The Democratic advocate., 1878-06-29
Ghin9s Sbruad.
From the Nep York Observer.
THE ENGLISH PEOPLE.
RICH AND POOR, NOBLE AND IGNoBLE.
BY DIR. IREN3us PRIME.

time enough to England. It is so small
they think to run over it in few days
and then 60 to the Continent. But coun-
tries like people, are not to be Judged by
their size. The most precious things come
in small parcels. 1t is worth a voyage
across the Atlantic to have a month in
London. And at the end of a month. the
study of that city is only just begun. Very
few Americans have sufficient knowledge
of the languages of the Continent to make
travel there as pleasant and useful as it is
in a country where ones own is spoken.
Intercourse with the people, especially
with what are called the common people.
is one of the greatest advantages and pleas
ures of foreign travel The rich have SUBJ
stautially the same things everywhere.
They enjoy themselves as they please for
''money answereth all things" But to
see and know how the not rich live, what
comfort they have, and what they suffer /:
to learn the home life of the great mass of
people in any country, is a matter of in
tense interest to one who loves his fellow
men. To get at this you must talk with
the people as you meet them on the way,
or see them at their work, or what is bet
ter still, at their own homes.
And the most painful reflection have
in England, comes from the vast gulf be-
tween the very rich and the very poor.
The extremes Of life come into such con-
trast as to make one doubt the brother
hood of man. We so over there with our
republican notions of equality, and it is
very hard for us to reconcile this contrast
with the doctrine of common humanity,
not to say Christianity. In Scotland the
most religious country in the world, the
land is owned by the smallest number of
people in proportion to the whole. And
the poverty of many who tend the focks,
or till the lands, of the rich, is something
that we know nothing Of in our country.
And we wonder, as we wander in the midst
of such institutions, that the worlds pro-
gress makes so little change from genera
tion to generation in the condition of the
industrious poor. The laws of entail, the
rights of premogeniture and an Establish
ed Church are great social arrangements
which perpetuate certain evils from which
we are happily freed. To these evils may
be added the caste principle which prevails
in England as well as in India. The dis
tinction between the nobility and common
clay is greater than We can believe it to
be, until we see and feel its practical pow
er. Because wealth is so largely concen-
trated and perpetuated in the nobility, and
poverty so exclusively prevails among the
lower orders, the bond of sympathy is not
strong between them, and the misery of
the low does not receive, as it ought, the
notice and relief of the upper classes.
Hence the extremes remain unchanged,
and will indefinitely.
The innate reverence of rank is, to an
american, inconceivable. We 90 to the
other extreme, and affect contempt for
position and character, on the bad princi-
pie of holding one man to be as good as
another. He is not. There is a mighty
deal of difference among men; one is often
entitled to far more respect than his neigh
Dor. And we worship the aristocracy Of
wealth, which oftentimes is far meauer
than that of birth. We prefer with good
reason our elective system of government,
and we ridicule the idea of making the
Office of President hereditary. But in the
course of hundred years we might get as
few bad, and weak men, in our highest
chair of State, if we trained the oldest son
of the President to succeed him. So with
a chair Of mathematics in college. We
often make mistakes in the choice of
Presidents and Professors. There is some
thing to be said on both sides of the hered-
itary question.
But the reverence of the English mind
for royalty is a positive entertainment to
us untutored savages from the wilderness
Ladies and gentlemen will attend an exhi-
bition, or anniversary, or public meeting
of any kind and give their money freely
to the object, if some one of the royal
family is engaged to be present and give
the light of his or her countenance The
nearer to the Head of the family, the
greater the honor of course, but to have
the remotest tiuge of royal blood, aud next
to that to be of noble birth, is an attrac-
tion that brings thousands into the sup
port of cause from which they would
turn away, if it were not under the pa
tronage of the higher order. 1t is impos-
sible to convey, by words, the depth and
breadth of this homage to nobility and
royalty. And it is not without its good
uses. 1t is certainly better than a want
of respect for those who are called to rule
or to teach. There is in England n solid
base of society which indicates permanence.
Life and property are safer there than
here. The subject is not plundered by law
as the citizen is robbed here. 1t requires
courage to hold real estate in this country,
DC does not know by what legerde-
main of legislation its value may be de-
stroyed. Gradually we shall come to un-
derstand these things better, but in the
meantime it is not wise to think of our
selves more highly than we ought to think.
Let US willingly learn that some other peo-
pie have many things by which We could
learn if we only would.
They have more poverty and social suf-
fering, more intemperance in drinking,
more ignorance and vice, in England ana
Scotland, than We have among our native
population. The infusion of the foreign
element into our social economy makes it