The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-01-24
The Value of Titles.

With us, says Percy Greg in the Fort. nigh1Ly ReViezO, there are nobler objects and higher distinctions than mere wealth can give. The parvenu millionaire sees something above him-objects to be at. tained only by an honorable career, by personal integrity, by an honest and even noble use of his wealth. The professions are ennobled in every way by the great prizes which the peerage holds out to their leaders; and the peerage rests on It's parliamentary privilege. This has prevented it from becoming a caste. The new noble, taking rank in the house from his capacity and character, becomes the veritable peer of the Towards and Her. berts. He shares their proudest privi- lege, that fundamental distinction from which all others derive value. Abolish that, and the character of the peerage is radically altered. New titles become worthless; the queen can make baron or an earl, but no longer "peer of England" Between the old historic and the new tinsel titles there lies an impass- able gulf-the gulf between reality and sham. The names which mean that a mans fathers were peers while England had a peerage will be the only true and valued badge of social rank, and their bearers become caste nobility, a caste, because they can never be recruited from below-no sovereign can mrke Talbot or Stanley, new earl of Pembroke or marquis of Exeter; nobility, because when the eldest brother no longer enjoys an exclusive and invaluable privilege the younger will virtually share his rank; when the chief of house ceases to be peer the cadets will no longer become mere commoners-will no longer be merged in the masses or spurred to fight their way back to their ancestral rank. Soldiers and statesmen, lawyers and dip lomatists, will no longer look to peer age as the highest of all rewards-a re- ward neither empty nor sordid an honor shared by their wives and transmitted to their children. With this degradation of the highest titles, the loftiest traditional honors, all mere honorary distinctions stars and ribbons, knight-hoods and medals, finally even the Gross of Valor itself-will lose their value.
 Let cynics and demagogues sheer as they may, that will be an evil day for the nation when public service and prefes. sional merit can be rewarded only by money or by office. The peerage. the red ribbon, the tinsel star and bronze cross, while they retain their meaning, are worthier prizes than pensions and subscription purses-appeal to nobler feelings than those which are excited by the hope Of substantial gain. America lost much by renouncing the power of conferring personal and visible distinct ion, recognized and valued reward, upon those who serv.a her well. This errer has contributed to the low tone of her whole public life, of her professions and her politics. The nation had double cause to regret that it could mark its attitude to Gen. Grant only by the gift of lortune-paltry, compared with those of stock jobbers and coptxactors-and a presidential nomination, which entangled him in the tolls of faction. Both the office and the man were damaged there by: The soldier made bad president and gathered around him a corrupt and court. Every clement of trans. atlantic society would be other and mo- bier than fl is if Grant, Mcclellan, Sher- man, Sheridan and Hancock, Farragut aDd Dahlgren, not to say Lee and Long street, Semmes and Wade Hampton, had received | visible rank a public sta. .ion due to their services alone :s.:.k.:.e :he national conscience, and zaising them Above the intrigues and even the sup port of faction; if lawyers and civilians ooked for reward not to a party but te he nation iucMnate in its chief masis- rate; not to political maneuvering, but Q the performances of public and pgofes- ional duty.