The daily gazette., 1878-10-17
our London Letter from Mon.
cure ID. CONWAY.
A NOVEL LECTURE BY AN AMERICAN
IN LONDON

A NOVEL LECTURE BY AN AMrp1cAS
IN LONDON.
correspondence OF the Bait. Gazette.
LONDON, Oct. 1.-Colonel Wentworth
Higginson, of Newport, r, l.. ON HE
Iomeward way from tour on the Cont
nent, gave us lecture in London. which
was listened to by large and cnltnreJ
audience with profound attention. Uis
/ subject was "The Aristocracv of Wealth \,
Such an aristocracy he Thought destined
to replace that of birth, and he consider.
ed the question whether this were likely
10 prove step forward or backward as
ieSaius the arlstocracy of virtue and in
teingence to which all must look as the
social IDEAL lie considered that on the
Whoie 1t would be step forward He
dld not spare the faults of the plutocrat,
Inough ne was speaking within five min
utes, walk of Change and the Bank of
England. lie drew an amusing portrait
OF The wealthy snob dropping his his.
aping the worst features of hereditary
sWelis, and cutting his poor relations.
ne pald homage to the intellectual men
VINO, as they rose in position, instead
OF despising the ladder by which thew
had climbed, drew it up with them
and claimed it as an honor. The
common habit of the wealthy to choose
Tor their coats-of-arns dragons and mi
corns that mean nothing, was contrasted
with the honorable course of the English
A Archbishop whose father had been a
wheelwright and who gained decisive
victory over the boys who chalked wheels
on his episcopal palace, by making a
Wheel the centre device in his coat of
arms. In Frankfort, where he (Higpin-
son) has lately been, he found all traces
OF the Rothschild name obliterated
from the small shop in which their for
tunes began; whereas the sign there of
Goethe's grandfather, who was a farrier.
Is preserved as it was modified whenthe
great poet appeared-a horse shoe made
into Tyre. Concerning the evils of
hereditary rank, the eloquent American
dld not fail to utter some telling truths.
He could not help feeling that the atti-
tude of hereditary rank toward intellect
is degrading.
He did not overlook the faults of mil
honalres In his own country, but said he
could not imagine one of them giving
precedence in their homes to any one of
their number merely because of his riches
over Tennyson or Longfellow. He men
TONED an American girl who, through
her relationship to persons eminent In
English diplomatic life, was thrown
among the aristocracy. At a dinner to
which she was invited she remarked one
old gentlemen as having the finest head
In the room, and wondered who he could
be. When they were going out to din
ner she saw with surprise young lords
going out before him and the last to 90
was this old man. 1t was the poet Rogers.
at that time the acknowledged head of
literary society in London. Among the
titled, he was next to nobody. But she
realized the advantage of her humble po-
sitlon in the opportunity she improved of
forming friendship with the only really
intellectual man present. Colonel IIig-
glnson spoke with eloquence of the great
advances made by society through DIS
cpveres and inventions which had each
come at the demand, not of the upper ten
thousand, but the upper ten millions so
that the humblest might now travel and
carry on his affairs with more comfort
and security than the noblemen knew be-
fore the wealth and brains of the people
came to their assistance. He remarked,
too, that third of the members of the
present House of Lords were persons
who had been elevated to it under the
present reign. The chief force in it is
certainly not that of the hereditary kind,
and it must have been in the minds of
many of his audience-in which the aris-
tocrscy was not unrepresented-th the
Tories (the party of pedigrees), were able
to raise from their long political prostra-
tion only when they raised jew of
humble extraction to be their leader
Colonel Higginson's handsome form and
figure might have been reassuring to any
of his listeners who had fancied there is
any danger that the English physique is
suffering by transplantatios in New Eng
land. He speaks without notes and with
a flueney and ease which would make
him leadingparliamentary orator could
the Liberals secure him at this somewhat
declining phase in their fortunes. lie
has had an interesting tour of several
months on the Continent, and goes home
full of good supplies for the lyceums
which shall be fortunate enough to Sc
cure his services,