Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-26

moral, or to pace the grounds at Osborne
under drenching rainfall, is not the most
agreeable mode of taking exercise.
To the philosopher or republican the array
of Court funotionaries holders of obsolete
offices, may seem somewhat ridiculous, if
not pitiable, and not far removed from the
dignitarles who wait on the potentates OF
pantomime or burlesque, and even we,
shaekled as we are by the irons of time
stifened routine, can scarce hel p smile as
we glance at the list of the royal household,
and read the titles of some of the appoint
ments. 1.-THE bargemaster" and the "keeper
of the swans" possibly may have their uses,
but to the unedueated ear the item pages
Of the back stair" has an ugly soundy one
can hardly imagine these youths with clean
hands.
HIGH-soUNDING TITLES.
The master of the ceremonies may be ne
cessity, but when he is apparently topped by
a marshal of the ceremonies, the mind fails
to take in the magnitude of the office, nor
| are ones ideas rendered clearer when we
find that the "master" is a general, a bar
onet and a K. c. B., while the marshal"
| (Which sounds so much bigger, is only an
Hon. Mr.. -. Then comes the "heredita-
the "master ofthe buckhounds;" the "hered-
itary grand falconer" Ga duke), and, most
mysterious of them all, the "groom of the
robesP' What are his duties? Is he to
| Stub down" Her Majesty's gowns? If SO,
let us pray he may not follow suit with the
| currycomb!
The influence of the Court on English So
| eial life is at present almost nil. But be-
fore the Prince Consort's death, the Queen
looked sharply into the character and stand
| ing of those presented to her, and was sue
cessful in keeping the circle around her as
irreproachable as mere mortal society can
we'll be. Indeed, few Londoners doubt that
had our sovereign lady kept her place at
the head of social affairs, we should proba-
bly, have been spared some of the scandals
in high life, reports of which have from
time to time rendered the daily papers more
curious than edifying.
The fair, gentle Princess of Wales was
too young and inexperienced when the sfe-
tiremento OF her royal mother-in-law obliged
her to take up the social seepter, to exercise
much authority; she could only teach by
example, and this she has done well. In
truth, the Court is much more influenced by
the country than the country by the Court.
THE ENGLISH NOBILITY.
The tendency of the royal psrsonages is
decidedly in favor of dropping the more
medieval items of their following, and re-
stricting themselves to the less cumber-
some style OF the great mobiles. There is
even whisper that the time-honored Office
OF master of the buckhounds, with his satel-
lite huntsmen and whippers-in, is to be
abolished before many months are over.
From the Court to the nobility is scarce a
step, though in no other European country
is the life of the mobiles SO independent of
royalty. They like to show respect to the
sovereign, as does every class of Her
Majesty's subjects, but they donot care for
the ceremonials of Court, which can add
little or nothing to their inherited or ao-
quired rank and splendor.
The question, is England's nobility what
it should be, considering its great ad-
Vantages? naturally suggests itself in con-
nection with this topic. A counter-question
might well be put, is any man or class of
men what they should be?
PRETTY GOOD CITIZENS.
Without boasting, think it may be as
serted that in no other country is the nobili-
ty as a class so verile, useful and abreast of
their times, chiefly because its ranks are so
constantly recruited by new blood from be-
low. All that is best among our legal, mil
itary, naval and commercial men pass into
the upper house and invlgorate the peers |
with their fresh intellectual force.
Still no one can look upon or around the |
present condition OF things and doubt that |
the beginning of the end has come; old in
stitutlons, old ideas are passing away; they |
have done their work, and, however well |
that work may have been done, they, like |
most other things, will reach at last stage |
where, ceasing to be useful, they become
mischievous
Let us waive all special pleading, how
ever, and speak frankly OF the reckless, 7
extravagant, dissolute members of the peer
age we have heard more than enough; but
how about the quiet, home-staying, con-
scientious peers, who honestly do their duty
by their tenantry, their families, and that
portion of beloved mother-earth which it has
been their happy lot to possess? "Oh, no;
we never mention them, their names are
never heardP' Yet the majority Of the
peers are men Of this stamp, not disturbed
perhaps by the possession of extraordinary
mental abilities, gbut gentlemen of decent
lives and honorable natures. Their wives
and daughters, although they enjoy ''the
season" in town, can yet feel with and for
their poorer neighbors; their schools and
charities are boon to young and old, and
the great house" is more often than not a
small center of civilization.
Let us not, therefore, be ungrateful; let us
bury our old benefactors as decently as we
can. Tradition has had its uses, and almost
as many "ages" as man. It has its helpless
babyhood, when inartieulGte bards sing an
imperfect rhyme, giving a scanty account of
some local event, warlike or otherwise; this
is appropriated and developed (if it suits
them )by the priests, and so nursed into boy
hood; then statesmen find it useful to create
some national cry; sentimentalists take it
up, perhaps to point moral; the leading
half or whole believing, uses it to
lncite his followers against the loe; then it
becomes the sacred tradition of the race;
finally it passes into the lean and slippered
pantaloon stage of nominal belief, aud dies
of old age when new discoveries, new ideas,
new needs have breathed its sentence of
1eath. MRS. ALEXANDER.