Morning journal and courier., 1888-12-31
gNOBRESMHESs.

Igs Present Form in English Society.
 Snobbishness, it is said, is dead; Thaske- ray killed that particular form of English imbeciIity, says the Spectator. The state-
 ment may be true, though to those who read
 the daily papers, and mark how large a
 share even of the telegrams is monopolized
 by accounts of the movements and banquets and amusements of the great, it does not seem true; but if it is true, it is certain
 that the repressed passion, like 80 many passions, has broken out in the reversed form Just as the love of impurity for impurity's sake has become love of impar- ity for purity's sake so abassment before the titled in honor of titles has become abasement before the titled in the hope that titles may be smirched. If there is no longer adulstion for the great, the great are the objects of 8 special contamely which makes them as separate as the former wor-
 ship. The idol has not been declared to be s'a pented bredd," but declared to be 8 devil. If the mob has given up. worship ping the aristocracy, It has not learned to forget them, but keeps up it's interest by 8 special attention to their vices, their foi- bles or their injurious ways The public no longer, it may be, defers to a duchess; but if florist brings suit against one, the papers find room for all the details, down to the celor of the flowers supplied, all the letters, even those of her grace's gardener, and all the incidents of the trial; and fer descriptions of the defendant beside, and leading articles upon her alleged extrava-
 gant folly. She is no more one of the people than she was before; only her sepa- rateAess is revealed. not in popular ap- plause, but in a popular desire that mud may be thrown at her. Actions for breach of promise and seduction are unhappily plentiful, and are usually compressed into twenty lines, but let earl's son be the de- fendant and all other intelligence is shunted in order that the evidence may be printed at full length It is not printed for nothing either, but is eagerly read amid comments, | the impulse of which is secret hope that l the plaintiff, be her case bad good. may | succeed, because that would, upon the l whole, be the greatest scandal. The appall- 1 ing extent and utter brutality of tho London ] system of prostitution, which seems in the | east end to be crndsr and more repulsive than in any sapital of Europe, has been sufficiently displayed during the Whiteehapel scare; bu6 the people are only indignant at | it when 6 man with known name chances | to be revealed prodigate. Then there Is l no end to the excitement, the lamentations over the 'sfaIlen," and the insinuations that this evil, which spreads everywhere, ii specially the evil of the titled class. Sc intense is tRe attention paid to them-aI l attention which was the root of the "ex | tinct" snobbishness-that they are not ever | allowed to lose themselves among other meI of property, but are singled out among othe
 possessors of wealth for special, and some
 times shameful obloquy. As rule. it i
 only great landlords among wealthy men wh'
 have the kind of distinction necessary t
 generate reversed snobbishness; and conse
 quently it is the great landlords agains
 whom popular obloquy is directed. Flo
 them alone in England the commandment
 are suspended. Men who have been minis
 tsrs are positively not ashamed to say tha 1 no great landlord connected with the gov
 ernment ought to sell his land to his tenant
 under the Melbourne act, an argamen
 which can be dictated only by pure malic i against class, for it is exactly the same a l saying that no holder of consols connecte | with the government ought to vote for tn
 appropriation act. He personally benefit
 by it, just as he does by sunshine or raiE
 and no distinguished person, especially n
 person distinguished by social rank, ought t
 benefit by anything. The public having, ac
 cording to the theory, cured itself of sneE 1 bishness, holds such a one to be so separat
 that it would, if it could, deprive him spe
 cially of his chance of heaven. If he hs | behaved we'll 1t is all the worse. On ever possible occasion those who possess sociG
 rank are distinguished by the people, an
 worshipped ss of old, though the. offerin now is mud, and not incense or howert
 "We detest inequality" says the mob to th aristoerat, "and therefore you alone sha
 suffer injustice; you alone shall have you property unprotected; you alone shall nevt
 be held innocent until found guilty. Yo are as we are exactly, and therefore as again : you, but not us, assertion shall be evidence
 | The little tenant and the great landlord ha, 8 the same rights; but as the latter is only u -l same as the former, he shall never get then