Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-06-15
.R!SIOCRACY AND DEMOCRACY.
. sugh.s on the Marriage Of an American
Girl to u British Earl.

Girl to u British Earl.
The marriage of a young woman of New
York to a young man OF the British aristoc-
racy who bears in it the title of earl was an
important event. All weddings are impor-
tant events, for they are of momentous con-
petuated by them.
Merely as forming another link between
British feudal aristocracy and American
democracy the matrimonial union of yes
terday was of no special significance. In
these days even England itself is democrat
ic, and everywhere aristOcracy is losing
the privileges which have given it peculiar
power and consequent distinction in the
state.
The title of earl is of social importance
almost exclusively, for the extinction of
the British house of lords at the hands of
the dominant democracy cannot be far off.
The peerage continues only at the mercy of
the ruling democracy and not in any way
as it's political master. The English aris-
tocracy itself only survives with its feudal
titles and its incongruous symbols because
it has become democratized. 1t is recruited
from the ranks of the common people and
has come to have little of t. character of
a class separated from the mass of the COM
munity by an aristoeratic lineage. The
majority of the aristocratic titles of Eng
land are borne by families scarcely older
than this republic, and in many of them the
blood Of democratic America flows.
The young man who was so fortunate as
10 lead from the altar an American bride
yesterday is of the more ancient aristOc-
racy dating back to the time of the Nor
man conquest, but that longer lineage
gives him only certain precedence over
more recent recruits, and without money to
support even that superficial distinction he
would be of little account. The first essen
-. & -
of money, and the accumulation of money
is an opportunity within reach of the de-
mocracy, which thus has the chance of at
tanning the distinction necessary to the
other. With money come the means of &C
quiring social accomplishments. Money
also is q magnet which attracts the in
stinct of self preservation in the aristocracy
to matrimonial alliances with the democ-
racy that obliterate the line of social sep
aration between the two.
This process of mingling the aristocracy
with the democracy is going on in England
all the time and increasingly, and very nat
urallv it is extended to this country of great
fortunes by the marriage of Englishmen of
aristocratic titles to American girls richly
lowered. The titles these young women
receive in England have no Importance
here and even there their consequence is
only social and, with the progress of Eng
lish democracy, transitOry. The substance
is the money which supports the social
state, and money here can do the same. 1t
does not need an anachronistic feudal title,
homogeneous with modern conditions, to OBJ
tain consequence. Its consequence is i'll
trinsic, and its power is inherent.
\ coronet Is a mere gewgaT, more eS-
pecially on the head of one who wears it
merely by the right of marriage and not as
the symbol of the individuals historic line
age. Even as such symbol it typifies past
rather than present power In the old days
of feudaliSnl earls were actual officers of
the kingdom, each having supreme author
ity in his own earldom or county under
the crown. \ coronet meant something
substantial then. 1t was n badge of author
ity. Now the title of earl is really worth
only about as much as the title of Mr., eX-
cept that it includes the possessor in the
peerage and admits him to the house of
lords. where actually he is subject 90 the
democratic house of commons-the real
source of all political power in England.
His wife is called n countess, is styled my
LADY, and is right honorable" but these
are mere decorations. If she be an Amer
lean woman, she has stepped down from the
first place, which she occupied here, and de-
scended to the level of the third rank in the
British peerage.
An American lady who marries British
earl exercises right of choice which is in
alienable and for whose use she is not open
to criticism, but she does not advance her
self in the social scale. y British earl is of
consequence in this republic only so far as
the distinction is intrinsic in him as a man
Even in England his Fictitious consequence
because of his title is passing away and
giving place to the power of money purely.
This country is accused of worshiping the
almighty dollar, but the great and special
seat of that devotion is England. Nowhere
else in the world is money so powerful 1t
is the real social ruler, not title, for title is
a gewgaw that money can buy, and hence
the bauble is bound to fall into popular
contempt. 1t will be associated with the
pretension and self assertion which suggest
vulgarity at a period when simplicity is
made more and more the test of refinement.
New York Sun