ance to St. James's Palace, where the carriages set down the company
that were going to attend the drawing room. There were a great many
people assembled on the sidewalks all around to see the company as they
descended from their carriages. The scene, in fact, presented quite an
extraordinary spectacle.

The carriages, which were of every form and size, arrived in very rapid
succession, and drove into a sort of court yard to the door where the
company entered. There were soldiers and policemen on duty, to prevent
the public from going into the yard. The carriages, however, as they
drove up to the door, and the company, as they descended from them,
could all be seen very distinctly from the street. There were footmen
behind most of the carriages, who, as soon as the horses drew up,
stepped down from their places and opened the carriage door. The
gentlemen and ladies were all dressed very gorgeously,--the gentlemen
being clothed in military uniforms, or robes of office, or in
embroidered and gilded court dresses,--each dress being different,
apparently, from all the rest. The liveries, too, of the coachmen and of
the footmen, and the harnesses and trappings of the horses, were all
exceedingly splendid and gay.

Mr. George and Rollo, with some hundreds of other spectators who had
assembled to witness the scene, stood gazing upon it with great interest
for nearly an hour. When, at length, their curiosity had become in some
measure satisfied, they found that they were beginning to be very tired
of standing so long; and so they left the place, and walked away slowly
towards home.

"What do you mean by _aristocracy_?" said Rollo to Mr. George, as they
walked along. "Does it mean the rich people?"

"No," replied Mr. George, "not exactly that. It means rich people who
govern. In the United States there are a great many very rich people;
but they are not called an aristocracy, because they do not govern.
Every thing there is decided by voting, and every person that is a _man_
has an equal right with all the rest to his vote; at least this is the
case in the Northern States. The rich have no more power than the rest;
so they do not constitute an aristocracy in the correct and proper
meaning of the term. An aristocracy in any country, strictly speaking,
is a class of wealthy people who govern it, or who are at least
possessed of exclusive privileges and power."

"Suppose the class of people who govern the country should be poo