Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-01-10
FALLEN GREATNESS.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 10. 1888.
 FALLEN GREATNESS.
 Let Laws and Learntng-Art and Commerce die.
 But leave us still our old Nobilitie.
 So wrote in the long certain Lord John Manners, scion of the noble house of Rutland We wonder if the poet ever took into consideration the nobility that does not ennoble-for he was not without instance; in his day and generation of how high dignity can stoop to very low devices. The 1ordlings of that time may not have made vice odious by it's public scandals, like the Marlboroughs and Aylesburys of the present, but vice existed all the same. ''Noblesse ob1ige" did not include in it's protectorate regard for domestic virtue, nor did it embrace that common rectitude exacted from the poorer classes. To be a peer was to be privileged in the matter of monetary principle and the results are cropping out to-day in the Bankruptcy records of the official Gazettes of England, Ireland and Scotland.
 The New York 'Sun" published the other day list of the "Old Nobilitie" who have either been already proclaimed as in solvent or are likely to have that distinc- tion soon. Some of these gentlemen ru- ined themselves by their own weakness and wickedness; several have been crushed by the evils of the pernicious land system; and many are the legatees of long system of extravaganza by their predecessors with only mortgaged estates as residue. Their fall suggests the problem that England will have to face sooner or later, even if she succeeds in calming the discontent of the Irish people.
 The members of the English ''Old No bilitie," whose names are included in the "Sun's" list are Lord Augustus Loftus, Lord Charles Ker, Viscount Canterbury and Lord Courtney, all of whom are in an advanced stage of impecuniosity. Lord Colin Campbell, brother of the Marquis of Lorne, the Queens son-in-law, has but just obtained his certificate of discharge from the Bankruptcy Court, dividing the the magnificent sum of 911O among cred itors to whom he owed f15, 1000. Lord Headly has had about the same experi- ence. He had no assets, but ''his friends raised money enough to pay six pence in the pound"- of his scheduled indebtedness. The Earl of Buckingham shire has been ordered by the Courts to sell some of his estates, including the cele brated Hampden House, because he cannot otherwise satisfy the annuities, legacies and settlements left by his father.
 The English and Irish papers recently to hand have continuing accounts of the straits to which some of the landlords of Ireland have been reduced by the loss of their rents. High born ladies have become dress makers; others are teaching their richer but less aristocratic sisters the pretti- est styles in bonnets; while numerous gen. t.emen who few years ago thought only of their hunting and their clubs have had to devote themselves to studying the mys- tsries of handicrafts. This is all very terri ble doubtless for those who, nourished in the lap of luxury, have had to descend to tle level of those over whom they so lately lorded with insolent exaction. When they have experienced the pinchings of poverty taey may come to understand what it was to grind the poor by rack-rents and evic- tions. The whirligig of time has many changes but none more marked than thes e.; bscause there is in these retributive reac- ton; @ proof that Eff the mills of the Gods grind slowly they grind exceedi1 g Hmall." .....
 For the younger members of the nobility and aristocracy it may not turn out so bad after all. The lesson is one of self-reliAnce; and if it should come that they will have to earn their bread:: Toy the sweat of face the bread will be all the sweeter that it was not wtaered by the tears of oppressed tenants and dependents. "Noblesse oblige!" indeed. The lesson will doubtless be hard one; but the nobility of Labor older and brighter and purer than any ac- colade of royalty, or any patent or parch- ment of princes could confer-would in the end be more consoling to the pos sessor than any tinsel title embraced in the ''Old Nobilitie," for whose preservation the noble poet would have surrendered and sacrificed all that make Nations powerful and res pected.