The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-12-11
Fro BE CONTINUED
The English Country Gentleman.
saturday Review.l .

LS"e~AN"! AsoVAS"'i
The English country gentleman-not
necessarily noble, not rich, not clever,
yet proud, respectable, doing his duty,
whether as Sheriff, or as member of Par
Lament, or as County Magistrate, with a
sigh, grumbling at his hard fate, yet who
who would not change places with the
King of any other country-not only
exists now in England, but has existed
amid various vicissitudes of state, for six
centuries, and possibly for twice that
period. His counterpart is the equally
persistent constituency which goes on
from century to century, preferring.
though with recurring fits of willfulness,
to repose its confidence in the representa-
tive of the old stock rather than 90
afield for the new lights Of some new
order Of things.
His people came in with Hengist and
Horsa, with ELLA and Cissa, with Cerdic
and Cynric, and where they sat down,
there they staid, and there they are still.
"J'y suis, Jy reste, +" was and is the motto
which they share with Marshal Macma-
hon, but with the difference that they
have kept their word for some three
times as many centuries as he took years
to run away from his. Here and there
the names are changed, here and there
the blood. But, like the celebrated
knife, haft and blade may come or 20,
but the class, the folk, the position to be
filled, are the same. From it are re-
cruited at once tie orders socially above
and below. The Squire grows into an
Earl, or degenerates into a yeoman, only
to rise again, and perhaps to go up
higher. .sr 'e 7ro'
A few families retain the lands their
fathers won from the Romanized Briton,
few those which came to them from
the gift of William the Norman; but, in
a majority Of instances, lands have not
been held in any one place by any one
family fer any great lengths of time, but
have been transferred by marriage and
BAXTER from family to family; one going
down in the world and another going up,
yet ALL as it were, floating in the same
temperate zone of the stream Of time. In
the House Of Commons we have to-day
men whose ancestors were in the House
of Lords six centuries ago; and, on the
otherhand, we have men in the House of
Lords, and even on the bench Of Dukes,
whose forefathers were yeomen under
Henry III. The burgesses have be-
come squires; the squires have become
burgesses. .l,..a7 af.l.s,ts.4t
There has been a constant intercl ange
between town and country-the town
seeking to the country for position, the
country seeking to the town for wealth.
London drew its supply of Mayors and
Aldermen from the younger sons of the
same families that sent their elder sons
to Parliament. The younger became
squires in their turn, and the process was
repeated by their descendants, and still
goes on da capo. People who complain
that the accumulation Of land in the
hands Of few great landowners is a
modern anomaly forget, or never learned,
the names Of Earl Harold or the
Earl Of Warwick, Of the Bohuns
or Stafords, Of the M Went
worths or Villierses, of the Hollesses or
Harleys, who, at various times and in
various places accumulated great estates,
and then, culminating, faded away into
obscurity again. No entail is sufficient
to preserve family from decay. Sooner
or later the wheel goes round. The mid
dle-class man Of to-day is the millionaire
of to- morrow, the duke,of the next gen.
Grafton. One great estate becomes dis
integrated, and another is formed. But
the great middle-class remains Aridiculed,
admired, trusted, despised the most pc
culiarly English Of all our ancient insti-
tutions anisgufa eiai gr sii asif,ae
I A private revenue stamp three inches
long with q likeness OF Mr. Hall in the
cenfar il r,laaod orar tha cork of oach 0ap.