and unsophisticated republicans shouted, "Property is
in danger!" as stoutly as it was ever roared by Sir Joseph Job, and dark
allusions were made to "revolutions" and "bayonets." But certain proof
of the prevalence of the eclipse, and that the shadow of pecuniary
interest lay dark on the land, was to be found in the language of what
are called the "few." They began to throw dirt at all opposed to them,
like so many fish-women: a sure symptom that the spirit of selfishness
was thoroughly awakened. From much experience, I hold this sign to be
infallible, that the sentiment of aristocracy is active and vigilant.
I never yet visited a country in which a minority got into its head
the crotchet it was alone fit to dictate to the rest of its
fellow-creatures, that it did not, without delay, set about proving its
position, by reviling and calling names. In this particular "the few"
are like women, who, conscious of their weakness, seldom fail to make up
for the want of vigor in their limbs, by having recourse to the vigor of
the tongue. The "one" hangs; the "many" command by the dignity of force;
the "few" vituperate and scold. This is, I believe, the case all over
the world, except in those peculiar instances in which the "few" happen
also to enjoy the privilege of hanging.

It is worthy of remark that the terms, "rabble," "disorganizers,"
"jacobins," and "agrarians," [Footnote: It is scarcely necessary to tell
the intelligent reader there is no proof that any political community
was ever so bent on self-destruction as to enact agrarian laws, in
the vulgar sense in which it has suited the arts of narrow-minded
politicians to represent them ever since the revival of letters. The
celebrated agrarian laws of Rome did not essentially differ from the
distribution of our own military lands, or perhaps the similitude is
greater to the modern Russian military colonies. Those who feel an
interest in this subject would do well to consult Niebuhr. NOTE BY THE
EDITOR.] were bandied from one to the other, in Leaplow, under this
malign influence, with precisely the same justice, discrimination,
and taste, as they had been used by my ancestor in London, a few years
before. Like causes notoriously produce like effects; and there is no
one thing so much like an Englishman under the property-fever, as a
Leaplow monikin suffering under the same malady.

The effect produced on the state of parties by the passage of the
shadow of Pecuniary Inte