering that in
the event of the decentralization of the plu-
tocracy, it cannot fall back like hereditary
nobility, upon the prestige of tradition and
historical renown, its power will be more
easily overcome, whenever it shall prove in
furious to the liberties, the prosperity, and
the progress of the people,